MELODY: Song/musical element of the tragedy
SPECTACLE: Sensory/visual effects

MELODY is used by the fool in multiple occasions to convey his messages/dialogue


“Then they for sudden joy did weep,
And I for sorrow sung,
That such a king should play bo-peep,
And go the fools among.” – The Fool.


“Fools had ne’er less wit in a year;
For wise men are grown foppish,
They know not how their wits to wear,
Their manners are so apish. ” – Fool

“O, these do portend these divisions. Fa, sol, la, mi.” – Edmund (song-like?)
Trumpets used to signal coming/going of important people.
ALSO to signal a dual about to begin?

In the storm scenes, effects would have been used (like drums, loud noises etc) There is an inner storm raging just as fiercely as the external one (-Lear’s degrading mental state).

http://francis-guinle.com/Shakespeare/Articles/Music_in_King_Lear.html

SPECTACLE:
Blood to show eyes being pulled out.
Stripping of clothing

Storm symbolic of
– Nature
– God’s will
– Mental state
– Chaos of the country

Storms and bad weather in general have always been a negative symbol for society. Shakespeare often uses weather to symbolize important themes/aspects in his plays.
From a religious point of view, weather is controlled by god/the gods.
If a violent storm is raging, like the one in King Lear, it shows that God is unhappy.
– Natural chain of being has been disrupted
– Authority is being ignored

Occurs when Lear is kicked out of the castle – at his lowest point. TIMING.

Clothing

“Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer
with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies.
Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou
owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep
no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here’s three on
‘s are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself:
unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor bare,
forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings!
come unbutton here.” – Lear – NOTE: In PROSE

Lear is bringing himself closer to the ‘unaccommodated animal’ that he sees in Edgar disguised as Poor Tom.  Lear see’s no difference between man and beast.
Lear shows us that the only thing separating us from beasts and animals (the lowest things in the chain of being) is our possessions, the clothes we wear on our backs. Without these things, we are no different from the beings at the bottom of the chain. Lear has made this connection, and it drives him mad. Lear considers this ‘nakedness’ to be the true form of humanity. At this point, Lear has been reduced to nothing more than a lowly beast. Lear’s pride has momentarily disappeared. He used to pride himself in his status and his place in the chain of being, but now he is at the bottom.
Inversion of the great chain of being.

“Through tatter’d clothes small vices do appear;
Robes and furr’d gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks:
Arm it in rags, a pigmy’s straw does pierce it.” – Lear

+ We hide our faults and weaknesses with materialistic things.

Edgar/Poor Tom
Tom dresses in rags, drastically changing his appearance to disguise himself and remain safe.


I heard myself proclaim’d;
And by the happy hollow of a tree
Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place,
That guard, and most unusual vigilance,
Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may ‘scape,
I will preserve myself: and am bethought
To take the basest and most poorest shape
That ever penury, in contempt of man,
Brought near to beast: my face I’ll grime with filth;
Blanket my loins: elf all my hair in knots;
And with presented nakedness out-face
The winds and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numb’d and mortified bare arms
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
And with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills,
Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod! poor Tom!
That’s something yet: Edgar I nothing am.