Midsummer Magazine 2007 - Utah Shakespearean Festival

man is no more but such a poor, bare, fork’danimal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings!Come, unbutton here. [Tearing off hisclothes]” (3.4.103–109). Lear gains humanityas the superfluities fall away.Edgar, too, grapples with degradationas he escapes with his forlorn life. Hestruggles to find strength: “Yet better thus,and known to be contemn’d / Than stillcondemn’d and flatter’d. To be worst, / Thelowest and most dejected thing of fortune, /Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear. /The lamentable change is from the best, /The worst returns to laughter” (4.1. 1–6).Then he sees his blinded father, Gloucester,and laments, “Who is’t can say, ‘I am atthe worst’? . . . The worst is not / So longas we can say, ‘This is the worst’” (4.1.25,27–28). Gloucester responds to the OldMan’s description of “Poor mad Tom” with,“I’ th’ last night’s storm I such a fellow saw,/ Which made me think a man a worm. Myson / Came then into my mind” (4.1.32–34).King Lear was “at the worst,” then Edgar.Seeing Poor Tom softened Lear. NowGloucester’s despair inspires hope in Edgarthat he can ease his father’s pain despite hiscertainty that Gloucester hates him. Edgarleads the way toward Dover.Nearly there, Gloucester hears thevoice of flower-adorned, mad Lear saying,“They flatter’d me . . . To say ‘ay’ and ‘no’to every thing that I said . . . ; they told meI was every thing. ’Tis a lie, I am not agueproof.”Gloucester asks, “Is’t not the King?”“Ay, every inch a king!” Lear proclaims,and Gloucester cries, “O, let me kiss thathand!” “Let me wipe it first,” says theKing; “it smells of mortality.” Lear revealshimself as human being and friend, even ashe reiterates his kingship. His subsequentmeeting with Cordelia, blessing on her, andgrief for her redeem him as a father.Lear’s journey, accompanied andpunctuated by Kent, Edgar and Gloucester,has taken him the long way around tocomprehend his essence as mortal, friend,and father. The deaths of Lear, Gloucester,and Cordelia, as disappointing as theywere to the great Dr. Johnson, do notdiminish the redemptive power of theirmeetings and revelations. In the end, thehorrible humiliations and torture they haveundergone through their own and others’imperfections bring them to their ownhumanity.Lear’s journey . . . has takenhim the long way around tocomprehend his essence.Take a Bit ofShakespeareHome This Year!Festival Shirts & GiftsSouvenir ProgramsStudy AidesBooksNotecardsPostcardsThe Festival Gift ShoppeOn the Festival ComplexOpen 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.586-1975 or 586-7995For ShakespeareanItems All Year Long,See Our Website:www.bookstore.suu.edu555 W. Center StreetCedar City, UT 84720Off Exit 57 in the Wal-Mart Shopping Center1322 Providence Center Drive, #100 • Cedar City, UT 84720435-586-8805Need a place to relax and enjoya great cup of Java or an Espresso drink?Smoothies • Iced Coffees • Italian SodasSoups Made DailyDelicious Sandwiches and Wraps Made to OrderCakes • Cookies • Muffins • Pastries • SconesBring in your laptop for wireless accessor use one of our Internet stations available for patrons.Buy One Get One Free of Equal or Less ValueAny Specialty Beverage or SandwichLimit one coupon per person per visitCoupon Expires 10/31/07Midsummer Magazine 2007 • 19