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A Bloody Proclamation
PERIOD 8
Text six: “Now, Edmund, where’s the villain?” (Act 2, Scene 1, ll.34-62)
Text seven “I heard myself proclaimed” (Act 2, Scene 3)
BEFORE READING ACTIVITIES
1) TOM O’ BEDLAM (10 min.)
AIM: To introduce this character as the epitome of the mad beggar, to approach the issue of the transformation of Edgar into Poor Tom. PROCEDURE: The teacher resumes (or has a student read out) the story of Edgar:
Edgar is the elder and legitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester. At the beginning of the play, his younger and illegitimate brother Edmund has recently returned from an absence of nine years, and at once contrives to win the inheritance that rightfully belongs to Edgar. By the use of a forged letter, numerous slanders , and other more delicate and sinister stratagems, Edmund convinces Gloucester that his beloved son Edgar is plotting to kill him. Whereupon Gloucester proclaims Edgar a traitor, disowns him, disinherits him, bars all escape routes, and summons all the powers at his disposal to seek Edgar out and kill him. Edmund has in the meantime also duped Edgar. Pretending to be his brother’s ally and protector, Edmund informs Edgar that their father has flown into an inexplicable rage against him. He arranges for Edgar’s escape from Gloucester’s castle, and he urges Edgar to be armed against the very forces that Edmund has encouraged Gloucester to unleash against him. The wily villainy of Edmund is matched only by the astonishing credulity of both Edgar and Gloucester. Banished from his home and fearing for his life, Edgar shifts into the madman’s rags. He mortifies his body, ties his hair in knots, covers himself with grime , and goes about in the guise of the blithering beggar.
2) BEDLAM (5 min.)
AIM: To provide historical information about Bedlam, to introduce the theme of madness, to make the text more accessible to students. PROCEDURE: The teacher hands out some notes about Bedlam and shows “The Interior of Bedlam” from A Rake's Progress by William Hogarth, 1763, (McCormick Library, North Western University).
In 1247 a convent was founded just outside the London wall for the order of St. Mary of Bethlehem. By 1330 the convent had become the General Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, ready to treat the gamut of common ailments . However, by 1403, Bethlehem had developed into a hospital for the mentally ill, the first such institution in England. In 1547 King Henry VIII granted Bethlehem Hospital, known by now as Bedlam, to the city of London as an asylum for the mentally deranged . When they were released Bedlam inmates were allowed to go begging for survival. By the time Shakespeare wrote "King Lear", Bedlam had a solid reputation as a brutal, inhuman prison. Shakespeare refers to Bedlam and the "Bedlam beggars", commonly known by the generic name "Tom O'Bedlams", several times in his plays. In Act II of King Lear Shakespeare describes the actions of some inmates (Act II, 3, ll. 13-19).
WHILE READING/AFTER READING ACTIVITIES
A “BLOODY” PROCLAMATION (40 min including oral presentation).
AIMS: Text 1): To focus on Edmund’s villainy, to learn how he manipulates his father against his brother, to explore the theme of love and justice in the family. Text 2) To focus on the double identity of Edgar/Poor Tom, to approach the theme of appearances vs. reality and the motif of disguise. PROCEDURE: The class is divided into two groups: Group 1 work s on Text 1, Group 2 on Text 2. The teacher prints out the two activities and texts below and gives copies to the class (one per student). Students work on their assignment for twenty minutes, answering questions, taking notes and preparing lectures for their classmates. The teacher circulates in class, helping as required, and correcting where necessary. At the end of the activity, each group delivers a ten-minute lecture, while the other students take notes.
GROUP 1
Read the text and take notes about the following:
1.How Edmund appeals to his father’s tendency to superstition.
2.How Edmund shows his gift for theatrical invention.
3.How Gloucester replies to Edmund’s calumnies. Why?
4.How Edmund insists on vilifying his brother.
5.What kind of picture Edmund paints of his brother.
