A Disability Perspective on Shakespeare and the Mind
On March 7, 2025, the American Shakespeare Center welcomed scholar Dr. Susan Anderson to the Blackfriars Playhouse as part of our Lights ON Blackfriars series—our ongoing program of live conversations that illuminate the plays on our stage. In this dynamic talk, Dr. Anderson draws from her expertise in early modern disability studies to unpack the language of madness in King Lear. A transcript of her presentation follows, edited for clarity and formatted for readability. It offers new insight into how Shakespeare’s work challenges ideas of sanity, identity, and what it means to be “fit.”
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What Does It Mean to Be “Fit”?
Let’s start with one small but powerful word: fit.
It appears 11 times in King Lear, nearly always tied to ideas of what is proper, appropriate, or expected. Think of how we still use the word today: fit can mean healthy, attractive, appropriate, well-sized, or even a sudden physical episode, like a “fit of rage.” In Shakespeare’s time, all of these meanings were in play.
There are two key clusters of meaning:
- Fit as Appropriateness: Something that suits its purpose, is socially acceptable, or aligns with expectations.
- Fit as Disruption: A sudden episode—an epileptic fit, a fit of madness, or a poetic “fit” as a unit of verse or performance.
These ideas are central to how King Lear treats the themes of madness, sanity, and social disruption.
Cordelia’s “Fit” Love
In the opening scene, Cordelia tells Lear:
“You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I return those duties back as are right fit.”
Rather than flatter Lear with excess declarations like her sisters, Cordelia insists on measured, appropriate love, what is “fit.” This reflects early modern ideals drawn from Aristotle’s concept of the “golden mean”: not too much, not too little, but a virtuous middle. Her boundaries are healthy, not cold.
Edmund: Redefining What’s Fit
In contrast, Edmund declares:
“Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit: All with me’s meet that I can fashion fit.”
He rejects the idea of fitting into society’s expectations and instead chooses to reshape the world to suit himself. It’s a direct contrast to Cordelia’s approach and sets the stage for one of the play’s central tensions: compliance versus resistance.
Lear and the “Sickly Fit”
Later, Lear tries to explain away social rudeness as illness:
“We are not ourselves when nature, being oppressed, commands the mind to suffer with the body… I’ll forbear, and am fallen out with my more headier will, to take the indisposed and sickly fit for the sound man.”
Here, Lear acknowledges that when the body is unwell, the mind suffers too. His reasoning aligns with early modern medicine, which didn’t distinguish between mental and physical illness the way modern frameworks do.
Madness, the Mind, and the Humors
The dominant medical theory in Shakespeare’s day was humoral theory: the idea that the body contains four fluids—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm—whose balance shaped both health and temperament. Too much black bile? You’re melancholic. Too much yellow bile? You’re choleric and angry.
Madness, in this framework, could result from humoral imbalance, poor digestion, emotional strain, or bad air. In The Comedy of Errors, the Abbess explains a case of apparent madness as the result of bad meals and sleeplessness—an idea both comical and consistent with the era’s beliefs.
The Wandering Womb and Lear’s Diagnosis
Lear even invokes a diagnosis typically reserved for women: hysterica passio, or “the mother.” In Shakespeare’s time, this was believed to be caused by a “wandering womb” disrupting bodily functions.
“O how this mother swells up toward my heart! Hysterica passio! Down, thou climbing sorrow!”
Why would Lear, a man, use this term? The belly’s internal workings weren’t as clearly defined then. “Mother” could refer to the womb, intestines, or the general seat of emotion. His language may signal delusion—or a deeper poetic metaphor about internal chaos.
Edgar and the Performance of Madness
When Edgar disguises himself as Poor Tom, he outlines how to “play mad”:
“My face I’ll grime with filth… blanket my loins… elf all my hair in knots… and with this horrible object… enforce their charity.”
This is a checklist of visible, performative madness. It’s not real; it’s survival. But Shakespeare challenges us to ask: if madness is performed convincingly enough, does it matter whether it’s “real”?
Fit as Theatrical Frame
Finally, the word fit can also describe a unit of poetry or a segment of performance. Ben Jonson, Shakespeare’s contemporary, even uses the phrase “a fit of miming” to describe a short dramatic act—an outburst, a performance, a fit.
In this sense, theatre itself is a fit: a contained moment of transformation where actors temporarily become other selves. Madness, like theatre, allows people to behave outside the rules—and invites us, the audience, to interpret what we see.
Conclusion: What Madness Means
In King Lear, madness isn’t just a breakdown—it’s a confrontation. The play invites us to question how we interpret behavior, how context shapes meaning, and how society labels those who don’t conform.
As audience members, we participate in a fit of meaning-making. The performance gives us the space to consider lives unlike our own. And maybe, just maybe, we understand ourselves a little more clearly through this temporary, transformative fit.
Stay Curious. Stay Connected.
Lights ON Blackfriars is where scholarship meets stage—a space for bold ideas, fresh perspectives, and deeper connections to the plays we love. If you enjoyed Dr. Anderson’s talk, check out more conversations from this illuminating series and our Blog:
- King Lear & Little Women – Lights ON Blackfriars featuring Constance Swain, Erin Riley, & Paul Barnes from the ASC Spring 2025
- The Comedy of Errors – Lights ON Blackfriars with Director Chris Johnston
- Little Women – Behind the Seams with Costume Designer Amy Monsalve
Be there when the ideas spark.
Lights ON Blackfriars isn’t just a talk—it’s a live, unscripted exchange that deepens your connection to the play. Join us at the Blackfriars Playhouse and experience it in real time.