King Lear Read online

  Edgar I nothing am. (2.3.21)

  In the same way the symbolic overtops the conventionally real when, in the final act, Edgar issues his challenge to Edmund. One is not to belabor the improbability of Edmund’s failure to recognize his brother, though, in point of fact, the failure is itself symbolic: the villain is indeed beguiled, and not because the plot demands this but because of his own willful behavior. But what is central to the scene is the intimation one hears, in the blast of the trumpet that announces the combat, of that final trump that vindicates the right and summons the perpetrator of wrong to the Judgment. When—another illustration—Edgar, opposing Oswald, assumes the character of a rustic, the clownish dialect he speaks is, realistically, absurd: what is its occasion ? Symbolically, however, it is deeply congruous. The power of truth is attested to, however ludicrous its aspect, and the frailty which is falsehood exposed, in this meeting of the ragged fellow, whose West Country accent gives him out to be a bumpkin, but who intrinsically merits and possesses all honors, and the gilded courtier, whose extrinsic show and sophistication betoken all honors and are as paste and cover to none.

  The Prince of Darkness is a gentleman. (3.4.146)

  In Edgar’s vanquishing of Oswald, which is the triumph of the lowly and the unprepossessing over the world of robes and furred gowns, Lear’s great social speeches are enacted and answered.

  A similar intention, to effect on stage a symbolic tableau, dictates the grouping of the protagonists at the end of the play. All are there in the resolution, occupying, I think, the same positions they assumed at first, and not least the wicked sisters, whose dead bodies are brought on, no doubt to exemplify this judgment of the heavens, but more, to direct the attention of the audience back and back, over all the dreadful ground that has been traced, to the opening scene. In their beginning is their ending. Perhaps the great wheel of the play, now come full circle, is impelled in its progress by something more than mechanical law.

  What this other law may be is the central question Shakespeare poses and endeavors to answer. Lear, as is fitting, is made to enunciate it: “Who is it that can tell me who I am?” (1.4.236) But the question is not peculiar to Lear but is implicit in the utterance and conduct of all those who inhabit the darkness with him. Kent as Caius is interrogated by the King:What art thou?

  A man, sir. (10-11)

  But what is it, to be a man? What is man to profess? To what law are his services bound? Gloucester interrogates Edgar: “Now, good sir, what are you?” and is answered:A most poor man, made tame to fortune’s blows,

  Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows,

  Am pregnant to good pity. (4.6.224-25)

  Cornwall, whose disposition will not be rubbed or stopped, does not manifest that pity. It is ascendant, though tardily, in Gloucester, who, if he dies for it, must relieve his master. Why is that? And why had Kent rather break his own heart than the King’s? How does one construe that fitness to which Albany appeals, in declining to let his hands obey his blood; or that pleasure, a more intriguing word, which inclines the Old Man to succor the blinded Gloucester, “Come on’t what will”? What point inheres in Albany’s characterization of Oswald, as Oswald reports it:he called me sot,

  And told me I had turned the wrong side out; (4.2.8-9)

  and in what manner does it comment on the Captain’s decision to collaborate in the killing of the King and Cordelia:If it be man’s work, I’ll do it. (5.3.40)

  There ought here to ensue a brief though perceptible silence, in token of the irony and expectation with which these laconic words are charged. The dramatist is bidding us essay a definition of the nature of man’s work and, concomitantly, of the nature of man. Edmund, with his customary coldbloodedness, addresses himself to the task:men

  Are as the time is. (31-32)

  Kent speaks to it, describing Oswald:

  A tailor made thee. (2.2.55-56)

  So in whimsical ways does the Fool, begging pardon of Goneril:Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint stool; (3.6.51)

  and also the King, whose confusion is at once real and assumed:Your name, fair gentlewoman? (1.4.242)

  and, in sterner ways, the Servant, drawing his sword against Cornwall:Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of anger. (3.7.79-80)

  To divine the way in which these lines reticulate is to resolve at least a corner of the mystery which is the play.

