12th Night Act 3: Cross gartered stockings and more...

OK, definitely wont have time to blog tomorrow and buzzing from rehearsals tonight so figured i may as well try and blog, but it's going to be a brief one...
3.1
If you doubted Viola's smarts before- then it's hard to after this scene. If she weren't brilliant I don't think she would threaten Feste the way she does. I have seen this seen even more times in class work at different points than i have in performance but I always love it (I'm looking at you Casey C. with your Beer song singing Feste, or you David A with your truly lovely work on this scene our first year....)
Viola and Feste exchange some lovely words about the problem with equivocation and the short comings of words. And we find that the fool is not a fan of Viola...
VIOLA 
I warrant thou art a merry fellow and carest for nothing.
Clown 
Not so, sir, I do care for something; but in my conscience, sir, I do not care for you: if that be to care for nothing, sir, I would it would make you invisible.
This is not just snarky fooling. this is MEAN. Personally, I think the clown is threatened by Viola... I also think he sees through the gender bending charade:
Clown 
Now Jove, in his next commodity of hair, send thee a beard!
VIOLA 
By my troth, I'll tell thee, I am almost sick for one; though I would not have it grow on my chin.
:insert argument about just HOW DIRTY to make that line here:
I would play Lord Pandarus of Phrygia, sir, to bring a Cressida to this Troilus.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA REFERENCE! always cracks me up... oh Pandarus...
SIR TOBY BELCH 
Taste your legs, sir; put them to motion.
VIOLA 
My legs do better understand me, sir, than I understand what you mean by bidding me taste my legs.
THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE JOKES!!! I love it. I love it so much.
I had rather hear you to solicit that Than music from the spheres.
Etsy shop.
VIOLA 
I pity you.
OLIVIA 
That's a degree to love.
Always reminds me of "sweet Phoebe, pity me!" and Olivia gets a fabulous laugh on this line EVERY TIME.
OLIVIA 
I prithee, tell me what thou thinkest of me.
VIOLA 
That you do think you are not what you are.  
OLIVIA 
If I think so, I think the same of you.
VIOLA 
Then think you right: I am not what I am.
Again, there's something less manipulative with what Viola says to Olivia, she's trying SO HARD to help this poor woman that she sees as having so much in common with herself... everything gets so nicely set up here to believe that they should be thrilled about being sisters (you know, once you get past all the awkward)

3.2
A short scene, I"ll sum up:
 toby and fabian asking sir andrew to stay, telling him to write a letter, then maria comes with news of Malvolio and they all rush in to see the madness/embarrassment.

3.3
Remember when I said that Antonio was amazing? Here's an example:
I could not stay behind you: my desire, More sharp than filed steel, did spur me forth;
SO BEAUTIFUL! and of course Sebastian's response made a little appearance on our Thank You cards from our wedding:
I can no other answer make but thanks, And thanks; and ever... (THANKS!)
We hear more about Antonio's rockin pirate days
I do not without danger walk these streets: Once, in a sea-fight, 'gainst the count his galleys I did some service; of such note indeed, That were I ta'en here it would scarce be answer'd.
So not only is Antonio RISKING HIS LIFE just to BE NEAR Sebastian, he wants to buy him anything his heart desires. he's crazy in love y'all.
Haply your eye shall light upon some toy You have desire to purchase; and your store, I think, is not for idle markets, sir.
and thus ends the scene. seriously y'all... cast a good antonio. PLEASE.
3.4
The payoff of the Malvolio gulling. there's not much to talk about so I'll just show you these pictures from various production:

 

OLIVIA 
Wilt thou go to bed, Malvolio?
MALVOLIO 
To bed! ay, sweet-heart, and I'll come to thee.
 OLIVIA 
 God comfort thee! Why dost thou smile so and kiss thy hand so oft?
and who doesn't love the set up/build of this line?!
MALVOLIO 
'Be not afraid of greatness:' 'twas well writ.
OLIVIA 
What meanest thou by that, Malvolio?
 MALVOLIO 
'Some are born great,'--
OLIVIA 
Ha! MALVOLIO 
'Some achieve greatness,'--
OLIVIA 
What sayest thou?
MALVOLIO 
'And some have greatness thrust upon them.'
Anyone want to explain why this next part with Maria and Sir Toby etc. seems to last forever?
MARIA 
Get him to say his prayers, good Sir Toby, get him to pray.
MALVOLIO My prayers, minx!
MARIA 
No, I warrant you, he will not hear of godliness.
and THEN the play starts potentially taking a very dark turn... which I happen to love:
FABIAN 
Why, we shall make him mad indeed.
MARIA 
The house will be the quieter.  
SIR TOBY BELCH 
Come, we'll have him in a dark room and bound.
Wow. That escalated fast. I mean that really got out of hand.... Now we're joking with the puritan and now we are BINDING HIM IN A DARK ROOM. WHAT?!?!

but back to sir aguecheek and his amazing letter taunting "cesario"
'Fare thee well; and God have mercy upon one of our souls! He may have mercy upon mine; but my hope is better, and so look to thyself. Thy friend, as thou usest him, and thy sworn enemy, ANDREW AGUECHEEK.
and another wink to viola being a girl (again with the Rosalind echoes)
Pray God defend me! A little thing would make me tell them how much I lack of a man.
THEN ANTONIO comes in and is AMAZING again AS ALWAYS:
One, sir, that for his love dares yet do more
Than you have heard him brag to you he will.
And is Antonio upset that he's been caught and is going to jail? No, it's that he thinks Sebastian wont get everything his heart desires:
It grieves me
Much more for what I cannot do for you
Than what befalls myself.
Viola starts to figure out that maybe Antonio isn't crazy but instead thinks she is Sebastian and has some of the my favorite lines:
Prove true, imagination, O, prove true,
That I, dear brother, be now ta'en for you!
THIS, just THIS:
O, if it prove,
Tempests are kind and salt waves fresh in love.
etsy shop FOR SURE. I love it. I love it so much.
sorry this was so brief, like I said I'm juggling a lot this week and I could talk for hours and hours about this play, but Midsummer is already taking up the hours and hours of Shakespeare time allotted for my life this week. <3

12th Night Act 2: Journeys End in Lovers Meeting...

