Notes on King Lear and Keats

In December 1817, John Keats wrote about "negative capability."
Negative capability is the ability to be in "uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason."
Keats admired Spencer, Milton, and Shakespeare, noting a resurgence of their work during the Romantic era.

Keats didn't just study Shakespeare; he "lived it."
Shakespeare was like scripture to him, more so than the actual scriptures.
Keats cited Shakespeare as his highest authority, recalling lines and plots with depth and passion.
He saw Shakespeare as a "presider" hovering over him as he wrote.
Keats suggested reading Shakespeare with his brother George every Sunday at 10:00 to connect across the Atlantic.

In December 1818, Keats wrote to his brother George about their brother Tom's death.
In a letter the following spring, he shared his ideas on salvation.
Man is a "poor forked creature," vulnerable to life's misfortunes.
Salvation comes from forming an identity through hardship, through "soul-making," rather than through Christian theology.

Lionel Trilling notes that King Lear tells a similar story of defining the soul through circumstance.
Keats saw tragic salvation as the soul accepting the fate that defines it.
Keats quoted a line from Lear, slightly misquoting Lear's description of Edgar as "a poor bare forked animal."
Edgar, disguised as Poor Tom, is haunted by the "foul fiend."
Keats wrote "Ode to a Nightingale" shortly after his letter to George.

Lear, the aging king of Britain, decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters.
He asks each daughter to profess her love for him.
Goneril and Regan give flattering answers.
Cordelia, the youngest, refuses to exaggerate her love and is disowned.
The King of France marries Cordelia despite her lack of dowry.
Lear quickly realizes his mistake as Goneril and Regan undermine his authority, causing him to go insane.
He wanders on a heath during a storm, accompanied by his fool and Kent (a loyal nobleman in disguise).

Gloucester's illegitimate son, Edmund, deceives him into thinking his legitimate son, Edgar, is plotting against him.
Edgar disguises himself as a crazy beggar called Poor Tom and flees to the heath.
Gloucester helps Lear despite the danger.
Regan and Cornwall blind Gloucester and turn him out.
Edgar leads his blinded father, Gloucester, towards Dover.

A French army, led by Cordelia, lands in Dover to save her father.
Edmund becomes romantically involved with both Regan and Goneril.
Goneril and Edmund conspire to kill Albany, Goneril's husband, who is sympathetic to Lear.
Gloucester attempts suicide, but Edgar saves him by staging a fall off an imaginary cliff.
English troops, led by Edmund, defeat the French, and Lear and Cordelia are captured.

Edgar duels and kills Edmund.
Gloucester dies.
Goneril poisons Regan out of jealousy and then kills herself when her treachery is revealed.
Edmund's betrayal leads to Cordelia's execution.
Lear dies of grief at Cordelia's death.
Albany, Edgar, and Kent are left to rule the country amidst sorrow and regret.