Midsummer Magazine 2007 - Utah Shakespearean Festival

Kent, Lear thinks he is merely exercising hisaccustomed authority. He hasn’t changed,but his relationships to authority and hisdaughters have. Learning non-kingly virtueswill require stripping away the superfluitiesof rank and accoutrement.In contrast to Lear, banished Kentwillingly dons country clothes, a phonyaccent, and a brusque manner to stay nearhis king. Lear greets this stranger by askingnot who he is, but what he is—not a person,but an object to the superior king. The Earlof Kent, having discarded his title, wealth,and noble speech to continue his lovingservice to Lear, answers simply, “A man,sir” (1.4.10). Unlike Lear, Kent knowswho he is.In the same scene, Lear’s, “Who am I?”(implying, “Don’t you recognize that I amthe King?”), elicits what Lear perceives asOswald’s insult: “My lady’s father” (1.4.78–79)—another role he doesn’t know. TheFool then calls Lear “an O without a figure”(1.4.192)—i.e., a zero without a precedingnumeral to give it value: 0, as opposed to10, 100, or 1,000. Frustrated, Lear criesout, “Does any here know me? . . . Who is itthat can tell me who I am?” (1.4.226, 230).Exiled Kent, in disguise, knows himself aman; Lear is mortally confused.The idea of nothingness that so terrifiesand infuriates Lear, ironically solaces thethird shape-shifter, Edgar, who obliterates hisidentity along with his clothes in desperationof his father’s edict against him. Like Lear, herecoils from his unaccustomed treatment byfamily members, but like Kent he recognizesthe benefits of anonymity: “Whiles I mayscape / I will preserve myself, and . . . takethe basest and most poorest shape / Thatever penury, in contempt of man, / Broughtnear to beast” (2.3.5–9). Naked, grimy,unkempt, he’ll enact the bedlam beggar tosave his life: “Poor Tom! / That’s somethingyet: Edgar I nothing am” (2.3.5–21). Learis nothing, Edgar is nothing, but Kent is aman.Lear’s older daughters conduct the nextvolley against their father in a competitionto “allow” him the fewest retainers. Reganhalves Goneril’s limit; Goneril halves itagain. Lear, watching his value diminish,insists that the loss is too great. Why, thedaughters ask, should he need even onefollower when theirs can serve him: “O,reason not the need!” he entreats. “Ourbasest beggars / Are in the poorest thingssuperfluous. / Allow not nature more thannature needs, / Man’s life is cheap as beast’s”(2.4.264–67). He breaks off, imploringheaven for patience and seeking the storm.On the heath as his rage subsides, Learacknowledges that he too has ebbed: “HereI stand your slave,” he tells the elements, “Apoor, infirm, weak, and despis’d old man”(3.2.19–20). His first signs of humanity beginto emerge. At first, he loves the external stormbecause it mutes his inner turmoil: “Pritheego in thyself,” he tells Kent, who leads him toshelter; “seek thine own ease. / This tempestwill not give me leave to ponder / On thingswould hurt me more” (3.4.23–25).Then he prays, for the first time prayingfor others: “Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’eryou are, / That bide the pelting of this pitilessstorm, / How shall your houseless heads andunfed sides, / Your [loop’d] and window’draggedness, defend you / From seasons suchas these?” He acknowledges his own faultand its cure: “O, I have ta’en / Too little careof this! Take physic, pomp, / Expose thyselfto feel what wretches feel, / That thou maystshake the superflux to them, / And show theheavens more just” (3.4.2836).At this level of despair, Lear sees thatPoor Tom, one of the “poor naked wretches”for whom he has just prayed, has even less:“Thou ow’st the worm no silk, the beast nohide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. . . Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodatedAS YOULIKE IT!At Wendy’s the decision is yours. You’ll find atempting variety of hot-off-the-grillhamburgers and chicken sandwiches, fresh crispsalads, hot baked potatoes, and tasty chili.® ®LIN’S MARKETOpen Monday-Saturday, 10:00am to 10:00pm, Sundays, 10:30am to 10:00pm.Drive-through open until midnight.EXITEXIT#59#59I-15I-15200 N.200 N.WENDY'SWENDY'S300 W.300 W.UTAHSHAKESPEAREANUTAHSHAKESPEAREANFESTIVALFESTIVALN1250 W. 200 N.Cedar City, UtahNWEST STATE STREETEXITEXIT#112#112 WENDY’SWENDY'SWENDY'SI-15I-151150 WESTMAIN ST.MAIN ST.GRAND CIRCLE PLAZAN N N1149 W. StateHurricane, Utah18 • Midsummer Magazine 2007