Original play - King Leir

• Was originally formed in the late 1580s, known as the ‘The True Chronicle History of King Leir‘.

• This opens with a speech about Leir’s dead wife ‘dearest Queen‘.

• 4.6 was originally a comic scene, with Leir and Cordelia kneeling in rising to sum up their arguments on who deserves most blame.

  • Shakespeare may have changed this to elicit pathos from his audience.

• There was a real King Leir from 800 BC, who is documented in the 1163 novel, Monmouth’s The History of Kings. However, this work is pseudohistorical, including King Arthur and Dragons.

• Holinshed produced another King Leir account in 1577, without the Gloucester subplot or King’s madness, ending with him taking back power from his dead daughters.

  • Shakespeare likely altered this to make the tale more tragic, but also to lengthen the play.

• Alternatively, Sidney’s account of the blind king of Paphlagonia in ‘The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia‘ is said to inspire the Gloucester story.

  • In this story, the Edmund counterpart (Plexirtus) directly blinds Gloucester.

  • Plexirtus searches for, and eventually wars with Leonatus (Edgar’s counterpart), but loses and flees into another country.

  • The king still dies of a broken heart.

  • Plexirtus pleads for Leonatus forgiveness, as he hunts him down, but Leonatus pardons him.

    • However, Plexirtus friends are killed.

References

• ‘pelican daughters‘ may refer to a passage in a contemporary text, where children attack their parents, the mother attacks back, and then wounds herself to heal them.

• There was a 1603 real court case where Sir Annesley had his two elder daughters attempt to legally certify him as mad to take over his estate, while his younger daughter (Cordell) protested on his behalf.

• Sir Allen, the former mayor of London split his estate in old age between his three daughters. He was then treated disrespectfully, such as denying him fire access and other expenses.

• A 1604-5 court case saw nobleman Sir Dudley attempt to prove his legitimacy to inherit his father’s wealth. His father, the Earl of Leicester, continuously referred to him as a bastard in the will, making this difficult.

• The English Sumptuary laws were supported by Queen Elizabeth that a person must dress according to class and to limit extravagance. This could be punished by fines, loss of property and death.

  • Dress codes were extremely strict - crowns for royalty, nobles in robes, beggars in rags. Therefore, character outfits were extremely important for disguise.

  • London theatrical companies in the period spent more on costumes than actors’ wages.

• Courtiers were seen as docile yes-people who were morally indifferent to their own benefit, such as Oswald.

  • They were even forced to perform menial tasks such as serving food under James 1, which could reflect on Oswald as a messenger.

  • However, courtiers still fought for these places using bribery, defamation and flattery.

• Torture was extremely common.

• Drake’s 1580 voyage across the world brought home a map which made the spherical world visible.

  • Lear himself references this.

• Bribery was common amongst the higher sorts, and corruption was highly present.

• Gloucester being ‘tied to the stake‘ could allude to martyrs tied at the stake and burnt, such as Protestant’s burned by Mary 1.

  • It could also be comparable to bear baiting, as Gloucester is tied up and baited by Cornwall and Regan. Sites of this would have been next to Shakespeare’s set.

Contemporary techniques

• The element of disguise was also utilised to emphasise main themes and deeper meanings.

  • Disguise is used to emphasise the theme of blindness, people are unable to tell that they are being tricked.

  • Kent tricking Lear could emphasise his madness, he cannot recognise his friend of many years.

  • This again is done with Gloucester and Edgar, he is unable to recognise his own son due to his despair.

    • He is also unable to recognise Edmund’s disguise as a faithful son.

  • Minor characters would reflect on important narrative themes and events.

    • The fool can be seen as fulfilling this role.

• Nihilism is the rejection of religious or moral principles and the belief that life is meaningless.

  • Many characters come to view life as this meaningless, such as Gloucester and Lear.

  • It can also be viewed this is the overall outlook of the play, as characters die regardless of moral or religious strength.

• Machiavellianism is a political philosophy that encourages leaders to be cunning, controlling, crafty and narcissistic.

  • Origins in a book written by Niccolo Machiavelli called the Prince, which laid out his own philosophy of leadership.

  • Edmund is often described as Machiavellian.

• The malcontent was a character trope of a mocking outsider, established by Marston’s play The Malcontent.

