The eNotes Blog Twenty-Three Takes on RichardIII

Twenty-Three Takes on RichardIII Making the rounds on the Internet recently is this fabulous video by impressionist Jim Meskimen performing Clarences speech from Shakespeares Richard III.   (Meskimen, by the way, is the son of the actress Marion Ross who played Mrs. Cunningham on the classic television show Happy Days) During the 3:46 minute monologue, Meskimen takes on not only the voices but also the personas of twenty-three different celebrities. His ability to transform his face is astonishing. In his repertoire are the seeming-standards of all impressionists: Johnny Carson, Robert de Niro, and Woody Allen, to name a few. However, there are also surprises, like Ricky Gervais, Craig Ferguson, and his nephew, Ron Howard. Here is the monologue from Act 1, Scene 4. Follow along and be amazed! CLARENCE: O, I have passed a miserable night, So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights, That, as I am a Christian faithful man, I would not spend another such night Though twere to buy a world of happy days So full of dismal terror was the time. Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower And was embarked to cross the Bergundy, And in my company my brother Gloucester, Who from my cabin tempted me to walk Upon the hatches: thence we looked toward England And cited up a thousand heavy times, During the wars of York and Lancaster, That had befalln us. As we paced along Upon the giddy footing of the hatches, Methought that Gloucester stumblà ¨d, and in falling Struck me (that thought to stay him) overboard Into the tumbling billows of the main. O Lord! methought what pain it was to drown! What dreadful noise of waters in mine ears! What sights of ugly death within mine eyes! Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wracks; A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon; Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, Inestimable stones, unvaluà ¨d jewels, All scattred in the bottom of the sea: Some lay in dead mens skulls, and in the holes Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept (As twere in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems, That wooed the slimy bottom of the deep And mocked the dead bones that lay scattred by. I passed (methought) the melancholy flood, With that sour ferryman which poets write of, Unto the kingdom of perpetual night. The first that there did greet my stranger soul Was my great father-in-law, renownà ¨d Warwick, Who spake aloud, What scourge for perjury Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence? And so he vanished. Then came wandring by A shadow like an angel, with bright hair Dabbled in blood, and he shrieked aloud, Clarence is come false, fleeting, perjured Clarence, That stabbed me in the field by Tewkesbury: Seize on him, Furies, take him unto torment! With that (methoughts) a legion of foul fiends Environed me, and howlà ¨d in mine ears Such hideous cries that with the very noise I, trembling, waked, and for a season after Could not believe but that I was in hell, Such terrible impression made my dream.