2.1
Back to the sea, where we find Viola's brother, Sebastian made it to shore. And we have one of the most eloquent potential pirates in all of literature- Antonio. Antonio is just another example on how if you turn down a part based on # of lines you are an idiot. Antonio has some of the most beautiful language in the whole show and is NOT to be scoffed at. We find out that Sebastian is melancholy, thinking of how his sister must have died at sea. And how he doesnt want to share his griefs but Antonio manages to soften this resolve. Sebastian explains that a lot of people think his sister looked very similar to him, but the thing he seems to note most is this: she bore a mind that envy could not but call fair. Who doesn't love a character who is as smart as she is beautiful (handsome?) ??
Once again Sebastian tries to go but Antonio insists:
If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your servant.
Sebastian once again tells Antonio to leave him for all his good intentions, but Antonio can't do it, even though he admits to having enemies in Orsino's court:
But, come what may, I do adore thee so,
That danger shall seem sport, and I will go.

2.2
Malvolio has caught up with "cesario" and gives Viola the ring Olivia sent. We get the oh so popular at auditions "I left no ring with her" speech. a few favorite parts:
She made good view of me; indeed, so much,
That sure methought her eyes had lost her tongue,
For she did speak in starts distractedly.
She loves me, 
...
Poor lady, she were better love a dream.
...
How will this fadge? (isn't "Fadge" a great word?!)
...
As I am man,
My state is desperate for my master's love;
As I am woman,--now alas the day!--
What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breathe!
That might be one of my favorite parts of this play. The beautiful empathy Viola continues to have for a woman in a similar state. In that way she's kind of the opposite of her fellow crossdresser- Rosalind. Anyone agree? Disagree? I think Rosalind and Viola would ALSO be an excellent 10 minute play
2.3
Back to the total party that is Sir Toby and Sir Andrew. Sir Toby gets a line that should really be the motto of every academic:
Thou'rt a scholar; let us therefore eat and drink.
and then, one of my favorite parts of the play happens:
Clown 
Would you have a love-song, or a song of good life?
SIR TOBY BELCH 
A love-song, a love-song. SIR ANDREW 
 Ay, ay: I care not for good life.
And then the song itself- perfection:
 O mistress mine, where are you roaming? O, stay and hear; your true love's coming, That can sing both high and low: Trip no further, pretty sweeting; Journeys end in lovers meeting, Every wise man's son doth know.
What is love? 'tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What's to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies no plenty;
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
Youth's a stuff will not endure.
You can count on that song as a lullaby for any future Trombley children... we love it enough we used one of the lyrics for various wedding pictures:

I can't tell you how many times a week I ask dan to stop what he's doing and "come kiss me sweet and twenty". We're seizing our present mirth and laughing every chance we get. and we love it. And I can honestly say that seeing this play with dan back in 2010 was the beginning of seeing our life together.
but back to the play... (incidentally... Katherine Miles Jones, photographer extraordinaire who captured the above moment, called me to tell me she was engaged to her husband Chad while I was seeing that 12th night production for the 2nd or 3rd time... so it's connected to their love story for me too!)

After this love song the songs get more raucous and Maria comes in to warn them Malvolio is going to freak out. Which is exactly what happens. But Malvolio wont stop the singing and they use songs to torment him before Sir Toby makes this excellent observation:
Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

 Once they have run Malvolio off (with the lovely image of Go, sir, rub your chain with crumbs.) Maria decides she is sick of Malvolio too and that she will help the boys gull him into utter stupidity. THe boys love her for this, but none more than Sir Toby:
SIR ANDREW 
Before me, she's a good wench.
SIR TOBY BELCH 
She's a beagle, true-bred, and one that adores me: what o' that?
SIR ANDREW 
 I was adored once too.
Such an unexpected/tender/wonderful yet still can't help but get a laugh kind of moment!! I love it! You guys/gals, I basically want to play every character in this play. Someone help me start cultivating more cross gender casting around here STAT.
Sir Toby then concludes the scene with proof that his partying is more hardcore than yours- because when you're up partying this late you may as well keep going into the day:
Come, come, I'll go burn some sack; 'tis too late to go to bed now
2.4
Another scene with an incredible piece of music, now we're back at Orsino's house and the fool is there as well. This scene is also known as the scene where Orsino looks really stupid for his misogyny and praises be, Viola calls him out on it, because she can, because she is dressed like a man. Let's start with some advice Orsino gives which Dan and I clearly ignored:
let still the woman take
An elder than herself: so wears she to him,
So sways she level in her husband's heart:
For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,
Than women's are.
and now that we've offended all the young men by calling them unfaithful and wavering, let's insult the women:
For women are as roses, whose fair flower
Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour.
Orsino basically just played the horrifying "Christmas Cake" card... and shortly thereafter Feste appears to sing for everyone. The production I saw in Central Park made this song- Come Away Death, into a trio between Feste, Orsino, and and Viola. It gave me chills and was perfect- though Raul Esparza singing pretty much anything gives me chills. And now I share that version with you:

 The song ends, and any healing of what Orsino said before the song that happened through the beautiful singing is washed away by this comment:
DUKE ORSINO 
 There is no woman's sides Can bide the beating of so strong a passion As love doth give my heart; no woman's heart So big, to hold so much; they lack retention Alas, their love may be call'd appetite, No motion of the liver, but the palate, That suffer surfeit, cloyment and revolt; But mine is all as hungry as the sea, And can digest as much: make no compare Between that love a woman can bear me And that I owe Olivia.
Luckily, this time, Viola s ready with something to say back:
VIOLA 
Ay, but I know--
DUKE ORSINO 
What dost thou know? VIOLA 
Too well what love women to men may owe: 
In faith, they are as true of heart as we.
but that's not where she ends it, she goes on to give one of the most BEAUTIFUL speeches:
She sat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?
We men may say more, swear more: but indeed
Our shows are more than will; for still we prove
Much in our vows, but little in our love.
 2.5
MAN THIS ACT IS LONG!
Here we have the boxtree scene- the delicious prank pulled on Malvolio. But first we are introduced to Fabian who is pissed at Malvolio for snitching on his bear baiting festivities. Maria enters to let them know the trap is set and as she does, Sir Toby calls her a nickname that Dan just loves to use:
How now, my metal of India!
I am going to take this moment to say... this scene is a prime example of how staging is key. I actually find this scene fairly tedious to read. It seems to go on for a VERY LONG TIME, but in performance- it's always a favorite. Because the reactions/physicality/staging with fabian, sir andrew, and sir toby are always just the best part! (I'm thinking of Chris Johnston's Sir Andrew Moo-ing amidst the bird sounds his companions were making... and a lot of shenanigans with the discovery space) Sir andrew is really just my favorite here:
MALVOLIO 
'Besides, you waste the treasure of your time with  a foolish knight,'--
SIR ANDREW 
That's me, I warrant you. MALVOLIO 
'One Sir Andrew,'--
SIR ANDREW 
I knew 'twas I; for many do call me fool.
Malvolio finds the letter and begins to work out ways it must be talking about himself. His line "A should follow, but O does" was the title of yet another brilliant piece of work by Stephen Booth presented at the Blackfriars Conference.
Again, all I can say about this scene is that if you are ever teaching it- STAGE IT STAGE IT STAGE IT!!! There is nothing more delightful than:
'Thou canst not choose but know who I am. If thou entertainest my love, let it appear in thy smiling; thy smiles become thee well; therefore in my presence still smile, dear my sweet, I prithee.'
Jove, I thank thee: I will smile; I will do everything that thou wilt have me.
Watching the actor playing Malvolio smile and watching the 3 spying on him reacting to it- theatre gold. Here's a shot of Dan Kennedy playing Malvolio in that same 2010 ASC production. (pictures of MY Dan playing Malvolio coming in Act 3 or 4. I promise!)

