King Lear AND THE GODS This page intentionally left blank Lear AND THE GODS
WILLIAM R. ELTON
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY ISBN: 978-0-8131-6005-4 CONTENTS
Acknowledgments VII
Note on the Text IX
Part I I. The Problem 3 II. Renaissance Concepts of Providence 9 III. Sidney's Arcadia: Four Attitudes to Providence 34 IV. From Leir to Lear 63
Part II V. Prisca Theologia: Cordelia and Edgar 75 VI. Pagan Atheism: Goneril and Regan, Edmund 115 VII. Pagan Superstition: Gloucester 147 VIII. Deus Absconditus: Lear 171
Part III IX. Double Plot 267 X. Minor Characters: Kent, Cornwall, Albany, the Fool 284 XI. Irony as Structure 329 XII. Conclusion 335 King Lear Studies: 1967-1987 339 Index 346
v TO WILLIAM RILEY PARKER AND HAROLD REINOEHL WALLEY AND TO THE MEMORY OF FRANK PERCY WILSON
~ J,jE'Y« J.l.OL Ta. OEWlI JJEAEa~J.l.aO', OTa1l ¢PElIaS EAOrh Auras r«paLpE'i. ~U'PEUL'P of: TLV' EArloL KEU8CJJ'P AeL7rojJ.aL ~JI TE TvxaLs OvaTWV Kat E'P EP'YjlaUL AeVUUCJJJI. aAAa 'Yap aAA08ElI ajlEl{3ETaL, J.lETa 0' tUTaTaL Q,lIopaU'JI a;,wJI 7f"OAVrAall11TOS ai.EL.
-EURIPIDES. Hippolytus
Ei. (JEOL TL OpWULJI ai.uxpo'P, OUX fLUlJl OEol. -EURIPIDES, Fragmenta ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
TO THE LATE F. P. WILSON, who first encouraged its publication; to S. E Johnson, who followed years of stimulating discussion with a painstaking reading of the manuscript; and, above all, to Harold R. Walley, who with rare patience and acumen guided its progress, I owe the appearance in print of this study. For various kinds of as sistance I should thank, among many others: Don Cameron Allen, for the loan of materials; J. Leeds Barroll III; my colleagues, Robert E Gleckner and Frederick J. Hoffman; my predecessors, particu larly Robert B. Heilman; and the students in my Shakespeare semi nar at the University of California, Riverside. To the Trustees and Friends of the Huntington Library and to John E. Pomfret, its director, I am grateful for their assistance in the publication of this book. Through almost a decade as a reader I have compounded my indebtedness to the Huntington staff, including Miss Mary Isabel Fry of the Reference Department. That debt has grown to comprise members of the Publications Department, partic ularly Mrs. Nancy C. English, to whom I am obliged for her meticu lous editing of a difficult manuscript. Although her devoted skill has greatly benefited the text, any errors of fact or interpretation which may remain are, needless to say, solely my responsibility. Grants in support of this work have been generously provided by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Huntington Library, and the University of California, Riverside. A summary of one chapter of the study, whose prelimi nary draft was completed in 1957, appeared in Helmut Bonheim, ed., The King Lear Perplex (San Francisco, 1960), pp. 174-176. Since the book's final version gained perspective while I was a Fulbright "lecturer in India, I should like to acknowledge the assistance of Principal E C. Joseph of the C. M. S. College, Kottayam, Kerala, and of Olive I. Reddick, the director of the Fulbright Program, In dia. I am, of course, indebted to the libraries which have facilitated my research. These include, in addition to the Huntington, the Brit ish Museum, the Columbia University Library, the Dr. Williams's Library, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Harvard University
Vll Library, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Union Theological Seminary Library, the University of California libraries at Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Riverside, and the Yale Uni versity Library. As the book was completed several years ago, I have not been able to take into account some relevant material which has appeared since that time. WR.E. University of California, Riverside September 1964
Vlll NOTE ON THE TEXT
IN DOCUMENTATION I have preferred, wherever possible, to cite primary rather than secondary references; to quote rather than merely to paraphrase; and, particularly in view of my divergence from interpretative orthodoxy, to err on the side of abundance. I have normalized i:j and u:v forms and have ex panded contractions. Unless otherwise stated, place of publication of books published in England is London. For convenience I have, unless noted, fol lowed the Muir Arden text for quotations from Lear; the Globe text for other Shakespearean works; and the performance dates' limits for non-Shakespear ean English Renaissance drama given in Annals of English Drama 975-1700 by Alfred Harbage, revised by S. Schoenbaum (London, 1964). The following list includes editions employed and more frequently cited references.
