+ HL 2002 Renaissance Literature Week 10 Shakespeare’s King Lear

+ Aristotle’s Tragedy (from Poetics) There are six parts consequently of every tragedy, as a whole (that is) of such or such quality 1) Fable or Plot, 2) Characters, 3) Diction, 4) Thought, 5) Spectacle, and 6) Melody The most important of the six is the combination of the incidents of the story. Tragedy is essentially an imitation not of persons but of action and life, of happiness (632).

+ Aristotle’s Tragedy (from Poetics) All human happiness or misery takes the form of action; the end for which we live is a certain kind of activity, not a quality. Character gives us qualities, but it is in our actions what we do that we are happy or the reverse. In a play accordingly they do not act in order to portray the Characters; they include the Characters for the sake of the action (632).

+ Aristotle’s Tragedy (from Poetics) And again: one may string together a series of characteristic speeches of the utmost finish as regards Diction and Thought, and yet fail to produce the true tragic effect; but one will have much better success with a tragedy which, however inferior in these respects, has a Plot, a combination of incidents, in it (633). We maintain, therefore, that the first essential, the life and soul, so to speak, of Tragedy is the Plot; and that the Characters come second (633).

+ Aristotle’s Tragedy (from Poetics) Character in a play is that which reveals the moral purpose of the agents, i.e. the sort of thing they seek or avoid, where that is not obvious hence there is no room for Character in a speech on a purely indifferent subject (633) Thought, on the other hand, is shown in all they say when proving or disproving some particular point, or enunciating some universal proposition (633). Diction of the personages, i.e, as before explained the expression of their thoughts in words, which is practically the same thing with verse as with prose. As for the two remaining parts, the Melody is the greatest of the pleasurable accessories of Tragedy(633).

+ Aristotle’s Tragedy (from Poetics) The Spectacle, though an attraction, is the least artistic of all the parts, and has least to do with the art of poetry. The tragic effect is quite possible without a public performance and actors; and besides, the getting-up of the Spectacle is more a matter for the costumier than the poet (633). Tragedy, however, is an imitation not only of a complete action but also of incidents arousing pity and fear. Such incidents have the very greatest effect on the mind when they occur unexpectedly and at the same time in consequence of one another; there is more of the marvellous in them then than if they happened of themselves or by mere chance (637). Aristotle. Introduction to Aristotle. Ed. Richard McKeon. New York: Random House, 1947.

+ King Lear First performed around 1606 but written as early as Based on the mythical ancient Briton- Celtic king, Leir. The main source of the story is from Geoffrey of Monmmouth’s Historia Regnum Britanniae (History of the King’s of Britain, ca. 12 th c.) Considered by many, from Blake to G.B. Shaw as the greatest tragedy ever written. Ending re-written by Nahum Tate in the late 17 th century—happy ending.

+ King Lear The roles that Lear play: King and father. Locating authority in the play. Division of the kingdoms and the way in which Lear phrases his question (I.i. 38). Collapsing politics, territory, and private desires. Cordelia’s response and her insistence to adhering to established patriarchal customs (I.i. 93). Cordelia’s stance entirely incompatible with Lear. Contrast the two above.

+ King Lear Authority to punish: Does Lear impose his punishment on Cordelia as king or father? Peace, Kent... Come not between the Dragon and his wrath (I.i. 123). Kent’s role as intermediary but also reminder that Lear must behave as a king; this is done through his repeated declaration of his absolute loyalty to Lear. Disowning Cordelia: “But now her price is fallen” (I.i. 199) Burgundy and France’s responses The “unnaturalness” of Lear’s behavior (highlighted in I.ii. with the introduction of Edmund)

+ King Lear Compare Edgar’s condition with Cordelia. Edmund’s ideas of patriarchal customs. Attempt to murder Gloucester (frames Edgar). The world turned chaotic and the unnaturalness of kinship dynamics (I.ii. 112). Two households, both plagued with the upheaval caused by greed on every side.

+ King Lear Kent in disguise as knight; fool as king’s critic: Fools had ne’er grace in a year, For wise men are grown foppish, And know not how their wits to wear, Their manners are so apish (I.iv ). Authority overturned. “Does any here know me? This is not Lear. Does Lear walk thus? Speak thus? Where are his eyes? (I.iv ). Lear dethroned: Goneril’s demands that his knights be removed and turning to Regan.

+ King Lear Lear’s curse on Goneril. Edgar unjustly accused and pursued; “good” children banished—the fool’s observations are accurate. Kent put in stocks and Gloucester’s blinding by Cornwall; fool’s observation: “Father that wear rags/ Do make their children blind,/ But fathers that bear bags/ Shall see their children kind. Fortune, that arrant whore,/ Ne’er turns the key to th’ poor” (II.iv ). The height of rejection by the daughters. Lear’s curse on Regan (II.iv. 263).

+ King Lear Lear in the heath: “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks” (III.ii. 56). Challenges nature, and transforms when he becomes victim to nature. Mad Lear and mad Edgar. Thinks Edgar has also been turned out by his daughters (compare with Hieronimo’s encounter with the Old Man). Lear thinks mad Tom is philosopher (madman as philosopher?), see Gloucester’s comment, III.iv Edgar leads his blind father to Dover cliffs. Both Lear’s and Gloucester’s affection for “madmen” suggest that they are transformed; social status is no longer important as both are betrayed and humbled by their ungrateful children; but it is they are betrayed the children in the first place.

+ King Lear Lear’s redeeming moment, even in madness, is his awareness of his kingly dignity, which remains. The reversal; “this child-changed father” (IV.vii. 17). The reunion scene and the death of Cordelia. Film 47:33-54:40 (IV.vii); 1:15:47 (V.iii.258)