Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-06-03
SHAKISPIARE'S KING LEAR
No. II.
lror the Dispsicn.l

fonnd in each OF these scenes. Insane
Lear stands in them like q Colus-
sus. oyersnadowiDg all else. Our
tenderest sympathies are moved to
their profoundest depths, and SO
great is the intellectual tension
that we seek relief almost in incredulity.
But Shakespeare, with that genus which
alone is his, has provided these terrible
scenes of Lear's iunacy with foils in tho
character of the Fool and Edgar dis
euised az Poor Tom and enactiDg his
assumed lunacy. The comments OF the
Fool and the speeches of Poor Tom
break the awful anguish caused by
| Lear's lunacy. Genius stamped as every
line OF these scenes are, there is nothing
in them more admirable than the con
trast made by Shakespeare between the
affected lunacy OF Edgar as Poor Tom
and the actual insanity OF Lear. There
are utterances OF Lear's in these scenes
that will live in the life OF every man
who has ever read them or heard them.
For instance, when he says:
"Did'st thou give all to thy daughtcrs' And art
thou como 10 this?
And again:
What, have his daughters brought him to this
pass7
Couidst thou ssyo nothingT Wouldst thou
give 'om aIl?r
And again, in that still greater burst
OF agony, when Kent says:
Kent: "He hath no daughters, sir"
Lear: Death, traitorl Nothing could have
subdued nature
To such a lOwness but his unkind
daughters.
Is 10 the fashion that discarded Ia
should have thus little mercy on their
nesh2
Judicious punishment! twas this
flesh begct
Those pelican daughters
In Act w., Scene 6, in this play, orr
sympathet tic emotions are again strained
to their utmost when Lear appears fan
tastically dressed with wild flowers, and
we are led to exclaim with Edgar,
20. thou side-piercing sight!"
This scene is also one Of agonizing grief,
and is written in the full glory OF Shake
speare's genius, and IN Scene OF this
act, between Kent. Cordelia, and Lear,
there is again illustrated the greatest
dramatic power, and commingled with it
the tenderest pathos. How admirable Is
that dramatic stroke, how perfect the ex-
preston of filial love, what a superb APP
peal to the regal past of Lear, is en-
bodied in Cordelia's first salutation to
him, when she says:
How does my royal lord' How fares your Ma
!esty?"
and what an expression Of intellect be-
nighted by lunacy and what an utterance
of agony is contained in Lear reply:
You do me wrong 10 take me out Of tho grave.
Thou art n soul in bliss; but am bound
| Upon a wheel Of fire, that mine own tears
| Do scsld like molten lead"
And the whole scene is characterized by
the same pathos and sublimity, and
shows Cordelia's tender love and Lear s
lettering faculties, which are soon to
expire in eternal silence. But Shake
speare reserves as the sublime climax OF
this play the entrance of insane Lear
with the dead body of Cordelie in his
arms in Act v, Scene 3. What a specta-
Gle of human agony In all dramatic
fiction there is no parallel. The senses
are appalled, AMI the heart OF the reader
or spectator, as the case may be, bleeds
with grief, and seeks almost instructive
! " to escape from beholding a scene whose
very intensity of grief clutches his
heart. Medea Staying her children Is
appalling, Edipus Uranus, with eyes
extinguished and impelled by ruthless
fate to crime is horrible to contemplate,
and the madness and suicide Of Alas
pursued by an inccnsed Pallas Altoona is
terrible, but it remained for Shakespeare
to put before us the greatest agony Of
an infinite UOe When he shOWS insane
Lear wth dcad COrdCiia in his drnt8.
II is the end Of human sU0ering! the
mfnitude of human roe ! and SHAKE
speare appropriately closes this scene
Of agony Nth the death Of Lear him
sell, and thus in the end ShOCS his di-
zine inspiration in q u1ify Of Jate for
Lear and his .fdithfUl, t0DinG dauGhtcr
Several critics, among them DR.. John
son, have charged against Shakespeare
a barbarous cruelty in this play that was
totally unnecessary in the extinction OF
Gloster's ewes, and allege that 1t was
! faulty dramatic construction. This Is an
unjust criticism in 50 far as it involves
any fault on Shakspeare's part IN con-
siruction. On the contrary, an examlna-
ton of the text will show the admirable
dramatic skill with which he leads up to
the performance OF this barbarous act on
the part of Cornwall and Regain. 1t oc-
ours in Act H.. Scene 7. Glvster is de-
nouncing Regain and Goperil for their
treatment of their father, to Regan and
Cornwall, and after very bitter denuncia-
ton of them he closes bis most important
speech with the defamation
"ButI shall see
The winged vengeance oyertaSe such children"
And the scene is so constructed that this
speech is made the suggestion to Regan
and Cornwall for the putting out of the
eyes Of Gloster. The dramatic con-
struction of the scene is therefore strict
" correct, and the barbarity OF the act
is in strict consonance with the brutality
of the characters of Regain and Corn
wall. There is, however defect in the
play in connection with Gloster, in this,
that he ostraclses his son Edgar without
adequate testimony of his disloyalty 10
him. Gloster acts in this way towards
Edgar without any adequate investiga-
ton, but upon the simple declaration Of
Edmund supported only by a note al
legged to be in Edgar's handwriting. 1t is
incredible that a father would have adopt
ed such course towards son without
more testimony. In this connection it
is impossible to pass over the character
of Edmund and the wonderful dramatic
power contained in that character. He
is most important element in the
structure of this play, and sometimes in
his speeches there is recall of the dark
duplicity and intellectually Of Iago-
that is to say, there is the same intel
lectual impress. He is villain OF the
worst type, and the fabrication OF this
play is not more perfect in any particu-
lar of mere dramatic art than in the fact
that Shakespeare Intervene the fates of
Edmund, Regain, and Goneril by causing
both Of these two heartless, brutal, bar
barous women to become infatuated
with him, and the same Divine Nemesis
to overthrow them all.
No criticism upon this play would be
adequate or notice OF its characters COM