Harvard ENGL E-129 - Lecture 5: King Lear

Recorded on Oct 17, 2007.

[@aoifegrimes5984]

Wonderful lecture! Thank you so much for sharing. Analysis of drama begins at 17:02 for all my fellow last-minute-before-an-exam students ;)

[@Carlosthe1]

Aoife Grimes you judgmental person you

[@thedisappointedidealist3818]

thank you!

[@zameer9164]

Thanks hommie. I have a Shakespeare exam in a few days.

[@chrissie1066]

My way of learning during a rainy Vancouver winter. Missed so much during education, so as a senior, I'm lapping it up!

[@lizardpeoplepoetry]

there's nothing more aesthetically pleasing and practically unreadable than a professor writing on a chalkboard.

[@henrih3080]

That is indeed very true !

[@Laocoon283]

As if they are just playing the part

[@okaytoletgo]

The lecturer is the literary theorist Marjorie Garber, who has written many books and a chapter in "The Lives of Animals" J.M. Coetzee'.

[@toniasay2249]

She has infinite patience and grace. I would love to just hear her explication of the play without interruption.

[@Howler]

Her patience and the respect she gives to her class is what draws me back to her lectures. She's like a teacher most of us never had. But it's also these qualities that allow too many interruptions in her flow by well meaning students who need to "Speak too" this or that point that often doesn't really need to be spoken to.

[@eswyatt]

What you're calling "interruptions" were repeatedly invited by her.

[@lost524]

@@eswyatt nobody said they weren’t, champ

[@paulshowers8688]

My recent reading of Lear suggests that there is so much here about Identity. Eg “Edgar I am nothing now.” Almost every character in the play shows two sides, two personnas. Lear goes crazy. His daughters are two faced. Obviously Edmund is trying to be another. Edmund makes it plain that his birth is not related to the Zodiac, he wants to be anything but illegitimate. And the Fool simply is the student of the various identities.

[@paulshowers8688]

Kant changes his identity. Gloucester loses his vision. Cordelia stands alone w a secure identity.

[@zapify6999]

great observation

[@Shadowfan2ladygaga]

currently revising KL for my exams in Paris La Sorbonne University and this is more than jelpful, thanks for sharing online.

[@mickstan24]

love these lectures and this professor.

[@fazbell]

Brilliant lecture. I would expect no less.

[@sherlockholmeslives.1605]

"ALAS! The Duke and Duchess of Dalhousie are dead and buried at last, Which causes many people's hearts to feel a little downcast." From 'The Death And Burial Of The Duke And Duchess Of Dalhousie'. William Topaz McGonagall ( c.March, 1825 - 29 / 9 / 1902 ). This is about my intellectual level!

[@myusername6595]

she did say that the family drama interpretation was a modern extrapolation. she totally walked it back when someone asked her a question about it.

[@myusername6595]

but i still liked the lecture and lecturer.

[@thetacopunch]

1:43:50 why does cordelia have to die question. interesting answers given

[@markcavanaugh9920]

That's Marjorie Garber, a Harvard professor and author of Shakespeare After All.

[@newworld4203]

Brilliant lecture

[@criticalcookie2579]

Really appreciate these lectures.

[@Wolf.88]

Excellent lecture! Thanks for posting.

[@theone3559]

I found the fools end scene the most profound when he sometimes she says something about being Christian before Christianity and a How the wizard Merlin is some sort of precursor

[@dakotamatrix850]

Over all a good lecture. Would have been better if the prof had just done a lecture without interruption, with questions/comments at the end. Prof did have insightful things to say, seemed to have more very excellent things to say, but the interruptions rarely were helpful, and most often lead the lecture in unhelpful directions. Too many students wanted to be part of the show by making too frequent comments, etc. Sometimes student participation enhances a class, but as in this case, sometimes not. There were a few good insightful comments and questions, but not many.

[@ciaranj1992]

Mature student vibes from every speaker

[@RobertLeutwiler555]

I have read very much about Shakespeare along with Father Walter J. Ong SJ who puts things in a context of Orality and Literacy beginning with early man up to his death. (Has a lot to do with Marshall McLuhan.) Great lectures! It is fascinating to see how different ages dealt with his writings and how his plays compare one to another.

[@pasqualified]

Thanks for sharing the insights!

[@johnboger6]

The discussion of Edmund's character around the 1:30 mark is interesting. One thing, though. No one really knows Gloucester's intentions towards Edmund, that is, whether Edmund stood to inherit anything. Gloucester seems not to have ignored his bastard son.Which make Edmund even more interesting because, not knowing himself, he is not going to leave anything to chance but rather grab the bull by the horns and take what he feels is rightfully his.

