The San Francisco call., 1899-11-06

her father as her duty Douno ner 10 90
and no more. The old King, in violent
rage at this behavior Of his youngest
daughter, divided his kingdom equally be-
tween Goneril and Regan, and utterly dis
inherited Cordelia- Two suitors for Cor
delia's hand were then present at the
court, the Duke of Burgundy and the
King Of France. They had come in the
expectation of receiving a handsome
dowry with the lady, and Lear now
turned to them and asked whether they
were still willing to take her in her pres
ent penniless and disgraced condition. The
Duke of Burgundy, to whom the offer was
first made, declined to take a dowerless
wife, but the King Of France, believing
that she was a dowry in herself, gladly
accepted her hand and took her home
with him as his Queen.
Lear was to retain the title only of
King without the authority, and, attend
ed by train of a hundred knights, was
to divide his time equally between the
houses Of Goneril and Regan, spending
month at a time with each. Not only did
the hundred knights prove to be exceed
ingly troublesome and disorderly inmates
of the household, but their master HIM
self, forgetting his part Of the compact,
acted as If he still possessed the royal
authority which he had given away, and
Goneril, with whom he was spending the
first month, soon grew tired of such un-
ruly guests Lear concluded to rely on the
affection of his second daughter and sent
a letter to Regan to announce that he
would be with her Immediately. The
bearer Of this letter was the Earl of Kent,
the most loyal and devoted subject that
Lear had possessed. Lear had banished
him from the kingdom for taking the part
of Cordelia but his loyalty could not be
checked by this and he had now Joined
his old master again, disguised as a SER
want.
Note-This sketch introduces some Of the
leading characters. The student is advised to
read the play throughout before taking up the
special studies.
Critical Study of the Play.
king Lear is the universal tragedy of
human ingratitude, or, in the more lin
tied sense, of f1lial ingratitude. Wherever
there is a father whose doting fondness
outruns his discretion, whose desire for
fllial appreciation blinds him to the con-
sequences of his paternal folly; wherever
there Is a mother who prematurely re-
signs into her daughters hands the sway
of her household and sacrifices her own
dignity as it's head, there the eternal
tragedy of Lear is on the point of being
re-enacted. For the human heart Is by
nature greedy of power, of ease, of defer
check by the bends of duty, by respect of
established authority, by awe and rever-
ence. That which distinguishes the world
of man from the world of the brute or the
vegetable creation Is certain sacred in
stincts, potential at first and afterward
reinforced by the institutions of human
society. The adolescent oak hesitates not
to draw its sustenance from the parent tree
lying prone at its feet: the king of the
Il-
jects the moment he falters and sue
cumbs; even in certain savage tribes the
aged man, though a chief, is likely to fall,
as a useless incumbrance, under the
stroke of the warclub or to be led aside
to die in silence of consuming hunger.
Note how Shakespeare finds a telling
phrase for this:
The barbarous Scythian,
Or he that makes his generation messes
to gorge his appetite.
Wherever mankind Is but just emerging
from barbarism, the awe that encircles
like halo the hoary head is likely to
prove insufficient to deter the parricide
from invading the life from which he
drew his own; and wherever, in periods
when law is weak and order troubled. So
ciety seems reeling back into brutlsh
shamelessness and anarchy, there the
family is likely to present an epitome of
the moral chaos which threatens the very
framework of the world. Under such cir
cumstances, to use Shakespeare's own
words In another play:
Strength should be lord OF inbecfity
And the rude should strike his father dead:
Force should be right; or rather, right and
wrong,
Between whose endless jar justice resides
Should lose their names, and so should justice,
too
Then everything includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite
And appetite. universal wolf
So doubIy seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce universal prey.
And last eat up himself.
To this condition society is ever tending
to revert, and it requires the strenuous
and constant efforts of every lover of his
kind to hold it suspended above the
abyss, to urge 1t upward toward the
sphere Of heavenly influence, aware