Battle of the Lears: ‘King Lear’ (1983) dir. Michael Elliott

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English Renaissance, King Lear, King Richard II, maps, Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, Stonehenge, superbody

The DVD’s main attraction is Sir Laurence Olivier’s Emmy award winning performance as the insufferable King. However, director Michael Elliott’s vivid recreation of Lear’s Medieval polytheist world (complete with appropriate outfits that History of Costume could explain) provides Olivier with an authentic space for his commanding role. The opening outdoor scene presents a Stonehenge setting in which Lear throws down a large rug-like map on the ground. He then steps on it not only in a display of regal power, but to invite

Battle of the Lears: ‘King Lear’ (1982) dir. Jonathan Miller

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English Renaissance, King Lear, maps, Ptolemy, Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare

Directed by Jonathan Miller in 1982, King Lear is part of the BBC’s project to film all of Shakespeare’s plays. It is performed as though on a theatre stage with minimum props. At Lear’s court, the players are attired in black Jacobean costumes that reflect the king’s ‘darker purpose’ (I.i, line 35). Though Cordelia wears a white headdress and shawl to indicate her purity. The overall effect is that the court is aggressively banal with nasty schemes being hatched in a disturbingly calm and superficial space. Even the characters speak in the same moderate tone, a featureless wall Michael Hordern as the frustrated Lear can only rail against.

Amidst this trite behaviour, the Fool supposedly provides witty relief as he satirises Lear’s decision to handover his kingdom to his two eldest daughters. However, Frank Middlemass is a lifeless Fool who delivers his lines perfunctorily. The sharp-tongued exchanges Shakespeare wrote for the king and Fool become

Tobacco – A Poem about Sir Walter Ralegh

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English Renaissance, poetry, Ralegh, tobacco

Sixteenth Century Clay Pipe Smoker

Whilst reviewing Mathew Lyons’ excellent The Favourite: Ambition, Politics and Love – Sir Walter Ralegh in Elizabeth I’s Court,  I remembered a poem I wrote a few years ago about Ralegh. I reread the poem and thought it good enough to publish on Hobbinol’s Blog.  The poem reflects on Ralegh’s ‘achievements’ as explorer, coloniser and entrepreneur as he