  • In King Lear, this could be seen as the fool, but also Edmund in his soliloquies mocks the people in power around him.

• Jacobean theatre was more violent and sexual than Elizabethan.

  • Revenge plays, tragedies and romances with darker themes were common.

• Fools in Shakespeare have the ability to speak truth to power, and he fulfills the role of a Greek chorus. He is normally extremely wise.

• Renaissance tragedy focused on the fall of men of power and place, such as Kings and Dukes, shown throughout King Lear.

• Gloucester’s blinding would have never been done on a classical stage, but was also controversial for Shakespeare’s time.

• Renaissance tragedy was often concerned with the concept of the wheel of fortune, hamartia and the degree to which a fall was a person’s own fault. Examples include:

  • The Boke Named the Governor by Elyot, 1531. This was an educational programme to encourage proper conduct in men of governance.

  • The Mirrour for Magistrates, 1559. This was a collection of verse stories to illustrate different disasters that happened to prominent figures throughout history and legend.

  • The Spanish Tragedy by Kyd, 1581. This set the mould for violent tragedy and revenge plays, as it was regularly recalled for performance.

  • The Earls of Leicester and Essex.

  • The rises and falls of Sir Walter Raleigh were ongoing.

• The fall of Kings was considered extremely shocking for two reasons:

  • The whole political system centred them, therefore their fall could fail a government.

  • Kings were viewed as ordained by Gods, so if they could fall, anyone could.

• Audiences would have expected the villains to be punished, as God was seen as omniscient and aware of everyone’s sins, and ‘an eye for an eye‘.

  • This led to many people harbouring beliefs in enacting their own vengeance, although the Church argued this should be left to God.

  • Within the gentry, this ideas persisted, especially with the code of honour.

  • This is why Edgar and Edmund’s fight would have been seen as normal, and the winner would have been seen as ordained as God.

• One of the essential debates of renaissance thought was whether reality was what it seemed.

  • Lear explores this, with madness allowing him to see the truth of flattery.

Classical techniques

• Aristotle said a tragedy should create feelings of horror and pity in the audience.

  • Horror would be invoked at Gloucester’s blinding, and pity invoked at Lear in the storm.

• Aristotle said a tragedy should have one plot, one setting and a 24 hour timescale.

  • These ideas were not followed by Shakespeare, as the play has a subplot, multiple settings and an indeterminate timescale.

• Post-classical tragedy usually has more than one villain.

  • Regan, Goneril and Edmund are main villains, and fight amongst themselves while having the same end-goal.

• Traditional classical tragedies highlight the isolation of the protagonist.

  • Lear can be seen as the protagonist, and is isolated when he runs in the storm with only a fool and a madman. He is also isolated from his family.

• Many Greek tragedy devices, as written Aristotle’s Poetics, are used in King Lear:

  • Anagnorisis - when a principal character recognises a character’s true identity or the true nature of their circumstances.

    • Gloucester and Lear have their moments of realising the evil of their children, and regret their punishment of the ‘good‘ children.

    • This can also be called an epiphany, and fits with the philosophical idea of stoicism, which states that virtue can only be achieved through knowledge and awareness.

      • Therefore, Gloucester and Lear become good leaders once they understand their actions and their consequences.

  • Catharsis - the process of relieving/ releasing strong emotions.

    • This is done by Lear in the storm, who yells his regrets to the heavens. It can also be seen in Gloucester’s attempted suicide.

    • Believed to be experienced by viewers after watching such a tragedy, by expressing their horror and pity at the play’s actions.

  • Peripeteia - a sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances.

    • This happens when Lear and Cordelia reunite, and when he runs on stage with her dead body.

  • Hamartia - fatal flaw.

    • Lear’s fatal flaw is his anger and impulsivity, leading him to disgrace Cordelia and banish Kent.

    • Gloucester’s is his naivete.

  • Nemesis - paying what is due. Seen as a character getting what they deserve, comparable to the idea of karma.

    • Nemesis was the ancient Greek goddess of retribution, and was presented as a merciless goddess pursuing you for years to enact vengeance.