Sir Toby is so happy with this falling out, he's ready to give up being a bachelor:
SIR TOBY BELCH 
I could marry this wench for this device.
SIR ANDREW
So could I too. SIR TOBY BELCH 
 And ask no other dowry with her but such another jest.
Maria enters shortly thereafter and we get this gem of a line which I will certainly add to the etsy shop list:
MARIA 
Nay, but say true; does it work upon him?
SIR TOBY BELCH 
Like aqua-vitae with a midwife.

 We should really start saying "like aqua-vitae with a midwife" as much as possible.
and with that joyful triumph, we come to the end of act 2. Not sure what the schedule will be like the rest of the week, but will do my best to finish up this play and keep blogging more diligently!

12th Night Act 1: Falling Slowly for one of my favorite comedies

Next up we continue my plays first related to Pepperdine section of revisiting the canon, but this memories of this play center around the ASC and memories of our wedding day. This play is one of my very favorites and one that touches on so many topics I wish we would replace the sophomore curriculum of R&J with it (since we can't really teach the sex jokes of R&J in most schools anyway and lets face it that's half that play...) I read this play the summer before my second year at Pepperdine. Since we hadn't done Comedy of Errors the year before as intended, it was time for a Shakespeare play. (I still have nightmares of building/working around the heart shaped pool related to that production...) I revisited the play several times before auditions as well as for my Shakespeare class I took at Pepperdine, writing a paper I am STILL very proud of, centering around the O Mistress Mine song and how the composition/emphasis/repetition choices made in performance effect which themes an individual production wishes to highlight.
Fast forward to my year in NYC where I was fairly miserable most of the year, but the whole city lit up for me when I saw Ann Hathaway, Raul Esparza, and Audra McDonald in the 12th Night produced by Shakespeare in the park that year. I loved it so much I saw it twice and it might be my very FAVORITE memory from New York.
Fast Forward again to my first year of graduate school- I'm dealing with a stunning amount of snow on the ground as it is January in Virginia, I am newly in love with Dan, and I am about to experience my first ASC Renaissance Season show. Everything about that production of 12th night was magical for me: the charge and energy of the Ren Season chaos, the skill of the performers, it was my first time seeing Ben Curns on stage, Watching it with Dan, watching it with my brilliant classmates, watching Amy Bolis freak out every time they played Falling Slowly- actually, that point deserves some elaboration.
The 2010 Ren Season production started their production of 12th night with the actors playing Viola and Orsino (the incredible duo of Miriam and Greg... see picture at the end of this post) singing Falling Slowly from the movie Once. It was perfection. and Dan and I had such strong ties to the themes and the show and all the memories wrapped up in that time that we used it for the first dance at our wedding (photo credit Katherine Miles Jones):

So this play has a very special place in my heart. and I'm so excited to dive in and revisit it- there will probably be at least one more ASC picture and at least one more wedding picture featured here before we finish.

