Mr. Murphy, a
very judicious critic, has evinced by induction of particular passages,
that the cruelty of his daughters is the primary source of his distress,
and that the loss of royalty affects him only as a secondary and
subordinate evil. He observes with great justness, that Lear would move
our compassion but little, did we not rather consider the injured father
than the degraded king.
The story of this play, except the episode of Edmund, which is derived,
I think, from Sidney, is taken originally from Geoffry of Monmouth, whom
Hollinshed generally copied; but perhaps immediately from an old
historical ballad. My reason for believing that the play was posterior
to the ballad, rather than the ballad to the play, is, that the ballad
has nothing of Shakespeare's nocturnal tempest, which is too striking to
have been omitted, and that it follows the chronicle; it has the
rudiments of the play, but none of its amplifications: it first hinted
Lear's madness, but did not array it in circumstances. The writer of the
ballad added something to the history, which is a proof that he would
have added more, if more had occurred to his mind, and more must have
occurred if he had seen Shakespeare. [Johnson appends "A lamentable SONG
of the Death of King Leir and his Three Daughters"]
Vol. I
ROMEO AND JULIET
I.i.82 (9,7) Give me my long sword] The _long sword_ was the sword used
in war, which was sometimes wielded with both hands.
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