Abstract
This essay argues that in the early history play Richard III, Shakespeare stages hypocrisy according to the connection between dissembling, theatrical performance, and feigned virtue, and that the brand of religious hypocrisy embodied by King Richard leads to a form of political tyranny. The essay opens with a brief account of dissembling in linguistic, performative, and theological contexts. It then turns to Richard's deceptive use of religious language and devotional practices to manipulate his subjects and eventually usurp the crown. The essay ends by suggesting that the conjunction of dissembling, pretension, and feigned virtue that informs an early modern understanding of hypocrisy also informs the play's ultimate punishment of its titular hypocrite. In the final scenes, Shakespeare engineers a sequence of counter-dissembling-including the ghosts that visit Richard on the eve of battle and the dubious appearance of multiple Richmonds at the Battle of Bosworth Field-that lead to Richard's death and the eventual rise of the Tudor dynasty.