King Lear Act Five – “Men must endure their going hence, even as their coming hither: ripeness is all.”

King Lear Act Five – “Men must endure
 their going hence, even as their coming hither: ripeness is all.”

Certainly all ripens in the final act of this play. Regan shows herself not to be a shy girl (not to say that we ever mistook her for a wallflower). On the eve of battle, she asks Edmund if he loves her sister Goneril or has already slept with her and Edmund denies both so then Regan begins to say that she is jealous of her sister and tells Edmund to stay away from Goneril. Serendipitously, Goneril and Albany arrive with their army to join the assault. Albany says that he has heard that Lear has joined with the French forces and that although he has some sympathy for Lear and some doubts about the right of their campaign that he will join with Edmund, Regan, and Goneril to fight against the French and Lear. Regan and Goneril start to almost openly fight over Edmund as the they and Edmund exit.

Albany is about to leave for his tent, when a man looking like a peasant (Edgar in disguise) hands him the letter he got from Oswald which Goneril wrote to Edmund. The letter tells of Goneril’s intention to kill Albany (her own husband). Before he leaves, Edgar tells Albany to read the letter but Albany will tragically not open this letter until after the battle and more tragic events unfold. Edgar also tells Albany that if he is victorious in the battle then when he sounds a trumpet, Edgar will arrive and be his champion for a cause that may arise from claims made in letter. Edgar exits and Edmund enters to tell Albany that all is ready for the battle. Albany leaves and Edmund talks to the audience about having sworn his love to both Regan and Goneril and about how he has plans for Lear and Cordelia of his own:

“To both these sisters have I sworn my love;

Each jealous of the other, as the stung

Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take?

Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd,

If both remain alive: to take the widow

Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril;

And hardly shall I carry out my side,

Her husband being alive. Now then we'll use

His countenance for the battle; which being done,

Let her who would be rid of him devise

His speedy taking off. As for the mercy

Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia,

The battle done, and they within our power,

Shall never see his pardon; for my state

Stands on me to defend, not to debate.”

The battle ends as quickly as it begins and Edgar, who has pretended again to be a peasant and tried to keep his father out of harms way, reports that Lear and Cordelia have been captured and he and Gloucester fly to another safe spot just as Edmund brings his prisoners Lear and Cordelia. Cordelia thinks that she will be able to confront her sisters even though Lear doesn’t want them to and looks forward to being locked like birds in a cage because he knows he will get to stay with Cordelia. Edmund sends them off but gives a guard a note with very specific instructions which we imagine are tragic.

When Albany first re-enters with Goneril and Regan, he initially praise Edmund for his conduct in battle and asks him to hand over Lear and Cordelia. Claiming Lear and Cordelia have been sent somewhere safe, Edmund is chastised by Albany for acting above his station but Regan says that Albany should treat Edmund better since when she marries Edmund then Albany and Edmund will be brothers. Goneril then butts in and tells Regan that Edmund will never marry her and just then Regan seems to fall mysteriously sick. Albany, by now having read the letter, interrupts the cat fight and charges Edmund with treason and sounds the trumpet. Meanwhile, Regan grows progressively sicker.

At the third blast of the trumpet, Edgar enters in full armor to accuse Edmund of treason and face him in single combat. They fight (event though Edmund at this point does not know that he is fighting his own brother) and Edgar defeats Edmund. Albany tells Edgar to not kill Edmund since Albany has many answers he wants out of Edmund. When Goneril tries to help Edmund, Albany takes out the letter and accuses her of treachery and plotting to kill him. Goneril hurriedly exits. Then Edgar removes his helmet and reveals himself. The tale of his masquerade as Mad Tom and his saving of Gloucester (his own father) is revealed. Edgar also says that when he finally revealed himself to his own father, Gloucester, just before this fight with Edmund, that his father's "flaw'd heart" was "too weak the conflict to support" of "joy and grief" that he died as his heart "burst smilingly".

Then a gentleman rushes in carrying a bloody knife and announces that Goneril and Regan are dead. Goneril has committed suicide and Regan was poisoned by Goneril and the poison finally took its course. As the bodies of the two sisters are brought out, Kent about Lear's whereabouts. Edmund reveals his evil acts and reveals that he had ordered Cordelia be hanged. Edmund is taken off. A messenger is sent to try prevent tragedy but alas...

Lear enters, the lifeless Cordelia in his arms and insanity and grief weigh much heavier on him than the dead Cordelia's body:

“Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones:

Had I your tongues and eyes, I'ld use them so

That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone for ever!

I know when one is dead, and when one lives;

She's dead as earth. Lend me a looking-glass;

If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,

Why, then she lives. “

Lear barely recognizes Kent as he kneels before him and attempts to help. A messenger enters and Edmund's death is announced. Lear thinks that he sees Cordelia breath (and in Victorian times this is when some directors had Cordelia come back to life). But false hope takes away the last breath of Lear and he dies.

