THE THEATRE.

SHAKESPEARE'S " KING LEAR " AT THE " OLD VIC." IF managers had what is called in journalism a " sense of news," if they had an instinctive knowledge, that is, of what the public were thinking and talking about, of what was topical, I think we should see King Lear put on for a run at more than one " West-End " theatre. We are all interested in psychology more or less intelligently—and here is an illuminating study of several of the types of morbid psychology which may be produced by family contact. In Lear, as has been pointed out, we are shown every human relationship gone sour. There are daughters who hate their father, fathers who nurse their children, wives who betray their husbands, lovers who play their mis- tresses false, sisters who hate one another. There is only one type of sin within the family which we could add to this list, and I wonder that Shakespeare, who treated of it in Pericles, (lid not load his dark scene with this further horror. But Shakespeare probably knew to a nicety the exact point at which the audience ceases to be able to endure more and will fly the theatre rather than be further harrowed. With Lear's, the Fool's and Poor Tom's madness contrasted and compared on that night of storm he perhaps felt he had gone far enough and dare try us no further. Mr. Russell Thorndike as Lear, Mr. Rupert Harvey as Edgar feigning to be Poor Tom, Mr. Wilfrid Walter as Kent, and Mr. Andrew Leigh as the Fool gave magnificent performances in this scene.

LEAR. . . . the tempest in my mind

Doth from my senses take all feeling else Save what beats there . . .

. . . But I will punish home :

No, I will weep no more. In such a night

To shut me out Pour on ; I will endure.

In such a night as this ! 0 Regan, Coned! ! Your old, kind father, whose frank heart gave all- 0 ! that way madness lies ; let me shun that ; No more of that.

Storm still. Enter Edgar disguised as a madman.

EDGAR. Away ! the foul fiend follows me !

Through the sharp hawthorn blow the winds.

Hum I go to thy cold bed and warm thee.

LEAR. Didst thou give all to thy two daughters ?

Art thou come to this ?

EDGAR. Who gives anything to poor Tom ? whom the foul

fiend bath led through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, o'er bog and quagmire ; . . . Tom's a-cold, 0 ! do de, do de, do de. Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting and taking ! Do poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes . . .

LEAR. What ! have his daughters brought him to this pass ? Couldst thou save nothing ? Didst thou give them all ? Kxtrr. He hath no daughters, sir.

LEAR. Death, traitor ! nothing could have subdued nature To such a lowness, but his unkind daughters. EDGAR. Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill : Halloo, halloo, loo, loo ! Foot. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.

EDGAR. Take heed o' the foul fiend. Obey thy parents ; keep thy word justly ; swear not ; commit not with man's sworn spouse ; set not they sweet heart on proud array. Tom's a-cold.

It is curious to recall that Nahum Tate in the revised version which he made about 1680 not only makes the play end happily " to the innocent distressed persons," but cute out the character of the Fool altogether, so ruining this incomparable scene.

Mr. Rupert Harvey's appearance here was wonderful, his " naked man " only lacked the usual arrows to make him the complete late Italian or Spanish St. Sebastian.

I take exception to one thing in Mr. Thorndike's excellent performance as the King, he did not put quite enough tenderness into the phrase

:-

"Your old, kind father, whose frank heart gave all."

Just for a moment there I feel that Lear is entirely sane and entirely heartbroken. Greater differentiation of this passage would have added greater weight to the wonderfully observant self-centredness of madness which makes Lear conclude directly that it is Poor Tom's daughters that have brought him to this.

The Editor cannot accept responsibility for any article, poems, or I never can quite believe that the otherwise rather heavy and letters submitted to him, but when stamped and addressed envelopes dull Edgar could have shammed mad so magnificently. But are sent he will do his beat to return contributions in case of rejection. Shakespeare unquestionably was fascinated, as we all must be, Poems should be addressed to the Poetry Editor• by the problem of madness, and had ho 'been another than

Shakespeare, who apparently sucked knowledge from the air,

we should say he had studied it profoundly. The student of King Lear may remember that he makes Gloucester state one of the psycho-analysts' points for them exactly. The patient very often does not so much fall into madness, Mr. Bernard Hart points out in his Psychology of Insanity, as take refuge in it as the only solution of an impossible situation. The mind

is at war with itself. Lear literally " cannot bear " to think of his daughter's conduct and his own folly ; a state of intolerable tension and conflict has arisen, it has got to be solved somehow, and madness, with its unreal world, its alteration of values, serves as a retreat when the King can no longer face the world of reality.

Gr.o. The king is mad : how stiff is my vile sense, That I stand up, and barn ingenious feeling Of my huge sorrows ! Better I were distract : So should my thoughts bo sever'd from my griefs, And woes by wrong imaginations lose The knowledge of themselves.

Gloucester has tried in vain to reach the solution of suicide, and sees that here is another way in which thoughts can be severed from too pressing griefs, and so envies Lear. TARN.