by Luke Dixon
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• Make decisions about Goneril’s attitude to her father. She is scheming and ambitious and now has power. Think about the history of this father/daughter relationship.
• Note that she calls him ‘Sir’, not father.
• Have a picture in your head of the behaviour of Lear and his followers that is causing such upset.
• Decide whether everything Goneril says is true or whether she is exaggerating so as to exercise her new power over her father.
• Goneril ends by talking of herself in the third person (as ‘her’) and says that she ‘will take the thing she begs’ if Lear does not do what she asks.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Other imperious women of rank include Lady Constance (King John) and Queen Margaret (Henry VI, Part Three). Miranda (The Tempest) also chides her father.
Goneril
“Not only, sir, this your all-licens’d fool,
But other of your insolent retinue
Do hourly carp* and quarrel, breaking forth
In rank and not-to-be endurèd riots. Sir,
I had thought by making this well known unto you
To have found a safe redress, but now grow fearful
By what yourself too late have spoke and done,
That you protect this course, and put it on
By your allowance; which if you should, the fault
Would not scape censure, nor the redresses sleep,
Which in the tender of a wholesome weal*
Might in their working do you that offence
Which else were shame, that then necessity
Will call discreet proceeding.
This admiration, sir, is much o’th’ savour
Of other your new pranks. I do beseech you
To understand my purposes aright:
As you are old and reverend, should be wise.
Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires,
Men so disorder’d, so debosh’d* and bold,
That this our court, infected with their manners,
Shows like a riotous inn. Epicurism* and lust
Make it more like a tavern or a brothel
Than a grac’d palace. The shame itself doth speak
For instant remedy. Be then desir’d
By her, that else will take the thing she begs,
A little to disquantity* your train,
And the remainders that shall still depend
To be such men as may besort* your age,
Which know themselves and you.”
(Act 1, scene 4, lines 223–75, with some cuts)
GLOSSARY
carp – moan
weal – community
debosh’d – debauched
Epicurism – gluttony
disquantity – reduce
besort – suit
Othello
WHO Desdemona, married to Othello, a noble Moor in the service of the Venetian State.
WHERE The military garrison in Cyprus where Othello is commander and Iago his ‘ensign’ or aide. Perhaps contemporaneous with Shakespeare.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Iago and his wife Emilia.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Believing her to have been unfaithful, Desdemona’s husband Othello has called her a whore of Venice. She asks Iago what she can do to win back Othello’s love.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• Desdemona turns to Iago for help but then kneels. What follows may be as much a prayer and a moment of reflection as it is a speech to those with her.
• She is completely bewildered by Othello’s behaviour and is trying to make sense of it.
• She perhaps thinks over their relationship and her behaviour to see if there is anything she can remember to account for Othello’s accusations.
• Desdemona says that she cannot say the word ‘whore’, so decide how painful and difficult is it for the word to come out of her mouth and what she thinks once she has said it.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Ophelia (Hamlet) too is heartbroken by the behaviour of the man she loves.
Desdemona
“Alas Iago,
What shall I do to win my lord again?
Good friend, go to him, for, by this light of heaven,
I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel.
If e’er my will did trespass ’gainst his love,
Either in discourse of thought or actual deed,
Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense
Delighted them* in any other form,
Or that I do not yet, and ever did,
And ever will – though he do shake me off
To beggarly divorcement – love him dearly,
Comfort forswear me!* Unkindness may do much,
And his unkindness may defeat my life,
But never taint my love. I cannot say ‘whore’:
It does abhor* me now I speak the word;
To do the act that might the addition earn
Not the world’s mass of vanity could make me.”
(Act 4, scene 2, lines 153–69)
GLOSSARY
Delighted them – took pleasure
Comfort forswear me! – may happiness abandon me!
abhor – disgust
Othello
WHO Emilia, wife of Iago, a villainous ‘ensign’ or aide to Othello, a noble Moor in the service of the Venetian State.
WHERE The military garrison in Cyprus, perhaps contemporaneous with Shakespeare.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Desdemona, Othello’s wife.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Desdemona, Othello’s wife, has been hurt and confused by Othello’s treatment of her. Emilia gives her advice about the behaviour of husbands.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• Decide what personal experiences Emilia draws on in this speech.
• Perhaps when she says ‘say they strike us’ it is because she has been struck by Iago.
• Maybe these thoughts are ones she has not been able to express before.
