Richard III

*Richard III* is one of the finest of Shakespeare's historical dramas. Although it has a huge cast, Richard himself, gleefully wicked, charismatically Machiavellian, always dominates the play: a role to gratify such leading actors as David Garrick, Laurence Olivier, Anthony Sher, Ian McKellen and Al Pacino. Since, in real life, political Machiavellianism is never out of date, *Richard III* remains perennially topical. Numerous revivals on stage and screen have demonstrated the enduring cogency of this drama about the lethally corrupting quest for power.

*Richard III* is the twenty-first play in the Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series. *The Times Literary Supplement* says: 'Many students and ordinary readers will be grateful to Watts and his publishers for making such useful editions available at such low cost.'