Today we’re talking about King Lear. Let me tell you a story.
Leir was an ancient king of Britain. As he neared his death, he divided the kingdom among his three daughters: Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. Goneril and Regan flattered their father and, at the advice of Leir’s nobles, were married off to the Dukes of Albany and Cornwall. Cordelia, despite being her father’s favourite, refused to flatter him, feeling that she should not need to make special assurances of her love, and was given no land to rule. The King of the Franks courted and married Cordelia, despite Leir’s refusal to pay a dowry. Leir then gave Goneril and Regan half his kingdom, planning to bequeath them the remainder at his death; instead, his sons-in-law rebelled and seized the whole of it. Duke of Albany, Goneril’s husband, maintained Leir with a retinue of 60 knights, but his wife reduced this by half after two years. Leir then fled to Regan, who reduced his entourage to only five men. Returning to Albany and pleading with Goneril, Leir was left with a single knight for protection.
At this point, Leir feared both his elder daughters and fled to France. He sent Cordelia a messenger when he was outside her court. She had him bathed, royally clothed, and assigned a fittingly large band of retainers. He was then officially received by the king and made regent of France, with the Frankish nobles vowing to restore him to his former glory. Leir, Cordelia, and her husband invaded Britain and overthrew his other daughters and sons-in-law. Leir is restored to the throne and reconciled with Cordelia.
Some of you might be wondering, ‘wait, what version have you been reading Nicole, this doesn’t sound quite right.’
This is the original story of King Leir, recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth in ‘History of the Kings of Britain’, which was written in the Medieval times. There were a few versions of the story of Leir, but they remained largely the same. I read it out to you, because when Shakespeare’s King Lear was performed in London in 1603, this was what people knew and expected.
We’ll look at Act 1 together in this post. I’m hoping it will be interesting and helpful whether you’ve read it or not. I’ll say my usual disclaimer here, I’m not an academic, I’m just an enthusiastic amateur reader. Please feel free to disagree with me, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Act 1 Scene 1
Act 1 Scene 1 starts like a fairytale: once upon a time, there was an old king who had three daughters. One day the king asked the daughters to come in front of him, because he decided to divide the whole of the kingdom between them and hoped to live out his life to a ripe old age in their homes in turn. The king asked them, ‘which of you loves me most?’
Let’s look at the opening lines. The opening lines in Shakespeare’s plays are always worth paying attention to.
KENT
I thought the King had more affected 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 qualities 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 blush’d to acknowledge him that now I am braz’d 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?
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… (Act 1 Scene 1)
G has another son, who is not only older but also legitimate. Does Gloucester favour the other son, which we soon find out is called, Edgar? When he says Edgar ‘is no dearer in my account’, is he speaking in riddles and meaning the opposite? Or is he speaking the truth? Edmund himself says later, “Our father’s love is to the bastard Edmund/As to the legitimate (A1S2)”. Either way, the key is that there is potential favouritism from the parent at play, which goes nicely back to the first line, where the king as a parent shows favouritism too.
We’re told a few things: there’s favouritism shown by parents among children; there’s ‘the division of the kingdom’; there’s lust.
Let’s zoom in even further at the very first line. It’s Kent speaking. He says:
KENT
I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall.
Kent says, I thought the King favoured the Duke of Albany more than Cornwall. We don’t yet know who Albany and Cornwall are. But we’re certain that S will tell us. That’s all what we hear. But that’s not what the first audience hears. That first line would be a bit of a trumpet blast, Shakespeare definitely had their full attention with that line. I can imagine they immediately pricked up their ears because the first audience would have known in an instant that Albany and Cornwall were the king’s sons. Because Albany and Cornwall WERE the King’s sons, in real life. King James was on the throne when this play was performed and King James’ elder son, Henry was the Duke of Cornwall at the time, and his younger son, Charles, the Duke of Albany. I guess for today it’ll be a bit like hearing something like ‘I thought the King favoured Prince William over Prince Harry’. Pretty brave of Shakespeare right!
This is quite a typical opening scene, a few minor characters having a chat and giving us some clues before the title character comes in. Lear enters with a big group, including his three daughters and two sons in law and attendants. Kent, Gloucester and Edmund are still on stage at this point. This gives us a clue about how big Shakespeare’s company is. That’s nine people plus attendants. The number of attendants is unspecified, but I guess at least two? So there are more than ten people on stage in one go. I haven’t read much about Shakespeare’s company. Did everybody belong to the King’s Men? Or did S hire extra actors depending on the play?
