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Lear's Divided Kingdom as analogy for Shakespeare's World and Ours

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KING LEAR begins like a folktale: There was a king who had three daughters. He wished to retire and divide his kingdom among them, so he asked which loved him best. Two daughters, dishonest and greedy, flattered him, while the third refused, so he banished her. The divided kingdom descended into violence, while the king, expecting still to be treated as such, is shuffled back and forth, finally homeless. The story’s themes resonate with any age. Audiences will see in the play reflections of their own time: reckless aging leaders in a bleak world brightened occasionally by the compassion of the oppressed. What were some of the divisions in Shakespeare’s time that may have inspired the play, and resonated most with its first audiences? FLATTERY OF FAVORITES: Leaders are always tempted to surround themselves with those who say what they want, instead of need, to hear. England was no different. James was known to have charming, flattering favorites rewarded with wealth and status but w...
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King Lear's ending, Good Friday grief, and Medieval Passion Plays

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The ending of King Lear has inspired some modern critics to claim it is a godless play, without hope. The ending scene (5.3) - in which Lear howls and holds the corpse of the one daughter who loved him best - is filled with grief. Actors and directors (who perhaps have only been kings and queens of wishful thinking [1] and never literally monarchs) must draw upon general feelings of deep grief to enact their roles. Feelings are one thing. But how shall we express them? Cultures and art shape expectations, showing how we might act in such circumstances.  Profound grief may make some catatonic, or suicidal, causing self-harm, or seeking revenge. But was there a stage tradition in Shakespeare’s time for the grief of a parent at losing a beloved child? A young Shakespeare may have witnessed some of the last performances of medieval passion plays, as well as perhaps medieval mystery, miracle, and morality plays, increasingly prohibited under Elizabeth I. [2] In a 2005 book, Katharine...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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Falstaff in Heaven, Enclosed Commons, Sharp Pen, and "a Table of green fields"

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In Shakespeare’s Henry V (F1), "Hostesse" describes the death of Falstaff (2.3.832-847), claiming not that Falstaff is in heaven in the bosom of Abraham (like the beggar Lazarus of Luke 16:19-31), but in the bosom of Arthur. She also offers: "his Nose was as sharpe as a Pen, and a Table of greene fields." (2.3.838-9) Adam Roberts [1] notes:  - Lewis Theobald (1733) "amends Table to babbled, giving us: ‘his nose was as sharp as a pen and [he] babbled of green fields’."  - Most editions follow Theobold, but Gary Taylor’s Oxford edition considers other options. Dobson notes that the RSC edition (eds. Bate and Rasmussen) make it ‘for his nose was as sharp as a pen on a table of green fields.’ [2]  Mark Alcamo offers that "Nose" might have at least a double meaning, both literal and also that his "knows" (his knowing) was sharp at his death [3]. Roberts considers that "table" might also mean "tableau," image. Roberts and ...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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Lear and Cordelia as "God's Spies": Tropes and cognitive framing

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When Lear speaks with Cordelia in 5.3 of being "God's spies" [1], this draws on a common trope, which activates a kind of cognitive framing. The trope is present in the tale to which Ophelia alludes in Hamlet 4.5: “the owl was a baker’s daughter,” a tale about Jesus or a fairy in disguise as a beggar at the baker’s door.  It is also present when Henry V (in 4.1) moves disguised among his troops on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, and when Hamlet in 5.1 does not at first reveal to the gravedigger that he is the “mad” prince [2]: Sermons urged that monarchs should be obeyed like God’s representatives on earth, but king and prince purposefully conceal their identities, like spies. The trope was in medieval tales: King Arthur goes among his people disguised [3], as he does centuries later in Mark Twain's novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889). Shakespeare was fond of Ovid’s Metamorphoses in which the gods Zeus and Hermes, disguised like spi...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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CORDELIA ABOUT HER FATHER’s BUSINESS (LUKE 2:41-52)

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With more foresight, if Shakespeare had wanted to be more accessible for all ages, he might have realized that once Protestants questioned the Catholic idea of Eucharist as “transubstantiation,” religion would be on its way out (especially in some countries), and he might not have included as many as 1,300 biblical references in his plays [1]. 😉 One example is in King Lear 4.4.  Cordelia, newly returned to England from France, alludes to Luke 2:41-52:  CORDELIA: O dear *father,* It is thy *business* that I go about.    (4.4.26-27)  (*emphasis* mine) This alludes to the tale of the boy Jesus, lost in Jerusalem, later found in the temple, conversing with, astonishing, and amazing temple elders.  Shakespeare also has Hamlet in 3.2 allude to this with his former school friends after The Mousetrap, with his mother amazed and “astonied” [2]. Yes, spelled “astonied” in Shakespeare and in the 1599 Geneva translation:  47 And all that heard him, were astonie...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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Twelfth Night (series INDEX)

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1. Is Shakespeare's Twelfth Night a Christmas/Epiphany play? https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/01/is-twelfth-night-christmas-epiphany.html 2. Is Twelfth Night a Political Play? https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/01/is-twelfth-night-political-play.html 3. Twelfth Night: Ring, Letter, and Mary Queen of Scots https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/01/twelfth-night-ring-letter-and-mary.html 4. Letter and Mousetrap, Twelfth Night and Hamlet https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/01/letter-and-mousetrap-twelfth-night-and.html 5. A Note on Gender, Religion, and Politics in Twelfth Night https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/02/a-note-on-gender-religion-and-politics.html 6. St. Paul and Twelfth Night https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/02/st-paul-and-twelfth-night.html 7. Illyria, Nicea's Exile for Arians, Thomas Kyd, and Twelfth Night - June 14, 2025 https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/06/illyria-nice...
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Why does King Lear end in a reverse-gender Pieta?

