1. Lear 7: Act 2 Speeches - an approach
Jonathan Peel JLS 2014
Lear 7: Act 2 Speeches - an approach
Monday, 12 November 2018

2. Edgar has been persuaded to flee in a passage full of line completions
Pace has been injected
What might we say of his state of mind?
ff (Arden)
Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

3.  I heard myself proclaim'd; /x/x why the pause here? Dramatic effect?
        And by the happy hollow of a tree
        Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place, first thought 1
        That guard, and most unusual vigilance,
        Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may 'scape, 2
        I will preserve myself: and am bethought
        To take the basest and most poorest shape
        That ever penury, in contempt of man,
        Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth; 3 resolves to disguise self – links to Kent
        Blanket my loins: elf all my hair in knots;
        And with presented nakedness out-face
        The winds and persecutions of the sky. 4 describes disguise and links fate to the heavens
        The country gives me proof and precedent
        Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
        Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms
        Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
        And with this horrible object, from low farms,
        Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills,
        Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
        Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod! poor Tom!
        That's something yet: Edgar I nothing am. 5 statement of new intent
        [Exit]
The speech
Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

4. 4 sections Contextual opening with a sesne of a call for help A idea
A plan
An argument to convince self that it is a good plan
Results in a rejection of identity and a clear link with other disguised characters – Kent
Enjambment and Caesurae: Is he excited/stressed?
Caesura in last line: emphasis on decisive action?
4 sections
Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

5. Lear faces the reality of life stripped of all support and Kingly regalia
Previous lines have shown his impotent attempts to interrupt his daughters until
This speech follows Regan’s swift half line “what need one?”
ff (Arden)
Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

6. Lear in extremis: thought process
Take away the superfluous and reduce men to beasts
1: short statement
2 even beggars have something in excess
O reason not the need! Our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous. Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man's life is as cheap as beast's. Thou art a lady: If only to go warm were gorgeous, Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st, Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need-- You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need. You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, As full of grief as age, wretched in both. If it be you that stirs these daughters' hearts Against their father, fool me not so much To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger, And let not women's weapons, water drops, Stain my man's cheeks. No, you unnatural hags! I will have such revenges on you both That all the world shall--I will do such things-- What they are, yet I know not; but they shall be The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep. No, I'll not weep. I have full cause of weeping, but this heart Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws, Or ere I'll weep. O Fool, I shall go mad! 
Notes bodily excess in clothing
Calls on the Gods to give him strength and not to cry like a women
“as full of grief as age”
Lear in extremis: thought process
Notes spiritual excess required
Unspecified and childish threat of revenge
Concerned about reputation – looks ahead to the Heath
Links to Act 3 and the sense of learning from suffering.
Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

7. Comment Lear has 9 thoughts in a 23 line speech.
They grow in length but also become quite childlike – almost as in a tantrum towards the end
He seems worried about appearances and prays for PATIENCE. This will be a key theme as the play develops.
We might argue that Lear has already been found wanting in this area.
Comment
Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

8. Why is this speech so important?
To focus on a simple “NEED” for everything is to dehumanise
Lear needs his train not just to serve him (there is no “need” for this) but also to establish his identity as KING LEAR
To remove his identity is to turn him into an animal – it will send him mad.
Lear is beginning the journey to self knowledge that will continue to the end of the play.
Why is this speech so important?
Jonathan Peel JLS 2014