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King Lear (Lecture 4 of 4) — Transcript

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0:09uh so first of all uh one thing I'd like
0:11to clarify uh the tragic conflict in
0:14Lear uh is not between King Lear on the
0:17one hand and gal and rean on the other
0:20that's a clear-cut conflict between good
0:22and evil uh it would produce melodrama
0:26and indeed there's something quite melod
0:28dramatic about the uh uh conflict
0:32between Lear and his two evil daughters
0:34the tragic conflict in Lear is between
0:37Lear and
0:38Cordelia uh that is a conflict in which
0:41there is good on both sides Lear
0:44standing up for the principle of
0:45political life uh Cordelia standing up
0:48for the principles of Truth uh and
0:50genuine love that's why it's important
0:52to see that Leah does have a feasible
0:54plan for dividing the Kingdom at the
0:56beginning of the play he's not just
0:58indulging himself and professions of
1:00love from his daughters he's in fact
1:02trying to do something genuinely good to
1:05pass the Kingdom on in the best possible
1:07fashion uh to uh Cordelia so the play
1:11really does uh fit hegel's theory of
1:14tragedy as the conflict of two goods uh
1:17I'll remind you of our old friend MCM
1:19marus from Henry V uh uh I would have
1:22blowed up the town so Christ save me uh
1:26MCM marus is no
1:27philosopher uh uh he's never thought
1:30much about uh his life he's never
1:33thought that there might be a conflict
1:35between his Pagan fierceness as an
1:37Irishman and his Christian faith uh what
1:40Shakespeare does for us is expose those
1:44contradictions uh in our inner beliefs
1:46and our values we don't think them
1:49through uh we would like everything to
1:51fit neatly together we'd like to have it
1:54all uh we'd like to think that political
1:57excellence and other forms of Human
1:58Excellence are simply compatible uh but
2:01Shakespeare shows there can often be a
2:03tension uh and a tragic tension between
2:06them another point that someone brought
2:08up after class last time uh Lear says
2:11let them anatomize
2:12Reagan not good medical procedure in
2:15Elizabethan times if you consider the
2:18conditions in an Elizabethan Hospital uh
2:21anatomizing was a sense of death uh uh
2:24and it's an interesting thing to think
2:26about uh yes Lear would like to uh anoun
2:29adiz Reagan to see what breeds about
2:33these hard Hearts uh it is the question
2:36uh that troubles him the most uh but he
2:39would have to take her apart to find out
2:42uh what makes her tick uh and that's a
2:45problem in effect he's thinking if it
2:47was a machine machine could be taken
2:50apart and put back together and that's
2:52fine uh but she's an organism and if you
2:55take her apart uh even if you're Dr
2:58Frankenstein you may not be able to put
3:00her back together in a functioning way
3:03uh now the reason I bring that up is cuz
3:06Shakespeare goes further in King Lear he
3:08anatomizes
3:10Society uh to see what makes a tick he
3:13takes it apart you could say that he
3:16atomizes Society he reduces it to its
3:19beest Essentials to its constituent
3:21Parts uh this is remarkable because in
3:24this uh uh Shakespeare anticipates
3:27Thomas Hobbs and the foundations of
3:29modern liberalism uh the idea that to
3:32understand Society you reduce it to its
3:35constituent parts and that means the
3:38individuals uh no longer do we have the
3:40idea of Plato and Aristotle that the
3:42city forms the basic unit of political
3:46analysis uh uh know from Hobs on and
3:49modern political Theory the basic unit
3:52of analysis is uh Society reduced to its
3:55component individuals and then you try
3:58to reconstruct Society from that uh get
4:02down to those basic units and then
4:04reform Society in Hobs it's done by a
4:06social contract that means by something
4:10artificial you take Society apart and
4:13then you put it back together supposedly
4:15in a better form or in hobbs' case one
4:18that has a more solid foundation uh now
4:21Shakespeare raises some doubts about
4:23that uh uh if you ever deny human
4:28sociability are you you ever going to
4:30get a society back are you going to be
4:32ever be able to put it back together
4:35once you take it apart uh again Hobbs
4:38claims he can you can have a war of all
4:40against all uh and then put things back
4:43together with a social contract
4:45Shakespeare seems to deny that uh in
4:48King leer uh uh the sense here seems to
4:51be once you unleash this human egotism
4:55uh once you
4:57unleash uh the uh the
5:00individual uh and his desires uh uh
5:05you're never going to get a social order
5:07back what you will get is Humanity must
5:10perforce Prey Upon itself like Monsters
5:13of the deep what you get is the egoism
5:16of gono rean Edmund and Cornwall uh and
5:20it's very interesting that they cannot
5:23form a society it's in a way fortunate
5:26that they canot form a society uh they
5:30are too egoistical they are it's not
5:33just an accident that they don't Triumph
5:36at the end of this play uh gal and
5:39Reagan are in this intense competition
5:42uh over Edmund which leads uh gal to try
5:45to poison Reagan in fact two poison
5:47Reagan uh uh Cornwall and Albany were
5:51almost at War uh by the second act in
5:53the play uh uh if Albany um if if
5:59Cornwall survived uh he would have ended
6:02up fighting Cornwall uh Albany he would
6:04have ended up fighting Edmund if gal had
6:07killed almany as it is uh uh uh Albany
6:13and Edmund at odds uh in a way it's the
6:18it's the Saving Grace of this world that
6:20Shakespeare presents uh in uh um uh King
6:24leer that uh the world Rebels against
6:27this kind of evil
6:30it is not
6:31natural uh uh now this Shakespeare does
6:35not present a world in which the good
6:37triumphs uh it's not a this is not an
6:40optimistic play doesn't have a happy
6:42ending it's not a simplistic view of the
6:45world in which good triumphs over evil
6:47but it isn't the exact opposite either
6:50uh it isn't a world in which evil
6:53triumphs and that's very important that
6:55by the end of the play the best
6:57characters in this world are dead King
7:00uh King Lear Cordelia the fool uh but
7:03the worst characters the most evil
7:05characters in the world are dead too
7:07corn Reagan conal uh and uh and Edmund
7:12uh and uh alany expresses it best uh on
7:16uh uh it's page uh uh
7:22100 so act 4 scene 2 about 9:30 in this
7:26marvelous Outburst against gal uh oh gal
7:30you are not worth the dust which the
7:31rude Wind Blows in your face I fear
7:34disposition that nature which contemns
7:38its origin cannot be boarded certain in
7:40itself she that herself will sliver and
7:43dis Branch from her material sap
7:45perforce must wither and come to deadly
7:48use there's something about evil that is
7:52self-destructive and self-consuming and
7:55it cannot reproduce it is infertile
8:00uh and notice there's no children in G's
8:03family Reagan's family uh Le uh uh uh
8:08condemns uh gal's organs have increased
8:12infertility uh uh it's almost a
8:15sociobiology point here that the reason
8:18evil doesn't Prevail Prevail in the
8:20world is it can't reproduce itself it's
8:24so self-consuming and self-destructive
8:26it destroys the Family itself it cannot
8:30produce issue uh and that's very
8:32important uh in in this world so
8:36Shakespeare shows that once you reduce
8:40human beings to this kind of basic level
8:44the level of the Beast you can't
8:47reconstitute Society uh Emmanuel Kant uh
8:51in his essay Perpetual piece made this
8:54famous statement the problem of
8:56organizing a state however hard it may
8:59seem can be solved even for a race of
9:02devils If Only They are
9:04intelligent that's in a way the great
9:07statements of modern uh liberalism and
9:10its Theory and I think Shakespeare
9:12denies that here that a race of gals
9:15Edmonds Regan and Cornwall could not
9:18reproduce itself and therefore could not
9:21form uh a community uh so again this
9:24anatomy of society is very interesting
9:28uh uh if you break down the social order
9:32you release all these forces and some of
9:35them are good you allow love and
9:37philosophy the search for truth to
9:39flourish in ways that had hitherto been
9:42impossible but you also release what's
9:44worse than Humanity uh and that's
9:48uncontrollable uh now and must be purged
9:51uh and the one hopeful sign in this play
9:53is that evil is purged uh uh in that way
9:57uh now an interesting way of viewing
9:59this
9:59and understanding it and we've talked
10:02about uh the uh uh the movement of
10:05clothing in the play and if I have time
10:07I'm going to return to it but basically
10:09we saw that we begin with people clothed
10:12they're stripped to nakedness the middle
10:14of the play and then they must return to
10:16clothing at the end of the play to
10:17reform Society uh now one of our most
10:20important pieces of clothing in society
10:23is the
10:24Gods uh the gods clothe us from the
10:27wretchedness of our existence and one
10:29thing we see in this play uh is the way
10:33people are stripped of the their belief
10:35in the gods and the way that belief must
10:37be
10:38reconstituted uh for the play to resolve
10:42uh uh in a new community uh uh we see
10:46this in
10:47Lear he begins the play Thinking the
