“With a host of furious fancies, Whereof I am commander:
With a burning spear, And a horse of air, To the wilderness I wander;
With a knight of ghosts and shadows, Summoned am I to tournay : Ten leagues beyond The wide world's end ;
Methinks it is no journey !” What can be said of the Fool 2 What can be thought -
of him 7
Fool he was not, in the sense of lack of wisdom
or of knowledge. He is as individualized and unique as any character in Shakespeare. He is Jacques with a cap and bells, and a gay affectionate temper. He is a spiritua lized and poetical Sancho Panza, and, like him, adds to the sadness of the tale by the introduction of ridiculous images: for of Lear it may be said, as Byron said of Don Quixote: “Of all tales 'tis the saddest—and more sad
Because it makes us laugh.”
Shakespeare represents his other fools as mere orna ments and appendages to the tale, the grinning gurgoils of his structure: but the fool in Lear is an important
character, a buttress of the tale.) It is through him that Lear first gets into trouble with his dog-hearted daughter. Lear loves him, and he loves Cordelia, and thus there is a bond
of affection which
knits him to the two as
part of the family. His reckless and all-licensed speeches serve the part of the Greek chorus in explaining many things which would not otherwise be so readily intelligible. Altogether, his child-like affection to Cordelia, his devoted attachment to the king, his daring contempt for the bad daughters, his profound insight into the motives of human action cynical yet tempered by love, render him a most charming character, and give him an easy pre-eminence
