not founded on gallantry and love; and that Boileau was mistaken, when he affirmed, -de l'amour la sensible peinture, Est pour aller au cœur la route la plus sûre. Those tender scenes that pictured love impart, The distresses in this tragedy are of a very uncommon nature, and are not touched upon by any other dramatic author. They are occasioned by a rash resolution of an aged monarch of strong passions and quick sensibility, to resign his crown and to divide his kingdom amongst his three daughters; the youngest of whom, who was his favourite, not answering his sanguine expectations in expressions of affection to him, he forever banishes, and endows her sisters with her alloted share. Their unnatural ingratitude, the intolerable affronts, indignities, and cruelties he suffers from them, and the remorse he feels from his imprudent resignation of his power, at first inflame him with the most violent rage, and, by degrees, drive him to madness and death. This is the outline of the fable. I shall confine myself at present to consider singly the judgment and art of the poet, in describing the origin and progress of the distraction of Lear; in which, I think, he has succeeded better than any other writer; even than Euripides himself, whom Longinus so highly commends for his representation of the madness of Orestes. It is well contrived, that the first affront that is offered Lear should be a proposal from Goneril, his eldest daughter, to lessen the number of his knights, which must needs affect and irritate a person so jealous of his rank and the respect due to it. He is at first astonished at the complicated impudence and ingratitude of this design; but quickly kindles into rage, and resolves to depart instantly : Darkness and devils! Saddle my horses, call my train together- This is followed by a severe reflection upon his own folly for resigning his crown; and a solemn invocation to nature, to heap the most horrible curses on the head of Goneril, that her own offspring may prove equally cruel and unnatural : -that she may feel, How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is When Albany demands the cause of this passion, Lear answers, 'I'll tell thee!' but immediately cries out to Goneril Life and death! I am ashamed, That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus. Th' untented woundings of a father's curse Pierce every sense about thee! He stops a little and reflects : Ha! is it come to this? Let it be so! I have another daughter, When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails He was, however, mistaken; for the first object he encounters in the castle of the Earl of Gloucester, whither he fled to meet his other daughter, was his servant in the stocks; from whence he may easily conjecture what reception he is to meet with: -Death on my state! Wherefore Should he sit here? He adds immediately afterwards, O me, my heart! my rising heart!-but down. By which single line the inexpressible anguish of his mind, and the dreadful conflict of opposite passions with which it is agitated, are more forcibly expressed, than by the long and laboured speech, enumerating the causes of his anguish, that Rowe and other modern tragic writers would certainly have put into his mouth. But nature, Sophocles, and Shakspeare, represent the feelings of the heart in a differcnt manner; by a broken hint, a short exclamation, a word, or a look: They mingle not, 'mid deep-felt sighs and groans, No flowery far-fetched thoughts their scenes admit; J. W. When Jocasta, in Sophocles, has discovered that Edipus was the murderer of her husband, she immediately leaves the stage; but in Corneille and Dryden she continues on it during a whole scene, to bewail her destiny in set speeches. I should be guilty of insensibility and injustice, if I did not take this occasion to acknowledge that I have been more moved and delighted by hearing this single line spoken by the only actor of the age who understands and relishes these little touches of nature, and therefore the only one qualified to personate this most difficult character of Lear, than by the most pompous declaimer of the most pompous speeches in Cato or Tamerlane. In the next scene, the old king appears in a very distressful situation. He informs Regan, whom he believes to be still actuated by filial tenderness, of the cruelties he had suffered from her sister Goneril, in very pathetic terms: -Beloved Regan, Thy sister's naught-O Regan! she hath tied It is a stroke of wonderful art in the poet to represent him incapable of specifying the particular ill usage he has received, and breaking off thus abruptly, as if his voice was choked by tenderness and resentment. When Regan counsels him to ask her sister forgiveness, he falls on his knees with a very striking kind of irony, and asks her how such supplicating language as this becometh him : — Dear daughter, I confess that I am old; That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food. But being again exhorted to sue for reconciliation, the advice wounds him to the quick, and forces him into execrations against Goneril, which, though they chill the soul with horror, are yet well suited to the impetuosity of his temper: She hath abated me of half my train; Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue, Most serpent-like, upon the very heart All the stored vengeances of Heaven fall On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones, Ye taking airs, with lameness! Ye nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames The wretched king, little imagining that he is to be outcast from Regan also, adds, very movingly: -'T is not in thee To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train, The offices of nature, bond of childhood- That the hopes he had conceived of tender usage from Regan should be deceived, heightens his distress to a great degree. Yet it is still aggravated and increased by the sudden appearance of Goneril; upon the unexpected sight of whom he exclaims, -Who comes here? O heavens! If you do love old men, if your sweet sway Make it your cause, send down and take my part! This address is surely pathetic beyond expression; it is scarce enough to speak of it in the cold terms of criticism. There follows a question to Goneril, that I have never read without tears: sions. Ar't not ashamed to look upon this beard? This scene abounds with many noble turns of passion; or rather conflicts of very different pasThe inhuman daughters urge him in vain, by all the sophistical and unfilial arguments they were mistresses of, to diminish the number of his train. He answers them by only four poignant words: I gave you all! When Regan at last consents to receive him, but |