We feel what Edgar says, having seen the most suffering that man can bear. Yet evil
has lost: Edgar defeats Edmund; Goneril kills Regan and herself. Evil leaves the stage
to exhausted figures of order, but only at the cost of the lives of Gloucester, Lear,
Cordelia and Kent. Much earlier the Duke of Cornwall suffered a mortal wound
from a servant loyal to the Duke of Gloucester – who saw this with his then-remain-
ing eye. Cruelly treated children preserve the lives of their parents: Edgar succours
his blinded father, Cordelia her mad father.
In his preface to Tess (1891), Thomas Hardy supposes that Shakespeare endorses
the words of the blinded Gloucester: ‘As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They
kill us for their sport.’ But Gloucester speaks these words in the presence of his
wronged son Edgar, who continues to love and care for his father, twice saving him
from despair and suicide. He at last discloses himself to his father, whereat, on hear-
ing the true story of his son’s conduct, Gloucester’s heart ‘burst smilingly’: a happy
death. This wincing paradox offers the audience not woe or wonder, but woe and
wonder.
Earlier the maddened and exhausted Lear has been rescued, tended, allowed to
sleep, washed, dressed in new garments, and, to the sound of music, brought back to
life by his daughter. He feels unworthy and foolish and twice asks forgiveness, in an
affecting moment of love. When they are recaptured by their enemies, and sent to
prison together, Lear is delighted: ‘Come, let’s away to prison: / We two alone will
sing like birds i’ th’ cage: / When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down / And
ask of thee forgiveness.’ He adds: ‘Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, / The gods
themselves throw incense.’ Edgar had said to the defeated Edmund: ‘Let’s exchange
charity.’ Johnson notes: ‘Our author by negligence gives his heathens the sentiments
and practices of Christianity.’ It seems more likely that Shakespeare knew what he
was doing. Edmund repents – too late to save Cordelia. Lear thanks a man for undo-
ing a button, and calls him Sir.
The play is a struggle between good and evil – a play rather than a tract, but one
in which despair is resisted.Christianity does not pretend that goodness is rewarded
in this world. Johnson says that the virtue of Cordelia perishes in a just cause. As a
sincere Christian, Johnson would have to grant that Cordelia perishes but that her
soul does not.That is where Shakespeare leaves this most painful argument, at the
point of death, between this world and the next.
It is useful at this point to analyse the penultimate scene ofLear, a glimpse of
Shakespeare at work. Before the battle between the army of Cordelia and Lear on the
one hand and that of Edmund, Goneril and Regan on the other, Edgar asks his
father, Gloucester, to wait for him.
ACTV, SCENE2: Alarum within. Enter with drum & colours Lear, Cordelia, & soldiers
over the stage; Exeunt.
Enter Edgar disguised as a peasant, guiding the blind Duke of Gloucester.EDGAR: Here, father, take the shadow of this tree
For your good host; pray that the right may thrive.
If ever I return to you again I’ll bring you comfort.
GLOUCESTER: Grace go with you, sir. Exit Edgar
Alarum and retreat within. Enter Edgar
EDGAR: Away, old man. Give me your hand. Away. 5
King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta’en. are taken
GLOC: No further, sir. A man may rot even here.WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 131