Chapter 54

... “He replied, Thou unpossessing bastard!” &c.

Thus the secret poison in Edmund’s own heart steals forth; and then observe poor Gloster’s—

“Loyal and _natural_ boy!”—

as if praising the crime of Edmund’s birth!

_Ib._ Compare Regan’s—

“What, did _my father’s_ godson seek your life? He whom _my father_ named?”—

with the unfeminine violence of her—

“All vengeance comes too short,” &c.—

and yet no reference to the guilt, but only to the accident, which she uses as an occasion for sneering at her father. Regan is not, in fact, a greater monster than Goneril, but she has the power of casting more venom.

_Ib._ sc. 2. Cornwall’s speech:—-

... “This is some fellow, Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect A saucy roughness,” &c.

In thus placing these profound general truths in the mouths of such men as Cornwall, Edmund, Iago, &c., Shakespeare at once gives them utterance, and yet shows how indefinite their application is.

_Ib._ sc. 3. Edgar’s assumed madness serves the great purpose of taking off part of the shock which would otherwise be caused by the true madness of Lear, and further displays the profound difference between the two. In every attempt at representing madness throughout the whole range of dramatic literature, with the single exception of Lear, it is mere lightheadedness, as especially in Otway. In Edgar’s ravings Shakespeare all the while lets you see a fixed purpose, a practical end in view;—in Lear’s, there is only the brooding of the one anguish, an eddy without progression.

_Ib._ sc. 4. Lear’s speech:—

“The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father Would with his daughter speak, &c.

No, but not yet: may be he is not well,” &c.

The strong interest now felt by Lear to try to find excuses for his daughter is most pathetic.

_Ib._ Lear’s speech:—

... “Beloved Regan, Thy sister’s naught;—O Regan, she hath tied Sharp-tooth’d unkindness, like a vulture, here. I can scarce speak to thee;—thou’lt not believe Of how deprav’d a quality—O Regan!

_Reg._ I pray you, Sir, take patience; I have hope, You less know how to value her desert, Than she to scant her duty.

_Lear._ Say, how is that?”

Nothing is so heart-cutting as a cold unexpected defence or palliation of a cruelty passionately complained of, or so expressive of thorough hard-heartedness. And feel the excessive horror of Regan’s “O, Sir, you are old!”—and then her drawing from that universal object of reverence and indulgence the very reason for her frightful conclusion—

“Say, you have wrong’d her!”

All Lear’s faults increase our pity for him. We refuse to know them otherwise than as means of his sufferings, and aggravations of his daughters’ ingratitude.

_Ib._ Lear’s speech:—

“O, reason not the need: our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous,” &c.

Observe that the tranquillity which follows the first stunning of the blow permits Lear to reason.