The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-09

the truth or falsity of another's char
acter; are intense in love and friend
ship: are full, ii may be, of potential
energy, which they are ready to spend
in attestation of their loyalty or pas
sionate tenderness; and are quite capa-
BILE of diving for one who would find ii
| impossible to extort from them more
than monosyllable confessions OF at
tachment. OF these natures Cordelia
stands as the imperishable type. Sne
| is rich in the treasures of the heart,
but maiden timidity combines with a
certain proud consciousness that she
needs not to vaunt her own virtues
before those who are capable OF appre-
ciating them, and with an unconquer-
able disgust at the shameless and Dla-
tant hypocrisy of others, TO place an
inviolable seal upon her lips. Let suffi-
cient time elapse; let a real need arise;
let opportunity to prove by such sac
rificeS as the unworthy can never make
that she is all devotion, true as the
magnetic steel, pure as the gold just
issuing from the refiner's fire, and the
most unappreciativ the most hostile
will be convinced. But alas if she dies
with all her music in her. Alas IL
Lear should have persisted before Cor
della could return,
u.
spirit of the play, is the representative
OF a class which reckons many MEM
bers in our time, as in every other. He
is the man who convinceS himself that
he is the object of Fortunes unmerited
disfavor and who means to redress the
supposed injustice by every means in
his power He broods and sulks while
his plans are yet in embryo, and should
he compass his aims he will be AFRO
H. ,,-r1 - .arc q
acknowledges no obligations of kinship,
no duty toward his rightful superiors
or toward the state. He is restrained
by nothing save prudence, and not al
ways by that; he can be subtle as Eago.
and as treacherous 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 incap-
able of deriving any permanent good
from his success; but he usually ruins
himself while seeking or effecting the
downfall of those whom he envies. He
is the typical anarchist, who. whether
wronged or not by society, is the in
carnation of enviouS hatred.
Goneril and Regain require no partic-
ular mention; they merely embody sthe
ingratitude of the brute. reinforced by
a fiendishness of which the brute is in
capable. Yet it must be observed that
they serve to illustrate Millions acute
phrase, ''lust hard by hate To say
nothing of the hate engendered between
them by the guilty love which both en-
terrain for Edmund, and the hate en-
gendered in him as consequence of
his fathers Illicit amour, it is evident
from many scattered illusions through
out the play, which help to create its
atmosphere, and from the persistence
with which Lear, as he sinks deeper and
deeper in his madness ,dwells upon the
sin of carnality. as If that were the
root of all their evil-doing. that If this
play were not above everything else,
the tragedy of ingratitJde. it would de-
serve to be called the tragedy of lust.
Compare. for example. /. /. Is If; /. ii.
1877 f.. 1872; III. ii. s.. 80: III. iv. 81 r.,
III: III. V. 81: ". /. 81. 20: " ii. is r.:
". V. % if: ". vi. 112 IT,, 1874 IT,; w.
vi. 267 f.: V. /. 10 If; V. iii. n ff.) All
is of a piece, however; both sins are
Indifferent in the animal world (see es-
pecially w. vi. 112 ff.). and derive their
Nervousness only from the divinity in
man. and from the fact that, working
in close harmony. they effectually sub.
vert the constitution of the moral uni
verse 1t is significant that Lear's
curse tpon Goneril Ct. iv. 297 fl: COM
pare III. ii. $50 is fulfilled in both sis
ters. and that their filial gratitude is in
some measure avenged by their steril-
ity. and by the transfer of the kingdom
to the hands of outlawed subjec+5-
The truths which this drama demon
strates amply not only to individuals
but also to nations. Revolutions and
violent breaches of every sort in the
transmission of power and prerogative
always avenge themselves upon the it,
novating agency. AS Shakespeare him
self says: