Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth
i. 12, recalls 'conjunctive,' used only in _H_. IV.
vii. 14, _O._ I. iii. 374 (F).
'grime,' vb., used only in II. iii. 9, recalls
'begrime,' used only in _O._ III. iii. 387 and
_Lucrece_.
'unbonneted,' III. i. 14, appears only here and in
_O._ I. ii. 23.
'delicate,' III. iv. 12, IV. iii. 15,
IV. vi. 188, is not a rare word with Shakespeare; he
uses it about thirty times in his plays. But it is worth
notice that it occurs six times in _O._
'commit,' used intr. for 'commit adultery,' appears only in
III. iv. 83, but cf. the famous iteration in _O._
IV. ii. 72 f.
'stand in hard cure,' III. vi. 107, seems to have no
parallel except _O._ II. i. 51, 'stand in bold cure.'
'secure'=make careless, IV. i. 22, appears only here
and in _O._ I. iii. 10 and (not quite the same sense)
_Tim._ II. ii. 185.
Albany's 'perforce must wither,' IV. ii. 35, recalls
Othello's 'It must needs wither,' V. ii. 15.
'deficient,' IV. vi. 23, occurs only here and in _O._
I. iii. 63.
'the safer sense,' IV. vi. 81, recalls 'my blood
begins my safer guides to rules,' _O._ II. iii. 205.
'fitchew,' IV. vi. 124, is used only here, in _O._
IV. i. 150, and in _T.C._ V. i. 67 (where it
has not the same significance).
Lear's 'I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion I
would have made them skip,' V. iii. 276, recalls
Othello's 'I have seen the day, That with this little arm and
this good sword,' etc., V. ii. 261.
The fact that more than half of the above occur in the first two Acts of
_King Lear_ may possibly be significant: for the farther removed
Shakespeare was from the time of the composition of _Othello_, the less
likely would be the recurrence of ideas or words used in that play.
NOTE S.
_KING LEAR_ AND _TIMON OF ATHENS_.
That these two plays are near akin in character, and probably in date,
is recognised by many critics now; and I will merely add here a few
references to the points of resemblance mentioned in the text (p. 246),
and a few notes on other points.
(1) The likeness between Timon's curses and some of the speeches of Lear
in his madness is, in one respect, curious. It is natural that Timon,
speaking to Alcibiades and two courtezans, should inveigh in particular
against sexual vices and corruption, as he does in the terrific passage
IV. iii. 82-166; but why should Lear refer at length, and with the same
loathing, to this particular subject (IV. vi. 112-132)? It almost looks
as if Shakespeare were expressing feelings which oppressed him at this
period of his life.
The idea may be a mere fancy, but it has seemed to me that this
pre-occupation, and sometimes this oppression, are traceable in other
plays of the period from about 1602 to 1605 (_Hamlet_, _Measure for
Measure_, _Troilus and Cressida_, _All's Well_, _Othello_); while in
earlier plays the subject is handled less, and without disgust, and in
later plays (e.g. _Antony and Cleopatra_, _The Winter's Tale_,
_Cymbeline_) it is also handled, however freely, without this air of
repulsion (I omit _Pericles_ because the authorship of the
brothel-scenes is doubtful).
(2) For references to the lower animals, similar to those in _King
Lear_, see especially _Timon_, I. i. 259; II. ii. 180; III. vi. 103 f.;
IV. i. 2, 36; IV. iii. 49 f., 177 ff., 325 ff. (surely a passage written
or, at the least, rewritten by Shakespeare), 392, 426 f. I ignore the
constant abuse of the dog in the conversations where Apemantus appears.
(3) Further points of resemblance are noted in the text at pp. 246, 247,
310, 326, 327, and many likenesses in word, phrase and idea might be
added, of the type of the parallel 'Thine Do comfort and not burn,'
_Lear_, II. iv. 176, and 'Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn!' _Timon_, V.
i. 134.
(4) The likeness in style and versification (so far as the purely
Shakespearean parts of _Timon_ are concerned) is surely unmistakable,
but some readers may like to see an example. Lear speaks here (IV. vi.
164 ff.):
Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand!
Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back;
Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind
For which thou whipp'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener.
Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear;
Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;
Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it.
None does offend, none, I say, none; I'll able 'em:
Take that of me, my friend, who have the power
To seal the accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes;
And, like a scurvy politician, seem
To see the things thou dost not.
And Timon speaks here (IV. iii. 1 ff.):
O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth
Rotten humidity; below thy sister's orb
Infect the air! Twinn'd brothers of one womb,
Whose procreation, residence, and birth,
Scarce is dividant, touch them with several fortunes,
The greater scorns the lesser: not nature,
To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune,
But by contempt of nature.
Raise me this beggar, and deny't that lord:
The senator shall bear contempt hereditary,
The beggar native honour.
It is the pasture lards the rother's sides,
The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who dares.
In purity of manhood stand upright
And say 'This man's a flatterer'? if one be,
So are they all: for every grise of fortune
Is smooth'd by that below: the learned pate
Ducks to the golden fool: all is oblique;
There's nothing level in our cursed natures,
But direct villany.
