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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.0331  Monday, 12 February 2001

[1]     From:   Werner Brönnimann <Werner.Broennimann@unibas.ch>
        Date:   Saturday, 10 Feb 2001 13:48:09 +0000
        Subj:   I would unstate myself

[2]     From:   Eric Langley <engefl@ENGLISH.NOVELL.LEEDS.AC.UK>
        Date:   Friday, 9 Feb 2001 16:13:26 GMT0BST
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.0317 Re: "I would unstate myself . . ."


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Werner Brönnimann <Werner.Broennimann@unibas.ch>
Date:           Saturday, 10 Feb 2001 13:48:09 +0000
Subject:        I would unstate myself

Stanley Wells, in his new Oxford Shakespeare Lear edition (based on Q)
glosses Gloucester's "I would unstate myself to be in due resolution."
as: "give up my status and property to be resolved about the matter".
After all, Gloucester has just mandated Edmund to ascertain that Edgar
is indeed no monster; Gloucester puts his private affection above his
public status.  The choice of the word "unstate" also links the
Gloucester and Lear plots (1.1.51 "cares of state" and 1.1.151 "Reserve
thy state").

Werner Brönnimann
Basel U

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Eric Langley <engefl@ENGLISH.NOVELL.LEEDS.AC.UK>
Date:           Friday, 9 Feb 2001 16:13:26 GMT0BST
Subject: 12.0317 Re: "I would unstate myself . . ."
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.0317 Re: "I would unstate myself . . ."


just playing about... but... 'resolution' is quite interesting too,
recalling simultaneously fast and firm, stiff resolve  (Stoic
connotations etc), and also dissolve...   So, one word, paradoxical
connotation, and frequently used at moments of self-crisis ('resolve
myself into a dew' is obviously interesting as the line presumably means
1st melt, 2nd thaw 3rdly stiffen up into a dew, and yet seems to be the
final part of a process of dissolving; melt, thaw, dissolve...), so I'd
just like to support Bill Goshalk's reading of your troublesome line (he
suggests 'were I to resolve the question, I would end up unstating
myself') simply because I've been tracing this word "resolve" through
Renaissance lit. obsessively and I reckon it is invariably used with
this kind of self-destructive resonance.  And, like Bill Goshalk, 'I
offer this suggestion without the least bit of evidence.'

Yours, without much resolve,
Eric Langley

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