Donivan Bessinger, M.D.
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This Jungian analysis interprets Shakespeare's great play as though the characters are all players in the dream of an individual person who is facing retirement. The play interweaves two principle plots: Behind the story of Lear's retirement from his duties as king (the "situation in consciousness") is the story of the "situation in the unconscious" : The conflict between Edmund's treachery (shadow) and Edgar's integrity (the wholeness of self) interacts with the tension between the two older sisters (anima shadow) and Cordelia (anima). The two stories converge toward the poignant closing scene, in which royal powers are declared to be restored to Lear, even as he dies of the great grief which shadow had wrought. In this view, the essential tragedy of King Lear is not that he died (all lives end in death, after all), but that he lived so unconsciously. Developing an understanding of the dynamics of wholeness opens the way to having retirement and aging be a time of growing spiritual power and fulfillment, even as social and physical powers decline. The following outline gives the reader only the sketchiest overview of the plot. Shakespeare gives the characters far more depth than can be reflected here. I have selected certain lines which highlight discussion points for a seminar, but they are not necessarily the most important lines in the play, and not the only ones which help advance the thesis. Still, I hope they will be enough to make the reader eager to know the whole play, and to see it given life on stage or on film. It would be impossible to say that this or any particular reading of King Lear catches the author's intended meaning. This is merely one person's reading, in the light of the dynamics of depth psychology as modeled by Jung. Of such a great and complex work there can be no definitive interpretation, for its meaning unfolds anew in each reader, and in each generation. |
The players dramatize the archetypal patterns present in each individual
Ego
Lear, King of Britain [the ego,
Lear's dis-integrating consciousness]
Persona
Knights of Lear's Train,
Officers, Messengers, Soldiers, and their Attendants [the
trappings of Lear's ego-power]
Self
[the unconscious Lear]
Lear's Fool ["trickster"]
Earl of Kent [faithfully serving Lear in ways
unrecognized by ego]
Earl of Gloucester [sacrificially serving
Lear's true Self interest]
Curan, a servant/courtier to Gloucester
Old Man, tenant to Gloucester
Edgar, legitimate son of Gloucester, and Lear's godson [symbolizing
the redemptive element]
Doctor [in Cordelia's retinue; a symbol of healing]
Anima/Animus
Cordelia, youngest daughter of Lear
King of France (courting Cordelia, accepting her for herself) [her animus]
Duke of Burgundy (courting Cordelia for her dowry) [a shadow figure]
A Gentlemen attendant on Cordelia
Shadow
Edmund, bastard son of Gloucester
A Captain in Edmund's service
Goneril, eldest daughter of Lear [anima shadow]
Duke of Albany, husband to Goneril
Oswald, servant to Goneril
Regan, second daughter of Lear [anima shadow]
Duke of Cornwall, husband to Regan
Servants to Cornwall
Ego in Isolation
Act 1. Scene 1
Prehistoric Britain [the mythic
(inner) realm]
The palace of Lear (Leir) in Leicester [the
psychic "house"]
Kent, Gloucester, Edmund. [The "illegitimate" (unconscious, shadow) elements of psyche are introduced at the beginning, as Edmund:]
G: His breeding, sir hath been at my charge. I have so often blushed to acknowledge him that now I am brazed to 't. ...
K: I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper.
Fanfare; enter Lear and train, with Goneril & Albany, Regan & Cornwall, Cordelia, etc. [Lear intends to retire, thus dividing his (inner) kingdom]
L: Meanwhile we shall express our darker purpose [dark ~ unconscious]. / Give me the map there. Know that we have divided / In three our kingdom; and 'tis our fast intent / To shake all cares and business from our age, / Conferring them on younger strengths, while we / Unburthened crawl toward death. ...
L: Tell me, my daughters ... / Which of you shall we say doth love us most, / That we our largest bounty may extend ... [note the royal "We." Does ego unconscously recognize that it's individuality is based on a plurality of unseen archetypes?]
