King Lear

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Summary: lear's questions
Review: Lear has decided to divide his kingdom into three and to give the largest part to whichever of his daughters loves him most:

"Which of you shall we say doth love us most
That we our largest bounty may extend?"

Goneril and Regan falsely profess love, and he divides the kingdom between them. Their sister Cordelia refuses to flatter him:

"Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty
According to my bond, no more no less."

Lear exiles her to France. Then Goneril and Regan rebel, and Lear rushes outside in a storm, with no companions but his Fool. Lear is driven mad by suffering and feels betrayed by Goneril and Regan. Foolishly, the King believed that a divided kingdom would survive and that his daughters' love was a commodity which could be quantified and rewarded. The disasters which flow from this are personal, political and cosmic. The King's own self, the selves of everyone around him, the state of Albion and the universe itself do battle with each other and themselves. In the absurd world which resutls, rationality is folly, disguise is true nature and insanity is sane. But Shakespeare's vision is not merely that our world is awry and that we have made it so, but that even in the teeth of the Apocalypse we can change it for the better.

The outcasts in Act Three can be identified with the preachers who helped bring about social revolution in England a generation after the play was written - Ranters, Levellers and others dressed social and religious criticism in the Old Testament in the apparently insane language of inspiration. Still, after Lear has reached his self-knowledge and sanity, there is still the final struggle for the soul of the kingdom, the metaphysical battle between the realpolitik of Lear's enemies and the "humane" society dreamt by the mad prophets he encounters in the depth of the woods under the storm. But realisation and awakening have come too late for Lear. What is redemption to him, with his daughter's body in his arms? In the face of the fact of this loss, all castles of reason - ethics, morality, politics and metaphysics - collapse round the speaker's feet.

Shakespeare's advice is that it is wiser to trust to real feelings than to words. Then there is the question of Cordelia's denial. Seeing that her sisters are merely thinking of getting their part of the kingdom, she does not want to be "taken" for one of them and thus denies her feelings.

This simple theme defines all of Shakespeare's love tragedies, which deal with people being separated due to the fact that they mistrusted their own feelings. There is Othello, who loses Desdemona because he trusts Iago. Iago: "Work on/ My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught / And many worthy and chaste dames even thus / All guiltless, meet reproach." Hamlet loses Ophelia because she trusts her father more than Hamlet's love: "No, my good lord, but as you did command/ I did repel his letters, and denied/ His access to me." Tragedy in Shakespeare is wrought upon by important heroes who do not trust their own feelings so much as the appearances brought upon by reality, or as other peoples' words. This edition has a long introduction and some very useful notes.

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Summary: King Lear Review
Review: Power, corruption, betrayal, and death are the themes significant to the play King Lear. Written around the 1600's, this play by William Shakespeare is best known for its tragic ending. In this play, betrayed by those he trusted most, King Lear is driven to the brink of insanity as his remaining power is snatched away. The dense rich language adds more meaning to the play, which is quite interesting due to the different twists in the plot, and the realistic portrayal of the diverse characters. This play, though hard to understand at times, is probably one of Shakespeare's best tragedies. This play is a "must read" book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Here is the full plot of the play (read only if you already know the ending of the book):

The play begins as King Lear, the ruler of England, is giving his daughters his kingdom so that they can rule. However, he wants his daughters to express their love for him, and in return he would give them the land. The eldest daughters, Goneril and Regan declare their love and receive their land. The youngest, Cordelia, says that words cannot express her love, and this angers the king. He says that he will give her no land and dowry and she is married off to the King of France.

The scene shifts to another important character Edmund. Edmund is the illegitimate son of Gloucester, and he is creating a plan to trick his father into believing that his other son Edgar is attempting to steal Gloucester's wealth and then intends on killing him. This angers as he Gloucester and how he to kill his traitor son Edgar.

As the play unravels, readers see that Goneril and Regan begin plotting to steal whatever power the king still may have. As the story continues, the daughters' evil plans are revealed to the king as he realizes the Cordelia was the only daughter loyal to him and he regrets the decision he made earlier. As the play progresses the king becomes mad with the knowledge.

The play now takes place in Gloucester's castles and soon Goneril and Regan both fall in love with Edmond. Gloucester also learns the plans to the eldest daughters and he warns the king. After Regan and Goneril realize that Gloucester has told the father, they name him a traitor and torture him. In the end, Edgar saves his father.

