KEW IN FAVOUR 57 



Had this been in the era of newspaper 

 kodaking, we should no doubt have fuller 

 details of the King's madness, as to which 

 more or less doubtful stories leak out in the 

 memoirs and letters of the day. He is 

 described as wanting to climb the Pagoda, and 

 on being thwarted, throwing himself sulkily on 

 the ground, from which it took four or five 

 men three-quarters of an hour to raise him. 

 Another day he tried to throw himself out 

 of a window. The worst symptom was his 

 incessant garrulity : he would go on talking 

 for hours about everything or nothing. One 

 of the doctors once found him translating the 

 Court Calendar into doggerel Latin. The most 

 pathetic story is that of his being overheard 

 earnestly praying for his recovery. At times 

 he showed touches of humour and shrewdness. 

 He managed, though it had been forbidden, to 

 get hold of a copy of King Lear, Dr. Willis 

 not being strong in literature ; and when his 

 elder daughters were first allowed to visit him, 

 he told them " I am like poor Lear ; but thank 

 God ! I have no Regan, no Goneril, but three 

 Cordelias." Once he reproached Willis with 

 having given up his sacred calling for profit ; 



