_Edg._ Or image of that horror?
_Alb._ Fall, and cease!]
These two exclamations are given to Edgar and Albany in the folio, to
animate the dialogue, and employ all the persons on the stage; but they
are very obscure.
V.iii.301 (487,4) With boot] With advantage, with increase.
(488) General Observation. The tragedy of Lear is deservedly celebrated
among the dramas of Shakespeare. There is perhaps no play which keeps
the attention so strongly fixed; which so much agitates our passions and
interests our curiosity. The artful involutions of distinct interests,
the striking opposition of contrary characters, the sudden changes of
fortune, and the quick succession of events, fill the mind with a
perpetual tumult of indignation, pity, and hope. There is no scene which
does not contribute to the aggravation of the distress or conduct of the
action, and scarce a line which does not conduce to the progress of the
scene. So powerful is the current of the poet's imagination, that the
mind, which once ventures within it, is hurried irresistibly along.
On the seeming improbability of Lear's conduct it may be observed, that
he is represented according to histories 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 story is referred, it will appear not
so unlikely as while we estimate Lear's manners by our own. Such
preference of one daughter to another, or resignation of dominion on
such conditions, would be yet credible, if told of a petty prince of
Guinea or Madagascar. Shakespeare, indeed, by the mention of his earls
and dukes, has given us the idea of times more civilized, and of life
regulated by softer manners; and the truth is, that though he so nicely
discriminates, and so minutely describes 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 instances of cruelty are too
savage and shocking, and that the intervention of Edmund destroys the
simplicity of the story. These objections may, I think, be answered, by
repeating, that the cruelty of the daughters is an historical fact, to
which the poet has added little, having only drawn it into a series by
dialogue and action. But I am not able to apologize with equal
plausibility for the extrusion of Glo'ster's eyes, which seems an act
too horrid to be endured in dramatic exhibition, and such as must always
compel the mind to relieve its distress by incredulity. Yet let it be
remembered that our author well knew what would please the audience for
which he wrote.
The injury done by Edmund to the simplicity of the action is abundantly
recompensed by the addition of variety, by the art with which he is made
to co-operate with the chief design, and the opportunity which he gives
the poet of combining perfidy with perfidy, and connecting the wicked
son with the wicked daughters, to impress this important moral, that
villainy is never at a stop, that crimes lead to crimes, and at last
terminate in ruin.
But though this moral be incidentally enforced, Shakespeare has suffered
the virtue of Cordelia to perish in a just cause, contrary to the
natural ideas of justice, to the hope of the reader, and, what is yet
more strange, to the faith of chronicles. Yet this conduct is justified
by _The Spectator_, who blames Tate for giving Cordelia success and
happiness in his alteration, and declares, that, in his opinion, _the
tragedy has lost half its beauty_. Dennis has remarked, whether justly
or not, that, to secure the favourable reception of _Cato, the town was
poisoned with much false and abominable criticism_, and that endeavours
had been used to discredit and decry poetical justice. A play in which
the wicked prosper, and the virtuous miscarry, may doubtless be good,
because it is a just representation of the common events of human life:
but since all reasonable beings naturally love justice, I cannot easily
be persuaded, that the observation of justice makes a play worse; or,
that if other excellencies are equal, the audience will not always rise
better pleased from the final triumph of persecuted virtue.
In the present case the public has decided. Cordelia, from the time of
Tate, has always retired with victory and felicity. And, if my
sensations could add any thing to the general suffrage, I night relate,
I was many years ago so shocked by Cordelia's death, that I know not
whether I ever endured to read again the last scenes of the play till I
undertook to revise them as an editor.
There is another controversy among the critics concerning this play. It
is disputed whether the predominant image in Lear's disordered mind be
the loss of his kingdom or the cruelty of his daughters. Mr. Murphy, a
very judicious critic, has evinced by induction of particular passages,
that the cruelty of his daughters is the primary source of his distress,
and that the loss of royalty affects him only as a secondary and
subordinate evil. He observes with great justness, that Lear would move
our compassion but little, did we not rather consider the injured father
than the degraded king.
The story of this play, except the episode of Edmund, which is derived,
I think, from Sidney, is taken originally from Geoffry of Monmouth, whom
Hollinshed generally copied; but perhaps immediately from an old
historical ballad. My reason for believing that the play was posterior
to the ballad, rather than the ballad to the play, is, that the ballad
has nothing of Shakespeare's nocturnal tempest, which is too striking to
have been omitted, and that it follows the chronicle; it has the
rudiments of the play, but none of its amplifications: it first hinted
Lear's madness, but did not array it in circumstances. The writer of the
ballad added something to the history, which is a proof that he would
have added more, if more had occurred to his mind, and more must have
occurred if he had seen Shakespeare. [Johnson appends "A lamentable SONG
of the Death of King Leir and his Three Daughters"]