King Lear: Family Reunion

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     Madness, family discord, reconciliation. They're familiar themes. One of my favorite parts of King Lear is at the end Act IV Scene 7 when the king reunites with his banished daughter Cordelia, after being betrayed by his other daughters and romping around the countryside losing his mind. It must be really emotional played out on stage. Here are lines 65-76, 83-85):

LEAR Methinks I should know you, and know this man;

Yet I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant

What place this is; and all the skill I have

Remembers not these garments; nor I know not

Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me;

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

To be my child Cordelia.

CORDELIA                    And so I am, I am.

LEAR Be your tears wet? Yes, faith. I pray, weep not.

If you have poison for me, I will drink it.

I know you do not love me; for your sisters

Have, as I do remember, done me wrong.

You have some cause, they have not.

CORDELIA                                       No cause, no cause.

...

CORDELIA Will't please your highness walk?

LEAR                                                                You must bear with me;

Pray you now, forget and forgive. I am old and foolish.

        This is the kind of family dynamic I want between King Durim and Princess Lili. I have a huge plot revision in mind for that story, but I have hardly touched it since my revisions a few months ago. I'm a bit nervous, so I've been putting it off. I know, that's bad. I keep on telling myself sternly that there's not enough time in the world to waste being afraid of messing up, but myself doesn't always listen.

Enemy Friend

       I saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and I'd like to file a complain about cheesy dialogue ("Can any of you boys direct me to the Smithsonian? I'm here to pick up a fossil" --Agent Romanov). But that is a subject for another post.

       What I want to say is that I love books and movies that make me cry.

        Near the end, Rogers (Captain America) has a faceoff with the enemy, a hired assassin with a mechanical arm. He is known as the Winter Soldier, but more importantly he is Roger's best friend from the war, only brainwashed and transformed into a cold-blooded killer.
          In this scene, Rogers throws away his shield. "I won't fight you," he says to the Soldier, who just put two bullet holes in his body. "You're my friend."

        "You're my mission!" the Soldier replies.

         "Then finish it."

         The Soldier attacks. He lays punch after punch, but Rogers doesn't fight back. Bruised, cut, bleeding, broken, and with one eye swollen, Rogers says, "Cause I'm with you till the end of the line."

       

I don't know about you, but it reminded me of someone else who called his enemy friend and took all the punches.

Most Loved, Despised

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         We're up to Shakespeare in our British literature class. This is my first time reading King Lear, unless I read a children's version before. The two plays we read before now are Everyman and Dr. Faustus, and I like King Lear much better. The plot-line is more realistic, the interaction of the characters more dynamic, and the fact that they have names like Oswald and Regan etc. and not Gluttony or Good Deeds makes it feel a lot more modern. My favorite bit so far is the King of France's proposal speech to King Lear's daughter, Cordelia. Actually, it's more like an acceptance speech, or a savior's speech, because just before this King Lear disowns Cordelia and revokes both his blessing and the dowry (which was supposed to be one-third of his kingdom). Cordelia also has just been rejected by the Duke of Burgundy.

Here are birdy sounds for you to listen to as you read.

"Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor;

Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!

Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon:

Be it lawful I take up what's cast away.

Gods, gods! 'tis strange that from their cold'st neglect

My love should kindle to inflamed respect.

Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my chance,

Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France.

Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy

Can buy this unprized precious maid of me.

Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind;

Thou losest here, a better where to find."

--King Lear, Act 1 Scene 1