Richard III

Last night, I went to see a performance of "Richard III." Everyone knows the line: "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse" uttered by Richard III. But how many have heard some quiet lines about tragedy uttered by women in the play?

This production included a tragic scene which is evidently sometimes cut to shorten the play. Three woman devastated by the Wars of the Roses reflect on their losses: Queen Margaret of Anjou (widow of the murdered Henry VI); Cecily Neville, Duchess of York; and Queen Elizabeth, widow of Edward IV (formerly Elizabeth Woodville) and mother of the murdered Princes in the Tower.

The Duchess of York says: "So many miseries have crazed my voice / That my woe-wearied tongue is still and mute." Many eloquent lines later, of course, the Duchess again asks: "Why should calamity be full of words?"

The play itself (which Wikipedia tells me is one of Shakespeare's earliest, being written and published sometime around 1580) is examining the bloody and pointless end to the Wars of the Roses, during which various branches of the Plantagenet Dynasty slaughtered themselves into extinction. These women were some of the survivors of the carnage -- each one having lost husbands, sons, and brothers to the bloodshed.

In the mist of all this, Shakespeare has them observe a sort of numb grief. It doesn't stop the flow of eloquence, but it provides a harsh sort of reality check.

I found myself considering the Duchess' question as I went to bed last night and as I spent my day today:

"Why should calamity be full of words?"