The two older daughters falsely and extravagantly proclaim their love, and are rewarded:
Gon: Sir, I love you more than word can yield the matter; / Dearer than eyesight, space and liberty; / Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare; / No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor; / As much as child e'er loved, or father found; / A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable; / Beyond all manner of so much I love you.
Cordelia loves most, so naturally and deeply that speech cannot express it:
Cor: (aside, as Goneril speaks) What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent. ...
Cor: (aside, as Regan speaks) Then poor Cordelia! / And yet not so, since I am sure my love's / More ponderous than my tongue.
L: (to Cordelia) ... Now our joy, / Although our last and least; to whose young love / The vines of France and milk [the pastures] of Burgundy / Strive to be interest; what can you say to draw / A third more opulent than your sisters?
Cor: Nothing, my Lord.
L: Nothing?
Cor: Nothing.
L: Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.
Cor: Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave / My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty / According to my bond, no more nor less.
L: How, how Cordelia? Mend your speech a little, / Lest you may mar your fortunes.
Cor: Good, my Lord. / You have begot me, bred me, loved me. I / Return those duties back as are right fit, / Obey you, love you, and most honor you. / Why have my sisters husbands, if they say / They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed, / That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry / Half my love with him, half my care and duty. / Sure I shall never marry like my sisters, / To love my father all.
[Anima dialogue; She loves completely, earnestly but honestly, without exaggeration for effect, seeking only to uphold the normal balance of Nature (psyche; Self), without regard to cost.]
Lear, who completely misunderstands Cordelia's meaning, is enraged and utterly renounces and banishes her.
L. For by the sacred radiance of the sun, / The mysteries of Hecate and the night, / By all the operaton of the orbs / From whom we do exist and cease to be, / Here I disclaim all my paternal care, / Propinquity and property of blood. / And as a stranger to my heart and me / Hold thee from this forever. ...
Kent [serving integration ~ Self] boldly defends her:
K: What would'st thou do old man? / Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak / When power [ego value] to flattery [shadow] bows? To plainness honor's bound / When majesty falls to folly. Reserve thy state, / And in thy best consideration check / This hideous rashness. Answer my life my judgment, / Thy youngest daughter does not love the least ...
His rage made worse, Lear banishes Kent as well, on pain of death. [Ego needs to be stroked, and resists even acknowledging the unconscious. It easily becomes enraged by self's honesty, for it threatens the status quo and challenges ego's presumption of its own power.]
The Duke of Burgundy, courting Cordelia for her dowry, [anima shadow] rejects her. She accepts the King of France who acceps her for herself. Lear remains intransigent, tells her:
L: Better thou / Hadst not been born than not t' have pleased me better.
Cordelia says farewell to her sisters. Discussing Lear's situation, they say:
Gon: You see how full of changes his age is. The observation we have made of it hath been little. He always loved our sister most, and with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off appears too grossly [obviously].
Regan: 'Tis the infirmity of his age; yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself.
- - - - - -
The Angry Shadow
Act 1. Scene 2
Edmund sets in motion his plot to inherit instead of his legitimate brother, Edgar. He holds a forged letter which will falsely involve Edgar in treason, and turn Gloucester, their father, against Edgar.
Edm: Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law my services are bound. ... / Why bastard, wherefore base? / When my dimensions are as well compact, / My mind as generous, and my shape as true. / As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us / With base? With baseness? Bastardy? Base? Base? / ... Well, then, / Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land, / Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund / As to th' legitimate. Fine word, "legitimate." / Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed / And my invention [plan] thrive, Edmund the base / Shall top th' legitimate. I grow, I prosper. Now, gods, stand up for bastards.
Edmund warns Edgar of the father's wrath, urges him to flee for his life. Then:
Edm: A credulous father, and a brother noble / Whose nature is so far from doing harms / That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty / My practices ride easy. I see the business. / Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit. / All with me's meet that I can fashion fit.
- - - - - -
Act 1. Scene 3
The Duke of Albany's palace. Goneril sets her court against the increasingly obstreperous Lear and his rowdy knights.
