1 speare his deficiency in qualities on which Jonson himself set a very high value." In the "Discoveries," however, he expresses also his warm affection for Shakespeare, saying: "I loved the man, and do honour his memory on this side idolatry as much as any." Jonson was probably requested to write the poetical tribute to his friend and rival which was prefixed to the First Folio edition of the plays. He wrote also the short poem that was printed in the same book opposite Shakespeare's picture. The seven years that had passed since Shakespeare's death had mitigated the rivalry between the two men, and idealized the remembered friendship. The tribute of Jonson impresses us as the first many-sided and fairly adequate eulogy that Shakespeare's work received. Here is found what is perhaps the best single line on Shakespeare ever penned, namely: "He was not of an age, but for all time!" In the seven passages in Jonson's writings that concern Bacon there is not one touch of criticism. Jonson admired and honored Bacon completely, unqualifiedly, Shakespeare only partially. Of Bacon's eloquence Jonson said in the "Discoveries": No man ever spake more neatly, more presly [concisely], more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. His hearers could not cough, or look aside from him, without loss. He commanded where he spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end. 1 Article on Jonson, Dictionary of National Biography. Concerning Bacon's greatness Jonson tells us in the same work: "I have and do reverence him for the greatness that was only proper to himself, in that he seemed to me ever, by his work, one of the greatest men, and most worthy of admiration, that had been in many ages. In his adversity I ever prayed that God would give him strength; for greatness he could not want." How it would have surprised Ben Jonson to hear it suggested that Bacon, whom he warmly admired, wrote the plays that he criticized! But Bacon has expressed for us his ideas about poetry. Let us ask concerning one of these ideas whether it finds expression in Shakespeare's work. In the fourth section of Book Two of "The Advancement of Learning," Bacon defines poesy as "feigned history," that is, invented story, what we call fiction. He gives several reasons why poetry is superior to history. I quote one of these reasons: "Because true history propoundeth the successes and issues of actions not so agreeable to the merits of virtue and vice, therefore poesy feigns them more just in retribution and more according to revealed providence." Here Bacon makes poetic justice a fundamental, necessary element in poesy. Does any reader believe that Romeo and Juliet, Desdemona, Cordelia, in any proper sense deserve their fate? If they do not, is it probable that Bacon wrote the plays in which these characters go down to undeserved death? I believe that Shakespeare composed the works that we call his, but in any case, Bacon is a very great Elizabethan who especially and pre-eminently did not write these plays. STUDIES IN "KING LEAR" I. THE MANAGEMENT OF THE ACTION The story of King Lear, taken by itself, does not make a tragedy of the usual type. Lear's fatal step is the division of the kingdom and the disinheriting of Cordelia, and this comes at the very beginning of the play. This is the resolving incident, the tragic force in the life of the aged king. How he was led to perform this act, we are not told; but we see at once that the step is fatal, and anticipate the disastrous result. A flash of creative insight revealed to Shakespeare the possibility of combining with the dramatically imperfect action of the aged Lear, the complete story of Gloucester and his sons, which he found in Sidney's "Arcadia." In each story we see both filial devotion and filial ingratitude. Hence their combination makes upon us a unified impression. The late Professor Price analysed in an admirable article the structure of this play. He pointed out that the tragedy of Gloucester and Edmund has the stir and movement that are necessary to an effective drama. I quote a few sentences: The story of King Lear by itself, after the division of his kingdom and his quarrel with Cordelia, . . . . is only a psychological study. . . . It is the picture of an old man of splendid, but disordered intellect, sinking stage after stage, by reason of one deed of surpassing folly and cruelty, into hopeless ruin of fortune, into madness and death. In itself, therefore, the pitiful story of the mad king was, as Shakspere rightly saw, devoid of the true dramatic quality, and incapable of shaping itself into a real drama. This was the reason that led him, as I think, to supplement the story of Lear and Cordelia by the story of Gloucester and Edmund. . . . As the result of this fusion, it is the study of Lear's character and the picture of his mental decay that form the pathos and the vital charm of the poem; but it is the passion and the action of Edmund, the rise and downfall of his fortunes, that supply the form of the drama and its dramatic movement. Every attentive reader of the play must receive a vivid impression of the skill and the intimacy with which the stories of Lear and Gloucester have been welded together. Professor Price holds that the deft uniting of these stories by Shakespeare is "the highest achievement of constructive skill that the art of poetry has ever reached." 1 II. POETIC JUSTICE IN "KING LEAR" The phrase "poetic justice" reminds us that in poetry man have been accustomed to desire and expect that the good characters shall be rewarded and the evil characters punished. Bacon gives this as one reason why it is more "agreeable to the spirit of man" to read poetry than to read history. "Because true history propoundeth the successes and issues of actions not so agreeable to the merits of virtue and vice, therefore poesy feigns them more just in retribution, and more according to revealed providence." 2 1T. R. Price, "King Lear: a Study of Shakspere's Dramatic Method," Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. IX (1894), 165-181. Pp. 174-175. 'The Advancement of Learning, II, iv, 2. Pp. 101-102 in Wright's edition, Clarendon Press, 5th ed., 1900. We must stretch the imagination very far indeed to accept the propounder of this sentiment as the author of "King Lear"; for in this play, in the most important particulars, poetic justic is boldly disregarded. The noble, faithful Cordelia is put to death; and Lear himself, "more sinned against than sinning," is tormented by cruel children into madness, and hurried to his grave. Nahum Tate's altered version of "King Lear," first played in 1681, changed just these features, and thus returned to the happy ending of the older pre-Shakespearean play of "King Leir." In Tate's version neither Cordelia nor her father is allowed to die. Lear is restored to happiness and to his right mind. Cordelia is married to the good Edgar, and is made the reigning queen of England. The part of the Fool is omitted entirely. The play is made to close with the following words, which are spoken by Edgar: Our drooping Country now erects her Head, Peace spreads her balmy Wings, and Plenty blooms, It is a strange fact that this version of Tate kept the stage for about one half of the entire time that the drama has been in existence. For 157 years this was the accepted form of the play; the great actors, Garrick, Kemble, and Kean all used this version; and it was not until 1838 that Shakespeare's own form was restored to the stage by Macready. 1 Charles Lamb was justly indignant at this rewriting of 1 Furness' ed. of King Lear, p. 477. |