10:50gods are his best friends he's on
10:52perfectly normal terms with them and can
10:54order them around to do what he wants uh
10:58uh uh and as Things Fall Apart going
11:01into act three uh he says let the great
11:04Gods find out their enemies now uh that
11:08turns out to be the last mention of the
11:11Gods by Lear until act 5 uh scene 3 uh
11:16throughout Acts 3 and 4 after that
11:19moment act 3 SC 2 he does not mention
11:21the Gods uh and indeed the shattering
11:25aspect of his experience is that it's
11:26made him lose his faith in the Gods uh
11:29he thought they were
11:31just and when he sees Injustice in the
11:34world fundamental Injustice uh he ceases
11:38to believe in the gods by act 3
11:41sc4 uh uh uh indeed it is interesting he
11:45remains terribly concerned with Justice
11:48as we saw he puts G and Regan on trial
11:52for the sake of Justice uh but he no
11:54longer invokes the Gods in that scene
11:57act 3 SC 4 I was checking for this he
11:59constitute a court but no one takes an
12:01oath in the court uh another aspect of
12:05conventional courtroom procedure that's
12:06conspicuously absent in Leer's Act of
12:09natural Justice in act 3 scene 4 no one
12:13has to say uh uh uh do you swear to tell
12:17the whole truth the whole truth nothing
12:18but truth so help you God uh Lear
12:22invokes Justice in act 34 but he does
12:25not invoke the Gods uh uh anymore uh and
12:29it's interesting that uh he uh uh he's
12:33come to question the gods when he asks
12:36uh his philosopher what is the cause of
12:39Thunder he's asking that because the
12:41answer is no longer the
12:43Gods uh the traditional answer was
12:47what's the cause of Thunder Zeus the
12:49Thunder Bearer and and the Thunder is
12:52there and the lightning is there to
12:53punish malifa Lear has to ask that
12:56question because he no longer believes
12:59uh in the gods and as is typical in the
13:02play uh this becomes uh General uh in
13:06the play uh lears the central character
13:08but the subordinate characters also
13:11begin to question the gods these are
13:13very conventional people at the
13:14beginning of the play uh they all
13:17believe in the gods and the Justice of
13:19the Gods and that the gods underwrite
13:21Justice uh but look what happens to
13:24gler uh page 96 so act 4 SC1 about l 36
13:30as flies to wanted boys are we to the
13:33gods they kill us for their
13:36sport wow now again that's one of the
13:40most famous passages in the play uh many
13:43people cited as if this is somehow
13:45Shakespeare's view because it is
13:47expressed so
13:48powerfully uh uh the problem is though
13:53uh you cannot have a society among
13:55people who believe this as flies to one
13:58boys are we to the gods they kill us for
14:00their sport GL has good
14:03reason uh to express this at this point
14:07uh but it's truly problematic for
14:09society if you believe that the gods are
14:12not just indifferent to justice but are
14:15in fact unjust and utterly malevolent uh
14:19by the way this is the view that Tama
14:21bedum presents to leer in act three all
14:24that talk about the
14:26fiends in the absence of speech about
14:28the God in act 34 and act 36 we hear all
14:32this talk about fiends as if the world
14:36uh was govern by Devils uh something uh
14:40similar happens to Kent uh as a result
14:43of experience uh this is Page 105 in the
14:47signate so act 4 scene3 about line
14:5132 uh uh uh having heard how
14:55badly a Leader's been treated U Kent
14:58says again Act 4 scene 3 about line 33
15:01it is the Stars the stars above us
15:04govern our conditions else ones self
15:07made and make could not beget such
15:09different issues uh he's saying Cordelia
15:13uh and G Rican could not be so different
15:16uh after all they come from the same
15:18parents but they were born on different
15:21dates so if you believe in astrology uh
15:24uh they could be different uh uh to say
15:28it is the St ours that govern our
15:30conditions is to deny that it's the
15:33gods it's to deny that in any sense the
15:36traditional Gods uh govern us it's
15:39something much more
15:41mechanical uh and astrology comes up
15:44earlier in the play in the exchange
15:47between gler uh and Edmund uh and gler
15:51too believes in astrology there so one
15:54aspect of this dissolution of society
15:57that occurs in the middle play is a dis
16:00dissolution of religious
16:02belief uh uh and especially the belief
16:05in the Justice of the Gods so it is no
16:08accident that the counter movement in
16:10the play has to involve a
16:13reconstitution uh of religious belief
16:16just as people have to put their
16:17clothing back on they have to put the
16:20gods back on uh and Edgar is
16:23particularly aware of this uh uh that's
16:27why he staging is that almost comic
16:31business with gler uh in Act 4 scene
16:356 uh he realizes his father is in
16:39despair has become suicidal so he stages
16:42this
16:43miracle uh he stages the resurrection of
16:47gler gler thinks he's jumped off a cliff
16:50uh of course he hasn't uh so he is alive
16:54and this is Act 4 SC 6 about line uh 54
16:59five Edgar is still in Disguise says to
17:01him thy Life's a
17:04miracle uh and then over on the next
17:07page 113 line 73 in this scene he tells
17:11gler think that the clearest Gods who
17:14make them honors of men's
17:15impossibilities have preserved thee uh
17:19his father not only wants to commit
17:22suicide but actually has just attempted
17:24it and the only way to get him back into
17:27society is to restore uh his faith in
17:31the gods and Edgar will go to the point
17:33of staging Miracles staging
17:36resurrections uh just to bring this
17:38apart and in general uh one thing we see
17:41in the play is how much the characters
17:45the good characters uh like Edgar like
17:49Albany clutch at any sign that there are
17:53gods and they support Justice uh uh look
17:58at page page
17:59103 uh uh this is Act 4 SC 2 b line 78
18:05uh the minute almany hears of how
18:08Cornwall has been killed by a servant he
18:10says this shows you are above you
18:13justices that these are nether crimes so
18:16speedily can venge uh so you know he
18:20takes this as evidence of belief in the
18:23gods and their willingness to avenge
18:25Injustice and this is quite an important
18:28pattern
18:29uh in the play uh if you turn to page uh
18:34139 this is act 5 sc3 the ACT where the
18:38political Community has to be
18:40reconstituted as we'll see so act 5
18:42scene 3 uh line
18:45171 uh when um Edgar is explaining
18:50what's happened with his father um uh
18:53and says again this is line 172 the gods
18:57are just and are our Pleasant vices make
19:00instruments to plague us the dark and
19:02vicious place where thee he got costed
19:05his eyes he's saying to the bastard
19:09Edmond that's a ugly statement uh many
19:13people have been repelled about it uh
19:17edmmond appears to be saying uh Edgar
19:19appears to be saying Edgar appears to be
19:22saying this was just the gods are just
19:25and our Pleasant vices making the dark
19:28and vicious place where the he got cost
19:30in his eyes as if it was a manifest as
19:33if gl's blinding was a manifestation of
19:36divine Justice I find that thought
19:38repellent uh and as I say many people
19:41have and yet you
19:43see
19:45uh Edgar like Albany grasping at straws
19:48here this has been a shattering
19:50experience this play it is raised all
19:53sorts of questions about the God's
19:55justice and so they're now grasping at
19:58any sign any interpretation that can
20:00make this uh seem just so that page
20:05141 still act 5 sc3 about line
20:09234 uh uh 233 uh when the uh uh uh the
20:14bodies of gon and Regan are ordered uh o
20:18says this judgment of the heavens that
20:20makes us tremble touches us not with
20:23pity uh now again he insists on calling
20:26this uh the Judgment of of the heavens
20:30uh and finally on page
20:33144 uh Albany tries to bring a edifying
20:38conclusion to it all uh so that's act 5c
20:423 uh about line 304 uh all friends shall
20:46taste the wages of their virtue and all
20:48foes the cup of their
20:50deservings uh uh as if we've got a
20:54morally perfect ending here where the
20:57evil will be punished H and the good
20:59will be rewarded uh and I think
21:01Shakespeare is showing us something here
21:03because this is a rather forced pattern
21:06here uh these people are overstating
21:09their case if I may say so uh but he's
21:12showing if Society is to be
21:14reconstituted people do need some kind
21:17of Faith like this in the Justice of the
21:19world uh now let we start to think that
21:22shakespare himself viewed the world this
21:24way this way go to page
21:26142 so act 5 3 about line
21:30258 uh this is when uh in all the
21:33excitement they've forgotten about
21:35Cordelia and Alan he says uh line 258
21:39the God's defender baram hence a wild
21:43and then in one of the most Savage stage
21:46directions in all of literature
21:48Shakespeare writes enter Lear with
21:51Cordelia in his arms the God's
21:54defender Ender leier with Cordelia dead
21:58in his arms uh it shows that
22:02Shakespeare does not share this view of
22:05a simple moral calculus in the world
22:07that the gods simply defend human beings
22:11and Justice if Cordelia shows up dead at
22:15that moment of Al invoking uh uh the
22:18Gods uh still would like to call your
