This edition of page B4v in the first quarto edition of King Lear focuses on the misogynistic issues that arise in the portrayal of the three sisters: Regan, Goneril, and Cordelia.
The three princesses all play a role in challenging the patriarchal structures of the kingdom—Cordelia through her refusal to participate in the test of love put forth by her father, and Regan and Goneril through their attempts to seize and manipulate power. These characters are subversive and in many ways revolutionary, being active women who make major decisions that influence the plot. However, their depiction still invites feminist critique.
From the start of the play, the sisters are immediately put into competition with one another. There is little room for female solidarity. As the tension mounts, the male characters, like Edgar, Edmund, and Gloucester, dominate the plot. After her opening rebellion, Cordelia disappears, becoming a passive character who eventually dies quietly off stage in the final act. As for Regan and Goneril, there is little distinction between the two, and they die in a murder-suicide (also off stage) as a result of their competing affections for Edmund coming to a head.
Page B4v is an early instance in which the sisters butt heads as Cordelia says her farewells and marries the Prince of France. This satirical edit translates the dialogue to be more accessible for a contemporary audience. It finds resonances between this page and the modern spectacle of female-led reality television programs about families, such as The Real Housewives and Keeping Up with the Kardashians. As an accompanying performance piece, we've filmed a video version of the text to parallel the style of the aforementioned reality programs. Though they portray women in a powerful light—showing them as matriarchs, business owners, and media savvy performers, they also veer into problematic territory. Like King Lear, these programs pit their leading women against one another for the sake of entertainment, complicating any feminist messaging or subtext. We hope that by modernizing the script, contemporary viewers can connect with the overt construction of sexist representation in media, old and new.
Narrator: Last week on The Real Princesses. King Lear is going CRAZY!Tensions ran high as Lear split his kingdom into thirds, saving the juiciest bit for his favorite daughter, Cordelia. Regan and Goneril were more than happy to kiss up to dear old dad, but, in a shocking twist, Cordelia REFUSED to say she loves Lear out loud! Lear was NOT having it. He disowned her and offered her up to her boy toys, the princes of France and Burgundy. And France thinks Cordelia is HOT! Let’s tune back in to his proposal. 1
France: Cordelia, you don’t have a dowry anymore, but I don’t care! You might not be royalty here anymore, but I’ll treat you like the queen you are! Burgundy, step aside. (the crowd gasps) Cmon Cordelia, say goodbye to your awful family, you’re onto bigger and better things.
Lear: Whatever, she’s yours!2 I don’t want her anyway. I can’t even look at her. Cmon Burgandy3, let's go. These people don’t deserve our grace.
[Exit Lear and Burgandy]
France: Babe, want to say goodbye to your sisters?4
Narrator: Urged on by her boo, Cordelia gives her older sisters a piece of her mind.5
Cordelia: You think you’re daddy’s favorites? Hot take, but I can see right through you. Have fun with Dad’s kingdom! You’re not my first choice to take care of him, but I guess he doesn’t want me. Don’t screw it up. (the crowd gasps)6
Regan: You got what you deserved for what you did to Dad. You’re lucky France even wanted you.
Cordelia: Just wait. Sooner or later, everyone will see what a mess you are. You've got a lot of problems, but uhhh, wish you luck! (blows kiss)
France: Cmon babe, let’s get out of here. (motorcycle sounds)
[Exit France and Cordelia]
Narrator: That night, Regan and Goneril tell all in their confessionals.8
Goneril: Can you believe this? Regan and I have got a lot of work to do. Dad’s got to rest tonight. He clearly needs it.
Regan:Dad’s losing it! Here’s the plan: he’s got to stay with Goneril tonight, cause I ain’t dealing with that, but I guess I’ll take him next time.
Goneril: He’s going insane in his old age. Everyone can see it. Cordelia was always his favorite, but now his wacky mind just disowned her.
Regan: He’s getting old. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Narrator: Choice words from the sisters. They’re teaming up now, but just you wait. On this season of The Real Princesses, Goneril's got big plans. Watch out, Regan!9 Tune in next week for more…
Image credit: Rare Book Division, The New York Public Library Digital Collections, copy *KC 1608. His True Chronicle Historie of the life and death of King Lear and his three Daughters. First Quarto. London: 1608.
Citing this page: Shakespeare, William. King Lear, B4v. London: 1608. Cacodemon Digital Shakespeare. Edited by [your names]. Source edition: Rare Book Division, The New York Public Library (*KC 1608). http://cacodemonshakespeare.com/tragedies/lear/b4v.
Works Cited:
Shakespeare, William. “King Lear”. The Norton Shakespeare. Edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et. al. 3rd ed., W. Norton & Company, 2015, pp. 1384-1465.
Events mentioned in this voiceover are not events that occur on page B4v — we chose to add some broader context so this skit could stand on its own.
Before her marriage to France, Lear was the only male figure officially bound to her. Thus, by refusing to play along with his competition at the start of the play, she unsettles the expectations of loyalty that enforces their relationship. In getting married immediately after being disowned, she is given a chance to exist outside of the context of a man.
Burgundy is portrayed in the video as a cardboard cutout because he has no speaking lines on this page.
Almost all of Cordelia’s actions on this page are suggested by her new husband. Though France is a by no means a villain, and his support for Cordelia is admirable, we can't help but wonder whether Cordelia has just swapped one controlling patriach for another.
Cordelia is portrayed in a less kind or 'innocent' manner than you may expect from her in this video. This is not our official reading of the character but rather an editorial choice to emphasize otherwise easy to miss insults made against her sister on this page for our modern audience. By doing so, we zoom in on the lack of solidarity between the sisters.
In their final moments together, Cordelia, Goneril, and Regan lack any sense of kinship, resorting to petty barbs to lower one another’s status. Despite Lear being the one who banishes her, Cordelia expresses more sympathy toward him because she finds Goneril and Regan unsuitable caretakers. The women of this play face consequences for all of their missteps, but are expected to tolerate the poor behavior of the men.
In the video, Goneril and Regan are dressed in similar outfits and react identically to Cordelia’s comment. This represents how they lack the sort of distinct characteristics that would make them feel like individual characters. Some editions swap Regan and Goneril’s lines in this scene, including Greenblatt's Norton edition, where they even share line spaces (1.1.274-277).
Although Goneril and Regan's lines are conversational in the Q1 version, we decided to turn these moments into separate confessions to emphasize the feelings of competition, secrecy, and deception that will eventually come between them in later acts.
See first footnote; we chose to "preview" Regan's death to remind the audience of the eventual betrayal. Even though the two are aligned on B4v, the two end up destroying one another.
