Intellectual and Cultural Context- Webster's Career

Webster's Career 

Webster was born around 1579, he was from a comfortable middle class background as his father was a prosperous coach maker. As a result Webster would have encountered a 'cross section of Elizabethan society as he grew up'. 

                                       

His father was also a member of a prestigious guild, Company of Merchant Taylors so it's very likely that Webster attended the Merchant Taylors' School. Boys of the school had a good reputation as an acting troupe. The rest of his education was probably completed at Middle Temple where he would have trained in the legal profession hence the recurring theme of Law and its corruption in his plays. 

                   
                                

The theatre had flourished as Webster progressed in his career. 'The Theatre'  was built in 1576. It is not known exactly when Webster stepped into this burgeoning industry (The fuck do we know about him then?). But by 1602 he was firmly entrenched as a regular collaborative dramatist. Phillip Henslowe lists Webster as a co-author of 3 plays for The Rose Theatre.



                                          


Webster's earlier plays were satirical portraits of contemporary middle-class London life, drawing on Webster's own background. The influence of city comedy on Webster's tragedies, while faint, can nonetheless can be traced in scenes such as Flamineo's orchestration of his master's extra-marital affair in The White Devil. 

But The White Devil was not well-received upon its first performances. His preface is the definition of pressed. The rush to the play into publication indictates that he thought the play would've had greater success as a piece of literature. He published 'A Monumental Column' an elegy for the death of Prince Henry, in 1612.

The Duchess of Malfi was performed by the King's Men at the indoor Blackfriars and the outdoor Globe. Webster did not return to single-authored plays after The White Devil, probs cause everyone thought it was shite.


                                        

There is no record of Webster's death but he is referred to in the past tense in Heywood's Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels, in 1634, which implies that he was hella dead. 

Jacobean Tragedy 

The White Devil is advertised on its title page as a 'Tragedy'. During the Jacobean age, tragedy was very popular.

One of the most influential and earliest definitions is from the philosopher Aristotle who described it as 'an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude' and identified several key components of a tragic plot- hamartia, anagonrisis and peripeteia.

The chorus in Aeschylus' play Agamenon sums up the conclusion of dramatic tragedy: "Men shall learn wisdom by affliction schooled."

                            



Well known tragedies such as King Lear, Macbeth and Othello features heroes who make great errors of judgement in the first act of the play only to realise their mistakes too late.  Webster's Flamineo and Vittoria can be seen as protagonists in the same mould yet they choose a sinful path in Act 1 and seem to reach comfort and security in Act V but only right at the end do they realise their actions have brought about their ruin.

                                  

There is a strong ethical dimension to this pattern as it seems to be giving instructions to the audience. Thomas Heywood (Webster's co-author) concluded that the moral of the tragedy was to "to persuade men to humanity and good life.... showing them the fruits of honesty and the end of villainy."
Protagonist of The Revenger's Tragedy remarks: "When the bad bleeds, then is the tragedy good."

But good and bad are elastic categories.The laws of God and the laws of the state were officially one and the same in Jacobean England- as James I remarked in a speech
"to dispute what God may do is blasphemy,,, so is it sedition in subjects to dispute what a king may do in the height of his power." - Divine Right of Kings 

                             
                           

Many Jacobean tragedies illustrate the dangerous consequences of abandoning the laws of the state and God.
Macbeth - murders the king
Lear- abdicating flouts the established order

Flamineo and Vittoria willfully reject traditional morality in order to advance themselves + they pay the ultimate price. John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore' expresses the principle of divine retribution suggesting that though "Great men may do their wills... Heaven will judge them for't another day."
Sin against the prevailing social order, these tragedies seem to say you will suffer the consequences both in this life and the next.

                          



But many tragedies of the period contain potentially subversive challenges to the social status quo.
Doctor Faustus and Tis Pity She's a Whore depict sympathetic athetist characters whilst The Duchess of Malfi illustrates that true nobility is in a person's actions, not their birth.

Tragedy must offer the possibility of subversion. 'The White Devil' is a revenge tragedy inspired by tragedies from Roman playwright, Seneca. Which developed a tragic form which focused on the private revenge of a protagonist who had been the victim of a terrible injustice. The most famous example is The Spanish Tragedy (Thomas Kyd) which was a mix of political intrigue, ghostly visitations, plotting, madness and bloody recrimination.
J.W. Lever described this format as 'a wide range of characters , a court setting, a dynamic of complicated intrigue and delayed revenge, with a final spectacular catastrophe."

                                        


Revenge tragedy is different to classical tragedy as the revenger experiences no anagnorisis- tends to be determined to fulfill his vengeful mission until the bloody end. But the protagonists' hamartia could be the very willingness to take up the call to revenge. So revenge tragedy presents its audience with a thorny moral ambiguity. Torn between private honour and public law.

Francis Bacon in his essay 'Of Revenge' in 1597
"Revenge is a wild kind of justice which the man's nature runs to, the more ought the law to weed it out."
The revenger is caught between irreconcilable values

• Honour bound to avenge
• Christian morality dictates that he should not commit murder. 

                               

                                    

Renaissance tragedy is bare graphic in its presentation of death and violence. Gruesome physical images of widspread as well as images of cruelty. The effect of all this brutality on stage is often to paint a bleak portrait of human society. 

