- Mistress Shore: [as a ghost, showing the whip lashes on her bare back to Richard of Gloucester] Wouldn't you rather look at my back? Is it not attractive as a woman's back should be?
- Richard's mother: One brother dies. One is murdered. How did Clarence die? As Cain slew Abel? I brought this curse upon this house when my womb conceived you. Better I should have died in my labor - and never unleashed your evil upon this Earth.
- Richard of Gloucester: You talk of evil? You, who gave me deformity in a twisted spine and a withered, arm? Who possesses the greater evil my mother? You who made me this way or I who have to bare it!
- Queen: You have executed a most trusted woman of this court without trial. You say that your motives are honorable? Those that suspect treason in others, should first look into their own hearts for loyalty.
- Opening Narrator: The Tower of London - a monument to the corruption of the soul, wherein the shadowed past a man gained the throne of England despite the insane ambition that drove him to evil and murder. He escaped the headsman's block but he could never escape the ghosts of his conscience. It is the night of April ninth in the year fourteen eighty three, the night that Edward IV, King of England, will die. Rumours that the King is on his deathbed have filled London and the people await the booming of the cannon on the battlements, for this will be the signal that Edward IV is no more.
- Richard of Gloucester: Mistress Shore is dead... As Protector of the Realm, I can not tolerate treachery to the Crown... Mistress Shore has been executed for such treachery.
- Queen: There was no more faithful woman in the castle.
- Richard of Gloucester: I had always thought that myself your Majesty, but when she admitted her crime, I had no choice.
- Richard of Gloucester: Is it what men do that darkens the sky? Or do the skies blacken the souls of men? And do l laugh to myself because l am ambitious and would be a king? Or do l laugh at myself? A misshapen thing that traffics with evil to gain a throne?
- Richard of Gloucester: Yes, we were so different. And yet our love for each other was the same.
- George, Duke of Clarence: That at least - will never change.
- Richard of Gloucester: As long as we both shall live.
- Richard of Gloucester: The grieving of women grates on my ears, Clarence. I've been a soldier too long. I've seen too many men die and heard too many women weep.
- Edward IV: It's good we three are together again. Nothing should be important enough to separate brothers.
- Richard of Gloucester: When we were children, there was no such thing as death. We were three brothers who would exist forever.
- George, Duke of Clarence: If we could have known then the roads we were to travel.
- Richard's mother: Richard? Do you really approve?
- Richard of Gloucester: Clarence and l are your sons, Mother, as well as Edward. What is honor for one Plantagenet is honor for all of the family. Why should l not approve?
- Richard of Gloucester: Clarence, you would have ruined England. A man of books cannot fill a throne.
- Richard of Gloucester: Clarence said that l would die violently by the hands of a dead man.
- Anne: A king makes his own destiny. And you shall be king.
- Tyrus: A brother's blood for the Crown? A fair trade to a warped mind. Ambition in Richard is an ocean which cannot be held back.
- Richard of Gloucester: Blood! Blood on his forehead! See? There.
- Anne: I see nothing. What did appear, Richard? Blood from your kiss? The mark of Cain?
- Richard of Gloucester: Blood? What blood? If there is no blood, then l do not see it either. A shadow, perhaps.
- Richard of Gloucester: He knew your love, Mother.
- Richard's mother: Because he was capable of loving- in return.
- Richard of Gloucester: And you think l am not? And you think I am not? You think my affection is as warped as my back?
- Richard of Gloucester: England needs a *man* to rule.
- Sir Ratcliffe: Perhaps. And yet l am a modest man. What could possibly happen to the young Princes?
- Richard of Gloucester: In the pain of birth a woman screams, cries out, becomes confused in her mind. She calls out the name of the man dearest to her. Often husband, but sometimes - lover.
- Richard of Gloucester: Yes, we must protect the young Princes well. If something were to happen to them - the country would be in turmoil.
- Sir Ratcliffe: And, yet, l fear that unless something happens to them, the country will be in turmoil.
- Mistress Shore: [as a ghost] Is your crooked back and your limping leg so repulsive to your wife that she cannot abide your embraces?
- Richard of Gloucester: Are you ready to grant what l wish? Perhaps a taste of the rack would be more to the lady's liking.
- Richard of Gloucester: Ratcliffe, escort Mistress Shore below. Perhaps the great persuader Gelder can convince her where her loyalty lies.
- Richard of Gloucester: I couldn't read his face when l made the announcement. Does he follow in my shadow?
- Sir Ratcliffe: I only know he is a clever man of much influence. He is well known wanting to cast his own shadow.
- Richard of Gloucester: Bosworth? How could dead men have known? Ghosts with no more substance than the shades of night. It was not within their power to know. The future is not preordained. I say that man controls his own destiny.
- Richard of Gloucester: Reason? Here comes reason! And with it comes truth. What greater truth is there than death?
- Richard of Gloucester: Strange that they died so easily. With their struggles no more than - sparrows in the teeth of a fox. *So* easily. Not even blood to wash away.
- Richard of Gloucester: Is Buckingham with us?
- Sir Ratcliffe: Well, I believe he will blow as the wind blows.
- Richard of Gloucester: They delay deliberately. So, they would show me their displeasure. Very well, then. l will show them mine.
- Richard of Gloucester: Let England know it has a king who would fight. These are my orders. We march at daybreak!
- Richard of Gloucester: I am alive! And you, Sun, you were born this morning but you are dying now. Richard still lives to see you born again, to win the final victory.
- Richard of Gloucester: Why do l cringe, Ratcliffe? I have nothing to fear. Did not those same ghosts tell me no mortal hand would kill me? If Bosworth is where he wants battle, then Bosworth it is!
- Richard of Gloucester: Shall we run? Shall the last thing England sees of me be my crooked back? Does not right lie with the Crown? Then right will triumph!
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