Any information conveyed by the demons behind Saint Anthony,
who is shown ignoring the lot of them, has to be regarded as unreliable. (I
have added some labels to the detail shown here to show who appears to be
claiming to be who.) Nonetheless they may have something to contribute to
debates around Richard III. If nothing else, Hieronymus Bosch’s painting
suggests that Shakespeare’s Margaret of Anjou was repeating a cliché when she
slowed down a little after a long string of insults, just enough to allow
Richard the Duke of Gloucester to get a word in sideways:
QUEEN MARGARET. And leave out thee? Stay, dog, for thou
shalt hear me.
If
heaven have any grievous plague in store
Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
O,
let them keep it till thy sins be ripe,
And then hurl down their indignation
On
thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace!
The worm of conscience still be-gnaw thy soul!
Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st,
And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!
No
sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
Unless it be while some tormenting dream
Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!
Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog,
Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativity
The slave of nature and the son of hell,
Thou slander of thy heavy mother's womb,
Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins,
Thou rag of honour, thou detested-
GLOUCESTER.
Margaret!
QUEEN
MARGARET. Richard!
GLOUCESTER.
Ha?
QUEEN
MARGARET. I call thee not.
GLOUCESTER. I
cry thee mercy then, for I did think
That thou hadst call'd me all these bitter names.
QUEEN
MARGARET. Why, so I did, but look'd for no reply.
O,
let me make the period to my curse!
GLOUCESTER.
'Tis done by me, and ends in-Margaret.
QUEEN
ELIZABETH. Thus have you breath'd your curse
against yourself.
QUEEN MARGARET.
Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my
fortune!
Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider
Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?
Fool, fool! thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself.
The day will come that thou shalt wish for me
To
help thee curse this poisonous bunch-back'd toad.
HASTINGS.
False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse,
Lest to thy harm thou move our patience.
QUEEN
MARGARET. Foul shame upon you! you have all
mov'd mine.
RIVERS. Were
you well serv'd, you would be taught your
duty.
QUEEN
MARGARET. To serve me well you all should do me
duty,
Teach me to be your queen and you my subjects.
O,
serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty!
DORSET.
Dispute not with her; she is lunatic.
QUEEN
MARGARET. Peace, Master Marquis, you are malapert;
Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current.
According to Thomas More, as of June 13, 1483 his left arm
had been injured by sorcery that he blamed on Elizabeth, Jane Shore, and
unnamed accomplices:
…And all the other affirmed the same. That is (quoth he)
yonder sorceress my brother’s wife and other with her, meaning the queen. At
these words many of the other Lords were greatly abashed that favoured her. But
the lord Hastings was in his mind better content, that it was moved by her,
than by any other whom he loved better. Albeit his heart somewhat grudged, that
he was not afore made of counsel in this matter, as he was of the taking of her
kindred, and of their putting to death, which were by his assent before devised
to be beheaded at Pomfret this self same day, in which he was not ware that it
was by other devised, that himself should the same day be beheaded at London.
Then said the protector; ye shall all see in what wise that sorceress and that
other witch of her counsel, Shore’s wife, with their affinity, have by their
sorcery and witchcraft wasted my body. And therewith he plucked up his doublet
sleeve to his elbow upon his left arm, where he showed a werish arm and small,
as it was never other. And thereupon every man’s mind sore misgave them, well
perceiving that this matter was but a quarrel. For well they wist, that the
queen was too wise to go about any such folly. And also, if she would, yet
would she of all folk least make Shore’s wife of counsel, whom of all women she
most hated, as that concubine whom the king her husband had most loved. And
also no man was there present, but well knew that his harm was ever such since
his birth. Natheless the lord Chamberlain answered and said: certainly, my
lord, if they have so heinously done, they be worthy heinous punishment. What,
quoth the protector, thou servest me, I ween, with ifs and with ans, I tell
thee they have so done, and that I will make good on thy body, traitor. And
therewith, as in a great anger, he clapped his fist upon the board a great rap.
At which token given, one cried treason without the chamber. Therewith a door
clapped, and in come there rushing men in harness as many as the chamber might
hold. And anon the protector said to the Lord Hastings: I arrest thee, traitor.…
Hieronymus Bosch’s picture of Richard III suggests a recent
injury, as though the king formerly could play a lute and now can barely carry
it under his arm, and paralysis rather than withering. It is actually consistent
with the Society of Antiquaries portrait, which might represent a paralyzed
right hand; that is, unless the artist deliberately reversed the National
Portrait Gallery version to suggest the king was left-handed, although if he
had been left-handed there would likely be some verbal indication somewhere.
If
it was a paralysis caused by sorcery, it might have resolved before the Battle
of Bosworth two years later, and also might not have left any physical evidence,
assuming that anxiety about sorcery could produce a real paralysis but could
not deform a person’s bones.
The
painting suggests that “toad” was a little ambiguous, since toads are sometimes
hunchbacked, sometimes associated with witchcraft, and also sometimes
poisonous, unless someone put a spell on a poisonous toad, which would have
covered all the bases.
It
also illustrates that Richard III was not a hunchback as the word is mostly
understood, and interestingly goes on to represent an actual hunchback as someone
who can work as a musician. The real hunchback is quick to help the temporarily
afflicted king when he sees the lute about to fall to the pavement.
The
identification of the dog Lovell is less certain given the absence of the cat
and the rat.
Posts
