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Home , Bladud, Cymbeline, Goneril, Gorboduc, King Leir, Regan (King Lear)

The Legend

From 's Leir to Shakespeare's and beyond

PROFESSOR SHIRLEY KOSSICK Emeritus Professor of English Literature Though the legend of Leir cannot compete in influence University of South Africa with the vast output of writings indebted to Arthurian legend, it too has engendered an uninterrupted line of lit- he legendary Leir (or King Lear as we know him erary treatments. This spans the period from Geoffrey, today) first appeared in literature in a work by throughWace and Layamontothe Elizabethans (including T Geoffrey,Bishopof Monmouth, who flourished in the chronicler Holinshed) and Augustans, right down to the first half of the twelfth century, dying in 1155. His Latin the present. This most important link in this unbroken Historia Regum Britanniae (c.1138) claims to chronicle the chain of transmission is (died c.1580) kings who lived in Britain fromthe time of Brutus. This fa- who compiled The chronicles of England, Scotland and bled founder of the British race was the progenitor of Ireland (1577). This work, together with the Chronicles , father of Leir,, and many (1542) of Edward Hall (1499-1547), became a valuable others. The most notable of these in terms of sustained source for Shakespeare. literary influence is Arthur whose legend continues to flourish, spawning countless books, heroic and romantic Contemporary treatments dramas, children's stories and film treatments (including The persistent attraction of the Leir story, and each new one - - which has onlyjust been released). generation's fascination with it, is attested to not only by The kings of Britain regular - often experimental - productions of Shakespeare's King Lear both in English and translation, Geoffrey's History of the kings of Britain stretches upto but by numerous treatments of the theme in our own day. the death of Cadwallader in 689 and constitutes the first The contemporary British playwright, Edward Bond, for written account of what later scholars were to call the one, produced his own highly individual version - entitled `'. Despite its questionable status as his- simply Lear - in 1971, while the Japanese director Akira tory, this body of material - part myth, part legend, part Kurosawa released a stylised cinematic representation of history and part perhaps pure invention - has proved a the theme in 1986. Entitled Ran - which means chaos - source of inspiration for a surprisinglylarge number of wri- Kurosawa's film demonstrates the exceptionally pliable ters fromthe twelfththroughto the twenty-firstcentury. nature ofthe Lear tale by adaptingitto a Samuraicontext.

Above: Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's stylised cinematic representation (1986) ofthe Lear tale is entitled Ran and tells the storyin a Samurai context Above left: The tense opening scene of Peter Brook's filmKing Lear (1971) in which the scenes of violence are savagely treated Left:The Russian film directed by Grigori Kozintsev (1971) has over- tones ofcommunism woveninto the tale of King Lear

Kaapse Bibl., Nov/Des 2004 11 chronicle history of , and his three daughters, Gonorill, Ragan and Cordella. Geoffrey himself must intuitively have felt the dramatic potential of the material, for he gives considerable space to Leir's history (over six close-printed pages in modern type), and dwells at somelength on Leir'ssuffering. Adding further vitality to the account are passages of direct speech which reveal inklings of conscious character delineation. This is especially true of Leir's lament for past glory as he makes the crossing from England to Gallia to seek helpfrom the daughter he has so arbitrarily rejected.