The play ends with Albany (changed by all he has witnessed) giving Edgar and Kent their power and titles back and inviting them to power share with him the ruling of the kingdom. Edgar accepts but Kent refuses stating that he is close to death himself and has "...a journey, sir, shortly to go; My master calls me. I must not say no." Albany then speaks to the few that remain in rhyming couplets and a funeral march is led away.

“The weight of this sad time we must obey;

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.

The oldest hath borne most: we that are young

Shall never see so much, nor live so long.”

King Lear Act 4 – “As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods -They kill us for their sport.”

King Lear Act 4 – “As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods -
They kill us for their sport.”

We start Act 4 of ‘King Lear on the heath with Edgar reflecting that things are not working out that bad but then he is confronted with the horrific sight of his father whose eyes have been gorged out. Gloucester is led by an old tenant farmer. Gloucester tells the old man that the loss of his eyesight would have been worthwhile if he could touch his son Edgar again.  

“O dear son Edgar,

The food of thy abused father's wrath!

Might I but live to see thee in my touch,

I’d say I had eyes again!”

Edgar could reveal himself to his father, but he decides to maintain his disguise as Poor Tom, the beggar madman. Gloucester asks the old man to leave him with Tom (Edgar) and he asks the madman to lead him to Dover and to the highest cliff which Tom (Edgar) consents to.

We then move back to near Albany and Goneril’s palace as Goneril and Edmund (Gloucester’s bastard son) are arriving. Goneril seems put out that Albany did not meet them and her servant Oswald tells her that Albany is disgusted with the way that Goneril and Regan have treated Lear and that, he seems pleased that French army has landed. It starts to dawn on Goneril that her husband Albany may not be her ally and follow her blindly since he has developed a conscience. She thinks him a coward for his conscience and resolves that she will take more control of the army and commands Edmund to return to Cornwall’s house so that Cornwall’s troops can meet the French. She farewells Edmund with a kiss suggesting which way her affections now lay:

“It is the cowish terror of his spirit,

That dares not undertake: he'll not feel wrongs

Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way

May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother;

Hasten his musters and conduct his powers:

I must change arms at home, and give the distaff

Into my husband's hands. This trusty servant

Shall pass between us: ere long you are like to hear,

If you dare venture in your own behalf,

A mistress's command. Wear this; spare speech;

Giving a favour

Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak,

Would stretch thy spirits up into the air:

Conceive, and fare thee well.”

Albany enters just as Edmund exits and he berates Goneril for the way that her and her sister’s actions have driven Lear to madness. Goneril berates him back calling Albany a coward. Then a message arrives that tells of Cornwall’s death at the hands of a servant and the horror of both of Gloucester’s eyes being taken out by Cornwall. Albany is horrified but sees Cornwall’s death as some act of divine retribution.

“This shows you are above,

You justicers, that these our nether crimes

So speedily can venge! But, O poor Gloucester!”

 Goneril has a different reaction and in a soliloquy she sees this as lessening her sister’s power but unfortunately makes her sister a widow so that she could possibly pursue a marriage to Edmund. Goneril leaves quickly to answer her sister’s correspondence.

Albany questions the messenger further and is shocked when he hears that Edmund was the one who betrayed his own father causing Cornwall to punish Gloucester in such a horrific way. Albany resolves to help Gloucester and take vengeance out on Edmund.

“Gloucester, I live

To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king,

And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend:

Tell me what more thou know'st.”

Back near the French camp in Dover, Kent, still pretending to be a servant talks to a gentleman who tells him of the arrival of the French forces in Dover but that the King of France has gone back to France to sort out some matters. Kent asks about whether Cordelia received the letters about Lear’s mistreatment at the hand of Goneril and Regan that he sent her and the Gentleman relates how moved she was by the letters:

“Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence;

And now and then an ample tear trill'd down

Her delicate cheek: it seem'd she was a queen

Over her passion; who, most rebel-like,

Sought to be king o'er her.”

Kent then reveals to the Gentleman that Lear’s state is now between madness and sanity. Lear does not want to see Cordelia because he feels too ashamed because of what he did to her. Kent is  informed about how the combined armies of Albany and Cornwall (even though he is dead) are readying to face the French force. Kent says he will bring the Gentleman to Lear.

Then Cordelia enters, with her soldiers and she orders then to find the now mad Lear and to bring him back. She then consults with a doctor about the chance of someone like Lear recovering from madness and the doctor says that sleep is needed and that he has about Lear’s chances for recovering his sanity. The doctor tells her that what Lear most needs is sleep and that he has many “simple operatives” to help with sleep. Cordelia then hears that the combined armies of Cornwall and Albany are moving towards her and the French forces. Cordelia and her man stand ready for a battle.

