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

A Stick-Figure King Lear: Act 2, 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: In a fit of righteous indignation and massive overreaction, King Lear has stormed out of his daughter Goneril's castle and is on his way to meet his other daughter, Regan. Meanwhile, Edmund, the bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester, is carrying out Phase 2 of his diabolical plan to discredit his older, legitimate brother Edgar and seize his inheritance. 

Many of Shakespeare's greatest villains are fantastic actors, and Edmund is no exception. He's able to play the loyal son/loyal brother role so well that both Gloucester and Edgar are completely taken in by his ruse. The alternative explanation is, of course, that both Gloucester and Edgar are gullible idiots who are collectively as dumb as a post. 

You will note, of course, the obvious parallels between Lear and Gloucester. Both are willfully short-sighted when it comes to their children, with Lear being irrationally angered by Cordelia's honesty and Gloucester all-too-ready to believe the worst of Edgar.

What I'm trying to get at is that they're both terrible parents and just about deserve what's coming to them.

Edmund is moving rapidly up in the world. He's gone from "bastard with no inheritance" to "bastard with inheritance serving one of the two most powerful men in the country". He's still a complete bastard, though.

Tune in again on Friday, when we'll see what happens when the lit match that is King Lear is dropped into this already-smoldering powder keg! I'm guessing it's not going to be pretty.

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

Avenge/Revenge

INTERMISSION! We're done with Act 1 of King Lear, and, as there are four more extremely heavy acts to go, I thought it would be nice to take a quick break. Here's what I did this past week:

I am, however, willing to accept that I might be a partial idiot for not immediately changing it to "avenge" so as to avoid upsetting people. But "revenge" sounds cooler.

I'd like to thank those people who e-mailed me early on about this for being wonderful and polite. One of them also wonderfully and politely pointed out that I had spelled "Hamlet" as "Halmet" in one of the panels, an error that no amount of textual research could excuse. If anyone catches any typos or grammatical errors in my comics, please let me know, either in the comments or through the form on my About page. I really do appreciate it. 

That's all for today's grammar lesson! Join me again on Wednesday, when we'll start to tackle the second act of King Lear. And what an act it is! Act Two, Scene Two in particular is a doozy.