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Twelfth Night (Lecture 2 of 2) & King Lear (Lecture 1 of 4) — Transcript

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0:08just to mention a few things the two
0:10plays I mentioned by Ben Johnson last
0:12time are the Alchemist and Bartholomew
0:15fa they are the other two great uh
0:19Renaissance plays attacking the Puritans
0:22uh they're very funny and uh among the
0:26best plays of the period And if you want
0:28to see and develop many of the the same
0:30ideas that Shakespeare does about the
0:32Puritans and them uh my intention is to
0:36finish up fairly quickly on 12 night and
0:39actually introduce King leer today by
0:41talking about the issue of the state of
0:43nature a central issue of political
0:46thought that we'll be exploring um in
0:49King leer uh we are on schedule to
0:53finish lectures as originally placed at
0:57April 28th I am uh
1:00considering holding an informal session
1:03on April 30th for those of you want it
1:06that would be a kind of review session
1:08and you could ask questions about the
1:10final then but obviously it wouldn't be
1:12required I'll let you guys think about
1:14that maybe poll people over email uh but
1:18in any case we should be finished by
1:21April 28th unless it snows again uh uh
1:26okay uh to finish up on 12th night I'd
1:30actually like to begin with uh one of
1:32Shakespeare's
1:33sources um it's a work called abalonus
1:38and Sila by Barnaby Rich uh uh it's in
1:41your the signant editions it's always
1:44very interesting to look at
1:44Shakespeare's sources if you ever want
1:46to see how great Shakespeare is compare
1:49his sources and see what he was able to
1:52do with stuff that looks pretty awful to
1:55us aell is a particularly good example
1:57of that uh what he managed to eek out of
2:00that that story but uh if you've got the
2:02signate this is on pages 110 to 111 uh
2:08uh this is Rich's introduction to his
2:13little love story uh there is no child
2:16that is born into this wretched world
2:18but before it does suck the mother's
2:20milk it taketh first a su of the cup of
2:23era which maketh off which maketh us
2:26when we come to riper years not only to
2:29enter into of injury but many times to
2:32stray to stray from what is right and
2:34reason but in all other things where we
2:37show ourselves to be most drunken with
2:39this poison cup it is in our actions of
2:42Love For the Lover is so estranged from
2:45that is right and wander is so wide from
2:48the bounds of reason that he is not able
2:50to deem white from black good from bad
2:53virtual from Vice but only led by the
2:56appetite of his own affections and
2:57grounding them on the foolishness of his
2:59his own fancies will so settle his
3:02liking on such a one as either by desert
3:04or unworthiness will Merit rather to be
3:07loathed than loved uh now in a way
3:11that's a propositional statement of what
3:14we've been seeing in Shakespeare's
3:16comedies but the tone is all wrong that
3:19is we've been seeing that Shakespeare
3:20presents Heros as this irrational force
3:23and he shows us the confusions that
3:25lovers end enter into and the mistakes
3:28he make makes but this is a good measure
3:30of where Shakespeare stands this is what
3:33jacus might say about love this is what
3:35malio might say about love this is an
3:38attitude that Shakespeare is careful to
3:40distinguish himself from this is way too
3:44bitter for Shakespeare uh to have such
3:46contempt for love Shakespeare's uh
3:49satire his comedy is always more gentle
3:52it's more accepting of human fbls it is
3:56in the mode of Lord what fools these
3:58mortals be with the understanding that
4:02he's part of the Folly because
4:03Shakespeare is also a human being uh uh
4:07so Shakespeare was out of sync with a
4:10sourcer but then Rich says something
4:12that I may have struck Shakespeare if a
4:15question might be asked what is the
4:17ground indeed of reasonable love whereby
4:20the notot is knit of true and perfect
4:23friendship now there's that idea I've
4:25been talking about as you like it with
4:2712th night that that love must be
4:29thought of as on the model of friendship
4:32uh I don't think Shakespeare got that
4:34idea from Rich but you can say uh he
4:36might have reinforced it for Shakespeare
4:39uh what is the ground indeed of
4:40reasonable love whereby the not is KN of
4:42true and perfect friendship I think
4:44those that be wise would answer
4:47desert that is where the party beloved
4:50doth requite us with the like that's
4:52that reciproc and love I was talking
4:54about in 12th night for otherwise here
4:57you see you know the kind of critique of
4:59sh and love that Shakespeare velops for
5:02otherwise if the bare show of beauty or
5:04the cess of personage might be
5:06sufficient to confirm us in our love
5:09those that be accustomed to go to fairs
5:10and markets might sometimes fall in love
5:13with 20 in a Day dessert must then be a
5:16force the ground of reasonable love for
5:19to love them that hate us to follow them
5:22that fly from us to fa on them that
5:25frown on us to Curry favor with them to
5:28disdain us to be glad GL to please them
5:30that care not how they offend us who
5:32will not confess this to be an erroneous
5:35love neither grounded upon wit nor
5:37reason I mentioned this so you can see I
5:39mean I've been presenting Shakespeare's
5:42uh critique of petrarch and love uh
5:45comparing him to cantes uh they're not
5:47alone in this there are other people who
5:49see the Ridiculousness of this idea uh
5:53of the uh uh man worshiping a woman from
5:57afar and and and wallowing in her
5:59rejection of him and this emphasis on
6:02reasa love and and enrich again I think
6:05that gives you an idea where the
6:06emphasis is on in Shakespeare on a kind
6:09of uh reasonable love uh so what we've
6:12got here is a story uh in 12 night that
6:15exposes uh fallacy of of kind of
6:19thinking about love uh we see in the
6:22case of both Olivia uh and Duke orino uh
6:27that they are locked in futile uh
6:30positions uh one good measure of it is
6:33the fact that their love affair is
6:35conducted by
6:37intermediaries uh we don't know if
6:39they've even met but in any case they
6:42work through Messengers going back and
6:44forth not that kind of vital and vibrant
6:46exchange that Romeo and Juliet
6:48experienced from their first um uh
6:51moment of meeting uh and uh there's a
6:55sense that therefore this love uh is
6:58going nowhere in uh uh Olivia's case uh
7:03she presents it as a matter of mourning
7:06that she's in mourning for a dead
7:08brother the course of the play indicates
7:10to us how shallow those emotions really
7:13are and indeed feste the clown uh points
7:16out to her early in the play page 17 uh
7:20the the the the uh contradiction in her
7:23position this is act 1 scene 5 about
7:26line 65 uh good Madonna why Mourns thou
7:31good fool for my brother's death I think
7:34his whole soul is in Hell Madonna Olivia
7:37says I know his soul is in heaven fool
7:39and then feste answers the more fool
7:42Madonna to mourn for your brother's Soul
7:44being in heaven so you know if she were
7:47really honest about her
7:49beliefs uh she shouldn't see this as
7:53something terrible for a brother and
7:54above all to move
7:56on that's what we see here as I said
7:58this is sh Shakespeare's test case here
8:01in 12th night let's remove all the
8:03problems we've seen in love and then we
8:05find that in the absence of real
8:07problems lovers create imaginary
8:10problems for themselves uh we really see
8:14the perversity of this brand of love in
8:17that it actively seeks out
8:20suffering uh uh uh they want to be
8:23miserable they don't want to be happy
8:25they don't want to live life they're
8:26using love and L's case or morning as an
8:30excuse for not getting on uh with the
8:33business uh of Life uh above all we see
8:38them locked into these uh artificial
8:41positions uh and they will not accept
8:44change I mentioned what you could call
8:47emotional inertia here I think
8:49Shakespeare's rather as always
8:52psychologically astute in seeing this
8:54that uh people can be attracted to
8:57misery because they get comfortable with
9:00it it's almost you could say a habit uh
9:03and what we see here typical of the the
9:07characters who won't go along with the
9:09comedy is characters who won't change
9:13again the comic virtue is flexibility
9:16and therefore embracing the world of
9:18mutability the world of
9:21metamorphosis uh Shakespeare was very
9:23maybe his favorite book was ain's
9:27metamorphosis uh and M dream is riddled
9:31uh with stories out of avid's
9:33metamorphosis uh it it's a rather
9:36interesting touch uh that uh uh
9:40malvolio rejects
9:43metamorphosis uh he's another one of
9:45these characters who stands for a kind
9:48of rigidity this is on page
9:5084 uh Act 4 scene 2 in the course of a
9:54scene we come back to the the
9:56Inquisition of malvolio uh
9:59feste disguises Copus says this is Act 4
10:02SC2 live 51 what is the opinion of
10:05Pythagoras concerning wild
10:08foul and Mal correctly answers that the
10:10soul of our Grandam might happily
10:12inherit a bird this is metam psychosis
10:15the doctrine of Pythagoras uh that after
10:18death uh human beings can go into the
10:21souls of animals and so forth uh uh and
10:25the clown says what thinks thou of his
