A Comparison of the Pride of King Lear and the Duchess of Malfi Medieval/Renaissance. Among these are the fierce lion of imperious and selfish power, a pair of fantastic peacocks, one of vanity, one of refined social status, and the docile lamb of humility. The lion and the peacocks belong to the so-called species of pride, while the lamb is of a completely different race, even antithetical, that of humility and forgiveness. The textual regions we will explore include the diverse expanses, from palace to moor, of William Shakespeare, the dark and sinister Italy of John Webster, and the fragrant apartments of Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick. The tragic hero of Shakespeare's King Lear is brought down, like all tragic heroes, by a fatal flaw, in this case pride, as well as his sister, madness. It was the king's selfish demand for total love and, moreover, the protests from his daughter who loved him most, that set the stage for his downfall, while reminding the mind of the Elizabethan audience of Shakespeare's time the above: cited a biblical edict. This girl, Cordelia, can be considered the humble lamb mentioned above, and her filial love and devotion goes not only beyond that of her sisters (who suck) but also beyond words, thus putting angers the proud king whose subsequent irritable reprimands extend to a little ironic Freudian projection: “Let pride, which she calls simplicity, marry her” (Ii125). Here, Shakespeare emphasizes Lear's pride by having him indulge in the common tendency to despise in others (and in this case wrongly) what one is most guilty of towards oneself. Lear's reckless pride... middle of paper ... in which it is supposed to have been written for a certain Lady Haughty, a name indicative of a little touch of pride, pardon my understatement. So, in summary, we have captured, examined and labeled our various creatures of pride, and now it is time to set them free again, to run wild in the four corners of the world. The lions will devour everything in their path with arrogant derision; peacocks peck and scratch each other as they fight for position in their small social circles, all the while pouting and preening, painting feathers on their feathers; and the lambs will continue to be slaughtered in their docility, without ever uttering a scornful word, so that we can eat lamb chops with mint jelly at Ruth's Chris with our beautiful, precisely made-up friends. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”Proverbs 16:18

Essay / A Comparison of the Pride of King Lear and the Duchess of Malfi Medieval/Renaissance. Among these are the fierce lion of imperious and selfish power, a pair of fantastic peacocks, one of vanity, one of refined social status, and the docile lamb of humility. The lion and the peacocks belong to the so-called species of pride, while the lamb is of a completely different race, even antithetical, that of humility and forgiveness. The textual regions we will explore include the diverse expanses, from palace to moor, of William Shakespeare, the dark and sinister Italy of John Webster, and the fragrant apartments of Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick. The tragic hero of Shakespeare's King Lear is brought down, like all tragic heroes, by a fatal flaw, in this case pride, as well as his sister, madness. It was the king's selfish demand for total love and, moreover, the protests from his daughter who loved him most, that set the stage for his downfall, while reminding the mind of the Elizabethan audience of Shakespeare's time the above: cited a biblical edict. This girl, Cordelia, can be considered the humble lamb mentioned above, and her filial love and devotion goes not only beyond that of her sisters (who suck) but also beyond words, thus putting angers the proud king whose subsequent irritable reprimands extend to a little ironic Freudian projection: “Let pride, which she calls simplicity, marry her” (Ii125). Here, Shakespeare emphasizes Lear's pride by having him indulge in the common tendency to despise in others (and in this case wrongly) what one is most guilty of towards oneself. Lear's reckless pride... middle of paper ... in which it is supposed to have been written for a certain Lady Haughty, a name indicative of a little touch of pride, pardon my understatement. So, in summary, we have captured, examined and labeled our various creatures of pride, and now it is time to set them free again, to run wild in the four corners of the world. The lions will devour everything in their path with arrogant derision; peacocks peck and scratch each other as they fight for position in their small social circles, all the while pouting and preening, painting feathers on their feathers; and the lambs will continue to be slaughtered in their docility, without ever uttering a scornful word, so that we can eat lamb chops with mint jelly at Ruth's Chris with our beautiful, precisely made-up friends. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”Proverbs 16:18

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