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| Act 2, scene 2 - 407-456 |
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2. We pick up the scene after Goneril’s dismissive 'At your choice, sir' in answer to Lear’s passionate, defiant refusal to consider returning to her. This provokes in Lear a speech of considerable complexity.
e. Look at lines 418-420:
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Mend when thou canst, be better at they leisure:
I can be patient, I can stay with Regan,
I and my hundred knights.
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Reform yourself, Lear says to Goneril, when it is convenient to you to do so because I can be patient. Lear’s need for patience becomes a refrain that echoes through the text. Here Lear seems to mean that he can wait calmly. Later where he cries to the heavens “Give me that patience, patience I need!” (Act 2, scene 2, line 460), he is calling for endurance and fortitude in the face of extreme provocation. Lear asserts that he can remain composed because he can stay with Regan with his hundred knights. |
Lear insisted, when he gave up the throne, on retaining “the name and all th’addition to a King” (Act1, scene 1, lines 136-7). He intended to keep his title and also his retinue as an important sign of his social and political standing. 100 knights would provide some immediate protection of his person and prevent him from feeling over dependent on the new domestic and political order. |
This is something each director has to decide. On the one hand, Lear seems genuinely bewildered by Goneril’s behaviour and may still cling to the belief that Regan will turn out differently. On the other hand, Regan has already indicated that she is not yet ready to accommodate him and his knights (Act 2, scene 2, lines 393-395). By apparently assuming she will comply, Lear may be trying to shame her into it. |
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Why do you think retaining this retinue of followers is so vital to Lear? |
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Does this show that he is still under the naive illusion that Regan will welcome his full retinue or is it a tactical way of re-enforcing to Regan the terms and conditions previously agreed? |
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| Image of crown courtesy of FCIT |
Image courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library |
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