Richard III was probably the first of Shakespeare's really good plays. It's not quite a great play, and this is perhaps due for me more to the fact that I am not as well acquainted with the various figures of the War of the Roses as an American, and further, it is Part 4 of a set of plays. This aside, the play shows a brilliant view of unadulterated villainy, as Richard states from the very beginning he is a bad man and intends to get what he wants using a bad man's methods. Now, Shakespeare wrote at a time when Richard's successor, the man who defeated him to take the crown, had a granddaughter on the throne, and his primary source was from Thomas More, personal friend to the same victor's son, so a fair look at Richard wasn't likely. Instead, we have an old queen curse most of the characters and a ton of ghosts show up at the end to bless the future Henry VII and curse Richard. This is hardly historical, but it makes the play that much better, as if implying it doesn't matter if those ghosts did anything or not in reality, the fictional version of the man was just that evil.