King Lear: A Study in Madness The most perfect specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world. Percy Shelley King Lear is in many ways a study in madness. - Questioning the nature of madness is part of the tragedy’s larger1 investigation into what constitutes humanity.

The King becomes demented as a result of - his daughters’ ingratitude, disobedience and callousness2, and - his impotent rage3 and inescapable guilt4;

Gloucester is suicidal in Act IV; and Edgar gives a frightening description of being possessed by devils.

But at the same time Goneril’s and Regan’s descent into predatory ambition is another type of madness, - and Edmund’s Machiavellian, atheistic machinations can also be seen as deranged5.

These characters are driven by a vicious lust: - a lust for cruelty and - a later sexual lust. These materialist characters pursue power as a substitute for love.

Act III, scene 6 is seen by many as a precursor to the Theatre of the Absurd. In this scene a madman (Lear) interacts with - a fool, - a man who is pretending6 to be mad (Edgar), and - another man pretending to be someone else (Kent).

The language of mad Tom’s ranting is taken from Samuel Harsnet’s Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603) – an exposé of fake7 Catholic exorcisms.

These popular theatrical events were apparently spellbinding8, and Shakespeare was obviously aware of9 the power of the language used.

One of the priests mentioned in the book had been at Stratford-upon-Avon grammar school (like Shakespeare).

1 larger – wider, more general 2 callousness – insensitivity, heartlessness, cold-heartedness, indifference 3 rage – fury, intense anger 4 guilt – culpability 5 deranged – mad, crazy, unbalanced 6 to pretend – simulate, act as if 7 fake – fraudulent 8 spellbinding – fascinating, hypnotic 9 to be aware of – be conscious of Harsnet himself read plays as a censor and it is possible that Shakespeare had encountered him in this capacity. From the point-of-view of the villains, all the good characters are foolish10: - Cordelia is foolish for not playing along11 in the love test - Kent is foolish for taking the side of12 one who is in disfavour - Edgar is foolish for being noble and unsuspicious - Albany is foolish for moralizing - The Fool is foolish for speaking the truth

All these characters put abstract values – such as honour and truth – before their short- term gain.

Madness was traditionally seen as a divine visitation; - here it is a purely human phenomenon.

Stage Madness

EXAM QUESTION ALERT: How are attitudes to madness reflected in English Renaissance drama?

Madness is a common theme in Renaissance theatre. For instance, Hieronimo and his wife in The Spanish Tragedy, Bajazeth in Tamburlaine, Ophelia in Hamlet, The King in King Lear, Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian in The Tempest and Ferdinand in The Duchess of Malfi all go mad.13

- to be mad was to not be oneself. It implied anarchic behaviour14 and was associated with regression to childish and animalistic states. - the opposite to ‘mad’ at the time was, more often than not, ‘tame’ 15 (rather than16 ‘sane’17). - so long as one what not oneself, madness could take many forms (as we have seen in Lear.

“Love is merely madness, and... deserves as well a dark horse and a whip as madmen do” Rosalind in As You Like It

Madness – in not being yourself – was akin to acting. - many plays have individuals who pretend to be mad (Titus in Titus Andronicus, the Prince in Hamlet, Edgar in King Lear, Fitzdottrell in The Devil is an Ass.

10 foolish – idiotic, stupid 11 to play along – pretend to cooperate 12 to take the side of (take-took-taken) – defend 13 as well as others in minor plays such as Lucibella in Chettle’s The Tragedy of Hoffman, Cornelia in Webster’s The White Devil, Troubleall in Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair and Sir Giles Overreach in Massinger’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts 14 behaviour – conduct 15 tame – domesticated, docile 16 rather than – as opposed to, instead of 17 sane – lucid, reasonable (opposite of ‘mentally ill’) - a few plays even have entire scenes that take place in madhouses18, such as Middleton’s The Changeling and Dekker’s The Honest Whore (Part 1).