• Decide if she herself has been unfaithful or been tempted to be, how much she loves Iago and how their relationship has altered with time.
• Notice the final rhyming couplet and think how it might be used as a strong finish.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Lady Anne (Richard III) is talking to other women about her husband. The Countess (All’s Well That Ends Well) is another older woman talking to a younger.
Emilia
“But I do think it is their husbands’ faults
If wives do fall.* Say that they slack their duties
And pour our treasures into foreign laps,
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
Or scant our former having* in despite –
Why, we have galls,* and though we have some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell,
And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
As husbands have. What is it that they do
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is. And doth affection* breed it?
I think it doth. Is’t frailty that thus errs?
It is so too. And have not we affections,
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well: else let them know,
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.”
(Act 4, scene 3, lines 89–106)
GLOSSARY
fall – succumb to temptation
scant our former having – reduce what they used to give us
galls – tempers
affection – lust
Antony and Cleopatra
WHO Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.
WHERE A room in her palace in Egypt, c. 30 BC.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Cleopatra’s attendants: Charmian, Iras and the eunuch Mardian.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Cleopatra wonders aloud to her maid Charmian where her lover A
ntony might be now. She thinks back to two previous powerful men who have loved her, Julius Caesar and Gnaeus Pompey.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• This is an intimate female scene, with the Queen left alone with her attendants.
• Enjoy the indulgence and overt sexuality of the speech.
• Cleopatra wishes she could be the horse under Antony. Decide what this could say about their sexual relationship and how it might be reflected in the physicality of the scene.
• Make Antony alive as Cleopatra speaks his words.
• Cleopatra exults in the seductive power of her body ‘black, / And wrinkled deep in time’.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Other speeches filled with erotic desire come from Tamora (Titus Andronicus) and Juliet (Romeo and Julie).
Cleopatra
“O Charmian,
Where think’st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he?
Or does he walk? Or is he on his horse?
O happy horse to bear the weight of Antony!
Do bravely, horse, for wot’st thou* whom thou mov’st?
The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm
And burgonet* of men. He’s speaking now,
Or murmuring ‘Where’s my serpent of old Nile?’
(For so he calls me). Now I feed myself
With most delicious poison. Think on me
That am with Phoebus’* amorous pinches black,
And wrinkled deep in time. Broad-fronted Caesar,
When thou wast here above the ground, I was
A morsel for a monarch: and great Pompey*
Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow,
There would he anchor his aspect,* and die
With looking on his life.”
(Act 1, scene 5, lines 18–34)
GLOSSARY
wot’st thou – do you know
burgonet – helmet
Phoebus – the personification of the sun (pronounced ‘Fee-bus’)
aspect – gaze
Antony and Cleopatra
WHO Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.
WHERE A monument in her palace in Egypt, c. 30 BC.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Cleopatra’s attendants: Charmian and Iras and her maids.
WHAT IS HAPPENING The war with Octavius Caesar being lost and her lover Antony having just killed himself, Cleopatra prepares herself for death.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• Antony has only just died, having killed himself out of honour after losing the war. His body is still warm beside Cleopatra.
• The great Queen and lover realises that she is just a woman like any other.
• The journey of the speech is from Cleopatra being reduced to being a woman at the mercy of the same passions as any other, to deciding to kill herself in a way worthy of her status ‘after the high Roman fashion’. Allow time for that journey to take place.
• She asks herself whether it is a sin to commit suicide.
• She talks to her attendants but gets no response from them.
• She then decides to kill herself.
• The speech can end grandly with the strong rhyming couplet just as it began simply.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK There is a sense of having lost everything in Hermione’s speech (The Winter’s Tale).
Cleopatra
“No more, but e’en* a woman, and commanded
By such poor passion, as the maid that milks
And does the meanest chares.* It were for me
To throw my sceptre at the injurious gods,
To tell them that this world did equal theirs,
Till they had stol’n our jewel. All’s but naught.
Patience is sottish,* and impatience does
Become a dog that’s mad. Then is it sin,
To rush into the secret house of death,
Ere death dare come to us? How do you, women?
What, what, good cheer! Why, how now, Charmian?
My noble girls! Ah, women, women! Look,
Our lamp is spent, it’s out. Good sirs, take heart,
We’ll bury him. And then, what’s brave, what’s noble,
Let’s do’t after the high Roman fashion,*
And make death proud to take us. Come, away,
This case of that huge spirit now is cold.
Ah, women, women! Come, we have no friend
But resolution, and the briefest end.”