• King Lear famously asks of the 'poor, bare, forked animal' he sees before him 'Is man no more than this?'
• Tis Pity She's a Whore' emphaises a similar view- man is described as a 'wretch, a worm, a nothing.'
• Iago in 'Othello' refers to humans in terms of animal imagery which is also seen in The White Devil which is loaded with images of human beings as animals or birds

Central figure in Jacobean drama is the 'malcontent', A man who is born into high social status who as somehow lost his position and has become educated but an impoverished outsider. His outsider stats leads him at once both to desire social advancement and to disdain the system which continues to exclude him

                             

Vittoria Accoramboni vs. The White Devil

Based on the history of Vittoria Accoromboni although Webster significantly deviates from the published accounts. The White Devil is based on real occurrences in Italy barely 30 years before Webster wrote the play.

The events took place between 1576 and 1585 + was widely reported.

Born in 1557 at Gubbio, a small town in Tuscany. Her family was aristocratic but poor + moved to Rome to improve her fortunes.

She was a great beauty, full of charm and gaiety and despite her modest dowry she married Francesco Peretti, nephew to the powerful Cardinal Montalto in Rome when she 16 yrs.
About 7 yrs later she met  Paulo Giordano Orsinin (Duke of Bracciano) and became his lover, partly through the determined efforts of her ambitious mother and her scheming brother Marcello who was in his service.

                                             


The duke was 20 yrs older, physically obese and already married to Isabella de Medici, sister of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and was the father of 3 children. Isabella, however, was having an affair with a relative of her husband's Trolio Orsini.

Isabella's brother arranged the death of Trolio Orsini and either her brother or her husband arranged for Isabella to meet her own death. Marcello shot Peretti in a deserted alley leaving Bracciano and Vittoria free to marry.

Pope Gregory XIII ordered the couple to separate and while an inquiry into Peretti's death was held, Vittoria was imprisoned in the Castello San Angelo in Rome. The investigations revealed nothing and Vittoria was released.

She and Bracciano married for a 2nd time and lived together on his ancestral estates. Pope continued his disapproval of the union and when he died 4 yrs later they celebrated with a 3rd wedding in public only to learn that Cardinal Montalto has been elected as the new popr, Sixtus V.

They fled to Venice and then to Padua. But the Duke was seriously ill, he suffered from a leg ulcer and died by Lake Garda in 1585. Vittoria attempted suicide but failed and returned to Padua where Isabella's family saw her as a threat to Isabella's son Virgino's inheritance.

They hired Lodovico Orsini a banished kinsman of the duke, to kill Vittoria and her younger brother Flamineo. Lodovico was later captured and strangled and his accomplices publicly executed, The Duke of Florence died 2 yrs later most likely from poison and Marcello was extradited to Ancona where he was beheade.

Changes between The White Devil and the Source Material 
                         
                           

• Vittoria is an innocent by stander in the historical source- Brachiano seems to force her into this marriage whilst all the murderous actions seems to stem from him. But in 'The White Devil' Vittoria seems to be more complicit in the murders as shown in 1.2 where she dreams of both Camillo and Isabella being murdered. 

• Webster chooses to make Isabella live longer and presents her as a more saintlier character. Her love for Brachiano remains no matter how many times he is a piece of shit towards her. She is killed by kissing the poison on her husband's portrait - metaphor of their marriage. But in the historical context she is murdered by either her brother or husband . Whilst in historical context Isabella was having an affair with Trolio Orisini and she is killed off pretty quickly

• Source material her mother is seen as scheming as Flamineo. But in 'The White Devil' she is disgusted and accuses Brachiano and Vittoria of adultery.She foretells them that this adultery will lead to their early deaths. 

• Vittoria was born in Gubbio, a small town in Tuscany rather than Venice as  Monticelso claims 

• In 'The White Devil' both Vittoria and Bracciano are seen as scheming whilst in the the historical source only Brachiano is seen as truly evil. 

• Vittoria meets Brachiano 7 years after she gets married and keeps rejecting him but in 'The White Devil' it seems instantaneous 

• After being implicated for the murder of her husband in 'The White Devil' she is sent to a nunnery whilst in the historical context she is placed into a prison. 

• More important, he has almost entirely invented the character of Flamineo, for the manuscripts carry little more than a passing reference to a person of that name. Whereas, in 'The White Devil', Flamineo is seen as the chief instigator of all the violence and is almost seen as a conductor as he orchestrates all the vile situations and manipulates people.  

INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

Fugger newsletter clearly the source of TWD. It was a newspaper circulated to clients of the German bank, or A Letter Lately Written from Rome which translated into English in 1585. Webster clearly adds:

• Vittoria recounting of her dream - means of manipulating B
• Trial and subsequent imprisonment of V in the house of convertites
• Manner of B death
• Marcello's murder
• Cornelia's madness
• Appearances of ghosts
• Historical Vittoria appears to be completely innocent- far cry from Venetian Curtizan 

The Murder of Signora Accaramboni 

Described as a 'pitiful act of murder' which occurred in 1585, Padua. Duke Paolo Giordano Orsini was one of the noblest Roman families and was married to the sister of the reigning Duke of Florence. But his lust for Vittoria meant that he desired to break his marriage vows.