Gon: By day and night he [Lear] wrongs me. Every hour / he flashes into one gross crime or other / That sets us all at odds. I'll not endure it. / ... Idle old man / That still would manage those authorities / That he has given away. ...
- - - - - -
Serving the Self
Act 1. Scene 4
The banished Kent arrives at Albany's palace disguising his appearance and voice, applies to be Lear's servant:
L: Do you know me, fellow?
K: No, sir, but you have that in your countenance which I would fain call master.
The Fool enters:
F: Let me hire him too. Here's my coxcomb (offering K. his cap.) ... Sirrah, you were best [you had better] take my coxcomb.
K: Why, fool?
F: Why? For taking one's part that's out of favor. ... If thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb. ...
L: Dost thou call me fool, boy?
F: All thy other titles thou has given away; that thou was born with.
K: This is not altogether fool, my lord.
The Fool's comments become increasingly sharp, as Lear's mental state continues to deteriorate and his rage grows.
F: (about Goneril) Thou was a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to care for her frowning. Now thou art an O without a figure [a numeral, i.e. he is a zero]. I am better than thou art now: I am a Fool, thou art nothing.
Goneril berates her father the King for the "hourly carp and quarrel" of the knights, "men so disordered, so deboshed, and bold, that our court, infected with their manners, shows like a riotous inn." She insists he reduce the hundred men to only fifty.
L: Does anyone here know me? This is not Lear. / Does Lear walk thus? Speak thus? Where are his eyes? / Either his notion weakens, or his discernings / Are lethargied -- Ha! Waking? 'Tis not so. / Who is it that can tell me who I am?
F: Lear's shadow.
Lear curses Goneril, then:
L: How sharper than a serpents tooth it is / To have a thankless child. Away, away!
- - - - - -
Act 1. Scene 5.
Still in Albany's palace; Lear sends Kent with a letter to Gloucester, seeking to move his retinue to his castle. The Fool continues to chide Lear:
F: ... The reason why the seven stars are no moe [more] than seven is a pretty reason.
L: Because they are not eight.
F: Yes indeed. Thou wouldst make a good Fool.
L: To take't again perforce! Monster ingratitude!
F: If thou wert my Fool, Nuncle, I'd have thee beaten for being old before thy time.
L: How's that?
F: Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.
Goneril sends Oswald with a letter to Regan, detailing the problems with Lear and his company.
- - - - - -
The Shadow darkens
Act 2. Scene 1.
Duke of Gloucester's castle. Edmund, feining loyalty, warns Edgar that Cornwall and Gloucester seek to kill him for treason. Edmund stages a fight with Edgar, who then flees into the night. Edmund deliberately wounds himself slightly, but tells Gloucester that he was wounded by Edgar who seeks to kill Gloucester. G. pledges to arrange for Edmund to inherit, then sends him in pursuit of Edgar. [Note that Edgar is Lear's godson.] Cornwall and Regan arrive.
- - - - - -
Act 2. Scene 2.
Outside Gloucester's castle. Altercation between Kent and Oswald (who has brought Goneril's letter to Regan.) Edmund, Cornwell and Gloucester restore order. Cornwell orders Kent to be put in stocks until noon, for fighting and impudence. Regan insists he remain there a full day and night. Later, Gloucester apologizes to Kent.
- - - - - -
Act 2. Scene 3.
A wood. Edgar, fleeing, strips, smears himself with mud, and assumes the guise of an escapee from Bedlam, the asylum:
Edg. ... Whiles I may 'scape, / I will preserve myself; and am bethought [have decided] / 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 [tangle] my hairs in knots, / And with presented nakedness outface / The winds and persecutions of the sky. / The country gives me proof and precedent of Bedlam beggars, who, ... / Enforce their charity. ... That's something yet: Edgar I nothing am.
- - - - - -
Act 2. Scene 4.
Gloucester's castle. Lear, the Fool, and a Gentleman enter. Kent is still in the stocks.
F: Ha, ha, ha, he wears cruel garters. ...
Lear cannot believe that his daughters have done such a thing to his own servant.
