“Speak what we feel”: Biblical Blessings and Beyond in Shakespeare’s King Lear — With Professor Julia Reinhard Lupton

What are blessings? Prayers? Protections? A performative act? In this episode, Professor Julia Reinhard Lupton, Shakespeare scholar and co-director of the UCI Shakespeare Center, rethinks the love gambit that opens King Lear as a battle of biblical prooftexts and tracks the presence and purpose of benediction in the play and beyond to reveal a cascade of blessings throughout Shakespeare’s works.

Audio Credits: 

King Lear, dir. Richard Eyre (2018)

King Lear, dir.Trevor Nunn (2020)

Macbeth, dir. Trevor Nunn, Royal Shakespeare Company production (1979)

King Lear, Arkangel Shakespeare Unabridged Audiobook (2014)

Mentioned in this episode:

The Bible on the Shakespearean Stage: Cultures of Interpretation in Reformation England edited by Thomas Fulton and Kristen Poole

Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth by A.C. Bradley

Hosted by Straus Center Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo

Produced by Uri Westrich and Sam Gelman

Outro by Straus Scholar Ayelet Brown

Learn more about the Straus Center

Like the Straus Center on Facebook

Follow the Straus Center on Twitter

Follow the Straus Center on Instagram

Connect with the Straus Center on LinkedIn