10:27opinion I think noly of the Soul
10:29and no way approve his opinion feir Thee
10:32Well remain thou in darkness uh Thou
10:35shalt hold the opinion of pagor era
10:37allow thy wits uh It's Curious Fact one
10:40of the you know the opinion
10:43that malol rejects is the Pythagorean
10:47idea of metam psychosis of mutability of
10:50transformation of
10:52metamorphosis uh uh and so uh typically
10:56in Shakespeare the comic confusions are
10:59introduced to shake people out of the
11:01ruts they've gotten into uh uh uh so
11:05that for
11:06example uh by falling in love with
11:10cesarel Olivia will experience what it
11:13is uh to be rejected in love she will
11:16experience the pangs of despised love
11:19something poor orino has been going
11:21through for years and that she's been
11:23unsympathetic to you this is typical
11:26what we seen Midsummer I Dreaming As You
11:27Like It uh we need these reversals of
11:30perspective these reversals of roles
11:33that get people to see uh what they've
11:35been uh uh Missing in life uh and in
11:40particular uh it's uh uh the youth uh
11:45especially of Viola masquerad Cesario
11:49that brings this dead world back to life
11:53uh uh Shakespeare Associates convention
11:57and the deadening of conventions with
11:58old old people who knows how much this
12:01was a reflection of the Elizabethan
12:03Court Elizabeth during Shakespeare
12:06during the time Shakespeare was writing
12:07was growing very
12:08old uh and her counselors were growing
12:12very old uh and as I've mentioned was
12:14the young Nobles Who had who felt held
12:18back by the old Ben in Elizabeth's court
12:22and uh people like Essex and and
12:25Southampton uh and Shakespeare may have
12:28had an cute feeling uh for this the way
12:31a political regime can
12:34rigidify uh become sclerotic uh and not
12:38be open to the energy of of of Youth uh
12:43anymore and the comedies seem to deal
12:46with that issue of of a world of old
12:50people clamping down and not accepting
12:53Youth and change and so it's I think no
12:55accident that the the heroes and
12:58especially the heroins of these romantic
13:00comedies are young people specifically
13:02young women uh who really shake things
13:05up by their willingness uh to adopt uh
13:09new roles uh and and get things moving
13:13uh uh get things uh uh changing uh and
13:18so uh we get this release of erotic
13:22energy uh the characters are reordered
13:25they repair as in a dance and so at the
13:29end we're ready to have uh Sebastian
13:32marry Olivia and Duke Rino to marry
13:36Viola now Sebastian's case is is very
13:39interesting in terms of what we've been
13:42seeing and the integrative function uh
13:46of Comedy uh and specifically uh the
13:49role uh of Heros uh subastian uh has the
13:54kind of dream experience uh that we've
13:59been looking at in lovers ever since
14:03Romeo and Juliet uh he after all wanders
14:07into a situation that he does not
14:08understand he does not know that his
14:10sister Viola has been running around
14:12masquerading as a boy uh and that people
14:16have all sorts of issues with that
14:18Cesario uh Olivia's fallen in love with
14:21him Andrew a Andrew auu is having a
14:25fight with him and Sebastian doesn't
14:28know he's got an identical twin sister
14:31creating these problems for him so he
14:33has a rather strange time uh in uh ayria
14:38uh if you look at page 80 uh so act 4
14:41scene one line 27 you see the focus of
14:44it are all the people
14:46mad uh now this is that isolation that
14:52we've seen so many characters go through
14:55that uh part of this comic experience is
14:58is into to enter into it's a mad mad mad
15:02mad world where everything's Topsy Turvy
15:05and things don't seem to be following
15:07normal expectations uh here and so uh on
15:11page um uh 81 uh this is Act 4 SC1
15:16l61 he just uh now he's had some guy
15:20want to have a fight with him and he
15:21doesn't know why and now a woman has
15:23shown up who's in love with him and he
15:25doesn't know why that's a little better
15:28line 60 what relishes in this how runs
15:30the stream or I am mad or else this is a
15:33dream let fancy still my sense and leave
15:36the Steep if it be thus to dream still
15:39let me sleep now we heard Romeo say that
15:43uh that his experience with Juliet was
15:46like a dream come true uh we've seen it
15:50in Midsummer Night's Dream where it
15:52happens to all the lovers uh at the
15:54center of play uh Shakespeare continues
15:57to associate Heros with this dream world
15:59this world of your dreams the world of
16:01your
16:02desires uh and it's it's
16:07dreamlike he wants it and yet it's very
16:10disorienting uh and unnerving uh because
16:13the world looks mad to him uh and he has
16:17to wonder uh if he himself is mad how
16:21does he resolve
16:22it you can see on page
16:2587 uh so act four scen three uh uh what
16:31he discovers is he's in a functioning
16:35world and so it can't be just a dream uh
16:40uh and we this is a interesting speech
16:42act 43 right at the beginning line one
16:45uh as he tries to come to grips with
16:48exper his experience this is the air
16:51that is the Glorious Sun this Pearl she
16:53gave me I do feel it and see it and
16:56though is wonder that unwraps me thus
16:58yet is not
17:00Madness uh and then he thinks of Antonio
17:03and whether Antonio could help him out
17:05and then line n for though my soul
17:07disputes well with my sinense that this
17:10may be some error but no Madness yet do
17:13this accident and flood of Fortune so
17:14far exceed all instance all discourse
17:17that I am ready to distress mine eyes
17:19and Wrangle with my reason that
17:21persuades me to any other trust but that
17:23I am mad or else the lady's mad it's
17:26just it's so crazy what's happening uh
17:31here especially beautiful woman wealthy
17:33woman is in love with him for no
17:35apparent reason he's never met her uh
17:38he's got to be crazy but then he thinks
17:41it through yet if it were so she could
17:44not sway her house command her followers
17:47take and give back Affairs in their
17:49dispatch with such a smooth discreet and
17:51stable bearing as I perceive she
17:54does so what he looks for is a function
17:59Society if you're mad everything's mad
18:03but here's a household it's well-run
18:06everybody else thinks they're sane
18:09everyone thinks she's sane people follow
18:12her orders this is the way in which
18:14society is reassuring to people uh uh
18:19let me put it this way in this world
18:23objectivity takes the form of inter
18:26subjectivity uh how do you know it's the
18:28real world well all these other people
18:29think it's the real world you think
18:32you're having a terribly subjective
18:35experience that you're seeing the world
18:37the way nobody else does but it's
18:39reassuring therefore to have a
18:42functioning society around you that
18:43confirms your sense this is the way this
18:46is the real
18:48world uh I don't know how active your
18:50dream life is but uh you know very often
18:52in our dreams we realize it's got to be
18:54a dream because it's just too crazy I
18:56mean this is not the way the world op
18:58operates uh uh and so just what we saw
19:02on Midsummer Night's Dream just when
19:05it's the world seems going crazy the
19:07middle of act three just when the world
19:09when you moment when you think you're
19:11mad you long to get back to
19:15society again what we've seen from Romeo
19:18and Juliet on this intense erotic
19:20experience can become too solop
19:24cystic uh it is you're seeking out
19:27something intensely private but it can
19:29become too private so private it starts
19:33to become dreamlike and then
19:35nightmarish and you crave some kind of
19:39substantiality to your experience that
19:42only comes from experiencing the world
19:44with other people uh and that that's
19:47what happens uh here it uh um um it
19:51again suggests the function of the comic
19:54form uh it takes people out of society
19:58to let them reorder their affections
20:01maybe get back more back in touch with
20:03nature but uh uh in Shakespeare in
20:06comedy the characters are reordered back
20:09into society because that's the only way
20:12to give ground and stability uh to their
20:15lives uh there's a marvelous
20:17prefiguration of this and as you like it
20:19you can look it up it's on page 60 so
20:21act3 scene 2 about line 391 when Roslin
20:25says to Orlando love is merely of
20:29Madness and I tell you deserves as well
20:31a darkh house and a whip as Mad Men do
20:34that's looking forward by the way to
20:36malvolio uh in 12 night uh love deserves
20:39as well a dark house and a whip as M do
20:41and the reason why they are not so
20:43punished and cured is that the lunacy is
20:46so ordinary that the whippers are in
20:49love
20:50too that's the the only thing that gets
20:53us out of the lunacy of Love is that all
20:56human being beings are lunatic when it
20:58comes to love the lunacy is so ordinary
21:01that the worshippers are in love too
21:03that's like the joke when they send
21:05Hamlet to England because they think
21:06he's mad and say they won't notice it
21:08there because everybody's mad in England
21:10but but H what love is is a common
21:14Madness as Shakespeare presents it it is
21:18irrational but if it can be integrated
21:20into society it can be made at least