• He had a 'burning passion' for the wife of the nephew of Pope Sixtus- but she did not wish to turn unfaithful. 
• The Duke then murdered Vittoria's husband. He asked her again but she curtly refused
• Duke then murdered his own spouse so she was 'put out of the way'.
• Marcello (V brother) acts as a go between  
• 3rd time he addressed, she finally said yes but on the condition that he would marry her. She wasn't going to be his mistress of whore. 
• The Cardinal (present pope) did not rest the desire to avenge the blood of his innocent nephew, When he became the Duke he wanted to reconcile. He knelt before him and begged for forgiveness. 
• Duke then removed himself and Vittoria to Padua (Venetian territory)
• Before 2 months passed he died at Salo- foul play was suspected
• He left Vittoria a large property. But the Duke of Florence was hella pissed + took charge of Giovanni's place in the will
• The Duke of Florence urged her to enter a convent but she refused + decided to keep the retinue of 100 people
• 50 armed men entered her home + shot her brother, Duke Flaminio and stabbed Vittoria during prayer
• One of these men were Ludovico Orsini, cousin of Paolo Giordano 
• Ludovico was to be strangled 3 hrs after the delivery of their letter who admitted that he had perpetrated this murder at the command of great personages  
• 3 hours after the decision was reached LO was sentenced to death. He had murdered 40 people but never thought justice would lay a hand upon him due to his elevated social status and hoped he would not be publicly executed. 
• He was to be strangled in a chamber-  "And just as high as the house of Orsini had stood in high esteem, as deep is now its fall"
• The two servants of Vittoria who opened her dwelling were accomplices and were burned with red hot tongs, killed with a hammer and then quartered.

Women in King Lear

Women in Renaissance 

Women and Religion 

Karen Newman = Renaissance tropes of femininity defined through Biblical roles women were expected to fulfill. As shown in Ephesians 6:22-25 "Wives, be subject to your husbands' as force in moulding tropes of submissiveness, obedience and subservience." Rise of religious observation following Caxton's invention of the printing press and Luther's encouragement of the translation of the Bible

The Bible was seen as a rulebook for women:

•  Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself' and the wife see that she reverence her husband
• Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord
• For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church; and he is the saviour of the body 
• Therefore as the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything

After Henry VIII all immediate successors were women- Lady Jane Grey, Mary and Elizabeth. They held the title of being supreme religious leaders of the religion in their country. This gave a new power to women in respect of religion. Even though Elizabeth was excommunicated by Pope Pius V. 

Elizabeth was a commendable role model for Catholic Church as she retained her virgin status. Position was highly unlikely + created by masters of propaganda to represent this holy and Biblical image of the monarchy. 

Fall of Adam and Eve- original sin was from Eve eating the apple

Women held a diverse role in religion due to angel-whore dichotomy.  

Angel- Whore Dichotomy 

Basic Idea- Female characters are either virtuous or seen as completely immoral. There is no midpoint between the two, women were placed on an 'idealistic pedestal and then as soon as they sinned they had 'fallen' and were impure.

Angel= good at heart, passive, pure, domestic,silent, innocence, child
Whore= sexually promiscuous, immoral, un-married seductress, adulterous wife

Renaissance Literature- Possible example seen in Hamlet. The dichotomy was used to create sympathy for the male characters, even though they themselves may be deemed evil.

Family Life and Chastity 

Huge importance placed on the family. Ideas of men and women revolved around marriage. Each person had a role within their family and the 'family hierarchy' was obvious.

Overlap between domestic and patriarchial hierarchy. Seen through the positioning of the father/husband figure as monarch of the household. Any dissent or rebellion in the household was tantamount to treason.

Presence of 2 female monarchs caused great conflict + tension. Slightly altered the roles of men + women. Elizabeth's rule defied all traits of the weakness and gentleness of women.

Chastity was v. important for brides- wives expected to remain entirely faithful. Chastity used as a bargaining tool through the transaction of marriage. Important due to the prevention of the birth of illegitimate children + to product blood lines and natural inheritance lines.
Chastity a virtue equated with purity, innocence and female integrity. An unchaste woman was nothing, she had nothing and her entire reputation would be based on her virginity.

Silence= chastity , highest virtue of a woman. Women seen not heard. Silence was a punishment for sin due to Eve. In contrast was the talkative woman was condemned as a shrew. They were subversive and a threat to the male domain. Tongue was a symbol of the phallus + male authority. The tongue is the the female 'powerhouse' while phallus is the male 'powerhouse' . If female was talkative and one orifice was constantly open then she is sexually open as well. That is so dumb but whatevs.

Renaissance Queens

"I know  have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too."

After Edward's death, dispute over succession. Mary was Catholic therefore Lady Jane Grey was named as next in line. Proclaimed queen but Mary entered London with supporters + Jane taken to the tower. She reigned for 9 days- executed 1554

Elizabeth as woman + Protestant caused great conflict during her reign. Some claim Elizabeth to be a feminist but in lots of her speeches she seems to be apologising for the weakness of her gender. Interesting conflict between ideas of femininity and masculinity.

Women in the Microcosm and Women's Inferiority  

• Only imperfection in God's perfect creation
• Women- authors of 'Original Sin'
• Women were 'instruments of the devil'
• Church shape by Paul's misogyny 
• Female inferiority pre-dates Christianity
• Women were taught from birth that they were inferior to men  

Education and Careers 

• Women not expected to be educated
• Only 4 of Henry VIII's wives received any formal education
• In the 1st half of 16th cent. people didn't believe in educating women
• Education would be wasted on foolish pursuits
• Exceptions- Lady Jane Grey
• Taught 'wifely' arts
• Education of women were reserved for the rich 
• Even then not for independent thought 

Feminist Theory- Beginning Theory

Early Feminists- Marilyn French/ Linda Bamber

Early feminist criticism of the play suggest that Shakespeare is a feminist writer, sympathetic to the difficulties of the female he represents

Critics often compare women in the play with Puritan goodwife/ companion/ stereotypes of the time, much debated in Renaissance handbooks, to support their points.

However, doesn't taken into account historical circumstance, only the values ascribed to men and women. This view presents feminism as a set of social attitudes rather than a project for fundamental social change.

Kathleen MclLuskie: 'The Patriarchial Bard: feminist criticism and Shakespeare'

Play is fundamentally misogynistic + paradigm for the sexual politics of its genre and history
Tragedy is misogynistic as although it claims to talk about the existence of a permanent, universal and unchanging condition, the protagonist is always male, male concerns and plots. WS aligns anarchy + sexual insubordination with G + R. Whereas comedy gives a more 3D representation of women, gives them a voice.

