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SHAKESPEARE’S ART OF POESY IN KING LEAR From the realistic point of view itisno doubt a dramatic flaw that Shakespeare does not account more clearly for the fate of the real man in motley; but his disappearance was a poetic necessity, for the King having lost everything, including his wits, has now himself become the Fool. He has touched bottom, he is an outcast from society, he has no longer any private axe to grind, so he now sees and speaks the truth.” RECURRING DRAMATURGICAL ELEMENTS Having examined and contrasted the three texts, I have found several dramaturgical elements which they share, but which are arranged in diverse patterns. These elements or motifs, which include letters, disguises, meetings with beggars, suicide attempts, recoveries, have a significant role in structuring the events of plot, and thus, they contribute to the main character’s moral development. In what follows, this chapter discusses the appearance and function of these elements, letters and visual and verbal disguises in particular, in order to highlight more of the macrostructural similarities and differences among the three playtexts. Letters Even on the Early Modern stage, letters were conventional dramatic elements that served to develop and complicate the plot. In Magnyfycence, there is only one letter, but it is significant. It is a letter that Fansy (Largess) hands over to the protagonist, saying that his friend Sad Circumspection has sent it.“° Although Magnyfycence is suspicious about the letter, which is in fact a forgery, the dramatic moment when Fansy hands it over to Magnyfycence provides a perfect occasion for Fansy to give a detailed description of the journey he needed to take in order to deliver it. Fansy’s smooth flow of speech persuades Magnyfycence that the letter is authentic, and he puts his trust in the newcomer, a mistake which clearly signals his grave error in judgment. Nevertheless, from a dramaturgical point of view, this letter remains a prop the contents of which is never disclosed. The dramatic moment, however, perfectly fits into a common pattern in Tudor drama, in which letters, having been “stolen, lost, forged, opened without permission or read by the wrong person,” are meant to signal some sort of disruption.” On the other hand, Happé remarks that the very act of forging letters is a typical attribute of vice M45 Welsford: The Fool, 266. 46 Skelton: Magnyfycence, lines 326-340. 47 Alan Stewart: Shakespeare’s Letters, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008, 19. + 38 +