Back at the bat-cave (sorry, wrong genre, decade and century) Oswald informs Regan of the progress of the two armyies. He flippantly comments that Goneril seem a “better soldier” than Albany. Oswald has a letter from Goneril which he won’t show Regan so she guesses that it is from Goneril to Edmund and of a romantic nature. Regan reveals that she likes Edmund and sees now that she is a widow that she would make a good match. Regan gives Oswald a token to deliver to Edmund. She also says that anyone who kills Gloucester will get a huge reward.

“If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,

Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.”

Still disguised as Tom, Edgar leads Gloucester to Dover and pretends to take Gloucester to the cliff. Gloucester gets Tom (Edgar) to leave him and then, compelled by his shame and guilt, Gloucester tries to commit suicide by falling from the cliff. But Edgar has only put Gloucester on a small mound and he pretends that he is an ordinary gentleman and he picks Gloucester up and tells him that he saw him fall from the top of the cliff and beside him was devil. Gloucester accepts this explanation and then he sees Lear entering with a crown of wild flowers. Lear seems mad, deserting reason, rhyme and iambic pentametre. Then he strangely recognises Gloucester and alludes to Gloucester’s sin of adultery before he launches into a tirade about women.

Cordelia’s party finds them and Lear runs away, pursued (not by a bear) but by Cordelia’s men. Then Oswald enters and seeing Gloucester, he plans to kill him and get the reward but then Edgar pretends to be a local peasant and fights with oswald and stabs him. The dying Oswald gives the letters he bears to Edgar.

Edgar reads the letters and finds out that Goneril has written them to Edmund to urge him to kill her husband Albany so that she Goneril and Edmund can be together. Edgar decides that he will take Gloucester to safety before he shows the letter to Albany himself.

Meanwhile, over at the French camp, Cordelia tells Kent that she knows who he is and how he protected her father but promises to keep his secret. Lear is asleep and then he wakes and seems to recognise Cordelia: speaks with Kent. She knows his real identity, but he wishes it to remain a secret to everyone else. Lear, who has been sleeping, is brought in to Cordelia. He only partially recognizes her.

“Do not laugh at me;

For, as I am a man, I think this lady

To be my child Cordelia.”

Cordelia reveals that she does not blame or hate her father and that she forgives him for her banishment. Then the news of Cornwall’s death is heard and the approach of Edmund and Cornwall’s troops. Kent and others prepare for battle:

“Report is changeable. 'Tis time to look about; the

powers of the kingdom approach apace…

My point and period will be throughly wrought,

Or well or ill, as this day's battle's fought.”

King Lear Act Three - "When the mind's free, The body's delicate."

King Lear Act Three – “When the mind's free,
The body's delicate.”

As the storm continues to rage, Kent comes across one of Lear’s thirty odd remaining knights and he reveals that he is no servant and tells the knight of the feud between Albany and Cornwall. He then asks the knight to go to Dover where there will be friends of Lear and he gives the knight his own ring and tells him to give it to Cordellia when he sees her so that she will know who it was who sent the knight. Kent then leaves to find Lear.

Lear confronts the storm and the elements:

“Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!

You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout

Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!

You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,

Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,

Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,

Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!

Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill at once,

That make ingrateful man!”

Lear’s thoughts wander and as he curses his daughters, we see that he is on the edge of sanity. The Fool seems the sane one and he suggests that Lear makes peace with his daughters so they can shelter indoors. Lear does not respond and continues to rage and rant. When Kent arrives, he urges them all to take shelter in a nearby hovel and when Lear agrees to go with him, The Fool leaves us with a prophecy before he too goes.

We switch to Gloucester’s castle where he is speaking to his bastard son Edmund about Regan, Goneril, and the fact that Cornwall left Lear out in the storm. Gloucester reveals that he will go out in the storm to search for and help Lear. Gloucester also reveals to Edmund that he is well aware of the feud between Albany and Cornwall and that the French are going to invade England  and have already landed at Dover. He tells Edmund of a secret letter with news of the French army which is locked in his room. He asks Edmund to cover for him and distract Cornwall while he searches for Lear. Gloucester leaves and Edmund reveals how he will tell Cornwall all about Gloucester’s plans to help Lear and about the letter from the French:

“This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke

Instantly know; and of that letter too:

This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me

That which my father loses; no less than all:

The younger rises when the old doth fall.”

We then travel across to the heath where Kent is braving the storm with Lear and he finally arrives at the hovel. Lear will not enter the hovel so Kent sends The Fool in first. The Fool quickly runs out of the hovel saying that there is a mad spirit in there. Of course the mad spirit is Edgar disguised as Tom O’Bedlam. Edgar acts like a madman and makes out that he is chased by the devil and that fiends possess his flesh. Lear thinks that Tom makes perfect sense and he connects to Edgar seeing his own plight with his daughters in this madness. Lear asks Tom what he was like before he went mad and Tom/Edgar quickly reveals a story that he was a wealthy courtier who spent his days by having sex with multiple women and drinking.