All female resistance is defined by gender, sexuality and position in the family; family relations are fixed and any move against them is a destructive move towards the rightful order.

QUOTES TO KNOW:

•  'into her womb convey sterility' 
• 'whores do churches build'
• 'women will all turn monsters' servant' 
• 'humanity must perforce prey on itself/ like monsters of the deep.' 

Coppelia Khan- 'The Absent Mother in King Lear

Misogyny is instrumental and instructive.  Charts Lear's progress from misogynist rejection of womanly values to a final acceptance of more womanly qualities.

Exploration of male anxiety 

Psychoanalytic reading of play which suggests Lear's desire to be mothered by Cordelia. 

"O! How this mother swells upward towards my heart/ Hysterico passion! Down, thou climbing sorrow/ Thy elements below!"  Hysterica characterised as feminine- disease of the hyster, the womb. 

In Shakespeare's time hysteria also called 'the mother'- vivid metaphor to describe the women in society; destined for childbirth, but physically weaker than a man. 

Womb= sign of weakness; remedy is regular sexual intercourse/husband. Signifies her weakness for the flesh over mind/spirit. 

1st scene about male anxiety- real purpose is giving away his youngest daughter; paraody of a wedding scene, bond between father and daughter. L deliberately manipulate C due to incestuous purpose. 

Surrender of C awakens a deeper emotional need in L- need for daughter/mother

L as child wants absolute power over those closet to him + absoloutely dependent on them. Inversion of Oedipus 

As man, father and ruler; habitual need for love has been repressed. Wants to 'crawl' like a baby back 'towards death'. Needs his 'nursery' - R + G don't provide this hence re-enactment of a childish rage about the absence of a mother figure. Desire for love = weakness/ feminised and therefore needs to ask about love in a mercantile love test

Marilyn French, Shakespeare's Division of Experience, 1983

"Men's behavior matters. But women's behavior is of the essence. Cordelia 'redeems nature from the general curse/ which 'twain' have brought her to. The twain are R + G. Cordelia redeems nature; G + R are responsible for its curse. In the rhetoric of the play, no male is condemned as Goneril is condemned. A woman who refuses to uphold the inlaw female principle completely topples the natural order and plunges the world into chaos.   

Notes from Nayra's Essay

Myra Glazer Schotz claims that in King Lear, Shakespeare presents 'the absence of the feminine principle to act as symbolic and psychological counterbalance to male authority.' How far do you agree. 

• Feminine principle used to ascribe values such as patience, passivity, moderation and compassion to one side of the gender binary. 
• Gender is dichotomus and the male and female are antithetical polar opposites. 
• The absence of the mother in King Lear means that there is an in depth analysis of paternalistic societies and patriarchal father-daughter relationships 
• Renaissance England was preoccupied with matter such as the radical and unusual position of Elizabeth I as queen and the way it triggered a national examination of previously established definitions of femininity and masculinity.
• Guibbory writes about tensions due to the 'submission to the female' and meant that many men of the time nursed private hopes to 'reassert male supremacy'
• Publication of Haec-Vor allowed a public examination of definitions of femininity and masculinity. John Knox's 'The First Blase of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women' which simply attacked gender roles such as the new kind of equality created by the development of the 'companionate marriage'   
•  Elizabeth I was able to alternate the gender roles dependent on the social climate she was in eg. in a speech at Tilbury in 1588- 'I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman" 

         

•  The rise in articulation of feminine principles resulted in the violent punishment and policing of women. Done with devices such as Scold's bridle with the sole purpose of suppressing female verbosity. 
• Connotations of female speech = promiscuity and sexual looseness 
• The blatant depiction of the imbalanced power ratio between Lear and the remainder of the characters in society. Implies that the oppression of the feminine principle is caused by the intensely patriarchal autocratic society led by Lear  
• Emphatic positioning of an overtly male centered scene in 1.1  at the start of the play serves to indicate the gender priority hierarchy that exists within the natural order of the universe. 
• Male characters use the same lexicon of measurement as Lear. Symbolises different facets of the male principle such as ambition and the conventionally masculine yearning for material wealth. 
• Lear's references to his daughters as 'depositories' informs the audience of prioritising of the material over the metaphysical. 
• By placing the men at the heart  of politics WS, merely maintaining realism. Harold Bloom writes: WS captures the v. essence of human condition an almost photorealistic snapshot of the human experience therefore there is no implied or intended criticism but a mere documentation and recording of universal phenomenon 

                                                    

•  France's order degrades Cordelia and as a result the feminine principle by defining it through its aesthetic virtues: 'fair' connotes innocence but overlooks the more important feminine values of humility, generosity, moderation and selflessness thus underestimating her value
• Lear's anger: "Come not between the dragon and his wrath"- Lear's displays of hyper-masculine anger
• Affinity with masculine anger + lack of control over 'choleric' tendencies that suggest a counterbalancing force to make him exercise rationality. 
• Lear's rashness= stem from him psychologically limiting himself to the adherence of male principles. 
• R + G actively assume male personas= Much Ado About Nothing- Beatrice appropriates male speech by indulging in military language + the repetition of cuckold jokes such as when she proclaims: "the devil meet, like a old cuckold with horns on his head". Beatrice does not deny her femininity- aware of her limitations while G + R revel in pushing the boundaries. 
• Renaissance man= cultured, well versed in arts and science. Renaissance woman= tender, sweet and graceful

                              

