History & The Arts
Leo Tolstoy on King Lear
...cast them with the waters that they lose to temper clay." And so on. After this, Lear sends Kent, whom he still fails to recognize, to his other daughter, and notwithstanding the despair he has just manifested, he talks with the fool, and elicits his jokes. The jokes continue to be mirthless and besides creating an unpleasant feeling, similar to shame, the usual effect of...