1.1
This play begins with one of the most miscontextualized lines in the Shakespeare canon:
If music be the food of love, play on;
People use this line as a lovey dovey statement or to praise how great music is- but in context, Orsino is calling for music to GORGE himself on it so he never wants to love again.  For this reason, this line will NOT appear in my theoretical etsy shop...  Really this entire first scene is a strange one, one which I can't expound on half so well as my beloved scholar Stephen Booth (if anyone wants to get me a really nice gift sometime- I'd LOVE a copy of the book in the hyperlink which is almost impossible to get and therefore lots of money) Here's a snippet on googlebooks. highly recommended.  The basic theme of the scene?:
so full of shapes is fancy That it alone is high fantastical
Valentin enters and we find a crux of the play. Orsino loves Olivia, but we find out that Olivia has declared:
The element itself, till seven years' heat,
Shall not behold her face at ample view;
But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk
And water once a day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine: all this to season
A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh
And lasting in her sad remembrance.
OK... so Olivia and Hamlet may have gotten along. I will say that I think it's important that Olivia TRULY be in morning. Though it's still a bit over the top, if she is not truly mourning her brother she's kind of just a bitch and that's a far less interesting choice...
Orsino decides to leave after this and go where?
Away before me to sweet beds of flowers: Love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers.
So Orsino and Olivia both have the means and disposition to indulge in their emotions... on to scene 2.
1.2
We begin this scene with Viola and the Sea Captain. We find that Viola thinks she is in much the same position of Olivia
And what should I do in Illyria?
My brother he is in Elysium.
Of course, Viola doesn't have the time to mourn, she must figure out what to do with her new position. So she tries to hold on to a little bit of hope that perhaps her brother survived and gets her bearing. The captain tells Viola of Orsino and Olivia. We find out that Olivia not only lost her brother but also her father recently. Viola's reaction:
O that I served that lady And might not be delivered to the world, Till I had made mine own occasion mellow, What my estate is!
Oh Viola, how I understand that sentiment. You're talking to a girl who, after some considerable heartbreak TRIED TO BECOME A NUN. cloistered from the world seems much easier at times... but Olivia won't let anyone in to see her so Viola decides to dress like a man and try to serve Orsino instead.
1.3
Now we get to Sir Toby and Maria and Sir Andrew. Some of my very favorite characters. Sir Toby is your ultimate partier, would be besties with Falstaff I'm sure. And right off the bat, he has a phrase I WOULD put in my etsy shop:
I am sure care's an enemy to life.
The start of the scene basically consists of Maria trying to take care of/warn Sir Toby of the way his behavior is pissing off Olivia (his niece) Then we get to hear of and meet Sir Andrew, one of the most endearing clowns in all literature by my accounting.
SIR ANDREW 
An you part so, mistress, I would I might never draw sword again. Fair lady, do you think you havefools in hand?
MARIA 
Sir, I have not you by the hand. SIR ANDREW 
Marry, but you shall have; and here's my hand.
How can you not instantly love this character?! Maybe it helps that everyone I've ever seen play the role has been both talented and adorable. Another Sir Andrew gem which I would put in my Etsy shop (good for either meat eaters OR vegetarians making fun of them):
I am a great eater of beef and I believe that does harm to my wit
Sir Toby and Sir Andrew have a fantastic exchange about dancing which is always a delight to stage and off they dance us into:
1.4
A short scene. Viola is in the service of Orsino. She has disguised herself as Cesario. In comes Orsino with some stunning poetry:
I have unclasp'd
To thee the book even of my secret soul:
Orsino wants Cesario to woo Olivia for him since Olivia is not relenting so far. There are lots of funny references to how womanly Orsino is and at the end of the scene we find out Viola's dilemma:
I'll do my best
To woo your lady: yet, a barful strife!
Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife.
1.5
In this scene we finally get to meet the much talked of Olivia. We also get to meet one of the most interesting/my favorite/most acerbic fools of Shakespeare. (My version refers to him as Clown, but I think Fool is much more accurate) We see the fool spar with Maria and see that Maria has a very good wit to keep up with him (and sir toby for that matter) The issue of marriage comes up:
MARIA 
Yet you will be hanged for being so long absent; or, to be turned away, is not that as good as a hanging to you?
Clown 
Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage; and, for turning away, let summer bear it out.
 The fool calls out Maria on her desires point blank (such lovely truths from this cynical clown)
Clown 
Apt, in good faith; very apt. Well, go thy way; if 
Sir Toby would leave drinking, thou wert as witty a
piece of Eve's flesh as any in Illyria.
MARIA  
Peace, you rogue, no more o' that. Here comes my lady:
 Speaking of  jesting with profound truths- he soon calls Olivia out on her excessive mourning:
Clown 
Good madonna, why mournest thou?
OLIVIA 
Good fool, for my brother's death. Clown 
I think his soul is in hell, madonna.
OLIVIA 
I know his soul is in heaven, fool. Clown  
The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul being in heaven. Take away the fool, gentlemen.
Keep an eye on the clown/fool. I think he's the smartest person in the play- perhaps matched by only viola or Maria depending on how they are played...
We also get to meet Malvolio in this scene. an icon of the play and a character I had the pleasure of watching my husband play last summer (pictures of that will show up here as well i'm sure). Malvolio immediately starts mocking most of the characters we've already started to like, and the scene is interrupted when Maria announces Viola's arrival. But first we get a delightfully drunk Sir Toby which leads to this exchange (put it on a bar towel!)
OLIVIA 
What's a drunken man like, fool?
Clown 
 Like a drowned man, a fool and a mad man: one draught above heat makes him a fool; the second mads him; and a third drowns him.
Malvolio comes back to describe Viola with more awkward sexual confusion descriptions:
Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy; as a squash is before 'tis a peascod, or a cooling when 'tis almost an apple: 'tis with him in standing water, between boy and man. He is very well-favoured and he speaks very shrewishly; one would think his mother's milk were scarce out of him.
Viola comes in and won't play Olivia's trickery games. This may be my FAVORITE scene for Viola's exquisite language. Starting with one of my favorite phrases: my profound heart
Before Viola can say much more Olivia shows her impatience and makes a joke about what time of the month it is for her but Viola insists on speaking with Olivia in private:
What I am, and what I
would, are as secret as maidenhead; to your ears,
divinity, to any other's, profanation.
Perfection. And it works. Olivia sends Maria away and even unveils her face. Viola uses the common trope of insisting that Olivia must have children:
Lady, you are the cruell'st she alive, If you will lead these graces to the grave And leave the world no copy.
Olivia is sassy but fair in this exchange and tells Viola plainly that she just can't love Orsino. And all might have ended there were it not for Viola's exquisite language in one of my very favorite speeches explaining what she would do for one she loves:
Make me a willow cabin at your gate, And call upon my soul within the house; Write loyal cantons of contemned love And sing them loud even in the dead of night; Halloo your name to the reverberate hills And make the babbling gossip of the air Cry out 'Olivia!' O, You should not rest Between the elements of air and earth, But you should pity me!
Shortly hereafter, Viola leaves and we get Olivia's fantastic soliloquy about being obsessed with "Cesario". It smacks of Benedick's love speeches: How now! Even so quickly may one catch the plague?
Her plan of action? Send a ring to Cesario via Malvolio and see if she can get this "pretty boy" to return to her company...

And that's Act I. I leave you with A gorgeous picture from the ASC 2010 Ren Season production:

Happy Weekend. Will try to write again tomorrow because this next week is going to be insane again (i've been working 3-4 jobs if you count directing midsummer!!)