`O you Fates', he cries, Another example of the adaptability `why did you ever raise me up to happiness of the story is acclaimed novelist Jane only to snatch it away from me again? Smiley's use of it in her novel, A thou- It is even more miserable to sit thinking sand acres (1992). This best-selling of past success than to bear the work garnered numerous honours, including the Pulitzer Prize and the burden of subsequent failure.' (Translation by LewisThorpe,Part 2, ii.) American National Book Critics' Circle Award. Set in modern-day Iowa, A Order of events thousand acres centres on Larry Cook It may be useful to pause for a moment here to outline the who suddenly decides to hand his farm order of events as told by Geoffrey, since, as I say, this ver- over to his three daughters. While the sion remained substantially unchanged until Shakespeare two older women and their husbands reshaped the materialinto what is surely one of English lit- are startled by this decision, they see erature's greatest achievements. The old folk-tale of the no reason to criticise the idea. The king with three daughters who demanded to know how youngest daughter, Caroline, on the much each loved him is common to many cultures. In this other hand, questions the wisdom of early fable the first daughter compares her love to honey, her father'simpulse and is cut out of the the second to sugar and the third to salt. The foolish king is arrangement. dissatisfiedwiththis third daughter'sresponse andmarries Top: The FortuneTheatre was built in This plot outline indicates clearly her offto a poor passer-by. In some versions he recognises 1600,oneyearlaterthantheGlobe, Smiley's debt to Shakespeare's King his mistake when he is presented with a dish prepared and burnt down in1621 Lear, buttheworkingoutofthis Midwes- without salt. As he tastes the flavourless food he realises tern family tragedy is thoroughly con- Above: The GlobeTheatre at which the significance of whathisyoungestdaughter has said and most of Shakespeare's plays were temporary and convincing. The more comes belatedly to apprehend the value of her declara- performed although he was also closely one studies the text, the more tion. associated with the Swan and the one recognises the freshness and Geoffrey of Monmouth attributes the incident to Leir - Rose theatres subtlety of the way in which Smiley han- sixth king after Brutus - who reigned in the eighth century dles parallels between her modern before Christ. When Leir had been king for 60 years, reworking of a venerable legend and Geoffrey tells us (though Holinshed says 40 years), he Shakespeare's interpretation. (Unfortunately the 1997 decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters film adaptation of , directed by Joselyn and to marry themto nobles capable of sharinginthe rule Moorhouse, is a much cruder affair and deteriorates into of the kingdom. Meaning to give the finest share to the a rather weak vehicle for feminist polemic.) daughter who loves him the most, Leir questions first What is of note is the undiminished power of the original Gonorilla, then Ragau, who both answer him tale which Smiley so ably demonstrates. Geoffrey himself extravagantly.Well satisfied, the credulous Leir agrees to gives anaccountofthe Leirlegendthatisso simple, forceful give each a third of his kingdom and to marry them with all and clear that the details of the action have survived sub- due pomp to the men of their choice. His third and stantially unchanged. When changes have been made favourite daughter,Cordeilla, is not capable of the false- these have been deliberately incorporated - notably by hoods perpetrated by her sisters, and when her turn Shakespeare - with specific dramatic effects in mind. But comes to say how much she loves Leir, she answers simply the version of the legend inherited by succeeding genera- that she loves him just as much as is due to him as her tions of English writers was in all salient particulars iden- father. Infuriated at this moderate reply Leir rejects tical to Geoffrey of Monmouth's. This does not mean, of Cordeilla, sending her off without ceremony or dowry to course, that all treatments have been equally successful. marry Aganippus of Gallia. The other daughters are mar- An early dramatisation, for instance, which closely fol- ried to the dukes Maglaurus and Henwinus. Leir divides lowed the outline given by Geoffrey of Monmouth has the kingdomin two, giving one halfto his children to share none of Shakespeare's keen theatrical sense nor his ear and retaining the rule of the other half, with the promise for language. It was produced in 1594 and published in that after his death Gonorilla and Regau will inherit the 1605 under the rather cumbersome title, The true entire kingdom.

