King Lear (Collins Classroom Classics)

This Collins Classroom Classics edition includes an introduction, textual notes and a theme and character index to support students, written by an experienced teacher.

King Lear William Shakespeare

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty According to my bond; no more nor less.

ISBN 978-0-00-840047-7

£3.00

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King Lear 9 780008 400477

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Introduction An elderly man wanders alone, helpless across an empty heath. He is broken, blinded and in terrible pain. He remembers a ragged beggar who recently helped him and two other lost souls find shelter in the driving rain. ‘I’ th’ last night’s storm I such a fellow saw; / Which made me think a man a worm’ (Act 4, Scene 1, lines 35–36). When the forces of nature strike, according to the old man, men and worms are as one; the highest of creatures become the lowest of the low. The beggar and the nobleman and the beasts of the earth all suffer. Together.

Early 17th-century audiences watching this scene unfold in Shakespeare’s King Lear would have found this idea particularly shocking. The Renaissance1 worldview was founded on belief in the Great Chain of Being2 – a clear hierarchy and order in the natural world. Humans were ranked near the top (below angels and, of course, God), secure in the knowledge that so much of creation was below them. Animals were arranged beneath humans in order of significance. So, while creatures such as tigers and lions were elevated, birds, insects, plants, rocks and minerals were ranked lower.3 Humanity was considered to be at the apex of all creation. How, therefore, could ‘man’ and worm ever be equal?

This hierarchy in Nature was also mirrored in society itself.

In the family, the father was the undisputed figurehead; in the country, the king was above all. The king’s position and authority were unquestionable; he was answerable only to God. This was the ‘divine right of kings’, and the newly crowned King James I (1603–25), who enjoyed the first ever performance of King Lear at his court on Boxing Day in 1606, certainly liked to remind his subjects about it.4 The reason the animal imagery in King Lear is so striking, for audiences then and now, is because it constantly shuttles up and down these scales of order and significance – from worms to kings, from flies to Gods. iv

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introduction

This, then, is a play of extremes and reversals. In King Lear, Shakespeare also moves his characters not just up and down the scales, but also between the limits of good and bad fortune – powerful rulers become vagrants, noblemen become beggars, favourite daughters and beloved sons become outcasts. Certainly, King Lear is a tragedy, according to classical definitions5, in that we witness the spectacular downfall of the protagonist Lear – a once-powerful ruler of ancient Britain – whose grave, defining error is the ill-conceived division of his kingdom.6 We watch a king’s mental deterioration following the loss of his regal identity. ‘Who is it that can tell me who I am?’ Lear cries (Act 1, Scene 4, line 227). But the real tragedy of King Lear surely resides in how it generates a more widespread sense of human insecurity: it is a play in which no one’s position is ever safe.

What has now become Shakespeare’s greatest and most performed tragedy disrupts our sense of order by asking big questions of its audience. It also forges a deep connection between philosophical issues about power and status, and human significance, with smaller, person-sized concerns about family, love and forgiveness. Large and small, men and worms, together. This is where the unique power of the drama resides: the personal is political. A cruel father cannot be a wise leader; a traitorous brother will never triumph over his loyal sibling. This, according to Jonathan Bate, is what ultimately defines the best King Lear productions: the ‘ability to hold together the huge and the tiny, the universal and the local, the epic and the intimate.’7

Concerns in context

Family fortunes: bad fathers, forgotten sons, defiant daughters If the king is the father of the nation in a Renaissance model of social order, then in King Lear, the poor fathering that opens the drama marks a ‘darker purpose’ for family and nation alike (Act 1, Scene 1, line 38). In the play’s opening scene, the Earl of Gloucester makes crude jokes about his illegitimate ‘whoreson’, and the ‘good sport at his making’ v

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KING LEAR

(Act 1, Scene 1, lines 23–24). These jokes are all the more shocking because they are made in front of the very son Gloucester ‘so often blush’d to acknowledge’ (Act 1, Scene 1, line 10). It is no surprise, then, that this ‘bastard son’ longs for the status and recognition of his legitimate and favoured brother, Edgar.