21:23somewhat
21:25rational uh and and and made to be part
21:27of of a functional Society so we really
21:30see in Sebastian's case what's typical
21:33Shakespeare's comic figur is they have a
21:35crazy Topsy Turvy irrational experience
21:39and yet it actually brings them into the
21:42world of society he gets to marry uh
21:45Olivia and become become part of of
21:48Alyan society and again that's the the
21:50comic movement now Shakespeare contrasts
21:53that with malvolio and that's what I
21:55really want to talk about today the the
21:57the um uh mainly about malvolio and he
22:01is excluded at the end of the play
22:05indeed he excludes himself the famous
22:08line on page 103 act 5 se1 line 380 I'll
22:12be revenged on the whole pack of
22:16you uh uh comic
22:19ending party time everybody's happy uh
22:24and and Olivia tries to bring him in uh
22:29line 371 Alas poor fool how they have
22:32baffled thee uh she tries to be
22:35sympathetic and and you know we
22:37understand it was just a joke but of
22:39course she calls him poor fool and your
22:42notes claim that's a term of affection I
22:45don't know about that I've not when I've
22:47been called fool I haven't taken as much
22:50of a term of affection and actually you
22:52see there the point he can only be
22:54reintegrated Society into society if he
22:57accepts the fact that he's been a fool
23:00and he's too proud to do that as we'll
23:02see pride is a chief characteristic of
23:04him and uh to be reintegrated into
23:09society at the end of uh comedy people
23:12have to admit their foolishness give up
23:14their pretentions admit that they're
23:17just ordinary human beings and for
23:20example they're not Romeo and Juliet
23:22they're not willing to go to the death
23:25over their love they're willing to take
23:27second best uh uh and settle for an
23:32unheroic position in society uh uh uh
23:36Shakespeare helps to define the
23:39inclusive character of comedy by having
23:41an exclusion just as we show so with
23:44Jake is at the end of As You Like It uh
23:49the comic inclusion is inclusive but
23:52it's never all inclusive Shakespeare
23:55always shows there's something left
23:57hanging there
23:58uh that element of tragedy uh that uh he
24:03of course develops elsewhere uh but if
24:05you have this signant there's a famous
24:06essay by Charles Lamb uh in it uh I'll
24:10just read you the uh uh end of that it's
24:13on page 138 I confess that I never saw
24:16the catastrophe of
24:17malolo uh without a kind of tragic
24:20interest uh Charles Lamb is famous for
24:24the idea of malvolio as a tragic figure
24:26I think that's wrong but it Lambs on to
24:29something
24:30there uh that Shakespeare wants to show
24:34you that yes in a comedy everybody has
24:38to think the same at the end everybody
24:41has to see the same world there's no
24:44room anymore for Romeo and Juliet who
24:46see a kind of love that transcends uh
24:49the political community no these got to
24:51be these have to be people who were
24:52willing to get married found families
24:55participate in the city uh now it's
24:57actually very interesting uh that both
25:01at the end of a you like it and here at
25:03the end of 12 night that Shakespeare
25:05does suggest a kind of religious
25:09Dimension to this exclusion uh remember
25:12Jac is went off with this uh uh
25:16converti uh uh with this uh Duke
25:20Frederick uh yeah Duke Frederick who was
25:23going to become a Hermit uh and of
25:26course as I started saying last time
25:27time uh malvolio is identified with
25:31religion again religion is a powerful
25:34aspect of human life that isn't always
25:37fully integratable into the political
25:39Community we talk about religious
25:41fanaticism for example by that we mean
25:44you know people who take their religious
25:46beliefs more seriously uh than their
25:49social or political beliefs or obas
25:52their social political beliefs on their
25:54religious beliefs uh uh shakes was
25:58confronted with a lot of religious
25:59fanaticism uh in his lifetime uh and so
26:03you know i' from the start I've said
26:05that the kind of love that Shakespeare
26:07explores uh in his comedies has a link
26:10to
26:11religion that this Transcendent
26:14Dimension to Medieval ctly Love Somehow
26:19comes from its links to
26:21Christianity and so it's not so strange
26:24that in these plays about romantic love
26:28Shakespeare should bring up issues of
26:30religion and in particular show how at
26:33the end of ail like in here 12th night
26:35that people uh with an extreme religious
26:40view of some kind are not going to fit
26:42in to the comically refounded uh
26:45Community uh uh uh at the end and I
26:49think this is specifically true uh in in
26:52the case of bolio here there are
26:54interesting little hints in the play
26:56that there might might be some
26:59associations uh of
27:02uh the characters with religion if you
27:05look at uh page 37 for example uh this
27:11is act 2 scene 3 about line
27:13155 uh we hear about these this document
27:18that's going to fool malvolio Maria says
27:21I will droping way some obscure Epistles
27:23of Love Now Epistles is a normal word
27:27for letter
27:28uh but it's also spe specifically a word
27:31for letters in the New Testament uh the
27:34epistle to the Corinthians the uh and so
27:37on there a lot of Epistles uh in the New
27:41Testament and if you think I'm weird for
27:43making that connection look at page 100
27:47uh uh where feste says this is Page act
27:515 SC1 about line
27:53287 feste says uh uh uh but as a mad
27:58man's Epistles are no
28:00gospels so it skills not much when they
28:02are delivered here the Epistles uh the
28:07Epistles of Love Are especially uh
28:09directly associated with the gospel so
28:11there there again that that weird
28:16Confluence of this form extreme form of
28:19love with Christianity it's something we
28:21saw with botam in the Midsummer Night's
28:24Dream where he he echoed echoed Paul's
28:29Epistles to the
28:30Corinthians uh in his moment of his
28:33dream uh so that's why I said there's
28:36something going on here uh and and uh in
28:41the case of bolio we have this very
28:43strong fact that he is named as a
28:46Puritan in the play and I've been
28:49surprised I've been checking into it uh
28:51how much people critics are tempted to
28:54trivialize this as your notes do in this
28:56Edition say well he's called a puron but
28:59it's not really meant in the religious
29:01sense uh I I find that very dubious in
29:05the light of plays like Ben Johnson's in
29:07light of the whole issue and again we've
29:09talked about how heated the religious
29:11situation was in Shakespeare's day I
29:14started by talking about the conflict
29:16between Catholicism and protestantism
29:19which dominated the whole uh 16th
29:22century uh in England but that was even
29:25more heated up by the conflicts within
29:28protestantism between the rather
29:30moderate or middle position of
29:32anglicanism and the Extreme More
29:35radically Protestant position of
29:37puritanism the the religious
29:39establishment in Shakespeare's day the
29:42Church of England was as I was talking
29:44about last time threatened on both sides
29:46you had Catholics who were appalled that
29:49Henry VII had broken with the Catholic
29:51church but then you had the figures
29:54called
29:55Puritans uh uh who were appalled that
29:59Henry hadn't broken enough with the
30:00Catholic church and that he still had a
30:04an ecclesiastical hierarchy with Bishops
30:06and archbishops that he still had a l
30:08liturgy that looked Catholic uh that uh
30:11the churches were still adorned uh with
30:15what to Puritans looked like idolatry uh
30:19uh and Henry had tried to to craft a
30:22church of England but all sorts of
30:25protestant developments were going on on
30:26the
30:28uh uh and especially John Calvin and
30:31Switzerland that was the form of
30:33protestantism that became very
30:35attractive particularly in Scotland the
30:38Scottish Presbyterians so again this is
30:40not going to be on the final uh but I'm
30:42just saying very complicated situation
30:45uh and things in Shakespeare's lifetime
30:48there was still a threat from the
30:50Catholic Church
30:521589 uh the Armada 16005 the Gunpowder
30:55Plot an attempt to blow up the the king
30:57in Parliament to restore Catholicism to
31:00English this was England this was
31:01serious stuff but you also had these
31:03Puritans agitating uh for a much more
31:06radical form of
31:08protestantism uh and uh and one of their
31:12agitations was against the theater uh uh
31:16and again they
31:181642 the what we would call the Puritan
31:20forces in parment finally did Outlaw
31:23theater uh in England and that survived
31:26until 1600
31:27uh with the restoration under Charles II
31:30uh so this was important stuff for
31:33Shakespeare just from a career uh point
31:36of
31:37view and so in in
31:41portraying malvolio is the odd man out
31:45here uh there really is a strong
31:47religious Dimension to it uh that is
31:51what prevents him from participating in
31:54the comic conclusion is that he
31:56fundamentally SE sees the world
31:57differently than the other characters do
32:00he refuses to see the world as they do
32:03and it is
32:05presented uh in at least quasi religious
32:09uh terms here now what I find
32:11particularly fascinating about the play
