Brook's attempt to break from the tyranny of the King Lear text is well documented in a statement which the film's producer, Lord Birkett, made for Roger Manvell.³ First, they (Birkett and Brook) cut from the text certain passages which they regarded as 'completely unnecessary'. Then, after making further cuts, they presented their script to Ted Hughes, asking him to treat it as though it were a 'foreign classic' and to translate it into his own idiom—'into a language which seemed to him to be expressive of the story as he saw it, in his own right as a poet'. They hoped that by working on a modern script they would be able to achieve the kind of freedom available to foreign directors such as Kozintsev and Kurosawa, for whom Shakespeare's text did not have the inhibiting 'quality of Holy Writ'. From this experiment they discovered 'that there are passages, obviously the greatest passages in the play, which have a force and emotional power that no translation, no paraphrase, can possibly match'. Kermode congratulated Brook on having discovered for himself the power of the text—'the whole play, and its verse'—though he continued to lament the loss of several cherished moments. However, he is one of a number of commentators whose familiarity with the sound of the King Lear text may have prevented them from noticing the textual manipulations which occur when the verbal text in the film serves a predominantly narrative function.

Brook's most striking textual liberties occur in the sequence where Edmund dupes his brother Edgar, in the film a single episode, introduced by a Brechtian title:

GLOUCESTER'S CASTLE

Edmond, bastard son of the Duke of Gloucester, plots against his brother Edgar.

The concentrated 'plot' which follows is constructed out of short passages of text taken from two quite separate scenes in the play—Act I, scene ii, and Act II, scene i. In order to appreciate Brook's audacity in cutting and adapting Shakespeare's text to suit his own narrative purpose, it is necessary to consider the structure of these two scenes in some detail. Act I, scene ii would, in the conventions governing French scenic structure, be divided into four short scenes. It begins with Edmund's soliloquy in which he asks WHY BASTARD (1) and descants on his illegitimacy. Gloucester then enters and Edmund traps him into reading THE LETTER (2), purported to be written by Edgar. Gloucester reflects on the breakdown of order and then leaves. Edmund again soliloquizes, this time on the EXCELLENT FOPPERY (3) of those who link behaviour with planetary influence. Edgar enters and discovers that SOME VILLAIN (4) has done him wrong. Act II, scene i, is made up of four more sub-scenes. First Curran tells Edmund of Cornwall's imminent arrival and hints at LIKELY WARS (5) between Cornwall and Albany. Then when Edgar enters, Edmund tells him he must FLY THIS PLACE (6). After Edgar has flown, Edmund tells his father how he saw his brother CONJURING THE MOON (7) and how he tried to persuade him to join in Gloucester's murder. Finally Cornwall arrives and commends Edmund for having a nature of SUCH DEEP TRUST (8).

In the reconstruction of Brook's film narrative which follows, I have used the capitalized short phrases and numbers given above as an easy means of identifying the source of each textual fragment. The bold-type descriptions of setting and action are cut to a minimum. Line numbering of Shakespeare's text is from the Riverside Shakespeare.

Edgar and Edmund talk as they ride,
Edg.
How now, brother Edmund, what serious contemplation are you in?
Edm.
I was thinking, brother, of a prediction Iread this other day, what should follow these eclipses.

Edg.
And do you busy yourself with that?
Edm.
I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily, as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent, death, dearth, dissolution, divisions, menaces.

(I. ii. 138-46) (SOME VILLAIN, 4)

Edg.
When we are sick in fortune—we make guilty of our disasters, the sun the moon and stars as if we were drunkards, liars and adulterers by planetary influence.

(I. ii. 116-22) (EXCELLENT FOPPERY, 3)

Edm.
Why brand they me with baseness. Bastardy? Base?

(I. ii. 9-10) (WHY BASTARD, 1)

My father coupled with my mother under the Dragon's tail and I was born under Ursa Major, so that it follows that I am rough and lecherous. I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing.

(I. ii. 128-33) (EXCELLENT FOPPERY, 3)

The brothers are looking at their sleeping father.
Edg.
When sons are at perfect age and fathers in decline the father should be put in care of the son.
Edm.
And the son manage the revenue.

(I. ii. 72-4) (THE LETTER, 2)

Edgar leaves.
It's the policy of reverence for age that makes the world bitter.