Gloucester then enters, carrying a torch wanting to bring Lear to his castle to get out of the storm. Eventually, Kent and Gloucester get Lear to come with them but only after he insists that Tom (Edgar in disguise) goes with them.

We cross back to Edmund who has betrayed his father by showing Cornwall Gloucester's letter which shows Gloucester has communicated with the French.  Edmund fakes horror at this treason but has now allied himself with Cornwall. Cornwall gives Edmund the title of Earl of Gloucester and even sends Edmund to get his father, Gloucester.

Back in an outhouse or farmhouse on Gloucester's estate, Kent, Lear, the Fool and Mad Tom (Edgar) take shelter from the storm. Gloucester exits to get supplies. Lear, starts a mock trial of his daughters Regan and Goneril using Mad Tom (Edgar), The Fool and a reluctant Kent as the judges. When Gloucester returns, he tells Kent of a plot to kill Lear and he urges Kent to quickly take Lear to Dover where friends and allies await him. Mad Tom (Edgar) does not leave with Lear's party and briefly turning back into Edgar, he muses to the audience over how small his worries are compared to those of Lear.

We switch back to Gloucester’s castle, where Cornwall and Goneril are debating about what to do about the French arriving at Dover. Cornwall wants Goneril to take the letter to her husband Albany and see what he thinks. Servants are sent to bring Gloucester to Cornwall for punishment and Edmund is ordered to go with Goneril to Albany’s palace. Edmund and Goneril leave.

Gloucester is brought before Cornwall and Regan. He is tied up, insulted, berated and his beard is pulled but that is nothing compared to what follows next. When Gloucester admits to sheltering Lear and helping him to escape. Then Cornwall stabs out one of Gloucester's eyes, throwing it to the ground and stomping on it. Regan demands that Gloucester's other eye comes out as well. Just then, one of Gloucester's ex-servants intervenes and stands up for Gloucester. Cornwall then draws his sword and the servant and Cornwall fight until Cornwall is hurt. At this point, Regan grabs a sword from another servant and thrusts it into the first servant killing him. Overcome with pain and anger, Cornwall gouges out Gloucester’s other eye. Gloucester calls out for his son Edmund to help him, but Regan triumphantly tells him:

“Out, treacherous villain!

Thou call'st on him that hates thee: it was he

That made the overture of thy treasons to us;

Who is too good to pity thee.”

Gloucester realizes immediately that Edmund has tricked him and that Edgar really loved him. Gloucester is thrown out by Regan and Cornwall to “… smell ‘is way to Dover…” Then, Cornwall, realizes that he is bleeding heavily and with Regan’s help, he exits, while some of Gloucester's ex-servants (who are shocked at the events), decide to treat Gloucester’s wounds and to give him into the care of Mad Tom (who happens to be Gloucester's real dutiful son Edgar).

King Lear Act Two – “Let not women's weapons, water-drops, Stain my man's cheeks!”

King Lear Act Two –  “Let not women's weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man's cheeks!”

We then skip two days ahead to Gloucester’s castle, where it is early in the evening and a servant tells Edmund (the bastard son of Gloucester) that Cornwall and Regan (his wife and Lear’s daughter) are coming to visit Gloucester tonight. It is also mentioned that rumors are afoot that the kingdom may be in trouble already because Cornwall and Albany (Goneril’s husband) seem at loggerheads and things will get worse. Edmund is not stupid. He straight away sees how he can used this quarrel and Cornwall’s visit as part of his scheme to get Edgar.

Calling Edgar out of where he is hiding, Edmund tells Edgar that Cornwall is after him Edgar because he has heard that Edgar is on Albany’s side in their dispute. Edgar is rightly confused and Edmund adds to this confusion by telling Edgar that Gloucester has found out where Edgar is, is railing and that the only course is for Edgar to leave the house tonight. Then when Gloucester’s arrival seems imminent, Edmund gets Edgar to leave, draws his own sword and pretends that he is fighting with Edgar and then he cuts his arm with his own sword and pretends that he is hurt. Edmund then tells his father, Gloucester, that Edgar tried to convince Edmund to join a plot to kill Gloucester, their own father and that when he refused and stood up for their father, Edgar tried to kill him. Gloucester thanks Edmund and men are sent out to find the traitor Edgar.

Then Cornwall and Regan enter and are taken in by Edmund’s story of bravery. Regan then tries to tie Edgar to the disorderly knights of Lear’s that Goneril wrote to her about and Regan surmises that Edgar and other rebel knights were trying to kill Gloucester for his fortune. Edmund seems to agree to this explanation. The reason for Regan coming becomes clear as she Gloucester to help her answer rival letters she has received from Lear and Goneril and obviously wants help to negotiate and respond.

Later that night, outside Gloucester’s castle, Kent (still pretending to be a lowly servant, comes across Oswald (Goneril’s chief steward) again and Kent abuses him:

“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.”

