King Lear
I went to see King Lear with ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kalypso_v - an excellent performance and we had seats very close to the front so we could see all the faces in detail and I could hear every word clearly (though, as one might expect with the RSC, the diction was excellent in any case). Ian McKellen was Lear and we now know what he looks like naked. Sylvester McCoy was the Fool and got to play the spoons.
Lear has a truly staggering death rate, even by Shakespearean standards. The bodies seemed to cover half the stage by the end! It's massively a play about broken relationships. Not just parental ones, though Lear manages to screw things up with all three daughters and Gloucester with both his sons. It's also clear that Lear wasn't very sensible about who he married his daughters to as neither Regan nor Gonneril have good relationships with their husbands.
However, the thing that got us talking after the play was France. Where was Cordelia's husband at the end? The play does not appear to explain his absence and no one seems to regard him as a contender for the kingdom (Albany resigns his rights, but France might be considered to have some rights as Cordelia's husband) Then again, he was on the losing side in the battle. But on the third hand, he was fighting for Lear, not against him...
So what do people think? Why is France not present at the end of the play?
kalypso_v - an excellent performance and we had seats very close to the front so we could see all the faces in detail and I could hear every word clearly (though, as one might expect with the RSC, the diction was excellent in any case). Ian McKellen was Lear and we now know what he looks like naked. Sylvester McCoy was the Fool and got to play the spoons.Lear has a truly staggering death rate, even by Shakespearean standards. The bodies seemed to cover half the stage by the end! It's massively a play about broken relationships. Not just parental ones, though Lear manages to screw things up with all three daughters and Gloucester with both his sons. It's also clear that Lear wasn't very sensible about who he married his daughters to as neither Regan nor Gonneril have good relationships with their husbands.
However, the thing that got us talking after the play was France. Where was Cordelia's husband at the end? The play does not appear to explain his absence and no one seems to regard him as a contender for the kingdom (Albany resigns his rights, but France might be considered to have some rights as Cordelia's husband) Then again, he was on the losing side in the battle. But on the third hand, he was fighting for Lear, not against him...
So what do people think? Why is France not present at the end of the play?
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Because either a) the role was doubled and the other part was more essential or b) - and far more likely - it was not a terribly good idea politically to raise the idea of Catholic France taking over England... or any foreign enemy taking over by marrying an English princess. Remember that it was not that long ago that Mary had married Phillip of Spain who had figured on taking over England that way, and, indeed, they had referred to themselves as joint monarchs. And it was one of the reasons that "justified" the Armada. This is an even more sensitive issue if the play was, indeed,written in 1603, just after the death of Elizabeth and the accession of a foreigner king (James I). Best avoid the whole issue. (There are good reasons for making Cordelia marry a king, to emphasise her nobility and also to get her out of the country.)
The political climate of the time has always to be kept in mind, as Shakepeare always did.
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I'm always slightly surprised that France wasn't killed during the battle Having him not there makes sense for political reasons, but there is no reason in the context of the play.
(and why is Cordelia wearing a nightie for the last scene - I've seen it twice with her costumed like that)
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So that she can't interfere with the plot - and to give the boy playing her a breather. One of the reasons that women have so few lines and - though I haven't looked it up, I seem to remember that Cordelia only has a couple of hundred - is that inexperienced kids, however good, aren't practiced at learning that much verse or carrying the play.
I'm always slightly surprised that France wasn't killed during the battle Having him not there makes sense for political reasons, but there is no reason in the context of the play.
It's one of those things that works on stage - where his absence is not normally noticed unless you are already familiar with the play. Shakespeare does this all the time.
As for Cordelia's nightie - I very much doubt that this is a tradition that goes back to Will's time, so you really need to wonder about the minds of the costume designer or the director. Maybe because she is normally played by a pretty young actress nowadays?
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All the dead women end up in matching white, so you can look on her clothing as presaging her death.
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From a plot point of view, it enables Shakespeare to keep Cordelia out of the way so that she can't do anything to comfort Lear while he's facing his ordeal, and to bring her back at the head of an army when it's convenient. She looks like a dea ex machina until the army loses (possibly her husband had to take half his troops back to deal with the domestic crisis). There's also the question of whether the part was ever doubled with the Fool.
The programme had a long discussion between the director, Trevor Nunn, and a professor called James Shapiro, in which Nunn mentions that he's used a collated version drawn from the 1608 and 1623 texts, and that one of the differences between them is a shift of emphasis over whether this is a civil war or a French invasion (which is Albany's justification for fighting).
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Act IV Scene III:
Kent: Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back know you the reason?
Gent: Something he left imperfect in the state, which since his coming forth is thought of; which imports to the kingdom so much fear and danger, that his personal return was most required and necessary.
Kent: Who hath he left behind him general?
Gent: The Marshal of France, Monsieur la Far.
I can't remember whether we got the line about La Far, but I definitely heard the bit about France having suddenly gone back.
I was more intrigued by his attempts to persuade the Duke of Burgundy to take Cordelia without a dowry before doing it himself. Did it mean that he wasn't quite as keen as he made out, or that he thought Cordelia loved Burgundy?
Incidentally, I've checked out the Nahum Tate version used throughout the 18th century, in which Cordelia survives; apparently in that her only suitor was Burgundy, so there's no inconvenient husband around at the end and she can marry Edgar as a virgin, which I'm sure that audience would have preferred anyway.
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I got the impression that Lear had favoured Burgandy and hence France felt that Burgandy had right of first refusal. Or possibly that it was a clever move to try and discredit Burgandy in Cordelia's eyes.
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It would be a gamble, but France may be in a better position to take the risk, as he's richer and more powerful, and even if it doesn't pay off she's still an attractive young woman who should be capable of providing him with an heir.
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