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THE CIRCLE, THE SQUARE AND THE QUADRATURA CIRCULI OR THE MANDALA IN SHAKESPEARE'S KING LEAR part 1

Authors:
VOICES
A Collection of Working Papers
Editor: ZsuzsaN. T6ttr
Department of English for Teacher Education (DETE)
School of English and American Studies (SEAS)
E0tvds Lor6nd University (ELTE)
BUDAPEST
2004
Language consultanf phil Saltnnarsh
Each paper @ its author, 2004.
Arry p""t of this book may be copied by any meiurs,
provided that the identify of the author is revealed
in the copy.
rsBN963 4208067
CONTENNi
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Keszi{t a Mdegyetemi Kiad6 gondoz6s6ban.
Felelds vezet6: Wintermant el Zsolt
Nyomta 6s kototte: Mferyetemi Nyomda
Terjedelem:6,5 (A5) iv
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17
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- htkon (Encyclopedia of
rai Kiad6, 1970.
M6rta Hargitai
THE CIRCTE THE SQUARE AND THE
QUADRATURA CIRCULI
OR THE MANDALA IN SHAKESPEARE'S
KTNG LEAR1
The aim of this present paper is to verify the relationship between the vari-
ous representations of the circle and the only one of the square in shake-
speare's Kng Lear and find a synthesis of them in the concept of the
quadratura circuli. However, I do not want to suggest that shakespeare in
any way might have wished to imply such a qmthesis. I do believe, thougtv
that such an interpretation can be valid fromboth a modernand a renaissance
point of view, all the more so because in Kng Lear it is the synthesis of the
macrocosm and microcosm, the universe and the little world of man that is
presented.2
The circle
The image of the circle is rather conspicuous in Klng Lear, emergSng six
times, both horizontally (crown and coronet) and vertically (3 times as the
wheel of fortune, once as a fiery wheel). In additiorg many concepts and
images emerge that have a circular form or move in rycles, e.g. Nature, the
sun and the moory the egg, the 'O without a figure', etc. What is more, the cir-
cle is closely related to, or more precisely inherent in the concept and struc-
ture of tragedy as well.
Preferring not to deal with a conflated text, I have chosen to analyse the text of the First
Foto as edited by Jay L. Halio, accepting that 'the spelling of draricters' names in speech
headings and stige directions is mide iniform and coniistent with spellings or".i in r,
hence Edmond, Gonerill' (Haliq 90). Lines from the Quarto are based on thle text of rfu
History of King kar edtted by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor; quotations from other
Shakespearean plays are also ftom this latter edition.
Just observe Lear: he is a complex personality representing father, king man and
everyman.
18
Rolf Soellner wrote the following about the image of the.wheel tn Kng
Lear:,,Thedominant "1""i* imageJin King Lear are not horizontal like the
coronet but vertical. e, ,u"h, tneir uetong to the category of circular images
"rr..f"t"a*ithth"*h"elof Fo*'ne. Aw'i'reel of thiskind seems to havebeen
inherent in the rhythm Jtrug"dy from the beginnit'g:fri Greek tragedians'
ffi;"rry S"pf",ta"r, ,f"""il.rt Lf fifu ur. rotiting wheel or circle" (275). As
Northrop fry" urr"rtr, tt"g"Ey rounds off its actiorv a view which enhances
iil;"g'" ;'u *r,""r h"ffi gJ1"-fu[. cycle. From the point of view of its ori-
g-t#;;Jt i, putt "f Utu "y""le of the dying and reborn god' while the rituats-
tic re-enacting ot trrc;"yi;i; ur,otn"t "yJte inmotiorv i.e. the audience's tak-
ing part in the action.
