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King Lear's Fool (Possible Directorial Renditions)

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King Lear's Fool (Possible Directorial Renditions) THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA DOI number 10.2478/tco-2020-0004 King Lear’s Fool (possible directorial renditions) Antonella CORNICI Abstract: Shakespeare does not introduce the Fool in his plays by accident or in order to entertain or to amuse. On the contrary, his lines are earnest, filled with undertones, his advices are witty, and their purpose is to amend the one they are aimed at, to point out their mistakes, to warn them, and even to intervene in the play’s plot. The journey of the Fool in King Lear shows that, without this character, the play would be situated somewhere at the border with the Irrational. All the characters seem to be lacking reason, they act without logic. By bringing in the Fool, one is presented the image of the “standstill” in which England’s Royalty was. All the irrationality is transferred to the King. The rest of the characters are, thus, “saved”, their actions being justified by affections that darken their minds and, obviously, accountable for those senseless actions is no one else but Lear. The disappearing of the Fool in King Lear remains a mystery that directors have “deciphered” in many ways. Shakespeare inserted this character in the middle of the first act and kept him throughout the play until the third act; then, gradually, the king’s fool disappeared. The manner this happens is almost imperceptible. The productions of this play are not numerous, King Lear, as critic Marina Constantinescu noticed, is, perhaps, one of the most difficult plays of Shakespeare, profoundly philosophical, linguistically complicated, filled with human nuances, sophisticatedly put on page. The performances to which we will make reference for the monologue of the Fool from King Lear are by Andrei Șerban (2008 and 2012, Bulandra Theater) and Tompa Gábor (2006, Cluj National Theater). Key words: Shakespeare, fool, monologue, Lear, theater Lecturer PhD, Faculty of Theater, George Enescu National University of Arts, Iași 45 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA Motto: “I am convinced that, if you sincerely do something for yourself, then there will be at least one person interested. If you do something as it mostly happens today, thinking of others, then you risk to not find anybody interested in what you have created. That is why I do not believe in any sort of sociological researches that say people want to see one thing or another. No! People do not want to see anything except what they have already seen.” (Lev Dodin) The Fool is a completely special character in Shakespeare’s dramaturgy. He is present under many names. Sometimes he is simply called fool (King Lear); at times, he is, indeed, given a name: Launce- the fool- servant of Proteus, Speed- the fool-servant of Valentine (The Two Gentlemen of Verona) or Feste (The Twelfth Night). It is also found under the name of jester: Touchstone- As You Like It, Trinculo- The Tempest, Launcelot Gobbo- The Merchant of Venice, but he can also be the Soothsayer from Antony and Cleopatra, Chorus from Henry the Fifth or Fool from Timon of Athens. The part of the Fool is, sometimes, taken by other characters. Hamlet, for example, plays an authentic fool in the scene he has with Polonius, in the second act, and his monologue from the third act (second scene) becomes a wise lesson recited by Hamlet-the Fool. But why did Shakespeare bring this character into his dramaturgy? Why did he metamorphose him into other characters, terrestrial or otherworldly? The fool from the Medieval Royal Court became the wise man in King Lear. We are witnessing a genuine “process of intellectualizing and substantializing of this part.”1 Shakespeare endows the character with a 1 Corneliu Dumitriu, Dicționarul pieselor și personajelor lui Shakespeare, Institutul Internațional de Teatru, Catedra UNESCO, București, 2008, p.51. 46 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA lively intelligence, his folly and improvisations being replaced with lines written specially for him. If, in other situations, this jester interfered in the plot, “bothering” it with all sorts of antics and funny stories, in the Shakespearian drama, his part is as important as the King’s. “The Fool proves his intelligence right from his first entrance on stage, through a relevant ascertainment related to a specific reality, and the «arrows» which he throws are aimed at the essence of human existence.”2 If one analyses the trajectory followed by the Fool from King Lear, one will discover that, without this character, the entire plot would be situated somewhere bordering the Irrational. All the characters seem to be lacking reason; they act without logic. By bringing in the Fool, one is presented the image