Our Catholic literature discussion group finished its look at King Lear.
I had reread the play a couple of years ago because the problems of Lear and his three daughters paralleled (sadly) some issues in my own family. But this view was of the play as revealing some of Shakespeare's Catholic leanings and subtexts.
One passage in Act III Scene 4 shows some of the Catholic traces - the growing awareness of the increasingly mad Lear recognizing his links to others:
Prithee, go in thyself: seek thine own ease:
This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in.To the Fool
In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty,--
Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.Fool goes in
Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.
Fascinating. Was Shakespeare a Catholic? Perhaps - there are strong indications he was one - including facing legal issues, and allegedly helping to hide priests. He was apparently related to Saint Robert Southwell, a Jesuit priest executed in 1595, and even alluded to the martyr's poetry in his plays.
If he was Catholic, Shakespeare likely was not able to practice openly. But there are some strong indications in his plays - including this one. He couched his criticisms of Protestant rule and the oppression of Catholics carefully, but they seem to be there.
I need to read and think more about Shakespeare's alleged Catholicism.
Pax et bonum
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