Page 48 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

I N T R O D U C T I O N jdiii
allocates the 'sight pattern' (in Heilman's phrase) to the
Gloucester story, and the 'madness pattern' to the Lear
story. But, recalling i. i, we realize all the time that the
two amount to the same thing. And just as Lear learns
his wisdom gradually, so does Gloucester. After he has
learned patience, Gloucester is, as Professor Danby
points out, 'constantly in danger of relapse... Edgar has
to rally him:
What, in ill thoughts again ? Men must endure
Their going hence, even as their coming hither;
Ripeness is all.' (5. 2. 9-11)
Gloucester has to be reminded, even at this late stage—•
though he is in no desperate state, for he can imme-
diately reply,
And that's true too.
But he did have to be reminded.
The two plots, then, despite differences between
them which lend independent interest to each, are the
same in fundamental significance; and Shakespeare
interweaves them with powerful effect, as, for instance,
in the tremendous episode in 4. 6 where the mad Lear
encounters the blinded Gloucester near Dover.

VIII. 'Nature*
One of the most important words in the play is the word
'Nature'; and this is a drama concerning the conflict
between two opposing conceptions of what that word
means. To some of the characters 'Nature' is a benign
force, binding all created things together in their true
relationships. 'Nature' in this sense implies that each
created thing is by all others readily allowed the privi-
leges belonging to its particular position in the universal
hierarchy, while, for its own part, it readily accepts its
obligations. 'Nature' in this sense involves harmonious