English 432 Shakespeare

In treatment they tore out my wounds
and I bled my lies till
my tears ran free-down my cheeks.

My brothers stood around me
and smiled, they'd been out
on the back porch, been waitin a while-
for me to get through the defiled
thoughts of my life.

And the light turned blue
it entered my eyes,
oh God, what a thunderous reply-
that I can get high as a kite,
eventhough I don't try,
no more, no more.

And the moon rose to meet me-
my spirit that soared,
returned to earth, just to greet me-
said he'd, "be out on the shores
of Leland, alone", but he ain't lonely,
no more, no more.

So I wish today could be everyday-
Amen
And I wish I could trade this ace
up my sleeve for your little hand-
Amen, Amen

Hey Bardolitors--here we go,

1) What King Lear see's in every travail--Filial Ingratitude
2) Rapid excange of insulting terms--Flyting
3) According to Northrop Frye: what are the most important words in Lear--nature, nothing, fool
4) Jake/Jaques--outhouse
5) Why does the fool fade-out so soon in King Lear--Lear becomes the fool
6) Definition of Theophany--divine showing forth of the world
7) Deus Ex Machina--God from the Machine
8) Jan Kott--says that the stage should be absolutely bare when Gloucester takes his "big" jump off Dover Cliffs
9) Cymbeline Themes--appearance, fidelity, redemption
10) Ted Hughes greatest Theme from Shakespeare--unconditional love offered by the female to the ungrateful male
11) Frye says--All's Well that Ends Well doesn't follow comedic conventions, its a reversal of conventions
12) The Poet known in Pastoral Conventions--the Shepherd
13) According to Hughes--the image of the Boar persists through-out Shakespeare
14) What is the symbol for what both Gloucester/Lear curse--the womb, where the 3 tragic roads meet, never to be born
15) In Pure Tragedy--2nd best is to die, 1st is to have never been born (i.e. Lear, Brother's Karamotsov, Book of Job)
16) The 1st tragic character to survive--Posthumous in Cymbeline
17) What is the main concern of Romance--life the hero out of the tragic plane, transcendence of tragedy
18) How many reversals/recognitions occur in Cymbeline--24
19) "Like flies to the Gods"--Gloucester
20) "Sermons in stones"--Duke Senior
21) What does tragedy have the weight of--Realism
22) Bertram will only marry Helena if--she gets a ring, or becomes pregnant (either from him of course)
23) Where does the title Measure for Measure come from--the Bible
24) The deer incident in the forest of Arden with Jaques--he is a melancholiac
25) What is the trifector of a Melacholiac--metaphors of Time, Death, and Acting
26) Why is Cymbeline a misleading title--He is only a minor character in the play
27) Comedy of Errors--Physical Comedy and one of W.S.'s earliest comedic plays

Break a Leg.

While watching Sir Laurence as King Lear, and yes he was a Shakespearian expert, I had to laugh when the scene between him and Gloucester entered the "Boots" sequence. If anyone has seen 'Waiting for Godot' performed, there is a scene very similar to this one from Lear. Vladimir and Estragon (DiDi & GoGo) are the two main characters from 'Godot' and they resemble Lear and Gloucester in so many ways. This is no coincedence since Samuel Beckett was obssesed with King Lear. Before I get to the "Boots", I need to acknowledge my own recognition--I never realized the dislpacement between Lear and Godot. I've even performed some of Godot in an acting class, and it was this very scene where GoGo can't find his boots and Didi finds them and attempts to put them on Gogo's feet. I used to think that Godot was the dryest play about "nothing"--they wait for Godot to show up and he never does. The entire play is about what happens while "Waiting for Godot". I heard that the original title of the play was supposed to be "While Waiting for Godot". Yes, While. Not just waiting. Anyway, they struggle to find Gogo's boots and get them back on. Meanwhile they discuss what there is to eat, maybe just a radish in Didi's pocket. They look out into the vast deep of nothing, the stage is bare, the tree they spy is bare, everything is bare. This is Lear's life in act 3, the storm raging in the baren land of his mind, not recognizing Gloucester. Look, Existentialism is born in the 16th century. Quite remarkable.

Lear can't be seen as a microcosm of ingratitude, though, one could easily choose this depiction. Lear is so textured with humanity that mere ingratitude would be disingenuous. Who inhabits the landscape of Lear's mind? Is it Lear-the Royal and all his knights? Is it Lear-the loving father? Is it Lear-Father of his land? Is it Lear-the madman? All these incarnations of Lear are truthful, but by laying out these manifestations limits the vast complexity of Lear. He is at once a man that stands for everything and nothing. Sounds like the human condition.
If we are stripped of all our luxuries, our Ipods, our TV's, our autos, our very life that we have come to depend on-I think we'll find just what were made of, or not made of. Who is a philosopher and who is a fool? Does life depend on predetermined capabilities? As Shylock could not see past the law, the letter of law, nor can Lear see past his rigid invocations of himself. But, just to contradict myself-Lear finds himself, less rigid, less concerned with formality and ingratitude-naked and base. The lines between Lear and Poor Tom are, I think, the most precious of the play. Lear is at his most sane in an utterly insane setting. He is not drowning himself in self-pity, nor cursing his family, but he is at a place of child-like awe. The surface of things tell us that Lear has lost his mind, but the humor and "play" in those lines show depths of Lear's humanity. He may be mad, or he may be sane in a mad world. You Choose.

What I find striking, or let me say that better, one of the things I find striking about Garber's analysis of Cymbeline is her accounting of Guiderus and Arviragus's pathologies. On page 811 of "Skakes...after all" she brings two contrasting personalities into the light, the Active and the Contemplative. I suppose what I found striking is after reflecting on this I realized that my brother and I are very similar to these dyadic qualities. My brother, the great outdoorsman, fisher, hunter, all around gatherer, and carpenter. Myself, well, I too love the outdoors, but I tend to philosophize about it more than I actually participate in it. I can hold a conversation with a fly-fisher, but I've only been once in my life. I can wax poetic with deer and elk hunters, but I've never been hunting. I'm not sure this is at all relevent, but I thought I'd add it to the discussion I'm having here in cyber-space, all by myself. Oh, wait a minute, I've just been struck with yet another Garber analyzation. Mirrors and mirroring what I want to see, I see myself in nature and it's the nature I've created for myself. See, "Duke Senior--and his books in brooks." Ok, back to Cymbeline.

Dr. Sexson brought up at the end of class today, after the Cymbeline presentation, the notion of "looking". Well, I think he and Jud talked about voyeurism, but I see it as "looking". Iachimo scanning and commiting Imogen's room to memory for sinister accounts to come later. But what does it mean to look. The act of looking. The act of seeing. Do we "see" what we want to, like Duke Senior, or like Sartre would say, "the constant state of becoming". What we see, or look for is personal, serving our own interests and agendas. This has always been intriguing to me, how I can see a sacred sunset from atop Pete's Hill and others can run by without ever looking. Is it about time? Is it about state of mind? The willing suspension of disbelief, natural abstraction of the mind? What does it mean to see?

Oh yes, yet another tangent--According to Garber, there is 24 reversals in Cymbeline. What is Will getting at here? Is he proving his power over character, redefining the outward appearance within type. He's not just playing with gender, but with psychological recognition, perception. All for now. Must go.