In tragedy the turning of fortune, theperipateia is an essential component
that runs parallel to a p"sycttic c\ange' wfren ttre hero recognises what has
been happening to n#' eta as the way downward is the way upward' the
structure of tragedy aiui" i*pU* the.image- 9{ d": Yh""1' According to
Nortlrop Frye, ,,the *i""iri"i "onceptions"of Elizabethan tragedy are the
order of nature and the"wheer Jf f ortune. [...] Fortune / is / a wheel rotated by
-d ";"tgy urrd urrrbition of man, which' however gigantic' can never get
above a certain p"i"i,-""J "o*uqrrur,tty has to sink again, ..." (L3). Leo
salingar traces th" i*;;" ;ithe wheel of Fortune back further, and finds it at
the birth of tragedy: "Tile idea of the wheel of Fortune is crucial to Aristotle's
analysis of the compl* pfri"l ""gedy, the type he most approves" (quoted in
ffiil#;i]ri"r,'so"ut "r goes on to.ruy thut S"ttuca's tragedies transmitted
thisnotiontotheMedieval"andRenaissanceperiods,whereitPerge{yith
the wheel turned d th";?Aess Fortuna' il i-ug" which derived from
Boethius, Dante, Boccaccio''J
As for its genesis, the wheel belongs to the largerca!"gory of the circle' so
before analysing ttr" *n*r in more letail,let me define what the circle is'
According to Soelfurer,
3Shakespeareemployedtheimageelsewherein.hisworks,tnHenryV(3.6.29-34)Fluellen
describes Fortuneu"irrgli'#fi? #.;ih;;h";r. to rimirv to vou, whichis the moral
of it, that she is t"**g,t#Ii""onsLnt, and-mut"Uli'tv, it a'"*iition: and her fooL look
vou, is fixed ,rpo,t u 'i'fr"iJJ ti"""' ltach rolls'-aid rolls' and rolls' (also 111:fg^T
Frve:53). In anoaft"t tti"[tit-^ii-"yi*i ta*ryf tays: 'Thoueh fortune's malice overthrow
mi, staie, mv mind exceeds the compass ot n"t *tt""ti $hen'v W 4'3'46-n' Although
soellner als6 q,rot", giilii, n" ldJto "onti,',re tt e texi: warwict 'Then, for his mind'
be Edward rngbnd's'kil-f6; T?i;: "g rtig t19*"-l But Henry now shall wear the
Enslish crown *o * ,il"?ix[in^J"LJ, uro" uut the shadow.' (48-50) The same notions
(the wheel of Fott *", "tl*"*#J*t";q*) ;:"*8:; riisrta' ;"*".jli' and although 'the
historv-plav is more;]i;it'Iy;il&;a ti' ttt" '6t"tiott df the wheel of fortune than the
tragedyi -61 Eti-b"ti5ii"ilJg:i;"t'il; ;iii" *rt""i "f rort'rne creaking against the
grelter wheel of nature' (Frye:r5-r/r'
I
-- T9
"for the Renaissance hermeticists, the circle still expressed the divine spirit
and symbolised the mysterious rhythm and meaning of life. The circle is the
most common and most enigmatic of sacred symbols, a paradoxical design
that is at rest and yet sets itself in motion by its circularity -a motion that is
both variable and purposeful and whose start is also its finish. [...] Aristotle
called the circle the beginning of all miracles. But in its configuration as the
wheel of Fortune, the circle was for the hermeticists and for iconographers in
general also the symbol of earthly change, representing 'vicissitude', the
reversals of life and Nature" (274).
As the planets are apparently orbiting the earth, the sky seems to be turn-
ing into a ball. The circle is primarily the symbol of the sky (the Stoics thought
the sky to be a circular and spinning god - 'rotundum et aolubilemDeum') and
spherical heavenly bodies, especially of the Sun and the Moon; of visible and
invisible heavenly spheres, the Milky Way, constellations and planetary
motion in general. (]ung 1"999:51)a Kng Lear abounds in references to heav-
enly bodies. The sun, the moon and the stars are referred to in 25 cases: from
the 'sacred radiance of the sun' (1.1.103), to 'that ebb and flow by the moon'
(5.3.19). They are concentrated in Act L to set the atmosphere of the tragedy,
to cast viewers into the universe, to open up dimensions and to extend the
borders of the country.s
In Egypt there was_a ritual in which walking in circles was supposed to be imitating the
moti6ri of the sky flung L999:57).
The first references to heavenly bodies are made by Lear in the context of cursing
Cordelia: 'For by the sacJed radFnce of the sun / The mysteries of Hecate and the night /
By all the operation of the orbs/ From whom we do exist and cease to be,/ Hire I
disdaim all my paternal care,/ ...' (1.1.L03-7mv italics). Bv swearinq on heavenlv bodies
Lear emphasGei *re finality of his pledge, ai well as dire dimens"ion of such"a curse.
'Operafion of the orbs', however, alludes to the astrological influence of heavenly bodies,
therefore Lear believing in a world govemed by corre"spondences swears on sdmething
that could as well be C6rdelia's excrise.
Next it is Gloucester who, sharing kar's views on correspondences, fears that 'These late
ec]ipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us' (1.2.91). He calls attention to the
relation between the ectpses and the brea-kdown of human'(both familial and social)
relations. The fall of the king 'from bias of nafurer has fatal consequences: 'there's fathei
against child', there are 'machinations', 'treachery', while 'love cools' and 'friendship falls
off.'
