What happens
Richard interrupts the funeral procession of King Henry VI, whose corpse begins to bleed—a sign of unnatural evil. Richard seduces Lady Anne, widow of the prince he murdered, over her father-in-law's body. Against all reason, she agrees to marry him, astonished by his shameless wit and her own weakness. Richard exults in his conquest, planning to marry her briefly before pursuing young Elizabeth.
Why it matters
This scene establishes Richard's supreme power: rhetorical mastery so absolute it overrides logic, evidence, and moral revulsion. Lady Anne knows he murdered her husband and her father-in-law. She watches Henry's wounds reopen and bleed—a supernatural accusation. Yet Richard's cascade of flattery, false logic, and sheer audacity seduces her into consent. Shakespeare shows us both Richard's brilliance and the mechanism of his control: he makes his victim complicit in her own manipulation by offering her a version of reality (that he killed for love of her beauty) more flattering than her own grief. The scene is also deeply theatrical. Richard performs for us and for Anne simultaneously, his soliloquies admitting the fraud while his actions execute it flawlessly. We become his audience and co-conspirators, delighting in his shamelessness even as we recoil from his crimes.
The bleeding corpse is the play's most potent symbol: Henry's wounds open in Richard's presence, suggesting that some evils cannot be hidden beneath smooth words. Yet Richard uses even this horror as a tool of seduction, reframing it as proof of his passion. This collision between supernatural judgment (the body's accusation) and Richard's rhetorical power (his ability to remake meaning) defines the play's central tension. Richard's victory here is complete but hollow—he has won Lady Anne's hand, but only as an accessory to his rise, not as a companion. His boast that he will not keep her long reveals his true motive: power, not love. The scene shows why Richard is dangerous: he does not merely lie; he makes lying beautiful, making victims grateful for their own betrayal.
