King Lear context

Violent plot incidents onstage/offstage

  ‘Lear’, in keeping with other Jacobean Tragedies such as Webster’s ‘Malfi’, and ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore by John Ford (c. 1629–33) places violent plot incidents on stage (Gloucester’s eye gouging, Cornwall’s stabbing, Edmund and Edgar’s sword fight), whereas in Classical Greek Tragedies such as ‘Oedipus’, Jocasta’s suicide and Oedipus’ eye gouging occur off stage.

The Malcontent / ‘The Prince’

• Malcontent: popular figure in Jacobean drama unsatisfied with status quo.

• Machiavelli’ ‘The Prince’ 16th century text that had great influence on Jacobean thought and showed an early example of this archetype. ‘It is far safer to be feared than loved’ Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

What is primogeniture and how is it significant in ‘King Lear’?

Developed in France in the late middle ages, Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children. Lear subverts this law by dividing his Kingdom between multiple children. The chaos brought about by this division would have certainly appeased King James as he was in favour of the Union of the Kingdom: in May 1603 he suggested a union of England and Scotland to the court which was initially opposed.

The Great Chain of Being and Edmund

    Elizabethan view of Great chain of being being questioned in Jacobean age; Edmund can be seen as a personification of this fear/ aspiration. Convention of bastards being evil: Don John the bastard in ‘Much ado about nothing’, another literary villain but in a comedy. Shakespeare uses Edmund’s first soliloquy to dramatise his anger at the laws of primogeniture and his commitment to subvert the natural order of Jacobean society.

Ian Mckellen’s Chitester production

The eye gouging scene is played out as a sexual game to Regan and Cornwall to music, stripping off their clothes.

Gunpower Plot

    The Jacobean interest in evil plots (enacted so entertainingly by Edmund the bastard’s gulling of his brother and father) might have been inspired by very real malevolence of the 1606 Gunpowder plot where Catholics came very close to destroying both parliament and the King.

Nahum Tate’s version of Lear

     Nahum Tate ‘Lear’ first appeared in 1681, some seventy-five years after Shakespeare's version. Tate's play has a happy ending, with Lear regaining his throne, Cordelia marrying Edgar, and Edgar joyfully declaring that "truth and virtue shall at last succeed."

James 1st and Kingship

Title of play foregrounds the importance of kingship. Written at a time when monarchy was of central importance. James 1st wrote extensively on subject of notions of divine rule. "Kings are justly called gods (delivering) divine power upon earth,". Since Elizabeth 1st in the previous century, the role of the ruler was viewed as problematic; most notably because of the issue of her gender.

Christianity and honesty

Proverbs 12.19 states ‘Truthful lips endure forever’. Jacobeans were a predominantly religious demographic, as well as King James 1st himself.

The Green Man

Lear, when emerging with flowers draws parallels to the pagan mythological figure ‘The Green Man’, an artistic image recognisable to the Jacobeans of a male face covered with various vines, flowers and aspects of nature said to symbolise the Cycle of Life and re-birth. This figure been described by critic Taith Lee as ‘The Breaker of Chains, a god of joy and freedom’. Whilst Lear certainly still has not been able to ‘Break’ the ‘Chains’ of madness, his connection with the natural world contrasts his previous tyrannical, control obsessed characterisation.

Jacobean views towards madness

In the Jacobean epoch, Lear’s state of madness would have been associated with the medieval idea of demonic possession, with many treatments centralising around the violent removal of such spirits. This included vomiting, blood letting and ‘leeching’ and various other repugnant treatments such as a ‘roasted mouse, eaten whole’ as one Pope suggested.

Edgar’s disguise in relation to Jacobean theatre

• Edgar’s mystery of not revealing himself and staying in disguise was typical feature of Jacobean and Elizabethan theatre: a feature in drama that goes back to Roman and Greek theatre. seen in comedies as well as tragedies. Portia disguised as a man in ‘Merchant of Venice’.  Rosalind disguised as a man in ‘As You Like It’.

• In Elizabethan times you could be fined for not wearing clothes that spoke of your position and place, as stated in The English Sumptuary laws of 1281.  

• Masques during festivals and carnivals was commonplace in Elizabethan/ Jacobean society both among the aristocracy and the common classes.

Tolstoy VS Orwell on Lears success

Out of Shakespeare’s more than 30 plays, Tolstoy denounced ‘Lear’ as the worst, a charge that George Orwell, writing 40 years later, declared the play to be ‘not guilty’ of. Orwell claimed that one true test of great art is longevity: If, as George Orwell claimed, the true test of great art is longevity, one might say the Shakespeare’s depiction of (question focus) passes the test..

Audience’s reaction to Lear’s abidcation

Lear’s decision to abdicate and divide his kingdom would have been seen as a critique of rulers who shirk responsibility. Elizabethan and Jacobean audiences believed in the importance of a strong, centralised monarchy. By dividing his power between his daughters, Lear disrupts the natural order, leading to political chaos and civil war. This reflects broader concerns about the stability of leadership in Jacobean England, especially after the long reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

poverty Jacobean era

   the prevalent the gap between the rich and the poor and the plight of the homeless. England was convulsed by a terrifying social crisis. Harvests failed with alarming regularity. There were serious riots in London in 1595, and regional famines in 1596 and 1597. The bubonic plague killed some 30000 Londoners in 1603. Lear’s moral awakening suggests he has been on a journey of redemption and would have struck and emotional chord with a Jacobean audience.

Cordelia and ‘The Marian Ideal’

-          The ‘Marian Ideal’ refers to the Virgin Mary as the ultimate symbol of female virtue in Christian tradition, particularly in Catholic and early protestant societies. It was rooted strongly in purity culture and emphasised chastity, obedience, humility, kindness, compassion and inner morality.

-           In Shakespeare’s day, especially under Elizabeth I (1558–1603), there was an enduring tension between female rule and the Marian ideal. This tension is certainly embodied by the contrast between the sisters. Ultimately Cordelia’s virtue allows her to act as an incarnation of this ideal yet her disobedience may slightly sway this at points, making her a ‘round’ character (E.M Forster).

Goneril / Regan as ‘monstrous regiments of women’

-          This idea links to the anxiety surrounding female power at the time, and the phrase is originated from John Knox’s pamphlet ‘The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558)’ in which he argued that female sovereignty was a violation of both natural law and divine law.

-          He stated that ‘To promote a woman to bear rule… is repugnant to nature, contumely to God’

-          The demonisation of Goneril / Regan can certainly be seen as an incarnation of the male anxieties at the time, one that is deeply rooted in patriarchal misogyny.