Poor Tom and the linguistic performance of monstrosity in King Lear

Abstract

Edgar’s disguise in King Lear draws upon a popular early modern figure, the Bedlam beggar. This article argues that Poor Tom transcends the cultural representations of the Bedlamites, inasmuch as his liminality and otherness turn him into a monstrous creature. Tom’s monstrosity emerges from his language rather than his appearance or actions. Close readings reveal how the fashioning of Tom in 2.2 is anticipated by Edmund’s and Gloucester’s words, which foretell the metaphorical self-birth whereby Edgar delivers his own monstrous alter ego through language, in a multifaceted linguistic performance made of overlapping voices that are monstrous in structure and content.