A Stick-Figure King Lear: Act 3, Scene 4

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2, part 1 | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

The Story So Far: After quarreling with his elder daughters, Lear has run out onto the heath (a wide-open shrubby sort of landscape) in the middle of a huge storm. Clearly off his rocker and accompanied only by the long-suffering Fool, he rants and raves until Kent finds him and tries to persuade him to take shelter.

Meanwhile, Regan and Cornwall, who have taken command of the Earl of Gloucester's castle, have expressly forbidden anyone from helping the old, insane, and now wet ex-king.

Here we finally meet Edgar, in his role as Poor Tom, in all his muddy, half-naked glory. In order to escape his father's misplaced wrath, Edgar has chose to disguise himself as a beggar. That's all well and good, but the lengths to which Edgar goes in his disguise are rather extraordinary. He throws himself whole-heartedly into his part and comes up with HUGE rambling "mad" speeches. I worry about Edgar sometimes.

This scene also features the famous "Off, off, you lendings!" bit where Lear takes off his clothes in the middle of a storm. It's one of the directorial flashpoints of King Lear - just how many clothes does Lear take off? Several acclaimed productions in recent memory, notably Ian Holm's 1997 production and Ian McKellen's 2007 production, have had Lear drop his trousers in a most emphatic and thorough manner, revealing literally all to the elements.

I was fortunate enough to see Ian McKellen perform Lear while on tour in Singapore. For better or worse, nudity on the stage was not permitted, and thus I never got to see Sir Ian's bare, forked animal.

Dear old Gloucester. He always tries to do the right thing, but he's sometimes as thick as a brick wall. Here he bumps into not one but two disguised acquaintances - his friend Kent and his son Edgar - and, despite being reminded of them enough to bring them up in conversation, he totally fails to recognize either of them. 

Get some glasses, Gloucester! You clearly have bad eyesight. For the moment, anyways.

That's all for this week! Join me again on Monday, when we'll check in with Edmund again and see how his plans for world domination are progressing.

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2, part 1 | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

All You Need To Know About King Lear

Today the National Theatre is live-broadcasting their current production of King Lear, starring Simon Russel Beale, to cinemas all over the world. For any of my readers who haven't seen or read King Lear yet, I have attempted to summarize all the important parts here without spoiling anything. 

Remember to check out my on-going King Lear scene-by-scene summaries here! 

A Stick-Figure King Lear: Act 3, Scene 3

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2, part 1 | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

The Story So Far: Having refused to house any of King Lear's entourage of knights, Regan and the Duke of Cornwall have taken up residence in Gloucester's castle. As Lear rushes off into the stormy night, Regan and Cornwall order the castle gates closed behind him, refusing him shelter.

Meanwhile, having discredited his elder brother Edgar and been accepted into the service of the Duke of Cornwall, Edmund the bastard is starting to take advantage of being his father's sole heir. 

Poor old Gloucester. He doesn't realize that telling Edmund about the top-secret letter is kind of like telling a small child not to press the giant red button that has the words "DO NOT PRESS" printed on it. Edmund, meanwhile, steps up the villainy. It's possible to sympathize with his actions against Edgar: he's been deprived of any legal and social status by society's preoccupation with arbitrary marital status, so it makes sense for him to want to secure what he feels is his birthright. However, he's moving into full-blown villain mode now.

Tune in again on Friday, when we'll see how Lear is doing in the storm and meet Poor Tom, the Shakespearean character with the stupidest dialogue ever. 

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2, part 1 | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

A Stick-Figure King Lear: Act 3, Scene 2

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2, part 1 | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

The Story So Far: Half-crazed from arguing too much with his elder daughters, Lear has rushed off into a terrific storm. Rain, thunder, lightning, the works. IT'S A STORM. It turns out I can't draw rain as well as Charles Schulz, so you're just going to have to use your imagination. Imagine a lot of rain.

This is the Big Storm Scene, featuring the Big Storm Scene speech! "Blow winds and crack your cheeks" is a classic speech, and I promise will get around to putting together a video compilation of Notable Lears bellowing it to the heavens, because it's worth seeing how they each tackle it.

Spare a thought for the poor Fool, who just wants to get somewhere dry, while his master seems determined to drown himself in a very inefficient manner. 

Tune in again on Wednesday, when we'll check back to see how Gloucester and Edmund are doing. Remember them? They're the other dysfunctional family, the one with sons instead of daughters.

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2, part 1 | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

A Stick-Figure King Lear: Act 3, Scene 1

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2, part 1 | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

The Story So Far: Lear might have resigned his powers as king, but he is unwilling to resign the prestige that went along with them. When his elder daughters, Goneril and Regan, both refuse to host  his entourage of a hundred knights, Lear snaps and rushes off into a conveniently-symbolic thunderstorm. 

