Page 50 [50]
SHAKESPEARE’S ART OF POESY IN KING LEAR
hang thy medicin on my lips, / And let this kis repaire those violent harmes
that my two sisters / Haue in thy reverence made.”'”® When undergoing
treatment, the protagonist in both plays receives a new garment as a sign of
his recovery. In the moral interlude, Redress presents Magnyfycence with a
new “abylyment,”’” and in King Lear, a Gentleman informs Cordelia and Kent
that they “put fresh garments” on her father.” Leir also receives a new dress
in The True Chronicle Historie, but only because he should pay some fare to the
mariners to take him to France, and instead of money, they accept his robe.?°!
The chart below offers a summary of the findings of my contrastive
Magnyfycence King Leir King Lear
5 stage letters (content Several messages
not disclosed) 8 stage letters
3 messages 2 read on stage:
1 forged letter 1 replacement of letters: |- Edmund’s forged letter
Letters (content not Cornwall's letter to Leir | on Edgar’s behalf to
disclosed) — Gonorill’s letter to Gloster
Ragan - Gonorill’s letter to
Ragan’s letter ordering Edmund urging to kill
Leir’s murder Albany
the attribute of . . Edmund’s disguise
. Gallian king and
courtly vices u: (verbally marked)
ut . Mumford as pilgrims
Disguise |(visuallyand . Kent, Edgar as beggars
(visually and verbally .
verbally marked) (visually and verbally
marked)
marked)
B rs Magnyfycence | Leir himself becomes a Lear meets Edgar in the
“868 meets Poverty beggar guise of Poor Tom
Mischief
Suicid gives a knife comic suicide attempt:
Attemr t and halter to - Gloster at the cliffs of
emp Magnyfycence Dover
to stab himself
Goodhope Doctor as a character
and Redress Cordelia described
Recoveries bring medicine _ asa doctor bringing
and anew medicine
“abylyment” to Lear receives “fresh
Magnyfycence garments”
=
200
201
« 48 «+