F: All that follow their noses are led by their eyes but blind men, and there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him that's stinking [i.e. smell the death and decay of Lear's power and fortune]. Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following. But the great one that goes upward, let him draw thee after. When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again. I would have none but knaves follow it since a Fool gives it. / That sir, which serves and seeks for gain, / And follows but for form, / Will pack, when it begins to rain, / And leave thee in the storm.
Regan and Cornwall refuse to receive Lear, angering him more; Gloucester interceeds, then they appear; Kent is released. Lear berates Regan for the insult to himself of having Kent put in stocks.
R: I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.
Goneril enters. A storm is brewing outside. Regan again insists Lear reduce his train, that he doesn't need even one servant.
L: ... Our basest beggars / Are in the poorest thing superfluous. / Allow not nature more than nature needs. / Man's life is cheap as beast's. / ... You heavens, give me that patience, patience that I need. / You see me here you gods, a poor old man, / As full of grief as age, wretched in both. / ... Oh, you unnatural hags! / I will have such revenges on you both ... No I'll not weep, / I have full cause of weeping, but this heart / Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws / Or ere [before] I'll weep. O Fool, I shall go mad!
Unable to accept the daughter's terms, Lear leaves with Gloucester, Kent, and Fool into the fury of the storm. The sisters try to justify their action to themselves:
R: This house is little; the old man and's people / Cannot be well bestowed.
Gon: 'Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest [both shelter, and mental peace] / And must needs taste his folly.
The castle gate is closed, shutting Lear out in the storm. [The unconscious (the wounded Self represented by Edgar) reached its lowest point in the previous scene, and subsequently can reassert its integrating healing action. But ego still must undergo its stormy "dark night of the soul."]
- - - - - -
Reaching the turning point.
Act 3. Scene 1.
In the storm. Kent encounters a Gentleman in Cordelia's service, and asks about the King.
K: But who is with him?
G: None but the Fool, who labors to outjest his heart-struck injuries.
Kent recognizes the Gentleman, asks him to tell Cordelia of the King's plight.
K: But true it is, from France there comes a power / Into this scattered kingdom, who already, / Wise in our negligence, have secret feet / In some of our best ports, and are at point / To show their open banner.
[The rescuing force lies in the unconscious, a territory ordinarily "alien" to the ego, but which "has spies in" the ego's territory.]
Kent gives the Gentleman a ring by which to identify himself to Cordelia.
- - - - - -
Act 3. Scene 2.
In another part of the heath, in the storm. Enter Lear and Fool.
L: Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks. Rage, blow! / You cataracts and hurricanes, spout / Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks. / You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires / Vaunt couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts, / Singe my white head. ...
F: ... Good Nuncle, in; ask thy daughter's blessing. Here's a / night pities neither wise man nor fools.
[Lear still defies the elements, but ego is weakening:]
L: ... Then let fall / Your horrible pleasure. Here I stand your slave, / A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man. / But yet I call you servile ministers, / That will with two pernicious daughters join / Your high-engendered battles 'gainst a head / So old and white as this. O, ho! 'tis foul.
Kent enters.
K: Alas, sir, are you here? Things that love night / Love not such nights as these. ... Since I was man / Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder, / Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never / Remember to have heard. Man's nature cannot carry / Th' affliction nor the fear.
Kent points out a shack which can give them at least minimal shelter. [Lear's mood is beginning to reach its turning point, for the first time showing concern for his companions.]
L: My wits begin to turn. / Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold? / I am cold myself. Where is the straw my fellow? / The art of our necessities is strange, / That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel. / Poor Fool and knave, I have one part in my heart / That's sorry yet for thee.
F: (singing) He that has and a little tiny wit / With heigh-ho the wind and the rain / Must make content with his fortunes fit / Though the rain it raineth every day.
- - - - - -
Act 3. Scene 3.
Gloucester's castle. In confidence, Gloucester tells Edmund of a letter reporting that France's army is approaching, and that he suspects treachery from Cornwall and Albany; he cautions Edmund to be faithful to Lear. After Gloucester exits, Edmund indicates his intention to betray Gloucester:
Edm: ... shall the Duke / Instantly know, and of that letter too. / This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me / That which my father loses -- no less than all. / The younger rises when the old doth fall.