A short, mostly-expository scene today, after all the excitement of Act 2. The fellow with the impressive mustache is the aptly-named "Gentleman". I used to ignore this character completely, but then I read actor David Weston's diary on his year spent playing the Gentlemen (and serving as understudy) to Ian McKellen's King Lear. Titled Covering McKellen, it is a deliciously revealing look at what goes into and behind-the-scenes of a major RSC production. Unlike many such publications, which err on the side of professional diplomacy, this really is no-holds-barred. I highly recommend it.

I hope everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable Shakespeare's birthday. I spent mine in a darkened room, watching nine and a half straight hours of Shakespeare-themed Indian movies. I recommend Omkara, an excellent adaptation of Othello that stays remarkably close to the source material, and Angoor, an adaptation of The Comedy of Errors which, I am pleased to say, is just as silly as its source material.

Tune in again on Monday, when we will be tackling the famous STORM SCENE, and the famous STORM SCENE SPEECH! 

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2, part 1 | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

Happy 450th Birthday, Shakespeare!

Today's comic is super-early, because I'm super-excited that it's Shakespeare's 450th birthday! Let's celebrate!

Let's give thanks to Shakespeare's plays being in the public domain and thus widely available for all of humanity to use, abuse, adapt, co-opt, explore, analyze, and generally perpetuate for eternity. Here's to another wonderful 450 years!

A Stick-Figure King Lear: Act 2, Scene 2 (part 2)

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2, part 1 | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

The Story So Far: Incensed by his daughter Goneril's insistence that he reduce the size of his entourage, Lear leaves to stay with his other daughter, Regan. He meets up with her and her husband, the Earl of Cornwall, at the Earl of Gloucester's castle, only to find that they have put his servant, the disguised Earl of Kent, into the stocks. This is not good.

The cracks in Lear's sanity have been showing up from time to time since the start of the play, but this is where things really start to crumble. He knows that he's losing control, but is utterly unable to prevent it from happening. Things are not helped by Regan, who, as we shall shortly see, is a really nasty piece of work. 

Lear gets tag-teamed by his daughters here, and the full implications of his renouncing his powers of kingship are revealed. He thinks that resigning the crown means he gets to continue enjoying the status and privileges of being king without having to do any of the work, whereas his daughters think (rather more accurately) that it means he's now an old man relying on the charity of his family. Lear really didn't think through his whole retirement plan very well. 

I love Lear's "I WILL DO SUCH THINGS.... what they are yet, I know not... BUT THEY SHALL BE THE TERRORS OF THE EARTH!" This is exactly like when someone insults you and you only think of the perfect comeback two hours later.

Anyways, Lear rushes off into the growing storm, followed by the Fool and Kent, and that's the end of Act 2. DRAMA.

Stop by again on Wednesday, when I will be posting a comic celebrating Shakespeare's 450th birthday! Also, if you happen to live in the Ann Arbor area, my library is hosting a mostly-all-day Shakespeare in India film festival, featuring Indian adaptations of Shakespeare's plays. I will be there all day (getting paid to watch Shakespeare movies - yay!) so stop by and say hello! Full details can be found here. 

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2, part 1 | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

A Stick-Figure King Lear: Act 2, Scene 2 (part 1)

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2, part 1  | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

THE STORY SO FAR: Having fallen out spectacularly with his daughter Goneril, Lear sends the disguised Kent ahead to tell his other daughter Regan that he is coming to stay with her. Regan and her husband Cornwall, however, have gone to visit the Earl of Gloucester. Kent follows them there, where he is about to bump into Goneril's own messenger, Oswald. 

Oswald gets beaten up again! If you're playing the Oswald Drinking Game, take a drink. In fact, take two drinks, as he gets beaten up while trying to deliver a letter.

In this scene Kent unleashes what is probably the most extensive insult in all of Shakespeare. Here it is in its entirety:

[Thou art] a knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition.

Meanwhile Oswald, who doesn't recognize Kent as the fellow who beat him up back at Goneril's place, is just totally confused. Come on, you have to feel for Oswald.

Kent, meanwhile, acts like a complete idiot. Here is his thought process: "What the best thing to do in the midst of a volatile and fragile family disagreement? I know! I'll beat up some guy and then insult lots of people! Nothing will go wrong!"

He totally deserves those stocks.

Lear is a bit slow on the uptake.

This scene a bit oddly disjointed. In the text I'm working from (Modern Library's RSC edition, based exclusively on the Folio text), it is all one scene, but Edgar's sudden appearance while Kent is sleeping in the stocks is often spun off into its own scene. 

Anyways, Edgar decides that the best way to avoid getting arrested by his father is to disguise himself as a lunatic madman. However, this isn't just a surface disguise. As we shall shortly see, Edgar gets really into it, to the point where you really start to worry about him.

Tune in again on Monday, when Lear throws another HUGE tantrum! Plus I plan to have something special on Wednesday to celebrate Shakespeare's 450th birthday. FUN TIMES!

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2, part 1  | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6