After Gloucester introduces Edmund to Kent, we hear the first speech of Lear.
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 intent
To shake all cares and business from our age;
Conferring them on younger strengths, while we
Unburden’d crawl toward death.
He wants to pass on his responsibility to his children, retire and enjoy life before he dies of old age.
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.
Let’s divide the kingdom between my children now, so you don’t fight among yourselves in future. ‘Dower’ usually goes with a new bride, as we’ll see how it’s denied in the case of Cordelia. But I guess here it refers to the wealth that comes with the daughters to Cornwall and Albany, because they’re already married. I also wonder if this is a shadow from the various source material, in all of which, the three daughters are unmarried at the beginning of the story, therefore the division of the kingdom will in a true sense be their ‘dower’.
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 answer’d.
He’ll make a decision about which prince will marry Cordelia today too.
Tell me, my daughters,—
Since now we will divest us both of rule,
Interest of territory, cares of state,—
‘Divest’ means ‘to strip, to make naked’. Lear voluntarily strips himself of his reign, his land and authority, which is something abstract that cannot be seen. Although we might miss it just reading the text, there’s definitely a gradual stripping of his royal garments. For the rest of the play, keep an eye on all the references to putting on and taking off of clothes.
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. (Act 1 Scene 1)
That gives me the fairytale quality again, what a surreal question to ask! Can you imagine that happening at Christmas? And notice Lear’s question is not exactly, ‘which of you love me most?’ Shakespeare sneaks in three extra words, ‘which of you SHALL WE SAY doth love us most’. It’s not objectively who is the most obedient and kind child, who cooks me every meal, takes me to the hospital, but who makes me FEEL she’s the most loving. And Lear clearly cannot judge, if he could, he wouldn’t be asking this nutty question. Everyone can see this is getting embarrassing; for the loyal ones, this does not bode well, for the opportunists, this is our chance! Let’s do whatever that pleases the old man, since our inheritance depends on it. If he wants to be flattered, let’s flatter him.
So Goneril answers in a lot of words that words fail me to say how much I love you. I watched the 2018 National Theatre production. Ian McKellen as Lear at this point brandishes a large pair of scissors and cuts a straight line off the top third of a map of Britain and Ireland,
LEAR
Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
With shadowy forests and with champains rich’d,
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
We make thee lady…
After Regan’s answer, Ian McKellen does the same thing and this time slices off Ireland and shoves it to her. Both Gorneril and Regan do not look very satisfied with what they get but Lear doesn’t give them any chance to complain. It’s brilliant acting, unspoken but it’s obvious that Lear loves his youngest most, he keeps all of England from her grabbing sisters, for her.
But when it’s her turn, Cordelia won’t speak. She shockingly says, ‘Nothing, my lord.’ Not only that, she also exposes her sisters’ lies. If they love you as they say, they would never have married, which is plain sense when it’s pointed out like that. But it doesn’t make Lear look good, to be so pleased with blatant falsehood. I think Lear’s mad with rage for at least three reasons, 1) Cordelia bluntly refuses to obey a king’s order, 2) Lear realises he’s been foolish but is too proud to admit it, 3) Cordelia hurts the old father’s heart. Her responses are hurled at him so unexpectedly, so humiliatingly in front of the whole court. He’s almost at the point of lifting the map to hand over England with pleasure. He just wants her to say something nice. But in reality, his folly is exposed point blank and his good wish is trampled on the ground.
As you can probably tell, I feel sorry for Lear. Cordelia why don’t you just humour your aged dad? But ask me another day I’d say well done Cordelia for standing up to an unreasonable tyrant. But ask me on any day, I’ll give you the same opinion on what happened next: Lear definitely overreacts. He disowns Cordelia, gives her share of the kingdom to the other two daughters, and banishes the loyal servant Kent.
