Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth
council, it would be clear. So, besides, would be the strange suddenness
with which, after Gloster's answer, Kent changes the subject; he would
be avoiding, in presence of Gloster's son, any further reference to a
subject on which he and Gloster had differed. That Kent, I may add, had
already the strongest opinion about Goneril and Regan is clear from his
extremely bold words (I. i. 165),
Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow
Upon thy foul disease.
Did Lear remember this phrase when he called Goneril 'a disease that's
in my flesh' (II. iv. 225)?
Again, the observant reader may have noticed that Goneril is not only
represented as the fiercer and more determined of the two sisters but
also strikes one as the more sensual. And with this may be connected one
or two somewhat curious points: Kent's comparison of Goneril to the
figure of Vanity in the Morality plays (II. ii. 38); the Fool's
apparently quite irrelevant remark (though his remarks are scarcely ever
so), 'For there was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass'
(III. ii. 35); Kent's reference to Oswald (long before there is any sign
of Goneril's intrigue with Edmund) as 'one that would be a bawd in way
of good service' (II. ii. 20); and Edgar's words to the corpse of Oswald
(IV. vi. 257), also spoken before he knew anything of the intrigue with
Edmund,
I know thee well: a serviceable villain;
As duteous to the vices of thy mistress
As badness would desire.
Perhaps Shakespeare had conceived Goneril as a woman who before her
marriage had shown signs of sensual vice; but the distinct indications
of this idea were crowded out of his exposition when he came to write
it, or, being inserted, were afterwards excised. I will not go on to
hint that Edgar had Oswald in his mind when (III. iv. 87) he described
the serving-man who 'served the lust of his mistress' heart, and did the
act of darkness with her'; and still less that Lear can have had Goneril
in his mind in the declamation against lechery referred to in Note S.
I do not mean to imply, by writing this note, that I believe in the
hypotheses suggested in it. On the contrary I think it more probable
that the defects referred to arose from carelessness and other causes.
But this is not, to me, certain; and the reader who rejects the
hypotheses may be glad to have his attention called to the points which
suggested them.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 269: It has been suggested that 'his' means 'Gloster's'; but
'him' all through the speech evidently means Lear.]
NOTE U.
MOVEMENTS OF THE DRAMATIS PERSONAE IN ACT II. OF _KING LEAR_.
I have referred in the text to the obscurity of the play on this
subject, and I will set out the movements here.
When Lear is ill-treated by Goneril his first thought is to seek refuge
with Regan (I. iv. 274 f., 327 f.). Goneril, accordingly, who had
foreseen this, and, even before the quarrel, had determined to write to
Regan (I. iii. 25), now sends Oswald off to her, telling her not to
receive Lear and his hundred knights (I. iv. 354 f.). In consequence of
this letter Regan and Cornwall immediately leave their home and ride by
night to Gloster's house, sending word on that they are coming (II. i. 1
ff., 81, 120 ff.). Lear, on his part, just before leaving Goneril's
house, sends Kent with a letter to Regan, and tells him to be quick, or
Lear will be there before him. And we find that Kent reaches Regan and
delivers his letter before Oswald, Goneril's messenger. Both the
messengers are taken on by Cornwall and Regan to Gloster's house.
In II. iv. Lear arrives at Gloster's house, having, it would seem,
failed to find Regan at her own home. And, later, Goneril arrives at
Gloster's house, in accordance with an intimation which she had sent in
her letter to Regan (II. iv. 186 f.).
Thus all the principal persons except Cordelia and Albany are brought
together; and the crises of the double action--the expulsion of Lear and
the blinding and expulsion of Gloster--are reached in Act III. And this
is what was required.
But it needs the closest attention to follow these movements. And, apart
from this, difficulties remain.
1. Goneril, in despatching Oswald with the letter to Regan, tells him to
hasten his return (I. iv. 363). Lear again is surprised to find that
_his_ messenger has not been sent back (II. iv. 1 f., 36 f.). Yet
apparently both Goneril and Lear themselves start at once, so that their
messengers _could_ not return in time. It may be said that they expected
to meet them coming back, but there is no indication of this in the
text.
2. Lear, in despatching Kent, says (I. v. 1):
Go you before to Gloster with these letters. Acquaint my
daughter no further with anything you know than comes from her
demand out of the letter.
This would seem to imply that Lear knew that Regan and Cornwall were at
Gloster's house, and meant either to go there (so Koppel) or to summon
her back to her own home to receive him. Yet this is clearly not so, for
Kent goes straight to Regan's house (II. i. 124, II. iv. 1, 27 ff., 114
ff.).
Hence it is generally supposed that by 'Gloster,' in the passage just
quoted, Lear means not the Earl but the _place_; that Regan's home was
there; and that Gloster's castle was somewhere not very far off. This is
to some extent confirmed by the fact that Cornwall is the 'arch' or
patron of Gloster (II. i. 60 f., 112 ff.). But Gloster's home or house
must not be imagined quite close to Cornwall's, for it takes a night to
ride from the one to the other, and Gloster's house is in the middle of
a solitary heath with scarce a bush for many miles about (II. iv. 304).
The plural 'these letters' in the passage quoted need give no trouble,
for the plural is often used by Shakespeare for a single letter; and the
natural conjecture that Lear sent one letter to Regan and another to
Gloster is not confirmed by anything in the text.