Lear Act 5: howl howl howl

A fairly quick wrap up on this beautiful beautiful play:
5.1
Sisterly tensions remain high and Regan directly confronts Edmund about his involvement with Goneril:
Now, sweet lord, You know the goodness I intend upon you: Tell me--but truly--but then speak the truth, Do you not love my sister?
Of course Edmund denies it all and is very cool and coy about the whole situation. Edgar sneaks into the scene and gives a letter to Albany then disappears again. there are so many things conveyed via letter/so much importance in these little bits of props in this play!!
 ALBANY 
Stay till I have read the letter.
EDGAR 
I was forbid it. 
When time shall serve, let but the herald cry, 
And I'll appear again.
ALBANY 
Why, fare thee well: I will o'erlook thy paper.
The scene ends with a final zinger of a soliloquy from Edmond:
To both these sisters have I sworn my love; Each jealous of the other, as the stung Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take? Both? one? or neither?
Both, one, or neither. what a statement! This would be a great audience interaction teaching moment, and also a great teaching moment about how much more interesting it is to watch an actor decide something in the moment instead of playing it as though their character has pre-decided. and he ends the speech with a very ominous bit of rhetoric:
 As for the mercy
Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia,
The battle done, and they within our power,
Shall never see his pardon; for my state
Stands on me to defend, not to debate.
Let's not talk about it or debate what's right. let's just kill "to defend the state" hmmmm.... think on that and on who is saying it.
5.2
A very short scene between Edgar and Gloucester where we find Lear has lost the battle. Gloucester wants to despair and die but Edgar continues to urge him on:
GLOUCESTER 
No farther, sir; a man may rot even here.
EDGAR 
What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure 
Their going hence, even as their coming hither; 
Ripeness is all: come on.
GLOUCESTER 
And that's true too.
Men must endure. I think Checkhov would have loved Edgar.
 5.3
 The epic final scene begins with Edmund sending Lear and Cordelia off to prison. Lear has the most beautiful line about this:
We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies,
Regan and Goneril continue to fight and regan has this gem (add it to the etsy shop list):
Jesters do oft prove prophets.
but soon her jests stop as she is in a lot of pain- POISON times.
 Lady, I am not well; else I should answer From a full-flowing stomach
Albany challenges Edmund for his villainy:
 There is my pledge;
[Throwing down a glove]
I'll prove it on thy heart,But before they can fight Edgar comes in and without saying who he is vows to fight Edmund himself:
Thy valour and thy heart, thou art a traitor;
False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father;
Conspirant 'gainst this high-illustrious prince;
And, from the extremest upward of thy head
To the descent and dust below thy foot,
A most toad-spotted traitor.
Albany has a great zinger to Goneril:
Shut your mouth, dame, Or with this paper shall I stop it: Hold, sir: Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil:
What a great stage picture. threatening someone with a letter? And having it actually be a threat? There's something very chilling about that. In what you could contend is one of the worst marriages in the shakespeare canon, Albany continues to call Goneril names to the end.
ALBANY 
Most monstrous! oh! 
Know'st thou this paper?
GONERIL 
Ask me not what I know.
And with an Iago like silence Goneril ends the play refusing to speak more.
Edmund loses the fight and takes the blow of fate with what seems like instant acceptance:
The wheel is come full circle: I am here.
Edgar takes this time while his brother is dying to tell us that Gloucester died:
his flaw'd heart, Alack, too weak the conflict to support! 'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief, Burst smilingly.
And Edmund has this beautiful line before he dies:
Yet Edmund was beloved: 
The one the other poison'd for my sake, 
And after slew herself.
I like to think that realizing he had his own twisted kind of undeserved love, Edmund is transformed. But I suppose you can come up with your own reasons for why he says this next line:
 I pant for life: some good I mean to do, Despite of mine own nature
He tries to save Cordelia and Lear by telling them what he did with the death edict, but of course it is too late. And what we get is one of the most heartbreaking scenes in literature. if any could benefit from Linklater voice work, I think it's this one. There's something in the very nature of "HOWL" and "never" that resonate physically and vocally:

[Re-enter KING LEAR, with CORDELIA dead in his arms; EDGAR, Captain, and others following]
KING LEAR 
Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones: Had I your tongues and eyes, I'ld use them so
That heaven's vault should crack. 
Any of you who have lost someone very dear to you don't need to be told how appropriate howling is to express that kind of heartbreak. The one small consolation Lear gets in this final scene is Kent revealing he was with him and true to him the whole time:
 That, from your first of difference and decay, Have follow'd your sad steps.
A pause for a bit of humor in this heartbreaking scene, soon after the above exchange a Captain enters and let's us know:
[Enter a Captain]
Captain 
Edmund is dead, my lord.
Funny story- my dad played this part in college and one night, not paying attention to the lines and letting his mind wander, my dad heard a pause in the action and thinking he missed his entrance, loudly announced Edmund's death- about ten or twenty lines earlier than he was supposed to as it was just someone's dramatic pause. ooops. He then loudly said "oh shit"... bigger ooops. so every time I get to this part in the play where i feel like i can hardly breathe from all the emotion, I think of that story and i can push through to the end...
Lear then continues with a line that really resonates with anyone struggling with the nature and seeming randomness of mortality:
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!
Of course Lear dies and Albany tries to fix what's left of the realm and carry on, but Kent is a servant of Lear's to the end and will follow wherever he goes:
ALBANY 
Friends of my soul, you twain Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain. KENT 
I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
My master calls me, I must not say no.
ALBANY 
The weight of this sad time we must obey; Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The continued rhyming at the end of the play fascinates me. Not just the final closing couplet but all those couplets leading to the end. anyone have thoughts on that? It seems a very strange place to rhyme. And the play ends. Like the quote from Professor Cohen i referenced last post, it gives us no happy endings because it gives us no false consolations. the source text has cordelia live and shakespeare says sometimes the best people don't get to live and that's life and how do we deal with that and move forward? And we are left to sort that for ourselves with only the comforts of grace and undeserved love.
On that note... Dan and I are off to mass.

King Lear Act 4: miracles & love (the same thing?)

I went digging through my first year notes from grad school and I found part of the lovely  things Professor Cohen had to say about Lear. This is one of my favorites:
"In all other tragedies we can say "well- that's a special circumstance" what makes this play remarkable is this is something that happens not BECAUSE you're a king, but IN SPITE OF being a king..."
So keep that in mind as we push on...
4.1
We start with Edgar still pretending to be Poor Tom when he sees Gloucester, his eyes put out and full of dispair:
My father, poorly led? World, world, O world!
There's that BEAUTIFUL use of repetition again. I think i'm going to usurp this phrase. World, world, o world! what else can you say sometimes?! Edgar then overhears his father wishing to "see" him again:
 Might I but live to see thee in my touch, I'ld say I had eyes again!
Then there's this incredible human capacity for survival and facing enormous amounts of tragedy, a spirit i'm still trying to tap into and that I think is very brave, one that makes me think of my great aunt surviving concentration camps during WWII:
And worse I may be yet: the worst is not So long as we can say 'This is the worst.'
But Gloucester does not share this feeling and wants to end his life, he asks for help to get to the cliffs of Dover.
There is a cliff, whose high and bending head
Looks fearfully in the confined deep:
Bring me but to the very brim of it,
And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear
With something rich about me: from that place
I shall no leading need.
"Poor Tom" agrees to lead him there, but Edgar has other plans for his father, plans that culminate in one of my favorite scenes in the play.

