The Influence of Hierarchies in Shakespeare's King Lear

2. The new Globe Theater (opened 1997) http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/about-us/virtual-tour

4. How were Shakespeare’s plays published? • During (and after) his lifetime, in quarto editions: • Sometimes multiple quartos of plays (e.g., Lear, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet) • Sometimes authorized, sometimes not • Sometimes good (e.g., Lear Q1), sometimes bad (e.g., Hamlet Q1) • In 1623: the First Folio: • Published by two colleagues, John Heminges and Henry Condell • 36 plays, including 18 that had never been published • New lines as well as new plays: Q1 contains 285 lines not in F1; Folio contains around 100 lines not in the First Quarto of Lear, and lacks 285 lines the Quarto does have • 228 remaining copies out of an original 1000? • Original price £1; 2001 auction price $6.1 million

5. Shakespeare—First Folio edition, 1623

6. King Lear —title page of first quarto, 1608

7. 5 4 1 8

8. Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 –1527) Il Principe (The Prince), 1513 (published posthumously 1532; English translation 1640)

9. King Lear is a play in which traditional • hierarchies are under stress: • Family/patriarchy • Cordelia on “bond” (1.1.86ff) • Cordelia on sisterly relations (1.1.270ff) • Edmund the machiavel on custom; also on fathers and sons (1.2.1ff) • Lear’s curse of Goneril (1.4.270ff) • Edmund on Edgar’s “slyness” (2.1.72) • Lear on a child’s offices (2.4.168ff) • Household/class • Goneril to Oswald on “slack” services (1.3.9ff) • Kent on his qualifications to serve (1.4.32ff) • Kent on Oswald’s services (2.2.68ff) • Nation/kingdom • Kent’s multiple bonds to Lear (1.1.140ff) • Gloucester on the eclipse-disordered world (1.2.103) • Lear on the analogous relation of all hierarchies (2.4.205)

10. King Lear is a play in which traditional • hierarchies are under stress: • Family/patriarchy • Cordelia on “bond” (1.1.86ff) • Cordelia on sisterly relations (1.1.270ff) • Edmund the machiavel on custom; also on fathers and sons (1.2.1ff) • Lear’s curse of Goneril (1.4.270ff) • Edmund on Edgar’s “slyness” (2.1.72) • Lear on a child’s offices (2.4.168ff) • Household/class • Goneril to Oswald on “slack” services (1.3.9ff) • Kent on his qualifications to serve (1.4.32ff) • Kent on Oswald’s services (2.2.68ff) • Nation/kingdom • Kent’s multiple bonds to Lear (1.1.140ff) • Gloucester on the eclipse-disordered world (1.2.103) • Lear on the analogous relation of all hierarchies (2.4.205)

11. Lear’s “education”? 1.5.24 “I did her wrong…” 3.4.29ff “Poor naked wretches…” 3.4.90ff “Unaccomodated man…” 4.6.145ff “a dog obeyed in office…” 4.7.45ff “If you have poison for me…” 5.2.8ff “like birds i’the cage…” 5.3.310 “Look on her, look, her lips…”

13. Nahum Tate (1652-1715) Named England’s Poet Laureate, 1692- Rewrote Shakespeare’s King Lear, Coriolanus, Richard II (among other Jacobean plays)

14. From Tate’s King Lear, I.i Edgar : Has Heaven then weigh'd the merit of my Love,Or is't the raving of my sickly Thought? Cou'd Burgundy forgoe so rich a PrizeAnd leave her to despairing Edgar's Arms?Have I thy Hand Cordelia, do I clasp it,The Hand that was this minute to have join'dMy hated Rivals? do I kneel before theeAnd offer at thy feet my panting Heart?Smile, Princess, and convince me, for as yetI doubt, and dare not trust the dazling Joy. Cordelia: Some Comfort yet that 'twas no vicious BlotThat has depriv'd me of a Father's Grace, But meerly want of that that makes me richIn wanting it, a smooth professing Tongue:O Sisters, I am loth to call your faultAs it deserves; but use our Father well,And wrong'd Cordelia never shall repine. Edgar : O heav'nly Maid that art thy self thy Dow'r,Richer in Vertue than the Stars in Light,If Edgar's humble fortunes may be grac'tWith thy Acceptance, at thy feet he lays 'em.

15. ENGLISH 2310 ENGLISH LITERATURE I QUIZ #7 (16) Who dies in King Lear, and how? Lear France Burgundy Cornwall Albany Kent Gloucester Edgar Edmund Oswald Cordelia Goneril Regan