  —RUSSELL FRASER

  University of Michigan

  [DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  Lear, King of Britain

  King of France

  Duke of Burgundy

  Duke of Cornwall, husband to Regan

  Duke of Albany, husband to Goneril

  Earl of Kent

  Earl of Gloucester

  Edgar, son to Gloucester

  Edmund, bastard son to Gloucester

  Curan, a courtier

  Oswald, steward to Goneril

  Old Man, tenant to Gloucester Doctor

  Lear’s Fool

  A Captain, subordinate to Edmund Gentlemen, attending on Cordelia

  A Herald

  Servants to Cornwall

  Goneril

  Regan } daughters to Lear

  Cordelia

  Knights attending on Lear, Officers, Messengers, Soldiers, Attendants

  Scene: Britain]

  The Tragedy of King Lear

  ACT 1

  Scene 1. [King Lear’s palace.]

  Enter Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund.

  Kent I thought the King had more affected01 the Duke of Albany° than Cornwall.

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

  Kent. Is not this your son, my lord?

  Gloucester. His breeding,° sir, hath been at my charge. I have so often blushed to acknowledge him that now I am brazed° to’t.

  Kent. I cannot conceive° you.

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

  1 The degree sign (°) indicates a footnote, which is keyed to the text by line number. Text references are printed in boldface type; the annotation follows in roman type. 1.1.1 affected loved

  2 Albany Albanacte, whose domain extended “from the river Humber to the point of Caithness” (Holinshed)

  5-7 equalities... moiety i.e., shares are so balanced against one another that careful examination by neither can make him wish the other’s portion

  9 breeding upbringing

  11 brazed made brazen, hardened

  12 conceive understand (pun follows)

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

  Gloucester. But I have a son, sir, by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account:° though this knave° came something saucily° to the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair, there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson° must be acknowledged. Do you know this noble gentleman, Edmund?

  Edmund No, my lord.

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

  Edmund My services to your lordship.

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

  Edmund. Sir, I shall study deserving.

  Gloucester. He hath been out° nine years, and away he shall again. The King is coming.Sound a sennet. ° Enter one bearing a coronet, ° then King Lear, then the Dukes of Cornwall and Albany, next Goneril, Regan, Cordelia, and Attendants.

  Lear. Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.

  Gloucester. I shall, my lord. Exit [with Edmund].

  Lear. Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.°Give me the map there. Know that we have divided

  In three our kingdom; and ‘tis our fast° intentr />
  To shake all cares and business from our age,

  Conferring them on younger strengths, while we17 issue result (child)

  18 proper handsome

  21 account estimation

  21 lame fellow (without disapproval)

  22 saucily (1) insolently (2) lasciviously

  24 whoreson fellow (lit, son of a whore)

  31 sue entreat

  33 out away, abroad

  34 s.d. sennet set of notes played on a trumpet, signalizing the entrance or departure of a procession

  34 s.d. coronet small crown, intended for Cordelia

  38 darker purpose hidden intention

  40 fast fixed

  Unburthened crawl toward death. Our son of

  Cornwall,

  And you our no less loving son of Albany,

  We have this hour a constant will to publish°

  Our daughters’ several° dowers, that future strife

  May be prevented° now. The Princes, France and

  Burgundy,

  Great rivals in our youngest daughter’s love,

  Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,

  And here are to be answered. Tell me, my daughters

  (Since now we will divest us both of rule,

  Interest° of territory, cares of state),

  Which of you shall we say doth love us most,

  That we our largest bounty may extend

  Where nature doth with merit challenge.° Goneril,

  Our eldest-born, speak first.

  Goneril. Sir, I love you more than word can wield° the matter;Dearer than eyesight, space° and liberty;

  Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;

  No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor;

  As much as child e‘er loved, or father found;

  A love that makes breath° poor, and speech

  unable:°

  Beyond all manner of so much° I love you.

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

  Lear. Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, With shadowy forests, and with champains riched,°With plenteous rivers, and wide-skirted meads,°

  We make thee lady. To thine and Albany’s issues°

  Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,45 constant will to publish fixed intention to proclaim

  46 several separate

  47 prevented forestalled

  52 Interest legal right

  55 nature ... challenge i.e., natural affection contends with desert for (or lays claim to) bounty

  57 wield handle

  58 space scope

  62 breath language

  62 unable impotent

  63 Beyond ... much beyond all these comparisons

  66 champains riched enriched plains

  67 wide-skirted meads extensive grass-lands

  68 issuesdescendants

  69 perpetual in perpetuity

  Our dearest Regan, wife of Cornwall? Speak.

