| William
Shakespeare
Henry
VI (pts. 1, 2 & 3) - 1589/92 King
Lear shows the influence of Montaigne,
with Shakespeare becoming increasingly uncertain,
sceptical, and questioning. As in Measure for
Measure, he deploys a great deal of biblical and
proverbial language in the play, but stresses its
anachronism. He takes pains to emphasize how ancient,
how pagan his Britain is. And it is for us to consider
whether the events of the play undermine religious
faith or support it. Is the fragmentation and
obscurity of language a sign of grotesque darkness or
of glimmering light? Lear's Britain is a place from
which the supernatural is absent. Tom O'Bedlam is a
fake, and by implication all the rituals in the play
are based on illusion, fraud, and self-deception. The
contrast is with a play like The Comedy of
Errors, where the demons and sorcery were real
enough, but so was the sense that they were to be
vanquished by the new Christian revelation. If we take
a particularly bleak view of King Lear, we
might see it as offering a critique also of drama as
an activity that had no truth, no
substance.
|
Born:
23(?) April 1564; Stratford-upon-Avon
