Lear changes the form of his message, making clear the command implied in the wish of a king; yet hesitates to send the sterner bidding, moved by two motives: the desire to find some excuse for Regan and Cornwall which will lessen the evidence of their hostility to him, and the consciousness of that foolishness into which his own hasty actions have recently led him. The sight of Kent still in the stocks, however, is sufficient to break down his patience and he renews the command.

99. 'tends service: 'tends, for tends of folio, is an abbreviation of attends meaning awaits. Lear awaits proper service from Regan and also from Cornwall.

103. still: ever, always.

office: duty.

107. fall'n out with: am at variance with.

headier: more impetuous.

111. remotion: non-appearance.

112. practice: trick.

116. cry sleep to death: prevent all sleep.

Lear.

O me, my heart, my rising heart!

down!

But

Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels when she put 'em i' th' paste alive; she 120 knapped 'em o' th' coxcombs with a stick, and cried Down, wantons, down!' 'T was her brother that, in pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay. Enter Cornwall, Regan, Gloucester and Servants.

Lear. Good morrow to

you both.

Cornwall.

Hail to your grace!

(Kent is set at liberty.)

Regan. I am glad to see your highness.

125

119. cockney: a person versed in the ways of the city but in all else

most foolish. Here the reference is to a cook, but a cook who is indeed a foolish cook.

121. knapped: hit or knocked.

Lear's exclamation recalls lines 54, 55, and evidences the conflict between his emotions and his desire for self-control. The Fool by his foolishness must divert the king's mind and by so doing save him from the burden of those thoughts which lead to madness. This is indeed his professional duty; but here, as always, this Fool is something more than a professional jester; he is Lear's objectified conscience, holding before him the foolishness which has caused all the trouble. It hurts the Fool to jest thus. He is not lacking in sympathy, but like a doctor must draw out the fever which threatens Lear with madness. The cook and her brother, the groom, were equally foolish in their sentimentality; and it is this foolishness of ungoverned emotion which has brought Lear to his present sad condition.

During the rest of this soul-racking scene, Kent and the Fool are obliged to be silent, helpless witnesses as Lear is driven from his last frail vestige of self-control into complete madness. Their suffering is in a way greater than his own, and is for the Fool at least a step toward his own death for the time of his useful service to the king is nearing its end.

Lear. Regan, I think you are; I know what reason

I have to think so; if thou shouldst not be glad,

I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb,

Sepulchring an adulteress.

Oh, are you free?

Some other time for that.

Beloved Regan,

Thy sister's naught. O Regan, she hath tied
Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here!

I can scarce speak to thee; thou 'It not believe
With how deprav'd a quality-O Regan !

129. Sepulchring: to be accented on the second syllable. 130. that: a consideration of Kent's treatment.

132. here: over his heart where it may pluck at his very life.

130

In spite of his experience with Goneril, in spite of the forbidding reception which he has received, Lear is pathetically sure of Regan's love. If she were not glad to see him it would prove that she was no child of his and, therefore, that her mother had been an immoral woman. The expression of the 128th line is peculiar but clear: even after her death he would disown his wife if she were proven false to him through having borne him a child lacking in natural affection. He fails to see in the character of his daughter a natural nemesis of his own creation; and this indirect outbreak upon his wife accords with his unreasonable temper which may well have made her life a burden.

In his weakness he seeks comfort and, like a child to his mother, turns to Regan with a breaking voice. In his hunger for love he is a child; and only as a child, not as a man, can he be influenced.

Kent, who has been set free, attracts but a moment's attention. He finds himself set aside, and can only stand and wait-the hardest thing for a man of energy and power-stand and wait, while the king he loves is mocked and driven forth into the storm.