According to Frazer, 'this kind o{ thinking is typical of a stage of early socrety /where/
the king or priest is often thought to be endowed with supeinatural powers br to be an
incarnation of a deity, and consistently with this belief the course of nature is supposed
to be more or less under his control, and he is held responsible for bad weather, failure of
the crops, and similar calamities....the king's pow6r over nature, like thai over his
gubjects and,slaves, is exerted through de#rite act of will, and therefore if drought,
famine, pestilence, or storms arise, people attribute the misfortune to the negligence or
Euqt of their kin& and punish him accordingly with stripes and bonds, or, if he remains
obdurate, with deposition and death. ... Sometimes, however, the course of nature, while
regarded as dependent on the king, is supposed to be partly independent of his rril1. His
20
The centre of the cirde or the sphere is God, who is the beginning and end
of creatiory the circle itself being the created world, as the circle or the sphere
is the perfect expansion of the point.s It stands for continuity, etemity, perfec-
tiory harmony, infinity, it is endless like its graphic representatiory the ser-
pent biting into its own tail. On the other han4 it is also the symbol of noth-
ing the void, zero. It encloses space; therefore it also stands for protection,
and immunity, which is manifest in ideas about rings and magic circles. It
also symbolises unity, including the unity of time and space, and equality (see
King Arthur and the knights of the round table).7 The beliefs in the magic of
the circle are based on the fact that it is the most natural form of defence. This
need for defence is manifest in the ground plans of settlements, the walls
around them, and also in rings, bracelets, and belts, in certain games, dances
and folk customs. In various cultures some sacted places or buildings had to
be circled in rituals, and there are examples of ritual enclosures, ploughing
around specific areas the aim of which is the exclusiory or the enclosure of
evil.8
person is considered, ..., as the dynamical centre of the universe, from which lines of
force radiate to all quarters of the heaverL so that any motion of his - the tuming of his
head, the lifting of his hand - instantaneously affecs and may seriously disturb some
part of nature. He is the point of support on whidr hangs the balance of the world and
the slightest irregularity on his part may overthrow the delicate equipoise' (FnzerL-6,
$1, Chapter 1, Part II, Vol.1).
As we have seen before, Lear's heart, the centre of his being was Cordelia, once she has
been tom out of there, Lear ceased to be *re centre of the universe as his 'frame of nature'
has been wrenched 'from the fixed place' (1.a.223)-the process had already been started
by his abdicatiory though-and iri a coruiequence, the lines of force radiating from his
being miss the right direction causing disaster in nature which in turn causes
insurrections in society.
The causal relationship, however, is not made explicit in the play, it is still ambiguous
which was first: the division of the kingdom or the eclipses, which perfectly complies
with the oscillation between free will and determination in the tragic world-picture.
Finally, repeated references to heavenly bodies remind us of the fact that things are
happening on a cosmic stage as well, they are not just Lear's problems or those of
Gloucester, not just isolated insignificant affairs but have universal validity.
It is also the symbol of constancy in motiory repetitiory periodicity, cycles of time. The
Babylonians divided the circle into 360 parts after the 365 days of the year.
The Gallic Vercingetorix tried to paralyse Caesar's arnries by walking around them.
Related to this cirding, there is another widespread ritual called the taboo of entering the
cirde. Remus, e.g. jumped over Romulus'circle defending the city, in consequence his
brother killed him. The astronomical exolanation is that the edipses of the sun or the
moon are caused by the intersection oi their orbits, which are apparently spherical
(Hopp5l129).
All apparent spherical motion is symbolised by the wheel. In the dream of prophet
Ezekiel there are wheels on God's throne with eyes on their rim which symbolise the
orbits of stars and planets. The owner of the cos-mic wheel is the one who sets it into
motion, and at the s^ame time he is the owner of heavenly power; in Celtic mythology he
is called Mag Ruith.
27
f ' Now let us have a closer look at the corurotations of the most frequent cii-
dr image tn Kng kar: the wheel.
