The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-11-09

spirit of the play. is the representative
of a class which reckons many members
in our time, as in every other. He Is the
man who convinces himself that he is
the object of Fortunes unmerited dis
favor, and who means to redress the sup
posed injustice by every means in MS
power He broods and sulks while his
plans are yet in embryo and should he
compass his aims he will be arrogant and
merciless toward others He acknowl-
edges no obligations of kinship, no duty
toward his rightful superiors or toward
the state He is restrained by nothing
save prudence, and not always by that;
he can be subtle as Iago, and as treach-
erous toward his greatest benefactors as
Caliban: false to every one else, he is not
true even to himself; if he should gain
his ends. he is incapable of deriving any
permanent good from his success; but he
usually ruins himself while seeking or eff
fecting the downfall of those whom he
envies He is the typical anarchist, who.
whether wronged or not by society, is
the incarnation of envious hatred.
Goneril and Regain require no particu-
lar mention: they merely embody the in
gratitude of the brute, reinforced by a
lendishness of which the brute is in
capable Yet ii must be observed that
they serve to illustrate Milton's acute
nnTASe.
nothing of the hate engendered between
them by the guilty love which both en-
terrain for Edmund, and the hate engen-
dered in him as a consequence of his
fathers Illicit amour, it is evident from
many scattered illusions throughout the
plav. which help to create its atmos-
phere. and from the persistence with
which Lear. as he sinks deeper and deep
er In his madness, dwells upon the sin
of carnality. as if it were the root of all
their evil-doing, that if this play were
not above everything else, the tragedy Of
ingratitude, it would deserve to be called
the tragedy of lust. Compare, for ex-
ample. /. t. 10 if; I. ii. 1877 If. 1852; Ill.
ii. So, 80; Ill iv. "a if, III; III. V. 81; Nv.
liz #. 164 if; ". vi 267 if; V i. 10 if. +;
Y. iii. II ff) All is of a piece. however;
both sins are indifferent n the II 60 animal
derive their Nervousness only from the
divinity in man, and from the fact tEat,
working in close harmony, they effect
ually subvert the constitution of the
moral universe. 1t is significant that
Iear's curse upon Goneril e. iv. 297 Fl. ;
compare III ii. so is fulfilled in both
sisters, and that their filial ingrattude IS
in some measure avenged by their ster-
ility, and by the transfer of the kingdom
to the hands of outlawed subjects;
The truths which this drama demon
StrateS Apply 0OI Ollly " Ilitl ~
also to nations. Revolutions and violent
breaches of every sort in the transmits
sion of power and prerogative always
avenge themselves upon the innovating
agency. AS Shakespeare himself says:
''Frights. changes. horrors
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate
The unity and married calm of states
Quite from their fixure.
Such overtures may be necessary, but
they are always lamentable France is
still suffering from her revolution. and
we from ours, for Violence toward a
parent state or a parent condition can
by no means escape punishment. Tenny-
son is right in preferring that freedom
which slowly broadens down from prec-
edent to precedent" and in branding
raw Haste. half-sister to Delay: and
Burke was right in maintaining that the
body polite cannot be rent asunder. or
it's habit suddenly changed, with impun-
ity. The generations are knit each to
each by parental and f1lial ties and woe
to him who smites a beneficent past in
the face; it is as If he had smitten his
father.