Sovereign Shame: A Study of King LearThis study of King Lear emphasizes the fact that Cordelia Kent, and the Fool create a loving community from which Lear persistently flees, and seeks to explain his bizarre behavior not, as is sometimes done, by attributing unconscious incestuous desires to him, but by demonstrating that Lear's profound and tyrannizing shame originates in his metaphysical dread of personal worthlessness and a deep sense of being unworthy of love. |
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Page 12
... Edgar , Edmund , Gloucester , and even Albany all suffer privately a version of the malady afflicting Lear , identifying the shame in Lear , as Cavell and the Freudians do , with hidden incestuous desire is questionable . I will argue ...
... Edgar , Edmund , Gloucester , and even Albany all suffer privately a version of the malady afflicting Lear , identifying the shame in Lear , as Cavell and the Freudians do , with hidden incestuous desire is questionable . I will argue ...
Page 13
... Edgar , and Gloucester , however , the matter is disastrously reversed . Ban- ishing discretion , they remain " self - cover'd things , for shame , " to hide , even from themselves , in a desperate and isolating flight from the sense of ...
... Edgar , and Gloucester , however , the matter is disastrously reversed . Ban- ishing discretion , they remain " self - cover'd things , for shame , " to hide , even from themselves , in a desperate and isolating flight from the sense of ...
Page 17
... Edgar , King Lear 2 Henry IV Introduction ne of the most striking of the many troubling features in the final scene of King Lear is how the play circles upon itself in its concluding moments . Lear's " Pray you undo this button " ( 5.3 ...
... Edgar , King Lear 2 Henry IV Introduction ne of the most striking of the many troubling features in the final scene of King Lear is how the play circles upon itself in its concluding moments . Lear's " Pray you undo this button " ( 5.3 ...
Page 19
... Edgar , Glouces- ter , and Albany . That ironic note is not heard in Shakespeare's treatment of the " villains " of the piece or , more impor- tant , in his depiction of Cordelia and the Fool . Though the latter are betrayed and ...
... Edgar , Glouces- ter , and Albany . That ironic note is not heard in Shakespeare's treatment of the " villains " of the piece or , more impor- tant , in his depiction of Cordelia and the Fool . Though the latter are betrayed and ...
Page 22
... our attention to Lear's grief . Later in this chapter I will discuss Albany and Edgar's parts in this alternately bitter and bathetic comedy . But they play merely minor , supporting roles in this regard ; the leading 22 A TRAGEDY OF FOOLS.
... our attention to Lear's grief . Later in this chapter I will discuss Albany and Edgar's parts in this alternately bitter and bathetic comedy . But they play merely minor , supporting roles in this regard ; the leading 22 A TRAGEDY OF FOOLS.
Contents
17 | |
The Pastoral Norm | 58 |
The Player King | 118 |
The Prince of Darkness is a Gentleman | 147 |
Notes | 176 |
Selected Bibliography | 194 |
Index | 207 |
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Common terms and phrases
abdication acknowledge Albany Alfred Harbage attempt Avoidance of Love banished beggar behavior better bitter fool Cavell character charity claims codpiece contempt Cordelia critics curse daugh daughters death disguise distracted dramatic dramatic irony dreadful Edgar Edmund Essay on King evil fact father fear feel final flees folly Fool's foolish forgiveness generosity Gloucester Gloucester's gods Goneril and Regan grace grief heart heavens hidden hope human humiliation irony Jacobean justice Kent Kent's King Lear king's Lear plays Lear's live love test madness Masks of King merely metaphor miseries moral nature nonetheless O. B. Hardison Oswald Othello pastoral pastoral's play play's Poor Poor Tom pretense Princeton University Princeton University Press rage refusal remarks reveals ridicule risk scene seek sense Shakespeare Shakespearean Tragedy shame sorrow speaks speech stand Stanley Cavell storm suffering suggests symbolic thee thing thou tion tragic true truth words wretches
Popular passages
Page 98 - Lear. Be your tears wet? Yes, 'faith. I pray, weep not: If you have poison for me I will drink it. I know you do not love me ; for your sisters Have, as I do remember, done me wrong : You have some cause, they have not. Cor. No cause, no cause.
Page 51 - The weight of this sad time we must obey ; Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. The oldest hath borne most : we, that are young, Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
Page 154 - Hear, nature, hear; Dear goddess, hear ! Suspend thy purpose, if Thou didst intend to make this creature fruitful ! Into her womb convey sterility ! Dry up in her the organs of increase; And from her derogate body never spring A babe to honor her ! If she must teem, Create her child of spleen ; that it may live, And be a thwart disnatured torment to her...
Page 158 - I may scape, I will preserve myself: and am bethought To take the basest and most poorest shape, That ever penury, in contempt of man, Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth; Blanket my loins; elf all my hair in knots; And with presented nakedness out-face The winds, and persecutions of the sky.
Page 150 - The affliction, nor the fear. Lear. Let the great gods, That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads, Find out their enemies now.
Page 96 - tis fittest. Cor. How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty? Lear. You do me wrong, to take me out o' the grave. — Thou art a soul in bliss ; but I am bound Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears Do scald like molten lead.
Page 26 - And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life! Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more, Never, never, never, never, never!
Page 92 - Good my lord, You have begot me, bred me, lov'd me : I .Return those duties back as are right fit, Obey you, love you, and most honour you. Why have my sisters husbands if they say They love you all? Haply...
Page 169 - With a more riotous appetite. Down from the waist they are Centaurs, Though women all above : But to the girdle do the gods inherit, Beneath is all the fiends' ; there's hell, there's darkness, there is the sulphurous pit, burning, scalding, stench, consumption...