18 madhouse – lunatic asylum Madness was fascinating to audiences of the period - on the one hand it was considered funny – people went to Bedlam Hospital to laugh at the inmates19 - on the other it was terrifying because it could happen to you.

Comedies such as Twelfth Night and The Honest Whore contain poignant20 moments when perfectly sane00 people are wrongfully committed to the madhouse00.

Appearance & Reality

An important theme in King Lear is the difference between appearance and reality.

Lear and Gloucester’s great mistake is that they are taken in by21 appearances and are unable to see what is really happening until it is too late.

However, Shakespeare involves us in the contrast between appearance and reality, too. Initially:  Lear and Gloucester seem to be unbearable old codgers22;  Goneril’s and Regan’s complaints23 about Lear seem reasonable;  Cordelia’s refusal to play her father’s game smacks of24 stubbornness25;  Edgar and Gloucester seem so gullible26 that they deserve27 to be cheated28;  Edmund seems to be an unfairly29 treated illegitimate son (bastards could not inherit unless some special dispensation30 was made for them and had to make their own way31 in a hard world);  Kent is insolent to almost32 all the members of the royal family and his punishment33 seems to be lenient34.

It is only the intensity of Lear’s and Gloucester’s suffering and the full extent of Edmund’s, Goneril’s and Regan’s evil35 which finally reveals the true nature of things to us.

19 inmate – (in this case) patient 20 poignant – emotive 21 to be taken in by – be deceived by, be fooled by, accept erroneously 22 old codger – (colloquial) idiotic/difficult old man 23 complaint – criticism, protest 24 to smack of – have the flavour of, seem like 25 stubbornness – obstinacy, obduracy 26 gullible – credulous, childishly innocent 27 to deserve to be – merit being, should be 28 to cheat – fool, trick, defraud 29 unfairly – unjustly 30 dispensation – exemption, exception 31 to make one’s own way (make-made-made) – advance as a result of one’s own efforts, survive without help 32 almost – nearly, practically 33 punishment – disciplining 34 lenient – clement, moderate, mild 35 evil – immorality, malignancy One aspect of this is that we have to learn to distrust all the characters who have a proficient36 use of language and can use it to their own ends37.

The good characters, especially Lear, Cordelia and Kent, are in one way or another linguistically-challenged38. Lear is impetuous and choleric, Cordelia is unable to express her love for her father adequately and Kent regularly speaks rashly39 when he would do better to remain40 silent.

The same games are played with Gloucester’s suicide attempt. If we watch the play on film we are likely to41 see Edgar’s trick42: - however, such a scene in the theatre would have been acted on a flat stage even if they were really going up to the edge of a cliff. So, it can be argued that the audience is fooled as well as Gloucester.

Shakespeare’s audience would have known the ‘happy ending’ versions of the play; - the fairy-tale elements help us to expect a just and happy ending.

By Act III we see that the king is safe, Gloucester is protected by his good son, Cordelia is coming to the rescue and the forces of evil are beginning to crack43 – there is disunity, duplicity and rivalry, they begin to make mistakes (freeing Gloucester and letting Lear go).

In Act V we see each of the evil characters killed one by one. - Everything is set44 for our just/happy ending.

Then, the worst blow; Cordelia – the most irreproachable character in the play – has been hanged. - No wonder Samuel Johnson could not bear to re-read the final scene because it “violates the natural ideas of justice”.

Edgar disguises himself by stripping naked.

36 proficient – skilful, talented, expert 37 to their own ends – in their own interests 38 linguistically-challenged – unable to use language well 39 rashly – impulsively, bluntly, recklessly 40 to remain – continue to be 41 are likely to – will probably 42 trick – subterfuge, stratagem 43 to crack – fracture 44 to be set – be ready, be prepared Parallax

Shakespeare even enters into the question of parallax (which you will see again when you study Virginia Woolf in the third year).

