and Albany at I. i.140, he takes one from his own head; but Shakespeare and his audience well knew [sic] the difference between crowns and coronets: crowns typically . . . were [sic] topped with an emblem symbolic of the power belonging to kings. Corornets . . . were [sic] circlets worn by princes and dukes. (14)In other words, symbolically, Lear does not fully give his up power, because he does not officially give up the crown. By giving Cornwall and Albany coronets, they are made no more than crowned princes and Lear retains his title as king. He cannot completely give up his crown or power because he realizes that a monarch . . . can have no superior for then he would [sic] cease to be a monarch (Burgess 24). Therefore, Lear is the supreme, absolute king and can have no one above him, which the definition of an absolute monarch states.In addition to having supreme power, a monarch usually likes to have a lot of pomp and circumstance around him, to further acknowledge his power, by having subjects fluttering around trying to please their king. This is exhibited by both King Lear and King James. Furthermore, James love of exhibitionism is described by a person in attendance at his coronation who states:when James [I] came to the throne, in the words of Maria Axton: Poets and dramatists worked up pageants for Jamess coronation, translating into icons the legal theory which had supported the new King. Their pageant iconography declared that it was not the land, or the estates of Parliament, but the King who represented the power of government and the perpetuity of the realm. (Tennenhouse 134) Similarly, Lear also expresses his love of pageantry while living in the castle of his daughter Goneril. While there, he surrounds himself with subjects, who serve him as their king. These subjects consist of his knights, fool, and adviser in disguise, Kent. With his men, Lear gives orders, hunts, and holds court in a castle that is no...