i The wheel is a universal, ancient, cosmic symbol standing for perpetual
lfoudar motion" cycles, new beginnings and renewals. The hub of the wheel
tlhe world symbolises the earth, (or the North Star in the sky), its axle is the
rifrtional axis of the earth; its rim is the orbit of the sun, while the spokes are
Se four cardinal points.e
In most mythologies the cosmic wheel is the symbol of the sun. The fiery
rheel (also chariot of fire) carries the sun along its daily and annual coruse
(ee Helios, Elijah). The mover of the wheel is the sun god, or the god himself
beaomes a wheel, like Apollo, the radiance of whose hair was compared to the
ryokes of thewheel, orlikeJesus Christ,whose Khi-ro initialswere originally
eqroked star sign. In European tradition the wheel is either the wheel of For-
lrme owned by the goddess Fortuna, or that of Fate owned by Nemesis, the
goddess of retribution. Ruth Nevo asserts that in Edmond's comment on the
end of his career: "The wheel is come full circle, I am here." (5.3.164) the wheel
is that of Nemesis (quoted in Soellner:286). This can be complemented by
what W.R.Elton asserts, i.e. the goddess of retribution was Dike, who was
rynrbolised by the wheel of justice and destiny, a wheel that led later to those
d Fortune and Time. (quoted in Soellner:285) Soelhrer, howwer, adds that
beside signifying Edmond's bad luck the wheel is also the wheel of Provi-
dence or life.lo
ln the tarot the wheel symbolises the notion that fate and fortune are fickle. The wheel is
alsothe symbol of tims thewheel of time represents the succession of seasons and lunar
cydes (llopp6l114).
Edmond speaks about it'lyingfuIlJengthonthe staqe evokingthetraditional pictures of
Fortune's -wheel in wliidr- ttre faflen victim 6 stretcfii:d out underireath the
wheel.,..Edmond has trusted in the strmeth of his will to prevail over others, he has also
ass.rrlned that this strength dsived froh his bastardy, whidr he has viewed as an
advantage given to himly Nature. He was the prodrict of a 'lusty stealth of Nature'
(1.211)...Edmond attempts to heak out of the circle of destructionhe has created and
tnt by doing so he acc 'agairut his Nature', the kind of rNature' that decrees the
ruination of the weak and the survival of the fittest. ... ' (Soellner:284).
22
The other references to the wheel of Fortune rn King Lear Q.2.155-6,
2.4.55-5,4.1*t+1tt are not discussed here for want of space and time, let me
focus instead on Lear's fiery wheel and its possible interpretations.
Lear refers to the wheel of fire in4.6.434 just before he is happily reunited
with Cordelia, after his appearance in 4.5 calling himself the natural fool of
forfune thinking he was taken prisoner to be executed soon. Although he was
mistaken for the time being, as his loyal subjects wanted to take him to
Cordelia, his fortune was to turn for the worse, exactly as he imagined in his
madness. He was to be taken prisoner by Edmond and Cordelia was to be
executed, which was surely the worst that could have happened.
The image of the wheel of fire appears at "the most delusive$ hopeftrl
moment of the play: Lear's temporary recovery from insanity. This is the
peripeteia, [...] the point at which the old king's fortunes tum as much upward
as they ever do and the one where he comes closest to self-knowledge"
11 The first is made by Kent: 'Fortune, goodnight / Smile once more, tum thy wheel.' fHe
sleeps/ (2.2.755-6).
The second one [addressed to Kent by the fool] is worth having a closer look at, as it is a
complex picture combining the myth of Sisyphus and the wheel of fortune (2.4.65-6): 'Let
go thy hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following.
But the great one that goes upwar4 let him draw thee after.' According to Soellner, 'The
wheel thatruns downward andthreatens to overwhelmthose bent on an upward course
evokes the nythological punishment of Sisyphus...' (275). 'll Shakespeare deliberately
had the Fool fuse and confuse Fortune's wheel with the rock of Sisyphus, he played on
their emblematic affinity. Shakespeare made stone andwheel serve as illustrations of the
Machiavellian advice to fortune seekers. ..Machiavelli recommended that the seeker for
Fortune's favour jump from a downtuming wheel to another that is on its way up, and
that he continue this practice' (Soellner: 281).
Sisyphus was a sfuewd hero arid king of Corinttg often in conllict with the gods. He ran a
lotb? risks for the welfare of mankin?, e.g. kidnapped Thanatos, the deatigoddess and
held her captive for many years during which people did not die. Ares, however finally
managed to set Thanatos free who in revenge fust took Sisyphus to the underworld.
Sisyphus however got back to earth, the only mortal who had ever succeeded in doing
ro.'Iiefore being ta{en to }fudes, he asked his wife not to perform any funeral rites, oi
offer a sacrifice to the gods. Already in the underworld Sisyphus begged Persephone to
let him go home for a short time to punish his wife for breaking the law. He was
permitted to leave but he did not retum. He is usually described as a cunning profiteer,
who ignores both divine and human laws.
All inill he well deserved his punishmen* he had to roll a huge rockup a highhill inthe
underworld but just before the summit it always rolled back, and he had to start the
whole process again. His fate symbolises that all his efforts to defeat the gods were in
vain. The emerglnce of the Sisyphus-myth underlines the absurdity of elistence that
permeates the whole play.
