This week Sam Gibbs, Samantha Blinn, Rafe Terrizzi, Ariana Karp examine Act III of King Lear. 

• “Articulate” madness
• Writing for actors—Will Kempe the buffooning clown vs. Robert Armin the intellectual fool 
• Meta-theatrical moment of the fool’s prophesy
• The horror and cost of prophecy and incantation 
• Demonic possession (both true and framed) in the Jacobean era
• Sam Harsnett and The Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures and the overlap with Edgar’s “Poor Tom” dialogue
• The significance of Edgar’s madness
• Difference between the Quarto and Folio versions of King Lear
• The relationship between Blindness the Fool and the Madman
• Words that have the prefix “un” and their psychological significance 

Frank Langella as King Lear in Act III