The reader may wish to know whether metrical tests throw any light on
the chronological position of _Timon_; and he will find such information
as I can give in Note BB. But he will bear in mind that results arrived
at by applying these tests to the whole play can have little value,
since it is practically certain that Shakespeare did not write the whole
play. It seems to consist (1) of parts that are purely Shakespearean
(the text, however, being here, as elsewhere, very corrupt); (2) of
parts untouched or very slightly touched by him; (3) of parts where a
good deal is Shakespeare's but not all (_e.g._, in my opinion, III. v.,
which I cannot believe, with Mr. Fleay, to be wholly, or almost wholly,
by another writer). The tests ought to be applied not only to the whole
play but separately to (1), about which there is little difference of
opinion. This has not been done: but Dr. Ingram has applied one test,
and I have applied another, to the parts assigned by Mr. Fleay to
Shakespeare (see Note BB.).[268] The result is to place _Timon_ between
_King Lear_ and _Macbeth_ (a result which happens to coincide with that
of the application of the main tests to the whole play): and this result
corresponds, I believe, with the general impression which we derive from
the three dramas in regard to versification.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 268: These are I. i.; II. i.; II. ii., except 194-204; in III.
vi. Timon's verse speech; IV. i.; IV. ii. 1-28; IV. iii., except
292-362, 399-413, 454-543; V. i., except 1-50; V. ii.; V. iv. I am not
to be taken as accepting this division throughout.]
NOTE T.
DID SHAKESPEARE SHORTEN _KING LEAR_?
I have remarked in the text (pp. 256 ff.) on the unusual number of
improbabilities, inconsistencies, etc., in _King Lear_. The list of
examples given might easily be lengthened. Thus (_a_) in IV. iii. Kent
refers to a letter which he confided to the Gentleman for Cordelia; but
in III. i. he had given to the Gentleman not a letter but a message.
(_b_) In III. i. again he says Cordelia will inform the Gentleman who
the sender of the message was; but from IV. iii. it is evident that she
has done no such thing, nor does the Gentleman show any curiosity on the
subject. (_c_) In the same scene (III. i.) Kent and the Gentleman
arrange that whichever finds the King first shall halloo to the other;
but when Kent finds the King he does not halloo. These are all examples
of mere carelessness as to matters which would escape attention in the
theatre,--matters introduced not because they are essential to the plot,
but in order to give an air of verisimilitude to the conversation. And
here is perhaps another instance. When Lear determines to leave Goneril
and go to Regan he says, 'call my train together' (I. iv. 275). When he
arrives at Gloster's house Kent asks why he comes with so small a train,
and the Fool gives a reply which intimates that the rest have deserted
him (II. iv. 63 ff.). He and his daughters, however, seem unaware of any
diminution; and, when Lear 'calls to horse' and leaves Gloster's house,
the doors are shut against him partly on the excuse that he is 'attended
with a desperate train' (308). Nevertheless in the storm he has no
knights with him, and in III. vii. 15 ff. we hear that 'some five or six
and thirty of his knights'[269] are 'hot questrists after him,' as
though the real reason of his leaving Goneril with so small a train was
that he had hurried away so quickly that many of his knights were
unaware of his departure.
This prevalence of vagueness or inconsistency is probably due to
carelessness; but it may possibly be due to another cause. There are, it
has sometimes struck me, slight indications that the details of the plot
were originally more full and more clearly imagined than one would
suppose from the play as we have it; and some of the defects to which I
have drawn attention might have arisen if Shakespeare, finding his
matter too bulky, had (_a_) omitted to write some things originally
intended, and (_b_), after finishing his play, had reduced it by
excision, and had not, in these omissions and excisions, taken
sufficient pains to remove the obscurities and inconsistencies
occasioned by them.
Thus, to take examples of (_b_), Lear's 'What, fifty of my followers at
a clap!' (I. iv. 315) is very easily explained if we suppose that in the
preceding conversation, as originally written, Goneril had mentioned the
number. Again the curious absence of any indication why Burgundy should
have the first choice of Cordelia's hand might easily be due to the same
cause. So might the ignorance in which we are left as to the fate of the
Fool, and several more of the defects noticed in the text.
To illustrate the other point (_a_), that Shakespeare may have omitted
to write some things which he had originally intended, the play would
obviously gain something if it appeared that, at a time shortly before
that of the action, Gloster had encouraged the King in his idea of
dividing the kingdom, while Kent had tried to dissuade him. And there
are one or two passages which suggest that this is what Shakespeare
imagined. If it were so, there would be additional point in the Fool's
reference to the lord who counselled Lear to give away his land (I. iv.
154), and in Gloster's reflection (III. iv. 168),
His daughters seek his death: ah, that good Kent!
He said it would be thus:
('said,' of course, not to the King but to Gloster and perhaps others of
the council). Thus too the plots would be still more closely joined.
Then also we should at once understand the opening of the play. To
Kent's words, 'I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany
than Cornwall,' Gloster answers, 'It did always seem so to us.' Who are
the 'us' from whom Kent is excluded? I do not know, for there is no sign
that Kent has been absent. But if Kent, in consequence of his
opposition, had fallen out of favour and absented himself from the