The third is implicit in Edgar's 'Yet better thus, and known to be condemned/ Than still
condemned and flattered. To be worct,/ The low'st and most dejected thing of fornne,/
Stands still in eeperance, Iives not in fear' (4.L.1,-4). He is convinced that when 'one is at
the worst, i.e. the very bottom of Fortune's wheel, one lives always in hope, not fear (of
falling furttrer)' (llalio:203). It is all very we[ but when can one claim to be at the worst?
Edgar is soon to realise this paradox when he sees his father 'parti-eyed.'
i
i
I
D
Soellner: 28t]t .tz As for representations of the fiery wheel in fine arts, Soellner
rrrites about a "L6th century version of a wheel that turns toward a hre,
although not literally a wheel of hre, [which] is to be found in Peter Bruegel's
Crawing (also engraved) of Christ in Limbo, just above the bubble that sur-
rounds Christ [while] a spiked wheel conveys the bodies of sinners to a large
tub of water heated by a steaming fire ' (281). His vision recalls Ixion's fate: for
se*ing his eye on ]uno, Ixion was punished by Jupiter who bound him on an
everfurning wheel, in other myths a fiery wheel, and threw him up on it to the
skies. Irr another mytb Zeus/lupiter sentenced Ixion to be bound upon a
fiery wheel in Tartarus to suffer there foreverl3 (Tokarev:699). Ixion's
evertuming wheel ceased to tum, when Orpheus had gone through the jaws
of Taenarus down into the underworld to seek out Eurydice. His singing had
held all Tartarus spell-bound and Death's very home was shaken to hear that
song. The Furies and the three-mouthed Cerberus had been lulled
(Grant305). Now, Lear's wheel of fue ceased to burn when he and his loving
daughter were reconciled. In King Lear, however it is the woman who has
exposed herself to great danger when coming home to seek her father ou!
and to save him from the darkness of his perturbed mind. By the end of the
play the roles are reversed again: it is the father who is trying to bring his
daughter back from death, and when he fails to do so, he chooses to follow
her instead.la
In Christian symbolism the wheel also appears as the road to perfection.
Saint Catherina dreamt about a wheel which was studded with nails, she
being the patron saint of philosophers -- her wheel is the emblem of Christian
thinking crystallised in sanctity (Hopp6l:114). Lear's dream can also be inter-
preted as the road to perfection" all the more so, because his whole joumey is
one of Passion and through suffering and death comes perfection and
self-knowledge.
Althol'gh Lear has claimed to be more sinned against than sinning (3.2.57-8), his vision
reveals-that he knows he deserves to be punish6d. It can also proie'that he'has been in
Hell. He is in limbo in the modern sense of the word as well: h6 is in a situation in which
he is not certain what to do next, cannot take action, especially because he is waiting for
someone else to make a decision (OALD).
In these myths we can recognise primitive ideas about the power of the elements, so the
fiery wheei might have repiesented the sun.
Lear's and Idon's fate overlap as far as the promise is concerned to give riches as a
present to a member of the family, then not keeping the promise. Marriage is also a motif
the two stories have in common, and both Ixion and kar are boasdrl and go mad.
Adu1tery, however connects Ixion to Gloucester, who boasts about the goodiport at
Edmond's making and Kent cannot but agree 'the issue of it being so proper' (1..1.L4).
.A
The crown and the wreath
The image discussed so far (the wheel) stands for mutability, change-
ability or fickleness by definition. There are other circular images, however,
which represent constanry, stability and immutability (the crown, the
wreath). Still they are subject to change tnKng Lear artd are in a continuous
state of metamorphosis. Some attached images such as the egg and the head
are covered only in the footnotes for want of space and time.l5
Adaptingthe famous questiononecould ask Howmany crowns did King
Lear have? Soellner's conclusion about the number of crowns is that there are
two: one coronet ahead of Lear, the executive power in Britain, and one crown
on Lear's head which he wants to keep, since he wishes to keep "The name,
and all the addition to a king" (1.1.136). Lear is also reported to be wearing a
completely different type of crown: a wreath of wildflowers and weeds in
4.3.1,-8: " [...] he was met even now as mad as the vexed se4 singing aloud,
crowned with rank Fumitory and furrow-weeds, with burdocks, hemlock,
nettles, cuckoo-flowets, darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow in our sus-
taining com.rr How does the crown compare to the wreath?
The Latin word'corona'means both crown and wreath, and in English the
two often overlap. Wreath can stand for a ring band, or circlet of (usually pre-
cious) metal, etc., especially for wearing as an ornamenf a torque (OED).