6.What Gloucester proclaims.
KEYS
1.Portraying his brother as a devotee of astrology, asking for benevolent influence of heavenly bodies over his plan to murder his father.
2.He tries to catch his father’s attention on his wound, pretending that it was caused by Edgar.
3.Gloucester ‘s replies are very practical. He is horrified by the idea of a son who appears to have broken all the natural bonds between father and child.
4.Edmund tells his father about Edgar’s plan to kill him and how he tried to persuade him not to do it.
5.Edmund paints a very black picture of his brother.
6.He proclaims that Edgar will be caught, no matter how far he goes. When he is caught, he will be executed. Anyone who helps Edgar will also die.
Act II, Scene 1 (at Gloucester’s castle)
Enter Gloucester, and Servants with torches.
GLOUCESTER Now, Edmund, where's the villain?
EDMUND Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out,
Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon
To stand ’s auspicious mistress .
GLOUCESTER But where is he?
EDMUND Look, sir, I bleed.
GLOUCESTER Where is the villain, Edmund?
EDMUND Fled this way, sir. When by no means he could-
GLOUCESTER Pursue him, ho ! Go after. Exeunt some Servants
By no means what?
EDMUND Persuade me to the murder of your lordship;
But that I told him the revenging gods
'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend,
Spoke with how manifold and strong a bond
The child was bound to the father-sir, in fine ,
Seeing how loathly opposite I stood
To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion
With his prepared sword he charges home
My unprovided body, latched mine arm;
But when he saw my best alarumed spirits,
Bold in the quarrel's right , roused to th' encounter,
Or whether gasted by the noise I made,
Full suddenly he fled.
GLOUCESTER Let him fly far.
Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;
And found-dispatch. The noble Duke my master,
My worthy arch and patron, comes tonight.
By his authority I will proclaim it
That he which find, him shall deserve our thanks,
Bringing the murderous coward to the stake;
He that conceals him, death.
GROUP 2
Read the text and take notes about the following:
1.What Edgar heard.
2.Where Edgar found refuge.
3.How bad his position is. (Can he attempt to flee England? What about the ports (seaports and town gates)? Are they watched? What are his father’s men doing?
4.Why he decides to disguise himself as a Bedlam beggar.
5.There is some dramatic irony in Edgar’s disguise. Can you spot it?
6.How changes of identity relate not to the plot but to the message of the play (consider also Kent, the other character forced to assume another identity to continue to serve the king).
KEYS
1.Edgar heard himself proclaimed a criminal.
2.In a wood, in the hollow of a tree.
3.His position is desperate. He cannot attempt to flee England as all the ports (seaports and town gates) are watched, and his father’s men are hunting him down.
4.He might have decided that his only chance of survival was to disguise himself as a mad beggar, or he might have chosen that disguise because he felt despised and rejected by his father.
5.He, the legitimate son of a noble man, is forced to assume “the basest and poorest” semblance. The situation has reversed and swung in Edmund’s favour.
6.Changes of identity relate to the theme of appearances vs. reality and the motif of disguise. Like Kent, Edgar is banished and forced to assume another identity to continue to serve his father.
Act II, Scene 3 (A wood )
Enter Edgar
EDGAR
I heard myself proclaimed ,
And by the happy hollow of a tree
Escaped the hunt. No port is free, no place
That guard and most unusual vigilance
Does not attend my taking . Whiles I may ‘scape,
I will preserve myself; and am bethought
To take the basest and most poorest shape
That ever penury, in contempt of man,
Brought near to beast. My face I'll grime with filth,
Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots,
And with presented nakedness outface
The winds and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numbed and mortified bare arms
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
And with this horrible object , from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, sheepcotes, and mills,
Sometime with lunatic bans , sometime with prayers,
Enforce their charity. 'Poor Turlygod! poor Tom! '
That's something yet! Edgar I nothing am. Exit
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