Lear 3 1:2 Edmund exposed Sunday, 18 November 2018 Jonathan Peel JLS 2014 Lear 3 1:2 Edmund exposed Sunday, 18 November 2018

Line s1-22 Edmund’s Credo Jonathan Peel JLS 2014 Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law My services are bound. Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom, and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me, For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base? When my dimensions are as well compact, My mind as generous, and my shape as true, As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base? Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take More composition and fierce quality Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed, Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops, Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well, then, Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land: Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund As to the legitimate: fine word,--legitimate! Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed, And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper: Now, gods, stand up for bastards! Line s1-22 Edmund’s Credo Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

Try underlining each separate thought – the more, the more emotional? Note the variation in meter from the standard Iambic Pentameter for the same reason. To Edmund, life is unfair and has prevented him from achieving what is rightfully his – after all, bastards are better and more vigorous than legitimate children. Working with the text Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

Comment There are 16 separate thoughts in these 22 lines Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law My services are bound. Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom, and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me, For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base? 4 in the first 6 lines alone Line 4 has 13 syllables Line 5 and 6 both have 11 This is an emotional outburst. Comment Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

But at times he seems overemotional… …Only to show great clarity of thought With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base? A perfect Iambic Pentameter – he is in control of these rhetorical questions But at times he seems overemotional… Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

In a play which opens with the division of the Kingdom, Edmund reveals his own: Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land: The imperative suggests his inner need to be recognised. This is about power (land) not love. A land grab Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

Dramatic pause: out of breath? Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed, And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper: Now, gods, stand up for bastards! Notice how the iambic tread propels this speech to its conclusion, even with its internal irregularities: A line of 7 syllables is left hanging after its dramatic spondaic opening. Dramatic pause: out of breath? Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

Thou: 2nd person singular for affection and to children Thou: 2nd person singular for affection and to children. Can be used as an insult You: 2nd person plural is formal and respectful GL “Find out this villain Edmund, it shall lose thee nothing” First use of Thou between father and son – indicates trust? Edmund and Edgar address each other as “you” throughout- a lack of affection A quick note on Thou Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

By means of a forged letter, Edmund establishes Edgar’s “infidelity” He can not see the forgery for what it is – Appearance and Reality Line 76: transfers “unnatural” to Edgar PLOT Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

Gloucester relates all the disharmony to the portents in Heaven Edmund mocks this approach He then engages Edgar’s thought by copying his father Suggests that something has turned Gloucester against Edgar Is left to clarify his plot for the audience Superstition Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

Remember Gl “give me the letter sir” “Abhorred Villain. Unnatural, detested, brutish villain” “These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us” Edm: “this is the excellent foppery of the world” An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition on the charge of a star. Edg “some villain has done me wrong” Edm “A credulous father and a brother noble…” Remember Jonathan Peel JLS 2014