(Act 4, scene 15, lines 75–93)
GLOSSARY
e’en – just
chares – chores
sottish – stupid
Let’s do’t after the high Roman fashion – commit suicide, which the Romans believed to be a noble way to die.
Cymbeline
WHO Imogen, daughter of Cymbeline, King of Britain.
WHERE In Wales, by a cave, in ancient Britain.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Imogen is alone.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Imogen has travelled all the way to the far western coast of Wales in search of her husband, Posthumus, who has been banished. Posthumus’s servant Pisanio has pointed out Milford Haven to her and that is where she is headed. She has disguised herself as a boy for safety.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• This is a wild and lonely setting and Imogen has travelled a huge distance. Her destination still seems far away.
• Her love is giving her the strength to keep going. Every time she weakens it is the thought of Posthumous that revives her.
• She seeks shelter. Work out the geography of the setting.
• Decide, when she finds the cave, how scared she is about what or who might be inside it and how daring it is to enter the cave.
• Decide how loudly she shouts. Each ‘hoa’ can be different from the other.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Hermia too is lost and has to find her way (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Viola has had to dress in male clothes for her own protection (Twelfth Night).
Imogen
“I see a man’s life is a tedious one.
I have tir’d myself,* and for two nights together
Have made the ground my bed. I should be sick,
But that my resolution helps me. Milford,
When from the mountain-top Pisanio show’d thee,
Thou wast within a ken.* O Jove, I think
Foundations fly the wretched: such, I mean,
Where they should be reliev’d.*Two beggars told me,
I could not miss my way. Will poor folks lie,
That have afflictions on them, knowing ’tis
A punishment, or trial? Yes; no wonder,
When rich ones scarce tell true. To lapse in fullness
Is sorer than to lie for need. And falsehood
Is worse in kings than beggars. My dear lord,
Thou art one o’ the false ones. Now I think on thee,
My hunger’s gone; but even before, I was
At point to sink, for food. But what is this?
Here is a path to’t: ’tis some savage hold:
I were best not call; I dare not call: yet famine
Ere clean it o’erthrow nature, makes it valiant.
Plenty and peace breeds cowards. Hardness ever
Of hardiness is mother. Hoa? Who’s here?
If anything that’s civil, speak; if savage,
Take or lend. Hoa? No answer?Then I’ll enter.
Best draw my sword; and if mine enemy
But fear the sword like me, he’ll scarcely look on’t.
Such a foe, good heavens!”
(Act 3, scene 6, lines 1–27)
GLOSSARY
tir’d myself – exhausted myself
within a ken – within sight
foundations fly the wretched . . . where they should be reliev’d – strength abandons the wretched when they should be helped
The Two Noble Kinsmen
WHO The Jailer’s Daughter.
WHERE A prison in Athens, in ancient Greece,
WHO ELSE IS THERE The Jailer’s Daughter is alone.
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WHAT IS HAPPENING Thebes is at war with Athens. Two noblemen from Thebes, the cousins Arcite and Palamon, have been imprisoned in an Athenian jail. The Jailer’s Daughter (who remains nameless throughout the play) has fallen in love with Palamon.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• The Daughter’s love is young, sexual and almost obsessive. She will later go mad because her love is not requited. Find the intensity of this passion.
• Follow her falling in love as she recounts it, from seeing Palamon, to pitying him and then to loving him.
• Enjoy the thrice repeated ‘lov’d him’.
• A new thought then enters her head and she wonders why she did not fall in love with the other prisoner instead.
• She talks of Palamon’s singing and his ‘fair spoken’ voice. She might try to imitate that voice as she recalls his talking to her.
• Picture what it was like to be kissed by Palamon and what it might be like to recall that kiss.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Also young and in love in their different ways are Juliet (Romeo and Juliet) and Helena (All’s Well That Ends Well).
The Jailer’s Daughter
“Why should I love this gentleman? ’Tis odds
He never will affect* me. I am base,
My father the mean keeper of his prison,
And he a prince. To marry him is hopeless;
To be his whore is witless. Out upon’t,
What pushes are we wenches driven to,
When fifteen once has found us.* First, I saw him.
I, seeing, thought he was a goodly man.
He has as much to please a woman in him,
If he please to bestow it so, as ever
These eyes yet look’d on. Next, I pitied him,
And so would any young wench, o’ my conscience,
That ever dream’d, or vow’d her maidenhead