I love this play so much. It has so many powerful speeches and mediations on order vs disorder, madness vs sanity. It also has one of my favorite lines of Shakespeare, a line of Goneril's, "Put on whatever weary negligence you prefer." Besides being utterly beautiful to say on the mouth, as someone who worked in a front-facing job for a while, I often wished to put on weary negligence when things got stressful.
This was such a great play! Children can be terrible! Lear was prideful, but they are greedy and jealous and mean. The jealousy of Edmund, too, is like a fast-growing disease. Families have always been complicated. You chose great quotes to clarify the story. So much action and adventure and tragedy.
Thank you, Nicole. King Lear was the first play I watched (Ian McKellan), the first I read by choice, the first to make me cry, the one that is my favorite. You put my thoughts into words. Thank you!
Pleasure! Wonderful to hear how much you love it. Which scenes made you cry? For me it’s when Lear recognises Cordelia (Romola Garai) and when Edgar (Andrew Scott) sees Gloucester blind for the first time. Heartbreaking!
Thanks Nicole for this interesting and well made review of Act I.. I'm so far enjoying my Lear experience even though i find it sometimes difficult to understand (I'm a native speaker too .) but i use a notes companion book which is helpful. I got quite worried at the start when i thought you were giving away the plot. Would you believe I've managed to avoid (mostly) learning too much about it. It's not easy though. Glad you were only providing historical context..... Thanks and look forward to the next installment....🤓📖
Glad to hear you're enjoying Lear! Haha, sorry for making you worried about the spoiler at the beginning. I thought about what to do for a long while. But I decided to put it in because if the original audience knew it, I thought we could, too. Thank you! Happy reading!
Hello, Nicole! Thank you for this video. It's one of my favorite tragedies. I got to see King Lear performed at the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey. It was amazing! I look forward to your next video! ✌️😃
Enjoyed your analysis! The fool in King Lear is a personal favorite of mine. That production you watched sounds really good-I like the sound of how they did the opening scene.
Thank you! Do you think the Fool and Cordelia were played by the same actor at Shakespeare’s time? I read about it. Just wondering if you have any thoughts :) Edmund was very funny in that production - which surprised me!
I think King Lear is my favourite Shakespearian tragedy. It is indeed hard to endure the two daughters’ atrocious behaviour. I also find that the ”blinding scene” as it is elegantly called in which Gloucester is blinded is nowadays quite aptly presented as a real torture scene, which didn t use to be the case in earlier productions. And as I am getting older, I really sympathise with Lear....actually I do agree with people who find Lear wandering distraught on the moors almost unbearable to watch....I am eager to read the play again thanks to your video!
I'm curious how the earlier productions portrayed the blinding scene! Yes Lear wandering in the storm is very hard to watch indeed - such heartache for the old man. Hope you enjoy it! Thank you!
I also watched the 2018 production this week - a great adaptation. Kent is my favourite too, and the presentation of the character in that production is spot on. Lear is like a potted argument for primogeniture. If he had had a son! I liked how you drew attention to the details of the opening scene including the reference to how Lear will "unburdened crawl towards death" and that he aims to prevent future strife by dividing his kingdom in advance - sadly ill-judged on both counts. Aside from Kent and perhaps Edgar there is no good character here. Cordelia could have compromised slightly, Lear could have been less riotous, Edgar's father could have had a shred more faith in his son. This is one of my favourite plays and the height of Shakespeare's power.
Thank you Nicole as always :) I've watched many of your videos and I enjoy seeing how we share our love for the Bard!Do you happen to attend Greg Doran & D.Tennant event in LDN, in Oct??
Sorry for replying so slow - this is turning into snail mail lol So glad you love Shakespeare too! No I haven’t heard - what’s happening in London in October?!
I saw Lear twice before reading it. First Lawrence Olivier in a British TV version and that was a billion years ago . Then I saw Ran, Kurosawa's altered Lear, and was stunned! The movie was all Shakespeare and all Kurosawa. When I finally read King Lear a year ago I was amazed at how bleak it is. The play isn't just Lear's tragedy, it's everybody's tragedy. A critic compared Hamlet and Lear as extreme opposites. Hamlet is all intelligent self knowledge and Lear is just a big bag of feelings, and only changes in the last act. I was reminded of Ester Summerson and Lady Dedlock, in Bleak House. Ester is thoughtful and considers others. Lady Dedlock sees no one but herself and the mission she's on. Dedlock's end is even more "tragic" than Lear's!
Arguably Shakespeare greatest. Saw this live at Stratford.whenever I see the play takes me weeks to recover from melancholy. Great understanding of a complex play
I am enjoying reading 1606 by James Shapiro alongside Lear - many things to think about. Shakespeareportrayed the English and England in his Elizabethan period but goes over to Britain and British with Janes I as the idea of union was so important to him and Parliament was being very slow about formally approving it - so a play about the dangers of a divided kingdom was very topical.
Great video, an excellent look at Lear. It's got to be the bleakest Shakespeare play, at least of the ones I've seen/read. Brilliantly written, but hard to endure!
I love this play so much. It has so many powerful speeches and mediations on order vs disorder, madness vs sanity. It also has one of my favorite lines of Shakespeare, a line of Goneril's, "Put on whatever weary negligence you prefer." Besides being utterly beautiful to say on the mouth, as someone who worked in a front-facing job for a while, I often wished to put on weary negligence when things got stressful.
Glad to hear you love the play.
Haha that must be a fun line to say to colleagues!