Oswald is in fact a loyal and faithful servant:  He refuses to let Regan open Goneril’s letter,  He is killed carrying out45 his mistress’s wishes; and  His last thought is to get his killer to deliver Goneril’s letter to Edmund.

We hate him because he is on the wrong side but that is hardly46 his fault as he was serving unblemished47 Goneril when the story opened.

Is Cornwall’s servant who kills his master a better man? For us – yes – but for the Jacobeans that would have been much more ambiguous.

Everyone down to Cornwall’s servant, Gloucester’s old tenant and Oswald is forced to take sides.

The two characters that represent loyalty are Kent and Oswald - Shakespeare shows that loyalty is morally neutral.

Parallax: - Cordelia is initially cold, - Goneril and Reagan initially reasonable, - Edgar is initially gullible00, - Edmund is initially attractive.

There is the ambiguity of a French invasion of England.

From one point of view Gloucester is blinded as a spy in league with an invading foreign power. - this may be extreme for us, but it would have been appropriate for Jacobeans.

45 to carry out – perform, execute 46 hardly – not really 47 unblemished – impeccable, exemplary Echoing & Foreshadowing

Edgar and Edmund have a pretend swordfight when we first see them together and a real duel when we last see them together.

Lear has lost his 100 knights, but Cordelia sends exactly that number in search of48 him (“A century send forth”. IV.iii)

The final scene has Lear surrounded by his (dead) family - a grotesque echo of Act I, Scene 1. - once again Lear is asking Cordelia to speak; and once again she is silent.

H.A. Hargreaves identifies visual contradiction in King Lear: - Kent, in the stocks, reads a letter from Cordelia, anticipating a positive turn in the play’s action. He concludes, “Fortune, good night; Smile once more; turn they wheel.” (II.ii.163-4), and immediately Edgar enters, pursued, planning his disguise as a naked madman (i.e. the wheel continues to turn downwards). - In Act III, Scene iv Kent says to Gloucester “The Gods reward your kindness”: the ‘reward’ is having his eyes gouged out. - At the beginning of Act 4, Edgar congratulates himself on having hit rock bottom, the point where there is nowhere to go but up: then he sees his blinded father. - At IV.v. Lear denounces the wickedness of humanity, surrounded by signs of love and loyalty – the Fool, Kent, Gloucester and Edgar. - Albany cries “The gods defend her!” (V.iii.231) and Lear enters with the dead Cordelia.

It is as though Shakespeare combed the Quatro text for moments when the action confirmed, rather than49 contradicted, the speeches preceding it, and cut those speeches from the Folio revision whenever he could.

We could link this dissonance to the contradicting of the Chorus in Henry V.

In other words the play is full of dramatic irony.

48 in search of – to look for, to try to find 49 rather than – as opposed to, instead of Blindness & Sight

These are constant themes of the play. Goneril tells her father that she holds him “dearer than eyesight”

When Gloucester reads the forged letter he says ironically “I shall not need spectacles” Lear’s last words are “look there”.

Notice that one of the plays many ironies is that Gloucester suggests the idea of blinding to Regan and Cornwall when he says to her: Because I would not see they cruel nails Pluck out his [= Lear’s] poor old eyes; (III.vii. 54-55) Of course, Shakespeare lifts much of his blindness and sight symbolism from Sophocles (Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus).

Need

When Lear says “Reason not the need!” (II.iv.257) he introduces the idea of how a person can be less or more than a beast. - What differentiates us from animals? - What is the essence of being human – unaccommodated50 man?

“Man’s life is cheap as beast’s”

As social animals humans must demonstrate their shared humanity by taking care of51 one another at the most basic level - as the Fool, Poor Tom (Edgar), Kent and Lear share the hovel52 (even wretches53 can help and comfort each other).

However, they must also recognize that love and respect produce further54 obligations, and that trampling55 such obligations is a form of inhumanity. - Lear calls his elder daughters monsters before they shut their doors on him. It is their attempt to strip him of his self-respect that makes them monsters.

