King Lear

i get that he is providing commentary on the action, like a greek chorus, and also adding a creepy element of levity to a environment where people are getting their eyes gouged out and things. but i still think i am missing something.

Oh, the fool is always the only one who completely understands everything, surely

he's the only one who both recognizes goneril and regan as vicious AND holds lear responsible for what he's done. the other characters in the play are either blindly loyal to lear or in league with the forces of chaos.

but why the sing-song nursery rhymes? i guess it adds a horror element, almost...

surely a way of showing how easily the truth is mocked or disregarded

Isn't there a theory that Cordelia and the Fool were written to be played by the same actor? I like the idea that Cordelia is in some way haunting Lear through the Fool.

Both roles to be played by Sarah Cooper. Jared Kushner as Edmund, Goneril and Regan feat. ACB and Brett Kavanaugh in drag.

The sing-song nursery rhymes are part of the unspoken agreement that says that the Fool can tell the truth as long as it's cloaked in humor or entertainment, yes? Lear doesn't tolerate people telling him even mild truths directly, but he lets this guy roast him on the regular because that's the price of having a talented comic around all the time. (A major difference between Trump and Lear, incidentally - a guy who did his best to overthrow Western democracy because he couldn't handle the White House Correspondents' Dinner could never keep anyone like the Fool around for a second.)

I mean, the Fool must be a kind of analogue to Shakespeare himself, I think - his vision of himself as an artist who stuck pretty close to the centers of power but was also able to keep a lot of artistic freedom because he was so good at entertaining people.

^good posting

I would also say that a key difference between Trump and Lear is that Trump would never willingly give up any of the symbols of his power, because he understands, as Lear does not, that the support he gets is entirely conditional on his being in a position of power. And of course Trump understands that so well because all of his relationships are conditional, and always have been, whereas Lear has two, maybe three people around him who genuinely care for him regardless of the position he occupies. He has to learn to recognize the difference, and the inability to to recognize the difference leads him into disaster, but there is still something in him that people like Cordelia and Kent respond to, and whatever that is, Trump doesn't have it.

I mean, the Fool must be a kind of analogue to Shakespeare himself, I think - his vision of himself as an artist who stuck pretty close to the centers of power but was also able to keep a lot of artistic freedom because he was so good at entertaining people.

i guess i don't find the fool funny enough to see him as an analogue to shakespeare. the funniest moments in the play don't have to do with him, really. but i think you are right that the fool is a kind of stand-in for shakespeare and the (contingent, relative) freedom enjoyed by artists in a strictly hierarchial society.

totally agree that lear is not as, um, spiritually impoverished as trump. there is indication in the play that he was once a great king and his descent into fantasy and narcissism is a recent thing. cordelia tries to appeal to his reason in the beginning -- to snap him out of it -- which suggests he was once someone who could be reasoned with.

what a great play.