Once More Unto the Drawing Board

Things are not as clear as I had hoped. I went through Act 1, Scene 4, scanning the verse and trying to imagine the scene if it were to “block itself” according to the intention & verse rules I put forward in my last two posts.

To make a long story short, it didn’t work. Never mind the fact that the first half of the scene is almost entirely in prose. Never mind the fact that even the verse sections are routinely broken up by prose and/or the Fool’s doggerel (which is verse, but not blank verse). No, my scheme just doesn’t hold up against lines like these (Lear is speaking):

Darkness and Devils!
Saddle my horses: call my Train together.
Degenerate Bastard, I’ll not trouble thee;
Yet have I left a daughter.

Mostly, this is rough verse. It starts and ends with broken lines (the first line, “Darkness and Devils,” may be a continuation of Goneril’s last line, “Which know themselves, and you”—but even so, it scans very distinctly). The second line begins with a trochee (dum-de) and has a feminine ending (an extra, unstressed syllable). The third line could be made to scan (if you elide “degen’rate”), but I’d probably suggest scanning the second half as “I’ll not trouble thee” (dum dum dum-de dum), which is anything but regular.

So it’s plenty rough. If the actor playing Lear were following my rules, he wouldn’t be moving on a rough line—he’d be standing still and “feeling” out the balance of power. But look at the content of the lines, for Pete’s sake. They simply scream motion.

Or consider Lear’s famous curse speech, where he wishes sterility upon Goneril. It starts with a heavily stressed (ie. rough) line. Then it has 8 lines of fairly smooth verse. Then it gets rough again, at least until the last two lines.

Hear Nature, hear dear Goddess, hear:
Suspend thy purpose, if thou did intend
To make this Creature fruitful:
Into her Womb convey sterility,
Dry up in her the Organs of increase,
And from her sickly body, never spring
A Babe to honor her. If she must teem,
Create her child of Spleen, that it may live
And be a thwart disnatur’d torment to her.
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,
With cadent Tears fret Channels in her cheeks,
Turn all her Mother’s pains, and benefits
To laughter, and contempt: That she may feel,
How sharper then a Serpent’s tooth it is,
To have a thankless Child. Away, away!

So...what? Lear starts still, then starts moving (where, exactly? Towards Goneril? But he’s talking to “Nature,” not to his daughter), then stops, then starts again? Lear is unsure, then sure, then unsure again, then sure again? Balderdash.

There is one thing I did observe from this experiment (and again, I have no idea whether it’ll hold up throughout the play). The characters who speak in smooth verse are most likely to be the ones in power at that moment. So, for example, at the very end of the scene, Goneril chastises her husband, and he attempts to rebuke her:

Goneril.
No, no, my lord,
This milky gentleness and course of yours
Though I condemn not, yet under pardon,
You are much more at task for want of wisdom,
Than praised for mildness.

Albany.
How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell;
Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.

Albany’s rhyming couplet may appear to be smooth, but in fact it’s rather shaky rhythmically (“How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell”), while Goneril speaks in calm, honey-smooth lines like “You are much more at task for want of wisdom.” It’s clear from the verse who’s in command.

So perhaps all is not lost. But I don’t think I can reasonably expect the play to block itself. Too bad; I was really looking forward to having all those extra nights off!