Understanding Shakespeare: King Lear by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview

to one the Ten Commandments. The word fault is also used to mean (2) a fracture or break (as in a geological fault in a rocky surface). During the Renaissance, the word then served as a double entendre to indicate female genitalia. Hence, Gloucester is subtly indicating that his sinful act involved sex. Renaissance audiences were always ready for jokes of a bawdy or sexual nature; and all of the leading playwrights, including Shakespeare, included such puns and word play into many of their plays. However, even this pun also is a subtle form of foreshadowing; for later, in the main plot, adultery also plays a role; and that adultery becomes a major fault for those involved.

Gloucester also informs Kent that he has another child (named Edgar) who is a legitimate son (that is, Edgar is the son of Gloucester’s wife). Edgar is also a year older than Edmund. In English tradition, aristocrats usually followed the rule of primogeniture. This meant that the eldest son inherited from his father everything: money, property, and title. The younger sons usually inherited nothing. However, Gloucester declares that Edmund is “no dearer in my account” than Edgar (19). Gloucester is asserting that he plans to treat Edgar and Edmund fairly and equally in terms of wealth and inheritance. Many British aristocrats would find this shocking and wrong because (1) Edmund is a younger son and, more importantly, (2) Edmund is a bastard. Other aristocrats would most strongly protest against this behavior by the Earl of Gloucester. Moreover, the general prejudice against bastards (that all bastards are immoral and corrupt and evil) would also cause other aristocrats to comment that Gloucester is being most foolish to treat Edmund so well.

      Similarities between the main plot and

subplot are already becoming apparent in this play. Shakespeare is subtly laying the groundwork for the major themes of his tragedy. Both Gloucester and Lear have good intentions in wishing to treat their offspring fairly and equally. Both Gloucester and Lear have (and ignore) reasons for treating their children unequally:

And, as later events in the play will reveal, both Gloucester and Lear make huge mistakes in deciding to treat their offspring fairly.

Act I, Scene 1: Lear’s Hidden Purpose

King Lear now takes center stage and makes a speech on how he intends to divide his kingdom into three parts. He begins the speech with the following:

Meanwhile we shall express our darker purpose. (34)

The word we (as well as the word our) is referred to as the “royal we”: the king of England always refers to himself in the plural since he represents not just himself but all of England. The word darker here means hidden or secret. Lear’s plans for dividing the kingdom, though, are hardly a secret; for Gloucester had expressed earlier (lines 3-5) that he already has knowledge regarding the division of the kingdom. Lear is a very old king, over eighty years of age. And, perhaps, he has forgotten that he has already revealed his intentions to some of the members of the court.

Lear informs the husbands of his two older daughters (the Duke of Albany and the Duke of Cornwall) that he wishes to divide his kingdom now so “that future strife may be prevented” (42-43). Despite his age, Lear is well aware of the conflict and bloodshed that often occurs after a king has died; and the old king loves his daughters so much that he desires that there will be no struggling and quarreling among them. However, Lear is making a colossal mistake. The king not only plans to divide his kingdom into three parts, but he also intends to hand over the three smaller kingdoms immediately so that he can retire early. The King of England is the king for all of his natural life. He is not supposed to retire.

Even though Lear is quite old and even though he trusts his three daughters, he will become a king without a kingdom if he steps down from his position. He will be without power and without support. He will be helpless. King Lear is confusing his duty and love for his family with his duty and love for his kingdom. By placing his concern for his family over his concern for England, Lear is placing his kingdom at risk. Lear is paving the way for disaster. Because of the great responsibility of his position, Lear should first and foremost be a king: his duty as a father should and must be secondary. But Lear does not do this; and, as later events reveal, the old king will soon regret his actions.

Lear’s youngest daughter, Cordelia, is not married; but both the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy are suitors for her hand (they both want to marry Cordelia). Thus, in his speech, Lear is addressing whichever one becomes Cordelia’s husband along with Cornwall and Albany. Lear wants both France and Burgundy to know that one of them will also become a king over one-third of England.

King Lear then asks a question that is entirely unexpected by Gloucester and the other lords. Lear asks his three daughters the following:

Which of you shall we say doth love us most? (49)

Lear fully expects that all three of his daughters will respond by saying that they love him with all of their hearts and minds and souls. Lear feels this way about his daughters, and he has no doubts that they feel the same way about him. Lear, in his dotage (his declining years), is merely indulging in a whim. For him the affairs of his family are more important than affairs of state. The question, to him, is practically rhetorical: he feels he already knows the answer. However, he wants to make a grand show of the gifts (the three kingdoms) by presenting them as awards for his daughters’ love. He has already decided which daughter will get which land. The question, then, is merely a formality. At least, that is what Lear intends it to be.

This type of question, though, is also a test. And such a test is a device used in a number of folktales (see “Cap o’ Rushes” and “The Dirty Shepherdess” in the appendices). In these folktales or fairy tales, a foolhardy king does not prize or value the honesty and integrity of his daughter and so disowns her. William Shakespeare was well aware that this device appeared in the common folktales of his day, and he could have altered his sources. Shakespeare could have presented the same concept in a more realistic and dramatic way. Shakespeare knew that nearly everyone in his audience would recognize the folktale quality of the line.

However, the folktale question works well in the play despite its simplistic and familiar sources. The audience usually responds more to the daughters’ responses than to the question itself. But more importantly, the question directly likens King Lear to the unsophisticated and imprudent kings of the folktales. Anyone familiar with any of the tales will immediately understand that Lear is making a mistake. Shakespeare thus eliminates the need for excessive explanation or description regarding the king’s question. Shakespeare gets right to the point rather than inserting additional scenes that would have made the already extensive tragedy longer and plodding. Moreover, Lear thus becomes a universal character – the foolhardy father – with which many members in his audience could relate and recognize (and perhaps even sympathize with).

The folktale device is, thus, a wise shortcut that advances the story smoothly and without effort.