Lecture Two: King Lear Act 1 & 2 The Divine Rights of Fathers?“What wouldst thou do old man?” (1.1.147) 

• Division of the kingdom   the overturning or division of order • Patriarchy and kingship • The notion of obedience, loyalty and bonds •  Legitimacy: “Natural” vs “Monstrous” •  The performance of love: Plain speaking and flattery/eloquence •  The problem of women/daughters

“Nothing” – a pattern of imagery  

HAMLET: Lady, shall I lie in your lap? [Lying down at OPHELIA's feet]

OPHELIA: No, my lord.

HAMLET: I mean, my head upon your lap?

OPHELIA: Ay, my lord.

HAMLET: Do you think I meant country matters?

OPHELIA: I think nothing, my lord.

HAMLET: That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.

OPHELIA: What is, my lord?

HAMLET: Nothing.

Useful Criticism

King Lear.org – fantastic website

Janet Adelman Chapter on King Lear in Suffocating Mothers Lynda E. Boose “The Father and the Bride in Shakespeare” – SQ on JSTOR--- ed. Fathers and Daughters Coppelia Kahn “The Absent Mother in King Lear” in Rewriting the Renaissance Kathleen McLuskie “The Patriarchal Bard: Feminist criticism and Shakespeare” in Political Shakespeare 

Breeding and Bonds: The family in Shakespeare’s timePatrilinear, primogenitural & patriarchal

King James and Princess Elizabeth (Foakes intro, p. 38) Works 1618:

“Kings are justly called gods”

“Kings are compared to fathers in families, for a king is truly parens patriae, the political father of his people”

Breeding and Bonds: Intertwining of the plot and subplot Lear narrative and the Gloucester narrative (subplot) Play begins with the subplot Legitimacy and Illegitimacy Father’s children/mother’s childrenThe “fault” in women – linked to “nothing”The “whoreson” Gloucester: “But I have a son” (1.1.18) Lear to Goneril: “Thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter” (2.2.410) 

Inversion of Order:

Kent: “Lear is mad” (1.1.147) “Thou dost evil” (1.1.167)

“Banishment is here” (1.1.182)

France: This is most strange,

That she that even but now was your QbestQ object,The argument of your praise, balm of your age,The best, most dearest, should in this trice of timeCommit a thing so monstrous to dismantleSo many folds of favour. Sure her offenceMust be of such unnatural degreeThat monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affectionFall into taint; which to believe of herMust be a faith that reason without miracleShould never plant in me.(1.1.214-224)

Glos: “We have seen the best of our time” (1.2.112)

Lear and Gloucester: Rash anger and self-pity“Monster”/”Monstrous” Children

The measurement of love: Price/prizeDear/dear

Favouritism Illegitimacy as fantasy of

separationAbuse/Refusal of sibling bond:

“will you take her by the hand?(2.2.383)

“Monster Ingratitude”” (1.5.37)The Divine Rights of Fathers

The rights of children?

“The name and all the addition to a king” (1.1.137)

Absolute control and absolute dependence

Lear: “I loved her most, and thought to set my rest

on her kind nursery” (1.1.124)

Fool: “since though mad’st thy daughters thy mothers;

for when thou gav’st them the rod and putt’st down thine own breeches” (1.4.163-5)

Fool: “obedient father” (1.4.226)

“His Majesty, the baby”

Sigmund Freud “On Narcissism”