    • Many characters could be said to ‘deserve‘ their deaths, Lear for his inability to rule his kingdom, Goneril for killing Regan, Regan for blinding Gloucester, Cornwall for blinding Gloucester, Edmund for usurping Edgar and his father, Gloucester for his adultery and naivete, but Cordelia cannot be said to do anything within the story to deserve her fate. Perhaps her hamartia can be seen as loyalty to her father, which leads to her death.

• There are many contrasts between classical tragedy elements, as written in Aristotle’s poetics and King Lear:

  • In tragedies, the focus is on plot, and characters justification is secondary to this. Oftentimes, characters are not fully developed due to this. In Lear, characters are central to the plot.

  • Fate is often seen as the only reason for the events to occur, whereas in King Lear all actions can be seen as logical consequences of the characters actions.

  • Pity was often felt for the main character by making them relatable to an audience. For this, they are neither good nor bad. This is not done in King Lear, with him doing more good than bad the moment he is presented, but he still is presented as pitiful.

  • The main character would be high up in ability or rank, to make their fall more apparent. Lear, Gloucester and Edmund certainly fulfil high in rank, but it could be argued their lack of ability is what causes them to fall.

• Disguise was often used in Greek and Roman theatre.

• During this time, a tragic hero was an important figure who was led to failure by their hamartia, usually having other admirable qualities.

  • It is hard to see Lear as this as he does not show many admirable leadership qualities, he is quick to rage suffers from hysterical fits and is old.

• Tragedy derives from the Greek word for goat-play, which suggests a tragic hero is a sacrifice to the Gods.

  • Considering the play is set in a Pagan world, the entirety of Lear’s family could be seen as sacrifices to the Gods. Especially Cordelia, who did nothing to deserve her fate.

• Blindness being associated with insight is an ancient paradox - the Greek poet Homer (Odyssey and Iliad) is said to be blind but have a clearer understanding of humanity and motivation than those around him.

  • Prophets and soothsayers (future tellers) are often portrayed as blind.

  • This could be why Gloucester seems to develop an understanding of the world after he is blinded, the insight could help drive him towards suicidality.

• Duality is a common theme in literature, where two opposing ideas are presented in order to contrast them.

  • This can be seen strongest with the female characters, who are contrasted as good and evil women.

    • A good woman supports her father, husband and acknowledges her evil sisters.

    • A bad woman is lustful, power hungry and disrespects her husband and father.

    • It is key to note that a good woman serves the patriarchy in almost every aspect, and a bad woman wishes to have masculine power for herself and therefore opposes the patriarchy.

  • Duality is also shown between Edgar and Edmund, the good and bad sons. Edmund desires power for himself, while Edgar is shown to be naive and have no similar drive.

    • This can also be a contrast between legitimate and illegitimate children, one has no drive for power as he has always had it guaranteed, the other is forced to fight for it.

    • Therefore, Edgar must earn his drive for power and revenge to overcome his bastardisation in being driven from the family.

• Greeks and Romans believed that reasonableness and harmony were only achieved via balance, known as sophrosyne.

  • This view was endorsed by Christians, as these worlds influenced the renaissance era.

• Seneca was seen as the model for early Elizabethan tragedy.

  • Earliest record of his performance was in Cambridge, 1551. He wrote Oedipus and Agamemnon.

  • He used passages of lyrical description for dramatic moments. The audience, used to long sermons, were attuned to listening to and untangling the meaning of long descriptions.

    • Shakespeare, however, had learnt to break up long speeches with dramatic interjections.

  • The Tenne Tragedies, edited by Newton in 1581, collected translations of Seneca’s dramas.

    • This focused on bloodthirsty revenge stories, which implicitly criticised absolutist leaders and autocratic rule, corrupt courts and schemers climbing up the ladder.

    • This could be seen as done by Lear and Gloucester’s realisations, Lear’s overall presentation and Edmund.

Age

• Wills were devised by the elderly that specify exactly how they should be treated by their children, including their fire access, the room they should occupy, food down to the bushels of grain and clothing down to the yards of cloth.

  • Therefore, natural kindness was not trusted without the authority of the law.

  • This can be seen akin to Lear ordering he has knights, and his arguing with Goneril and Regan can therefore be seen as a contractual debate.

    • Additionally, the opening scene can be seen as one of these maintenance agreements.

