Homelessness, Madness, and the Poor Law: Rogue Discourse in King Lear

Abstract

Abstract: “Rogue literature,” a literary genre that tells stories from the perspective of rogues and criminals, was quite popular in England during the 16^th and 17^th centuries. The stories were mostly narrated through the protagonists' confessions and loaded with vivid descriptions. As the tragic hero in Shakespeare's most famous tragedy, King Lear, Lear ultimately becomes homeless and penniless due to his misjudgements and wrong decisions. Also, most of the characters often live like rogues in this play. For instance, Edgar pretends to be a crazy beggar, while Duke of Gloucester turns into a blind beggar. In King Lear, Shakespeare appropriates the rogue discourse during his time in enriching the literary image of Tom o'Bedlam and reprensenting the cultural anxiety of the public toward rogues. Meanwhile, his depiction of vagrants' living conditions offers an implicit reproof for the defects and deficiencies of the Poor Law so as to arouse the sympathy among his contemporaries and relate King Lear to the realities in England.

Key words: Shakespeare, King Lear, rogue literature, appropriation, the Poor Law

Hu Peng. Homelessness, Madness, and the Poor Law: Rogue Discourse in King Lear[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2020, 42(3): 39-51.

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