Lear: context

Question 1

3 differences of the original plot of Leir and King Lear.

Answer 1

• Sequence of death is different making it more unnatural and tragic
• Lear isn’t redeemed at the end of the play, or able to reclaim his throne and get revenge of his elder daughters
• Addition of Lear’s madness and the fool as well as the subplot.

Question 2

3 features of tragedy

Answer 2

• The characters suffer a fatal flaw which destroys them so it is the character’s own actions that destroy them, not solely external forces
• There is often a sense of moral order in Shakespearian tragedy so when someone violates the moral order it will be paid back to them
• A sense of waste as the characters are capable of goodness but fall to human temptation and flaws.

Question 3

3 differences of Tate’s Lear compared to Shakespeare’s Lear

Answer 3

• Cordelia and Edgar romance plot inserted with Cordelia’s actions explained by her love for him
• he cut out the fool and some of the chaotic elements
• he changed the ending to Lear regaining his throne, Cordelia marrying Edgar, and Edgar declaring that “truth and virtue shall at last succeed.”

Question 4

3 facts about poverty in Jacobean england

Answer 4

• There were the deserving poor, the able bodied poor, and the undeserving poor (beggars and vagabonds)
• harsh punishments towards poor with vagabond act suggesting enslavement, whipping and branding to the undeserving poor
• some social responsibility in 1570s with poor tax and requirement to find work for poor (welfare)

Question 5

What was the Basilikon Doron?

Answer 5

A government treaties written by King James shortly before his reign that sets out the guidelines for how to be an effective monarch.
The three books were on, being a good Christian, Law and justice and the daily life of monarch.

Question 6

What were the attitudes towards theatre?

Answer 6

• Was appealing for all social classes
• Audiences appreciated complex characters, gripping plots and memorable lines.
• Some thought it would encourage idleness and create unrest

Question 7

Why France and Burgundy?

Answer 7

• France: general english dislike due to continuous wars so French invasion particularly worrying, and cowardly French husband pleasing
• Burgundy: played a role in the conflicts between Britain and France, and would be remembered as France’s rival.

Question 8

What links can be made between sickness and medicine and the play?

Answer 8

• Main plague epidemics occurred in 1563, 1593 with 1563 accounting for one-quarter to one-third of the Londons’s population killed. Time of despair reflected in dark plays.
• 4 humours, God’s anger, and astrology widely believed
• Common treatments of prayer, herbs, rest or 4 humour.

Question 9

How does the gunpowder plot (Nov 1605) link to Lear (1605-6)?

Answer 9

• The conspirators were either killed fleeing or tortured then hung drawn and quartered. This was an extremely public warning against treason.
• Sense of revelling in cruelty, with Gunpowder plot ordered to be marked every year
• Paranoia and spectacle of attack as Lear was written, with plot to kill the king very realistic. Shakespeare ‘intrinsically linked’ to plot as plotters operated near Stratford upon Avon

Question 10

What is primogeniture and why is it relevant?

Answer 10

• A legal process where the firstborn son would unquestionably inherit the property of the family so as to avoid the splintering of estates among siblings. James 1 made it clear that he intended to bequeath all three to a single heir.
• Primogeniture was associated with strength and stability of the social orders so by going against it Lear inevitably causes chaos
• Edmund tries to disrupt primogeniture, so disrupts the natural and legal way of society, causing the instability and destruction of his family.
  Edgar kills Edmund, righting the primogeniture with first born showing natural superiority.