The Fool's Errand:
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Fool Arguments-KIND of Fool (William Willeford, Robert Hornback, many others)
-Whether or not there was a sea change from rustic clowns (Will Kemp) to wise fools (Tim Pentki, Bart Ban Es) -Fool's place usurped by Edgar, Cordelia, or even Lear (Willeford, Robert Bell, Indira Ghose, Richard Abrams) |
Textual Arguments-Explorations of why the Fool part was so heavily revised from Q to F and the quest and pushback against the "ideal form" (Taylor and Warren's 1983 classic The Division of the Kingdoms. Hornback offers an excellent lit review and pushback against these claims of revision in search of an ideal and/or censorship issues).
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Doubling Theories-Alois Brandl in 1894--Initial theory
-Thomas Stroup--Offers practical explanation for why the Fool is not mentioned in 1.1 -Was the part doubled? Would a company Fool as notable as Armin double? Would a boy player double the part? Would (as James O'Rourke recently argued in Renaissance Drama) Armin have been more likely to play Edgar/Poor Tom? |
"There are no necessary
doubles in Lear or Richelieu" (Edwin Booth, 1878). |
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“Decontextualizing approach[es], which viewed play-texts and characters alike as always already circumscribed by the page, never the theatre, also quite clearly offered a dismissal of drama as theatre. Shakespearean drama itself, like its author, was lifeless, a dead thing to be dissected by ‘free play,’ but it was, and is, never a play” (Hornback 150).
What IS a Fool? And why does nobody have the same definition?!
Amateur-Derive largely from the Buffoon or Parasite figure
-Rustic Clowns and Lords of Misrule -Dogberry, Peter the Servant, Falstaff -Foolish in their performance of other professions -Limited by time and seasonal events, such as the Feast of Fools, the Boy Bishop, Hocktide, and "shig-shag day" among others |
Professional-Derive primarily from the Scapegoat and mystical figures (Welsford, Willeford, Janik, Matello the healer).
-Court Jesters and conservative figures (Leinwand) -Touchstone, Feste, Lear's Fool -Foolish AS their profession -Wardrobe takes the place (for some) of physical markers -Amusingly, many schoolmasters turned Fool because the money was better--wealth and prestige (Armstrong, 12th century English fool Roland the Flatulator) -Limited by license, space, and authority |
What if the shift or the "fad" (Robert Hornback) in folly wasn't about Kemp OR Armin?
-Elizabeth reigned from 1558 to 1603 (~45 years)
-Before Elizabeth's lengthy reign, England saw the Wars of the Roses, the Reformation, a boy king, the "nine day's queen," and Bloody Mary.
-Elizabeth had no true heir, and Elizabeth executed James's mother shortly
-Hamlet (1599—Usurpation)
-As You Like It (1599--Usurpation)
-Twelfth Night (1601-1602--Succession)
-Culminating with King Lear (1606--Dissipation)
-Before Elizabeth's lengthy reign, England saw the Wars of the Roses, the Reformation, a boy king, the "nine day's queen," and Bloody Mary.
-Elizabeth had no true heir, and Elizabeth executed James's mother shortly
-Hamlet (1599—Usurpation)
-As You Like It (1599--Usurpation)
-Twelfth Night (1601-1602--Succession)
-Culminating with King Lear (1606--Dissipation)
History of the story of King(s) Lea(i)r
Geoffrey of Monmouth |
12th century
Historia regum Britanniae Lear gives half the kingdom to his two elder daughters Sons-in-law rebelled Lear and Cordelia whup them Lear rules 3 more years Cordelia rules 5 years Nephews declare misogyny and imprison her Cordelia kills herself One of the nephews wins and rules for 33 years Cadwallader |
Raphael Holinshed |
-Added the winnowing of Lear's train
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Edmund Spenser |
First to have Lear divest his entire kingdom.
First to list manner of Cordelia's death (hanging) |
Queen's Men King Leir |
Likely performed in the 1580s or early 1590s
Published in 1605 Regan and Gonoril are more obviously villainous Cordelia clearly meant to evoke Queen E1's iconography Highly Comedic--particularly Gallian King and Mumford No deaths, either immediate or delayed. |
Shakespeare's play |
Adds a fool
Amplifies the tragedy of the conclusion, both in terms of scope and immediacy |
Nahum Tate |
From 1681 to 1838, Tate's Lear held the stage
Happy ending, with Gloucester proclaiming a "second birth of empire" and celebrating "the king's blest restoration" (5.6.116-118) Lear does not reclaim his throne, ceding it to Cordelia and Edgar for the "prosperous reign" of the "celestial pair" (5.6.146-153) |
David Garrick |
18th century Bardolater
Little by little restored Shakespeare's text Never managed to restore the Fool or the tragic ending |
William Charles Macready |
1838 finally restored the full text of Shakespeare
Positive response William Winter drawing direct line between the fool and the tragic ending |
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How my research impacts my pedagogy:
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There are different ways to "do" Shakespeare.
This one project includes: -Textual history -Performance analysis -Performance history -Theory (Bachelard/Lefebvre) -Archival work and the Digital Humanities |
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