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Showing posts from December, 2014

Florizel: Those lovely words....

Their transformations Were never for a piece of beauty rarer, Nor in a way so chaste, since my desires Run not before mine honour, nor my lusts Burn hotter than my faith. There he got me. I am very vulnerable to sweet princes and sweet words. There he is. Florizel, The Prince of Bohemia. The young man is madly in love with Perdita, the lost (the clue is in the name) daughter of the King and Queen of Sicilia. But at that time, nobody knew that. So it's lovely to see his love for the "low-born" Perdita, and how he insisted that he would always be true to her. More impressive, he stayed true to his vows. For I cannot be Mine own, nor any thing to any, if I be not thine. To this I am most constant, Though destiny say no. I find the last line so beautiful. Not more nor less beautiful than this one: What you do Still betters what is done. (I think you understand why I still believe in Prince Charming.) Wait, more vows. And he, and more Than he, and men,

"Speak what we feel...."

In the end of King Lear, Edgar speaks this line: "Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say." Simple as it may sound, I believe it is a perfect conclusion to all the things that have happened in the play. The conflicts in the play, both in Lear's family and Gloucester's start when people don't say what they mean and don't mean what they say. Although it's clear that Regan and Goneril are the guiltiest party, Cordelia is not free from fault. What strikes me from Cordelia's choice of words is that it sounds so cold. Too cold. "You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I Return those duties back as are right fit, Obey you, love you, and most honour you." These words certainly wouldn't appeal any parent. Cordelia in the Court of King Lear  by Sir John Gilbert What Cordelia underlines in her speech is her duty  as a daughter, but she doesn't express how she views that duty - whether she willingly does it out of love, or just