(I. ii. 46-7) (THE LETTER, 2)

A messenger comes to Edmund's room.
Mess.
The Duke of Cornwall and Regan, his Duchess will be here this night.
Edm.
How comes that?
Mess.
I know not. The messenger leaves.

(II. i. 3-6) (LIKELY WARS, 5)

Edm.
The better best.
This weaves itself perforce into my business.
Briefness and fortune work.

(II. i. 14-15) (LIKELY WARS, 5)

Edmund hides a letter.
If this letter thrive, Edmund the bastard shall top the legitimate.

(I. ii. 19-20) (WHY BASTARD, 1)

Edmund is looking at Edgar sleeping.
Edm.
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land.

(I. ii. 16) (WHY BASTARD, 1)

Edmund pauses outside his father 's room.
Edm.
Now Gods stand up for bastards.

(I. ii. 21) (WHY BASTARD, 1)

Edmund wakes his father.
Edm.
(Father.)

Edmund is talking to Gloucester.
Edm.
I swore he could by no means.
Glou.
By no means what?
Edm.
Persuade me to the murder of your lordship.
I told him the revenging gods
'Gainst parricides did all the thunder bend,
Spoke with how strong a bond
The child was bound to the father.

(II. i. 43-8) (CONJURING THE MOON, 7)

Glou.
My son Edgar.

(I. ii. 56) (THE LETTER, 2)

Edm.
I threatened to discover him; he replied,
' Who would put any trust or faith in thee
Thou unpossessing bastard?'

(II. i. 66-7) (CONJURING THE MOON, 7)

Glou.
He cannot be such a monster to his father who so tenderly and entirely loves him.

(I. ii. 94-7) (THE LETTER, 2)

Edm.
I dare pawn down my life for him.
He's done this to feel my affection to your honour and no other pretence of danger.
Glou.
Think you so?

(I. ii. 85-9) (THE LETTER, 2)

Has he never before sounded you in this matter?
Edm.
I have heard him maintain it to be fit that sons of perfect age and fathers in decline, the father should be put in care of the son and the son manage the revenue.
Glou.
Villain, villain, unnatural brutish villain.

(I. ii. 75-7) (THE LETTER, 2)

Edm.
If your honour judge it meet.
I'll place you where you shall hear us confer of this.

(I. ii. 90-1) (THE LETTER, 2)

Edmund hides Gloucester and wakes Edgar.
Edm.
(Edgar!) When saw you my father last? Parted you on good terms? Saw you no displeasure in him? Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended him.

(I. ii. 152-60) (SOME VILLAIN, 4)

Edmund leads Edgar into Gloucester's hearing and shows him the letter.
Edm.
(What does it say?)
Edg. (reads)
If our father would sleep till I waked him ycou should enjoy half his revenue for ever and live the beloved of your brother. Edgar.

(I. ii. 52-5) (THE LETTER, 2)

Edmund hurries Edgar away.
Glou.
(Help! Murder! Help! Murder!)
Edgar and Edmund talk in Edmund's room.
Edg.
When came you to this?
Edm.
I found it thrown in at the casement of my closet.

(I. ii. 58-61) (THE LETTER, 2)

Edg.
Some villain hath done me wrong.
Edm.
That's my fear.

(I. ii. 165-6) (THE LETTER, 2)

Have you not spoken against the Duke of Cornwall
And of his coming hither now in the night in haste,
And Regan with him? Have you nothing said
Against the Duke of Albany?
Edg.
Not a word.

(I. ii. 23-7) (FLY THIS PLACE, 6)

Edm.
I've told you what I've seen and heard but faintly. Nothing like the image and horror of it.

(I. ii. 174-6) (SOME VILLAIN, 4)

Edmund helps Edgar escape and cuts his arm.
Edm.
Light, ho! here! stop! stop! torches! torches!

(II. i. 31, 36, 32) (FLY THIS PLACE, 6)

Glou.
Where is the villain?
Edm.
There stood he in the dark sir, his sharp sword out.

(II. i. 37-9) (CONJURING THE MOON, 7)

Glou.
Pursue him. Go after, ho.

(II. i. 43) (CONJURING THE MOON, 7)

Edm.
(There!)
Gloucester bandages Edmund's arm.
Glou.
Loyal and natural boy. Of all my lands I'll work the means to make thee heritor.