Edmund’s envious and self-seeking traits are reflected in other 17th-century writings about illegitimacy. Francis Bacon, in a series of Essays that he published between 1597 and 1625, claimed that ‘Deformed persons, and Eunuchs and old Men, and Bastards are envious: for he that cannot possibly mend his own case will do what they can to impair anothers.’8 Edmund, commendably, wants to see a world in which the gods ‘stand up for bastards’ (Act 1, Scene 2, line 22), but his fight against injustice is founded on a plan to secure the assets and status of ‘Legitimate Edgar’ as he vows ‘I must have your land’ (Act 1, Scene 2, line 16). Edmund is a character that initially appears to conform to this ‘envious’ type, but as the play unfolds we see that he is no one-dimensional, powerseeking villain but a man caught in a warped quest for validation and perhaps, more simply, love.9 The main plot of the play begins with the advent of the bizarre ‘love test’ in which King Lear – father and sole parent to three daughters: Goneril, Regan and Cordelia – sets a challenge which is breath-taking in the scope of its vanity.

‘Which of you shall we say doth love us most?’ he demands (Act 1, Scene 1, line 53). The better the response, the better the inherited lands they will receive. But although Goneril and Regan initially comply, delivering the excessive praise their father anticipates, Cordelia, the youngest unmarried daughter, will not play their game. Her reply of ‘Nothing, my lord’ (Act 1, Scene 1, line 89) reverberates around a shocked stage. Yet this is only the beginning of the king’s public downfall. All three of Lear’s daughters will eventually defy him, and in the end only one will be forgiven.

Shakespeare’s plays are replete with defiant young women, such as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, but Lear’s three rebellious daughters will soon vi

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LIST OF CHARACTERS Lear

King of Britain

King of France Duke of Burgundy Duke of Cornwall Duke of Albany Earl of Kent Ear of Gloucester Edgar

son to Gloucester

Edmund

bastard son to Gloucester

Curan

a courier

Old Man

tenant to Gloucester

Doctor Fool Oswald

steward to Goneril

A Captain employed by Edmund Gentleman attendant on Cordelia A Herald Servants to Cornwall Goneril, Regan, Cordelia daughters to Lear Knights attending on Lear, OfďŹ cers, Messengers, Soldiers, and Attendants.

The Scene: Britain

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KING LEAR

ACT 1 SCENE 1 In the opening scene, the Earls of Gloucester and Kent discuss the king’s proposed division of his kingdom. Gloucester introduces his illegitimate son Edmund with some rather coarse remarks about his origins. Gloucester leaves with Edmund, then the stage is filled by King Lear and his palace entourage, which includes: his daughters Goneril and Regan, their husbands the Dukes of Albany and Cornwall, his youngest daughter Cordelia and her suitors France and Burgundy. Lear offers to divide up his land in exchange for words of praise and love from his daughters. Goneril and Regan comply – and earn their share of the kingdom – but Cordelia refuses to take part. As a result, she loses her share of the kingdom and her dowry. France, however, still agrees to marry her. Kent defends Cordelia, but both have displeased the king and are banished in disgrace. Goneril and Regan share concerns about their father who, it seems, is determined to divide his time between their households.

1. had more affected preferred.

6–7. that … moiety it is difficult (for anyone) to determine which is the better half (‘moiety’).

11. braz’d to’t hardened or reconciled to it. Gloucester is finally openly acknowledging his responsibility (charge) for his illegitimate son. He does, however, begin to make a series of insensitive comments about the young man’s mother. Note that Kent and Gloucester speak in prose, not verse here, showing the light-hearted, bawdy nature of their conversation.

12. conceive understand, also used in the coarser sense of conception or creation of a child.

16. smell a fault have any problem with this.

17. issue result, also used in the sense of child/offspring.

19. a son, sir, by order of law, some year elder Gloucester has another legitimate son – born in wedlock (‘by order of law’) – who is a year older.

22. came something saucily to the world … sent for was born prematurely.

Gloucester is again making light of his son’s birth, suggesting that it was rude or impertinent (‘saucily’).