Oswald is taken back and screams for help when Kent then attacks him with a sword.

Cornwall, Regan, and Gloucester enter and when Cornwall is not stified with Kent’s explanation, he puts Kent in arm and leg stocks. Gloucester objects stating that treating Lear’s servant this way is disrespectful to Lear himself but Cornwall and Regan reinforce they think it is a fit punishment. Kent is left alone in the stocks and before he falls asleep, he manages to somehow take out and read a secret letter that has arrived from Lear’s youngest exiled daughter, Cordelia:

“Who hath most fortunately been inform'd

Of my obscured course; and shall find time

From this enormous state, seeking to give

Losses their remedies.”

As Kent sleeps outside Gloucester’s castle in the stocks, Edgar sneaks out having not been gound by Gloucester’s me. Thinking that he will soon be found, Edgar takes off his noble clothes, covers himself with dirt and assumes the disguise and persona of the mad recently freed insane asylum inmate and homeless beggar, Poor Tom.

It is now the next day and Lear, accompanied by the Fool and a knight, is coming to Gloucester’s castle when he hears a voice and is shocked to see his messenger and servant in the stocks. Kent then tells Lear that Regan and Cornwall put him there and Lear sends word that he demands to speak to them but they send word that they cannot because they are sick and weary from traveling. Lear is livid and when Regan and Cornwall eventually appear, Lear complains to them about Goneril’s “sharp-toothed unkindness” only to have Regan maintain that Goneril is being reasonable and that Lear is being old and unreasonable. She also suggests that he should return to stay with Goneril.

Lear is taken back and continues to bag Goneril when, low and behold who should enter and take Regan by the hand but Goneril. Regan, having already received letter from her sister Goneril has already aligned herself with Goneril against her father Lear. Lear is told that he is old and should give up his entourage if he want to stay with his daughters:

GONERIL

Hear me, my lord;

What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,

To follow in a house where twice so many

Have a command to tend you?

REGAN

What need one?

Lear is outraged and curses his daughters before he storms out:

O, reason not the need: our basest beggars

Are in the poorest thing superfluous:

Allow not nature more than nature needs,

Man's life's as cheap as beast's…

You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,

As full of grief as age; wretched in both!

If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts

Against their father, fool me not so much

To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,

And let not women's weapons, water-drops,

Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,

I will have such revenges on you both,

That all the world shall--I will do such things,--

What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be

The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep

No, I'll not weep:

I have full cause of weeping; but this heart

Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,

Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!

Lear does not know how much his speech foreshadows his coming fate and as Lear, the Fool and Kent exit, nature’s cruel metaphoric overkill punctuates the moment with the fateful approach of a storm. Gloucester begs Goneril and Regan to shelter Lear at least for the night but they insists that Lear will do whatever he does. Regan orders that the doors be shut up and locked and Goneril warns Gloucester not to offer refuge to Lear as the storm is about to break – a storm filled with further cruelty, betrayal, and madness. 

The Tragedy of King Lear Act One – ‘How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!’

The Tragedy of King Lear Act One – ‘How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!’

1605 seemed to start as a good year for James I. He had succeeded in again building the relations between England, Scotland and Wales and in October 1604, extended his title from King of Scotland and King of England to the the title of ‘King of Great Britain’. He had also forged an end to the Anglo-Spanish in August 1604, started to extend the powers of parliament and pushed forward with some Freedom of Worship policies (but these laws would not be enough for some Catholics). Little did James know that even as early as May 1604, Guy Fawkes and a group of Catholic conspirators had started to plan for November 1605 for what would become the Gunpowder Plot. But for the moment, all seemed quiet at the palace.

On the writing front Shakespeare had seemed fairly quiet in late 1604 and early 1605 but he had good reason. He was trying to ensure that he could create financial security for himself in Stratford-Upon-Avon so that he could write full time in London and eventually retire back to Stratford and even do some more writing in retirement. In 1601, he had bought 107 acres of arable land with twenty acres of pasturage for 20 pounds and this seemed to now be bringing in, in rent, almost that much every year. But that was nothing, for, in April of 1605, he purchased even more land and hoped that the income from these land purchases could eventually rake in more than 50 pounds a year. This along with the 10-20 pounds a year he made through what many would label 'grain hoarding', would bring him a substantial income that would lift him into an affluent class.

It is alleged that Shakespeare spent his 41^st birthday in Stratford, probably dealing with his investments. But in late April as he took the 140 mile, three or four day horse and cart or carriage journey back to London, his mind must have turned to what his next play could be. When he stopped at Chipping Norton or at an inn near Woodstock (if he was lucky with the road and the rain), he probably took out the books he had carried but not read that day due to the ruts and bumps in the path. Perhaps it was the sense of England reconnecting to its Scottish and Welsh heritage with James I, that prompted Shakespeare to take out his beloved Holinshed’s ‘The Chronicles of England, Scotlande and Ireland’. He probably thought of writing another History play on the second day and perhaps even made notes as he travelled to Oxford and stayed overnight there. He may have even lashed out and got a seat on a carriage to travel to Burnham Beaches and he may have even got some reading done on the journey had he done so. As he travelled into London, he probably thought he would stick to some familiar poetry reading as he took out and reread Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queene’ concentrating on a character in it named Cordelia. By the time he reached London proper, he thinking of writing another tragedy using a historical figure and his mind kept coming back to the Celtic figure of King Leir of Britain.