4.2
We go back to Goneril who can't wait to get on Edmund. Everyone wants Edmund. all the time... I'm telling you its the Richard III factor...
Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak,
Would stretch thy spirits up into the air:
Conceive, and fare thee well.
Goneril then expounds on how much better Edmund is as a lover than her husband and prepares to go head to head with Albany:
O, the difference of man and man! To thee a woman's services are due: My fool usurps my body.
That "fool" then comes into the scene with quite a bit to say to Goneril
Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile:  
Filths savour but themselves. What have you done?  
Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd?
I love this image of a tiger coming up over and over again. Women as tigers seem to be parts I'm incredibly interested in exploring- Goneril, Margaret, Evadne. Powerful and HONEST women if not cruel and violent as well The fight continues with insults hurled between the two:
 Milk-liver'd man! That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;
But to me, the highest insult comes from Albany who calls Goneril a "thing" there's something about hurling that description, as if they are so horrible they are unnamable. just a thing. even the sound of it gets me:
 Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame,
Be-monster not thy feature. Were't my fitness
To let these hands obey my blood,
They are apt enough to dislocate and tear
Thy flesh and bones: howe'er thou art a fiend,
A woman's shape doth shield thee.
So Albany continues with his I won't hit a woman upbringing but let's Goneril know that she is on the thinnest of ice. Albany is no longer clueless or whishy washy, he has declared his side and knows for whom he will fight:
 Gloucester, I live
To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king,
And to revenge thine eyes

4.3
An exposition scene between Kent and a member of the camp of the King of France. Some rather clumsy hints of plot points ensue:
 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.
Something happened and the king is gone.... it almost feels like this was just meant to be a place holder till that something could be thought up, but perhaps it's just a way to remind us not to focus on that bit, it's not the important part of the story... I always love when messengers get to tell how kings or queens reacted to immensely emotional and important news:
 it seem'd she was a queen Over her passion; who, most rebel-like, Sought to be king o'er her.
They just always tell it with such eloquence and perfection! Kent tells us that Lear and his pride and his shame will not let him seek Cordelia on his own:
 A sovereign shame so elbows him: his own unkindness,
...these things sting His mind so venomously, that burning shame Detains him from Cordelia.
I love Kent. I love Kent as I grew to love Camillo. I want to play him. It's official.
4.4
A very short scene between Cordelia and the Doctor. Cordelia assures the audience why she brought the King of France to war:
No blown ambition doth our arms incite,
But love, dear love, and our aged father's right:
Soon may I hear and see him!

4.5
Oswald and Regan have a little interchange about Goneril and her army and the letter she's sent Oswald to give Edmund. Oswald let's Regan know outright:
Madam, with much ado:
Your sister is the better soldier.
Regan tells us that Edmund is essentially hunting down his father. of course, she puts it in more politic language:
 Edmund, I think, is gone,  
In pity of his misery, to dispatch  
His nighted life: moreover, to descry  
The strength o' the enemy.
Next come the SISTERLY THREATS times. It's clear that Regan knows something is up between Goneril and Edmund and she wants to shut it down. She tells Oswald to remind Goneril that Goneril is still married while Regan is a widow and can marry again freely... There are clear tensions building.

4.6
Edgar tells us how he did not lead his father to the Cliffs of Dover and continues to tell him they are going up a steep cliff when they are clearly on flat ground.
Why I do trifle thus with his despair
Is done to cure it.
He talks with the audience about this and Edmund has not talked with us in a long time. I firmly believe More and more people will start to root for Edgar due to this method. and he has such beautiful language and he continues on this theme of the sanctity of life:
 And yet I know not how conceit may rob  
The treasury of life, when life itself  
Yields to the theft: had he been where he thought,  
By this, had thought been past.
So Gloucester "throws himself off the cliff" or so he thinks, and when he wakes at the bottom the "villager" there (still edgar) tells him he must have been saved by angels or the will of the gods and that it was a fiend who tempted him to end his life in the first place. Then this line happens which I want to put as my motto on facebook, website, business cards, cross stitched pillows, I want this to be a daily prayer:
 Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again.
Dear Shakespeare: well played. perfection. Gloucester and Lear then meet again and have depressing interchanges:
 GLOUCESTER

O, let me kiss that hand!

KING LEAR 
 Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.
ain't that the depressing truth... but then Cordelia comes back to the conversation:
 Thou hast one daughter, Who redeems nature from the general curse Which twain have brought her to.
Gloucester confirms that he wantsto live again:
 You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me:
Let not my worser spirit tempt me again
To die before you please!
Edgar takes down Oswald when Oswald attacks Gloucester. I always love when Shakespeare's characters talk to letters:
 Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not:  
To know our enemies' minds, we'ld rip their hearts;
Their papers, is more lawful.
We also get a bit of Edgar's fierceness there, right? We also get even more evidence that Goneril can't wait to get on Edmund again and put a ring on it...
'Your--wife, so I would say-- 'Affectionate servant,'GONERIL.'
And now...we move to my FAVORITE scene in the whole play

4.7
There is so much love in this scene it makes me cry just thinking about it. It's part of the reason this blog post has been delayed so long because every time I start to write about it my thoughts feel inadequate next to the immense emotion I feel during this scene. So I guess I feel a little out of my league, like Cordelia:
O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work,  
To match thy goodness? My life will be too short,
 And every measure fail me.
How shall I live and work to match thy goodness? There's another line that could easily be a daily prayer. This continual sense of gratitude and service in a world of such cruelty is breathtaking.
The description of Lear in this scene is heartbreaking:
The untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up Of this child-changed father!
The lines also bring in the idea of music and ritual as a kind of magic as far as healing and grace go (church service anyone?)
Please you, draw near. Louder the music there!
Cordelia talks about how she can hardly believe her sisters or that Lear was left out in the storm. There's so much compassion here:
Mine enemy's dog, Though he had bit me, should have stood that night Against my fire;
Lear cannot believe his eyes or ears and tells us:
I am a very foolish fond old man,
...
Do not laugh at me; For, as I am a man, I think this lady To be my child Cordelia.
Of course we all know it really is Cordelia and he is not dreaming at all. And this father daughter reunion is unbelievable, with an overflowing of grace and forgiveness, of confessing wrongs and being told what wrongs? It's already been forgiven:
KING 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.
Even after that exchange, Lear still has trouble believing Cordelia wants to be with him:

Pray you now, forget and forgive
Forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us... I wish for all the wrongs done to me and all the times people have apologized, or even if they haven't apologized, that I could find it in my heart to have the grace to say "no cause"
Here's the key thing that Professor Cohen told us in that class that left us all with soggy tissues:
 "This play has no false consolations. What is your one consolation? Life's true consolation? UNDESERVED LOVE. It's the best. And it's all we need."
(I like to link this with the aforementioned abundance of grace.) reading that still moves something in my heart because i think it's completely true. It's the to love another person is to see the face of god motto long before Les Mis came into being (let alone came into being a musical) and it is the reason the Catholic Church thinks marriage is a sacrament. Undeserved love- life's true consolation, our glimpse of the kingdom of heaven at hand...