Cape Libr.,Nov/Dec 2004 12 After a period of peace the two dukes rise up against In desperation Leir now turns to Leir and usurphis half of the kingdom, but Maglaurus Cordoille, and it is here that the formulaic agrees to maintain Leir together with a retinue of 14 0 refrain is again taken upwith dramatic knights. After two years, however,Gonorilla objects to effect. When Cordoille hears of her father's the quarrels between her own and her father'sretainers plight she gives orders to equipthe old king andcommandstheoldkingtoreducehisretinuetothirty. withrich clothes, food andlodgings, and she Furious at this insult, Leir appeals to Henwinus who promises him hawks, hounds, horses and a receives him honourably. Before a year has passed, retinue of forty knights, echoing the formu- though, more quarrels break out and Regau orders Leir laicrefrain (11.3560-3). Throughthisrefrain, to dismiss all but five of his men. Leir returns to Gonorilla then, various episodes of the long narrative who is more adamant than before, insisting that he needs are organically linked and the main point of contention is no more than one attendant. At this Leir sets out for the poetically highlighted. For the retinue symbolises not only Continent to appeal to his youngest daughter who sends Leir's dignity as former king, but his daughters' gratitude gold and silver to her father. Only when he has recovered (orinthis case ingratitude) for hisgenerosity.The handling from his journey and been suitably dressed and equipped of repeated formulas here and elsewhere in The Brut with a retinue of forty armed knights is he received by represents a poetic advance on Old English formulaic Aganippus and Cordeilla who immediately raise an army usage, and indicates a poet possessing a creative under- to restore his kingdom to Leir. standing of his material and form. The story as Geoffrey of Monmouth tells it has a dis- Though the story of Leir as told by Layamon does not tinctly moral flavour: the forces of evil are ousted and achieve the dramatic intensityof Shakespeare'srendering, those of good in the persons of Leir and Cordeilla are it does have moments of concentrated emotion, as in the vindicated. Leir is re-installed as king, ruling for three passage where Leir recognises the contrast between his years before his death. When Aganippus also dies, former riches and present bereftness (11.3415/22). Not Cordeilla becomesqueenof Britain andrulesfor fiveyears long ago, not even two years ago, Leir was rich and hon- until her nephews rise up against her and seize the throne. oured, now he sits `bare of possessions'and, like the Old The country is thrown into civil strife; Cordeilla, impri- English Wanderer before him, he contemplates the transi- soned after a series of battles, loses heart and kills herself. ence of earthly glory. His expression of sorrow is a very However, this eventual conclusion does not alter the fact faint prefiguring indeed of the`unaccommodated' Lear of that for eight years evil has been subdued and good has Shakespeare, nor does it have anything like the cosmic dominated. Layamon'sThe Brut The nexttime we encounter the Leir story in England is in Layamon's The Brut, probably the most important work in the early Middle English period. Dating from about 1205, The Brut is the first rendering in English of `the matter of Britain', endorsing the inherent literary quality of this `matter' by rendering it in verse. Though Layamon covers in expanded form the same ground as Geoffrey of Monmouth, his chief source was Wace's French which was in turn a verse translation of Geoffrey's History of the kings of Britain. Here the story of Leir and his daughters is unified by a recurring counterpoint of lies and truth, but more importantly by repeated formu- laic references of Leir's retinue. These repetitions work in awaynotdissimilar tothatoftheincrementalrefrainin cer- tain ballads. It is through the`refrain', in fact, that the waning of Leir's fortunes is reflected. The for- mula is repeated (11.3272- 6) when Layamon Above: An artist's describes how Leir visited Scotland where he was impression of David received `with much fairness'and given`allthat him Garrick in the storm behoved'. Soon, however,Gornoille objects tothis scene of King Lear extravagance, demanding that his retinue be cut; (1743) in her scornful recital of Leir's privileges the for- mula now takes on a note of bitter resentment. Left: Donald Wolfit as is no less resentful, and quickly suggests King Lear in 1942 that Leir's diminished retinue of thirty knights be cut to ten, while Cornwall considers five sufficient. Leir woefully returns to Gornoille with only five knights, but after four days she swears that one knight should be adequate.

