Oldal 110 [110]
SHAKESPEARE’S ART OF POESY IN KING LEAR
the Fool. His paradoxes and riddles are the only communication possible for
Cordelia’s (the heart’s) banished, speechless truth — until Cordelia herself appears
in person.*!?
Textual correspondences also reveal the complementary nature of the
characters of Cordelia and the Fool. Like Cordelia, who clearly rejects the
idea of flattery and lying, the Fool refuses to tell Lear what he wishes to hear
and, instead, speaks what he feels Lear needs to hear: “prethe Nunckle keepe
a schoolmaster that can teach thy foole to lye. I would faine learne lye.”*!° Ihe
audience can also witness how close these two figures stand in Lear’s mind
when the king cries out over Cordelia’s body: “my poore foole is hangd.”"””
The organic point of view allows one to assign to the Fool the position of the
tongue of the body politic, since he tries to protect the unity of the kingdom
by confronting the head with the events that he, the king, has caused. Like
the other governors, the function of the tongue is to enforce justice and play
the role of a physician if the body of the community is injured. And this is the
aspect that a gentleman replying to Kent’s question highlights when he says
that the Fool “labours to out-iest” the King’s “heart strooke iniuries.”*®
As for Lear’s ungrateful eldest daughters, from the beginning the text of
the play connects the organs of feeding and digesting to their characters.
After Cordelia’s statement of love, the king settles her portion of territory
with the following words: “my two daughters dower digest this third.”“° Later,
these two daughters are supposed to be responsible for providing Lear with
food, but they find a way conveniently to neglect this obligation, and when
the king realizes their intentions, he again recalls images of digestion. First,
he refers to Oswald, Gonorill’s servant, as “a pestilent gull to mee.””° He then
metaphorically connects Gonorill to this organ as well: “O most small fault,
how vgly did’st thou in Cordelia shewe, that like an engine wrencht my frame
of nature from the fixt place; drew from heart all loue and added to the gall."
Moreover, when he curses her reproductive organs, he regards her future baby
as the “childe of spleene.””? The most frequently mentioned parts of Regan’s
body are her nails. First, Lear warns Gonorill, referring to Regan when he
says, “when she shall heare this of thee, with her NAILEs shee’! flea thy woluish
visage."? Later, in an attempt to protect the king, Gloster confronts her:
41.
a
Hughes: Shakespeare, 278.
Shak-speare: His True Chronicle, sig. D1r.
“7 Ibid., sig. LAr.
#8 Ibid., sig. F3v.
#9 Ibid., sig. B2v.
#20 Ibid. sig. C4v.
Ibid., sig. D2r.
Ibid., sig. D2r.
Ibid., sig D2v.
416
Ss
42
42
D
42
u
s 108 +