King Lear

“ Thus poorly accompanied, this once great monarch was found by his ever-faithful servant the good earl of Kent, now transformed to Caius, who ever followed close at his side, though the king did not know him to be the earl; and he said, "Alas! sir, are you here? creatures that love night, love not such nights as these. This dreadful storm has driven the beasts to their hiding places. Man's nature cannot endure the affliction or the fear." And Lear rebuked him and said, these lesser evils were not felt, where a greater malady was fixed. ”

“ When Lear thus fled from the luxurious palace-hall in which he had held this last meeting with his daughters, it was beginning to grow dark, and a terrible storm was coming on. Already they heard the loud roll of thunder and saw the sharp flashes of lightning. But though some nobles in Regan’s court, more tender hearted than these stony women, pleaded for the king, and besought them not to let him go out into a night when even beasts ought to be sheltered, they alone were pitiless. They helped to drive their poor old father forth, and locked after him their heavy castle gates. ”

“ Lear at first could not believe his eyes or ears, nor that it was his daughter who spoke so unkindly. He could not believe that she who had received a crown from him could seek to cut off his train, and grudge him the respect due to his old age. But she persisting in her undutiful demand, the old man's rage was so excited, that he called her a detested kite, and said that she spoke an untruth: and so indeed she did, for the hundred knights were all men of choice behaviour and sobriety of manners, skilled in all particulars of duty, and not given to rioting and feasting as she said. ”

“ King Lear, the generous old monarch of Britain, in a spasm of parental love, bequeathes his dominion to his two daughters, Goneril and Regan, and gave nothing to the beautiful Cordelia. Hear the old man rave at his ungrateful daughters and the corrupt world ”

“ The tragedy of King Lear has been selected, although we have been accustomed so long to give him our sympathy as the victim of the ingratitude of his two older daughters, and of the apparent coldness of Cordelia, that we have not sufficiently considered the weakness of his fatherhood, revealed by the fact that he should get himself into so entangled and unhappy a relation to all of his children. In our pity for Lear, we fail to analyze his character. The King on his throne exhibits utter lack of self-control. ”

“ He is not free from responsibility for the treatment which the King receives in his house; the Knight says to Lear, 'there's a great abatement of kindness appears as well in the general dependants as in the duke himself also and your daughter.' But he takes no part in the quarrel, and doubtless speaks truly when he protests that he is as guiltless as ignorant of the cause of Lear's violent passion. When the King departs, he begins to remonstrate with Goneril, but shrinks in a cowardly manner, which is a trifle comical, from contest with her. ”

“ He had been a most faithful counselor in times past to the king, and he besought him now that he would see with his eyes (as he had done in many weighty matters) and go by his advice still, and in his best consideration recall this hideous rashness; for he would answer with his life his judgment that Lear’s youngest daughter did not love him least, nor were those empty-hearted whose low sound gave no token of hollowness. When power bowed to flattery, honor was bound to plainness. For Lear’s threats, what could he do to him whose life was already at his service? ”

“ The coolness and falling off of respect which Lear had begun to perceive, were not all which this foolish fond father was to suffer from his unworthy daughter: she now plainly told him that his staying in her palace was inconvenient so long as he insisted upon keeping up an establishment of a hundred knights: that this establishment was useless and expensive, and only served to fill her court with riot and feasting; and she prayed him that he would lessen their number, and keep none but old men about him, such as himself, and fitting his age. ”

“ Lear blessed himself in having such loving children, as he thought; and could do no less, after the handsome assurances which Regan had made, than bestow a third of his kingdom upon her and her husband, equal in size to that which he had already given away to Goneril. ”

“ But the more he listened to the fantasia of King Lear the further he felt from forming any definite opinion of it. There was, as it were, a continual beginning, a preparation of the musical expression of some feeling, but it fell to pieces again directly, breaking into new musical motives, or simply nothing but the whims of the composer, exceedingly complex but disconnected sounds. And these fragmentary musical expressions, though sometimes beautiful, were disagreeable, because they were utterly unexpected and not led up to by anything. ”

“ In Lear, his most perfect and elaborate representation of madness, he never rep resents the mental power as utterly lost; at no time is the intellectual aberration so complete that the old
king is incapable of wise and just remark. He is as a rudderless ship, which fills her sails from time to time, and directs her course aright, and to the eye observing for the moment only, her stately and well directed course speaks of no want of guidance ”

“ Thus these three sisters lived in the court until Lear became an old, old man. Then he began to imagine he was weary of all the trouble of his state affairs, and resolved he would divide his kingdom into three parts, and give to each of his daughters an equal portion of his realm to govern. For,this purpose he assembled one day all the principal officers of his kingdom, all his priests and nobles, and‘ sitting in the midst of them in grand state upon his throne, overhung by canopies of brilliant cloth, he sent for his three daughters to appear before him. ”

“ Scene: - Britain. ACT I. Scene I. [King Lear's Palace.] Enter Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund. [Kent and Glouceste converse.
Edmund stands back.]
Kent. I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany
than
Cornwall.
Glou. It did always seem so to us; but now, in the division of
the
kingdom, it appears not which of the Dukes he values most,
for
equalities are so weigh'd that curiosity in neither can make
choice of either's moiety.
Kent. Is not this your son, my lord?
Glou. His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. ”

“ We remember one considerable and beautifully produced book of miscellaneous verse, "The Gate of Smaragdus," and there have been other plays issued semi-privately, until the publication of "King Lear's Wife" gave him a wider public, and reminded younger readers of his very definite and dignified talent.... If as a tour de force, the latter is the greatest, we still prefer, for sheer poetic beauty, for propriety of phrase and for directness of action, the earlier "Riding to Lithend." Hallgerd is an exceptionally fine creation, and she is given to speak passages of rare force and beauty. ”