22:22attention to the Theology of this play
22:25much as I did with the Midsummer Nights
22:27Dream and I think it's it's very
22:29similar uh that is Shakespeare presents
22:32Us in this world with a in this play
22:35with a world that is not simply just and
22:37not simply
22:39unjust uh there's the sort of rough
22:43order that we saw in uh a midsite dream
22:47in the cosmos the world is not perfectly
22:50ordered uh Cordelia dies the fool dies
22:54Lear dies uh good people die uh uh uh
22:59glester loses his eyes not morally not
23:03justly as as as Edgar implies there's
23:07awful things happen in the world the the
23:09gods do not appear to provide us with a
23:13perfectly providential world uh in which
23:16good prospers and evil suffers on the
23:19other hand we're not in the world of the
23:22foul fli jibbit uh as as Tom bedum keeps
23:27insisting uh
23:28uh again the world is not perfectly
23:30ordered as we saw in a world governed by
23:32obon and tatan but the world is not
23:35perfectly disordered either uh uh a
23:39world of perfect Injustice would be a
23:41world in which Reagan Cornwall Edmund
23:45and and and gal were alive at the end of
23:48the
23:49play and rewarded uh uh it's as if the
23:53world vomits them up it can't swallow
23:57them uh the great uh British critic AC
24:00Bradley uh wrote a book called
24:02Shakespeare and tragedy still one of the
24:04best uh books on Shakespeare uh made
24:08this point about the play that whatever
24:10else you say about this world uh evil
24:13cannot sustain itself in it uh so again
24:16I would offer a a kind of rough Pagan
24:21theology in the work a kind of homeric
24:23theology so similar to what happens in
24:26Homer uh uh
24:29just when you think the gods are on our
24:31side everything's going well uh a young
24:35handsome hero is struck down for no
24:37reason uh and you start to question the
24:40Justice of the Gods but just when you're
24:43about to give up on them uh uh just when
24:47you're going to doubt there's anywhere
24:50something works out morally or justly in
24:53the world Cornwall goes too far and a
24:56peasant stands up and kills him uh uh
24:59again this is uh this is a world in
25:03which disorder is the product of a storm
25:07at the center of the play uh the idea
25:10isn't that human life is perennially
25:12stormy the storm is still a kind of
25:15interlude uh it's very powerful in this
25:18play and very disruptive and very
25:20disordering but still the sense is
25:22nature is basically ordered so much so
25:25that It ultimately rejects evil um in
25:28its purest uh and most naked forms uh I
25:33think that's important in understanding
25:35the whole of the play again so many
25:37people focus on parts of this play and
25:39don't try to understand the whole uh
25:42they focus on uh as flies are we to the
25:45gods flies to won boys are we to the
25:47gods they kill us for their sport that's
25:50a moment in the thinking in this play
25:53but it's ultimately viewed as something
25:56people have to get over even even though
25:58there's a certain deep truth in it okay
26:01let me return now to the story of King
26:04Lear uh uh We've in effect been looking
26:08at the problem of the philosopher king
26:09in this play uh and it's certainly what
26:12we will return to on Thursday in the
26:14Tempest let me read the famous passage
26:16about philosopher Kings or philosophy
26:18and kingship from Plato's
26:21Republic this is Socrates speaking
26:24unless I said the philosophers rules
26:27Kings or those now called Kings and
26:29Chiefs genuinely and adequately
26:31philosophies and political power and
26:33philosophy coincide in the same place
26:36while the many Natures now making their
26:38way to either apart from the other are
26:39by necessity excluded there is no rest
26:42from ills for the cities my dear Glon
26:44nor I think for humankind nor will the
26:47will the regime we have described in
26:49speech ever come forth from nature in
26:52soor as possible and see the light of
26:54the Sun so this is the great problem as
26:57Socrates present presents it in the
26:59Republic Plato's dialogue about Justice
27:02that philosophy and kingship do not
27:05coincide uh somehow we might have to
27:07hope that they will bring get be brought
27:09together and that's what I've been
27:11showing you in King Lear this
27:13disjunction between wisdom and power uh
27:16that's the great tragic fact in King
27:18Lear when Lear is in power he's cut off
27:21from the very kind of knowledge that he
27:23needs uh in order to rule uh but now in
27:27the second half of the play we're going
27:29to see something even more
27:32disturbing uh and that is that once Lear
27:36achieves these truths once he has
27:39glimpses uh into the problem of Justice
27:42all these things he didn't do while he
27:44was King it's going to unfit him for the
27:47kingship uh and in two senses uh the way
27:51he views these truths uh will make him
27:54disinclined to rule uh it it makes him
27:58indifferent to Justice uh going into act
28:01three he is still obsessed with Justice
28:05so much so that he abandons the gods
28:08because they don't seem to support
28:09Justice he stopped speaking about that
28:12after they fail to support him and
28:14support what he sees as the just order
28:17uh in act 3 uh uh six he is still
28:21questing for justice he holds this trial
28:24of G rean but no Oaths in court no in
28:28ification of the Gods precisely because
28:30they don't seem to be concerned about
28:31justice but an act three Le is still
28:33concerned with Justice uh in act four he
28:37will cease to be concerned with Justice
28:39because he doesn't believe in it anymore
28:41so there's a cognitive aspect to this
28:44what he learns makes him disinclined to
28:47rule but it goes even deeper than that
28:50we saw that his nature stood in his way
28:53of philosophy that uh this anger in him
28:57this Noble anger
28:58uh made him uh unresponsive to people
29:02who try to tell him the truth uh uh and
29:05he his soul has to be stripped down
29:07before he's open to Truth uh but once he
29:10is he loses his commanding
29:13nature uh that the leader we see in Act
29:174 is no longer capable of ruling because
29:20he no longer has that Noble anger that
29:23made him such an impressive figure so
29:25let's look at the act four uh uh two
29:29scenes that are key here acts 4 scene
29:32six and scene 7 uh again we get this
29:36kind of Jos and double vision in
29:39Lear in scene six he again sees human
29:43beings as
29:44animals and he reduces them to the
29:47lowest possible level the level of their
29:50bodies uh and that leads him to believe
29:53that adjust order is
29:55impossible uh he acts as if that's the
29:58universal truth about humanity and yet
30:00in scene Seven he's going to be reunited
30:03with Cordelia and she's going to be his
30:06Spirit uh uh and he's going to look up
30:09to her uh as this beautiful example
30:12Humanity uh in scen six he forgets
30:15Cordelia in scene Seven he forgets gal
30:18and ran uh uh he cannot hold it together
30:22remember in act 3 sc4 uh at first he saw
30:26tomed bedam as the bare Fork Animal but
30:30then he saw him as the
30:32philosopher uh but he couldn't see them
30:34as both at once uh what opens up in this
30:38chaos of act three is what's best and
30:40worst in humanity what's highest and
30:42lowest the philosopher versus the bare
30:45forked animal uh Lear cannot come up
30:48with an account that takes into account
30:51both what's highest and lowest in human
30:53nature let me say that Shakespeare does
30:56Shakespeare offers us King Le
30:58which shows us the two visions which
31:00shows us the two sides what Lear is
31:03incapable of Shakespeare the playright
31:05is capable of and the same thing happens
31:07in act four with the Jos of Acts scene
31:11six and seven in scene six Lear sees uh
31:15man as all body as all animal uh in
31:20scene Seven he sees uh man and in this
31:23case Cordelia detached from the body as
31:25a kind of Spirit uh what he we cannot do
31:29is come up with an account of human
31:31being that takes into account our
31:34composite nature that we are part spirit
31:38and part body that we are animal but
31:42something that transcends animal
31:43remember this is what we saw about love
31:46in the
31:48comedies uh that people tended to air on
31:51one extreme side or the other for sylvus
31:54and Phoebe love was all poetry and
31:57spirit for Touchstone and or ory love
31:59was all body and Pros what Orlando and
32:04Roslin had to do we somehow find a way
32:07of uniting uh body and spirit in love
32:10realizing that love has this spiritual
32:12comp component and also this physical
32:15component uh that love is something we
32:17share with the animals uh it it involves
32:21a rutting season it involves something
32:23you do in the fields and in the forest
32:26uh but on the other hand we're human
32:28beings we have language we have poetry
32:31we can make something higher uh out of
32:33love that lesson in the comedies that we
32:36are composite beings that we're body and
32:38spirit I think carries over uh into King
32:40Lear as one of the reasons uh for its uh
32:44depth uh let's turn now to uh scene uh
32:49uh six uh and see what happens uh to
32:52Lear uh uh in his full madness here and
32:58this would be uh uh page let's start