50 unaccommodated – naked, possessing no clothes, not provided with any comforts 51 to take care of (take-took-taken) – care for, look after 52 hovel – hut, refuge 53 wretch – unfortunate destitute person 54 further – additional 55 to trample – treat with disdain Inconsistent Time Frame

A weakness of King Lear is the timescale56.

Lear argues with Goneril for the first time at Goneril’s home. He then rides off to Regan’s home and, since she is out, proceeds on to Gloucester’s home. It is here that he sees Kent in the stocks and is humiliated by his elder daughters. While he is out in the storm on the same night, news comes that the French have already landed (III.i.30).

Goneril’s argument with Lear hardly justifies an invasion! - even if it did is there really time for news of it to travel to France and for an invasion to be organized and executed? The French army have already arrived the night Lear becomes homeless and before Gloucester is blinded.

This inconsistency is the result of Shakespeare compacting the story of King Leir - however, it must be said that it does not create problems for theatre audiences.

56 timescale – time required for a sequence of events to occur Language

At the beginning of the play, Lear uses many Latin-based polysyllabic words.

By the end of the play he uses mainly57 monosyllabic Anglo-Saxon words. For instance58 at Act IV, Scene 7, lines 57-75, 80% of words are monosyllabic. Look at Lear’s last words (V.iii.306-311): lines 306-7 and lines 310-11 are entirely made up of monosyllables.

It is mirrored59 by the fact that, by the end of the play, Lear has stopped using the royal “we” and refers to himself as “I”. - he is the cipher left after losing his body politic.

This change also is mirrored by Kent when he goes undercover60. He adopts prose when he takes on his disguise as a servant - he only uses verse when Lear cannot hear him and after Lear has gone mad.

Finally, at the beginning of the play the King uses verse as we would expect from theatrical convention. However, as he slips61 into madness he shifts62 inexplicably between verse and prose.

Edgar uses prose as Tom O’Bedlam but speaks verse to himself!

Goneril and Regan use verse to flatter their father - but prose to plot63 against him.

Notice how the two authority figures at the beginning of the play are vulnerable to language: Despite years of experience of their loyal children’s true character they are able in an instant to be manipulated against them. - In other words they do not filter language looking for motivation but simply accept what they are told as true.

The notion of speaking/dealing plainly64 is repeated throughout the play. - Flattery is a type of wordplay but Lear becomes trapped in the game.

The play seems to obsess about certain words repeating ‘nothing’, ‘nature’, ‘man’, ‘need’, ‘justice’, ‘blindness’ and ‘patience’ again and again.

More importantly, this – the greatest of literary works – can be seen as a study in the inadequacy of language to express the full range of human emotions.

57 mainly – primarily 58 for instance – for example 59 to mirror – reflect 60 to go undercover (go-went-gone) – become clandestine 61 to slip – slide, fall descend 62 to shift – change, alter 63 to plot – conspire 64 plainly – frankly, without artifice or rhetorical skill - Starting with smooth-talking65 Edmund’s convincing rhetorical sleight of hand66, the atmosphere of growing treachery67 and cruelty is the gnomic68 eloquence of folly and madness. - In the scraps of rhyme and garbled proverbs of the Fool, and in the more sustained ravings of Poor Tom (which themselves prefigure Lear’s later mad utterances) we can apprehend truths, but only tentatively. - More and more language inevitably breaks down69 under the pressure of overwhelming70 experience. - When Lear is finally released from his madness, tellingly71 he says, “I know not what to say.” - In the end the play questions the meaning of words by their mere repetition: “Howl, howl, howl!” “No, no, no life”, “Never, never, never, never, never”. - This is the verbal equivalent of banging one’s head against a wall.

In the final lines of the play Albany urges his friends to “speak what we feel” but the play has proved that this is impossible.

In the end, Lear is left with nothing – which is how we all die, in fact.

