Page 35 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

KIN G LEAR

often feel that a sense of profound sorrow underlies his
thrusting witticisms. Miss Welsford speaks of the Fool's
'tactless jokes and snatches of song' as springing 'evi-
1
dently from genuine grief'. She continues: 'The
sorrow underlying his shrewd sarcasm rises to the surface
when he interrupts Goneril's plausible scolding to give
us a sudden glimpse of the horror lurking behind an
apparently ludicrous situation'—and she quotes this
passage (with minor textual differences):

For you know, nuncle,
The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long
That it had it head bit off by it young.
So out went the candle, and we were left darkling.
(i. 4. 215-18)
Goneril and Regan, whom Lear has fostered and en-
riched, are going to destroy him in the end. The Fool
knows this long before Lear himself realizes what is
happening. The Fool is shrewd; but he is also terrified.
'Out went the candle, and we were left darkling.' Lear's
folly has produced a figurative darkness in the kingdom,
and darkness can be very frightening. Is there any
horror greater than that experienced by a child at night
if his candle goes out and he is left alone in the dark ? It
is horror of this kind that Lear's folly has brought down
upon those who love and honour him.
The Fool follows Lear out into the storm because the
wicked daughters will not harbour him—because he
loves Lear—because he wants to continue to teach him—
because he wants to comfort him (he 'labours to out-jest'
the king's 'heart-struck injuries'). But, paradoxically,
he follows him out into the storm for another reason also.
The Fool needs Lear, is totally dependent on him. No
matter how well-versed in both true morality and
Worldly wisdom, no matter how hard-boiled, this com-
1
See her book The fool (1935), p. 254.