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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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