'Crown' in English is an ornamental fillet, wreattr, or similar encircling orna-
ment for the head, a coronal or wreath of leaves or flowers (OED). Their circu-
lar shape stands for perfection, and as the circle symbolises heaverL the crown
15 'Why, after I have cut the egg i'th'middle and eat up the meaf the two crowns of the egg.
When thou clovest thy crown i'th'middle and gav'st away both parts, thou bor'st thine
ass on thy back o'er the dirt. Thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown when thou gav'st thy
golden one away' (7.4.722-6).
The egg is itself a symbol of metamorphosis, the seed from which the world was born. Its
shape models the spherical stauctue of the cosmos, whjle the two halves symbolise the
upfer and lower fiirnaments, or heaven and earth ftIopp6l:221). This latte? meaning is
rather important from the point of view of l,ear's entity as king: the fool might be
suggesting that Lear should have been a god-king on earth, the division of the egg-shell
recalls that of the kingdom. The kingdom was eventually divided into only two parts, as
Cordelia got nothing. Just as Lear is left nothing between the two egg-shells, he has given
away the golden crown and his favourite daughter too.
The yolk of the egg stands for the sun in cosmologies, compare Lear's oath'by the sacred
radiance of the sun...' (1.1.103) that he disclaims all paternal care of Cordelia. The 'two
crowns of the egg' (L.4.123) metaphorically stand for the divided kingdom, while the
yolk, i.e. the meat refers to the crown, the symbol of divine authority, the substance of
lule.
25
and the wreath stand for the close relationship between earth and heaven.
Theyunitewhat is below and abovethenr" butatthe same time theymarkthe
borders of the upper and the lower world. As gold is the metal of the sunn the
golden crown symbolises the divine power of earthly kings. The crown
stands for the whole state, the OED giving its figurative sense as follows: The
sovereignty, authority, or dominion of which a crown is the symbol, the rule,
position, or empire of a monarch.l6
In many cultures the bride also wears a wreath, which is a motif of being
dedicated to the gods, as marriage is a sanction" but at the same time it is a
death wreath too, as she dies as a girl in order to become a wife (Flopp6l125).
When Lear, wearing the wreath of weeds and flowers and his fantastic gar-
ments/ says that he will die bravd like a snurg bridegroom (4.5.189), he
blurs the difference between bride and bridegroom and between wedding
and death. The expression 'die' is ambiguous in itself, also meaning to reach
sexual climax, which might recall the wedding night. In some Jewish commu-
nities men were buried in the white shirt made by their bride that they had
been wearing on the day of their wedding.
In conclusionn the crown may symbolise the divine power that Lear does
not intend to lose when abdicating the coronet parted between the two
sons-in-law directly reflects what Cordelia has lost and re-appears in the
fool's metaphor of the two crowns of the eggwithnothing inbetween, which
shows what Lear has los! while the wreath 'of wildflowers he wears on his
head when he roams over the heath symbolises a wider cirde of suffering
than he could have embraced prior to his tortured search' (Soellner:289).
16 The ancientGreek and Rorran gods wore wreaths, Zeus wore one made of oak, Apollo of
laurel Demeter of wheat, Dionysus of grape, Heracles of white poplar. Vi&orious
cornmiulders, sportsmerL poets were also wreathed symbolising that their deeds made
them immortal, and also that they were dedicated to the gods. When perfomring a
sacrifice, both the priest and the rzictim wore a wreath, andihe death wriath was diso
widespread signifying that the dead person asked the patronage of the gods. The laurel
wreath, originally symbolising the inrnortality of the gods, was later taken over by
Rouran emperors symbolising their divine origin and power. In the Mythas{ult boys
wore a wreath at their initiation,
In the Bible the wreath is the prize of life devoted to God, and St Paul compares this
wreath to the one given to wirining athletes QTirl4,8,7Crr9,2L5): the first bne never
fades while the latter one does. In Tlu Rmelation of Jolm tlre crown of fife is the prize of
faith (2,10), in heaven there are 24 elders sitting in a circle wearing crowns of gold (4A),
and the rider of the first seal is given a crown to go on to conquer (82), Jesus' crovtrn of
thorns is at once blasphemy and a sacred symbol.
26
The mandala
To summarize and at the same time provide a new aspect of the concept of
the circle let me clarify what the mandala forecast in the title of this paper has
to do with KngLear.