% Kaapse Bibl., Nov/Des 2004 13 Right: John Gielgud as King Lear Holinshed's Chronicles and Alan Badel as the , Shakespeare may or may not have seen the theatrical Royal ShakespeareTheatre, adaptation staged in1594 and published in1605. This play Stratford-upon-Avon1950 was probably based on Holinshed's Chronicles which recount the story in quick-moving, matter-of-fact prose, Below: Paul Scofield as King differing in detail very slightly from Geoffrey of Lear, AldwychTheatre1962 Monmouth. He glosses over the matter of Leir's dimin- ishing retinue, however, and ends with the reinstatement of Leir two years before his death. The succession of Cordeilla follows, and, as in Geoffrey's History,shereigns for fiveyearsuntilsheisdeposedby Marganand Cunedag, sons of Gonorilla and Regan. These nephews take her prisoner and, in Holinshed's words,`laid hir fast in ward, wherewith she took such girefe, being a woman of manlie courage, and despairing to recoverlibertie, there she slue herself...' None of the versions so far has revealed precisely how the deposed queen dies, but all are agreed that she com- resonance of Lear's suffering, but it mits suicide. In Spenser'sportrayal - Book II of The Faerie does evoke a sense of loss which Queene published in 1590 - he tells us that she died by extends beyond the immediate hanging, but he too retains the idea of suicide:`Tillwearie context to express a universal mut- of that wretched life, her selfe she hong.' It is a detail that ability. Shakespeare appropriates, but he converts it to murder, Like Geoffrey of Monmouth, making itthe occasion not only ofthe mosttragic moment Layamon uses direct speech to in the play, but of the elderly Lear's amazing act of manly highlight the drama of specific revenge:`Ikilled the slavethat was a-hanging thee.' (V, iii.) moments. His skill with this device is evident again in the Spenser keeps essentially to the same storyline as battle scenes where it is used to convey the conflicting Geoffrey and Layamon, though, like Holinshed, he also emotions experienced in war. The urge to conquer, the omits details of Leir'srepeatedly reduced entourage. The desire for revenge, the fear, courage and exultation of surprising thing is that this poet, more usually associated battle are all expressed through the speeches of leaders with discursiveness, notto say verbosity, manages to con- and their men in the midst of action. On occasion, too, densethewholetrainofeventsinto sixhighlyconcentrated Layamon communicates emotion through his sensitive stanzas without losing any of the main narrative elements. descriptions of its outward or physical manifestations. A poetic achievement indeed, and one that probably When Cordoille hears of her father's plight, for instance, impressed Shakespeare since it is from Spenser that he her deepshock is patent in her physical reaction (11.3526- borrowed not only the manner of 's death, but 9). Sheisstunnedinto complete stillness, andastheimport also the musical form of her name, so much more attrac- of the news is borne in on her she turns as red (with both tive than any of the forms used by the chroniclers. anger and shame one can assume) `as if she had taken a draught of wine'. The tacit dismay and horror suggested Shakespeare's interpretation here resemble in spirit if not in expression Cordelia's In all the treatments of the material that preceded appalled outburst atthe news of her sisters'cruelty: Shakespeare's play, the story ends happily with Lear receiving Cordelia's helpto win back his throne. The gen- Mine enemy's dog, eral shape of the tale, as I've already suggested, is that of Though he had bit me, should have stood that night medieval morality with evil being punished and good Against my fire. And wastthou fain, poor father, eventually rewarded. This is the outline to which the play- Tohovel thee with swine and rogues forlorn, wright NahumTate (1652-1715) reverted in his History of In short and musty straw: Alack, alack, King Lear whichwas firstproducedin1681andwhichkept Shakespeare's King Lear off the stage for a hundred years. `Tis wonder thatthylife and wits, at once Tate re-instates the morality contours of the narrative, Had not concluded all. ending his play with the marriage of Cordelia and Edgar. (IV,vii.) Though this might strike a modern audience as ludicrous, the`King Lear with the happy ending' obviously had more Layamon, of course, never achieves the poetic heights appeal for the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries exemplified in this passage and in King Lear as a whole. than the bitter realities of Shakespeare's rendering. Even What does inform his treatment of Leir, however - and it the great (1709-1784) defended it on the also informs Geoffrey of Monmouth's briefer handling of grounds thatthe originalis too painful. the narrative - is a conscious awareness of its literary Consideration of additions and alterations to the potential and a felt endeavour to render it as vividly and sources serves to increase one's appreciation of effectively as possible. Shakespeare's dramatic mastery. In most of the sources, for example, Leir's fortunes are seen to diminish gradually

