Note to King Lear, 3.2.80: "I'll speak a prophecy ere I go"


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King Lear,
Act 3, Scene 2, line 80
The Fool's prophecy may have been inspired by a medieval manuscript entitled The Prophecy of Merlin, in which the corruption of England is satirized by a "prophecy" predicting that when certain vices are widespread, England will be in serious trouble. The satiric point is that those vices, such as priests not meaning what they say, are already widespread.

This is the pattern followed by lines 81 - 86 of the Fool's prophecy; however, the next lines use a different satiric technique.

In the second part of the Fool's prophecy he predicts that when everyone is impossibly virtuous (so virtuous, for example, that whores build churches) then everyone can stroll about free and easy ("going shall be used with feet"). Of course, the point is that that time will never come.

Taken altogether, the "prophecy" shows that the Fool understands that the world will never be perfect, but he has already tried and tried again to convey that message to King Lear.

laughing jester

Laughing Jester: unknown Early Netherlandish artist