33:01page 114 so act 46 about line uh
33:07110 when I do stare see how the subject
33:10Quakes I pardon that man's life what was
33:13thy cause
33:15adultery Thou shalt not die die for
33:19adultery no the ren goes to it and the
33:23small gilded fly does leer in my sight
33:26Lear invokes the standard of animals
33:28here and animals have no
33:31adultery uh how can you speak of
33:34adultery among animals if you see love
33:38as pure sex as running then there's no
33:42reason to punish someone for adultery
33:43because the the ren does it the small
33:45guilded fly does it let culation Thrive
33:48it's the sort of thing that Touchstone
33:50says uh as you like it uh forger's
33:55bastard son was kinder to his father
33:57than my daughters got Twix the lawful
33:59sheets now once again I point to the
34:02obvious error here uh Lear sounded so
34:06profound in act 3 scene 4 with is is man
34:09no more than this speech but in fact the
34:12obvious answer was man is more than this
34:15Edgar's
34:16nakedness which Lear takes as the
34:19essence of humanity there was in fact a
34:22disguise Edgar took off clothing to
34:25produce Tom of bedum and L was wrong
34:28about that figure and this is
34:30particularly wrong here to say that gl's
34:33bastard son was kinder to his father
34:36than my daughter's got uh and he's
34:39saying this in front of glaster and
34:41Edgar as it turns out if you if you want
34:44to bring it home here uh how wrong this
34:48is uh L's mistaken about L is standing
34:51up for bastards just the way uh uh
34:55Edmund did and what we you know and
34:58again there's a certain truth to this
35:01there's a lot of sexual malens going on
35:04in the world even in this world uh uh
35:08but Lear is missing something here as
35:10shown by this simple
35:12mistake uh uh and indeed uh it's the
35:16same mistake uh that Edmund makes uh if
35:21you don't have a definition of adultery
35:23you don't have a definition of marriage
35:26if you don't have a definition of
35:28bastardy of illegitimacy you don't have
35:30a definition of marriage uh and of the
35:33family uh uh we are not animals in that
35:38sense uh this is another one of those
35:40examples where human beings produce
35:43conventions and they are not simply
35:46unnatural uh you can make Arguments for
35:49why it is functional for human beings to
35:52form into families and why marriage is
35:55an important uh entity to Define how the
35:59family is a basic unit of social
36:01organization and how the distinction
36:03between illegitimate and legitimate is
36:05key to the functioning of a human
36:07society and in that sense natural uh so
36:10lear's mistakes here I mean you can see
36:13them in the way he's now identifying
36:15with Edmund's position and we see what
36:17that position has led to the absolute
36:20dissolution of society uh uh at the
36:23middle of the play when a a bastard son
36:27proves to be a bastard by turning
36:29against his father uh so uh more of
36:32Leer's vision and its limited character
36:34here line 20 behold Yan simpering Dame
36:38whose Faith between her Forks Pages snow
36:40that minces virtue and does shake the
36:42head to he of pleasure's name the fitu
36:45nor the soilid horse goes to it with a
36:47more R Rous appetite down from the waist
36:50they are Centaur though women all above
36:52but to the girdle do the gods
36:55inherit beneath is all the FEI
36:59uh now this is to reduce women to their
37:02sexual
37:03organs uh and it is not the complete
37:06picture picture of humans and especially
37:09of women in this play L is forgetting
37:11Cordelia here uh there there is a woman
37:15who transcends this I'm just trying to
37:18show you not that this is presented as
37:20simply untrue but it Shakespeare does
37:23present it as just one side of the
37:25picture of human nature again this is
37:28the truth that Shakespeare touches upon
37:31uh in his uh plays about love we are
37:35animals we do have these sexual impulses
37:38that we share with the animals and they
37:41they're we can't neglect that but we
37:43cannot be obsessed with that either we
37:46cannot focus only on that when there are
37:49Cordelia in the world as well Lear
37:53cannot come up with an integrated uh uh
37:56image of humanity that would account for
37:58both gal and rean on one hand and
38:00Cordelia on the other the political
38:03consequences of this continue uh page
38:07116 uh Act 4 sc6 about line 155 and here
38:12we see how Lear has now totally
38:15abandoned Justice line 153 look with an
38:18eyes see how Yan Justice rails upon Yan
38:21simple Thief hark in thy ear change
38:24places and handy dandy which is the Dust
38:27Justice which is a thief now again
38:30there's a lot of Truth to that and
38:31Shakespeare was very aware of it how
38:33many Crooks end up as justices uh uh uh
38:38but if you pursue this uh to a universal
38:42principle you will have undermind all
38:44principles of human Justice uh thou has
38:47seen a farmer thou has seen a farmer's
38:49dog bark at a beggar iser and the
38:52creature run from the C there thou might
38:55behold the great image of authority a
38:57dogs obeyed in office thou Rascal Beetle
39:01hold thy bloody hand why does thou lash
39:04that strip thine own back thou
39:07hotly lust as use her in that kind for
39:10which thou whips her um again this is so
39:14powerful and you can see Shakespeare's
39:17indignation at the injustices in the
39:20world and how many people who exercise
39:22Authority are worse than the people they
39:25attempt to punish uh
39:27but the consequences of it would be to
39:30undermine all political life uh as leer
39:33goes on top of page 117 line 165 the
39:37usurer hangs the couser through tattered
39:39clothes small vices do appear robes and
39:42furrowed gowns hide all there it is
39:44again the clothing imagery Lear sees it
39:47as totally artificial it's just covering
39:50over the uh uh the sins of people in
39:54Authority they're dressed up to look
39:56good but they're evil on the side played
39:58sin with gold and the strong Lance of
40:00Justice hurtless breaks armit Rags of
40:03pygmies sword does pierce it uh uh and
40:07again this is one of the profound truths
40:09that Lear has learned uh the Injustice
40:12of his own regime uh it's why I came to
40:15question the gods why he says he will
40:18show the heavens more just but the
40:20consequence is line 170 none does offend
40:25none I say none
40:29uh and is that really true does Cornwall
40:33offend does gal offend does rean offend
40:36does Edmund offend Lear was deeply
40:39offended by these people earlier in the
40:41play and he was right to be offended by
40:43them uh they were deeply unjust and evil
40:47and someone like Lear has to stand up to
40:51them uh if he concludes that nobody
40:55offends then who's going to be there to
40:58protect us from the gals and Reagan and
41:01Cornwall and Edmonds in the world uh so
41:05we see here if you will the cognitive
41:09defect of his Madness and this is indeed
41:12Madness these are the ramblings of a
41:15Madman in this scene uh as in Plato's
41:19Republic when the philosopher who has
41:21seen the idea of the good comes back
41:23into the cave he seems mad to the
41:26ordinary people in the cave in the city
41:28and Lead indeed Lear does to hear
41:31there's deep philosophical truths in
41:33this madness Lear has come to question
41:36convention but at a terrible price in
41:40political terms uh he has disqualified
41:43himself to rule because he no longer
41:46thinks there's any difference between
41:48Justice and Injustice in the world now
41:51when you turn to the next
41:54scene uh there's a total transformation
41:57scene Seven turn to page
42:00125 uh here Lear has entered a spiritual
42:04world uh and it's one of the most
42:06beautiful scenes Shakespeare ever wrote
42:08uh the Poetry is truly Transcendent here
42:11and we see Lear rise above all the
42:14anguish of his world and all the tragedy
42:16of his world to achieve this one
42:18beautiful uh moment of communion with
42:21Cordelia
42:23uh act 47 line 45 you do me wrong to
42:28take me out of the Grave thou art a soul
42:31in Bliss but I am bound upon a wheel of
42:34fire that mine own tears do scald like
42:37molten lead if Shakespeare had written
42:40nothing but those four lines he would be
42:42the greatest poet whoever lived there's
42:44it don't get no better than that uh sir
42:48do you know me you are a spirit I know
42:51where did you die and this is our
42:54indication that he's moved Beyond uh
42:56this world R into the spirit Still Still
42:58far right scarce awake let him alone
43:00where have I been where am I Fair
43:04daylight I am mightily abused I should e
43:07die with pity to see another thus I know
43:10not what to say I will not swear these
43:12on my hands let's see I feel this pin
43:15prick so there it is he's he he has to
43:17remind himself he has a body here he has
43:20to see this body still can feel a pin
43:22brick uh he feels his path Beyond it oh
43:26look at upon me sir and hold your hand
43:29in benediction over me you must not
43:32kneel you have to realize here that Lear
43:35has kneel down to
43:37Cordelia and here we have a total
43:40reversal uh uh in the opening of the
43:42play Lear expected everyone to kneel
43:45down to him and he wanted his daughters
43:48above all to kneel down him and verbally