Common beliefs and ideas

• Jacobeans medicine followed the four humours, and believed that shifts in personality and physicality were caused by imbalances in these. They were blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm, and domiances would cause:

  • Blood - sanguine, would be jolly, fat and optimistic.

  • Yellow bile - choleric, short-tempered, ambitious, thin and red-haired.

    • It can be suggested Lear has too much yellow bile, and is therefore described as chloric.

  • Phlegm - phlegmatic, slow, pale, lazy.

  • Black bile - melancholic, thin, yellowish, worrisome.

• The wheel of fortune, known as rota fortunae, refers to the Celestial spheres where the 8th holds the stars, and the 9th is where zodiacs are placed. It was first invented in Babylon and developed by the ancient Greeks.

  • It was originally based on the goddess Fortuna - a woman as they represented arbitrary changes. She was also blindfolded, to show how arbitrary her decisions were.

    • Later in the middle ages the image became associated with God’s will, as he planned everything. Still, it was still seen as heathen by some scholars.

  • A Ptolemaic model of the spheres for Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn was used. The zodiacs were viewed as a wheel. Fortune was viewed as moving alongside this wheel.

  • In the Carmina Burana poems of the middle ages, with figures labelled as Regno, Regnavi, Sum sine regno, Regnabo (I reign, I reigned, My reign is finished, I shall reign.)

• The Great Chain of Being was a belief that everyone had a place in society, hierarchical.

  • There was three domains, heaven, earth and hell.

  • Earth’s hierarchy was; ‘the better sort‘ (monarchs, nobles and gentry), ‘the middling sort‘ (merchants, farmers) and the ‘lower orders‘ (artisans, peasants and beggars).

    • The higher sort were viewed as automatically virtuous, as they were placed there by the grace of God, the middling sort viewed as money grabbing and the lower orders as naturally sinful.

      • They believed themselves to naturally be better leaders and people than the lower classes, but this was often false.

      • Upon James 1 ascension many young men flocked there seeking court places, and were rather drunk and righteous.

        • This reflects Goneril’s complaints about Lear’s knights.

    • Rank and privilege was supposed to be counterbalanced by charity, but this was increasingly discarded due to new individualism. It was even seen as their job to look after the poor.

      • This idea was known as caritas - love expressed through tragedy, and was integral to Church teachings.

      • Could reflect Lear and Gloucester’s regrets.

    • The Archbishop of Canterbury encouraged people from the baser sorts to submit to injustice from the higher ranks, showing that this was believed to be God’s order.

      • However, in the play Regan and Edmund are fearful that the baser sorts will not submit to injustice, perhaps showing his pleas were not heard.

  • God ruled heaven, Kings ruled Earth and fathers ruled families.

    • However, fathers were still ruled by older male relatives, such as their own fathers.

      • This is reflected by Gloucester and Lear.

• Order was extremely important to people during this era, and believed to be a part of God’s creation.

  • Fear of disorder was elevated by James 1, as with his reign arrived higher rates of crime and alcoholism.

• It was believed that the alignment of the stars, planets and the ascendant zodiac sign at the time of your birth fixed both your fate and personality.

Women

• They were seen as more susceptible to madness, for many reasons:

  • They were seen as weaker willed than men.

  • This was enhanced by the patriarchy actively trapping them into unfulfilling roles.

  • This was a tradition that originated in 1900 BC, when it was first described, and 400 BC Hippocrates named it hysteria - disease of the womb.

    • The womb was said to move, and this was attributed to lack of sex or retention of menstrual blood, both having the treatment of marriage.

    • Hysteria was also known as ‘the mother‘.

• Edgar’s fake account of sins focuses on women and blames them. His usage of this shows that people were willing to believe the evils of women, which is likely why he focused on it.

• Women were economically reliant on men, as they had no rights to property or inheritance - this was either owned by their husbands or fathers.

  • They relied on their fathers to give dowries to their husbands in order to make them attractive prospects.

• Women were seen as sexually deviant and unclean to Christians, and the blame of bastard children was placed mostly on them.

Royalty

• Primogeniture was the key form of inheritance - the title and all wealth is conferred to the eldest male. When there were no sons, women inherited in birth order, as Elizabeth and Mary 1 did.

