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'The Redemption of King Lear' Cherrell Guilfoyle The title of this paper is a quotation from A. C. Bradley's lecture on King Lear: "Should we," he asked, call "this poem The Redemption of King LearV'l Bradley was not alone in detecting an underlying thread of Christian imagery in a play which Shakespeare, working largely from a Christian version of the old story, seemed resolute to express in overtly pagan terms. J. C. Maxwell wrote: "King Lear is a Christian play about a pagan world."2 Shakespeare's principal source, The True Chronicle Historie of King Leir and his three daughters, was a play set in Britain, ruled by a Christian king. In King Lear, there is no direct indication that the king and his entourage are Christians; on the contrary, the king swears by Jupiter, and there are several references to "the gods." But Shakespeare appears to have made a double move, first reverting from die Christian Leir of The True Chronicle to the pagan king of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Holinshed, and then underpinning his paganized court with both Christian accretions on the Arthurian romance legends (which I have examined elsewhere3) and scenic forms from the mystery plays. This last line of imagery, combined with biblical references, formed a pattern used by Shakespeare in two previous tragedies, Hamlet and Othello; in King Lear Shakespeare's characters are not Christians, but as the action of the play intensifies, they find themselves acting in scenic forms from the Christian story, whether or not they are supposed to be living before that time, as they are before Merlin's. The scene of the division of the kingdom goes far back in legend and leaves the way open for multiple parallels. The CHERRELL GUILFOYLE is an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Western Australia. Previous articles by Mrs. Guilfoyle on Shakespeare's tragedies have appeared in Comparative Drama, and she has also published in 7"Ae Review of English Studies, Etudes Anglaises, Milton Studies, and other journals. 50 Cherrell Guilfoyle51 formal and mythical atmosphere of this scene contrasts strongly with the confused path of the play thereafter; there is no critical consensus as to which is the "eye" scene or where the catastrophe. Fredson Bowers contends that the storm scenes cannot be the "eye" because what happens there does not precipitate the catastrophe; James Black queries, "Where, after all, is the 'climax ' of King LearT4 The indeterminate action is matched by indeterminate time; King Lear is for the most part a "present" play—no ghosts, no calls to remember the past, no re-enactments , and little reflection on the past or future. Maynard Mack quoted Granville-Barker on this problem: in King Lear, we are conscious "of a vision of things to which the action itself is but a foreground."5 One aspect of this vision is interpreted with underlying images of Arthurian legend, mythical and arcane (the Church has never given official recognition to the Grail story); another is in images taken from Christian legend, theater and text, also arcane because of the Elizabethan proscription of the mystery plays and the threat of blasphemy.6 There seems to be in the use of Christian analogy and imagery a certain schematic coherence. In the opening scene and at intervals up to the middle of Act III there are Old Testament analogies with the Creation disaster and the Creator's wrath and disillusion with his Creation. A turning point comes in Act III when Lear apostrophizes the "Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are" and recognizes his error: "O! I have ta'en/ Too little care of this" (III.iv.28, 32-33). As L. C. Knights has pointed out, self-pity is transmuted to pity at this point.7 From III.vii to line 80 of IV.vi, Lear is absent from the stage while Gloucester is the central figure in two powerful New Testament evocations, with scenic forms from the blindfolding and buffeting of Christ as well as the temptation by Satan. This imagery forms the counterpart of the Old Testament analogies. In Genesis, God becomes angry with man and repents that he created him; his wrath then abates...

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