32:14is Shakespeare's sociology of
32:17religion uh here uh uh centuries before
32:22Max
32:23vber uh Shakespeare's looking into what
32:26Max V called the Protestant ethic and
32:28the spirit of capitalism uh that is
32:31what's really
32:33interesting uh is shakespear's
32:36understanding of malvolio as a middle
32:38class figure that is who the Puritans
32:41were in terms of the
32:43socioeconomic uh uh lineup uh the
32:46aristocrats uh were on the side of the
32:48Anglican church and the tutor Dynasty
32:52the uh Puritan forces uh were largely
32:56middle class centered in the city of
32:58London the Puritans were Merchants
33:01largely money people that's how they
33:03gained their strength and eventually
33:05were able to stand up uh to the uh to
33:08the uh establishment uh in England and
33:12Shakespeare does line up the opposition
33:14in the play between Aristocrats uh and
33:17the middle class
33:20malvolio uh now uh you may have felt
33:24that sir Toby belch is another version
33:26of fall staff
33:27uh and I think there's a lot of Truth to
33:29that uh uh this is is not a very
33:35flattering image of the aristocracy
33:37again when Shakespeare gave many many
33:39great portraits of the nobility and
33:42heroism of the
33:43aristocracy uh Hotspur would be a good
33:45example of it uh I keep pointing out
33:49though he was no blind admirer of actual
33:52aristocracy and knew how degenerate in
33:55aristocracy could become come uh and
33:58certainly Toby belch is no Hotspur again
34:01he's more like f staff uh he does
34:03represent many of the things that fall
34:06staff does uh uh kind of
34:10overindulgence uh uh he's a spirit of
34:13disorder page8 uh act 1 scene 3 line 7
34:18Maria says I but to them you must
34:21confine yourself within the modest
34:23limits of order that's the bis word
34:26world the middle class world the modest
34:29limits of order and Toby says confine
34:33I'll confine myself no finer than I am
34:37and of course most fundamentally he's a
34:40drunk uh and like f staff uh he believes
34:44in reversing uh uh the order of Night
34:47and Day uh uh in the world if you look
34:50at page uh 30 uh this is act three act 2
34:55scene 3 uh uh the very opening approach
34:59sir Andrew not to be at bed after
35:01midnight is to be up at
35:03times you know the middle class virtue
35:06is get up early in the morning Toby's
35:08solution is don't go to sleep drink all
35:11night you'll be up early in the morning
35:13and you know that's as virtuous as it
35:15gets for him uh uh and and and and
35:19Shakespeare celebrates this uh again
35:23that great line I can't resist quoting
35:26it again p 35 act 2 scene 3 line 113
35:29when Toby says to to malvolio Art any
35:32more than a steward dust thou think
35:35because Thou Art virtuous there shall be
35:37no more cakes and alses uh uh and this
35:4112 Night play 12th night of Christmas
35:44celebrating the festive Spirit of
35:46Christmas Shakespeare celebrates the
35:48festive Spirit of life as he does in his
35:51festive ComEd comedies one starring a
35:54guy named feste uh in this case uh uh uh
35:58and he Associates it with the
36:00aristocracy the party animals of the
36:03Renaissance uh and notice how that
36:06begins art any more than a
36:09steward that's the aristocratic contempt
36:13there you're a working man here steuart
36:16is a fairly High position he's not an
36:18Ordinary Servant uh he's running the
36:21household he's responsible for the
36:23accounts a pretty high position but it's
36:26still
36:27makes him not an
36:29aristocrat uh uh and Shakespeare
36:32explores here is the psychology of this
36:36middle class character who turns out to
36:39be a social
36:42climber who wants to be better than he
36:45is in position because he thinks he
36:48thinks he's better than he's better that
36:50his
36:51betters uh one thing Shakespeare dwells
36:54on is malvolio's self love it's almost
36:58the first thing we hear about on page 18
37:01uh this is act 1 sc5 Olivia says uh this
37:05is act 1 5 L 90 says oh you were sick of
37:08self-love
37:10malolo uh and this is an important Motif
37:13in the play it comes up again on page
37:1536 when Maria this is says then this is
37:19the passage where she calls him a
37:20Puritan this is act 2 scene 3 line 146
37:24the devil a Puritan that is or anything
37:27constantly but a Time pleaser an
37:30affectioned ass that cons State without
37:33book and utters it by great swarz the
37:35best persuade himself so crammed as he
37:38thinks with excellencies that it is his
37:40grounds of faith that all that look on
37:43him love him there's a very high opinion
37:46of himself and he thinks other people
37:49have a high opinion of him he's a Time
37:52pleaser he tries to ingratiate himself
37:54with people uh uh uh uh uh he's an
37:58affection ass here uh you not say
38:02affected he's
38:03conceited uh uh con State without book
38:06he he pretends to be in on important
38:09political subjects uh when he's not now
38:12this is all tied together this is the
38:14passage that names him puron and speaks
38:17of his grounds of faith and it ties it
38:19in without what I'm calling is middle
38:21class characteristics and again
38:23Shakespeare has this pegged exactly
38:25right Ben Johnson shows the same thing
38:29uh with tribulation wholesome and The
38:30Alchemist and Zeal of the land busy in
38:32Bartholomew Fair the Puritan in
38:35Bartholomew Farah is a clothing Merchant
38:38uh make fun of the fact that he he he
38:41condemns the awful clothing people wear
38:44that dress them up uh in idolatrous
38:47fashion and he's of course manufacturing
38:49the clothes himself and Ben Johnson's
38:51play uh but everything runs together in
38:53this one passage here uh uh
38:57and what Shakespeare shows here is the
39:00psychology of this kind of man now he is
39:04talented he runs a good household it's
39:07one of the things to realize in Reading
39:10Comedy that our
39:13aesthetic u sense does not always line
39:17up with a moral sense uh on the stage we
39:20hoot down characters like malvolio he's
39:23a killjoy he's a spoil sport uh uh we
39:27want to have fun we've gone to the
39:28theater to have fun you know if if you
39:32lived in Olivia's household you might
39:34like this guy cuz he's keeping things
39:36functioning and your salar is getting
39:38paid because he's pinching
39:40pennies uh and making sure the money's
39:43there uh but those bgea virtues rarely
39:46come across well on the stage and they
39:48are often the subject of Comedy uh
39:52making fun of people who are Penny
39:55Pinchers uh who and and you know we
39:57respond to people like uh Toby belch who
40:01are spin thrifts uh and you know around
40:05the drinks for everybody uh they they
40:08spread Joy rather than killing Joy uh uh
40:12Shakespeare sees this
40:15type
40:18uh it's funny one of the Puritans would
40:21complain that working people wasted
40:24their money going to these
40:27plays uh that one of the reasons that
40:29theaters should be shut down is ordinary
40:32people were wasting money on
40:36entertainment uh imagine what
40:38Shakespeare thought of that opinion when
40:41he was making his living off those
40:42people wasting money on entertainment
40:45but you malvolio is the sort of guy who
40:48would not go to a play who would in fact
40:51hoot it down and he has a very high
40:53opinion of himself in some ways
40:55justifiably that he's running the
40:57household and he sees this drunken
40:59Aristocrat Toby belch who's worthless
41:02who's spending all the money uh how's
41:05the household going to go on and quite
41:07frankly malvolio thinks he's better than
41:11Toby Belch and he should be able to run
41:15things uh uh in the household that is
41:18what makes him susceptible to this
41:21deception uh his high opinion of himself
41:25and a secret desire to rule over the
41:29household uh that makes him believe this
41:32Preposterous note he finds and again
41:35Shakespeare is very clear on this page
41:38uh
41:3944 so act 2 C 5 line 23 uh what we see
41:44malio saying is but Fortune all is
41:48Fortune that's a very middle class
41:51attitude what he's saying there is the
41:53fact that Toby belch is an aristocrat
41:56that's just luck you know if this were a
41:59world of Merit malvolio would be on top
42:03but in this world all is Fortune Maria
42:07once told me she Olivia did affect me
42:09and I've heard herself come thus near
42:11that should she fancy it should be one
42:13of my complexion B besides she uses me
42:16with a more exalted respect than anyone
42:18else follows her what should I think on
42:20it uh and then it comes out at line 35
42:24to be count malol
42:28you know this is a real - serving
42:31pipsqueak uh uh uh always
42:36obsequious uh following orders but he
42:40wants to be count malolo it's like botom
42:43wanting to be the Tyrant uh Shakespeare
42:47sees this that there a lot of ordinary
42:49people out there who have fantasies of
42:52greatness uh and indeed Line 39 he says
42:55the lady of the stry married the yman of
42:58the Wardrobe no one has been able to
43:00track down what the story is but
43:01evidently is a story of somebody some
43:04woman who elevated uh a serving man to a
43:09high position by marrying him and there
43:11are several uh Elizabeth and jaab plays
43:14that deal with this John Webster Duchess
43:16malfy uh for example uh you see here the
43:20dreams of the bis
43:23man uh that he he could become great
43:27uh uh and he's living his Fantasy Life
43:30page
43:3045 uh uh so line 42 Fabian says look how
43:37imagination blows him uh and here come
43:39the dreams line 44 malvolio saying
43:43having been 3 months married to her
43:45sitting in my state uh calling my
43:48officers about me in my branched velvet
43:51gown uh having come from a daybed where
43:54I've left Olivia sleeping uh and then to
43:57have the humor of state and after travel
43:59of regard telling them I know my place
44:02as I would they should do Theirs to ask
44:05for My Kinsman
44:07Toby and that bols and shackles Toby
44:12says he can't be related to him Toby's
44:16an aristocrat not a high level
44:18Aristocrat but uh an Aris sir Toby Belch
44:22and malvolio's jce Steward uh now he by
44:26the way M behaves just like bottom here
44:29bottom when Titania Falls in love with
44:32him and he's got all the fairies at his
44:34service bottom adjust to it very well
44:36suddenly he's acting uh like an oriental
44:39uh potentate uh here uh uh and the note
44:46is perfectly suited to this whole take
44:49on malio this is page
44:5148 act 2 scene 5 line 142 uh uh uh what
44:57does the Note say If This falls into thy
45:00hands revolve in my stars I am above
45:03thee but be not afraid of greatness some
45:07are born great some achieve greatness
45:10and some have greatness thrust upon them
45:13there could be nothing more calculated
45:15to appeal to malvolio's middle class
45:18aspirations here some are born great is
45:21the aristocratic principle but uh some
45:24achieve greatness or some have greatness
45:27thrust upon that's the middle class
45:29principle greatness is not a matter of
45:31birth it's a matter of
45:34achievement uh and we see that so
45:37strongly in here uh with
45:40malvolio uh over on page 49 line 155 in
45:44act 2C 5 uh if uh if not the letter says
45:48if not let me see the steward still the
45:50fellow of servants and not worthy to
45:53touch Fortune's fingers farewell sheep
45:56there would alter services with thee and
45:58that really brings it out in him
45:59daylight and Champion discovers not more
46:02this is open I will be proud I will read
46:04politic authors uh I do not fool myself
46:08uh to let imagination Jade me for every
46:10reason excites to this uh uh now again I
46:15uh Shakespeare was not the only person
46:17to see this Ben Johnson suggests
46:19something very similar but he sees a
46:21connection between these Puritans and
46:25their ostensibly religious hostility to
46:27the regime and their actual social uh
46:31aspirations their social climbing hopes
46:34uh that is uh uh
46:38malvolio presents himself as a champion
46:41of order in this play He Is the steward
46:44he objects to the disorder of Toby Belch
46:47and the other Aristocrats but secretly
46:49he wishes to overthrow the order more
46:52deeply than they do because of course
46:54they've got a stake in the order
46:56uh they're part of the establishment
46:58malolo wants to rule in this world to be
47:02count malvolio and secretly he's willing
47:05to overturn it all here and and thinks
47:08that he can uh uh because of his
47:12virtue uh uh he's worthy to be married
47:16uh to uh uh his mistress uh and to
47:21become ruler uh of the world now you
47:24know these Puritans
47:26led a revolution in the
47:291640s they overthrew the king they
47:33executed they beheaded King Charles I
47:36they were a tremendous Force for
47:37disorder I don't think many people sense
47:41this in 1600 I mean the Puritans were a
47:43problem uh and the the politicians of
47:47the day were dealing with them it's very
47:49interesting that both Ben Johnson and
47:52Shakespeare sense that this puritanism
47:54was a really Prof profound threat to the
47:56social order uh again it's it's very
48:00strong in uh the Alchemists that uh
48:03Johnson uses the phrase Civil War in
48:05that play or the equivalent of it civil
48:08brawl or um uh as if he too anticipated
48:12there was something revolutionary in
48:14these purins and again you've got a very
48:17volatile mix here you've got a radical
48:20religious
48:21Doctrine uh which goes rud and Branch
48:24against the established Anglican Church
48:25in England and it's linked up with
48:27social forces this the perpetually
48:30Rising middle class uh that doesn't like
48:33being held down by an aristocracy uh and
48:36wants to be able uh to uh uh take over
48:41again the puran revolution failed but uh
48:44but in some ways only temporarily by the
48:4618th century the middle class uh was on
48:50its way to ruling England and the
48:52Puritans who were known as denters and
48:54again the term puriton was a term of
48:57appr probium attached to these people
48:59they had all sorts of other names for
49:01themselves congregationalists brownists
49:04Presbyterians um and so on uh uh but
49:08these are the forces which again broadly
49:10speaking were known as the Protestant
49:12denters in England in the 18th and 19th
49:14century and their their status gradually
49:17grew to the point where they got
49:18legitimized in the uh 19th century but
49:22again Shakespeare and Johnson see these
49:25religious forces linked up with a rising
49:28middle class uh that's why they're so
49:31potent here now what happens again very
49:35funny uh the transformation of
49:38malvolio uh he is the great anti-c comic
49:41figure in the play but because he's
49:44gulled by this uh note uh uh he starts
49:48to
49:49act uh like a a comic figure
49:54uh page 63 so act 3 scene 4 line 10 no
49:59Madam he does nothing but
50:02smile again you have to see him as a
50:04grave taciturn Puritan almost in the New
50:08England uh Pilgrim mode now suddenly the
50:10guy's
50:11smiling uh uh page
50:1565 uh uh act 3 sc4 line 58 uh Olivia
50:20says why this is very Midsummer Madness
50:23uh the other thing is he dresses up
50:26idiotically with his yellow Gars and
50:29again just picture our image of the
50:31Puritan dressed all in
50:33black uh there's nothing less comic than
50:36someone dressed all in black Hamlet
50:39spoils all the festivities in Denmark by
50:42never taking off his clothes of morning
50:45and showing up uh all dressed in black
50:47at a state occasion uh in that case it's
50:50a tragedy and we appreciate it uh we're
50:52now in the world of Comedy we're
50:54dressing in Black is not the thing to do
50:57uh and so malvolio is tricked in into
51:00showing up with these yellow gers uh and
51:03making a fool of himself uh now he keeps
51:06emphasizing the uniqueness of his
51:08position uh uh page
51:1167 uh so act 3 C4 line 95 go off I
51:17discard you let me enjoy my private uh
51:20and again that's the sort of thing that
51:23can't be tolerated in comedy
51:25people who go off into the private who
51:29don't participate in the fun don't
51:31participate in the society they are the
51:33butts of
51:34Comedy uh uh and similarly page
51:3868 uh uh where uh this is act 34 l130
51:44where he says you I you are idle shallow
51:47things I am not of your element and the
51:50typical butt of Comedy here who thinks
51:53he's so much more than he is
51:56uh it's okay if Hamlet says this or if
51:58klier says this but it's not okay if
52:01malvolio says it he's just a middle
52:03class Steward uh uh typical butt of
52:07Comedy is the man of
52:09pretention uh who thinks he's great uh
52:13when he is not at all great uh and so
52:16they now torment
52:18him based on his claims to
52:22privacy uh uh page 8 3 so act uh 4 scene
52:282 uh feste shows up dressed as the topas
52:33uh uh and what does he do he convinces
52:37malolo that he is not seeing the world
52:40the way other people are seeing it and
52:43therefore he is mad that's the same
52:45experience as Sebastian but here a
52:48torment this is a page 83 act 42 about
52:51line
52:5235 feste says sayest Thou that house is
52:55dark as hell sir
52:58topaz why it ha bay windows transparent
53:01as barricades and the cheries towards
53:03the south north are lustrous as Ebony
53:05and yet complain as thou of obstruction
53:07this is a bit of nonsense here but he's
53:09basically saying hey the lights pouring
53:11in uh I am not mad sir topus I say to
53:15you this house is dark mad man thou
53:18heest I say there is no Darkness but
53:20ignorance in which Thou Art more P
53:22puzzled than the Egyptians uh in their
53:25fog uh and so he you know the whole
53:29point is to convince him you think the
53:32world's dark it's really light actually
53:35that was that was Barnaby Rich's uh
53:38language about love as I recall that one
53:40thing that the uh crazy lovers do is uh
53:44yeah they can't tell white from black
53:46and here malvolio is told he can't tell
53:49white uh from black uh and this is the
53:54tor po man for him
53:56Sebastian uh the world looks crazy to
53:59him but it's a good kind of crazy woman
54:02loves him
54:03that really attractive wealthy woman is
54:06in love with him and he's able to fit in
54:09that world here we're presented with
54:11malvolio having this profoundly
54:13idiosyncratic Vision remember botam who
54:16had that vision of the fairy queen and
54:19could not even speak about it and said
54:21I'm no true Athenian if I tell you what
54:24happened uh and and malvolio is no true
54:28yyan now uh they're convincing him that
54:32he is mad mad by virtue of these strange