(II. i. 84-5) (CONJURING THE MOON, 7)

A number of features of the above text warrant discussion. Most obviously, as the derivations show, it is a collage of some thirty fragments taken from seven separate textual units. Though most of the text derives indirectly from an edition of King Lear, a few words and phrases which are printed in brackets (such as 'What does it say', 1.57 and 'Help! Murder! Help! Murder!', 1.60) are interpolations. Less obvious, perhaps, are a number of changes which render Shakespeare's language somewhat more accessible to a modern audience. These include 'planetary influence' (11. 10-11) for 'spherical predominance', 'coupled' (1.12) for 'compounded', 'I was born' (11. 12-13) for 'my nativity was', 'put in care of the son' (1. 17) for 'as a ward to the son' and 'make thee heritor' (11. 77-8) for 'To make thee capable'. Much more complex are a number of changes in speech allocation which are linked to a major plot difference between play and film.

When, at line 8, Edgar makes his comment on Edmund's professed view of the significance of eclipses, his words in the film text are taken from Edmund's second short soliloquy (EXCELLENT FOPPERY, 3) in which he comments cynically on his father's superstition. More complicated is the textual derivation of Edgar's claim at line 16 that fathers in decline should be wards to their sons. In the play texts these words are spoken by Edmund to Gloucester, prefixed by the claim that he has often heard the idea expressed by Edgar. In Brook's text, at line 48, Edmund does speak the lines as in the play: 'I have heard him maintain it to be fit that sons of perfect age and fathers in decline, the father should be put in care of the son, and the son manage the revenue.' In the film Edmund is speaking some truth—but possibly not the whole truth, for the words 'And the son manage the revenue' (1. 18) had previously been spoken by Edmund, not Edgar, the two brothers sharing the sentiment in a duet. After Edmund has said 'and the son manage the revenue' the first time, Edgar leaves and Edmund's next line, 'It's the policy of reverence for age that makes the world bitter' (1. 19) has an even more complicated derivation. In the play the words belong to the part of Gloucester. However, they are from the letter that he reads—a letter ostensibly written by Edgar but, as a part of Edmund's stratagem, actually written by Edmund. In the film, the letter, itself, is not read by Gloucester. It is read by Edgar, on Edmund's instruction, and overheard by Gloucester. This leads to one further change in allocation. At line 61 the bemused Edgar asks 'When came you to this?' and Edmund tells him 'I found it thrown in at the casement'. In the play texts this small exchange takes place between Gloucester and Edmund. In the film Gloucester is unaware of the existence of the letter. However, the idea of placing Gloucester in a position where he can overhear Edgar does come from Shakespeare ('If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular assurance have your satisfaction, and that without any further delay than this very evening' (I. ii. 90-3)). In the play, these words are, in terms of plot, quite redundant. They seem like an echo from Othello where Iago does provide his victim with 'an auricular assurance' of a kind the unseeing Gloucester doesn't need. What in the play turns out to be a false trail becomes the basis of the narrative in the film.

In the section on Subtext which follows, I attempt to provide an explanation for Brook's treatment of the text in this episode, but first I want briefly to consider the second of Kermode's 'apparent perversities'—the transference of Edgar's uncompromising judgement on his father to the dying Cornwall. In Shakespeare's King Lear text(s) a tendency to stand back and moralize is a feature of the roles of both Edgar and Cordelia. These moments have a medieval theatricality, the character concerned highlighting the moral significance of a tableau or a moment of action which has just passed. Omissions in Edgar's role include his two philosophical soliloquies, 'When we our betters see bearing our woes' (III. vi. 102-15) and 'Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd' (IV. i. 1-9), and a number of shorter passages where he reveals his moral concern. These include the following:

Why I do trifle thus with his despair
Is done to cure it.

(IV. vi. 33-4)

O, matter and impertinency mix'd,
Reason in madness!

(IV. vi. 174-5)

and, most notoriously:

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us:
The dark and vicious place where thee he got
Cost him his eyes.

(V. iii. 171-4)

In giving these lines to Cornwall, Brook may have been highlighting the idea that they have a choric significance transcending the character of the actual speaker. Whatever Brook's motive, an insight such as this would have been completely inappropriate as the culmination of the relationship between Edgar and Edmund which Brook had invented as an integral part of his film and it is the nature of this relationship which forms the basis of the section which follows.