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The Fool of King Lear
By Dac
It has been a raging question of debate over the decades, and perhaps the centuries, of what became of the Fool in King Lear. He vanishes, seemingly, halfway through Act 3 Scene 6, while Lear is imagining a trial of his faithless daughters Goneril and Regan. Many productions attempt to compensate for this and find an appropriate way to dispose of him; one example was when the scene involved the Fool holding a pillow o represent Regan and Lear stabbed it repeatedly, unwittingly killing his beloved servant (in a manner of speaking – the lenience Lear extended to the Foll was as close as he came to showing compassion, prior to his reconciliation to Cordelia). Yet all of these productions, while attempting to disprove the rumour that Cordelia and the Fool are the same person, never modify scenes. They may place them at different points or remove lines of dialogue, but never do they walk the truly creative path and invent their own scene. What would happen if they did, and the Fool reppeared?
Kent: I have a journey, sir, shortly to go; my master calls me, I must not say no.
Fool (offstage): You must, good sir. He would prithee thee not do this for he, as his time be over.
ENTER FOOL
Albany: Who are you who comes here, to examine the sleeping and command the woken?
Fool: Truly, I say I command none. I merely talk and persuade, and of these cards I deal many in the
hopes of mine targets emerging victorious.
Kent: I know thee, sir; loyal man of the King you are, yet hidden for long you have been.
Fool: True, dear Kent, and not proudly. But little choice was on my part.
Albany: My question stands still, stranger. What is thy name?
Fool: My name is Ermac, but most know me as the King’s Fool.
Albany: Impossible! You are he who the King revered more than he himself knew?
Fool: I am he.
Edgar: Then welcome you are, too, though things now be less hospitable, friend.
Fool: Do I know thee, good sir? Though your voice ring, I cannot see your face.
Edgar: In one life and two, we have met; Edgar, son of Gloucester, am I, and Poor Tom also.
Fool: You are the stranger of the hovel who pleased my King? I knew familiarity had laid your hand on
my shoulder. Well met once more, fellow, hopefully less mad now.
And so the Fool is here brought back into the scene. As one might expect, Albany would be suspicious of the new arrival, but Kent and Edgar recognise and welcome him. He attempts to stop Kent’s unnamed “journey”; clearly he has guessed its nature. As Cordelia is now dead, the question of whether she is the Fool’s true identity is dashed; Lear’s “my poor fool is hanged” may have been Shakespeare’s idea of a joke, as the actor who played the Fool also played Cordelia in his day. But now more questions are raised. The Fool has told us his name at last, but who is he really? Where has he been all of this time? And why does he now return? These questions cannot be left unanswered.
Edgar: Less mad, perhaps, or simply less cowardly
Albany: You art no coward, Edgar, thy father would be proud.
Edgar: And proud he was, the minute before he died, but now is not timely to reminisce. Come, friend
Ermac, Fool, where hast thou been?
Fool: ‘Tis p’raps a short story, but unpleasant.
Kent: Unpleasant we have seen much of; it hangs over our heads like a beast of the shadows, a dark
avalanche. But we endure it. Whither hast thou been, friend young of age but old of friendship?
Fool: Nursing external wounds, but upon this grim scene they seem replaced by those internal.
Albany: Sir, though it is custom to respect anonymity, do not begrudge us your tale.
Fool: Very well, sir. I stayed with he I named Nuncle through a merciless storm, and watched as he
turned to madness. I could do naught to purge the bizarre fervour, and so I slipped away.
Albany: To what point and purpose?
Fool: To seek a parley with one and attempt her redemption; to talk to Regan.
Kent: To parley with that witch be to pluck thine own eyes and drop them in the cauldron.
Edgar: Speak not of plucking eyes, sir.
Fool: Not even that chance did I get. The labyrinth I wandered did twist me for hours ‘fore the path to
salvation for the King did appear under my feet. Though perhaps I walked the wrong direction, I
met neither sister of the spectrum. The first soul I met pursued an old man crying red tears, and
that vile pursuer dealt me a sound blow. When I returned to the light, I found myself back in the
catacombs of trees. By the time I escaped my second maze, my King and his true daughter were
entombed in the shadows of a dungeon. And here I stand now, regretting the lateness of my
coming.
Albany: Thou could have done naught, sir. It is better for you to have not seen his faint.
Fool: Yet to see him alive one more time would have cheered me. I doubt he knew why I called him
Nuncle, for he truly was my uncle, but none were privy to that knowledge.
Kent: So it would seem; Gloucester and I thought it a term of fondness.
Fool: T’was, in a way and more. But that is my full tale. What are ye three planning now?
Kent: I say again, sir, I am called to my master.
Fool: I entreat ye, good Kent, do not leave these lands for the far green country whence the King now
slumbers, for we three remain who held onto him to the end. Oh yes, I know thy other name and
praise it, Caius, double Kent.
Kent: I guess you knew.
Fool: Then for thy own sake, stay, man!
Kent: Not for my sake, Ermac, but if you wish it, I will stay.
Albany: My lords three, I ask you now to follow me. The last that stand, we must work now.
Edgar: Work at what?
Albany: At making this land worthy of the name of the fool who was no fool, and advised by the fool, King Lear.
Perhaps a more cliché ending, but with the reappearance of a comical character, it is inevitable. The Fool also lifts the mood slightly, so with him once more in the picture a bleak ending seems out of place; there is now a gleam of hope in the darkness for the survivors.
It is also perhaps worth nothing that Albany begins to refer to the Fool as ‘lord’ after learning of his blood tie to Lear, but still retains the lordship himself. Kent, too, is moved by his friend and agrees to remain, and Edgar simply remains quiet, in awe perhaps, during proceedings.
To include in the Fool in the scene would be tricky, as the audience would not walk away without finding out who he is. But as the wise character, he brings about a lighter tone, and the tragedy seems mildly less tragic.
4/8/2006 9:20:03 PM
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