54:35uh Visions he has uh and so that's why
54:38he is
54:39excluded uh at the end and and uh as on
54:45page 103 he says I'll be revenged on the
54:48whole pack of you now many people have
54:50seen that I think quite rightly as a
54:53kind of prediction of the 16 1940s of
54:55the English Civil War the malvolio types
54:59did have their revenge on the
55:01aristocrats they beheaded the king uh
55:04they had their revenge on Shakespeare's
55:06theater they shut it down uh uh it's
55:11pretty ominous now again I it's it's a
55:14lot to say that Shakespeare anticipates
55:16all of this but it's quite
55:18uncanny cuz he's got the round heads
55:21against the Cavaliers already uh in this
55:24play the the middle class Puritans
55:27shaping up against the establishment
55:29Aristocrats and as even a hint you know
55:33the if the king's party is going to
55:36consist of soobi belch and Andrew Uchi
55:39they're in trouble when aliver Cromwell
55:42comes along leading the puran armies so
55:45I just you know say this is a play that
55:48uh again I offered it to you as the
55:50least political of Shakespeare's plays
55:52and it seems so much like a trifle uh
55:55bagatell and yet uh with the character
55:58of malvolio in it it becomes very
56:00serious politically because I think it's
56:02taking up a very serious religious issue
56:05of Shakespeare's day which was very
56:08political uh because the in objecting to
56:11the Anglican Church uh the Puritans were
56:14objecting to the whole uh tutor uh
56:18Elizabethan
56:21regime okay let me let me just PA any
56:23questions about 12
56:38yes that's that's a big see that's a big
56:42exception that's the whole point of the
56:44integrative power of Heros uh you know
56:48the question is what what about Olivia
56:51isn't she sort of pure and like malolan
56:53in fact you know she's presumed dressed
56:55in black and as much as puran about it
56:57at the beginning but that's the whole
56:59point of the comic hinks in these
57:02comedies to get people like Olivia to
57:04loosen up and join the party uh uh and
57:07that's what she does at the end and
57:09she's uh learn to appreciate the
57:12youthful good looks and highness of this
57:16Cesario Sebastian figure uh so indeed
57:20what we get is a society that Rec
57:23coalesces uh in a form that is more
57:26liberated again it's not this impass uh
57:29that we have at the beginning uh uh and
57:32you know she was willing to embrace
57:34malvolio and fit him in now again you
57:36see a nice point malvolio is the man of
57:38principle here he sticks to his guns he
57:41has a kind of integrity that's the kind
57:44of character that can't stay in
57:46accommodate but Olivia has a flexibility
57:50and will adapt uh and notice again the
57:54point is uh well she wasn't in love with
57:56anyone except her dead brother at the
57:59beginning of the play uh but you know
58:01she's willing to take this uh Cesario
58:06Sebastian figure uh to have some fun in
58:09life and participating it she's willing
58:12to change and malvolio is not in in fact
58:16his change is totally phony I mean he
58:19would be happy to change into count
58:20Maloo so offer that Prospect he doesn't
58:23but it's of course a phony
58:24transformation and unsustainable because
58:27it resists on an rests on an illusion
58:29that Olivia actually loves him so again
58:32we see in this play the comic principle
58:36which is the people who are resistant to
58:38change must be excluded uh the people
58:41who have a high sense of themselves uh
58:44and their integrity must be excluded and
58:47the people that uh survive for the comic
58:50ending are the ones who can make the
58:52adjustments and and settle for second
58:55best it is interesting if you contrast
58:58uh what I've been doing here uh love is
59:01a motive and religion is a moment a
59:03motive love generally speaking uh is
59:07more willing to admit compromise than
59:09religion is uh uh you could talk about
59:13we' talked about the religion of love
59:15and conversion in the religion of Love
59:18uh you know it it's easier to
59:21convert from hermia to Helena that it is
59:25to convert from Catholicism to
59:27protestantism uh you know love is
59:30serious business and Shakespeare
59:32certainly aware of it but you
59:34know uh it maybe not all that serious
59:38and Shakespeare shows what is so true of
59:40human nature uh that OS which ultimately
59:44is seeking pleasure and happiness is
59:46willing to settle for second best is
59:48willing to make conversions okay it's
59:50not working out with hermia I'm going to
59:53die if I continue with this okay I'll
59:55settle for Helena that's very different
59:57than saying okay the Catholicism is a
1:00:00bit of a problem I'll go with
1:00:02protestantism now there may there are
1:00:04people who do
1:00:05that Henry ivth of France Paris is worth
1:00:09a mass as he famously said uh converting
1:00:12from protestantism to Catholicism but
1:00:15that was very political and you know I
1:00:17think Shakespeare is aware the religion
1:00:18is a more serious issue than love
1:00:21although what he is showing in this play
1:00:23these plays is how they have gotten
1:00:25Blended together and how problematic
1:00:27love can become when it takes on the
1:00:30status of a religion that's what happens
1:00:32with Romeo Juliet and what makes their
1:00:34story
1:00:37tragedy okay I'm going to give you an
1:00:40introduction now to King Le and give us
1:00:42I want to give a lot of time to that
1:00:44that play and you know this this course
1:00:46is a course in Shakespeare's political
1:00:49thought and that's enough to learn but I
1:00:51have been trying to bring in uh other
1:00:54moments and uh political thought we've
1:00:57talked about marelli we've talked about
1:00:59Plato and Aristotle let me talk a little
1:01:02bit about Hobbs and so now I mean this
1:01:04is just ridiculous what I'm doing I'm
1:01:06going to try to give you a lecture on
1:01:08Hobbs and lock and state of nature uh in
1:01:11a couple of minutes here and even more
1:01:13if I get to it but uh I'm setting this
1:01:16up we're going to be approaching King Le
1:01:18in terms of the issue of the state of
1:01:20nature and I want you to be thinking
1:01:22about this as you read the play we have
1:01:25already been exploring this
1:01:27issue uh I've been saying that for
1:01:31Shakespeare the state of nature is
1:01:34civilization uh that is one thing we see
1:01:38uh uh in these comedies is that the true
1:01:41home of humanity is in
1:01:44Civilization uh that you can go off into
1:01:47nature uh to reorder and maybe
1:01:49rejuvenate your desires but you have to
1:01:52come back uh to civilization and
1:01:55Shakespeare sense and this I think he's
1:01:58very close to Aristotle uh we fulfill
1:02:02ourselves as human beings in
1:02:04Civilization which means our home is
1:02:06civilization our nature is manifested uh
1:02:10in in Civilization now this view was to
1:02:14be challenged shortly after Shakespeare
1:02:16by Thomas Hobbs in 1651 in his uh book
1:02:22Leviathan uh uh this is the strictly
1:02:26speaking the beginning of what's called
1:02:28state of nature thinking and political
1:02:30thought uh actually I'll show Plato and
1:02:34Aristotle had a notion of the state of
1:02:36nature it was just different that the
1:02:37state of nature was the city or or or or
1:02:41civilization uh but any case just
1:02:44quickly this is the famous uh chapter 13
1:02:47of of Hobs as Leviathan uh where he
1:02:50argues uh that uh the natural state of
1:02:55human beings the state of nature is one
1:02:57of Perpetual
1:02:59War uh uh and therefore we can't stay in
1:03:04it we can't stay in the state of nature
1:03:07we have to create the Leviathan State we
1:03:10have to erect this uh state power of the
1:03:13Leviathan to rule over our lives and
1:03:15bring order because otherwise we would
1:03:17just kill each other uh it's arguable
1:03:20that Maki is well on the way to hobbs'
1:03:24notion here Maki where the state of War
1:03:28seems to be more basic than the state of
1:03:31Peace uh but it's really first
1:03:33articulated in the terms of the state of
1:03:35nature uh in hobbs' Leviathan uh and
1:03:39Hobs hobbs' argument it starts from the
1:03:41premise that no one human being is so
1:03:45manifestly Superior to another that
1:03:47another human being can't kill him or a
1:03:51combination of other human beings uh
1:03:53can't kill so nobody's safe uh in the
1:03:57state of nature and Hobbs argues there
1:03:59are a number of factors that lead people
1:04:03into competition to the death in the
1:04:05state of nature one of them is they all
1:04:08want the same things uh and so they kill
1:04:11each other uh to have these things the
1:04:14other is the uh preemptive strike
1:04:16principle because anybody could kill you
1:04:19at any time you have to strike first
1:04:22that's a very mocky valant idea and
1:04:24finally is hobbs' reinterpretation of
1:04:27thumos that Hobbs sees thumos is a
1:04:30purely destructive force uh that this uh
1:04:35desire to be great uh leads to War as he
1:04:39puts it uh uh every man lookth that His
1:04:43companion shall value him at the same
1:04:45rate he sets upon himself uh and upon
1:04:48all signs of contempt or undervaluing
1:04:51naturally Endeavors as far as he dares
1:04:53to extort a greater value from his
1:04:56condemners uh uh this is what hagga was