  • Primogeniture is the principle that allowed Stuart kings to rule, and undermining this would have been seen as shocking.

  • Shakespeare’s splitting of the kingdom between women would therefore be seen as odd, why did Goneril not get the throne?

  • This could be due to his preference for Cordelia, his old age or perhaps his belief that Goneril would be a bad queen.

• Elizabethan legal theory explained a monarch had two bodies; the mortal body natural and the immortal body politic.

  • Axon explains this as the body politic was unaffected by the body natural’s issues such as age and errors, and was immortal and always correct.

• France and Britain had an uneasy relationship, and therefore the invasion at the end of the play would have been as a threat.

  • This is due to their religious differences, but both saw Catholic Spain as a bigger threat.

Elizabeth

• Women had ruled for around 50 years before James 1, meaning people were accustomed to female power and would not view it as a complete negative - Shakespeare had to ensure his female characters were truly evil.

• Inheritance anxiety was current to the times, as Elizabeth had no heirs leading her to be succeeded by James 1.

  • Queen Elizabeth herself passed laws considering it treason to even discuss her succession, which could be seen as similar to what happens to Kent.

  • There were fears of a War of the Roses style succession war, which is echoed in the play.

James

• The great chain of being was believed, and King’s were at the top of this. James 1 referred to them as ‘God’s lieutenants‘ and ‘sit upon God’s throne.‘

• James 1 was in support of the unification of Scotland and England, while parliament was not keen.

  • The play can be shown to support this idea, by showing the effects of splitting a Kingdom.

• James 1 believed kings should not be challenged, and they typically maintained status and power until their deaths.

• He was seen as bringing revival, and welcomed representations of himself as the British equivalent of the Roman emperor.

  • Coins were struck to emphasise this.

  • He enjoyed the title Rex Pacificus (king of peace) and was called the new Augustus (Roman emperor who ruled over a time with little armed conflict).

  • He was even called the Brutus, who in myth founded Britain, by Munday in ‘The Triumphs of Re-United Britannia‘.

• The Jacobean era was considered a decline from the Elizabethan - the poorest people faced more injustice and worse struggles.

  • This could reflect on Gloucester and Lear’s rants.

• He claimed to have the only body which united all of Britain

• The Stuarts were seen as ineffective rulers, especially King James.

  • He shirked his responsibilities, avoided his people, drank heavily, wasted money on extravagance and was constantly in debt, was impulsive, tactless, and constantly battling with Parliament.

  • His court was decadent, and was detached from the rest of the population.

  • He was strongly religious and supported Puritan and Catholic repression.

  • London celebrated with bonfires when he succeeded.

• The place of parliament, councillors and personal advisors to make decisions was a topical issue, as James wanted total rule.

  • This could reflect on Kent, Edmund making decisions for Albany and Regan, and Edgar fighting Edmund in Albany’s place.

Family

• Family can be seen as the first scene of development, and the primary agent of socialisation.

  • It is where gender identity is first formed.

• Chodorow believes motherly women produce motherly daughters, but sons who repress their nurturing desires and needs in order to fulfill the fatherly role.

  • Therefore, masculinity is formed mainly through the denial of femininity.

• In Shakespeare’s day, father’s gained power over their wives and children. Although patriarchy was already seen as the natural order, propaganda from the crown increased this.

  • James 1 said ‘Kings are compared to fathers in families; for a king is truly parens patriae, the politic father of his people.‘

  • This was done to increase loyalty to the crown as the father of the country, and move away the respected lineage of the Tudors which Stuart replaced.

• According to Leverenz’s study of Puritan attitudes, mother’s were nurturers of younger children, and father’s were disciplinaires and provided spirtual guidance to older children.

  • Women were encouraged to stop their affections as the father’s role begun, thus the father would have total control over the children.

Religion

• Church service was required by law on Sundays, so all people attended Church.

• Puritan fundamentalists saw the father as the head of the household who took many of the priest’s functions, leading his dependents in daily prayer, questioning them as to the state of their souls, and providing blessings based on their worthiness.

• While Protestant divines argued for women’s spirtual equality, and exalted the married state for both sexes, they argued wives should be subservient to their husbands.

  • Her subjection to her husband was seen as a measure of his patriarchal authority and manliness.