As he unpacked his stuff, the story started to form for King Lear. Shakespeare was probably visited by the chief actor of his company Richard Burbage, who, having recently turned 38 was keen for Shakespeare to write him an older tragic character for him to be tested by. Shakespeare may have shown him a speech or two he had written, none of which was probably new or intended for his new project and he may have even pitched some of the plot to Richard to keep him happy. Burbage probably had told Shakespeare that he had heard rumours that Robert Armin, the comic of their company, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, was thinking of returning to the Chandos Company. On top of this Burbage had probably just hired another couple of young male actors and probably suggested to Shakespeare that a few more female characters in his next play would be a good idea. Shakespeare knew that he had quite a task ahead of him as he ushered Richard Burbage out of the door. But by the end of the week he had started to finally bring together all the elements for the play he initially titled ‘The True Chronicle of the History of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters’. The play probably proved very popular in that season along with revivals of  'Measure for Measure' and 'Troilus and Cressida' but Shakespeare would have kept adding some bits as he went along and perhaps Gloucester's reference to "...these late eclipses of the sun and moon..." and the whole opening of Edmund and Edgar's in Act One Scene Two was added by Shakespeare after the October 12th 1605 solar eclipse to make the play topical enough for its provincial touring and/or private performances in manor houses or at the law colleges in London. Perhaps he was also thinking of making it topical enough to get invited for a performance for Christmas for King James I at the palace. And why not. James I was very interested in astronomy, witchcraft and other 'magic' arts and almost everyone else seemed to be invited to the palace since James I seemed very open in his policies. All that was to change when on November 5th, 1605, Guy Fawkes walked out of a gunpowder filled and decorated cellars of Parliament and into the arms of Sir Thomas Knyvet and the history books. It was obvious after that King James I would not be welcoming all and sundry to Christmas this year. Shakespeare would have to wait to flatter and impress the new king.

Shakespeare starts ‘King Lear’ with Gloucester and Kent talking about how King Lear is going to divide up his kingdom. Gloucester then introduces one of his two sons, his bastard son Edmund to Kent, but points out that he still loves his son dearly. Then King Lear, ruler of Britain, enters and announces that he will divide up his kingdom among his three daughters but will base the division on which of them loves him the most.

The oldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, flatter their father but the youngest daughter Cordelia, Lear’s favorite daughter, says that she cannot soeak like her sisters and loves her father as much as a daughter should. Lear looses is temper, disowns Cordelia and divides his kingdom between Goneril and Regan. Kent intercedes and tells Lear Cordelia loves him more than her sisters. Lear turns on Kent, and banishes him. France is the only lord who will take Cordelia and Cordelia and France are sent away. Then Goneril and Regan start to work together and agree that they must will undermine their father’s authority.

We now move onto the first of the subplots. Shakespeare had always loved subplots. The bastard son of Gloucester, Edmund enters and delivers a soliloquy which bemoans how little people seem to think of bastards. He so resents his half brother, Edgar (the legitimate one) and decides to undermine and get his brother out of the way so that he can inherit all of the estate from his ageing father. He starts by making it seem that his brother Edgar is planning to kill his father and he forges a letter to act as proof. When his father Gloucester enters, Edmund pretends to hide the letter but eventually his father demands to read the letter. Edmund makes it seem that Edgar is wanting to kill his father to get his and all the lands and assets more quickly. Gloucester exits and when Edgar enters, Edmund infers that Edgar should not go near their father since he is angry with him and tells Edgar to carry a sword with him at all times. 

Meanwhile, back in the main plot arena, Lear begins retirement by moving him and his very merry men to Goneril’s castle. Goneril is not happy with the continuous merrymaking of Lear and his men and she orders her servants and everyone in the house to treat Lear and his men with rudeness and distain. But Lear has a secret ally on his side when Kent, the trusted gentleman he had banished when he spoke up for Cordelia, disguised as a peasant called Caius, stands up for Lear and is accepted into his service as repayment. Lear wants to find out why Goneril’s servants and knights don't seem to be taking his orders and when Goneril's Oswald is rude to him and won't actually bring Goneril to talk to him, Lear goes to strike him and Kent trips Oswald. Lear’s Fool (played originally by Robert Armin who was impressed enough to stay with the Chamberlain's Men) enters and through a series of projectile puns tells Lear that he will suffer for the foolish decision of handing over all his power to Goneril and Regan.

