Daily inter mountain., 1900-12-15

opened the paper by relating the many
discussions and dissections of the char
acters in the plays of Shakespeare since
his death and said that where eminent
critics had done all she felt incompetent
to present an essay on Cordelia. She
considered the character of Cordelia the
examplification of filal love. After Civ
ing the circumstances of her birth and
education, Mrs. Stevens concluded her
paper as follows: "Cordelia had spent
all the years of her yet young life close
ITO the heart of her widowed father, no
interests, loves or affections existed for
her apart from him.
Her little world was bounded less by
her own personal desires than by his
needs and wishes. Old, irritable and al
most insane when the play opens, King
Lear strikes the keynote of her charac-
ter when he addresses her in the first
scene with the words; Now our JOY, al
though our last and least"
"Shakespearean women are all child
rem more or less. They feel intensely
and they love passionately. They are
governed not by such laws as govern his
men in their actions, but by loves moods
and passions, and so it was with Cordelia,
she loved her father; why she did so she
did not reason out. 1t was love born
with her life, and had become part of
her existence. and SO when she was chal-
lenged by a bribe, even to the third of a
kingdom, to speak out the fuH measure
of her love, the very sacredness with
which she treasured it in her heart seal
ed her lips from contending with the
mercanary protection of her sister,
" Unhappy that l am,- she says, I
cannot hp1Vp hRort into my 1o1n n ,
The senstiveness of shrinking and ten
der child prevented her from DISCLOSING e
the loving treasures of her heart before
a cool and calculating audience and a
mad king. That Lear was mad there
seems to be no doubt, for Kent, proc
testing against the action of the King in
divesting himself of his sovereignty says:
BE Kent unmannerly when Lear is
| mad. to plainness honor's bound, when
Majesty falls to folly. Reserve thy state
But one cannot reason with a mad
man nor can earnest though silent love
contend successfully against the empty
| phrases of the tongue when the judge
measures their worth by their fattering
sound, and accepts pa!pable but pleasing
falsehOods as sterling truths.
Although the tragedy of King Lear Is
based upon the contending moral forces,
| filial ingratitude and filial love- yet Cor
della appears before the reader in but
four scenes and even in these she says
but little. But in a sense she is always
present, her influence is felt even as we
read of the malignant actions of her sis
ters, and follow them through their
wicked lives until they meet their well
deserved reward. In the back GROUND
she appears, not speaking, but as a
presence, even more real to us than the
actors before us. And when she re-
/ turns to England as Queen of France,
to right her Gathers wrongs, the words
| Ion, dear father, it is thy busines:
/ that I go about, therefore, great Franc,
my mourning and important tears hatl
pitied," seem but the same hear
thoughts of the child. though uttered by
| the woman ana the Queen.
After the reading of the paper some
| time was spent in the discussion of tins
| different characters in King Lear ans
more especially of Cordela and the Kins
| himself. Skoray after the club adjourn
| ed.