The king leaves and heads for Dover. This is where Cordelia is waiting for her father. However, both the king and Cordelia are captured and imprisoned by the other daughters. Goneril, in the blindness of her love for Edmund, poisons Regan and soon is lead into killing herself. Edgar and Edmund duel. Cordelia was killed in prison and the king soon dies afterwards and then the play ends.

Rating:
Summary: Five stars for the play
Review: The rating of four stars is for the edition (R.A. Foakes's); the play is one of the greatest tragedies ever written, and of course deserves at least five stars.

It is not easy to find a a truly satisfactory edition of this play. An advantage of R.A. Foakes's is that he offers us a "conflated" text, i.e. one that aims to reconstruct something like what Shakespeare originally wrote by taking elements from the best two early printings rather than giving us those separately or by settling for the one rather than the other. I don't think, though, that Foakes's reconstruction is nearly as convincing as that of earlier editors who presented conflated texts. I am often unhappy about his glosses, too, and about his rather "trendy" introduction. Even so, the introduction and the notes do give us most of what we need, so long as we approach this material with independence of mind.

The PLAY is the thing, and whichever text we read it in (even, for example, in a text based just on that in the Folio), it is a great and moving work. Lear is an ageing king (about 80+), whose life has been sheltered and pampered. Although this equips him badly for "real" life, he is not intrinsically the evil tyrant that much current criticism tends to suggest - even his authoritarianism seems a matter of habit rather than anything else. At the beginning of the play he foolishly decides that he will give each of his three daughters a part of his kingdom. His intention had been to give the youngest daughter, Cordelia, with whom he planned to spend his "retirement", the biggest portion. However, rather than simply proceeding with his plan, he asks his daughters to declare the degree of their love for him, and this is where tangible trouble starts.

Goneril and Regan, both flatterers who seek their own interest at all times, butter him up, but Cordelia, who is honest, offends Lear's ego by refusing to follow her sisters' phoney example. He then offers the two eldest daughters 50% each, and disinherits Cordelia. Soon Goneril and Regan, contrary to what had been arranged, refuse to give him hospitality, and plan his death. Cordelia, though badly treated by him, tries to rescue her father, and the two are reconciled in a most moving scene, but she is killed and carried onto the stage in an immensely painful way by Lear, whose sanity had been temporarily destroyed by his daughters' and his own behaviour but who paradoxically gains new insight into life as a result of everything he experiences during the course of his suffering.

His story is paralleled by that of the Earl of Gloucester, who similarly wrongly prefers a bad child to one who is good, yet is treated well by the good child, Edgar, who like Cordelia shows that love consists of forgiveness and generosity rather than anything else. Just as Lear learned wisdom through madness, Gloucester acquires it after he has been blinded by some of the most evil people in the play.

It is in many ways a "bleak" play, not giving us any reason to hope that there is a God who looks after us in this life or one hereafter, and showing plenty of evil in humankind - amongst both women and men - but which also leaves no doubt as to what it means to be good, and provides consolation by showing us how good, and love, can endure even in the face of great provocation and suffering. - Joost Daalder

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Summary: Senators should read this!
Review: This book is about corruption and power. All U.S. Senators, mostly the democrats, should read this.

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Summary: That's what Men say when Women rule nations
Review: This is a terrific play, and the characterization is remarkable. It's considered a masterpiece, and for good reason.

But there is still one small comment I would like to make. Read the play. Then ask yourself who on Earth the character Goneril was. Um, she was the Queen of England. Not the wife of the King. The Queen. Albany was her consort.

Lear was no longer the King. Regan was not the Queen. Cordelia was not the Queen. Goneril was. And had a Man with her attitude about power been the ruler, no one would think it strange.

Yes, Lear is a tragic character, and it sure is tragic when he holds his beloved but dead Cordelia and asks if she is still alive. But Goneril is a tragic character too, and it is tragic when, upon getting clobbered in a battle, she decides to kill herself. And when asked how the battle is going, right before she dies, she replies, "Not so hot."

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Summary: SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING IN WASHINGTON AND U.N.
Review: This is timeless Shakespearean drama, about a King and his three daughters, wrapped around corruption, betrayal and tragedy. It speaks to the power and pressure of leadership, and modern politicians would well to heed its valuable lessons.

STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
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