1:04:58later to develop into the idea of the uh
1:05:01struggle for recognition between the
1:05:03master and the slave but already in
1:05:05hobbs' idea is for the sake of Honor
1:05:07people will uh uh fight to the death uh
1:05:11I'm the best I'm the greatest uh if you
1:05:14don't bow down to me uh let's fight it
1:05:17out uh the result is hobbs' famous line
1:05:21about the St the state of nature that is
1:05:23solid poor nasty brutish and short or
1:05:26it's the war of all against all now this
1:05:29is a very revolutionary principle in the
1:05:31history of political philosophy because
1:05:33it's denying the natural sociability of
1:05:36human beings it's very much a principle
1:05:38of Plato and especially uh of Aristotle
1:05:42it's very important to H by the way in
1:05:451651 that's two years after the
1:05:48execution of Charles I uh uh very much
1:05:51grows out of hobbs' experience of
1:05:54uh the English Civil War uh which you
1:05:58know looked horrible to him and the
1:06:00destruction of all civilization uh and
1:06:02he comes up with the idea we need uh a
1:06:06civil Authority that is absolute to
1:06:09settle all disputes no matter which way
1:06:11because it's more important to have
1:06:13disputes settled than that they be
1:06:15settled justly in some abstract sense of
1:06:18justice uh uh and so again he comes up
1:06:22with the idea of the uh the absolute
1:06:24Sovereign uh the doctrine of the of the
1:06:28Leviathan uh and he outright says again
1:06:31in this famous chapter 13 of the
1:06:34Leviathan that nature should just nature
1:06:36should thus dissociate and render men
1:06:39apt to invade and destroy each other
1:06:41that's nature it's natural for men to
1:06:44invade and Destroy uh each other uh uh
1:06:49and as he and it will happen for one
1:06:52thing because of thumos
1:06:54uh uh one of the reasons is that people
1:06:57will fight to the death for tri Trifles
1:07:00as a word a smile a different opinion
1:07:03and any other sign of undervalues just
1:07:06think of the scene between Glend da and
1:07:08Hotspur uh in that sense uh uh now uh
1:07:14there's a whole history of this Doctrine
1:07:16in this ridiculously quick ROM I'm going
1:07:18to skip over John Lock who's
1:07:19tremendously important uh but we don't
1:07:21need him for the minute and go directly
1:07:23to je rouso here and his treatment of
1:07:27the state of nature uh in his second
1:07:29discourse or the so-called discourse on
1:07:32inequality uh now uh rouso quarrels with
1:07:37hobbs' characterization of the state of
1:07:40nature he argues that
1:07:42Hobbs uh had never seen the state of
1:07:45nature that in fact he
1:07:47mistook a civilized State for the state
1:07:50of nature in this notion that people
1:07:53would fight to the death over Prestige
1:07:56rouso says that's
1:07:57vanity and you wouldn't find it in the
1:08:00state of nature uh this concern for
1:08:02Prestige this vanity is only the product
1:08:06of Civil Society not of the state of
1:08:09nature and indeed rouso really probes
1:08:12this idea of state of nature and says if
1:08:14people weren't in a community they would
1:08:17be more profoundly isolated than we ever
1:08:20see them uh and indeed he said in a
1:08:23world where basically these natural
1:08:26beings are wandering lonely in the
1:08:29forest how can they even have vanity how
1:08:32can they compare themselves with others
1:08:34when they're never even seeing others so
1:08:37Russo argues very strongly for the
1:08:40peacefulness of the state of nature uh
1:08:43uh and says it's only in society uh that
1:08:46we develop this vanity and Russo goes
1:08:48even more radical and he says in fact if
1:08:51we really were solitary in the same
1:08:53nature we wouldn't even have speech and
1:08:56reason that those two are developed only
1:08:59in society and he argues with Hobs that
1:09:03in Hobs people get together and reason
1:09:06their way out of the state of nature
1:09:09they come up with a social contract uh
1:09:11and Russo says this if they're really in
1:09:14the state of nature you're saying and
1:09:16Hobbs talks about has there's no
1:09:18civilization there's no letters he says
1:09:21there's no ability to develop all these
1:09:24things we consider our Higher Culture
1:09:26who says so there's no not even language
1:09:29uh and he in the second discourse
1:09:32speculates that orangutangs May in fact
1:09:35be human beings uh this is just around
1:09:37the time in the middle of the 18th
1:09:39century when Europeans were discovering
1:09:41orangutangs and if you've ever seen the
1:09:44relevant Clint Eastwood movies they
1:09:45really are very human looking uh of all
1:09:48the great a apes and people speculated
1:09:51maybe these are these are natural
1:09:53natural beings the this is what human
1:09:56beings look like orangutang means man of
1:09:59the forest uh in whatever language it is
1:10:03uh I think it's melee uh but uh anyway
1:10:06there's a famous footnote Jay in the
1:10:08second discourse which discusses how we
1:10:11might determine if aut tangs or human
1:10:12beings uh but no one took Russo up on
1:10:15the offer uh in any case rouso really
1:10:18sees natural man as subhuman in any
1:10:22modern sense so far more radical uh than
1:10:25Hobs now as you read King
1:10:28leer you're going to see the Hobbs and
1:10:31the rouso
1:10:33proposals uh that is the question of
1:10:36whether what we are by nature and
1:10:39whether we are just
1:10:41animals uh is man no more than this King
1:10:46Lear will ask in act three scene 4 uh
1:10:50and it's quite
1:10:51amazing uh that in 1607 or so
1:10:54Shakespeare is always already looking
1:10:57forward as we'll see to these hsian uh
1:10:59and Loan uh anwers hsian and rousan
1:11:03answers uh now I don't want to spoil
1:11:05things here I'm going to suggest though
1:11:07in our uh work through keing leer uh
1:11:11that in fact what I've been suggesting
1:11:14thus far that Shakespeare does not
1:11:16accept uh this view of human nature
1:11:19though he's willing to explore it uh and
1:11:22see what its consequences might be that
1:11:23in this regard he's much closer uh to
1:11:26Aristotle and the notion uh that man is
1:11:29a political animal uh now that comes
1:11:32from book one of Aristotle's politics uh
1:11:35as I said before we tend to misinterpret
1:11:38uh that statement to mean that uh uh uh
1:11:42uh uh we're just all very political
1:11:44contentious beings uh in the original
1:11:47Greek it says that man is that being uh
1:11:50who by Nature lives in the city in the
1:11:53polace
1:11:54uh and this is in line with Aristotle's
1:11:56notion that you define a thing uh by its
1:12:01Perfection uh or as he puts it uh uh
1:12:05that which this is from politics one
1:12:08that which each thing is when its growth
1:12:10is completed we speak of as being the
1:12:12nature of each thing you see that Hobs
1:12:15and especially rouso were looking for a
1:12:18sort of lowest common denominator
1:12:21definition of humanity rouso basically
1:12:24says it what's the least uh you can
1:12:28see uh and still call it a human being
1:12:33uh he speculates that it's some form of
1:12:37freedom and then decides the lowest
1:12:39thing that it's perfectability
1:12:41in fact it's impossible to Define human
1:12:44nature through so we can only say man is
1:12:47that peculiar being who can develop into
1:12:49something uh better than he was
1:12:51originally but in any case you know if
1:12:54you're considering whether orangutangs
1:12:56are human beings uh you're really
1:12:58looking for the lowest common
1:13:00denominator you know aristot would say
1:13:03you want to see what a human being is
1:13:05like look at
1:13:06Socrates you know look at the fullest
1:13:08highest development of a of a human
1:13:11being uh uh uh and so the whole
1:13:15discussion uh of the political community
1:13:18in book one of the politics deals uh
1:13:21with what the city aims at and how human
1:13:25nature flourishes or develops uh in the
1:13:28city so that Aristotle points to
1:13:32speech as that characteristic of human
1:13:35beings this is all in politics book one
1:13:37that tells us we are as it were designed
1:13:40to live in cities uh none of the other
1:13:42animals have speech they can make sounds
1:13:45that Express uh pain and pleasure uh but
1:13:49above all he says they can't debate
1:13:51about what's just what's right and wrong
1:13:54that's what we human beings uh are so
1:13:56speech is natural uh contrary to rouso
1:13:59for IR style speech is natural uh to
1:14:02human beings uh and that gives us this
1:14:05peculiar characteristic now think about
1:14:08it
1:14:09uh many people debate this but there are
1:14:12many people who would say that speech is
1:14:14natural human beings but not a
1:14:17particular speech or
1:14:19language uh yes it's natural that we
1:14:23speak and all human beings that we know
1:14:26of speak so that as aristot points out
1:14:29if we saw a human a being that couldn't
1:14:32speak it might look like a human being
1:14:34but we would really wonder if that human
1:14:37if that was a human being if it couldn't
1:14:40speak so closely do we associate speech
1:14:43with human being but whether it speaks
1:14:47English or Mandarin or French or German
1:14:51that we don't set limits
1:14:53uh we don't say only people who speak
1:14:56English are human uh it's a very
