I understand Tate’s desire to create a play with a happy ending, which surely is guaranteed by the two virtuous characters falling in love. However, in my opinion, Tate gets a little heavy handed with the romance. He condenses several of the scenes involving the titular character’s personal struggles to focus more on both Cordelia and Edgar and the love triangle. So for example, in Act V Scene II, Edmund has a monologue where he weighs the pros and cons of each sister, discussing how he's already "enjoy'd" Regan but that Gonerill is of yet "untasted". This brings me to a question really, about the morality of the period. If Shakespeare was being rewritten in one sense to appease public standards, would this have not been controversial? Especially considering one is married, the other a widow (but also adulterer), and the final member a bastard? I find this rather scandalous for the period seeing as women would have been acting these scenarios on stage (and that is not even mentioning the addition of the rape scene with Cordelia having to be rescued by Edgar).
This triangle’s embellishments (because obviously it existed in the original, though it was less “in your face”) adds nothing to the play for me, though I suppose it is to serve as the foil for what “good” or “moral love” should be—that of Cordelia and Edgar’s. Ultimately, Tate ends with this moral, deciding to end with Edgar talking about how his love for Cordelia is all he wants, and that he prefers that to the "Empire". Of course the cliché ending is really what kills me, "That Truth and Vertue shall at last succeed". Instead of lingering on King Lear, whom I thought was the subject of the play; Tate instead turns to his young lovers as beacons of morality. Overall, this “romance” really did nothing for me, except make me laugh and question Tate’s ideas of love.
Definitely agree with you about the romance! Tate seems to abandon the questionable argument over fate versus self-will in favor of fanciful flights of romance. Although I can understand his fascination with completely creating a love story for Edgar and Cordelia, the virtuous youth of the play, his scenes expounding on the love triangle between Goneril, Regan, and Edmund seem a bit excessive and unnecessary unless he intended to produce a comedic effect (since I couldn't help but laugh too.)
ReplyDeleteEdmund's rape plan is never carried out or even attempted as virtuous Edgar saves Cordelia from this violent humiliation. However, even the hint at rape also forces us to ask the question: would this not have scandalized audiences? What was Tate's purpose in creating this plan in the first place? Completely turning Edgar into the worst of villains, Tate's characters are surprisingly noncomplex as they fit the archetypes of a knight in shining armor, perfect in every way, marrying the youngest princess while the two evil sisters fight over a vile and treacherous man.