King Lear Context Exercises Challis line numbering.

Context Exercise One: Act I scene i, 109-139. "Let it be . . . part between you."

1. Word meanings: dower[y] (109), propinquity (115), nursery (125), addition (137).

2. Paraphrase this speech.

3. Why does Lear refuse Cordelia her dowry?

4. Explain "stranger": lines 116 -121. What analogy does Lear use?

5. How is this opening scene the basis of the main plot?

1. Describe the context of this passage.

2. Give word meanings: abjure (209), enmity (210), carbuncle (225).

3. How are lines 204-5 prophetic?

4. Why does he call Goneril "a boil . . a sore . . . a carbuncle"(219)?

5. He says his blood "corrupted"(226)? Is this self-knowledge?

6. Paraphrase II. 228-9."I do not bid . . . Jove." This restraint in not calling down curses is uncharacteristic of Lear. Comment on his claim.

7. "I can stay with Regan ... I and my hundred knights."(231-2)

How is this reliance on Regan ultimately misplaced? How does 100 become an issue of contention?

1. The rage scene. What does he rage against and why?

2. Explain line 9 "That make ungrateful man."

3. "Here I stand your slave" (19) What paradox does Lear find in his situation here?

4. What the Fool is trying to do for Lear: "in, and ask thy daughter's blessing" (12).

1. Word meanings: benediction (58), fond (60).

2. "I know you do not love me" (73). Elaborate on the falsehood in these lines. How did it constitute a tragic mistake in the play? How did the mistaken perception arise?

3. "This great rage" (78). Outline the events that led up to this scene.

1. Word meanings: conspirant (136), breeding (144), instant (150).

2. What are Edgar's charges against Edmund?

3. Give the outcome of this duel.

4. Locate this clash in the context of the whole play.

 

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Context Exercise Six: IV.vi.96-116. Challis numbering.

KING LEAR

Ha! Goneril, with a white beard! They flattered

me like a dog; and told me I had white hairs

in my beard ere the black ones were there.

To say 'ay' and 'no' to every thing that I said!--

'Ay' and 'no' too was no good divinity.

When the rain came to wet me once,

and the wind to make me chatter;

when the thunder would not peace at my bidding;

there I found 'em, there I smelt 'em out.

Go to, they are not men o' their words:

they told me I was everything; 'tis a lie,

I am not ague-proof.

 

GLOUCESTER

The trick of that voice I do well remember:

Is 't not the king?

 

1. Context: Locate this scene within the drama of the play.

2. I am not ague-proof = more than just susceptible to colds. Lear has come to realise what?

3. men of their words = honest. What theme is picked up here?

4. What do you think about Goneril and Regen's 'lies'?

5. He demanded their obedience and compliance and they gave it to the fill. Now he rejects it. Argue for Goneril's dilemma.

6. The coming together of these two suffering, now redeemed men is a joyful moment in the play. How? Why?

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Answers to Lear IV.vi.106-133

 

1. Paraphrase (summarise)

In one of his rages, Lear touches on a major theme in the play - the

reversal of things in Nature. He hypothesises. If Nature is the norm for

social conduct, these out of control things will follow: justice is not

done, punishments do not match the crime, all of nature does lecher, for

example, "let copulation thrive" unhindered, unordered, not limited by the

governance of instinct or seasons.

 

Edmund's bastard son is said to be kinder to this father than Lear's

legitimate daughters were to him. He urges all nature to exploit this

unnatural situation: so if this is the prevailing turn of events, all may

as well go to it quick as you can: "pell-mell!"

 

Surely he opines, beyond Goneril who fakes virtue and goes to pleasure more

keenly than a soiled horse, there has to be a better world. She and hers

are Centaurs, fixed on pleasure and folly. The girdle holding clothes up is

from the gods. She represents all the supernatural devils that drag humans

to their hells. He asks for an ounce of some sweet medicine instead.

 

2. Contextualise

Now in Act IV, a great deal of hurt, pain and soul searching has forced

Lear into an angry resignation. He knows he is powerless as an old man and

sick, hurt, outcast and rejected. He has suffered coatlessness and

rooflessness on the heath, and met the lowest of the kingdom in poor Tom.

His redemptive process is underway and here we return to a rage more

typical of the first Lear we met.

 

3. Comment

This is the central character of the play - the plot and themes are

developing through his demise. The speech is a masterful management of

metaphors blending the natural and the supernatural dimensions of the

Christian world view.

 

G.B.S.

Lear breaks a natural bond between father and daughter. Of all people, a king must not break asunder God's doing. He has acted 'unnaturally' & in "unnatural degree" 224. His unnatural act will have very many repercussions for himself, his family, his nation and the world at large. The play follows these ripples out to their limits, showing how evil and heinous is the deed and widespread its effects.

See Gloucester's survey of evil in I.ii.101-114: 'father against child'.

Read or present to the class a short piece (2-3 minutes) you prepare on one of the following topics. Ensure you have plenty of evidence from the play for your view.

1. Compare Goneril and Regan.

2. Compare Albany and Cornwall.

3. What have Lear and Gloucester in common?

4. At what point does Lear become insane?

5. Is the Fool a fool?

6. What is hard to believe about the play?

7. The whole play rests on the improbabilities in the first two scenes.

8. What do Edgar and Kent have in common?

9. Compare France and Burgundy.

10. What does Edmund want, and why?

11. What would be the difficulties in staging King Lear?

12. Give a meaning to Gloucester's blindness.

13. Could the play end in any other way, either more or less happily?

14. Why is England invaded by France in this play?

15. Could the setting be any other place than England?

16. Draw out the parallels between plot and subplots.

17. Locate the classic dramatic climax.

18. Which scene is an audience likely to find most moving?

19. Where would you place an interval or intervals? Why?

20. Almost everybody in the play desires power more than anything else.

Constructed by G. Smith Brisbane Australia 1999. revised 30/11/1999.