'Mandala' is a Sanskrit word meaning 'circle', and is usually represented in
drawings, paintings, mosaics or in three-dimensional forms, and can also be a
fig*. of dance. In Tibetan Buddhism the mandala is a means to promote
,ri"ditution and concentration.lT ln alchemy it symbolises the unification of
the four elements. According to Jung, in modem individuals the mandala
occurs mostly in neurotic adults who are at a loss confronting the oppositions
of human nature. Their picture of the world becomes disordered due to the
interference of the incomprehensible contents of the subconscious fiung
1999:122).The strict form of the circle compensates for the disorder and con-
fusion of the mind, by constituting a centre towards which everything is ori-
entated or in other words, which orders the irreconcilable contrasts. Accord-
ing to Marie-Louise von Frank, the circle or the sphere is the symbol of our
primordial reality, expressing the unity of all aspects of our psyche, including
the relationship between man and the totality of nature.
There are abstract mandalas to be found in the rosettes of cathedrals, the
halo of saints, the wheel of the Sun, and in the ground plan of cities and for-
tresses [aff6, in Jung1993:240)'
The mandala is the manifestation of a natural self-healing mechanism in
man. It is an archetype, which like our instincts, is always present in every
individual independent of time. Mandalas are the models of the universe and
the symbols of totatty, involving both the macrocosm and the microcosm.
Personal mandalas aie the projections of the deep core which includes the
totality of the psyche, both the conscious and the unconscious. That is why
mandalas often consist of a darker and a lighter part.
Lear,s wheel of fire is a kind of mandala, coming up at the time of personal
(and social) crisis, which together with his confusion over his new garments
combined with his doubts about his and Cordelia's identity and locatiorL are
a clear sign of his divided consciousness, ortschizophrenia'.Iear has been
'schizophienic' from the beginning: he was supposed to be both king and
mao fither of the state and of three daughters, and he was assumed to be
17 In the Zen-sect the circle describes illumination.
27
:::ne although he knew he was dying. The public and private spheres are so
::.ertricably intertwined that he cannot separate them, he cannot shift roles
-^ l'-en necessary. The two poles do not exist in him like alternatives that he
:r::-ld choose betweery but like a paradox which makes such choice impossi-
':-e. Lear's problem is that the public and the private spheres should exist
:rmu-ltaneously if he wishes to preserve his identity. (It is somewhat similar to
ilamlet's paradox: tobe and not to be.)
l,ear's wheel, like most mandalas, has a lighter and a darker parl the fire
arrd his tears which scald like molten lead. ]ust as the wheel has a central part
i.e. the hub, Lear has finally found the fixed point, the centre of his being, his
heart, Cordelia. Earlier he has been defined as his own shadow, his power as
the two crowns of the egg, i.e. always lacking a core, a centre. Lear's route has
been a search for this centre which he first finds in his dream, ironically in the
image of an instrument of torture. Jung also quotes Jakob B0hme who holds
that the mandala describes the empire of nature, which is nothing in itself but
eternal darkness Sung1999:21), which is quite in accordance with the world
of Kng Lear where "Lear is pushed directly toward the hysterica passio he so
dreads, and nature therefore appears to him in the objective form of madness,
which is storm and tempest" (Frye:1"05). The storm fills the empty heath as
madness fiils the emptiness of Lear's mind for he has "ever but slenderly
known himself" (1..1..28/-5), and has grown old before being wise (c.f. the fool
1,.5.3+6).
BOhme continues that as opposed to the empire of nature -- the eternal
darkness - there is the empire of God, or 'glory', i.e. the cross, which is light
manifest in the form of lightning. There is thunder and lighbringinGngLear,
which Lear believes to be the answers of God, a god or gods. This is the same
effort on his part as Biihme makes to intellectualise nature (c.f. Biihme:
Tabulae pincipiorum: 279-80 quoted in Jung 1999.21).
The square
'the most precious squ:[e of sense'
Whereas Goneril gives her father a rather commonplace answer as to how
much she loves him, Regan uses an original image: the most precious square
of sense. The sentence in which this phrase is embedded is just as conunon-
place as her sister's, though: 'I profess an enemy to all other joys which the
most precious square of sense possesses' (1.1.68-9).
"'--;: ' -i ::3:: 'j -uare? The phrase has been variousry interpreted
i-; .: !;-;=s:r:. qorT_ 'squa.re of sense, as figurativ"]oi tfru ,human
:,:'=. - _-__=-=, = .:. j.rvhile according to HeningJr, in pythagorean terms,
=E r--i--: -. ::- e=-biem of the materiar world, or tie worri of tfie senses, the
:':i=;3- --i::i-rse, rrhile the circle is an embiem of the co;upd *orld, even
==:-_(q:*:q
rn Halio:99). Halio also refers here to'ttre-aesign of tfre
, tr.i-itn'il marU to which I will return in the next section.