This was such a great play! Children can be terrible! Lear was prideful, but they are greedy and jealous and mean. The jealousy of Edmund, too, is like a fast-growing disease. Families have always been complicated. You chose great quotes to clarify the story. So much action and adventure and tragedy.
Yes, agree! Families can be complicated! And Shakespeare did such a great job.
Thank you :)
Thank you, Nicole. King Lear was the first play I watched (Ian McKellan), the first I read by choice, the first to make me cry, the one that is my favorite. You put my thoughts into words. Thank you!
Pleasure! Wonderful to hear how much you love it.
Which scenes made you cry? For me it’s when Lear recognises Cordelia (Romola Garai) and when Edgar (Andrew Scott) sees Gloucester blind for the first time. Heartbreaking!
Thanks Nicole for this interesting and well made review of Act I.. I'm so far enjoying my Lear experience even though i find it sometimes difficult to understand (I'm a native speaker too .) but i use a notes companion book which is helpful.
I got quite worried at the start when i thought you were giving away the plot. Would you believe I've managed to avoid (mostly) learning too much about it. It's not easy though. Glad you were only providing historical context.....
Thanks and look forward to the next installment....🤓📖
Glad to hear you're enjoying Lear!
Haha, sorry for making you worried about the spoiler at the beginning. I thought about what to do for a long while. But I decided to put it in because if the original audience knew it, I thought we could, too.
Thank you! Happy reading!
Hello, Nicole!
Thank you for this video. It's one of my favorite tragedies.
I got to see King Lear performed at the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey. It was amazing!
I look forward to your next video!
✌️😃
Hello! Pleasure - glad to hear it’s one of your favourites and you got to watch an amazing production!
Thank you :)
Thanks for this video! I am about halfway through the play and really appreciate your thoughts!
Pleasure! Hope you enjoy the rest :)
Enjoyed your analysis! The fool in King Lear is a personal favorite of mine. That production you watched sounds really good-I like the sound of how they did the opening scene.
Thank you!
Do you think the Fool and Cordelia were played by the same actor at Shakespeare’s time? I read about it. Just wondering if you have any thoughts :)
Edmund was very funny in that production - which surprised me!
I think King Lear is my favourite Shakespearian tragedy. It is indeed hard to endure the two daughters’ atrocious behaviour. I also find that the ”blinding scene” as it is elegantly called in which Gloucester is blinded is nowadays quite aptly presented as a real torture scene, which didn t use to be the case in earlier productions. And as I am getting older, I really sympathise with Lear....actually I do agree with people who find Lear wandering distraught on the moors almost unbearable to watch....I am eager to read the play again thanks to your video!
I'm curious how the earlier productions portrayed the blinding scene! Yes Lear wandering in the storm is very hard to watch indeed - such heartache for the old man.
Hope you enjoy it! Thank you!
I also watched the 2018 production this week - a great adaptation. Kent is my favourite too, and the presentation of the character in that production is spot on.
Lear is like a potted argument for primogeniture. If he had had a son! I liked how you drew attention to the details of the opening scene including the reference to how Lear will "unburdened crawl towards death" and that he aims to prevent future strife by dividing his kingdom in advance - sadly ill-judged on both counts. Aside from Kent and perhaps Edgar there is no good character here. Cordelia could have compromised slightly, Lear could have been less riotous, Edgar's father could have had a shred more faith in his son. This is one of my favourite plays and the height of Shakespeare's power.
Glad to hear you enjoyed the 2018 production too.
Yes, complicated human nature in many characters.
A wonderful play indeed!
Thank you Nicole as always :) I've watched many of your videos and I enjoy seeing how we share our love for the Bard!Do you happen to attend Greg Doran & D.Tennant event in LDN, in Oct??
Sorry for replying so slow - this is turning into snail mail lol
So glad you love Shakespeare too!
No I haven’t heard - what’s happening in London in October?!
I saw Lear twice before reading it.
First Lawrence Olivier in a British TV version and that was a billion years ago .
Then I saw Ran, Kurosawa's altered Lear, and was stunned! The movie was all Shakespeare and all Kurosawa.
When I finally read King Lear a year ago I was amazed at how bleak it is. The play isn't just Lear's tragedy, it's everybody's tragedy.
A critic compared Hamlet and Lear as extreme opposites.
Hamlet is all intelligent self knowledge and Lear is just a big bag of feelings, and only changes in the last act.
I was reminded of Ester Summerson and Lady Dedlock, in Bleak House.
Ester is thoughtful and considers others.
Lady Dedlock sees no one but herself and the mission she's on.
Dedlock's end is even more "tragic" than Lear's!
Ooooh, interesting comparing it to Hamlet and Bleak House. I haven't read Bleak House but now I have something to keep in mind!
Arguably Shakespeare greatest. Saw this live at Stratford.whenever I see the play takes me weeks to recover from melancholy. Great understanding of a complex play
Yes agree, a great play indeed!
I am enjoying reading 1606 by James Shapiro alongside Lear - many things to think about. Shakespeareportrayed the English and England in his Elizabethan period but goes over to Britain and
British with Janes I as the idea of union was so important to him and Parliament was being very slow about formally approving it - so a play about the dangers of a divided kingdom was very topical.
Yes agree. 1606 is a wonderful companion to reading and watching and understanding King Lear!
I love your Shakespeare videos so much.
Thank you Katie!
As charming as always.
Thank you very kind!
Great video, an excellent look at Lear. It's got to be the bleakest Shakespeare play, at least of the ones I've seen/read. Brilliantly written, but hard to endure!
Thank you :)
Agree, brilliant but very bleak!