Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, I may add, that the Fool of Lear was long ago forgotten. Having filled the space allotted him in the arrangement of the play, he appears to have been filently withdrawn in the fixth fcene of the third act. That the thoughts of a father, in the bitterest of all moments, while his favourite child lay dead in his arms, should recur to the antick who had formerly diverted him, has fomewhat in it that I cannot reconcile to the idea of genuine forrow and despair. Befides this, Cordelia was recently hanged; but we know not that the Fool had fuffered in the fame manner, nor can imagine why he fhould. The party adverfe to Lear was little interested in the fate of his jefter. The only use of him was to contraft and alleviate the forrows of his mafter; and, that purpose being fully answered, the poet's ofolicitude about him was at an end. The term-poor fool might indeed have mifbecome the mouth of a vaffal commiferating the untimely end of a princess, but has no impropriety when used by a weak, old, distracted king; in whofe mind the diftinctions of nature only furvive, while he is uttering his last frantick exclamations over a murdered daughter. Should the foregoing remark, however, be thought erroneous, the reader will forgive it, as it ferves to introduce fome contradictory obfervations from a critick, in whose taste and judgment too much confidence cannot eafily be placed. STEEVENS. I confefs, I am one of thofe who bave thought that Lear means his Focl, and not Cordelia. If he means Cordelia, then what I have always confidered as a beauty, is of the fame kind as the accidental stroke of the pencil that produced the foam.-Lear's affectionate remembrance of the Fool in this place, I ufed to think, was one of thofe ftrokes of genius, or of nature, which are so often found in Shakspeare, and in him only. Lear appears to have a particular affection for this Fool, whofe fidelity in attending him, and endeavouring to divert him in his distress, seems to deferve all his kindness. Poor fool and knave, fays he, in the midst of the thunder-ftorm, I bave one part in my heart that's forry yet for thee. It does not therefore appear to me, to be allowing too much confequence to the Fool, in making Lear bestow a thought on him, even when in ftill greater diftrefs. Lear is reprefented as a good-natured, paffionate, and rather weak old man; it is the old age of a cocker'd fpoilt boy. There is no impropriety in giving to fuch a character those tender domeftick affections, which would ill become a more heroick character, fuch as Othello, Macbeth, or Richard III. The words-No, no, no life; I fuppofe to be spoken, not tenderly, but with paffion: Let nothing now live-let there be univerfal deftruc Never, never, never, never, never! Pray tion-Why should a dog, a borse, a rat, bave life, and thou no breath at all? It may be obferved, that as there was a neceflity, the neceffity of propriety at least, that this Fool, the favourite of the author, of Lear, and confequently of the audience, should not be loft or forget, it ought to be known what became of him.-However, it must be acknowledged, that we cannot infer much from thence; Shakspeare is not always attentive to finish the figures of his groups. I have only to add, that if an actor, by adopting the interpretation mentioned above, fhould apply the words poor fool to Cordelia, the audience would, I should imagine, think it a strange mode of expreffing the grief and affection of a father for his dead daughter, and that daughter a queen. The words, poor fool, are undoubtedly expreflive of endearment; and Shakspeare him felf, in another place, fpeaking of a dying animal, calls it poor dappled fool: but it never is, nor never can be, ufed with any degree of propriety, but to commiferate fome very inferior object, which may be loved, without much efteem or refpe&t. Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS. It is not without fome reluctance that I exprefs my diffent from the friend whofe name is fubfcribed to the preceding note; whofe obfervations on all subjects of criticism and tafte are fo ingenious and juft, that pofterity may be at a lofs to determine, whether his confummate skill and execution in his own art, or his judgment on that and other kindred arts, were fuperior. But magis amica veritas fhould be the motto of every editor of Shakspeare; in conformity to which I must add, that I have not the fmalleft doubt that Mr. Steevens's interpretation of thefe words is the true one. The paffage indeed before us appears to me fo clear, and fo inapplicable to any perfon but Cordelia, that I fear the reader may think any further comment on it altogether fuperfluous. It is obfervable that Lear from the time of his entrance in this fcene to his uttering thefe words, and from thence to his death, is wholly occupied by the lofs of his daughter. He is diverted indeed from it for a moment by the intrufion of Kent, who forces himself on his notice; but he inftantly returns to his beloved Cordelia, over whose dead body he continues to hang. He is now himself in the agony of death; and furely at fuch a time, when his heart is juft breaking, it would be highly unnatural that he should think of his fool. But the great and decifive objection to fuch a fuppofition is that which Mr. Steevens has mentioned; that Lear has just seen h ́s daughter banged, having unfortunately been admitted too late to preíeive her life, though time enough to punish the perpetrator of the act: but we have no authority whatfoever for fuppofing his Fool hanged alfo. Whether the expreffion-poor fool-can be applied with propriety only to inferior objects, for whom we have not much respect or eftcem, ļ Pray you, undo this button: Thank you, fir. Do is not, I conceive, the question. Shakspeare does not always ufe his terms with strict propriety, but he is always the best commentator on himself, and he certainly bas applied this term in another place to the young, the beautiful, and innocent, Adonis, the object of fomewhat more than the efteem of a goddess: "For pity now the can no more detain him; "The poor fool prays her that he may depart." Again, though lefs appofitely, in Twelfth Night: "Alas, poor fool, how have they baffled thee !" Again, in Much Ado about Nothing: "Lady, you have a merry heart. "Beat. Yes, my lord, I thank it, pour fool, it keeps on the windy fide of care." Again, in The Winter's Tale: 66- Do not weep, good fools, "There is no caufe." In Romeo and Juliet a fimilar term of endearment is employed. Mercutio, fpeaking of Romeo, whom certainly he both esteemed and loved, fays "The ape is dead, and I must conjure him." Nor was the phrafeology which has occafioned this long note, peculiar to Shakspeare. It was long before his time incorporated in our language; as appears from the following paffage in the old poem entitled The Hiftory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562: "Yea, he forgets himfelfe, ne is the wretch fo bolde "To ask her name that without force doth him in bondage hold; "Ne how to unloofe his bondes doth the poore foole devife, "But only feeketh by her fight to feed his houngry eyes." In old English a fool and an innocent were fynonymous terms. Hence probably the peculiar ufe of the expreffion-poor fool. In the paffage before us, Lear, I conceive, means by it, dear, tender, belplefs innocence! MALONE. 8 Pray you, undo this button:] The Rev. Dr. J. Warton judiciously obferves, that the fwelling and heaving of the heart is defcribed by this moft expreffive circumstance. So, in the Honeft Lawyer, 1616: oh my heart! "It beats fo it has broke my buttons." Again, in King Richard III: 66 Ah, cut my lace asunder, "That my pent heart may have fome fcope to beat; Again, in The Winter's Tale: "O, cut my lace; left my heart, cracking it, and, - Do you fee this? Look on her,-look, her lips,- Edg. He faints!-My lord, my lord,— [He dies Kent. Vex not his ghoft: O, let him pafs! he hates him, That would upon the rack of this tough world 3 Stretch him out longer. Edg. O, he is gone, indeed. Kent. The wonder is, he hath endur'd fo long: He but ufurp'd his life. Alb. Bear them from hence.-Our prefent business Is general woe. Friends of my foul, you twain Eto Kent, and Edgar. Rule in this realm, and the gor'd ftate fuftain, Kent. I have a journey, fir, fhortly to go; My mafter calls, and I muft not fay, no. Alb and, as Mr. Malone adds, from N. Field's A Woman's a Weathercock, 1612: "" fwell heart! buttons fly open! "Thank's gentle doublet,-elfe my heart had broken."STEEV. Do you fee this ? &t. This line, and the following hemiftich, are not in the quartos. After thank you, fir, they have only the interjection O, five times repeated. MALONE. Break, beart; &c.] This line is in the quartos given to the dy ing Lear. MALONE. 2 O, let bim pafs!] See p. 639, n. 5. MALONE. 3this tough world-] Thus all the old copies. Mr. Pope changed it to rough, but, perhaps, without neceffity. This tough world is this obdurate rigid world. STEEVENS. 4-I must not fay, no.] The modern editors have fuppofed that Kent expires after he has repeated these two laft lines; but the fpeech rather appears to be meant for a despairing than a dying man; and as the old editions give no marginal direction for his death, I have for born to infert any. I take this opportunity of retracting a declaration which I had formerly made on the faith of another perfon, viz. that the quartos, 1608, were exactly alike. I have fince difcovered that they vary one from another in many inftances. STEEVENS, Kent on his entrance in this fcene fays, I am come To bid my king and mafter aye good night but Alb. The weight of this fad time we must obey5; [Exeunt, with a dead march. but this, like the fpeech before us, only marks the defpondency of the fpeaker. The word shortly [i. e. fome time hence, at no very diftant period,] decifively proves, that the poet did not mean to make him die on the fcene. He merely fays, that he fhall not live long, and therefore cannot undertake the office affigned to him. The marginal direction, be dies, was first introduced by the ignorant editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 5 The weight of this fad time, &c.] This fpeech from the authority of the old quarto is rightly placed to Albany: in the edition by the players, it is given to Edgar, by whom, I doubt not, it was of custom Spoken. And the cafe was this: he who played Edgar, being a more favourite actor than he who performed Albany, in fpite of decorum it was thought proper he should have the laft word. THEOBALD. 6 The tragedy of Lear is defervedly celebrated among the dramas of Shakspeare. There is perhaps no play which keeps the attention fo ftrongly fixed; which fo much agitates our paffions, and interests our curiosity. The artful involutions of diftinct interests, the ftriking oppofition of contrary characters, the fudden changes of fortune, and the quick fucceffion of events, fill the mind with a perpetual tumult of indignation, pity, and hope. There is no fcene which does not contribute to the aggravation of the distress or conduct of the action, and fcarce a line which does not conduce to the progrefs of the scene. So powerful is the current of the poet's imagination, that the mind, which once ventures within it, is hurried irrefiftibly along. On the feeming improbability of Lear's conduct, it may be observed, that he is reprefented according to hiftories at that time vulgarly received as true. And, perhaps, if we turn our thoughts upon the barbarity and ignorance of the age to which this ftory is referred, it will appear not fo unlikely as while we eftimate Lear's manners by our own. Such preference of one daughter to another, or refignation of dominion on fuch conditions, would be yet credible, if told of a petty prince of Guinea or Madagascar. Shakspeare, indeed, by the mention of his earls and dukes, has given us the idea of times more civilized, and of life regulated by fotter manners; and the truth is, that though he fo nicely difcriminates, and fo minutely defcribes the characters of men, he commonly neglects and confounds the characters of ages, by mingling customs ancient and modern, English and foreign. My learned friend Mr. Warton, who has in the Adventurer very minutely criticised this play, remarks, that the inftances of cruelty are too favage and fhocking, and that the intervention of Edmund destroys VOL. VIII. Y y the |