llne basic concept behind the square is the number four and its manifold
rLeanings. It symborises the perfection and harmony or *," "*ut"d world, its
solidity, the four elements, the four cardinal points, the four seasons, the four
temper;unents based on the dominance of one of the four bodity fluids, the
four ages of man and of the world. In the nibre the n,rmbeilourts an impor-
tanj19le, e.g. it is the tetragrammnton, the four retters i" th. ;;.s of Adam
3nd Jahve (the name of God consists of four letters in other turrg.r"g"s e.g. in
Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Arabic), there are four evangerists, f8ur cherubim
and four riders of the Apocarypse (Hopp6r:195). The syirbolism of the square
is inseparable from quaternityapp"a"irrg in time and space.ls
The sguare is a univers al symbol the antithesis of the cfucte, the material
basis of heaven and fuanscendency and at once their mirror-image too. It
stands for the earttr, the divine idea embodied in the created world and is the
symbol of constancy, timelessness, motionlessness and solidity (Hoppdl:
160-1). The Egyptian Amory as well as the God of the Jews 'reside' in a cubic
Ark of the Covenant, the Hebrew word't€bah' standing for both a specific
type of boat and box. Most permanent settlements, buildings and sacred
areas/ e.g. altars, fireplaces and graves, have a rectangular ground-plar9
either in combination with or without the circle. The Romans built their
towns in the same fashion, and Rome was called Roma quadrata, although it
had a circular ground-plan. occult power was atkibuted to the owners of so
called magic squares.
In conclusiory the phrase 'most precious square of sense' probably refers
to the most valuable human feelings, i.e. filial respect and love. Neither Regan
nor Goneril feels such devotion and Lear, realising this, will end up bound
upon a wheel of fire.
18 h Hinduism ancient man, called Vastu Purusa, was forced on the ground by Brahma in a
square. This man's navel symbolises the centre of man, the cosmoi and God, so it is true
that he is connected to God by his umbilical cord.
29
I
Synthesis
Quadratura circuli
The square and the circle (or the cube and the sphere) together constitute
:-.--ality, the universe, i.e. the unity of heaven and earth. This unity is
:rpressed in the Buddhist mandala, which is more often than not, not just a
slngle circle, but a complex construction consisting of a number of circles
:;rscribed in a square which is in turn inscribed in an even bigger circle--
accordingly the mandala can be seen as a form of the quadratura circuli.
The unity of heaven and earth is also represented in the mythic
ground-plan of ancient Rome (the rectangular mundus and the magic circle
that Romulus ploughed around it), the domes inboth Christian and Muslim
architecture which are placed on a square; and generally in all practices
which try to connect the square and the circle in architecture (Hoppdl:128).
There are rituals in Mecca to circle the cubical building of the sacred
Kaaba, and the idea that the perfect proportions of the human body are corre-
spondent with both the circle and the square is universal. The Chinese idea of
man coresponds to the European idea of the Vitruvian man: 'By the lay (of
the body) in his full lengttu and then spreading the arms and legs to their wid-
est compass, they have contrived both the perfect square and exact circle: the
Square by four right lines at four uttermost points of the hands and feet, the
Circle by rounding a line about those points, placing the centre of their com-
pass upon the navel (Pinciss:23). A Chinese woodcut describes man as the
universe with outstretched hands but feet together inscribed within a square,
which is inscribed within a circle.
The quadratura circuli is the symbolic expression of the divine idea
materialised, the vivification of material. The combination of the circle and
the square models the cosmos, whereas chaos, lacking a structure, has never
been described by geometric forms. When Lear and the fool refer to the image
of the circle or wherever it emerges in the text it can be seen as an effort to
order chaos, to structure it, to make it clear in order to understand it, which
can be the first step to overcoming it. It is analogous to creation when God
separated water from water by making a vault, i.e. drew a curve. Man does
something similar when he creates something: he gives shape to a formless
mass, encloses land, etc. Lear likewise encircled the pieces of land he was
going to give to his daughters: it is like enclosure when people mark a piece of
land and say it is for a certain pu{pose, thus closing it off from the rest which
is unstructured, in which aspect it resembles chaos.
Chaos,whichis notyet athing, stillcontains everythingina state of disor-
der and diffused confusion. Are the references to nothing, whidr is another
keyword nKing Lear, aspromising as that, or do they stand for the negative
approach that nothing is void of anything, a vacuum, or a black hole (the rep
r6sentation of whidr is again the dircle)? Answering these vexing questions is
beyond the scope of the present paps, and would therefore need another
article and occasion.
Worla Cited
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-xw- Mnndata' i;'i';;;'ylanaoi' pra,.aah') transl' ram6s Boldizsar
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Oxf ord English Dictionary
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ground R"il;;; ; ;; ;;ut; Rt;rissmtce'New York continuum'
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