Act 1 Scene 2
Let’s leave Lear the aged parent and his wretched daughters for a bit and go to another aged parent Gloucester and his sons. Edmund, the younger, bastard son of Gloucester, reminds me of Iago and Richard III. All three of them are dissatisfied with their status quo. Iago is bitter about Othello’s decision to choose someone else to be his lieutenant:
IAGO
… and by the faith of man, I know my price,
I am worth no worse a place. (Othello, Act 1 Scene 1)
Edmund says,
EDMUND
Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me?
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? Wherefore base?
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true
As honest madam’s issue? Why brand they us
With base? With baseness? bastardy? Base, base? (Act 1 Scene 2)
Can you tell he’s so sick of being called bastard and base. Unlike Richard III, he’s good-looking, he’s intelligent, he looks like his father just like his older brother does. Why should I be treated worse just because I was born later than my brother, or born of a woman who’s not my father’s wife? Is it my fault? It’s a fair question. Edgar says later on,
EDGAR
Men must endure
Their going hence, even as their coming hither… (Act 5 Scene 2)
One’s birth as well as death is not to be planned out or controlled by oneself.
Edmund is also like Richard III and Iago in that, he’s a great dissembler, “to hide under false appearance and to pretend that not to be which really is” That’s Dr Johnson’s definition of ‘dissemble’. Iago simply says:
IAGO
I am not what I am. (Othello, Act 1 Scene 1)
If you’ve read Twelfth Night, you might have noticed Viola says exactly that too. Edmund is in disguise to alienate Edgar and their father, like Richard III alienates his brothers Clarence and the King.
RICHARD
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the King
In deadly hate the one against the other;
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false, and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mewed up… (Richard III, Act 1 Scene 1)
In a very similar vein Edmund says:
EDMUND
A credulous father! and a brother noble,
Whose nature is so far from doing harms
That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty
My practices ride easy! I see the business.
Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit;
All with me’s meet that I can fashion fit. (Act 1 Scene 2)
Edgar is the last main character to arrive on stage. We hear about him from Gloucester in the opening scene; we hear about him from Edmund. Now he’s finally here. As a result of Edmund’s clever lies to both his father and his brother, Gloucester is turned against Edgar and poor Edgar has to run for his life. So within two scenes, two happy families are scattered in grief and sorrow. Or maybe, two seemingly happy families’ false pretence has been shattered and we see the great cracks that have always been there. Another thing to pay attention to, do you notice when is the next time the whole family of King Lear appear together on stage?
Act 1 Scene 3, 4
We pick up from the terrible scene where Lear’s family gathering went terribly wrong. Cordelia is married off to France hastily. Lear is now staying with Goneril for the first month. When Lear gave up his throne and crown, there was one condition,
LEAR
Ourself, by monthly course,
With reservation of an hundred knights,
By you to be sustain’d, shall our abode
Make with you by due turn. (Act 1 Scene 1)
Lear wants to keep one hundred knights with him when he moves between his daughters. But his knights as well as himself are proven too much for Goneril’s nerves.
GONERIL
By day and night, he wrongs me; every hour
He flashes into one gross crime or other,
That sets us all at odds; I’ll not endure it:
His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us
On every trifle. (Act 1 Scene 3)
Imagine someone presumes on your patience and kindness, takes everything for granted, has wild parties in your house day and night, and finds faults with you if things are not to his taste. And you have to bite your tongue because he’s your dad. I don’t know what I’d do in her situation but I can understand why Goneril is not pleased and I don’t think she’s been unreasonable. At the beginning of Act 1 Scene 3 and 4, Goneril and Regan behave completely reasonably. They flattered Lear, they got their inheritance, and they were worried and wary about Lear’s temper. They’re distant and not affectionate, they’re proud like their dad. All three of them, Cordelia included. Goneril starts to show unkindness and impatience towards her father, but I wouldn’t say she’s evil at this point. She tries to reason with him. Please stop the riotous behaviour and show some respect. Otherwise I’ll have to do something.
Lear still behaves as in scene 1, arrogant, unreasonable, provoking, overbearing, a tyrant. Before he gave his crown away, he could afford to be a tyrant and people had to deal with it. But now, things are a bit different. Goneril sees it very clearly.
GONERIL
Idle old man,
That still would manage those authorities
That he hath given away! (A1S3)
The Fool clearly sees it too.
FOOL
… thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown when thou gav’st thy golden one away. (A1S4)
But Lear is still blind to the fact. Lear can still order people about and behave and look like a king with authority.