James Shapiro72 describes the apocalyptic negativity: “The words ‘never’ and ‘nothing’ recur over 30 times, ‘no’ over 120 times, and ‘not’ twice that often. The negativity is reinforced by the 60 or so times the prefix ‘un-’ occurs, as characters are ‘unfriended’, ‘unprized’, ‘unfortunate’, ‘unmannerly’, ‘unnatural’ and ‘unmerciful’.”

65 smooth-taking – persuasive, eloquent 66 sleight of hand – subterfuge 67 treachery – perfidy, betrayal 68 gnomic – expressed in short maxims and aphorisms that are difficult to understand because they are enigmatic or ambiguous 69 to break down (break-broke-broken) – disintegrate, stop functioning 70 overwhelming – irresistible 71 tellingly – significantly 72 1606: The Year of Lear (2015) The Fool

When we are born, we cry that73 we are come74 To this great stage of fools. [IV.vi.182-83]

As we have seen there were two types of fool in Early-Modern England: 1. the simple-minded mentally deficient individual – often seen as an idiot savant (= often somehow in touch with sources of wisdom and insight unavailable to the rational-minded). 2. the court jester – a quick-witted professional comedian. He often behaved more like the master’s familiar friend or a spoilt child than an employee.

Shakespeare, by uniting these two kinds of fool in a single figure, creates a dramatic character of enormous depth and range.

Notice how the male Fool is treated like a favoured child, the son Lear never had - inciting the envious reaction of Goneril and Regan.

Much of what the Fool says is taken from a popular Elizabethan book, known as The Book of Sidrach or The Sapience of Nature. - This book of “wise saws and modern instances” consisted of questions and answers on ‘the reasons of nature’. - Sidrach was supposedly the philosopher to King Boctris of Armenia.

Cordelia only appears at the beginning and the end of the play (in Act I, scene I and in Act V).

The Fool is a major character from Act I, Scene 4 until near the end of Act III, then he disappears. - Many commentators have assumed from this that the same actor played both parts in the original performance of the play. - However, bear in mind that after Act III Scene 6 the Fool has no function and so should disappear: if Lear is mad he can act his own fool and the Fool cannot cheer him up, criticize him or keep him sane00. - The Fool and Cordelia have parallel roles as truth-tellers.

If the Fool is hanged he is the second of his profession to die so in the canon. The Fool in Titus Andronicus is also hanged.

The Fool is one of Cordelia’ doubles: - both are pragmatic truth-tellers - both are unexpectedly loyal - a rapport between them is suggested earl in the play (“Since my young lady’s going into France, sir, the fool has much pined away75.” I.iv.71-2)

73 that – (in this case) because 74 we are come – (in this case) we have arrived 75 to pine away – suffer emotionally because of sb’s absence Shakespeare probably confuses them intentionally (“And my poor fool is hanged”) as part of his metatheatre. - however, ‘Fool’ was a common term of endearment76 in Shakespeare’s day.

Unlike Shakespeare’s other tragic protagonists, Lear has no soliloquies, no moments to reflect privately on his state of mind and on the action of the play. - The Fool provides a means for Lear to use a more intimate and unguarded voice.

The Fool’s function is ultimately77 taken over by ‘Poor Tom’.

Nahum Tate’s rewrite of King Lear eliminated the Fool altogether.

Lear as Psychomachia

At the level of psychomachia both the Fool and Cordelia can be seen as elements of Lear’s conscience and consciousness.

Remember that we have already seen Kent as the personification of ‘Good Counsel’ from the Morality Plays.

To what extent can the whole of King Lear be understood in psychomachian terms as the mental struggle of an old man with loss of faculties and death?

Sigmund Freud remarked, sensibly enough, that King Lear was about the need to renounce authority and make friends with the necessity of dying.

76 term of endearment – affectionate way of referring to sb. 77 ultimately – (false friend) in the final analysis The Importance of Edgar

For some commentators Edgar is a Christ-like figure who, through his self-inflicted and undeserved suffering atones78 for the vices of others.