[@shameerali5003]

brilliant lecture

[@stevenv6463]

Wow, I saw a production of King Lear where Cordelia was played by the same actor as the fool. I was really confused and it seemed strange to me until the professor mentioned that many thought they were played by the same actor. Also the play seems so biblical to me. For example King Lear begs for his knights from his daughters like Abraham (as) in the Bible asks for God to spare the sodomites for a certain number of righteous men.

[@thomasscottwilliams6672]

I wonder if you looked at it as a modern president with dementia/altzheimers how we would interplay the themes, it is both a historical and tragic play

[@testosteronic]

The person bringing up that the word mad can be used to mean insane or angry--that's an American English thing. Mad isn't used to mean angry in British English. It's a coincidence you could do something w in a modern staging of King Lear in the US but it isn't something intended by the text.

[@nandinibhattacharya9876]

Brilliant!

[@geoffJG1]

What a "Polymath" "Shake-speares" was indeed ,all that education and greatness from just 6 years if that at a backward ,village school with no more than 80 books to choose from allegedly, wow.

[@suhasinisrinivasaragavan9447]

Loved the lecture, bit bothered by the finger licking, but that's okay. It's worth sitting through it for the lecture.

[@matthewcaffoe7890]

Omg i was watching at 1.5 speed and it was really distracting. 😂

[@Stalley75]

I heard that King Lear was written in the 1600s.

[@leguide66]

Pill Box 1605-1606

[@sirminiwuji]

+Pill Box 1592 apparently, according to my prof.

[@paulcarmichael2368]

Your Prof is wrong and 16065-1606 is as near to accurate as we can be.

[@charlychips]

So good. Thanks so much.

[@teganohara5171]

What is her book called/ what is she called? I want to read it!

[@renatoandwill]

+Tegan O'Hara Shakespeare After All

[@leneballantyne2932]

+Josh Skinner Great Thank you Josh

[@AsdAsd-ui6uh]

Excellent lecture

[@shoshannaweinstein8182]

She sounds just like my grandmother. I wonder if she is from Nebraska.

[@jamesraymond1158]

No, she has a NY city accent. Just like my 9th grade English teacher Mrs. Rubman.

[@christineclaiborne3139]

"We don't have foul papers..." Sure we do. Just pick up a newspaper.

[@webspecific]

To the not so "sublime music channel" critic. I assume as a grad student at Harvard you were exposed to much poetry and can find it yourself in any text, especially that of Shakespeare. Rather than decide what the professor should/should not include in a lecture, why don't you enlarge on the parts you deem missing. Otherwise, you become a rather dry snipper. Write your own lecture. As an Antioch and Rollins alum, I can find the poetry.

[@syedabdulbari82]

Her accent is excellent

[@Only1INDRAJIT]

Why no lecture on hamlet??

[@vetha_litlov]

34:00 ~ contemporary reference

[@hopelessstrlstfan181]

I see this is Harvard, but the voices sound much older than 20 somethings. Is this part of Harvard extension school/adult education program? Either way, i like listening 2 her insights.

[@sbnwnc]

Yes, it's adult education through Harvard Extension School. They still have online courses for about $2000 for each class.

[@hopelessstrlstfan181]

@@sbnwnc , thanks. Just curious, are you responding from US or somewhere else. I'm in US & things here are not going well. I am curious if things are better where you are, if you are lucky enough to be in a place where folks are doing better than we are.

[@sbnwnc]

@@hopelessstrlstfan181 I am in New York. Things aren't great here but other places have it worse. At least we have cool Shakespeare lectures to see us through

[@hopelessstrlstfan181]

@@sbnwnc , yes, others do have it worse. NYC? I used 2 live there. Went to Columbia University & lived in Manhattan during my year off from College. I had Bike messenger & fun 20 something jobs during that era. I was going thru my Beat Poet influenced phase & I was playing in a Band. Those were the days. Are you actually living in NYC or NYS , I'm in Upstate NY for time being.

[@sbnwnc]

@@hopelessstrlstfan181 NYC born and bred and I still live in Manhattan. I grew up right near Columbia. My parents met the West End bar on 114th. I guess I'll never leave.

[@Muguetsu]

What is the name of the professor, please? I need to cite this lecture in my paper.

[@Jennboi]

@@TeenFoodChef you were 2 years too late lmao

[@on_shooting_star4781]

1:24:21

[@christineclaiborne3139]

Conformity vs. Nonconformity

[@LondSergio]

I really wish I could make some intelligent observation but, boy, that finger licking habit is so weird! why does she do that? It got me curious. she's great anyway.