• R + G transgression of gender binary shown through animalistic imagery. 
• Karen Newman = Renaissance tropes of femininity defined through Biblical roles women were expected to fulfill. As shown in Ephesians 6:22-25 "Wives, be subject to your husbands' as force in moulding tropes of submissiveness, obedience and subservience." Rise of religious observation following Caxton's invention of the printing press and Luther's encouragement of the translation of the Bible
• Cordelia derives from the Greek for 'heart'
• 4.4 C echoes the words of Christ, the epitome of compassion and self sacrifice. Allusions to C affinity with nature. Emblem of femininity as it strengthens the link between her and the fertile, nurturing values of Mother Nature
• L addresses A + C as his 'beloved sons' + infer that L has a subliminal distrust of women 

                                     

• Cordelia is a lucid and visible example of the presence of the feminine principle
• Not only C that acts as a counter balance but also K + F. Both characters are male yet embody similar qualities as the tradition feminine principle of loyalty and assistance.  
• 4.1 'power to shake my manhood'. 'Power' exposes the fearful tension felt by Lear stripping away of his masculinity 
• Kahn : "what the play depicts, of course, is the failure of that presence: the failure of a father's power to command love in a patriarchal world and the emotional penalty he pays for wielding power.' 
• Last scene illustrates a profound modesty - physically rejects remnants of his authority by showing his willingness to kneel down. 
• Cordelia's altruism deemed as antifeminist by a modern audience. Germaine Greer in 'The Female Eunuch' - "The altruism of women is merely the in authenticity of the feminine person carried over into behavior."  

King Lear- Character Profile

Is King Lear a tragic hero? 

                                 


King Lear is the archetypal tragic hero. Throughout the play it's unclear what Lear's hamartia s is. From scene to scene it changes from rage, to ego , to folly. For me, Lear is a deeply flawed character whose mental and physical deterioration leads to peripeteia that no one can save him from. His anagnorisis arrives when he's surrounded by dead bodies.

As AC Bradley writes: "Shakespearean tragedies stem from the tragic flaws of the protagonist." I feel that Bradley is completely right, not only can this view be applied to Lear but also Othello (his tragic flaw is jealously and possessiveness), Hamlet (inability to act to avenge his father's death ) and Macbeth  (ambition).
So what is Lear's tragic flaw?

For AC Bradley it's his hubris that renders him 'half generous and half selfish. For spark notes his tragic flaw is that he values appearance above reality. I think it's hard to pick one tragic flaw for Lear as Simon Russel Beale (the absolute G who played King Lear in NT Live production- 2014) says we never get to see Lear at his best. We never see the Lear that the fool loves or the Lear that Kent worships. All we see is an idiotic old man that makes bad decision one after the other that spiral out of his or anyone else's control. Every bad decision he makes points to another fatal flaw. The love test is the biggest moment of folly. Why is he doing this? What will he gain? as SRB it's a 'catastrophic criminal mistake."  On the penalty of death I think that Lear's fatal flaw is his blindness. He is blind to everyone and everything but what makes it worse is that, at points you feel that he  purposefully makes himself blind. He can't bear to see things he has done so shifts the blame onto something else so that he doesn't have to come to terms with the fact that he has caused all of this.

Couple of quotes to back this up:

"See better Lear and let me still remain/ The true blank of thine eye" - Kent 1.1

"Which of you shall we say doth love us most"- Lear 1.1

"Where are his eyes? Either his notion weakens, his discernings are lethargied."- Lear

"Come not between the dragon and his wrath"

"Well let it be so. Thy truth be thy dower."

"Dearer than eyesight, space and liberty"- Goneril 1.1 during the love test. This is obvs bullshit but Lear can't see this

"When majesty falls to folly.... This hideous rashness"- YAAAS KENT! YOU TELL HIM BETCH...

Source Material 

There have been many changes from the various primary source materials that Shakespeare may have used to write King Lear. As Trevor Nunn writes: "Late 19/early 20th century versions of Lear...perceived as kind and gentle.. a man goaded.. by two wicked sisters". Fairy tale motif. 


                                          


In the original King Leir, Leir is mourning for the loss of his wife. Immediately this makes the audience sympathise with Leir but also provides a motive for the love test. As SRB says handing over 1/3rd of your kingdom to a foreign power is politically suicidal. But in Leir it's easy to blame his grieving for a sudden blindness on how he shall rule his kingdom.


                            


But in Lear it's just like da fuq? It comes out of nowhere and there doesn't really seem to be a motive. I think the authorial purpose of Shakespeare was to involve the audience in the peripeteia of Lear. Initially the audience is very distant from Lear, basically we see him as a crazy loony. But through his self realization the audience becomes much more sympathetic allowing their to be catharsis for both Lear and the audience by the time Lear/Cordelia etc. dies.

Compared to all the sources Shakespeare is able to add depth and dimension to Lear. Lear is never really black or white but rather occupies the shades of grey. His 'hideous rashness' coupled with his evocation to help the nation's poor shows him as an extremely complex psychological character.

 CONTEXT!!!

In the Court of Chancery the records of 1588 to 1589 show a sensational case that was publicly arousing interest in London. 

Sir William Allen, a leading figure in the Company of Merchant Adventurers and former Lord Mayor of London, had three daughters, all married, one to a Frenchman Francis Verzelin. Allen, having reached an age, wished to relieve himself of the burden of his possessions and divided his property between the three and arranged he should stay at each in turn. 

But once in possession of the houses and property, his daughters then treated him ill, begrudging all service and comfort. The daughters claimed that coal was an unnecessary expense for him, 'limited his fire' making him bitterly cold, and treated him with scorn and disdain. They abused his staff, called his servants 'fussocks'. Allen died in misery and cursed his daughters.