BOOKS Aleman, Mateo. The Rogue: Or the Life of Guzman de Alfarache, tr. James Mabbe (1623), introd. James Fitzmaurice-Kelly. 4 vols. London, 1924. Bacon, Francis. The Works of Francis Bacon, ed. James Spedding et al. 14 vols. London, 1857-74. Bible. [Geneva Version.] London, 1586. Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Mac beth. New York, 1955. Browne, Thomas. The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, ed. Geoffrey Keynes. 6 vols. London, 1928-3 I. Busson, Henri. Le rationalisme dans la litterature franfaise de la Renaissance (1533- 1601 ). Paris, 1957. Calvin, Jean. The Institution of Christian Religion, tr. Thomas Norton. Lon don, 1587. (Referred to in text as Institutes.) Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de. The Ingenious Gentleman, Don Quixote de la Mancha, tr. Peter Motteux, introd. Henry Grattan Doyle. Modern Library. New York, 1950. Chapman, George. The Plays and Poems of George Chapman: The Tragedies, ed. Thomas M. Parrott. London, 1910. ___.The Plays and Poems of George Chapman: The Comedies, ed. Thomas M. Parrott. London, 1914. Curtius, Ernst Robert, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, tr. Willard R. Trask. New York, 1953. Dante. Tutte Ie opere di Dante Alighieri, ed. Edward Moore. Oxford, 1894. Donne, John. The Poems of John Donne, ed. Herbert J. C. Grierson. 2 vols. London, 1953. Erasmus, Desiderius. The Praise of Folly, tr. John Wilson (1668). Ann Arbor, 1958. Fitzherbert, Thomas. The Second Part of a Treatise concerning Policy, and Religion. [Douai?], 1610.
IX Hobbes, Thomas. The English Works of Thomas Hobbes, edt Sir Wilham Molesworth. II vols. London, 1839-45. Hooker, Richard. The Works of ... Richard Hooker . .., edt John Keble. 3 vols. Oxford, 1888. Jonson, Ben. Ben Jonson, edt C. H. Herford and Percy and Evelyn Simpson. II vols. Oxford, 1925-52. The History of King Leir 1605, edt WW Greg. Malone Society Reprints. [London], 1907. ("Corrigenda:' Collections, Malone Society, IV [1956], p. 70.) Marston, John. The Plays of lohn Marston, edt H. Harvey Wood. 3vols. Edin burgh, 1934-39. Massinger, Philip. The Dramatic Works of Massinger and Ford, edt Hartley Coleridge. London, 1863. . Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de. Essays, tr. John Florio. Everyman's Library. 3 vols. London, 1946. Nashe, Thomas. The Works of Thomas Nashe, edt Ronald B. McKerrow; rev. edn. with corrections and supplementary notes edt EE Wilson. 5 vols. Oxford, 1958. Shakespeare, William. The Works of William Shakespeare, edt William George Clark and William Aldis Wright. Globe Edition. London, 1924. ___. King Lear, edt Kenneth Muir. Arden Edition. London, 1952. Sidney, Philip. The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney, edt Albert Feuil lerat. 4 vols. Cambridge, Eng., 1922- 26• Spenser, Edmund. The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, edt J. C. Smith and E. De Selincourt. London, 1924. Tilley, Morris Palmer. A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Six teenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Ann Arbor, 1950. Toumeur, Cyril. The Works of Cyril Tourneur, edt Allardyce Nicoll. London, [1930]. Webster, John. The Complete Works of John Webster, edt E L. Lucas. 4 vols. London, 1927.
