Read this excerpt from act i, scene i, of richard iii. what two purposes does this soliloquy serve in the opening scene?
richard iii (duke of gloucester): now is the winter of our discontent
made glorious summer by this sun of york;
and all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
in the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
and now, instead of mounting barded steeds
to fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
he capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
to the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
but i, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
1, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
to strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
rights reserad