Bethany asked Jasper Fforde:

Do you have a favourite line/lines from Shakespeare's works?

Jasper Fforde I'm very fond of the opening soliloquy in Richard III (R3, we call it, or 'Richard the Turd' or sometimes even 'Dick da shit') from the Olivier 1955 version which is often far funnier then the comedies. I was confused for a long time about the speech which opens with the familiar:

'Now is the Winter of Discontent'

But then goes off-piste in a very nice way with:

'Why love forswore me in my mother's womb'

which are lines that don't appear in R3. Then we're back to R3 with:

'Why I, in this weak piping times of peace'

but then off again with the last section which sounds very Richard with the killer lines:

'I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall;
I'll play the orator as well as Nestor,
Deceive more slily than Ulysses could,
And, like a Sinon, take another Troy.
I can add colours to the chameleon,
Change shapes with Proteus for advantages,
And set the murderous Machiavel to school.
Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
Tut, were it farther off, I'll pluck it down.'

Hot stuff. But this isn't R3, although it clearly should be. I found out years later that this IS indeed Richard III but from Henry VI part III, in which he features quite a lot - R3 is often lumped together with the Henry plays as they run in to one another, which is more than can be said for the Die Hard franchise.

Genius to put them together in the opener of the filmic Richard III. Makes a lot more sense. Hoorah for Olivier with his nose putty and panto limp!

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