Finally, Goneril enters and she lets loose on Lear about the rowdiness of him and his followers and she demands that he lets some of his entourage go. Lear is shocked by being talked to in this way and Goneril’s demand of him letting go fifty of his one hundred knights is too much. Lear flies into a rage and claims that he should never have given Goneril so much power. He curses his Goneril by calling on Nature to make her childless. Lear then announces that he will go and stay with Regan, who he calls now his only true daughter. After Lear leaves, Goneril argues with her husband, Albany, who in her eyes doesn't seem to be up to much. So Goneril takes action and says that she has already written a letter to her sister Regan, who seems on her side and will not welcome Lear as openly as he thinks and certainly will not look after Lear's one hundred knights.

Kent is already put to good service for Lear is sent to deliver a message to Gloucester who lives near Regan. The Fool tease Lear comparing Regan to a crab and suggesting that Regan is not to be trusted and that Lear is old, a fool and may be loosing his wisdom. Lear seems to for the first time to distrust his own judgement and call to heaven: 
"O, let me not be mad, not mad sweet heaven..."

Measure for Measure & Othello - Act Five – “Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure; Like doth quit like, and Measure still for Measure.” Othello - "...death'a unnatural that kills for loving."

Measure for Measure Act Five – “Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;
Like doth quit like, and Measure still for Measure.”

Shakespeare’s original audience for ‘Measure for Measure’ would have known it was going to be a comedy because they would have seen the white flag flying above the theatre and knowing that comedies traditionally end with amazing and sometimes unbelievable revelations and marriages (the more the merrier), as the play enters its last act, the audience would have expected revelations, unions and marriages. Act Five of ‘Measure for Measure’ starts with The Duke finally meeting Angelo and Escalus at the gates of the city where he thanks them for running the city in his absence. Isabella comes forward to bring her complaint against Angelo for him being a hypocrite, an "adulterous thief… virgin-violator" and a murderer. Angelo denies all this and calls Isabella insane and The Duke labels Isabella mad and tries to dismiss her.

Isabella pleads further with the Duke and he maintains that Isabella seems too logical and detailed to be mad and he allows her to tell her whole story. Isabella starts with Claudio (her brother) being sentenced to death for fornication, and she relates how she went to plead for his life with Angelo but that Angelo desired her and demanded her to give herself to him in exchange for letting her brother live. She says that she eventually relented but that Angelo executed her brother anyway. Standing up for Angelo, The Duke rejects the truth of Isabella’s story and claims that Isabella has been set up by someone and that she must name who helped her in all this. Isabella maintains that she speaks the truth and names Friar Lodowick (The Duke’s name when he was disguised as a friar). Lucio (who has consistently slandered the Duke to the friar) claims he knows the friar as a dishonest man who has slandered The Duke many times. The Duke demands to see the Friar Lodowick, and Friar Peter stands up for Friar Lodowick and claims he is sick and has sent him instead. Isabella is labeled a liar and is arrested and taken away.

Then with her face veiled, Mariana enters, to act as a witness to Isabella’s story. The Duke demands that Mariana to show her face but she says she will not do so until her husband lifts her veil. A cryptic interchange then follows where it is established that Mariana wants her husband to lift her veil, even though she is not married, not a maid (a virgin), not a widow, not a punk (a prostitute) but that even though he didn’t know it, her husband has ‘known’ her (in the sexual sense). The Duke is about to dismiss Mariana from testifying when she names Angelo.

Angelo denies all and Mariana lifts her veil and Angelo reveals that he did know Mariana and was engaged to her five years ago. Mariana reveals that they consummated their contract and had sex on Tuesday night but  Angelo denies this. The Duke demands to see Friar Lodowick so that he can clarify the issue and Friar Peter goes off. The Duke then makes a feeble excuse to leave, leaves Escalus in charge and leaves (obviously to make a quick change back into Friar Lodowick.

Escalus calls Isabella back, and claiming that someone has already denied the truth of her story, he tries to cross-examine her. Suddenly Friar Lodowick (The Duke in disguise) enters and Escalus accuses him of having groomed and sent Isabella and Mariana to slander Angelo. The Friar (The Duke) maintains he is telling the truth and asks to see The Duke (impossible of course for him to see himself) but Escalus says that has full authority and he threatens to torture the Friar (the Duke) in the Duke’s name. Angelo then asks Lucio accuse against the FriarDuke for the way he had slandered The Duke. The Friar/Duke says that in fact Lucio had slandered the Duke. The Friar/Duke is about to be taken off to prison, when Lucio pulls the Friar’s hood off, and Friar Lodowick is revealed to be The Duke.

