Blocking: The Blinding of Gloucester

Gloucester must be bound to a chair for this scene. Cornwall and Regan are his torturers, and they circle him like dogs. When Cornwall puts out the first of G.’s eyes, he says, “Fellows, hold the chair!”, so there must be at least two guards there to help him. I imagine that he lowers G. backwards (“Upon these eyes of thine I’ll set my foot.”), with the two guards supporting G.’s weight.

Then the most remarkable thing happens. A servant intervenes. This shouldn’t be one of the guards, but rather an ordinary servant who just happened to be in the room while all of this was going on. It was probably a male servant, but for some reason I envision a chambermaid, somebody so low that none of the dukes and queens even notice her presence until she speaks up.

Seeing the horror of G.’s blinding, she impulsively steps forward and grabs the dagger our of one guard’s belt. She holds it ineffectually, but the move is so unexpected that it still makes everyone stop and stare. Cornwall laughs and starts circling the terrified girl. “How now, you dog!” Shouts Regan. Emboldened in the moment, the Servant chides back at her mistress. Behind her, Cornwall gets a step closer. He mocks her. “My villain?” She is torn between fight and flight; Cornwall has no doubt that he can overpower her, and neither does the audience.

Regan is infuriated and grabs a sword (from the other guard), causing Servant to swing around again. Cornwall swoops in, but not quite fast enough; Servant swings back and he runs right on to the dagger. She is horrified—she never thought she’d have to kill her master—and she drops the blade and turns around.

Regan is agog (as are the guards), but after a beat, she recovers and raises her sword like it’s an axe. The Servant runs, and a brief chase begins—perhaps it involves the Servant tripping over the prone Gloucester (to add insult to injury?). Meanwhile Cornwall recovers enough to intercept the Servant. Hands locked around her throat, he expends nearly all his energy in choking her to death. When he is carried off stage ten lines later (“Regan, I bleed apace”), it is the last time we see him alive.

Choking the Servant would prevent her from saying her final line, which is both a blessing and a curse, as it begins with “O, I am slain” (good riddance), but concludes with this, to Gloucester: “My lord, you have one eye left / To see some mischief on him.” That’s a nice line because G. loses his one remaining eye almost instantly (“Out, vile jelly!” says Cornwall). Would that be adding injury to irony?