1:14:59peculiar characteristic of human beings
1:15:01uh uh that we speech is natural to us
1:15:06but a given speech is not now again we
1:15:09animal you know we now talk about the
1:15:11language of bees and things like that
1:15:13but those are species specific and again
1:15:16there's actually they found actually
1:15:18that whales from different pods actually
1:15:21communicate in different ways but
1:15:23Aristotle didn't know that uh but you
1:15:26know basically our notion is to the
1:15:28extent animals communicate it's with
1:15:30some kind of
1:15:31instinctual endowment uh that makes it
1:15:34species characteristic think of bird
1:15:36calls uh human beings don't have a
1:15:42natural repitor of communication now
1:15:45this is what so speech this is what's
1:15:49peculiar there's this element of nature
1:15:51to it but also an element of convention
1:15:53to it the fact of speech seems natural
1:15:56to human beings what you speak is a
1:15:59matter of convention so that lo and
1:16:01behold uh child that grows up in France
1:16:04speaks French child that grows up in
1:16:07England speaks English uh is utterly
1:16:10conventional uh uh and yet children
1:16:15everywhere uh develop languages so uh
1:16:18you could put aristo's point this way
1:16:21man is that strange animal all whose
1:16:24nature it is to produce
1:16:27conventions it makes us very peculiar
1:16:29and unique among all the other animals
1:16:31we know although we study porpuses and
1:16:34whales we may find out something
1:16:36different uh uh here uh uh uh now this
1:16:40creates the great complex question of
1:16:43nature versus convention we've been
1:16:45examining this from the beginning of
1:16:48this very beginning of this course we
1:16:49saw this issue King by convention King
1:16:51by Nature uh there can be a disparity
1:16:55there uh the person who's King by Nature
1:16:58by convention may not have a kingly
1:17:01nature very important question what's
1:17:04the relation of the nature the kingly
1:17:07nature to the position of King we've
1:17:10been seeing this now in Love Again a
1:17:14strange mixture of Nature and Convention
1:17:17there's something natural about Eros and
1:17:22uh the copul of cattle uh as Touchstone
1:17:26puts it uh that that there's something
1:17:29natural about this uh something
1:17:32Universal seeing all human beings it's
1:17:34part of their being part of nature uh
1:17:37that they copulate and that this
1:17:39produces more human beings what's lead
1:17:41to generation to generation for future
1:17:44Generations but uh but there's this
1:17:48strong element of convention in the
1:17:50relation between men and women it can
1:17:52occur without language it can't occur
1:17:55without words it's just running in the
1:17:58forest if it's without words if it's
1:18:00without poetry it's touchd throne in ory
1:18:04uh if you want Orlando and Roslin you're
1:18:07going to have to have something of that
1:18:09artificiality we see in Phoebe uh and
1:18:12sylvus uh and we saw the whole problem
1:18:14of Love is conventions can out get out
1:18:18of touch with nature you can have some
1:18:20notion of Love conventions that are just
1:18:23unnatural in the sense that they're
1:18:24sterile and
1:18:26unproductive if a Convention of Love
1:18:29Like petrarchan Love gets in the way of
1:18:33human fruition and facundity there's
1:18:37something wrong with it in Shakespeare
1:18:39and he's trying to adjust these
1:18:41conventions to make them more natural
1:18:44it's a very complicated issue and again
1:18:46we'll be explor in King leer let me
1:18:48introduce the Greek words here to help
1:18:51us understand this a little more uh the
1:18:53Greek word for nature is fusus and the
1:18:58Greek word uh for uh convention is nomos
1:19:04uh now nomos is the Greek word for
1:19:08law uh it's also word for Customs for
1:19:13mores for the the way people live uh
1:19:17it's related to the word for money uh we
1:19:19see it in words like astronomy and
1:19:21Agronomy and autonomy that Nami at the
1:19:24end is from Greek nomos uh fusus uh
1:19:30comes from the Greek word
1:19:31futon which is not a word for impossibly
1:19:35uncomfortable fold out bed uh but is the
1:19:37Greek word for plant uh and the the
1:19:41notion of fusus is things that grow the
1:19:44Greek understanding of nature is things
1:19:47that generate by themselves that are
1:19:50their own principle of coming into being
1:19:52being the most fundamental example of
1:19:55that is plants but it it's true of
1:19:58animals too which generate themselves
1:20:00noos is things that human beings
1:20:04make uh like
1:20:06laws uh uh we make laws uh just the way
1:20:11we make tables and chairs uh the
1:20:14principle of Fus is shoes don't grow on
1:20:19trees uh uh apples grow on trees that's
1:20:23that's nature shoes are things we make
1:20:26that don't grow on trees now this really
1:20:28is the founding of philosophy in among
1:20:31the ancient Greeks uh to make this
1:20:34distinction between noos and fusus the
1:20:36first place the word fusos appears that
1:20:39we can see is in Homer's Odyssey first
1:20:42appearance of a word meaning nature
1:20:44anywhere in the world there is no word
1:20:46in the Hebrew Old Testament that
1:20:48corresponds to foses there were terms
1:20:50Like Heaven and Earth that ref refer to
1:20:53what we call the natural world but they
1:20:55do not have the sense that this word
1:20:57fusus does because fusus is what exists
1:21:00without will and in the Old Testament
1:21:03everything exists by the will of God uh
1:21:05the Greek perception here was that there
1:21:07are things in the world that exists by
1:21:10Nature without human intervention
1:21:14without even divine intervention before
1:21:17this distinction was made you had
1:21:19something like the Chinese notion of The
1:21:21Da the way
1:21:23that uh the stars have their way Kings
1:21:26have their way uh dogs have their way
1:21:30bees have their way uh the English have
1:21:34their way things have their ways and
1:21:37everything is somehow determined by a
1:21:39will there's a very deep and profound
1:21:42moment when these Greek philosophers in
1:21:45what was then what now the west coast of
1:21:47turkey but was then part of the Greek
1:21:49speaking World Ionia when they these are
1:21:51people like Zena and thees who first
1:21:54start making this division uh but at
1:21:57first it does juxtapose fusus with noos
1:22:01that is the things that exist by Nature
1:22:04are fundamentally different from
1:22:05anything that exists by human will which
1:22:08includes the laws now the famous
1:22:10Socratic turn in philosophy that leads
1:22:13to Plato and Aristotle uh is the turn
1:22:16towards political philosophy these
1:22:19earlier we call them presocratic were
1:22:21not political philosophers
1:22:23because they saw the realm of Politics
1:22:25as purely the realm of nomos and
1:22:28entirely different from the world of
1:22:29fusus the great question that shakes
1:22:32that Socrates raised was the question of
1:22:35you natural right whether there are
1:22:38anything uh in the political realm that
1:22:41exist by
1:22:43Nature so that for example one could say
1:22:46that one Constitution one form of
1:22:49government was more natural than another
1:22:51and the great question in in Plato and
1:22:53aristotles what is the best regime uh uh
1:22:57and can one say of a law that one is
1:23:01more natural than another by which one
1:23:04would mean uh is the law somehow more
1:23:07suited to human nature than another law
1:23:10uh now this is the great question we're
1:23:12going to see Shakespeare examining in
1:23:14King leer this is the play that looks at
1:23:17the relation most deeply in Shakespeare
1:23:20of politics to Nature uh you will the
1:23:23word nature appears more in King leer
1:23:25than in any other Shakespeare play I
1:23:27think it's something like 44 times and
1:23:29you will see many different uh Notions
1:23:32of nature definitions of nature offered
1:23:34in it's very complex it's going to take
1:23:37us uh three classes at least to sort it
1:23:39out uh but this is what we're going to
1:23:41be looking at in King leer and how it
1:23:43contributes to uh in some ways these
1:23:45Central debate of uh of political
1:23:49philosophy what is the state of nature
1:23:51is it something
1:23:53antithetical to society or is it in fact
1:23:56Society is the state of nature
1:23:58civilization or is the state of nature
1:24:00the antithesis of civilization what's
1:24:02the relation of fuzes to nomos of nomos
1:24:06to fuzes uh is there something is all
1:24:09politics just arbitrary is it all merely
1:24:12conventional or can we point to
1:24:15Something in the nature of human beings
1:24:18that tells us something about the nature
1:24:20of politics these are huge questions
1:24:22I've introduced them way too fast but I
1:24:25want you to be thinking about this as we
1:24:27get uh to King leer because these are
1:24:29the questions that play probes most
1:24:42deeply

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This page contains the full transcript of Twelfth Night (Lecture 2 of 2) & King Lear (Lecture 1 of 4) by Shakespeare and Politics, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 12,506 words across 1,787 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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