LEAR
Go you and tell my daughter I would speak with her.
[Exit Attendant.]
Go you, call hither my fool.
[Exit another Attendant.] (A1S4)
The 100 knights give the illusion of authority. Though Oswald starts to prick that bubble. Immediately after the two attendants go out,
LEAR
O, you, sir, you, come you hither, sir: who am I, sir?
OSWALD
My lady’s father. (A1S4)
Which is absolutely true. We’re tolerating you because you’re my lady’s father, not because you’re the king. Lear holds on to the 100 knights so dearly because it’s part of his identity. When the number is halved, his self-image is halved. It shocks him so much that he cries as he curses. Having the 100 knights around him and having them obey him like old days makes him feel like he still wields power and authority, though everyone except him can see that it’s just a shadow of real authority. In reality he can’t even order his daughter’s servants about. Oswald proves it.
In the same scene, Lear starts to see his folly for giving his crown away.
LEAR
Woe that too late repents!—
…
O Lear, Lear, Lear! Beat at this gate that let thy folly in
And thy dear judgement out! (A1S4)
A few lines later he says,
LEAR
I have another daughter,
Who, I am sure, is kind and comfortable:
When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails
She’ll flay thy wolvish visage. Thou shalt find
That I’ll resume the shape which thou dost think
I have cast off for ever. (A1S4)
His knights halved from 100 to 50 is mirrored in his daughters. When Goneril angers him, he says, I have another daughter. His number of daughters is halved ‘in a clap’ too. And when he is shut out, he has no knight or daughter left. However at this point he is still dreaming when he is received by another daughter, things will be restored to their former glory. But we know how Goneril and Regan plotted together and there’s little hope for that. Lear has doubts too, otherwise he wouldn’t have said ‘I have another daughter, who, I AM SURE, is kind and comfortable’. When I say ‘I’m sure it’s fine’, ‘I’m sure it won’t rain’, you understand that I’m not sure, and there’s a risk that it WILL rain!
Lear has a fit of rage against Goneril just like when Cordelia disobeyed him in Act 1 Scene 1. He curses Goneril, wishing her to never be able to have children and if she does, the child will be a torment to her. In both productions I watched, Goneril sheds tears as she listens silently. I feel like this is the point when Goneril is pushed over the edge. Before this, her father was an annoyance that she had to deal with. Now she has gone to the dark side, she hates him.
Kent witnesses all these. When we last saw him, he was banished from the kingdom for speaking up for Cordelia and criticising the king. He now comes back to serve the king in disguise. I like Kent best. He’s such a loyal servant and friend. If Lear had taken Kent’s advice, Lear would still be the king, Cordelia the daughter.
Act 1 Scene 5
Lear keeps his stubborn pride and gets ready to go to Regan’s. We don’t see any attendants that represent his 100 knights at all after the last scene. This is a quiet scene after all the shouting and cursing, with just Lear and the Fool. The Fool chatters on to cheer him up, while his mind slips between the jokes and the foreboding situation. He starts to contemplate his folly of misjudging the situation and disowning Cordelia,
LEAR
I did her wrong. (A1S5)
He says,
LEAR
To tak’t again perforce!—Monster ingratitude! (A1S5)
And finally,
LEAR
O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!
Keep me in temper; I would not be mad! (A1S5)
Lear leaves Goneril’s home. From this point on, he wanders on under the sun, under the stars and in the storm, until the end. This is one of the things that haunts me and makes the story bleak and uncomfortable – the dispossessed homelessness of the characters. Lear is shut out by his daughters. Edgar is shut out by his father. Gloucester ambles towards Dover, out and vulnerable to the elements.
Outro
We’re at the end of Act 1. We looked at the opening scene, we compared Edmund with similar villains from other Shakespeare’s plays and we saw Lear’s illusion of his authority. We’re about to find out how Lear is going to be received by Regan. The second plot line is going to surface. In part 2, we’ll see one of the most well-known weather conditions in all English literature and the extraordinary transformation that Lear goes through as a character, through that storm, in the theme of self-knowledge. We’ll also look at the play under the theme of clothing, why are there so many mentions of garments and putting on and taking off of clothes. Pay attention to those if you haven’t read it yet. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
A Day of Small Things 