Brooks, Harold F. “‘Richard III’: Antecedents of Clarence's Dream.” Shakespeare Survey 32 (1979): 145-50.

Analyzes possible literary sources, including Seneca, for Clarence's ominous dream of his death through drowning.

Carlson, David R. “The Princes' Embrace in Richard III.” Shakespeare Quarterly 41, No. 3 (Fall 1990): 344-47.

Compares Shakespeare's Richard III with two ballads also written about Richard and speculates on whether the ballads served as sources for the play or whether the play influenced the ballads.

Frisch, Morton J. “Shakespeare's Richard III and the Soul of the Tyrant.” Interpretation 20, No. 3 (Spring 1993): 275-84.

Asserts that Shakespeare characterizes Richard as attractively evil and suggests that perhaps the playwright was questioning whether the capability for evil is present in all people.

Hassel, R. Chris, Jr. “Last Words and Last Things: St. John, Apocalypse, and Eschatology in Richard III.” Shakespeare Studies XVIII (1986): 25-40.

Argues that Richard's use of doom-filled oaths from St. Paul and St. John ironically foreshadows his own destruction.

McDonald, Russ. “Richard III and the Tropes of Treachery.” Philological Quarterly 68, No. 4 (Fall 1989): 465-483.

Focuses on the language of the play, contending that Richard III reveals Shakespeare's increasing realization that words themselves are untrustworthy.

Slights, William W. E. “‘Swear by thy Gracious Self’: Self-Referential Oaths in Shakespeare.” English Studies in Canada XIII, No. 2 (June 1987): 147-160.

Stresses the power accorded to oaths in Renaissance England, and draws connections between the type of oath (personal or impersonal) and the nature of the character who speaks it in several of Shakespeare's plays.