43:51kiss his
43:52feet uh uh and now he's reversed that
43:56and we see here that this reversal is
44:00necessary to bring these two human
44:02beings together what has stood in their
44:05way up to now has been this political
44:08barrier that he is the king and she is a
44:11princess much like the tension we saw
44:14between uh uh Prince Hal and King Henry
44:18uh that they never could speak uh even
44:20as Father and Son uh uh because they
44:24were King and Prince that that added so
44:27much of an extra problem to their
44:30communication uh here even the
44:33relationship between father and daughter
44:35is surpassed uh it's an attempt to
44:38achieve a spiritual equality here Lear
44:41will kneel to his daughter the king will
44:43kneel to the princess the father will
44:46kneel to the daughter uh lines 58 pray
44:49do not mock me I am a very foolish fond
44:52Old Man Four score upward not an hour
44:55more or less to deal PL mainly I have
44:57fear I am not in my perfect mind he
45:00thinks I should know you and know this
45:02man yet I am doubtful for I'm mainly
45:05ignorant what place this is and all the
45:07skill I have remember is not these
45:09garments uh there there it is the
45:12garments
45:13again so much of this play can be
45:15incorporated in just the images of Lear
45:18he appears in his Royal robes at the
45:20beginning he's reduced to rags and
45:22nakedness at the middle now this is
45:25traditionally actors they put a white
45:27gown on him almost like a hospital gown
45:30and it shows the the the the March back
45:33into civilization here uh uh do not
45:37laugh at me for as I a man I think this
45:39lady to be my child
45:43Cordelia and so I am I am be your tears
45:46wet yet faith I pray weep not if you
45:49have poisoned for me I will drink it I
45:51know you do not love me for your sisters
45:54have as I do remember done me wrong you
45:56have some cause they have not and then
45:59Cordelia
46:00lies no cause no cause she has plenty of
46:06cause but she's she too has learned a
46:09lesson here uh of when it's when it's
46:12time to be diplomatically untruthful uh
46:16am I in
46:18France Lear intelligently ask knowing
46:21some of background here and Ken says in
46:23your own kingdom
46:24sir uh it's a very powerful moment Kent
46:27who is so Lear to uh loyal to Lear who
46:31sees him having Authority in his face he
46:33wants his old King back uh but he can't
46:38have him do not abuse me the doctor says
46:41be comforted good Madam the great rage
46:44you see is killed in him and that's fine
46:47it's a great relief that the great rage
46:49is killed in him but the great rage is
46:52what made him
46:53king that's his Noble anger that's what
46:57made people obey him they were scared of
46:59this guy because of the great rage this
47:02guy invokes the Gods on you to make you
47:05sterile this guy invokes Lightnings to
47:07pierce your skin you listen to this guy
47:10you jump when he says it uh nobody's
47:14going to jump anymore at this figure
47:17line 85 I am old and
47:20foolish no King can get up in front of a
47:23court and say I'm old and foolish and
47:25expect people to obey him him now I uh
47:29uh this is some ways the heart
47:32Shakespeare's tragic vision of politics
47:34here that this is a tremendous scene for
47:37Lear he has C it's the culmination of so
47:40many truths uh he's learned uh about his
47:44own limitations about the mistakes he
47:47made uh but it does unfit him for
47:50kingship for one thing he cannot
47:52integrate his vision again as I said he
47:55can't have an idea of humanity that
47:58encompasses both G rean and Cordelia you
48:02he's got that All or Nothing attitude
48:04that Shakespeare always calls it a
48:06question scene six we're beasts scene
48:09Seven we're Spirits uh but also the
48:13thumos is
48:14gone the thumos stood in the
48:17way uh of his learning the truth about
48:20himself he was too proud too indignant
48:22to accept the truths about himself in
48:25some ways that Pride had to be stripped
48:28of him he had to be humiliated so he'd
48:30be open to those truths but the result
48:33is a great loss in Grandeur got in
48:37trouble on my uh Harvard senior thesis
48:40because I I said something about how
48:42leader had to trade uh uh Grandeur for
48:46truth and uh comments oh no this is his
48:50grandest moment uh it's only Grand uh in
48:55a kind of uh modern redefinition of
48:58grandeur uh uh this is a moment of
49:02weakness on lear's part uh I am old and
49:05foolish in political terms this
49:07disqualifies him from rule there's a
49:09nice note in your addition uh on
49:12Lawrence Olivier's King Le a this on
49:14page 260 if you got the signant uh I
49:17didn't recommend this uh Olivier's film
49:20of Lear for just this reason uh it's the
49:23second paragraph on 260 what if Olivia's
49:25depiction of Lear perhaps one can say
49:27fairly that this television performance
49:29is touching rather than hering Olivier
49:33had undergone a decade of severe illness
49:35gout cancer of the prostate thrombosis
49:37of the leg and a deteriorating muscular
49:39disease and apparently lack the strength
49:41that the role requires there is much in
49:44the performance that is admirable but on
49:46the whole this leer likes tragic stature
49:49to use Aristotle's terms Olivier evokes
49:52pity but not
49:54Terror now Olivier is fabulous in just
49:57this scene Act 4 scene 7 where his
49:59physical weakness as an actor is his
50:01great strength in playing the scene I I
50:04invoke this this guy's criticism of Le
50:06just I think it tells us something about
50:08Leah uh that we can speak of H how at
50:12this moment Act 4 sc7 Lear now evokes
50:16pity but uh but uh not Terror uh and
50:19therefore lacks tragic stature uh again
50:23we have such a hard time coming to terms
50:25with what Shakespeare tragedy tries to
50:27tell us we would like to think you can
50:30be a great ruler and a magnificent King
50:33and also be a sweet old man who loves
50:36his daughter and knows the truth about
50:38his weakness it would be a nice world if
50:41that's the way things worked out uh but
50:44I think what Shakespeare is showing us
50:45here is no it's a much tougher world
50:49than that uh that leer is paying a
50:51terrible price for everything he's
50:54learned and above all for the red ction
50:56of his soul that made this possible uh
50:59and I think that's
51:01reinforced the next time we see uh leer
51:04and Cordelia together uh which is at the
51:07beginning uh of uh uh uh act 5 scene3 so
51:13page
51:14131 uh this is another beautiful speech
51:18here uh uh just just astounding how
51:23Shakespeare keeps coming up with this he
51:25wrote this play at the height of his
51:27power so bottom of page 131 at5 scene 3
51:31about line
51:338 when Cordelia says let's face uh her
51:37sisters no no no no come let's away to
51:43prison we to alone will sing like birds
51:46in the cage where thou Dost ask me
51:48blessing I'll kneel down and ask of thee
51:51forgiveness so we live and pray and sing
51:55and tell all t
51:57and laugh at gilded butterflies and hear
51:59poor Rogues talk of court news and we'll
52:02talk with them too who loses and who
52:04wins who's in who's out and take upon us
52:07the mystery of things as if we were
52:10God's spies and will wear out in a wall
52:13prison packs and sex of great ones that
52:16have and Flow by the moon again you
52:18couldn't have a more beautiful speech
52:21and it's a moment we wish for that Lear
52:23and Cordelia having discovered their
52:25true love could now have some time
52:27together uh to experience it and enjoy
52:31it again as we see in the first scene uh
52:35uh as king and Princess as father and
52:37daughter they could not express uh their
52:40emotions directly there was too much
52:42pressure on them too many political
52:44considerations now when they've lost
52:46everything they can speak the truth uh
52:49about their love but look at the
52:51consequences come let's way to prison
52:56the great king Le with his great rage
53:00would not abide that his servant was put
53:02in the stocks as happened with Kent in
53:05act two to Lear that was an indignity to
53:09him as a king to see one of his servants
53:11place in stock now he willingly Embraces
53:15prison he's allowing himself to be be in
53:18prison we two alone will sing like birds
53:21in the cage it's a beautiful image but
53:24he's reduced to a pet animal here to a
53:27domesticated animal a bird in a cage and
53:30it ain't even
53:32gilded uh when thou DST ask me blessing
53:34I'll kneel down I ask for the
53:36forgiveness and again this beautiful
53:38transcension uh transcending of their
53:41conventional roles that actually
53:43inhibited their expressions of love for
53:46each other so we'll live and pray and
53:48sing and tell tales and laugh at gilded
53:49butterflies and here poor Rogues talk of
53:52court news and will talk with them too
53:55who loses es and who wins who's in who's
53:59out that's what politics is reduced to
54:02at this point for Lear mere gossip who
54:05loses uh and who wins who's in who's out
54:09now it makes a lot of difference who's
54:11in who's out it makes a lot of
54:14difference whether gal and rean and
54:17Cornwall and Edmund are in and alany and
54:21Edgar and Kent are out but Lear here is
54:24indifferent to it uh now again there's