Love Test

This is the first time that we see Lear in the play but unfortunately he is presented as a rash ruler with no perspective. As mentioned countless times before, Lear has no clear motive for the love test and therefore we immediately start to question him.  

Compared to the source material (love test seen in Monmouth's, Leir and Faerie Queen) Goneril and Reagan known about the love test therefore are able to prepare and sabotage Cordelia's speech. But Shakespeare consciously removes this element so that all 3 sisters start on a level playing field- we are able to respect them for their intelligence and how politically savvy they're. 
                                         
                                          


Sigmund Freud asserted that Cordelia symbolises Death. Therefore, when the play begins with Lear rejecting his daughter, it can be interpreted as him rejecting death; Lear is unwilling to face the finitude of his being. Alternatively, an analysis based on Adlerian theory suggests that the King's contest among his daughters in Act one has more to do with his control over the unmarried Cordelia.

Productions + The Love Test

• Sam Mendes (2014) - National Theatre. Makes the love test in a v. v. public setting. They are surrounded by his retinue and there are microphones that are able to project this image of a show or spectacle. As Simon Russel Beale says the love test is a 'living will' and the placing in such a public setting shows the distance between Lear and his daughters. Suggests that familial relationships are based on power/land rather than love. 

• Trevor Nunn (2008)- RSC. Much more intimate- Lear is in all his military regalia with his daughters crowded around him. For me it's a much more homely feeling and doesn't really match up to the cool/dictatorish setting of Mendes. 

One of the interesting lexical choices that arise from the love test is the lexis of measurement. Throughout the love test, Lear quantifies love in order for it to have any meaning. In turn, Goneril and Regan are able to appropriate his own language back to him in order to persuade him of their 'genuine love'. 

"But now her price has fallen"

"Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare"

"...prize me at her worth..."

"I tell you all her wealth"

'Love' is an abstract noun. it is supposed to be all encompassing. But Lear's interpretation of love is much more sinister. It is used to breed an environment of competitive individualism that causes the sisters to try and outvie each other. Furthermore it also places importance on people in terms of what they can do for him rather than how good of a person they're. 

Later on in the play Lear says to Goneril: "Darkness and devils. Degenerate bastard." This is absolutely awful to say to anyone let alone your own daughter. But once Goneril has gone against Lear she is immediately a monster, an other. When she pets his ego he loves her but as soon as she begins to question him the tables turn. This 'hideous rashness' plagues everyone; even though Goneril is a bitch, she makes a valid points about why she's so angry at Lear. Which leads me onto the next point....

Importance of Lear's retinue

Throughout Shakespeare's plays there are many silent servants that are seen as background characters.  They are mostly onlookers and are overlooked by critics and readers. But KL offers an exception to this. The Knights have been given more interpretative parts than other walk on parts. They way they are staged can effect the whole interpretation. If the 'men are so disorded, debauched and bold' as Goneril remarks then surely her anger is valid. Who the hell wants 100 knights treating your hallowed court like the fucking playboy mansion. BYE FELICIA! But if the knights are civilised like the Jonas Brother pre Nick trying to be a male stripper then you see the malice of the two sisters

There are no stage directions about how the knights should act but Goneril insists that the 'your disordered rabble strike my people and make servants of their betters."

Reunion Scene- Folio vs Quarto

Their influence is particularly evident in the differences between the Quarto and Folio.  The reunion scene  means that the presence of attendants transforms a private conversation into a public scene. In the Quarto the only characters on stage are Lear, Cordelia, Kent a doctor and gentleman.


                       


In the Quarto the reunion is extremely intimate and allows for a de-politcised, familial focus on the Lear- Cordelia relationship. But in the Folio the servants who carry him in makes his entrance reminiscent of a royal ceremony. Bringing him back in a royal chair for Jacobean audiences may raise the audience's expectations of Lear and eventually Cordelia's rise back to the throne in the source material King Leir. Shakespeare, an audience baiter and original thug.

Edmund's self wounding

                                  


Servants mirror the authority of their master: they function as a visible representation- a literal embodiment- of their master's power. When Gloucester makes his servants try and catch Edgar the servants are not only a display of his authority; they are an outward representation of Gloucester's deceived inner conviction about his son. The servants function as a physical embodiment of Gloucester's mental determination, malicious intent and firm belief in Edgar's villainy.

Doubling up of actors

                                 


The metatheatrical effects of doubling medium-sized parts such as Cordelia and the Fool have long been noted by critics. In the case of Lear's lost retinue, the loss of his royal attendants and thus his royal power and authority would have been emphasized at the Globe when the actors who played his attendants kept reappearing as the new servants of other master. These actors- on stage but no longer Lear's- function as a repeated visual reminder of Lear's lost status and authority. and a physical sign of the transfer of power from his court to the households of his daughters and their husbands.

Storm Scene 

We find that, as A.C.Bradley puts it, the storm provides a dramatic centre, which helps Lear find out about human nature. He also discovers that nature is totally unconcerned with human affairs. Lear sees himself in the storm; the many manifestations of the storm are analagous to the conflicts in his own life. 

                         

In contemplating the plight of Lear, the reader or playgoer is influenced to sympathy, and is made finely aware of the shortcomings of human nature. In a manner above any other, Shakespeare, in King Lear, reveals the purpose of human struggle. A human's ideas of morality, and his methods of achieving it, are not necessarily, or hardly ever, right

What does the storm symbolise?