Turning to Angelo, The Duke asks if he has anything to say and Angelo confesses all and asks to be put to death. The Duke sentences him to marriage to  Mariana and then The Duke requests for Isabella to be brought back and he apologizes to her for not revealing himself and claims he did this to save Claudio’s life but that he did not succeed. The Duke then orders Angelo to be executed to pay for Claudio's death (all this would not work as comedy if the audience did not know that Claudio is in fact alive)

Mariana is distressed that she will now be a widow instead of a wife and she asks for a pardon on Angelo’s behalf but the Duke refuses and tries to placte her by telling her that she will find a better husband. Mariana then asks for Isabella's help and Isabella kneels and asks for Angelo to be pardoned. The Duke ignores this and the Provost is chastised for executing Claudio at such an early hour and then the Provost says he went against part of his orders and did not execute Barnadine. At this point, Barnadine (really Claudio bound up and muffled) is brought on and The Duke pardons Barnadine. The head cover and gag are removed and Claudio is revealed (having already been pardoned as Barnadine). The Duke then asks Isabella not to join the nunnery but to marry him instead. Lucio is sentenced to marry the woman he made pregnant (who is a well-known punk) and The Duke concludes by saying that everyone should confess, marry and live happily ever after and marriage is the ultimate punishment or reward for all:

“She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore.

Joy to you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo:

I have confess'd her and I know her virtue.

Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness:

There's more behind that is more gratulate.

Thanks, provost, for thy care and secrecy:

We shill employ thee in a worthier place.

Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home

The head of Ragozine for Claudio's:

The offence pardons itself. Dear Isabel,

I have a motion much imports your good;

Whereto if you'll a willing ear incline,

What's mine is yours and what is yours is mine.

So, bring us to our palace; where we'll show

What's yet behind, that's meet you all should know.”

Othello - Act 5 - "...death's unnatural that kills for love."

Roderigo, encouraged by Iago, attacks Cassio but rather than killing Cassio, he wounds him. Iago then comes from behind and stabs Cassio's leg and then escapes. Othello, thinking that Cassio is dead, leaves to kill Desdemona. Iago returns and when Roderigo calls out for help, Iago stabs and kills him. When Bianca arrives, Iago tries to defer all blame onto her. Emilia discovers that Cassio is wounded and that Roderigo is dead and Iago tells her to go and take this news to Desdemona and Othello. 

Desdemona is asleep when Othello comes to her. Before he kills her, he laments the loss of love and tries to validate his murderous action in terms of what he sees as Desdemona's betrayal and her cunning nature as the audience sees that he has finally totally given in to his jealousy and pride.
"It is the cause, it is the cause my soul, -
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!
It is the cause. Yet I'll not shed her blood;
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
And smooth as monumental alabaster.
Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men..."

Othello bends down to kill Desdemona and then he goes to smother her. She awakes, is frightened but musters up the courage to ask her husband why he wants to kill her. Othello tells her that she has been unfaithful to him with cassio and that the handkerchief with strawberries on it is the proof. Desdemona denies her lack of faithfulness. Othello does not believe her and tells her that Iago has already killed cassio and that Cassio confessed before he died. Desdemona weeps on hearing of Cassio's death and Othello takes this of further proof of their affair and he lashes out in a rage and smothers Desdemona to death. Emilia calls from outside the door and Othello thinks that his wife is still alive and calling to him so he smothers her again. 

Othello lets Emilia in and she yells 'Murder' and Othello even threatens to kill her. Emilia states that she will not be silenced and she tells Othello of Desdemona's innocence, faithfulness and purity of heart. She then realises that she has played a part in the events leading to Desdemona's death. She tells Othello that she gave the handkerchief to Iago. She realises that she has been manipulated by her husband Iago:
"O mistress, villany hath made mocks of love,
My husband say that she was false...
If he say so, may his pernicious soul
Rot half a grain a day! he lies to the heart:
She was too fond of her most filthy bargain...
I care not for thy sword; I'll make thee known.
Though I lost twenty lives - Help! help, ho! help!
The Moor hath kill'd my mistress! Murder! Murder!"

When Iago and others enter, Othello tries to kill Iago. Iago pulls Emilia in front of him and she is stabbed and Iago runs away. Emilia lies beside the dead Desdemona and sings and tells of Desdemona's innocence before she dies:
" (sings) Willow, willow, willow, -
Moor, she was chaste; she loved thee cruel Moor;
So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true;
So speaking as I think, I die, I die."

Othello is now filled with guilt and confusion. Iago is brought back. Lodovico questions Othello and reveals he will be sent to Venice for trial. Othello confronts Iago to find out why he orchestrated these events. Iago offers not reasons or defence:
"Demand me nothing; what you know, you know:
From this time forth I never will speak word."

Cassio, whom is still alive and has not died from his injuries, reveals more of how he came by the handkerchief. Othello speaks of how he wants all these events to be remembered before he stabs himself to death:
"Soft you; a word or two before you go.
I have done the state some service, and they know't.
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate.
Speak of me as  am; nothing exenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well..."

After he stabs himself, Othello kisses Desdemona and dies. Lodovico raps up the play with promising that Iago will be truly punished.