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Many have commented on how the image at the end of the play, of King Lear holding the corpse of his daughter Cordelia, resembles the Pieta, in which the Virgin Mary holds the corpse of Jesus. Modernist critics often dismiss any religious implication [1] [2]. Jesus was allegedly in the tomb for three days, but if Cordelia doesn't revive by the end of the last scene, then to them, there is no resurrection (literal or figurative) and to them, God (literal or figurative) does not exist. Some view the reverse-gender pieta simply as an allusion to the traditional Christian Pieta, and perhaps as pointing to a life after death in some metaphysical realm. But what of the gender reversal, with father holding daughter? Is this significant, even radical? If we view it in a near-vacuum, then it may seem to carry possibly radical implications, where the human father Lear is no sinless virgin, but a sinner purged of his pride in the crucible of profound suffering, holding the daughter of God, n...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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INDEX: Good Friday echoes in Hamlet

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Since at least 2022, I've done a post around the time of Good Friday, sharing what seem to be either direct allusions, or at least echoes of the Good Friday gospel stories (the Passion of Christ) in Shakespeare's Hamlet .  The index link below is to blog posts about allusions in Hamlet to the Good Friday stories (which Shakespeare and others in England would have been required to hear via mandatory church attendance. The index covers related posts on this subject from 2022-2026. The 2022 post [1] collected a few general allusions or plot echoes. For people interested in a list of detailed, short references in the text of the play, this is a good place to start.  - A post in December of 2023 related to these by way of Ophelia's "willow" [2];  - Good Friday posts in 2024 [3] and in 2025 [4] continued this, each with new insights.  INDEX: Good Friday echoes in Hamlet - April 03, 2026. https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2026/04/index-good-friday-echoes-in-hamlet...
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Location: Denver, CO, USA
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Lear's Cordelia and Princess Mary's lips

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Shakespeare scholars often note the changes from the First Quarto of King Lear (1607), to the Folio version (1623), especially the dying Lear, holding the corpse of Cordelia in his arms, hoping for a sign that she is still breathing, and in the Folio, attention to her lips: “Do you see this? Looke on her? Looke her lips, Looke there, looke there.” Many in the last four centuries (including Benson, 2009 [1], and de Grazia, 2021 [2], both of whom cite many others) have pondered whether this hints at a resurrection theme, or delusion. Perhaps there was a topical-historical-political reason for adding the comment about Cordelia’s lips: Had any daughter of King James died around this time? In fact, three of James’ four daughters had died before 1610: Princess Margaret Stuart (24 December 1598 - March 1600) had died before the play was written; Princess Mary Stuart (8 April 1605 - 16 September 1607) died at about the age of two and a half years. Sophia Stuart (22 June 1606 – 23 June 1606) ...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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In memory of Margaret Jean (Smith) Arnold (1934-2025)

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Margaret Jean (Smith) Arnold (1934-2025) was a literary scholar whose work on Shakespeare I encountered and enjoyed before our paths crossed in other ways: in an October, 2023 blog post [1], I considered Hamlet’s mother Gertrude as perhaps willing to secretly test the wine for poison before her son, and in that way, perhaps to be compared to the self-sacrifice of Alcestis, about whom Shakespeare would have known at least second hand through the work of Euripides, which Margaret J. Arnold cited in 1984 as “the most popular Greek dramatist in Shakespeare's time” [2]. I stumbled on Margaret’s 1984 essay because I briefly researched how Shakespeare would have known about the tale of Alcestis. This led to Euripides, and then to Margaret’s helpful work. Soon I noticed that Margaret was participating in various online Shakespeare groups to which I share my blog posts, and she often liked these and sometimes commented in kind and generous ways. Fairly soon, we exchanged messages. When I ...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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Why "Hugger Mugger" & "Impostume" are in Hamlet

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HUGGER-MUGGER: Shakespeare has Claudius use these words to describe the burial of Polonius in Hamlet 4.5. "Hugger-mugger" means "secret," "chaotic," "clandestine, sly," or "disorderly, chaotic" [1].  Shakespeare consulted the 1579 Thomas North translation of Plutarch, which used “hugger-mugger” to describe the burial of Julius Caesar [2]. Polonius once played Julius Caesar in a play production, as he reveals to Hamlet in 3.2.  HUGGER-MUGGER as HOARDING a SECRET:  To do something secretly is to hoard the knowledge of the thing: Claudius hoards not only knowledge of the secret burial of Polonius, but also of his murder of his own brother.  IMPOSTUME:  Observing Norway’s troops ready to invade Poland, Hamlet notes:  This is th’ impostume of much wealth and peace, That inward breaks and shows no cause without Why the man dies. (4.4.28-30) An impostume is an abscess, as if the body is secretly hoarding puss from an infection. Hamlet impli...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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