•  Mental madness = inscape vs outscape
• Confusion and lack of control is his mind
• Chaos created in the state/individual/family/nation universe
• Anger of nature therefore a divine punishment
• An agent of God and associates it with his daughters
• Natural/political
• Lear is the storm and the language reflects his chaos

Although Lear is clearly quite insane the grandeur of his poetry is able to give him a status and magnificence that defies his humble station. 

                                   

In this painting, Lear seems to have a sense of authority. You have to admire a man who is able to take on nature. Because the power mankind has is finite compared to transient nature. He is a 'mortal God...image of male authority'. "Blow winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout" The monosyllabic imperative exclamatory statements are able to show the sheer power Lear has, or thinks he has. The apocalyptic imagery that he uses could suggest that Lear has elevated himself to such a position that he feels that like God, he is able to create or destroy the world.

However there is also evidence that Lear starts to gain wisdom in this scene. There is a widening scope as Lear starts to focus on the rural poor, an oppressed part of society in Elizabethan England. In 1590s in an England racked by poverty, unemployment and commercial depression would have said that theirs was a better world or that human inventiveness had restored a good and just society. There was a subclass of cripples and hobbling wounded, all virtually un-pensioned.  Nature enemy of the poor- bad harvests created shortages that sent price soaring. Food riots broke out + troops called in to restore order. Malnutrition grew chronic- 1597 the average wage was less than a third of what it had been a century before. Staple foods of the poor= beans, peas, cereals of all types. Loaf of bread still cost a penny- once bought a loaf weighing 3 ½ lbs by 1597 now shrunk to 8 oz.

QUOTES:

"O I have ta'en/ Too little care of this"

"Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are"

"Take physic, pomp./ Expose thyself to what wretches feel." 

"That thou may'st shake the superflux to them/ And show heavens more just"

"How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides... defend you" 

His empathy starts to increase, as Trevor Nunn writes"King can journey through the guts of a beggar". He starts to question himself, why haven't I have done anything about this before? I should place myself in this situation? This situation which he truly embraces when meeting Tom O'Bedlam. Furthermore, this is the only time we start to see Lear caring about others more than himself. Throughout Act 1 and 2, Lear sees the fool as a source of entertainment but know he genuinely care about him and almost becomes a surrogate son. 

How dost, my boy? Art Cold?
Come your hovel.
Poor fool and knave,
I have one part in my heart
That's sorry for thee.

However this is not complete anagnorisis, as evidenced by the mock trial in 3.6. Lear still focuses on the filial ingratitude
"The tempest in my mind doth from my senses take all feelings else/ Save what beats here filial ingratitude"

                               

V   But sympathy starts to increase for him because if we get to the end and don't feel anything for Lear but contempt than the tragedy hasn't worked. This scene is instrumental in playing with our emotions so that it truly becomes a tragedy.

                

      Stripping Section

    Both Edgar and Lear strip. But because this is Lear's profile I'll focus on him. The motif of clothing is

   quite important throughout the play. When Kent starts a fight about Oswald, most of his insults

     revolve around his clothes that make him pretentious.

"  "Nature disclaims in thee; a tailor made thee."

    As Kent claims: "I am much more than my out-wall"

       

   References to clothing are closely linked to ideas about appearance and reality. Outward appearances are often deceptive in King Lear.

  The apparel of all Lear's closest companions on the heath- the Fool, Kent and Edgar - is significant. All 3 are humbly dressed. In site of their inferior status - signified by their clothing- servants are frequently the source of hope, charity and justice in King Lear. 

    

                                      

   

    In the first scene, immaculately dressed as a military dictator, Lear is in control, confident

    enough to allow himself a little chuckle as he puts his disfunctional daughters on the spot. By 

    the time we get to the scenes on the heath he seems to have physically shrunk, shambling  

    across the stage wearing baggy vest and underpants, later in a hospital gown or pyjama 

     bottoms.

                                  

     

     Ceremonial garments are able to conceal the truth. With his royal garb on, Lear cannot see beyond the trappings of majesty. Which leads to the v. emotive scene where Lear strips: "Off, off you lending! Come unbutton here." Lear realises that he no longer has any power, so why must he take part in the ceremony anymore? Also he removes his clothes because he now needs to see beyond appearances

     Without the trappings of ceremony, Lear is able to see underneath it all men are equal. Hierarchy is a social construct but it doesn't actually mean anything. 

   According to Arden edition of Shakespeare it is common for the Fool and Kent to try and stop Lear from stripping off. Some productions allow him to strip completely, which would be so strange for a modern audience. This old man who symbolised power, wisdom and authority has become vulnerable and has almost become the beast. Whereas other productions allow Lear to be in an undershirt to show the debasement of his societal position. 

   Mock Trial

   

   What is the purpose of the mock trial? 

•      Parody of the love test in 1.1
•      Trial conducted by a fool, lunatic, pretend lunatic = comment on human justice?
•      Undermines all trial that are carried out by authority figures in King Lear

   "The play is hard on organised human society and institutions of any kind"- Trevor Nunn 

                                  

   

   The absurd nature of the trial of the two stools, which Lear addresses as "she-foxes," is grotesque in its humour, especially when Lear makes Tom o' Bedlam his "robed man of justice," which, as the

      audience can visually see, is hilarious given that this title represents a pun on the only article of clothing he has on. The ridiculous nature of the mock trial is continued when the Fool is appointed as

     "yoke-fellow of equity," which, given his nature as a Fool is rather inappropriate, to say the least The scene as a whole shows the way in which Lear, in his madness, has converted the tragedy of what has happened to him into something of a farce, which interestingly does not make us feel his tragic situation is one that he faces with dignity. 