of the “standstill” in which England’s Royalty was. All the irrationality is transferred to the King. The rest of the characters are “saved”, their actions being justified by affections that darken their minds and, obviously, accountable for those senseless actions is no one else but Lear. The play King Lear was classified by the majority of the Shakspearologists as a tragedy; these tell the stories of people confronting their own demons (Macbeth), egos and devouring ambitions (King Lear) or exacerbated jealousies (Othello). Shakespeare concentrated the plot of these plays in the tale of the person and not of the country they govern. Both Lear and Macbeth are kings that once existed in reality (Lear was a Breton king from the eighteenth century; Macbeth, Duff and Duncan are mentioned in the Holinshed Chronicles, 1587), but their reigns did not give England glory. Maybe this is the reason why Shakespeare preferred to create the story of man and not to present insignificant pages of history. Perhaps due to the same reason Antony and Cleopatra or Julius Caesar are perceived as tragedies and not historical dramas, although, in their cases, they are souverains that truly made history (Julius Caesar, Antony, Cleopatra), but one is talking of Roman and Egyptian souverains. 2 Ibidem 47 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA Coming back to Shakespeare’s fool, one agrees with the fact that “Shakespeare reaches the peak of these roles, his mad men synthesizing the historical and imaginary possibilities, the natural and professional existence.”3 Shakespeare does not introduce the Fool in his plays by accident or in order to entertain or to amuse. On the contrary, his lines are earnest, filled with undertones, his advice is witty, and its purpose is to amend the one they are aimed towards, to point out their mistakes, to warn them, and even to intervene in the play’s plot: Have more than thou showest Speak less than thou knowest Lend less than thou owest Ride more than thou goest, Learn more than thou trowest, Set less than thou throwest; Leave thy drink and thy whore, And keep in-a-door, And thou shalt have more Than two tens to a score4 Analysing the monologue, one discovers that the Fool foreshadows to the King the loss of his kingdom right from the beginning. Since his first entry on stage (scene 4, the first act), the fool warns Lear that he should be more tempered: Lend less than thou owest Ride more than thou goest, He tells Kent (as if the king was not there) that, if he kept on obeying Lear, then the fool coxcomb would be the right emblem for him: The Fool (to Kent): Why, for taking one's part that's out of favour: nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits, 3 Marian Popa, Comicologia, Editura SemnE, București, 2010, p.400. 4 William Shakespeare, King Lear, Dover Publications, INC, New York, 1994, p.21 48 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA thou'lt catch cold shortly: there, take my coxcomb: why, this fellow has banished two on's daughters, and did the third a blessing against his will; if thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb. Lear understand that the Fool’s jokes are not completely lacking truth (Take heed, sirrah; the whip.), but he prefers to assign them to a bitter mad man. The feeling of freedom, the discharge of worries after having split the kingdom, the life without restraints are more important that the riddles of somebody that is out of their mind. The Fool, on the other hand, continues his critique, playing the part of the king’s underdog. That lord that counsell'd thee To give away thy land, Come place him here by me, Do thou for him stand: The sweet and bitter fool Will presently appear; The one in motley here, The other found out there. Lear: Dost thou call me fool, boy? Fool: All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born with. Here it is how only in a few words, the fool characterizes the king: thou wast born with, that is a man that acts without a meaning, dominated by feelings and not reason: Fool: thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown, when thou gavest thy golden one away. Lear: When were you wont to be so full of songs, sirrah? Fool: I have used it, nuncle, ever since thou madest thy daughters thy mothers: for when thou gavest them the rod, and put'st down thine own breeches, Then they for sudden joy did weep, And I for sorrow sung, 49 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA That such a king should play bo-peep, And go the fools among. Shakespeare slipped in in the fool’s text a reference to other characters in the play, as well. Thus, Goneril sits May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse? Whoop, Jug!, Regan does not resemble her sister, for though she's as like this as a crab's like an apple, both girls (Goneril and Regan) are like a crab does to a crab.
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