PERIODICALS
BHR Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance IEGP lournal of English and Germanic Philology IWCI Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes MLN Modern Language Notes MLR Modern Language Review MP Modern Philology N&Q Notes and Queries SP Studies in Philology SQ Shakespeare Quarterly
x Part I This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER I The Problem
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OST RECENT INTERPRETATIONS of Shakespeare's King Lear have M tended, in various ways, to identify it as a "Christian" play. The aim of this study, however, is not to determine whether it con tains Christian references; rather, it is mainly to examine the validity of the currently widespread view that Lear is an optimistically Christian drama. This belief holds, first, that the protagonist, among other characters, is, consequent to his sufferings, "regenerated;' "re deemed;' or "saved;' often by analogy with the morality-play tradi tion or with Dante's Purgatorio through which he is assumed to have passed on the way to his Paradiso. Second, corresponding to the meaningful suffering of the protagonist, supposedly there is in addi tion an intrinsic teleology, a cosmically derived plan, which some how gives providential significance to the events of the tragedy. Concerning the first point, instances are numerous, ranging from R. W Chambers' attempt to improve on Bradley's "Redemption of King Lear": "If there were no more ... than a tale of redemption through suffering, it would be as unbearable as the Purgatorio would be without the Paradiso. But King Lear is, like the Paradiso, a vast poem on the victory of true love"; "Lear, consoled, ends by teaching patience to Gloucester and to Cordelia~'l Still further, some critics envision not only Christian optimism, but Christ Himself: like G. Wilson Knight, who sees in each Shakespearean tragic hero" a minia ture Christ;'2 J. Dover Wilson remarks, "It is impossible to contem plate the death of Lear without thinking of Calvary...."3 According to Geoffrey L. Bickersteth, Shakespeare "was unconsciously inspired by a story taken ... from Christian mythology;' with Cordelia in the
lR. ~ Chambers, King Lear (Glasgow, 1940), pp. 49, 48; Bradley, p. 228. 2Principles of Shakespearian Production with Especial Reference to the Tragedies (1936), p. 23 1•
3Six Tragedies of Shakespeare: An Introduction for the Plain Man (1929), p. 46.
3 King Lear AND THE GODS part of Christ.' As for Lear, there is no doubt that he has been im proved, or regenerated: "... the 'spire of meaning' in this play:' says John M. Lothian, "is the spiritual history or regeneration of King Lear...."5 To John E Danby, the important point is the learning of patience: "King Lear in fact can be regarded as a study in patience unrewarded although achieved~'6 "Lear:' insists S. L. Bethell, "after being bound upon his fiery wheel in this life, attaining humility and patience, is ... fit for heaven~'7 In this "noblest spiritual utterance since La Divina Commedia;' suggests Edgar I. Fripp, Lear achieves "lowliness, justice, tenderness:' as Gloucester "attains:' in his way, "patience and happy death~'8 Symptomatic of the etat present in Lear studies, Paul N. Siegel's re cent book carries such views even further: "Lear's final conviction that Cordelia is alive might be regarded as the mysterious insight be lieved to be granted a man on the point of death:' In his reconcilia tion with Cordelia It was as if from purgatory he had heard the celestial music and seen the angelic radiance that he was at last about to attain, a vision of what he would experience after death.... This miracle is the redemption of Lear for heaven, a redemption analogous to the redemption of mankind, for which the Son of God had come down to earth. The analogy between Cordelia and Christ, who redeemed human nature from the curse brought on it by Adam and Eve, is made unmistakable, although not crudely ex plicit.... Cordelia's ignominious death completes the analogy between her and Christ.... The "brand of heaven" ... in releasing their [Cor delia's and Lear's] souls from the prison of their bodies, enabled them to become reunited in eternal bliss. 9
4The Golden World of 'King Lear; Annual Shakespeare Lecture of the British Acad emy, XXXII (1946), 26. 5King Lear, a Tragic Reading of Life (Toronto, 1949), p. 27. 6Poets on Fortune's Hill: Studies in Sidney, Shakespeare, Beaumont & Fletcher (1952), pp. 105, 108-127, containing essay reprinted from "'King Lear' and Christian Patience;' Cambridge Journal, I (1948), 3°5-32°; see also his Shakespeare's Doctrine of Nature: A Study of King Lear (1949); King Lear has the outline of a cross, he discloses in a later lecture, "The 'Major' Tragedies;' at the Shakespeare Institute, Summer 1956, summary in Shakespeare Newsletter, VI (1956), 33. 7"Shakespeare's Imagery: The Diabolic Images in Othello;' Shakespeare Survey $, ed. Allardyce Nicoll (Cambridge, Eng., 1952), p. 78; see also his Shakespeare & the Popular Drttmatic Tradition (1944), pp. 52-61 and passim. 8Shakespeare: Man and Artist (1938), 11,655-657. 9Shakespearean Tragedy and the Elizabethan Compromise (New York, 1957), pp. 185-186; see also his "Adversity and the Miracle of Love in King Lear;' SQ, VI (1955), 31 5-336. 4