He inspires virtuous behaviour in others; - Both Lear and Gloucester take pity on him and are moved to show him specific acts of kindness.

He exemplifies and preaches a philosophy of endurance and trust in God/the gods.

Edgar takes on the moral tuition of Gloucester.

Of course, Edgar’s suffering and endurance is precisely the preparation that gives some hope for the future from this new royal line.

Edgar spends most of the play in disguises; first as Poor Tom, then as a peasant to guide his blind father, final as a mysterious knight. - With each of his changes of disguise, Edgar comes closer to the resumption of his true appearance and personality.

His experience as Bedlam beggar, poor peasant and knight could be seen as part of the ‘education of the prince’.

However, Edgar has also been described as the most lethal character in the play: - he kills Oswald, Edmund and Gloucester and he is the immediate cause of Lear’s insanity!

Edmund goes to try to put his father out of his misery; what Gloucester desperately wants. - Edgar denies Gloucester this swift death.

By keeping Gloucester alive, the best Edgar could offer his father is resignation - when he gives him joy, this kills him, completing the process Edmund begun. Edgar wonders79 in the end if he shouldn’t have brought about his father’s death sooner.

Like Arcite and Palamon, the Gloucester boys are almost identical - their names are easily confused - both are resourceful improvisers, shape-shifters, deceivers.

Edgar is as chameleon-like as Richard III and Iago, which is strange company to find him in.

As Poor Tom, Edgar behaves like one of the ‘Abraham Men’ who pretended to have come from Bethlem Hospital near Bishopsgate in London, an institution for the mad.

Thomas Dekker’s pamphlet The Belman of London (1608) includes a description of such fraudsters in its catalogue of criminals and con-tricks.

78 to atone – pay the penalty, make reparations 79 to wonder – ask oneself Such men go ‘halfe naked’, ‘talke frantickly of purpose’, have ‘pinnes stuck in sundrie places’ of their ‘naked flesh’, and go ‘by the name of Poore Tom’, crying out ‘Poore Tom is a colde’ whenever anyone comes near. - Shakespeare’s Poor Tom fits this description exactly, right down to the shivering refrain: ‘Tom’s a-cold’ (III.iv.58, III.iv.83, III.iv.147, III.iv.173, IV.ii.52).

Part of the tragedy of King Lear is not so much that there are fraudsters who pretend to be mad to secure charity, but that society has left little other option.

A Summary of Themes

 The responsibility of the rich for the poor  The essential nature of man  The power of clothing to conceal that essence and to corrupt justice  The wisdom of foolishness and the sanity hidden in madness

King Lear Trivia

 In the 1820s a manager of the Edinburgh Theatre decided to create the sound for the storm in King Lear by having a man push a wheelbarrow full of cannonballs80 over an uneven81 surface82 behind the stage83. All went well until one night the man tripped84, sending cannonballs rolling across the stage in all directions. The actors dived out of the way and the terrified orchestra scrambled85 out of the pit86 as the heavy metal balls came raining down87 on them!  Between 1788 and 1820 performances of King Lear were forbidden88 in England because King George III was apparently mad, and so the play was considered inappropriate.  In 1681 Nahum Tate gave Shakespeare’s play a happy ending (and a romance between Edgar and Cordelia!) and this was the version that was normally performed until the 20th Century.  Although many people think that King Lear is Shakespeare’s most profound play, others simply thought it his worst. For example, both Leo Tolstoy and Henry James hated it.

80 cannonball – metal or stone sphere fired from a cannon 81 uneven – irregular, not flat 82 surface – (in this case) floor 83 stage – platform on which actors perform 84 to trip – stumble, lose your footing, half-fall 85 to scramble out – leave desperately 86 pit – (in this case) area in front of the stage where the musicians sit 87 to rain down – fall violently 88 to forbid (forbid-forbade-forbidden) – prohibit, not permit