Sir,
you speak nobly.
-Edmund
King Lear Act
V, scene i, line 28
Okay, couple of things. For starters, yes, he does speak
nobly because this is Albany he’s talking about, and Albany’s the one guy of
that whole group of n’er-do-wells who retains some nobleness. On the other
hand, these eight noble lines that Albany does speak are quite difficult to
understand. Shall we take a look?
Our
very loving sister, well be-met.—
Sir, this I hear,-the
king is come to his daughter,
With others whom the
rigor of our state
Forced to cry out.
Where I could not be honest,
I never yet was
valiant: for this business,
It toucheth us, as
France invades our land,
Not bolds the king,
with others, who, I fear,
Most just and heavy
causes make oppose.
Say what? Well there’s a lot to unpack there. Or we could
just leave it in the suitcase. Ahh, let’s take a shot.
We’re near the end of the play, and the group convened here
is Edmund, Goneril, Regan, and Albany. First it was Edmund and Regan talking,
and then Goneril and her husband Albany show up. Edmund is playing the two
sisters against each other for his own means, and he’s been talking with Regan
(whose husband died a few scenes ago) about what a faithful lover he’s been to
her (not). So Goneril and Albany show up, and that’s Albany’s first lines
above. When he says loving sister he’s talking to his sister-in-law Regan. The king is come to his daughter is
saying that Lear and Cordelia have met up. But from there on in this passage, it gets a little tough. Where’s Shapiro when you really need him?
Perhaps we’ll leave that suitcase intact and stick with the four words that we started with. In fact, when I tell you that we’ll leave that suitcase packed,
you might just reply
Sir, you speak nobly.
Okay, today's line got me a bit confused. So here's a picture of a fancy N chair. We'll call it the Noble Chair, so that if you sit in this chair you'll speak nobly. How's that?
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