All That Chat - re: King Lear, BAM - question about Cordelia

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re: King Lear, BAM - question about Cordelia

Posted by:	BruceinIthaca 12:40 am EST 01/17/14
In reply to:	King Lear, BAM - question about Cordelia - drummergirl 11:55 pm EST 01/16/14

A Shakespearean scholar with whom I taught for a few years told me that current scholarly thinking interprets the line "And my poor fool is hanged" to refer to Cordelia, not the Fool, as one of the meanings for "fool" at the time was something like darling or dear one. She added that there was speculation that the same actor (a boy, of course) played both Cordelia and the Fool--and that the characters never appear onstage at the same time (obviously, if you divide the parts, you can have the Fool lurking around when Cordelia is there in the opening, but it is not a requirement). Putting aside any literary hay one could make of "doubling" those two characters, Lear's best beloveds, it also gives the actor much more to do if playing both roles.

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Thread:	re: King Lear, BAM - question about Cordelia - perfectlyfrank 01:21 pm EST 01/17/14 re: King Lear, BAM - question about Cordelia - drummergirl 12:46 am EST 01/17/14

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