The final bit of the scene is Kent shifting the focus back to the battle ahead, lest we think that now that the tearful reunion has happened life goes on happily ever after for the good:
KENT
Report is changeable. 'Tis time to look about; the powers of the kingdom approach apace.
...
Gentleman The arbitrement is like to be bloody. Fare you well, sir.

King Lear Act 3: THE STORM

3.1
THE STORM.
First, your daily dose of slings and arrows:

I've put this video at the beginning because really, that's at the heart of anything I could think of or write about the storm... The first scene has Kent telling us that Lear's fool will not leave Lear in the storm alone:
who labours to out-jest/ His heart-struck injuries.
Kent also makes a secret plan with this servant, Kent is basically becoming for me a more powerful and higher status Camillo. AKA I'm falling in love with this character:
 For confirmation that I am much more Than my out-wall, open this purse, and take What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia,-- As fear not but you shall,--show her this ring; And she will tell you who your fellow is That yet you do not know.
EVERYTHING is building up to seeing cordelia again. cordelia cordelia cordelia.

3.2
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
As we heard in the slings and arrows clip, the words really do create the storm just with their sounds. Lear continues to talk to nature about his daughters
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness; I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children, You owe me no subscription: then let fall Your horrible pleasure: here I stand, your slave, A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man:
We get another Cordelia echoe with the "nothing" theme again:
I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing.
and then Kent comes on being badass as always:
Alas, sir, are you here? things that love night Love not such nights as these;
And Lear continues to fight off madness, finding an anchor in noticing the suffering of his fool and caring for him. Salvation through service, not to be earned, but because service to others can't help but change us. C.S. Lewis once said, when talking about joy, that "our best havings are wantings" but I think that maybe our best havings our givings... Lear's been giving away kingdoms, but all along what he needed to give was himself, right? It's something his youngest daughter has already found and will show us soon...
My wits begin to turn.
Come on, my boy: how dost, my boy? art cold?
I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow?
The art of our necessities is strange,
That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel.
Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart
That's sorry yet for thee.
The fool sings a song that is almost straight out of 12th night (or is the 12th night song straight out of this? or is this a super popular chorus? either way, I read this play first and it made the ending of 12th night seem a lot darker than most people play it...)
 [Singing]
He that has and a little tiny wit--
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,--
Must make content with his fortunes fit,
For the rain it raineth every day.
Speaking of the fool... anyone know whats up with the fool's soliloquy at the end of this scene? Most of the time I can follow fool function/joke set ups but this one is a mystery to me... of course not as much a mystery as the poor tom speeches but we'll get there...
3.3
A short scene between Gloucester and Edmond, laying groundwork for Edmond's next trick. Gloucester talks about the conflict between Albany and Cornwall and we can assume the letter has to do with what Kent talked about regarding France coming to the rescue. of course, Edmond is going to show the letter to everyone instead of keeping his father's secrets. what a bastard...
3.4
Everyone is still trying to get Lear out of the storm:
KENT 
Good my lord, enter here.
KING LEAR 
Wilt break my heart? KENT 
I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.
There's something painfully sweet about that exchange. Lear tells us again that the storm is nothing to his inner turmoil:
the tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else
and again he continues to fight for his sanity (there's a sense that he must know himself very well since he is so keen on walking the madness line...)
O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
No more of that.
And then there's the found compassion and humanity the slings and arrow clip talked about. This is one of my favorite sections in the show:
Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en Too little care of this!
And in the shelter they find Edgar pretending to be Poor Tom. And.... well... I can't make heads or tale of it. Especially since we are told that this is an act of madness and not actual madness... and HOW do you play the two of those differently onstage? or DO YOU? Edgar is a serious mystery to me. Insights? anyone?
Bless thy five wits! Tom's a-cold,--O, do de, do de, do de. Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking!
Another favorite line of mine, perhaps because I hate the cold. Add this to our etsy shop list:
This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.
Eventually Lear has his moment that just echoes Hamlet to me:
Is man no more than this?
and then there's even more Poor Tom stuff that baffles me.
3.5
This entire scene is basically Edmund turning on his father:
EDMUND 
If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business in hand.
CORNWALL  
True or false, it hath made thee earl of Gloucester. Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension.
Then Cornwall decides to trust Gloucester in ways he really shouldn't:
CORNWALL 
 I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a dearer father in my love.
 ha. yeah... you can play his father and Edmund will play some Oedipal times...

3.6
Again, maybe it's all the game of thrones reading i've been doing, but this line of the Fool's particularly gets me:
He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath.
After this we get more CRAZY CRAZY LEAR TIMES. The madness really seems to have won at this point as he is seeing Goneril and Regan and evil in practically everything... The best part of this scene is Edmund's soliloquy at the end:
 Who alone suffers suffers most i' the mind, Leaving free things and happy shows behind: But then the mind much sufferance doth o'er skip, When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.
I really can't tell you how much I relate with this sentiment. It's amazing how much perspective and realizing you are not alone changes your struggles.
3.7
The last scene in this act, Cornwall sends Edmund with the ladies (just what edmund wants) while they go do horrible things to Gloucester:
Edmund, keep you our sister company: the revenges we are bound to take upon your traitorous father are not fit for your beholding.
We get the question of the rules of hospitality from the opposite end we got it in Macbeth- how a guest should treat their host:
Naughty lady, These hairs, which thou dost ravish from my chin, Will quicken, and accuse thee: I am your host: With robbers' hands my hospitable favours You should not ruffle thus.
And then we get a "one scene wonder" character. seriously. The servant that confronts Regan and Cornwall is an amazing part that i would love to play any day. an awesome fight AND standing up for justice.
First Servant 
Hold your hand, my lord: 
I have served you ever since I was a child; 
But better service have I never done you 
Than now to bid you hold.
REGAN 
How now, you dog! First Servant 
If you did wear a beard upon your chin, I'd shake it on this quarrel.
I always wonder if the beard line is to Regan or Cornwall...
Other servants in this scene have some choice things to say about Regan as well:
If she live long,
And in the end meet the old course of death,
Women will all turn monsters.
The main event of this scene is not one I can use lines to illustrate well because it's action- they put out Gloucester's eyes and its an insane staging challenge/suspension of disbelief with serious payoff. Few things creep me out more than thinking about popping someones eyes. ugh.... ok, now that i'm sufficiently creeped out... i'm done for the night.
the next act has what i think is the most beautiful scene in all of literature. If I can't get to it tomorrow with my schedule just know that it's because i want to really enjoy it. Go on, read ahead, I give you permission. You'll know the scene I mean when you get to it...

