Carmelo Bene's Richard III (Ricardo III) Entry Directory

by Corry Shores
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Entry Directory for
Carmelo Bene's Richard III (Ricardo III)

Introductory Material

Part 1, First Monologue

After First Monologue up to Lady Grey's Entrance

Deleuze's Essay On Bene's Work, "One Manifesto Less," (Un manifeste de moins), entry directory

Camelo Bene's Riccardo III, after first monologue up to Lady Grey's entrance

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Richard calls attention to himself, all in vain, because no one wants to listen to such an abnormal person; worse still, his noises disturb those already upset at the funeral. How impudent to demand attention at someone's funeral. Gloucester pities no one, not even the grieving widows. Richard is silenced even when beginning his famous Shakespearean monologue: "Now is the winter of our discontent..."

It is inappropriate for him to be present at the funeral, especial considering he is responsible for these deaths and the anguish of the present mourners. Fifteen minutes pass of Richard's rudely trying to obtain attention and acceptance, with no success. Richard is drunk and hallucinating, so the following dialogue is a bit scattered.

The Duchess calls to Richard, and says his brother Clarence has been put in prison because his name is "George."

Richard loses balance and slips again, while the Duchess changes her tone to that of a mother speaking to Richard as though an infant.

After rescuing the fallen Richard, the Duchess says that his brother King Edouard arrested his other brother Clarence because a prophesy said the letter would erase him from English history.

[From Shake I.i

He hearkens after prophecies and dreams;

And from the cross-row plucks the letter G.

And says a wizard told him that by G

His issue disinherited should be;

And, for my name of George begins with G,

It follows in his thought that I am he.]

Gloucester accusses Clarence's wife, Lady Grey, also known as Elizabeth, because she was also supposedly responsible for having Hastings locked up as well.

[Shake I.i

Why, this it is, when men are ruled by women:

'Tis not the king that sends you to the Tower:

My Lady Grey his wife, Clarence, 'tis she

That tempers him to this extremity.

Was it not she and that good man of worship,

Anthony Woodville, her brother there,

That made him send Lord Hastings to the Tower,]

Bene, Carmelo. Richard III. in Superpositions. Transl. Jean-Paul Manganaro and Danielle Dubroca. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1979.

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Carmelo Bene's Riccardo III part one first monologue

by Corry Shores
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Opening monologue:

At his father's funeral (of King Henri VI), Gloucester mourns, although lasciviously. His family's blood waters the earth. Never has he pitied, loved, or feared– still yet he cries. Born a dog, feet-first and fanged. Hell crippled his soul; in proportion heaven deformed him.

When he slips, the chambermaid embraces to kiss . . .

. . . though in dream.

Without brother, friend, or counterpart: "I. . . I am different!"

Bene, Carmelo. Richard III. in Superpositions. Transl. Jean-Paul Manganaro and Danielle Dubroca. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1979.

Carmelo Bene's Richard III, Introductory Material

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Carmelo Bene's Richard III,
Introductory Material

Dramatis Personae

Le Duc de Gloucester, later, Richard III

La Duchesse D'York, mother of Richard, Clarence, and the present king, Edward IV

Marguerite, the previous queen and widow of the late Henri VI

Elisabeth, queen and wife of Edouard IV

Lady Anne Warwick, chambermaid (whom Richard calls Buckingham)

Madame Shore, initially mistress of Edouard IV, then of Hastings.

Opens with a funeral scene.

Gloucester wears black.

Lady Anne Warwick is transfixed by the tragic events, crying near the coffin of Henri VI. Madam Shore sleeps, reserved and yet relaxed in the large bed, which is white like the throne. A skull rests on a table. Coffins and mirrors are everywhere. In the drawers are Henri's bandages and other accessories for his deformities. The clock tics. On the carpet are fresh and withered flowers, so many one might stumble over them. Everything is covered in red and white roses evoking the York and Lancaster families. From time to time a chambermaid offers comfort for those awake, namely to Anne and Richard, who tips the chambermaid and insists on calling her Buckingham, because he is rambles from drinking until dawn. Elizabeth is always most ambitious, and Marguerite curses. Richard's mother, the Duchesse d'York, is not at all happy with her son. The music is gloomy, with mournful timpanis and bells rung gratuitously at irrational intervals.

The first part is entirely discussion between Richard and the women, that is, between the "idiocy" of the unique (the impossibility of the different, etc.) and the obscene of the feminine that we find in such tales, which we now call the obscene excesses of desire.

In the second part, these women abandon Richard (when he needs it least). We reach the stage of boring alcoholism, the strange disease of the dawn when one, heedless and void, seeks a horse to return home and disappear.

Also in the second part, he no longer remains the Duke of Gloucester: he is abandoned by the obscene, and left to manage his own forced and necessary fetishism for the dresses of abandonedwomen, left to punch women's locked closets, left to play with absence. But without the women we are left to his intolerable presence as an actor. If there is applause in the room, then the author failed.

General note on the feminine:

Each time we hear voices of newborns off-stage, the women on stage are tempted to leave, making them really anxious mothers. Richard must then amuse these misbehaving children by showcasing his deformities, if he wants to have others to play with.

Bene, Carmelo. Richard III. in Superpositions. Transl. Jean-Paul Manganaro and Danielle Dubroca. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1979.