9th April 2018 — Jack
Albany’s Speech A4 S2
Act 4 Scene 2 Albany
Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile.
Filths savor but themselves. What have you done?
Tigers, not daughters, what have you performed?
A father, and a gracious agèd man,
Whose reverence even the head-lugged bear would lick,
Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you madded.
Could my good brother suffer you to do it—
A man, a prince by him so benefited?
If that the heavens do not their visible spirits
Send quickly down to tame these vile offenses,
It will come:
Humanity must perforce prey on itself
Like monsters of the deep.
Spark Notes
Bad people can’t appreciate wisdom or goodness. They only like things as bad as themselves. What have you two sisters done? You’re tigers, not daughters. Barbaric degenerates, you’ve driven insane a kindly old father, whom even an angry bear would treat gent-ly. Could my good brother-in-law—a man to whom the king gave half his kingdom—have allowed you to do it? If the heavens don’t punish these crimes immediately, the end will come. Human beings will become cannibals, like ravenous sea fishes.
My Definition:
In Albany’s speech he talks about how bad people of this world cant appreciate the goodness or knowledge. The only thing these bad people think about is things as evil as themselves. Albany describes his daughters as if he was King Lear and as the bad people as they have just done harm in the kingdom. He cant believe what his daughters have just done to Gloucester and relates there actions to tigers.
Well done on referencing where you have got your information from. I want to see you finish this task- looking into the use of the word “tigers” to describe Regan and Goneril and explaining the image that Albany paints of Lear.
Please make sure this is finished by the end of the term.