• One of the 10 commandments is to ‘Honor your father and mother‘, something which is expected of the children within the story.

• Harsnet’s 1603 book Popish Impostures was a book about fake Catholic exorcisms, and contained the names of many devils Edgar refers to.

  • This could tell us how fake these devils are, but also perhaps call the entirety of the belief in possession into question.

• The seven deadly sins were well publicised cardinal sins that condemned the sinner to hell. They are shown throughout the play:

  • Wrath - Lear is shown multiple times unable to contain his anger, especially towards Cordelia and Kent.

  • Lechery - Shown by Regan and Goneril in their fight for Edmund, and in Gloucester’s affair to produce Edmund.

  • Greed - Shown by Regan, Goneril and Edmund for power.

  • Envy - Goneril becomes envious of Regan for being free to wed Edmund.

• Another key sin is despair, believed to be on the same level as the 7 deadly sins. Suicide damned the person to hell.

  • Gloucester is shown through a sympathetic light when he attempts suicide and gives up on his life, was Shakespeare presenting a sinner as sympathetic.

• A key thing to consider is the Pagan setting of the play. The Christian ideas sins committed by the characters would not be sins.

  • Additionally, it is Christianity that enforced the patriarchy and the hatred for bastards, so how does this exist in a Pagan world?

  • This perhaps reflects the idea that Christian values are natural, or perhaps Shakespeare was fearful of the consequences of showing an alternative moral system to Christianity.

  • Paganism usually involved the worshipping of nature and the zodiacs, shown by Gloucester and Edgar. They could be said to represent different elements of Paganism and their flaws.

• Astrology was commonly believed during this era, with Elizabeth 1 having a personal astrologist, John Dee. Her coronation was arranged in accordance with astrology.

  • This links to Gloucester’s strong personal belief, and Edmund may have been mocking a real Jacobean belief.

• To Puritans, adultery was considered punishable by death.

  • This could explain why Gloucester and Goneril received their deaths.

• Mortification was used to cleanse yourself of sin, and consisted of flagellation, abstinence, fasting, pious kneeling or sackcloth wearing.

• Possession was also commonly attributed in cases of madness, which is portrayed by Edgar.

• The Apocalypse was highly believed to be imminent at this time. Sunday sermons spoke of it, painters, theologians and visionaries presented it.

  • The play could be said to represent this, as it also showed the Jacobean fear of social collapse.

• There was many theological disagreements between countless sects, but all agreed there was a Devil and a God, and individuals were constantly watched by both.

Poverty

• This time period had a decline in living conditions for the poor due to rising prices, particularly of food.

  • Wages did not rise alongside this.

• Unemployment increased, as arable land was enclosed providing many jobs, and then once enclosed sheep farming required less jobs.

  • A greater burden was therefore put on Poor Relief, and higher classes became increasingly worried of the poor uprising.

  • This could reflect on Regan and Edmund’s fears that Lear could cause this sort of uprising.

• It was seen as a time of unstoppable change, due to religious and industrial changes.

  • This could reflect the fast pace of King Lear.

Staging

• Shakespeare placed stage actions into his dialogue, as actors would not have long to memorise and perform plays.

• Plays were a multimedia event, music would have been incorporated using drums to set the scene during storms.

Madness

• Early people understood the elderly became frantic with age, and entered a second childishness.

• Madness was seen as intriguing to the public, and many were fascinated by the people it afflicted, often poor and homeless people. It was believed to be caused by possession or humour imbalances.

  • The Bethlehem Royal Hospital was home to Tom o’Bedlam, which is who Edgar bases his mad character off.

  • This could explain why King Lear is also portrayed as mad, as this would be intriguing to the audience.

• Those educated frowned on mockery of those genuinely mad and suffering.

  • Treatment for mental illness was seen as violence to remove demonic possession.

• Mental illness was understood as a mixture of natural causes and supernatural intervention, such as possession or black magic.

  • It was seen that extreme passion destroyed higher faculties, and therefore balance had to be maintained.

  • Critics argue that Lear’s madness worsens throughout, and can be seen as a pugatoral journey.

  • Insanity also led to death, so many of the deaths can be seen as expected.

• Aristotle viewed there was a fine line between madness and divine inspiration, which was established as a renaissance idea.