                                    

 The substantive readings of F are perceived by many as superior to those of Q, while Q’s ‘mock trial’ scene has repeatedly proved an immensely powerful moment in performances of the play, speaking directly to twentieth-century audiences informed philosophically by the ‘theatre of the absurd’, pioneered by writers such as Samuel Beckett as a way of illustrating the desperate futility of man’s existence (a huge thematic concern in King Lear).

That the scene was cut from Shakespeare’s later adaptation may suggest that it didn’t have the same poignant resonance with Jacobean audiences, though whatever the case may have been, the Folio can nonetheless be seen by this example to be, among many other things, a valuable source of evidence for theatre historians as well as literary critics.

The disintegration of Lear’s seemingly well-ordered kingdom is spelled out for us in a whole series of scenes in which there is, it seems, no ray of light. Horror is piled on horror, culminating in the blinding of Gloucester. The placement of the mock trial of Reagan and Goneril is directly before the blinding of Gloucester. One trial of his daughters follows the brutal trial of Gloucester in the next scene. 

The mock trial is the last time that we seen the Fool. His last line: "And I'll go to bed at noon"- I'll be discussing the importance and the disappearance of the fool in a separate blog post. 

Lewy Body Dementia/ Insanity

 It is extremely difficult to ascertain where in the play King Lear the hero becomes mad. The abnormal behaviour, the extreme irritability, the exhibition of disinhibited thoughts may be the harbinger of psychosis or his premorbid traits. When the Duke of Kent pleads lenience in Lear for Lear's youngest daughter Cordelia, he banishes them from his realm and explodes: "Peace, Kent! /Come not between the dragon and his wrath."

Unlike other Renaissance dramatists, who used 'mad scenes' for comic effect, Shakespeare seems intent on a serious portrayal of madness in 'King Lear'. There are different types of madness in the play. Lear's rash actions of 1.1 can be viewed as political insanity. Lear compares his madness to the torments of hell and struggles to frantically to retain his wits. The other characters are horrified by his loss of reason and try desperately to keep him sane. But is it pointless?

As Simon Russell Beale says- As an actor you have to decide whether you want to play a Lear that is already mad or one who is descending into madness as the play progresses. I chose to play a Lear who is already mad.“In this one, I thought I bet Shakespeare, being the acute observer of human nature that he is, would have studied old men,” he said. “I thought: I’m going to do a bit of research.” King Lear could have been suffering from Lewy Body dementia, the actor Simon Russell Beale has suggested, as he discloses the medical research he undertook before taking on the role.

Lewy Body dementia occurs in quick stages that involve frightening hallucinations, with many remarking that they see barking dogs: "The little dogs and all". The disease is linked to Parkinsons and many suffers say that they have overwhelming feelings of shame and anger 

Powerpoint Presentation

To thee and thine hereditary ever
Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom;
No less in space, validity, and pleasure,
Than that conferr'd on Goneril. Now, our joy,
Although the last, not least; to whose young love
The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
Strive to be interess'd; what can you say to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.

•Sense of ceremony present; flowing blank verse of Lear and lack of cadence suggests rehearsed performance. Symmetrical lines and parallel images suggest this further: ‘with shadowy forests…with plenteous rivers…’

•Elevated, lofty speech (often visually represented by looking down at the map) suggest his dominion over the kingdom

•Verse form suggests he is not a single private individual (amplification of landscape/ imagery of boundless landscape supports further)

Juxtaposition of language styles
Language used to conceal and reveal the truth- styles set against each other, arguably revealing an overall truth

Taciturnity of Cordelia  V hypocritical rhetorical excesses of Goneril and Regan

Blunt speech assumed by the courtier, Kent, in his role as a servant V Fool’s wise nonsense – both
 forms of truth

 Lear’s controlled purposeful verse in first scene V linguistic emptiness of ‘Howl, howl, howl.’
 Arguably, he regains some form of linguistic truth with the blank verse line (although reversed),
 ‘Never, never, never...’

Edgar’s linguistic play: madman, dialect of a Somerset peasant and speech of a countryman. He 
reflects the chaos but his ability to adapt to the landscape also stabilises the chaos via localisation 
with the landscape. V Edmund’s fixed utterances and reliance on a stable universe (where ‘gods 
stand up for bastards’) which jar with the increasing chaos that surrounds him.

Edmund’s forged letter V Goneril and Regan’s deceptive words; both fool their fathers


“Shakespeare, in Lear, is savage. He doesn't give us catharsis; he gives us entropy. And he rips the 
arse out of the moment of tragic insight.” 

Schema/ Schemata 

In psychology and cognitive science, a schema (plural schemata or schemas), describes an organized

pattern of thought or behaviour.

It can also be described as a mental structure of preconceived ideas, a framework representing some aspect of the world, or a system of organizing and perceiving new information.

Schemata have a tendency to remain unchanged, even in the face of contradictory information

Donald Freeman applies the theory of conceptual metaphor in an analysis of King Lear's opening

 scene, and shows that the scene's figurative language depends upon metaphoric projection from 

the contradiction of two schemata: BALANCE (e.g. money, power, land, love) and CONNECTION

 (e.g. between family members, father and daughters, king and subject, between all humans)

Filial love and family relationships (and therefore balance and connection) for Lear are 

defined within a financial/ accounting framework. Cordelia’s ideas directly oppose this:

she recognises the ‘bond’ and the ‘duties’, but cannot ‘heave’ her ‘heart into (her) 

mouth’. The two frameworks are simply not compatible.

Nature

Beatriz Ródenas Tolosa argues that conflicting concepts of nature between characters, particularly

between Lear, Gloucester and Edgar, cause much of the chaos in the play

Lear – nature as great chain of being

Gloucester- nature and astrology; extended chain where heavens control the earth

Edmund- nature as something animalistic, predatory and almost lustful