One cannot read and write about Richard III without mentioning the recent news concerning the discovery of his remains in the ancient Greyfriars Church, located beneath a car park in modern day Leicester City. It is a fascinating story, and by all accounts it seems that our most illustrious villain has indeed been found, and easily at that (they located the remains on the first day of digging), which is actually kind of amazing given that when they began digging they were not even sure where the church was, much less the burial site (if it even existed).
As is the way with science, the discovery of the remains was only the beginning. Since the exhumation, many, many tests have been conducted, from bone analysis to genealogy, to learn whatever we can about the guy and his times. Like I said, it is a rather interesting story (at least to me), and one that is well-timed in regards to this project in that we now have the opportunity to compare the facts with the fictions, the science with the myths. So, how do they compare? Well, for starters, check out the picture above and compare it to the grotesque figure the Bard gives us, a “foule hunch-backt toade” with “legs of an unequal size” and a body made in “disproportion…in every part.” Hunch-backt…yeah, probably. Disproportioned in every part? Not so much.
Why would Shakespeare exaggerate, you ask? As stated earlier, there was of course strong motive for Shakespeare to demonize this last King of the Yorkists. The Tudors, their regime born on the day of Richard’s death, were in power in Shakespeare’s time and they needed to be hoisted high above the dark and villainous days before their benevolent reign began. We’re so much better off now, aren't we, one would perhaps silently surmise after watching this play in Shakespeare’s time.
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