54:27something to be said about his
54:29transcending the limits of politics here
54:32and no longer caring about all those
54:34Petty things like
54:36justice uh and who runs the kingdom uh
54:40and notice the Detachment here it's a
54:42kind of philosophical Detachment will
54:44take upon us the mystery of things if
54:46we're God's spies uh but his hope is we
54:49wear out in a w pison prison pxs and sex
54:52of the great ones and when he finishes
54:54his speech Edmund says take them
54:57away and you realize who's in charge
55:00here now it's not King leer in charge
55:02it's Edmund in charge and when people
55:04like Edmund are in charge we're in
55:07trouble and indeed uh Leah and Cordelia
55:10will die because of that order uh uh and
55:14again I I I I don't want to minimize
55:17indeed I want to maximize the beauty of
55:19this moment between Lear and Cordelia
55:22only so will you will see how fragile it
55:25is
55:27that contrary to what Lear claims this
55:29isn't going to go on forever it's
55:31virtually over by the time he finishes
55:33the
55:33speech because of who's in and it's
55:37Edmond and Edmund's in
55:39charge and indeed as we see in Act five
55:43uh for a resolution of this play
55:46Edmund's got to be out and Edgar's got
55:49to be in uh you have to get rid of these
55:52people and it's not going to be done uh
55:56by sweet speeches between an old man and
55:58his daughter it's going to be done on
56:00the
56:02battlefield uh Edmund must Champion
56:05excuse me Edgar must Champion Justice on
56:08the battlefield to restore the right
56:10order in the kingdom and indeed in the
56:13grand shape of this play as we've been
56:14seeing from the beginning it begins in
56:15order the center of the play is disorder
56:18there's a restoration of order uh in the
56:20Fifth Act and that restoration of order
56:23requires arms
56:26uh uh uh and in particular a ritual
56:30combat and it is interesting that we're
56:32back to where we started this course the
56:34very first scene of Richard II uh if you
56:38turn to page 136 uh so act 5 scene 3
56:42about 111 a trumpet sounds Herold reads
56:45If any man of quality or degree within
56:46the list of the army will maintain upon
56:48Edmund supposed ear of glester that he
56:50is a manifold traitor let him appear by
56:52the third sound of the trumpet he is
56:54bold in his defense
56:56and then we get the trumpet sounding and
56:58remember this from Richard II with mbery
57:01uh and Bowling Brook uh uh very
57:04interesting that Shakespeare creates
57:06this scene uh uh he could have had uh uh
57:11Edmund just killed uh he could defeat
57:14his army and then just hack off his head
57:16we could have had a kind of Hots spur uh
57:19uh uh Prince house scene on the
57:23battlefield uh uh Edgar fighting it out
57:25with him and but Shakespeare wants this
57:28ritual combat because I think he wants
57:31ritual here he wants to show that the
57:35the restoration of order requires the
57:37restoration of ritual the first scene of
57:41the play The Very opening is very
57:43ritualistic in this court and it has all
57:45the trappings of the court all that
57:47disappears by the middle of the play it
57:50must recur in the last act part of the
57:53reestablishing of the political
57:55community is a reestablishing of
57:58ritual uh and even page
58:01138 uh you'll see uh act 5 scene 3 line
58:05147 I might might well delay delay by
58:08rule of
58:09Knighthood and suddenly rule of
58:11Knighthood comes back into the play and
58:14remember the theory behind ritual combat
58:18uh it was that uh uh in Richard II that
58:22God would not support a traitor in
58:26battle uh and it's somewhat similar here
58:30as part of the restoration of Faith uh
58:34in the gods and in their justice as part
58:36of the restoration of the faith in
58:39political order things must happen by a
58:41ritual combat here uh in a way it
58:45reflects people's restored faith that
58:48the gods will support a just outcome
58:51here when Edgar meets Edmund but above
58:54all it's a reminder of the military
58:57Foundation of any
58:59regime uh it took a
59:02battle uh to recapture Justice in this
59:06play uh uh you can say that lear's
59:10fundamental mistake at the beginning was
59:12to forget about the importance of the
59:15military that he could turn his armies
59:18over to or Albany and Cornwall and still
59:21be
59:22king uh now you can see why he might
59:26think that at age 80 for all we know his
59:29kingdom has been at peace for 60 years
59:32and everybody scared to death of this
59:34guy uh and his Noble anger uh and they
59:38haven't dared to stand up to him but the
59:40minute he gives the sword
59:43away uh then everything gets reversed in
59:46the play as the fool keeps trying to
59:48point out to him and so similarly here
59:50it's very important that this battle be
59:53fought uh uh to reestablish the regime
59:56and it should come down to this moment
59:58of ritual combat to remind us that what
1:00:01whatever else uh you say about a
1:00:04political regime it needs a foundation
1:00:06in force because it's going to deal with
1:00:09evil that must be suppressed uh now this
1:00:12is not an assertion that might makes
1:00:15right because that principle is actually
1:00:18actually failed in the play It's the
1:00:20principle represented by Cornwell and
1:00:22Reagan in the trial of glester for
1:00:23example and there's a peasant Revolt
1:00:27that people stand up against it uh it's
1:00:29not that might makes right but it is
1:00:33that right needs might to establish
1:00:35itself that that that uh right without
1:00:40might uh isn't much in the political
1:00:42realm uh so it's very important that
1:00:46Shakespeare stages uh this impressive
1:00:48scene between uh uh Edgar and Edmund as
1:00:52a ritual combat uh uh and then we get
1:00:57the the the ending of the play on page
1:01:01uh 143 where uh Lear does enter with the
1:01:05Dead uh
1:01:07Cordelia uh uh and this too is an
1:01:10important uh
1:01:12reminder of the principle of might in
1:01:15politics Lear at the center of the play
1:01:19as we've seen is rejected politics he's
1:01:22questioned Justice he's even questioned
1:01:25the different difference between human
1:01:27beings and
1:01:28animals but now he's reminded of
1:01:31Cordelia I began this whole analysis of
1:01:34Lear on page 144 act 5 scene 3 again
1:01:38Line 1 306 where Lear says and my poor
1:01:41fool is hang no no no life why should a
1:01:46dog a horse a rat have life and thou no
1:01:49breath at all Leah recaptures a sense of
1:01:52the difference between human beings and
1:01:54animals at the end of the
1:01:56play uh he now sees the difference
1:01:59between Cordelia and some mere animal
1:02:03this is the difference that he denies in
1:02:05act 46 when he's forgetting about
1:02:07Cordelia and is obsessively dwelling on
1:02:10G rean is very important again for those
1:02:12people who think that act 34 is man no
1:02:15more than this that that's the truth of
1:02:17King Leah as a whole they're forgetting
1:02:20about this last moment and as a response
1:02:22to that perception Leah returns to the
1:02:25kingship
1:02:26for one grand moment at the end of the
1:02:29play this is on page 143 line
1:02:33276 a two I a plague upon you murderers
1:02:37traitors all line 276 I killed the slave
1:02:41that was a hanging day and he did it is
1:02:45true my lords he did this feeble 880
1:02:49year old fond and foolish old man still
1:02:53had it in him to kill the man man that
1:02:56killed Cordelia and he sees him as a
1:02:58slave and then in a marvelous
1:03:00Shakespearean moment did I not fellow I
1:03:03have seen the day with my good biting
1:03:05faune I would have made them skip I'm
1:03:09old now and these same crosses spoil me
1:03:12Lear goes back to his youth it is such a
1:03:15brilliant moment psychological moment on
1:03:17Shakespeare's part uh here at the very
1:03:20verge of his life Le I have seen the day
1:03:23with my goodbying fun I have made them
1:03:25skip and we get this brief glimpse of
1:03:27what made Lear king in the beginning
1:03:30that he made them skip with his
1:03:33sword uh uh and again the sword is not
1:03:36enough does not make a complete human
1:03:39being but without it the cordeliers of
1:03:42the world uh are alas uh all too liable
1:03:46uh uh to be killed uh so Leah remembers
1:03:50his youth here he dies committing an act
1:03:53of justice and specifically an act of
1:03:56punishment what he renounced in effect
1:03:58in act
1:03:5946 when he was going to let people go
1:04:02for adultery and he wasn't going to
1:04:04punish anybody anymore kill Cordelia and
1:04:07he realizes why there's a need for the
1:04:10king leaders of this world uh so we see
1:04:13this very powerful uh moment Shakespeare
1:04:17reminding us of the need for politics so
1:04:20much of this play shows us the limits of
1:04:22Politics the defects of politics uh and
1:04:25yet what makes life tragic is we still
1:04:27need it for all its problematic aspects
1:04:30the only thing standing between us and
1:04:33the gals and Regan and Edmonds uh and
1:04:36cornwells of the world are people like
1:04:38King Lear who were willing to stand up
1:04:41and make people skip uh with their
1:04:45faure uh uh and so a tremendous ending
1:04:49to the play and we're
1:04:52left really in a pool of Tears at the