“ Thus a lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than by all the dry volumes of ethics, and divinity that ever were written. ”

“ Kent. I must love you, and sue to know you
better. 32
Edm. Sir, I shall study deserving.
Glo. He hath been out nine years, and away
he shall again. The king is coming.
Sennet. Enter King Lear, Cornwall, Albany, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia, and Attendants.
Lear. Attend the Lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester. 36
Glo. I shall, my liege. Exit [with Edmund.]
Lear. Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.
Give me the map there. Know that we have divided
In three our kingdom ”

“ Lear had three children, all of them daughters, and all very beautiful. The eldest was named Goneril; the second, Regan; and the youngest, Cordelia. Goneril and Regan were proud and haughty beauties. They trod the halls of their father’s palace as if they were already queens. When any story of suffering or complaint of wrong arose from the people, they always took the part of the oppressor, Their radiant black eyes glistened with hatred or sparkled with anger, but they never softened with pity or tenderness. ”

“ Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so. Lear. Inform'd them? Dost thou understand me, man? Glou. Ay, my good lord. Lear. The King would speak with Cornwall; the dear father Would with his daughter speak, commands her service. Are they inform'd of this? My breath and blood! Fiery? the fiery Duke? Tell the hot Duke that- No, but not yet! May be he is not well. Infirmity doth still neglect all office Whereto our health is bound. We are not ourselves When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind To suffer with the body. ”

“ Not Fire, Wind, Rain or Thunder are my Daughters: I tax not you ye Elements with unkindness; I never gave you Kingdoms, call'd you Children, You owe me no Obedience, then let fall Your horrible pleasure, here I stand your Slave, A poor, infirm, weak and despis'd old man; Yet I will call you servile Ministers, That have with two pernicious Daughters join'd Their high-engendred Battle against a Head So Old and White as mine, Oh! oh! 'tis Foul. Kent.
Hard by, Sir, is a Hovel that will lend Some shelter from this Tempest. Lear.
I will forget my Nature, what? so kind a Father, I, there's the point. ”

“ The house to which I have directed you is the residence of Thomas Lear, and—”
At the last-mentioned name, the stranger started back with a look of surprise.
“Then you are Imogene, the daughter of old Lear, the Tory?” he exclaimed.
These words were uttered in a much different key. A strong, manly voice had taken the place of the weak, wheezing tone of the old man. The hot blood mantled the brow of Imogene, as she quickly retorted to this seemingly insulting language:
“Though Thomas Lear should be a supporter of the king’s cause, his daughter, at least, should be free from insult. ”

“ This wicked woman, the moment Lear left her palace, sent a messenger post-haste to Regan, counseling her to oppose all Lear’s wishes, and deprive him of all state, lest with his hundred men he should prove dangerous to their power. The Duke of Albany, who was a kind-hearted man, but incapable of controlling so bad a wife, tried in vain to soften her heart. ”

“ Edmund, Thou shalt find A Father in our Love, and from this Minute We call thee Earl of Gloster; but there yet Remains another Justice to be done, And that's to punish this discarded Traytor; But least thy tender Nature shou'd relent At his just Sufferings, nor brooke the Sight, We wish thee to withdraw. ”

“ And he cursed his eldest daughter Goneril so as was terrible to hear; praying that she might never have a child, or if she had, that it might live to return that scom and contempt upon her which she had shown to him: that she might feel how sharper than a serpent's tooth it was to have a thankless child. And Goneril's husband, the duke of Albany, beginning to excuse himself for any share which Lear might suppose he had in the unkindness, Lear would not hear him out, but in a rage ordered his horses to be saddled, and set out with his followers for the abode of Regan, his other daughter. ”

“ Enter Gloucester, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar.
Glou. Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully. I will piece out the comfort with what addition I can. I will not be long from you. Kent. All the power of his wits have given way to his impatience. The gods reward your kindness! Exit [Gloucester] . Edg. Frateretto calls me, and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend. Fool. Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a gentleman or a yeoman. Lear. A king, a king! Fool. No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son ”

“ Surely Nature could not produce another monster such as she. When she answered this with more bitter insults, he cursed her with a curse so terrible, that one can hardly imagine how she could have heard it and not fallen on her knees and called on God for mercy.
Lear then left her castle gates with all his train, and set out for Regan’s palace. Just before this happened, the Earl of Kent, whom Lear had banished, fearing his old master would need some trusty friend, had returned in disguise to Britain. ”

“ Lear. Then let them anatomize Regan. See what breeds about her
heart. Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard
hearts? [To Edgar] You, sir- I entertain you for one of my
hundred; only I do not like the fashion of your garments.
You'll
say they are Persian attire; but let them be chang'd.
Kent. Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile.
Lear. Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains.
So, so, so. We'll go to supper i' th' morning. So, so, so.
Fool. And I'll go to bed at noon.
Enter Gloucester.
Glou. Come hither, friend. Where is the King my master? ”

“ Enter with drum and colours, Albany, Goneril, Soldiers.
[Gon. [Aside.] I had rather lose the battle than that sister
Should loosen him and me.]
Alb. Our very loving sister, well be-met. 20
Sir, this I heard, the king is come to his daughter,
With others; whom the rigour of our state
Forc'd to cry out. [Where I could not be honest
I never yet was valiant: for this business, 24
It toucheth us, as France invades our land,
Not bolds the king, with others, whom, I fear,
Most just and heavy causes make oppose.
Edm. Sir, you speak nobly.] ”