{"id":1560,"date":"2018-10-21T13:28:34","date_gmt":"2018-10-21T17:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst368\/?p=1560"},"modified":"2018-10-21T13:28:34","modified_gmt":"2018-10-21T17:28:34","slug":"king-lear-king-james-and-the-gunpowder-treason-of-1605","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst368\/2018\/10\/21\/king-lear-king-james-and-the-gunpowder-treason-of-1605\/","title":{"rendered":"King Lear, King James and the Gunpowder Treason of 1605"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not sure if I buy into Taunton and Hart\u2019s argument that the apocalyptic language in King Lear<\/em> was a reference to James\u2019 reaction to the Gunpowder Plot. They refer to the fear of separate kingdoms and a new ruler as \u201capocalyptic\u201d (pg 713) in order to place King Lear<\/em> in an apocalyptic framework. To me, placing King Lear<\/em> in a doomsday framework is a bit of a stretch. Admittedly, James\u2019 rule brought much anxiety to England, as many citizens did not trust him to rule effectively. This distrust finds its parallel in Lear\u2019s corruption after handing his legitimate power as king over to his daughters, though this transfer of power does not necessarily invoke doomsday imagery.<\/p>\n

Taunton and Hart reference the storm in which Lear is caught, as well as his mad ramblings, though Act III Scene 2 is up to interpretation. In order to make the leap from Lear\u2019s experience in the storm to James\u2019 fascination with Armageddon, Taunton and Hart assume that Lear\u2019s storm-driven madness represent an apocalyptic mindset. Lear\u2019s madness can represent the end of his rule, as well as the madness in which his kingdom descends. However, whether or not that madness is truly apocalyptic still remains up to personal interpretation. If audience members don\u2019t make the connection between Lear\u2019s madness and Armageddon, the apparent reference to James\u2019 apocalyptic fascination and rhetoric is even more difficult to find. While apocalyptic rhetoric may have helped James appear as a hero for stopping the Gunpowder Plot, there is not enough clearly apocalyptic language in King Lear<\/em> to make this connection between Lear and James.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not sure if I buy into Taunton and Hart\u2019s argument that the apocalyptic language in King Lear was a reference to James\u2019 reaction to the Gunpowder Plot. They refer to the fear of separate kingdoms and a new ruler as \u201capocalyptic\u201d (pg 713) in order to place King Lear in an apocalyptic framework. To […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3037,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3037"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}