„The dusk was repeating them in a persistent whisper all around us, in a whisper that seemed to swell menacingly like the first whisper of a rising wind. ‚The horror! the horror!‘“

#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness III

#KingLear_2025
V3

The Two Gentlemen of Verona - Entire Play | Folger Shakespeare Library While the word "gentlemen" suggests that its heroes are adults, The Two Gentlemen of Verona is more intelligible if we think of them as boys, leaving home for the first time. One has a crush on a girl...

Reminder to readers of #KingLear_2025 and #ShakespeareQuest :

#TwoGents_2025 starts 11/24/25.
Here's a link to Folger Library edition if you're away from your tome like me-

www.folger.edu/explore/shak...

Sunday's NYT crossword is Shakespeare-themed. Only just started it. Anybody else? #kinglear_2025 #twogents_2025

#KingLear_2025

Kent:
He hates him
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer.

(V.3.385-387)

Thank you, Christina, and everybody, for another rewarding read.

Still thinking about the Guardian calling Lear, the character, "unplayable." His dementia and his bullying, his warrior status and kingship are cited. Dallying with the daughters. His pathos. Maybe all of us real people are unplayable, because none of us has just one tragic flaw. #kinglear_2025

“Howl, howl, howl, howl!—O, you are men of stones;
Had I your tongues and eyes, I’d use them so
That heaven’s vault should crack.—She’s gone for ever!”
#kinglear_2025

“Yet Edmund was belov’d:
The one the other poison’d for my sake,
And after slew herself.”
#kinglear_2025

Medieval illustration of the goddess Fortuna turning the Wheel of Fortune, with a king at the top and a poor man at the bottom.

Edmund:
“Th' hast spoken right, 'tis true.
The wheel is come full circle, I am here.”

#KingLear_2025

In 1971 after Peter Brook’s film of Lear, I left the movie so overcome I couldn’t speak. My MIT boyfriend cheerily said, “But so who would be the next King then?” I knew the relationship was doomed. #kinglear_2025

EDGAR

The weight of this sad time, we must obey,
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most : we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

Exeunt with a dead march.
#KingLear_2025
Act V s3 (324-328)

#KingLear_2025 Day 20, 11/17- Act V s3 from 170 "ALBANY. Most monstrous! O knows thou this paper?" to end of play,

EDGAR. The weight of this sad time we must obey:
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much nor live so long.

KENT
Is this the promised end?

EDGAR
Or image of that horror?

#KingLear_2025
V,3,263-264

James Barry (1741-1806)
King Lear Weeping over the Dead Body of Cordelia (1786-8)
The Tate Gallery London.

Jon Stewart

#KingLear_2025

Regan:
Jesters do oft prove prophets.
(V.3.85)

Edgar (as Tom):
“Draw thy sword,
That if my speech offend a noble heart,
Thy arm may do thee justice; here is mine:
Behold, it is my privilege,
The privilege of mine honors,
My oath, and my profession.”

#KingLear_2025

#KingLear_2025

Some thoughts on King Lear’s character by Anthony Hopkins

(Spoilers re end).

youtu.be/zBJ49hQda2Y?...

When I worked at the Royal Exchange, Manchester they had a costume shop. All costumes made on premises. It was a magic wonderland to visit. Back in the day, **sigh.** #kinglear_2025

“Come, let’s away to prison:
We two alone will sing like birds i’ the cage
When thou ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness.”
#kinglear_2025

When fine artists worked in the theatre and ballet. #kinglear_2025

🙏😍
King Lear is big theater. — Do I like it so much because the play is set around the 8th century BC? Certainly because of your contributions, dear #KingLear_2025 friends!

Robert Colquhoun - Wikipedia

Thanks to @nemimeli.bsky.social 's post on Robert Colquhoun, the Scottish designer of the 1953 Lear, I may have found my next Wikipedia project. #kinglear_2025 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_...

Michael Redgrave as Lear Taken as a whole, Mr Redgrave's King Lear at Stratford-on-Avon must be counted the most satisfying interpretation of the allegedly unplayable part since the war.

The designer, Scotsman Robert Colquhoun, did the sets of this 1953 production as well. The Guardian calls Lear an "unplayable part" but gives Michael Redgrave (Vanessa's father) a very good notice. Thank you, @nemimeli.bsky.social! #kinglear_2025 www.theguardian.com/theguardian/...

V, 3. For me the most poignant speech so far. When you just want the bad stuff to go away. Especially the bad you’ve caused yourself. #kinglear_2025

CORDELIA.
We are not the first
Who with best meaning have incurred the worst.
For thee, oppressed king, I am cast down:
Myself could else out-frown false fortune's frown.
Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?

Act V s3 #KingLear_2025 Trust, love, naïveté, youth.

Penultimate day ⚜️

#KingLear_2025 Day 28, 11/16- Act V s3 to line 169 "GONERIL. Who can arraign me for't. [Exit]"

Location. The British camp, near Dover.

EDMUND. Some officers take them away: good guard,
Until their greater pleasures first be known
That are to censure them.

EDGAR

Know, my name is lost;
By treason's tooth bare-gnawn, and canker-bit:
Yet am I noble as the adversary
I come to cope.

#KingLear_2025
V,3,121-124

Robert Colquhoun
Edgar in Battle Dress (Costume Design for 'King Lear') (1953)
National Galleries Scotland

#KingLear_2025

Gloucester:
A man may rot even here.

(V.2.9)

“Here, father, take the shadow of this tree
For your good host; pray that the right may thrive:
If ever I return to you again,
I’ll bring you comfort”
#kinglear_2025

“Now, sweet lord,
You know the goodness I intend upon you:
Tell me,—but truly,—but then speak the truth,
Do you not love my sister?”
#kinglear_2025

“My point and period will be thoroughly wrought,
Or well or ill, as this day’s battle fought.”
#kinglear_2025

#KingLear_2025

Interesting take on the character of King Lear by Ian McKellen:

youtu.be/ahFtoCq6CHw?...

(There are spoilers for the ending.)