[@MaartenVHelden]

It's killing me. I can't watch it.

[@raj_poorman]

Obsessed with trivial externals- never learned how to ‘listen’

[@Paulkazey1]

It may be linked to 'fishy finger.' She may have earlier 'flicked her bean.'

[@mitcomz6827]

quality

[@rebeccak5753]

finger licking

[@surejack5]

give her a break - it's called eccentric !

[@fazbell]

I missed the KFC reference.

[@jonnylocks]

barf

[@MaartenVHelden]

Arghhh, not again !!!

[@jejstestwo]

Who is She? And what’s the name of the book she talks about?

[@yenden6822]

there are many citations from the coran in shakespeares plays i guess thats why we dont know who "shakespeare "was..

[@billykersh7061]

Yen Den, you need your head examined.

[@santosh99samuel]

Why she randomly licking her fingers @40:03

[@kkkn3635]

wonderful but I wonder why she keeps licking her fingers ? cause it's kinda annoying to see

[@michaelgameel5584]

What is "Leir" she wrote on the board?

[@christopherthiesen1158]

She says that atleast the name "Lear" could be based on a real king, "Leir" from 800 BCE.

[@michaelgameel5584]

Christopher Thiesen Thanks a lot...I'm not a native speaker of English,so I could've easily missed that part in which she explained that point due to the speed of her talk...Thanks once more,sir.

[@christopherthiesen1158]

No problem! Actually King Leir is an anonymous Elizabethan play about the life of the ancient Brythonic king Leir of Britain. It was published in 1605 but was entered into the Stationers' Register on 15 May 1594.[1] The play has attracted critical attention principally for its relationship with King Lear, Shakespeare's version of the same story. (Wikipedia) So it's both a real king and the original name of the play before Shakespeare's adaptation :)

[@YortOK]

Could someone explain? Legend explains it.

[@filipegomes3451]

It disturbs me a little bit, that she is constantly licking her fingers

[@Only1INDRAJIT]

This lecture is nearly not half as good as the one on Othello

[@georgejackson956]

She loves to lick her left hand. Wouldn't want to be the next person to use the chalk...

[@RF-mc8cx]

23:37

[@riccileggio]

Notice how long she talks about textual uncertainties without once actually talking about the play. Why? A showy display to substitute for anything worth discussing. The plays the thing!

[@grey8478]

bro's dressed like miles edgeworth LOL

[@forida_aa6929]

She's not answering questions

[@ccgamedes33]

Cordelia as a wimp?!? What's wrong with this profs (prof. Cantor in his lecture bursts "Why can't she find some good words for her father like the other sisters?" Almost saying 'so nuaghty of her!'). How these come to teach Lear without understanding the key to the play?

[@Tolstoy111]

She was bringing up a contrary point to what the person was asking; she was refuting the idea that Cordelia was merely loving; a one dimensional character easy to understand etc.

[@b.alexanderjohnstone9774]

Oh my goodness, 'problematic' in first two minutes! Impressive woman, of course, but my goodness.

[@dantean]

Still waiting for someone apart from Harold Bloom to find the actual poetry in Shakespeare--or anyone else. Glad I gave Marj a pass when I was a graduate student.

[@simonstephenson6764]

In two hours with a play like Lear (or any Shakespeare play!) you have to make choices. If you look at her book, Shakespeare After All, which is both part of the title of this course and text for it, you will find close readings which discuss the poetry of different parts of the plays. At least one assignment for the adult education course, from which this lecture is part, required students to explicate a close reading of a passage. It is hard to imagine a graduate level version of this course would be less demanding in that regard.

[@plekkchand]

Good point. The reply of SS is off the mark, and merely "begs the question" as to why it is the poetry which should be sacrificed to exigencies of time limits rather than textual issues, which are the in domain of preparing more professors rather than an extension course anyway.

[@Tolstoy111]

@@plekkchand Because focusing on the poetry would get her lost in talking about one passage for the entire two hours. This is analysis from further away.

[@jonnypaulhus8025]

Ce cours est nul. À peu près le niveau qu’on s’attendrait pour des étudiants de 15 ans, mais pas pour Harvard.

[@Harlan_Ferguson]

This was not helpful

[@rebeccak5753]

Harlerino what were you looking for?

[@CoolThisIsMyUsername]

+Rebecca Kilpatrick probably a 2 page essay

[@rebeccak5753]

haha had an essay due?

[@tripp8833]

Brilliant lecture