Scene III explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Revenge and Justice

  The prisoners invoke Queen Margaret's curse as divine retribution for their complicity in the murder of her son, highlighting the theme of cyclical vengeance.

• Fate and Prophecy

  Rivers and Grey see Margaret's curse as an inescapable fate now fulfilled, underscoring the play's preoccupation with prophecy and predestined doom.

Characters to notice

• Sir Richard Ratcliff

  Oversees the execution of Rivers, Grey, and Vaughan at Pomfret Castle.

• Earl Rivers

  Led to execution, he speaks of dying for truth, duty, and loyalty, and recalls the murder of Richard II at Pomfret.

• Lord Grey

  Condemned to death, he curses the 'damned blood-suckers' and notes that Margaret's curse has fallen upon them.

• Sir Thomas Vaughan

  Facing execution, he warns that those responsible will cry woe for this deed.

Key passages

• “O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison, Fatal and ominous to noble peers! Within the guilty closure of thy walls Richard the second here was hack’d to death; And, for more slander to thy dismal seat, We give thee up our guiltless blood to drink.”

  Rivers laments that Pomfret Castle is a cursed place where King Richard II was murdered, and now their innocent blood will be spilled there as well.

  Rivers draws a parallel between the historical murder of Richard II and their own unjust execution.

• “Now Margaret’s curse is fall’n upon our heads, For standing by when Richard stabb’d her son.”

  Grey acknowledges that Queen Margaret's curse has come true because they did nothing to stop Richard from killing her son.

  This line directly ties the current execution to the earlier curse, reinforcing the theme of retribution.