Ratcliffe comes to Richard’s tent to let him know that
the rooster has crowed and that it is time to prepare for battle.
The shaken Richard tells Ratcliffe of his terrifying dream, but
Ratcliffe dismisses it, telling Richard not to be afraid of shadows
and superstition.
In his camp, Richmond also wakes and tells his advisers
about his dream, which was full of good omens: the ghosts of all
of Richard’s victims have told him that he will have victory. Richmond
gives a stirring pre-battle oration to his soldiers, reminding them
that they are defending their native country from a fearsome tyrant
and murderer. Richmond’s men cheer and head off to battle.
Read a translation of
Act V, scene v →
Summary: Act V, scene vi
In Richard’s camp, Richard gives his battle speech to
his army, focusing on the raggedness of the rebel forces and their
opposition to himself, the allegedly rightful king. A messenger
then brings the bad news that Stanley has mutinied and refuses to
bring his army. There is not enough time even to execute young Stanley,
for the enemy is already upon them. Richard and his forces head
out to war.
Analysis: Act V, scenes iii–vi
These scenes are the psychological high point of the play,
and the turning point at which Richard’s downfall becomes certain.
The play vividly dramatizes the contrast between Richard’s character and
Richmond’s character, shifting its perspective back and forth between
them six times. The leaders, in their respective camps, make almost
identical preparations as they ready for the next day’s battle,
but the difference between them can be seen in the way they go about
their business. Richard speaks brusquely to his lords, and, as we
can see, essentially is isolated from all human contact. As a result
of his malicious nature, he kills anyone who becomes close to him,
gradually destroying all his close human relationships. He is in power,
but he is alone: his brothers, nephews, and even his own wife are
all dead at his hand, his mother has cursed and abandoned him, and
even the person who was once his closest friend—Buckingham—has been
sent to execution.
Richmond, on the other hand, is gracious and friendly
to both his noblemen and his soldiers. The battle speeches of the
two leaders clearly show their different styles: Richmond asks his
men to remember the beauty of the land that they are protecting
from a tyrant, and the wives and children whom they will be making
free. He reminds his men that he himself will die in battle if he
cannot win, and that, if he does succeed, all his soldiers will
be rewarded. In contrast, Richard simply mocks the enemy soldiers,
calling them “a scum of Bretons and base lackey peasants” (V.vi.47).
As Richard says to his noblemen before his speech, he believes that
might makes right, and that “[c]onscience is but a word that cowards
use, / Devised at first to keep the strong in awe” (V.vi.39–40).
Very much Richard’s opposite, Richmond claims to fight for honor,
compassion, and loyalty—in effect, he fights on the side of conscience.
The effect of the ghosts’ procession is something like
having eleven bitter curses (“Despair and die!”) cast upon Richard
in sequence. When Richard wakes, he is shaken by a bout of self-doubt and
soul-searching that is unparalleled in the play, and that many readers
think is one of Shakespeare’s greatest moments of insight into human
psychology. Richard—the two-dimensional villain, the bloody “hell-hound”—is
forced to look into his soul, and is terrified by what he finds
there (IV.iv.48). His uncertainty as to what
he finds within himself, more than the ghosts’ curses, shakes him
to the core.
