Note in this line how the acute 'e' (é) serves as another metrical road sign.

It may be well written, but it's still a character telling the audience everything they need to know to understand what's going to happen in the next five acts. So what we have over the course of the ensuing 23 lines is largely exposition of backstory and character. Richard is serving as his own chorus here. As tasty and well known as this soliloquy is, its dramatic pitfall is that it's the opening speech of the play. Victorious seems to warrant the same pronunciation as glorious in the second line above. This line employs a pair of trochaic inversions back to back. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths Notice also how Shakespeare uses ellipsis to omit the implied 'are' in the line, helping to maintain the meter. The line also breaks up the iambic regularity by employing a feminine ending (an extra unstressed syllable). Sometimes it's used to reinforce meaning other times, as it seems here, it merely adds a rhythmic changeup to the speech. This line demonstrates another common occurrence in Shakespeare's blank verse, in which he begins an iambic line with a pyrrhic followed by a spondee.

Lour'd-Shakespeare uses the apostrophe to signal that 'loured' should absolutely not be pronounced as 'louréd'-is an archaism (from the Middle English louren probably deriving from Middle High German luren 'to lie in wait') that meant 'to look sullen to frown upon.' The reference to 'our house' refers primarily to the family of York, although it could also play off one of its meanings as 'the management of domestic affairs' (referring to the War of the Roses). In this straightforwardly iambic line, Richard extends the metaphor by comparing the erstwhile reign of Lancaster to the gloom of a cloudy sky, playing upon the 'sun of York' line that precedes it. / - / - / - /Īnd all the clouds that lour'd upon our house Sun is a pun in this line, playing upon the word son. This presumes that glorious is pronounced more like 'GLOR-yus' than 'GLOR-e-us,' but the scansion would seem to indicate that intent. The completion of the metaphor is arguably a line of strict iambic pentameter. Made glorious summer by this sun of York Discontent in this context can either denote 'dissatisfaction' or 'sorrow' given Richard's character, it is more likely the former.

Note how Shakespeare uses metaphor in this line and the one that follows, comparing the Yorkist ascension to the throne to a change in seasons. Overview | Readings Page | Home / - / - / - / - /Īs Shakespeare often does, he uses a trochaic inversion to begin the speech otherwise, the line scans normally.

Richard iii annotated