1:04:56end of this play I can barely read it
1:04:58let alone uh sit through a production of
1:05:00it uh and we do see a reconstitution of
1:05:04order here at the Ed of the play uh uh
1:05:07we see who will rule but it's tough
1:05:11because people don't want to rule
1:05:14anymore uh very interesting development
1:05:18uh alany who's the highest ranking
1:05:20person left
1:05:22standing uh says on page uh 44 line 300
1:05:27for us we will resign during the life of
1:05:30this old Majesty to him our absolute
1:05:31power
1:05:33so imagine what an Edmund or a Cornwall
1:05:36would do at this point just exal in
1:05:38taking over uh albany's first move is a
1:05:41move of resignation we're going to let
1:05:43Leah rule uh uh and then when he
1:05:47dies uh this is now page 145 so line 320
1:05:53our present Al says our present business
1:05:55is is General woe friends of my soul you
1:05:58Twain rule in this realm and the gourd
1:06:00stay sustain uh much of this play has
1:06:04been a Scramble for power people
1:06:07fighting to get the
1:06:09throne uh and above all the venas
1:06:11characters uh the ending is just the
1:06:15reverse people trying to renounce the
1:06:17throne I resign I resign no you resign
1:06:21uh and this is an important lesson here
1:06:23that these people have learned uh that
1:06:26power isn't what it's cracked up to be
1:06:29uh and indeed in Plato's Republic uh and
1:06:32even more so in to Thomas Moore's Utopia
1:06:35uh the best qualification for ruling is
1:06:38a disinclination to rule Thomas Moore
1:06:41has in that Utopia set something the
1:06:43best way you know who you want to Ru is
1:06:45the people who don't want to do it that
1:06:47would be a nice qualification for
1:06:49American politics uh I might add and we
1:06:52see it here this is a very
1:06:54sobered uh group of rulers left at the
1:06:57end uh uh who really now have developed
1:07:00a distaste for politics and presumably
1:07:04uh will be better rulers for it they
1:07:06will not be grabbing for everything the
1:07:09way the villains in the play do um and
1:07:12then the last lines of the play uh
1:07:15spoken by Edgar this the weight of this
1:07:17sad time he must obey speak what we feel
1:07:20uh not what we ought to say the oldest
1:07:23have born most we they're young shall
1:07:26never see so much nor live so long uh
1:07:29and we see here A reversal of everything
1:07:32the play began with speak what we feel
1:07:35uh not what we ought to say the whole
1:07:37problem in the court as we've been
1:07:39seeing uh all along since the history
1:07:41plays and including As You Like It Is
1:07:43that in the court we speak what we ought
1:07:45to say not what we feel and people can't
1:07:48express their feelings and that's the
1:07:50problem in the opening scene it's what
1:07:53Cordelia is complaining about out that
1:07:56people in court speak what they ought to
1:07:58say not what they feel uh and the oldest
1:08:01hath born much most we that are young
1:08:04shall never see so much nor live so long
1:08:07uh here's the sense that who's ever left
1:08:10is
1:08:12diminished you get a real feel for The
1:08:15Shakespearean tragic ending here uh that
1:08:19uh uh order has been reconstituted but
1:08:22on a much lower level uh fortunately we
1:08:26can say that it is both what's best and
1:08:29what's worst in humanity that has been
1:08:32purged by the end of the play yes gor o
1:08:36rean Cornwall uh and uh uh Edmund are
1:08:39gone uh but Lear is gone Cordelia is
1:08:42gone fool is gone Kent is more or less
1:08:44saying he's going to kill himself uh uh
1:08:48this is a good example of what
1:08:49reconstitution of order at the end of a
1:08:51tragedy as opposed to a comedy is that
1:08:54is in Shakespeare in comedy there's
1:08:57something very positive about the
1:08:59restoration of order at the end of the
1:09:01play we feel it is inclusive and it
1:09:03brings everybody together and it brings
1:09:06them together in marriages that look to
1:09:08the Future and promise fertility and
1:09:12generation uh and in that sense uh the
1:09:15continuation of the political Community
1:09:18uh yes we may lose a Jak is here and a
1:09:22malvolio there but good riddens to them
1:09:25killjoys anyway uh but Shakespeare does
1:09:29that even in the comedies to remind us
1:09:31that inclusive even in comedy isn't all
1:09:35inclusive uh but here in the tragedy the
1:09:38sense of loss is tremendous at the end
1:09:41uh uh much as we saw in Romeo and Juliet
1:09:44that yes Verona comes together but we've
1:09:47lost Romeo and Juliet and Mario and
1:09:49tibble lost almost all the Youth of the
1:09:52city all the promise of the future there
1:09:54uh he here the these the these remaining
1:09:58characters they are Shell Shocked it's
1:10:00almost post-traumatic stress syndrome uh
1:10:04here and legitimately after what they've
1:10:06been through uh so this is what it means
1:10:10in a tragedy you reconstitute order but
1:10:13on a much lower level the greatest
1:10:15figures have been purged from the
1:10:17community and it's a good reminder and
1:10:19some ways the political Community for
1:10:22Shakespeare is the
1:10:24middle it's it's where people meet at
1:10:27the middle it's where they
1:10:29compromise uh it's where in some ways
1:10:32they have to give up their greatest
1:10:34hopes and aspirations but in which they
1:10:36can avoid their greatest fears and
1:10:38Nightmares and again you lose uh the
1:10:42evil characters the monsters of the deep
1:10:44but you know you also Lo lose King Le
1:10:47and Cordelia as well and that's why it's
1:10:49tragic okay I've left myself enough time
1:10:52to say something to sum this all up in
1:10:54terms of clothing
1:10:56uh I've been wanting to you know I'm an
1:10:58English Professor I should say more
1:11:00about imagery in this course uh and it
1:11:03it is amazing how Shakespeare uh
1:11:05organizes this play around the imagery
1:11:07of clothing and let me run through that
1:11:09to sum up what I've been saying about
1:11:11nature and convention uh uh in the play
1:11:14it's been saying clothing is a marvelous
1:11:17example of all this complexity of Nature
1:11:19and convention uh as Shakespeare
1:11:21presents it again we start off with this
1:11:23simple notion that there's nature and
1:11:26there convention and there's convention
1:11:28and there and they're complete opposites
1:11:30and we can see that you know we look at
1:11:33animals in nature they grow their own
1:11:36clothing uh uh uh uh it's their skin
1:11:40it's their feathers it's the fur uh a
1:11:43polar bear doesn't go into a store and
1:11:45say show me something in a white uh and
1:11:49a porcupine doesn't go into a store and
1:11:51say uh what's the latest you got in
1:11:53quills uh no no they just they just grow
1:11:57these things uh and it's natural to them
1:12:00now notice that means that they're kind
1:12:02of restricted That You Don't See too
1:12:04many polar bears in Miami Beach because
1:12:06they can't just take off the coat uh uh
1:12:10uh and so human beings are these strange
1:12:13creatures uh that make their clothing uh
1:12:17our clothing doesn't just grow on us uh
1:12:21uh and uh at first we want to say about
1:12:24clothing that it's unnatural it's so
1:12:27artificial and so much of it is so much
1:12:29of it is ridiculous and artificial uh
1:12:33and and Le makes that point I keep
1:12:35coming back to this speech on page 65 uh
1:12:39about clothing uh Act 2 scene4 line
1:12:43266 uh when he says to gor Reagan thou
1:12:46art a lady if only to go warm or
1:12:49gorgeous why nature needs not what thou
1:12:51gorgeous wears which scarcely keeps thee
1:12:53warm it's so packed there but what he's
1:12:57saying this this strange thing about
1:12:59clothing that you would think we wear
1:13:01clothing to keep us warm uh that's the
1:13:05function of clothing we would like to
1:13:07say that's when clothing is natural when
1:13:09it performs its function of of keeping
1:13:11us warm but in fact uh uh uh people wear
1:13:16clothing that makes them look gorgeous
1:13:18even though it's scarcely keeps them
1:13:20warm clothing often doesn't seem to
1:13:22follow its sheer fun functional purpose
1:13:26it's a way of expressing ourselves of uh
1:13:29showing how good we are uh by by wearing
1:13:32this beautiful clothing and so in
1:13:34northern England you'd wear silk uh
1:13:37instead of heavy Furs uh just to show
1:13:40how gorgeous uh you are and Lear
1:13:43understands that that's there's
1:13:45something crazy about that and even
1:13:47artificial about it and yet it's our way
1:13:50of showing man's life is not as cheap as
1:13:52beasts as he says in that speech uh that
1:13:55uh clothing is a way in which we fulfill
1:13:59ourselves and people have whole careers
1:14:02uh uh in the area and it's the
1:14:04incredible thing about human beings this
1:14:06again the strange thing we are these
1:14:08beings whose nature it is uh uh to
1:14:12create conventions uh this comes up uh
1:14:16uh later in the play uh with uh on page
1:14:21113 when Lear clothes themselves in
1:14:24flowers this is page 113 Act 4 sc6 about
1:14:28line uh 80 when he enters enter Lear
1:14:30fantastically dressed with wild
1:14:33flowers uh uh uh he's not now accepting
1:14:36his nakedness he's dressed himself up in
1:14:38flowers and then this is a little hard