King Lear Act 2: curses, nothingness, and mumford & sons

The scene starts with Edmond receiving word that the Duke of Cornwall and Regan are coming with Gloucester, so Edmond sends Edgar away as seeming to help him, then:
Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion.
[ Wounds his arm]
Of my more fierce endeavour: I have seen drunkards
Do more than this in sport. 
(in this way he kind of reminds me of the anti-Parolles...)
Edmond then tells Gloucester how he got this wound arguing with Edgar, and how he told his brother:
Spoke, with how manifold and strong a bond
The child was bound to the father; 
On the note of parents and children, can I just say that I'm interested in the nature/nurture arguments to be had about both edmond and his brother as well as cordelia and her sisters... that could be a fun classroom discussion.
Regan and her husband then join the scene and hope to turn Edgar's accusation to their own good:
REGAN 
What, did my father's godson seek your life? 
He whom my father named? your Edgar?
GLOUCESTER 
O, lady, lady, shame would have it hid! REGAN 
Was he not companion with the riotous knights That tend upon my father?
Then Cornwall offers commendations to Edmund he will probably come to regret:
For you, Edmund,
Whose virtue and obedience doth this instant
So much commend itself, you shall be ours:
Natures of such deep trust we shall much need;
You we first seize on.

2.2
Before Gloucester's gates Kent meets Osmund and gives Osmund some more fabulous insults:
OSWALD 
What dost thou know me for?
KENT 
 A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition. and then later on: Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter! My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the wall of a jakes with him
Oswald is upset by this until Kent draws his sword and Oswald runs away like the fops Edmund hates.
their arguing draws a crowd and out come Regan, Cornwall, Edmund, and Gloucester.
Kent is put in the stocks and tells Gloucester not to bother pleading for him. and then, left alone on stage, Kent continues to be amazing:
To the warm sun! Approach, thou beacon to this under globe, That by thy comfortable beams I may Peruse this letter! Nothing almost sees miracles But misery: I know 'tis from Cordelia, Who hath most fortunately been inform'd Of my obscured course; and shall find time From this enormous state, seeking to give Losses their remedies.
2.3
OK, maybe act II is slightly shorter than act I, or else I reigned myself in a little after yesterday (doubtful though, my favorite parts are still to come...)
This whole scene is Edgar's chance to soliloquize and a lovely one it is, he gives us his general plan of how he's going to survive while everyone thinks him guilty of trying to kill his father:
my face I'll grime with filth; Blanket my loins: elf all my hair in knots; And with presented nakedness out-face The winds and persecutions of the sky. The country gives me proof and precedent Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices, Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms ... Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers, Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod! poor Tom! That's something yet: Edgar I nothing am.
And we're back to the theme of nothing and nothingness. The greatest acts in the play get to come from those who experience this "nothing" paradox. I'm beginning to wonder if this is part of why I immediately loved playing Anne Dexter in The Queens... she is called nothing right and left...

2.4
Kent returns to Lear in the stocks and they have a dialogue that I'm fairly sure inspired dr. seuss, including:
KING LEAR 
By Jupiter, I swear, no.
KENT 
By Juno, I swear, ay. KING LEAR 
They durst not do 't;
They could not, would not do 't
The Fool then has this little insight:
Fortune, that arrant whore, Ne'er turns the key to the poor. (does this remind anyone else of Ben from Lost and his commentary on Fortune's good friend Destiny???)
When Kent asks the fool where Lear's train went, he get's this little ditty as part of his answer:
That sir which serves and seeks for gain, And follows but for form, Will pack when it begins to rain, And leave thee in the storm, But I will tarry; the fool will stay, And let the wise man fly: The knave turns fool that runs away; The fool no knave, perdy.
Eventually Lear gets to see Regan and Cornwall and remember when I said I think Regan and Goneril are quite different? Goneril had long roundabout coils of sentences blaming mostly her father's knights and was begins quite passive aggressive towards Lear, Regan on the other hand, almost immediately starts in with this:
O, sir, you are old.
Nature in you stands on the very verge
Of her confine: you should be ruled and led
By some discretion, that discerns your state
Better than you yourself. Therefore, I pray you,
That to our sister you do make return;
Say you have wrong'd her, sir.
Yikes. I like to think of Regan as a vicious Lion (mostly because a Tiger will always be Evadne or Margaret for me...) and Goneril as a snake... and shortly after this exchange we get to see the two sisters in action together:
REGAN 
I dare avouch it, sir: what, fifty followers? 
Is it not well? What should you need of more?
GONERIL 
Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance 
From those that she calls servants or from mine?
REGAN 
Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack you, 
We could control them. If you will come to me,-- 
For now I spy a danger,--I entreat you
To bring but five and twenty: to no more
Will I give place or notice.
KING LEAR 
I gave you all-- 
(CUE MUMFORD AND SONS REFERENCE I really don't know how you can hear that song and not think of Lear...)
 REGAN 
And in good time you gave it.
KING LEAR 
Made you my guardians, my depositaries; 
But kept a reservation to be follow'd 
With such a number. What, must I come to you 
With five and twenty, Regan? said you so?
REGAN 
And speak't again, my lord; no more with me.
The sisters continue to outbid each other on lowering the number of Knights Lear should have with him until Regan forbids him even one.
After that Lear really starts to spiral into dark places:
You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, As full of grief as age; wretched in both! If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts Against their father, fool me not so much To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger, And let not women's weapons, water-drops, Stain my man's cheeks!  ...
No, I'll not weep: I have full cause of weeping; but this heart Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws, Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!
The fool has no lines during the horrible exchange Lear has with his daughters but I think whatever the fool is left to do/how the reactions happen while the fool listens will speak volumes to any audience. The desperation and profound disillusionment and confusion and just... ALL THE FEELINGS.
And then THE STORM begins.  but we'll really get into all that next time...