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ACT 1 SCENE 1  

ACT 1 Scene 1 King Lear’s palace.

[Enter KENT , GLOUCESTER , and EDMUND ] Kent I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall.

Gloucester It did always seem so to us; but now, in the division of the kingdom, it appears not which of the Dukes he values most; for equalities are so weigh’d that curiosity in neither can make choice of either’s moiety.

Kent Is not this your son, my lord?

Gloucester His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so often blush’d to acknowledge him that now I am braz’d to’t.

Kent I cannot conceive you.

Gloucester Sir, this young fellow’s mother could; whereupon she grew round-womb’d, and had indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault?

Kent I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper.

Gloucester But I have a son, sir, by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account. Though this knave came something saucily to the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair; there was good sport at his

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KING LEAR 24. whoreson illegitimate or bastard son. See note to line 11 above.

31. sue request or ask.

32. I shall study deserving I’ll do my best.

33. He hath been out nine years He has been away for nine years (we are never given any details of Edmund’s life before this point).

34. [Sennet] a trumpet fanfare (‘sennet’) announces the arrival of the king and his courtiers.

37. my liege my lord.

40. our fast intent intention/determination. Note that Lear addresses the court using the first-person plural pronoun or royal ‘we’, indicating his power and authority.

43. Unburden’d It is significant, and very unconventional, that the king openly describes the responsibilities of a monarch as a ‘burden’ or weight on his shoulders. (See note on ‘the divine right of kings’ in the Introduction, page iv.)

43–44. son of Cornwall … son of Albany son-in-laws Cornwall and Albany.

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ACT 1 SCENE 1  

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making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged. – Do you know this noble gentleman, 25 Edmund?

Edmund No, my lord.

Gloucester My Lord of Kent. Remember him hereafter as my honourable friend.

Edmund 30 My services to your lordship.

Kent I must love you, and sue to know you better.

Edmund Sir, I shall study deserving.

Gloucester He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again. [Sennet] The King is coming.

[Enter One bearing a coronet; then LEAR , then the DUKES OF ALBANY and CORNWALL , next GONERIL , REGAN , CORDELIA , with FOLLOWERS .]

Lear Attend the Lords of France and Burgundy, 35 Gloucester.

Gloucester I shall, my liege.

[Exeunt GLOUCESTER and EDMUND .]

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Lear Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.

Give me the map there. Know that we have divided In three our kingdom; and ’tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age, Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburden’d crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall.

And you, our no less loving son of Albany.

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KING LEAR 45–46. publish our daughters’ several dowers make a public announcement about the share of kingdom that has been granted to each daughter (the ‘dower’ or dowry is the land and property granted to a husband-to-be by a daughter’s father as a marriage settlement).

49. amorous sojourn courtship (of the youngest daughter).

51. divest rid, get rid of (also in the sense of undress – see, for example, the Introduction and the motif of clothing and nakedness in King Lear).

54–55. largest bounty … challenge the king will give the best reward (‘largest bounty’) to the daughter whose love (nature) and good deeds (merit) most deserves it.

57. wield express.

64. Cordelia [Aside] it is clear from the outset that Cordelia is deeply uneasy with this challenge and is different to her older sisters.

66. champains rich’d open rich, flat countryside.

67. wide-skirted meads large meadows.

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ACT 1 SCENE 1  

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We have this hour a constant will to publish Our daughters’ several dowers, that future strife May be prevented now. The Princes, France and Burgundy, Great rivals in our youngest daughter’s love.

Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn.

And here are to be answer’d. Tell me, my daughters – Since now we will divest us both of rule, Interest of territory, cares of state – Which of you shall we say doth love us most?

That we our largest bounty may extend Where nature doth with merit challenge.

Goneril, Our eldest-born, speak first.

Goneril Sir, I love you more than word can wield the matter; Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty; Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare; No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour; As much as child e’er lov’d, or father found; A love that makes breath poor and speech unable: Beyond all manner of so much I love you.

Cordelia [Aside] What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent.

Lear Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, With shadowy forests and with champains rich’d, With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads, We make thee lady: to thine and Albany’s issues

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