1:14:41to follow maybe and I think some
1:14:42producers miss it as well this is line
1:14:4584 no Leah says no they cannot touch me
1:14:48for coining I'm the king himself oh th
1:14:51side piercing spite nature is above art
1:14:53in that respect there's your press money
1:14:56uh uh Lear starts handing out the
1:14:59flowers as
1:15:01money uh there's your press money the
1:15:03money for serving in my Army uh and his
1:15:07point about this is he's the
1:15:09king they cannot touch me for coining
1:15:11I'm the king himself uh he's like a
1:15:14Renaissance head of the Federal
1:15:16Reserve uh helicopter leier a 16th
1:15:20century Ben banki uh he can just create
1:15:22money out of nothing here cuz he's the K
1:15:25uh and if he says it's money it's money
1:15:28and nature is above art in that respect
1:15:31uh uh it's really a fascinating moment
1:15:33where again this strange thing about
1:15:36human nature that we can just create
1:15:38things by our will now I'm going to read
1:15:41you a passage from a later work of
1:15:43Shakespeare's the Winter's Tale which is
1:15:45also about nature and art and helps to
1:15:48make the point I've been trying to make
1:15:51here this is a scene uh a pastoral scene
1:15:54among she and shepherdesses uh and
1:15:56they're talking about uh horiculture and
1:16:00specifically about grafting how you can
1:16:02make a better plant by grafting uh and
1:16:05one of the characters says yet nature is
1:16:08made better by no mean but nature makes
1:16:11that mean so over that art which you say
1:16:14adds to Nature is an art that nature
1:16:18makes this is an art which does men
1:16:20nature change it rather but the art
1:16:24itself is is nature this is maybe the
1:16:27most philosophical passage in all of
1:16:29Shakespeare there and I offered so you
1:16:30see he really does think about these
1:16:32issues uh what he's saying there is we
1:16:35human beings are part of
1:16:37Nature and so what we do is natural now
1:16:41bees make honey and create hives uh and
1:16:46have societies and we think that's all
1:16:48natural because it's what bees
1:16:51do but because they do it by Instinct we
1:16:54you beings are strange because we do
1:16:57things we create hives we create cities
1:17:00uh we create things like honey and we
1:17:03make clothing and so on but we are part
1:17:06of
1:17:06nature uh so why isn't that natural uh
1:17:11uh this is an art which does men nature
1:17:14but the art itself is nature uh I want
1:17:17you to see that when he reflects on this
1:17:19Shakespeare does uh offer the idea that
1:17:24there isn't a simple uh opposition
1:17:26between nature and convention uh that in
1:17:29fact uh our conventions are natural in
1:17:32the sense we're that peculiar animal
1:17:34that is not given everything by Instinct
1:17:37uh and it's part of our Natures that we
1:17:39create things here and it may be
1:17:41creating new plants that have never been
1:17:44seen in nature before or it may be
1:17:46creating our cities or creating our
1:17:48clothing that's why in this play so much
1:17:52of the counteraction one Society has
1:17:54been dissolved uh is the act of
1:17:57restoring clothing so that uh in the as
1:18:01we see we see civilization dissolving as
1:18:04we watch clothing coming
1:18:06off so page 77 uh when uh this is act 3
1:18:12SC 4 about line 65 when Tom appears
1:18:15naked on the stage quite a moment uh uh
1:18:19and and Lear thinks it's his daughters
1:18:21that brought him to this past he says
1:18:23would thou give them all and the fool
1:18:25this is act 3 C4 line 65 says nay he
1:18:28reserved a blanket else we' been all
1:18:31shamed so presumably Tom at least still
1:18:34has a blanket covering his loins now
1:18:36this is a marvelous moment when you
1:18:37think about it because a theatrical
1:18:40convention runs up against this larger
1:18:42political convention here though uh
1:18:44there was no to my knowledge full
1:18:46frontal nudity on the Elizabethan stage
1:18:49so they couldn't have Tom come out
1:18:51totally naked so as the fool points out
1:18:53they had to put a black on it today of
1:18:56course they have full frontal nudity
1:18:57everywhere and so you see this stuff uh
1:19:01all the time now uh as we've seen Lear
1:19:04then begins to uh undress in act four
1:19:07scene uh uh act 3 scene 4 uh but it this
1:19:11is the Turning Point comes uh uh in act
1:19:163 scene 6 when he starts Lear starts to
1:19:19recover the need for
1:19:21clothing act 3
1:19:23scene6 uh he's constituting a core here
1:19:27no O's but but robes this is act 36
1:19:31about line 35 it's on page 85 bring in
1:19:34their evidence and to Edgar he says Thou
1:19:36robed man of Justice take thy place even
1:19:40in his madness he realizes you know if
1:19:42we're going to have a society we need
1:19:44clothing and so as I point out last time
1:19:47page 87 uh uh the reversal of the
1:19:50movement occurs in act 3 SC 6 here line
1:19:5379 uh uh he he he takes uh Tom for his
1:19:59uh his uh 100 nights only I do not like
1:20:02the fashionary garments you will say
1:20:04they are Persian but let them be changed
1:20:07and from then on we see a lot of changes
1:20:09of garments in this play as the world is
1:20:12reconstituted in Social terms uh page 97
1:20:17Act 4 scene1 about line 44 uh uh gler
1:20:22thinking of uh his walk to over says and
1:20:25bring some covering for this naked
1:20:28Soul indeed as we start to move back
1:20:30into society out of the depths of the
1:20:33center of this play we need some
1:20:35covering for the naked Soul uh
1:20:38page uh uh
1:20:41110 uh uh gler uh uh notices the
1:20:47difference in Edgar's voice this is Act
1:20:504 C6 uh line um uh uh 8
1:20:55uh you are much deceived in nothing I
1:20:57might change but in my
1:20:59garments again I'm trying to show you
1:21:01how how thematic this is in the play the
1:21:03change of garments uh page uh
1:21:08123 uh C this is act 47 Cordelia says
1:21:12this the Kent uh 47 L six be better
1:21:17suited these weeds or memories of those
1:21:19worse or hours he wants me to dress
1:21:21better it's Mar that be better suited if
1:21:24you don't put a new suit on you won't be
1:21:27suited fit uh for this uh new Society
1:21:31120 uh uh 4 uh at the top Act 4 SC 7
1:21:37about line 20 I Madam in the heaviness
1:21:39of sleep we put fresh garments on him
1:21:42set of Lear uh and then we saw he
1:21:45couldn't recognize uh the garments there
1:21:48so uh again the the whole sweep of the
1:21:52play is encapsulated in the fact that we
1:21:54begin with everyone dressed
1:21:57up uh in the ritual uh ceremonial aspect
1:22:02of the Court everybody looking the part
1:22:04it's in the nature of the play that
1:22:06everyone gets stripped of that clothing
1:22:08we end up with naked wretches at the
1:22:11center of the play and that is the sense
1:22:13of recognizing how artificial
1:22:15conventions can be but the play does not
1:22:18leave us naked and it doesn't leave the
1:22:20characters naked the counter movement in
1:22:23the play is a reconstitution of society
1:22:26and that takes the form of a
1:22:27reconstitution of clothing people have
1:22:30to put the garments back on but they're
1:22:33fresh garments that's that's the hope we
1:22:36may never retain to the state uh of the
1:22:40Regal state that leer begins with but by
1:22:42the end of the play uh uh Edgar for
1:22:45example who's ended up naked in the
1:22:47middle of the play is back looking like
1:22:49a knight uh and and Dressed to Kill as
1:22:53we say and and ready to assume Authority
1:22:56here so again this play is a great
1:22:58investigation of the tension between
1:23:00nature and Convention it does recognize
1:23:05Shakespeare's understanding of how false
1:23:07and artificial conventions can be but he
1:23:09does see that it's in human nature to
1:23:13live in a world of conventions that the
1:23:16community itself is a kind of convention
1:23:19created by human beings and to think
1:23:21that we can simply dispense with
1:23:22conventions that's the view of men like
1:23:24Edmund uh that there's no difference
1:23:27between legitimate and illegitimate it's
1:23:29the view of Lear uh in his Madness in
1:23:32act for six I don't think it's the
1:23:34wisdom of the play as a whole and it's
1:23:36real profundity and what what I think
1:23:39group Shakespeare in this regard with
1:23:41Plato and Aristotle uh against modern
1:23:44thinkers like Hobbs and rouso that he
1:23:46thinks of human beings as fulfilled in
1:23:49the community and therefore fulfilled in
1:23:51their building of conventions his hope
1:23:54is that uh uh we won't let our
1:23:56conventions get totally out of touch
1:23:58with nature as he feels happens in St
1:24:01petar and love poetry but that we will
1:24:03learn to reconstitute our conventions in
1:24:05some way that brings them closer to
1:24:07Nature okay we finished kingly here
1:24:10we'll move on to the Tempest and see how
1:24:11many of these same ideas play out there

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This page contains the full transcript of King Lear (Lecture 4 of 4) by Shakespeare and Politics, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 12,858 words across 1,770 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

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Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.