O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!
Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow,
Thy element’s below!
– William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act 2, Scene 4. Lear feels betrayed by his daughters who are telling him what to do and disrespecting him. His fatherhood is being taken away from him and it is being replaced by motherhood, he believes. He says that he is suffering from "Hysterica passio," a medical disorder of women which brings on choking or breathlessness. English Shakespearean actor Corin Redgrave said of Lear: "Lear is terrified of the mother, ie the woman, within him. Scholarly notes explain that according to ideas of anatomy at this time, hysterica passio begins in the womb (hysteria in Greek), and climbs, via the heart, to the patient’s throat, suffocating him."