The only difficulty is that, as Koppel points out, 'Gloster' is nowhere
else used in the play for the place (except in the phrase 'Earl of
Gloster' or 'my lord of Gloster'); and--what is more important--that it
would unquestionably be taken by the audience to stand in this passage
for the Earl, especially as there has been no previous indication that
Cornwall lived at Gloster. One can only suppose that Shakespeare forgot
that he had given no such indication, and so wrote what was sure to be
misunderstood,--unless we suppose that 'Gloster' is a mere slip of the
pen, or even a misprint, for 'Regan.' But, apart from other
considerations, Lear would hardly have spoken to a servant of 'Regan,'
and, if he had, the next words would have run 'Acquaint her,' not
'Acquaint my daughter.'
NOTE V.
SUSPECTED INTERPOLATIONS IN _KING LEAR_.
There are three passages in _King Lear_ which have been held to be
additions made by 'the players.'
The first consists of the two lines of indecent doggerel spoken by the
Fool at the end of Act I.; the second, of the Fool's prophecy in rhyme
at the end of III. ii.; the third, of Edgar's soliloquy at the end of
III. vi.
It is suspicious (1) that all three passages occur at the ends of
scenes, the place where an addition is most easily made; and (2) that in
each case the speaker remains behind alone to utter the words after the
other persons have gone off.
I postpone discussion of the several passages until I have called
attention to the fact that, if these passages are genuine, the number of
scenes which end with a soliloquy is larger in _King Lear_ than in any
other undoubted tragedy. Thus, taking the tragedies in their probable
chronological order (and ignoring the very short scenes into which a
battle is sometimes divided),[270] I find that there are in _Romeo and
Juliet_ four such scenes, in _Julius Caesar_ two, in _Hamlet_ six, in
_Othello_ four,[271] in _King Lear_ seven,[272] in _Macbeth_ two,[273]
in _Antony and Cleopatra_ three, in _Coriolanus_ one. The difference
between _King Lear_ and the plays that come nearest to it is really much
greater than it appears from this list, for in _Hamlet_ four of the six
soliloquies, and in _Othello_ three of the four, are long speeches,
while most of those in _King Lear_ are quite short.
Of course I do not attach any great importance to the fact just noticed,
but it should not be left entirely out of account in forming an opinion
as to the genuineness of the three doubted passages.
(_a_) The first of these, I. v. 54-5, I decidedly believe to be
spurious. (1) The scene ends quite in Shakespeare's manner without it.
(2) It does not seem likely that at the _end_ of the scene Shakespeare
would have introduced anything _violently_ incongruous with the
immediately preceding words,
Oh let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!
Keep me in temper: I would not be mad!
(3) Even if he had done so, it is very unlikely that the incongruous
words would have been grossly indecent. (4) Even if they had been,
surely they would not have been _irrelevantly_ indecent and evidently
addressed to the audience, two faults which are not in Shakespeare's
way. (5) The lines are doggerel. Doggerel is not uncommon in the
earliest plays; there are a few lines even in the _Merchant of Venice_,
a line and a half, perhaps, in _As You Like It_; but I do not think it
occurs later, not even where, in an early play, it would certainly have
been found, _e.g._ in the mouth of the Clown in _All's Well_. The best
that can be said for these lines is that they appear in the Quartos,
_i.e._ in reports, however vile, of the play as performed within two or
three years of its composition.
(_b_) I believe, almost as decidedly, that the second passage, III. ii.
79 ff., is spurious. (1) The scene ends characteristically without the
lines. (2) They are addressed directly to the audience. (3) They destroy
the pathetic and beautiful effect of the immediately preceding words of
the Fool, and also of Lear's solicitude for him. (4) They involve the
absurdity that the shivering timid Fool would allow his master and
protector, Lear and Kent, to go away into the storm and darkness,
leaving him alone. (5) It is also somewhat against them that they do not
appear in the Quartos. At the same time I do not think one would
hesitate to accept them if they occurred at any natural place _within_
the dialogue.
(_c_) On the other hand I see no sufficient reason for doubting the
genuineness of Edgar's soliloquy at the end of III. vi. (1) Those who
doubt it appear not to perceive that _some_ words of soliloquy are
wanted; for it is evidently intended that, when Kent and Gloster bear
the King away, they should leave the Bedlam behind. Naturally they do
so. He is only accidentally connected with the King; he was taken to
shelter with him merely to gratify his whim, and as the King is now
asleep there is no occasion to retain the Bedlam; Kent, we know, shrank
from him, 'shunn'd [his] abhorr'd society' (V. iii. 210). So he is left
to return to the hovel where he was first found. When the others depart,
then, he must be left behind, and surely would not go off without a
word. (2) If his speech is spurious, therefore, it has been substituted
for some genuine speech; and surely that is a supposition not to be
entertained except under compulsion. (3) There is no such compulsion in
the speech. It is not very good, no doubt; but the use of rhymed and
somewhat antithetic lines in a gnomic passage is quite in Shakespeare's
manner, _more_ in his manner than, for example, the rhymed passages in
I. i. 183-190, 257-269, 281-4, which nobody doubts; quite like many
places in _All's Well_, or the concluding lines of _King Lear_ itself.
(4) The lines are in spirit of one kind with Edgar's fine lines at the