- - - - - -
Act 3. Scene 4.
On the heath. The storm continues. The Fool enters the hovel first, then rushes back outside:
F: Come not in here, Nuncle, here's a spirit. Help me, help me!
It is the near-naked Edgar, disguised as a madman, Poor Tom.
L: (to Tom) Didst thou give all to thy daughters? And art thou come to this?
[Lear fixes on the idea that Tom's plight must also have something to do with daughters.]
F: This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.
Lear tears off his own clothes.
F: Prithee, Nuncle, be contented, 'tis a naughty night to swim in.
Gloucester appears with a torch, speaks to Kent (knowing him only as Lear's servant) of the daughters' desire to kill Lear; Gloucester does not recognize Tom as Edgar. As the storm worsens, they all crowd into the hut. Lear is now completely mad, conferring with Tom (who is only feigning madness), his "philosopher."
- - - - - -
Act 3. Scene 5.
Gloucester's castle. Edmund shows Cornwall the incriminating letter.
Edm: If the matter of this paper be certain you have mighty business at hand.
C: True or false, it hath made the Earl of Gloucester. Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension.
- - - - - -
Act 3. Scene 6.
Gloucester shows Kent to a farmhouse adjoining his castle, then leaves. Lear, the Fool, and Poor Tom (Edgar) join Kent there. The mad Lear appoints Tom as "most learned justice" and the Fool as assistant, for a mock trial of his daughters. Gloucester reenters.
G: Come hither friend. Where is the king, my master?
K: Here, sir, but trouble him not. His wits are gone.
Gloucester warns that Lear will be killed. Kent is to take Lear on a litter to Dover as quickly as possible.
- - - - - -
Act 3. Scene 7.
Gloucester's castle. Cornwall, Goneril, Regan, Edmund and servants enter. It is known that Gloucester has betrayed them and saved the King. Edmund and Goneril leave bearing a letter reporting the landing of France's army. Gloucester is brought in under arrest, is generally abused, and then his eyes are viciously plucked out. A servant defending him mortally wounds Cornwell, but is killed by Regan. Gloucester asks for help from Edmund.
R: Out, treacherous villain, / Thou call'st on him that hates thee. It was he / That made the overture of thy treasons to us; / Who is too good to pity thee.
G: O my follies! Then Edgar was abused. / Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him.
R: Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell / His way to Dover.
- - - - - -
Act 4. Scene 1.
On the heath, Edgar (still appearing as Tom), is met by the blind Gloucester, who is being led by an old tenant. Gloucester releases the tenant, out of concern for his safety. Gloucester is reminded of his son as Tom tenderly seeks to make him comfortable. He asks Tom to lead him to Dover.
G: There is a cliff whose high and bending head / Looks fearfully in the confin-ed deep: / Bring me but to the very brim of it, / And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear / With something rich about me: from that place / I shall no leading need. Edg: Give me thy arm: Poor Tom shall lead thee.
- - - - - -
Act 4. Scene 2.
Duke of Albany's castle. Oswald reports to Goneril that Albany has heard of France's landing and Edmund's treachery. Albany enters and rebukes Goneril:
A: Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile: / Filths savor but themselves. What have you done? / Tigers, not daughters, what have you performed?
A messenger brings news of the blinding of Gloucester and of Cornwell's death. Albany takes the side of Lear and Gloucester, and leaves to avenge them.
- - - - - -
Act 4. Scene 3.
French camp near Dover. Kent and the Gentleman discuss Cordelia's reaction to the letters about the plight of Lear.
G: Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence, / And now and then an ample tear trilled down / Her delicate cheek: it seemed she was a queen / Over her passion, who most rebel-like / Sought to be king o'er her.
K: O, then it moved her.
