Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-12
WEST SIDE SHAKESPEARE CLUB.

Nv G0x S4OE SdAAES1GAkE CLUB.
: The West Side Shakespeare club met
with Mrs. Jennie S. Fenton, at her resi-
dence, SAG West Broadway, Tuesday
evening The club read Act III. Of King
Lear. There was no current events dis
cussion but one on the play the club is
studying. King Lear. and on the paper
of Mrs. Kate Jackman. The latter was
very brief and is given in full.
The gloomy tragedy was discussed
from every point of view, extracts from
different critics read and every member
present gave her own personal idea of
the plot, the characters and the lesson
taught.
The roll call was unusually good, only
three members having the same quota
tion: For there never yet was fait
woman but she made mouths in glass"
The third act affords few good quota
tions. Others given were: HE that hath
a house to put his head in, has a good
head piece" II am a man more sinned
against than SHINING" Il will be the
pattern of all patience. 1 will say MOTH
ing" THE art of our necessities is
strange and can make vile things prec-
aous." When we are our betters see
bearing our woes, we scarcely think our
miseries of our foes He that has and
little tiny wit, with hegho the wind and
the rain. Must make content with his
fortune fit, Though the rain it raineth
every day."
Mrs. Jackman's paper was entitled
''Goneril and Regain, and was as follows:
King Lear is the greatest task Shake
speare ever set himself. In this play the
@1x
limit. If we are right in saying that to
depict the shock of mighty passions
against the natural and moral bound
aries Of humanity is the true task of
tragedy, we may perceive that in this
play the task seems to be generalized;
that where other tragedies treat of sep
arate passions this one exhibits passion
generally so that, as every careful reader
must have more or less felt. it might be
called 1.-The tragedy" All the suffering
and horror arising from the ingratitude
of children to their father is here ex-
pressed.
The characters of Goneril and Regain
are so perfectly vile that we do not like
to even speak of them. There is only one
extenuating circumstance that 1 can see
and that is that this play is supposed to
1t is to be hoped that such people do not
live in this enlightened age Of the world.
The myth of King Lear and his daughters
is related by Godfrey of Monmouth who
places the death of this prince 800 years
before Christ
Gngra titude and especially filial in
gratitude is the predominating thought
DIN the play. Shakespeare has nowhere
MI she \ I,,,,,o hoi~
in such direct conflict with each other
and nowhere else has he SO deliberately
Stunned the customary issue of the
struggle. the triumph of the good. The
good and the bad are blotted out to-
gether. A striking fact is that no sting
of conscience pricks most of the evil
doors here either before, during or after
the deed these daughters of Lear. also
Edmund, Cornwall and Oswald. when
frustrated in their designs, meet death
without symptom of remorse.
In this play brother against brother.
children against parents and parents
against children, husband against wife.
are incensed one against the other in the
selfish spirit Of persecution-a powerful
picture of human brutality.
Gonerl and Regan please their old
lions of love and filial piety but no sooner
have they gained their desires, the father
giving to each the half of his kingdom,
than their former hypocrisy and false
hood are changed into open ingratitude.
AT the first the two sisters display no
characteristic difference: "as like as
crab is to a crab," says the fool: on
closer inspection it is surprising what
hotw
Goneril, the elder with the 'wolfish WIS.,
age is a masculine woman full of indie
pendent purposes and projects while Re-
gan appears more feminine and more de-
pendent. Gonerirs boundless nature
shows itself in bloody undertakings
which have originated in her own brain,
while Regan's evil nature appears rather
in her urging on the atrocities of others
as when Kent is put in the stocks and
Gioster's eyes are torn out.
The worst of the two is married to
noble gentleman whom she reviles as
moral FOOL The better sister has the
worst husband in Cornwall, a man of
wrathful disposition.
1t is Goneril who first shows disrespect
60 the king and Regain. who fears her sis
ter more than her father. follows her
example. Lear hesitates to pronounce
his curse on Regain. but even repeated
it the second time against Goneril, who
receives it in silence while Regain shud-
ders for fear that she may be cursed also.
1t is not until Goneril. in the presence
of her sister. has confessed with what
cruelty she has used her father that Re-
gan grows bold and drives away her
fathers train of knights. After this
brood of serpents have gotten rid of
their old father there begins domestic
feud between the families. Goneril wish
es to seize the whole kingdom. betrothes
herself to Edmund during her husband S
life. She reioices in Cornwalrs death.
roisons Regain. joins with Edmund in
ordering Cordelia's execution and finally