258 shakspeare's writings. 



himself no other than simple William Shakspeare, 

 with his daughter Judith alive by the side of his 

 couch, instead of a Cordelia dead in his arms — Less 

 than, perhaps, any other character does King Lear 

 bear the evidence of study. It is the spontaneous 

 effort of an o'er wrought mind, swelling with its 

 supercharge o{ nature to the entire exclusion of every 

 thmg art^cial, and delivered in the pure unsophis- 

 ticated language of truth. In this instance, the 

 vividness of Shakspeare's imagination and the in- 

 tensity of his feeling, are not more extraordinary 

 than his power of making the reader understand, 

 feel and appreciate. In ordinary cases, his language 

 is frequently vulgar, obscure, and diffuse ; but, in 

 subjects of. weightier import, he seems to acknow- 

 ledge no difficulty. What other writers would 

 labour to produce, he pens under momentary impulse, 

 and relieves the intensity of his thoughts in a manner 

 at once dignified, clear, and concise. But for this 

 power, he might have imagined Lear, but could not 

 have pourtrayed him. His language, unmatched 

 with his thoughts, had swollen into bombast ; and 

 metaphorical exuberance would have made that 

 ridiculous, which was only to be rendered effective 

 by the language of Nature. Othello, on the con- 

 trary, gairis by the adjunct of poetry. The moor is 

 a warrior and a lover ; and carries the romance, 

 which distinguished his courtship into the revenge 

 which destroys his wife. Lear is merely an aged 

 father, whose paternal affection is not founded on 

 romance, and whose subsequent conduct is equally 

 free from poetic coloring. Both are alike perfect in 

 their composition ; but, it is possible to conceive a 

 man painting an Othello, who might be yet unable 

 to form a Lear. In the Moor, Shakspeare raised 

 himself above all competitors — in the Monarch he 

 soared beyond himself! — 



It is only by comparing one character with another, 

 that we are enabled in any way to do justice to our 

 author : and Lear and Othello are, in themselves, so 



