Allan Massie

Life & Letters: Shakespeare’s women

Gordon Bottomley, Georgian poet with an unpoetic name, wrote a play called King Lear’s Wife with which he hoped to inspire a poetic revival in the theatre. It might be interesting to see it revived — though most 19th- and 20th-century verse-dramas proved forgettable.

Nevertheless, he surely happened on an interesting subject, though one which L. C. Knights, among others, would have deplored.  In a famous essay, ‘How Many Children Had Lady Macbeth?’, he poured scorn on the practice of treating Shakespearean characters as if they were real people with an anterior life beyond the play. Yet surely it is tempting to do so. When Lady Macbeth says she would have killed Duncan herself if he hadn’t resembled her father as he slept, it’s natural to wonder about her relationship with Dad.

As for King Lear’s wife, we may suspect she had a hard time of it. In his own household, in his prime, we can be sure that Lear’s word was law. Clearly all three daughters resented this — even Cordelia, who defies him by refusing to pretend that she loves him more than a daughter should love her father, to the exclusion, that is, of her future husband.

It is clear that Goneril and Regan despised and disliked him. They display their contempt in their protestations of love, which they know the old fool will accept as his due, and one would guess that apart from the advantage they expect from their lies, they take pleasure in deceiving him. Their subsequent treatment of Lear and their relish in his humiliation are evidence of their deep dislike. It’s reasonable to suggest that this is in part inspired by their sympathy for their bullied mother.

It may be objected that any attempt to make sense of the two ‘wicked daughters’ is futile.

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