G: Not to a rage: patience and sorrow strove / Who should express her goodliest. You have seen / Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears / Were like a bettwe way: those happy smilets / That played on her ripe lip seemed not to know / What guests were in her eyes, which parted thence / As pearls from diamonds dropped. In brief, / Sorrow would be a rarity most belov-ed / If all could so become it.
- - - - - -
Act 4. Scene 4.
Cordelia's tent in the French camp near Dover. Cordelia, Doctor, and soldiers enter. Cordelia sends an officer to set the search for Lear.
C: What can man's wisdom / In the restoring his bereav-ed sense? / He that helps him take all my outward worth.
D: There is means, madam: / Our foster-nurse of nature is repose, / The which he lacks: that to provoke in him, / Are many simples operative, whose power / Will close the eye of anguish. [Rest is nature's cure; herbs can help him sleep.]
A messenger brings news that the British army is approaching.
C: ... No blown ambition doth our arms incite, / But love, dear love, and our aged father's right: / Soon may I hear and see him!
- - - - - -
Act 4. Scene 5.
Gloucester's castle. Regan says it was a great mistake to have left the blinded Gloucester alive, because his condition evokes further sympathy for Lear; therefore, Edmund has been dispatched to kill Gloucester. Regan wants to know the contents of letters Oswald carries from Goneril. Edmund has pledged his love to both sisters.
- - - - - -
Act 4. Scene 6.
A field near Dover. Edgar is no longer in disguise, but is still unknown to Gloucester. Gloucester asks how far it is to the cliffs, from which he intends to commit suicide. Though the field is flat, Edgar strives to convince him that they are climbing toward the sea, and then are at the verge of the cliff. Gloucester detects the normal refinement of Edgar's voice, but Edgar continues the ruse:
Edg: (aside) Why I do trifle thus with his despair / Is done to cure it.
G: O, you mighty gods! (He kneels) This world I do renounce, and in your sights / Shake patiently my great affliction off: / If I could bear it longer and not fall / To quarrel with your great opposeless wills, / My snuff and loath-ed part of nature should / Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O bless him! / Now, fellow, fare thee well.
G. falls, but only the short distance to the flat ground. Edgar tries to convince him that he has indeed fallen from the precipice, but survived the plunge. He describes the person leading Gloucester before the fall as a "poor unfortunate beggar," with grotesque features:
Edg: It was some fiend; therefore thou happy father, / Think that the clearest gods, who make them honors / Of men's impossibilities, have preserved thee.
G: I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear / Affliction till it do cry out itself / "Enough, enough," and die. That thing you speak of, / I took it for a man: often 'twould say / "The fiend, the fiend" -- he led me to that place.
Edg: Bear free and patient thoughts. Lear enters, fantastically dressed with wild flowers. L: But who comes here? / The safer [saner] sense will ne'er accomodate / His master thus.
Lear is very disoriented, prattles on incoherently.
G: The trick of that voice I do well remember: Is't not the king?
L: Ay, every inch a king. When I do stare, see how the subject quakes. ...
G: O, let me kiss that hand!
L: Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.
G: O ruined piece of nature! This great world / Shall so wear out to nought. Dost thou know me?
Lear and Gloucester have recognized each other. The Gentleman sent by Cordelia enters, but Lear thinks he is being arrested and runs away. Oswald then enters, seeks to arrest Gloucester. Edgar defends, killing Oswald, and reads the letters he carried: Goneril writing Edmund, revealing their pledge to each other and a plot against her husband, Albany.
- - - - - -
Act 4. Scene 7.
A tent in the French camp. Cordelia praises Kent for his loyalty. The Doctor reports Lear is still sleeping, asks permission to awaken him. Lear is carried in by servants, sleeping on a chair.
C: O, my dear father, restoration hang / Thy medicine on thy lips, and let this kiss / Repair those violent harms that my two sisters / Have in thy reverence made.
Lear awakens.
L: ... You do me wrong to take me out o' th' 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.
He at first takes Cordelia to be a spirit.
L: ... Pray, do not mock me: / I am a very foolish fond old man, / Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less; / And to deal plainly, / I fear I am not in my perfect mind. / Methinks I should know you and know this man, / Yet I am doubtful; ... / Do not laugh at me, / For as I am a man, I think this lady / To be my child, Cordelia. ...
