Friday, April 7, 2006

Reading

Notes

For class today, we will continue our discussion of King Lear, through act 4. Consider especially the play’s apparent obsession with fate and the apocalypse. A particularly fascinating image is the “Wheel of Fortune.” Consider the following passage from Thomas Malory’s Morte Arthur:

So uppon Trynyté Sunday at nyght kynge Arthure dremed a wondirfull dreme, and in hys dreme hym semed that he saw uppon a chafflet a chayre, and the chayre was fast to a whele, and thereuppon sate kynge Arthure in the rychest clothe of gold that myght be made. And the kynge thought there was undir hym, farre from hym, an hydeous depe blak watir, and therein was all maner of serpentis and wormes and wylde bestis fowle and orryble. And suddeynly the kynge thought that the whyle turned up-so-downe, and he felle amonge the serpentes, and every beste toke hym by a lymme.

Here’s a translation:

At night on Trinity Sunday, King Arthur dreamed an amazing dream, and in his dream it seemed to him that he saw a chair upon a platform, and the chair was attached to a wheel; and upon it sat King Arthur, in the richest gold cloth that could be made. And the king thought that under him, far from him, was hideous, deep, black water; and in it were all kinds of serpents and worms and foul and horrible wild beasts. And suddenly, the king thought that the wheel turned upside-down, and he fell among the serpents, and every beast took him by a limb.