Lear's dilemma - future of Britain & Cordelia Tripartition of Britain - Lear's grand plan Kent & Gloster - Lear's attitude to Cornwall Act 1 Scene 1 - Enter KING LEAR The flattery game - Goneril & Regan Sharing the kingdom - a third more opulent Lear and flattery - did he love it or hate it? Duke of Burgundy - the dowerless suitor King of France - in choler parted Edmund - sectary astronomical Duke of Albany - worthy prince Queen Goneril - King Lear's successor? Oswald - this detested groom Goneril - under the influence Regan - is she worse than Goneril? Goneril/Edmund/Regan - unequilateral triangle Division 'twixt Albany and Cornwall - rumour Lear's sanity - recovery The final tableau - Lear endures his going hence The last word - Albany or Edgar? |
Edmund — the astronomerA sectary astronomicalEDGAR (asks Edmund)Although Edmund is only feigning an interest in the stars, in fact he is quite knowledgeable about astronomy as an earlier passage shows: EDMUND The most interesting thing here is Edmund's last sentence because it presents an opportunity to check him out as an astronomer. The dragon's tail obviously refers to the constellation of Draco (the dragon). Ursa Major (the big bear) and Draco are next to each other in the sky and both pass over Britain and thus passed over Edmund when he was both conceived and born. He is therefore quite accurate when he says he was born under Ursa Major. These days he would simply say his Zodiac sign is Leo the Lion. But how does Edmund know which stars he was conceived under? He simply determines the constellation that was (and always is) overhead nine months before Ursa Major. He waits until Ursa Major is directly overhead. After a little mental calculation he works out that he need only wait six hours and then look overhead to see what constellation is there. He finds that it is Draco the dragon or more precisely, the dragon's tail. And so we discover that Edmund is a competent observational astronomer. |