Wednesday, June 7, 2023

"I Am the Walrus"

I'm sure this has been noted before, but I thought I'd write a post about it, if only for my own reference.  I've been reading Shakespeare's King Lear for the first time, and last week, I got to the parts in Act IV, Scene VI that are included near the end of "I Am the Walrus."

At ~2:25, fragments of this exchange (lines 223-224) can be heard:
Gloucester:  Now, good sir, what are you?

Edgar:  A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows
At ~3:56, a good chunk of Oswald's dialogue (lines 249-254) is audible:
Villain, take my purse;
If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body,
And give the letters which thou find'st about me
To Edmund Earl of Gloucester; seek him out
Upon the English party.  O, untimely death!
And at ~4:22, there's an-other exchange between Edgar and Gloucester (lines 256-259):
Edgar:  I know thee well.  A serviceable villain,
As duteous to the vices of thy mistress
As badness would desire.

Gloucester:  What, is he dead?

Edgar:  Sit you down, father; rest you.
I'm not sure I have the line numbers exactly right.  I've noticed that sometimes they vary between editions, anyway.

According to Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, this audio was taken from a BBC radio broadcast and mixed live into the song on 29 September 1967 (p. 128).