Cape Libr.,Nov/Dec 2004 14 after his division of the kingdom, usually over a period of round. Poeticjustice would, infact, havetri- more than two years. This is rejected by Shakespeare umphed and dramatic credibility still been who gains immeasurably in immediacy and impact by preserved had Shakespeare chosen to end showing and Regan intent on destroying Lear the King Lear with the reconciliation scene. The very instant they are left alone after his banishment of wicked have been punished by the time Cordelia. We are still in the first scene of the first act of Edgar fatally wounds his scheming brother, the play when the two agree to `hit together', for, as and does try at the eleventh hour Goneril says,`if our father carry authority with such dispo- to make some weak amends for the suf- sitions as he bears, this last surrender of his will but offend feringhe hashelpedto cause. Buthis change us'.(I,i.) of heart comes too late to save Cordelia. Just as Lear is blind to the malign forces which his banish- Quite clearly this was a deliberate decision on ment of Cordelia both precipitates and exemplifies, so in Shakespeare's part which completely alters the shape of Shakespeare's sub-plot, based on a story in Sir Philip the play from morality to profoundest tragedy. Sidney's Arcadia (Book II,Ch.10,1590),Gloucester is blind Though Dryden claimed that`the audience cannot for- to the perversity of Edmund. Like Lear, he fails in trust of bear laughing when the actors are to die; it is the most his virtuous child, and like him he suffers out of all propor- comic part ofthe whole play', it would take an audience of tion to the magnitude of his error: `More sinned against the most inveterate sadists to find anything risible in the than sinning.' (III,ii.) In every respect the sub-plot serves awesome entrance of Lear bearing the dead body of as an awfuldescanttothe centralthemes, adding to rather Cordelia. Most of us are deeply shocked by the sight, no than diminishing the unity of the whole. In another impor- matter how familiar we may be withthe play. The whole of tant sense, too, the sub-plot is an inspired addition, for it the final scene, in fact, is almosttoo painful to read, much heightens the tragedy by suggesting the hideous fate that less to see enacted. Why then did Shakespeare diverge overtakes not just Lear, but the country as a whole, once from his sources in so harrowing a manner, one may ask. what should be the powers of justice fallinto the hands of The answer,I think, must be an epistemological one, for the unscrupulous. Seen alone, the cruelty meted out to in the dramatisation of this ending to the story, Lear could be taken as a vile but isolated aberration; seen Shakespeare soundsthefinaldeath-knellfor along-estab- alongside the vicious treatment of another defenceless old lished way of understanding experience. In life, the play man, thatcrueltybecomes emblematicof an all-pervading seems to contend, evil is not always punished nor virtue corruption within the state. always rewarded, and man is often left standing helplessly This corruption has its roots, ironically enough, in Lear by. Thisis notto suggestthat Shakespeare denies a Divine himself, for in his unthinking and egocentric rejection of purpose in human affairs, but simply thatthe human mind Cordelia he transgresses against nature itself. Both in lacks the capacity to fathom such a purpose. Geoffrey of Monmouth's account and in Holinshed, only The whole philosophical stance of the tale is shifted in glancing reference is made to the idea that Cordelia is Shakespeare's rendering, which accounts for the domi- Lear's favourite child. Shakespeare chooses to lay parti- nantly interrogative style of the closing passages. It is cular emphasis on this preference for Cordelia - `I loved from this philosophical standpoint that we can unequivo- her most',Lear says (I,i) - so that in servering his bond cally dismiss NahumTate's reading for what it really is: no with her Lear falls, as Gloucester eloquently describes it, more than a sentimental evasion, a retrogressionto moral `from bias of nature'. (I,ii.) In deliberately and irrationally certainties that Shakespeare insists do not and cannot acting against his deepest feelings and alienating himself exist. When Lear was reunited with Cordelia he looked from the daughter on whose`kind nursery' he had hoped forward - ironically - to their taking upon themselves`the to `set his rest' (I,i), Lear dislocates his very identity. This mystery of things'. In one horrific stroke that mystery has realisation fleetingly dawns on him during his first quarrel now burst in on Lear; instead of being `God's spy'as he'd with Goneril: envisaged, though, he is overwhelmed by uncompre- hending grief. The conception could hardly be further Omostsmallfault, from Geoffrey of Monmouth's; what Shakespeare How ugly didst thouin Cordelia show! achieves is not merely the re-telling of an old tale, butthe Which, like an engine, wrenched my frame of nature questioning of an entire moral order. This is dramatically From the fixed place... (I, iv.) epitomised in Lear's terrible cry, Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, Lear's self-alienation, or wrenching of his nature from its And thou no breath at all ? (V.iii.) fixed place, leads with an Aristotelian inevitability to the old king's madness, another addition of Shakespeare's. It There is, of course, no answer to this anguished ques- is only when Lear is reconciled with Cordelia that he can tion, nor does Shakespeare attempt one. It is sufficient be reconciled with himself, and so regain his sanity. that he imbues it with a bafflement and desolation that This reconciliation, which is common to all the sources, extend far beyond Lear's personal sorrow to encompass wasregarded as the denouementofthe story by everyone allhuman suffering and pain, allhuman loss and incompre- but Shakespeare. He alone failed to subscribe to the hension. notion that it is not the playwright's task to present the punishment of innocence but to ensure poetic justice all

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