Doctor: Be comforted, good madam: the great rage, / You see, is killed in him: and yet it is danger / To make him even o'er the time he has lost. / Desire him to go in: trouble him no more / Till further settling.
Kent and the Gentleman discuss the coming battle: Edmund now commands the British forces.
- - - - -
Act 5. Scene 1.
The British camp near Dover. The rivalry between Regan and Goneril for Edmund is bitter. Edgar, disguised, brings to Albany the letter which reveals the plot against him. In a soliloquy, Edmund debates which of the sisters he wants:
Edm: Neither can be enjoyed / If both remain alive.
- - - - -
Act 5. Scene 2.
A field between the two camps. The call to battle is heard and the troops begin advancing. Edgar places Gloucester under a tree, then exits. The trumpet call for retreat is heard. Edgar returns for Gloucester:
Edg: [Let us go] Away, old man; give me thy hand, away! / King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en: Give me thy hand, come on.
- - - - -
Act 5. Scene 3.
Edmund, victorious, returns to the British camp. Lear and Cordelia are prisoners. Edmund gives a Captain written orders:
Edm: ... Take thou this note: go follow them to prison: / One step I have advanced thee; if thou dost / As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way / To noble fortunes: know thou this, that men / Are as the time is: to be tender-minded / Does not become a sword ...
At this point, Albany is the only surviving royal authority. Edmund tells him that he has conducted the prisoners to safety. Regan and Goneril quarrel over Edmund. Albany challenges Edmund to a duel, unless before the third sounding of the herald's trumpet, someone else asserts the right to challenge him for his treasons. At the third trumpet, Edgar (unrecognized) appears and challenges. In the ensuing fight, Edmund falls:
Edm: What you have charged me with that have I done; / And more, much more: the time will bring it out. / 'Tis past, and so am I. But what art thou, / That hast this fortune on me? If thou'rt noble, / I do forgive thee. Edgar reveals himself to Edmund, offering forgiveness.
A Gentleman enters carrying a bloody knife, by which Regan had killed Goneril, before dying of the poison which Goneril had given her.
Edm: I was contracted [pledged] to them both: all three / Now marry in an instant.
The bodies of the dead sisters are brought in. Mortally wounded, Edmund reveals that he had ordered Cordelia put to death. As Edmund is borne off, Lear enters, carrying the body of Cordelia, howling in deep grief. Kent's true identity is revealed by Edgar, as they try to convince Lear that Cordelia is indeed dead.
L: A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all ! / I might have saved her: now she is gone forever / Cordelia, Cordelia, stay a little. Ha. / What is't thou say'st? Her voice was ever soft / Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman. / I killed the slave that was a'hanging thee.
Kent is reconciled with Lear, who now seems lucid, even though grief-stricken. Albany speaks:
A: ... You lords and noble friends, know our intent. / What comfort to this great decay may come / Shall be applied. For us, we will resign, / During the life of this old majesty, / To him our absolute power: [To Edgar and Kent] you, to your rights; / With boot, and such addition as your honors / Have more than merited. All friends shall taste / The wages of their virtue, and all foes / The cup of their deservings. O, see, see!
The King, grieving over Cordelia's body, dies.
Edgar: He faints. My lord! My lord!
Kent: Break, heart. I prithee break.
Edg: Look up, my lord.
K: Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass! He hates him / That would upon the rack of this tough world / Stretch him out longer.
Edg: He is gone indeed.
K: The wonder is he hath endured so long: / He but usurped his life. [He lived longer than his due.]
Albany: Bear them from hence. Our present business / Is general woe. [To Kent and Edgar] Friends of my soul, you twain, / Rule in this realm and the gored state sustain.
K: I have a journey, sir, shortly to go; / My master calls me, I must not say no.
Edg: 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.
Exeunt, with a dead march.
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Carl G. Jung: A Brief Introduction to his ideas
SCRIPTORIUM
Uploaded 21 Mar 1999