  Regan. I am made of that self mettle° as my sister, And prize me at her worth.° In my true heartI find she names my very deed of love;°

  Only she comes too short, that° I profess

  Myself an enemy to all other joys

  Which the most precious square of sense

  professes,°

  And find I am alone felicitate°

  In your dear Highness’ love.

  Cordelia. [Aside] Then poor Cordelia!And yet not so, since I am sure my love’s More ponderous° than my tongue.

  Lear. To thee and thine hereditary everRemain this ample third of our fair kingdom,

  No less in space, validity,° and pleasure

  Than that conferred on Goneril. Now, our joy,

  Although our last and least;° to whose young love

  The vines of France and milk° of Burgundy

  Strive to be interest;° what can you say to draw

  A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.

  Cordelia. Nothing, my lord.

  Lear. Nothing?

  Cordelia. Nothing.

  Lear. Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.

  Cordelia. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heaveMy heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty According to my bond,° no more nor less.

  Lear. How, how, Cordelia? Mend your speech a little, Lest you may mar your fortunes.

  71 self mettle same material or temperament

  72 prize ... worth value me the same (imperative)

  73 my ... love what my love really is (a legalism)

  74 that in that

  76 Which ... professes which the choicest estimate of sense avows

  77 felicitate made happy 80 ponderous weighty

  83 validity value

  85 least youngest, smallest

  86 milk i.e. pastures

  87 interest closely connected, as interested parties

  95 bond i.e., filial obligation

  Cordelia. Good my lord, You have begot me, bred me, loved me. IReturn those duties back as are right fit,°

  Obey you, love you, and most honor you.

  Why have my sisters husbands, if they say

  They love you all? Haply,° when I shall wed,

  That lord whose hand must take my plight° shall

  carry

  Half my love with him, half my care and duty.

  Sure I shall never marry like my sisters,

  To love my father all.

  Lear. But goes thy heart with this?

  Cordelia. Ay, my good lord.

  Lear. So young, and so untender?

  Cordelia So young, my lord, and true.

  Lear. Let it be so, thy truth then be thy dower!For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,

  The mysteries of Hecate° and the night,

  By all the operation of the orbs°

  From whom we do exist and cease to be,

  Here I disclaim all my paternal care,

  Propinquity and property of blood,°

  And as a stranger to my heart and me

  Hold thee from this for ever. The barbarous

  Scythian,°

  Or he that makes his generation messes°

  To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom

  Be as well neighbored, pitied, and relieved,

  As thou my sometime° daughter.

  Kent. Good my liege—

  Lear. Peace, Kent!99 Return ... fit i.e., am correspondingly dutiful

  102 Haply perhaps

  103 plight troth plight

  112 mysterles of Hecate secret rites of Hecate (goddess of the infernal world, and of witchcraft)

  113 operation of the orbs astrological influence

  116 Propinquity and property of blood relationship and common blood

  118 Scythlan (type of the savage)

  119 makes his generation messes eats his own offspring

  122 sometime former

  Come not between the Dragon° and his wrath.

  I loved her most, and thought to set my rest°

  On her kind nursery.° Hence and avoid my sight!

  So be my grave my peace, as here I give

  Her father’s heart from her! Call France. Who stirs?

  Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,

  With my two daughters’ dowers digest° the third;

  Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.°

  I do invest you jointly with my power,

  Pre-eminence, and all the large effects

  That troop with majesty. Ourself,° by monthly

  course,

  With reservation° of an hundred knights,

  By you to be sustained, shall our abode

  Make with you by due turn. Only we shall retain

  The name, and all th’ addition° to a king. The sway,

  Revènue, execution of the rest,

  Beloved sons, be yours; which to confirm,

  This coronet° part between you.

  Kent. Royal Lear,Whom I have ever honored as my king, Loved as
my father, as my master followed, As my great patron thought on in my prayers—

  Lear. The bow is bent and drawn; make from the shaft.°

  Kent. Let it fall° rather, though the fork° invadeThe region of my heart. Be Kent unmannerly

  When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old

  man?

  Think‘st thou that duty shall have dread to speak

  124 Dragon (1) heraldic device of Britain (2) emblem of ferocity

  125 set my rest (1) stake my all (a term from the card game of primero) (2) find my test