Her form was fair, her years were young,

But the chords of her spirit were all unstrung.
Once they had given forth their tone,

In richest melody had spoken;

Alas! they had sounded but once alone,

And then the strings had all been broken.

The breath of the whirlwind had wakened the strain,
Too wildly, too madly-they spoke not again.
Meekly the maiden her head did bow,

The fiend laid his cold hand on her brow:
Her gentle spirit had winged away,
Had left for ever its home of clay.

'Tis said, in the spring time's earliest hour,
When winter first yields to a mightier power,
When the grass is white over one lone tomb,
And the hoar frost is blighting the spring's first bloom,
A voice has been heard like the wild wind's sigh,
Mourning for her that beneath doth lie.

At times the chill breeze hath borne it along,
Like the sound of a wild and sorrowful song,
Mourning for her, who with aching breast
Had sought of the cold Ice Fiend for rest;
Who, weary of earth, in her madness had given
For a joyless rest all her hopes of heaven.

PUCK.

TEARS OF JOY AND GRIEF.

As the precious dews that distil only from a cloudless heaven, giving loveliness to every flower in its blossom, are our tears of joy. Beneath their gentle influence blooms no leaflet so frail that it shall perish-no lily that needs bow its slender stem.

But when the tears of stormy grief shall come, it is as the wild rain that beateth down from out a darkened and a shrouded sky. It will cast the smile of a fresh life over a world returning to the barrenness of earth; but in its fall hath many a flower been bruised, and many a tender stem hath its fierce torrent broken.

HAL.

DIFFICULT POINTS AND PASSAGES OF

SHAKSPERE'S PLAYS.

No, VI.-KING LEAR.

IT would be conjectured by any person, who, with a little reflection, should glance at the Dramatis Personæ, that Lear must contain many difficult passages. The simple fact of there being in it a madman, a pseudo-madman, and a fool, is quite sufficient to warn us at the onset that there are difficulties to be encountered of no ordinary class, and expressions to be explained, which would puzzle, for a time, even the most attentive reader. These, however, are so numerous, that even if the whole Magazine were to be given me to fill, I should scarcely be satisfied with the space allotted to me; if I were bound-either by a promise, or a sense of the necessity of such a proceeding—to examine and explain every sentence and expression which at first sight might startle and perplex the reader. Fortunately, however, a very great number of these will be made plain by a little consideration, and therefore I shall only mention those which are not so plain.

The first of these upon which I shall make any observations is in Act I. Sc. 4:-

"FOOL. For you trow, nuncle,

"The hedge sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,'

That it had its head bit off by its young;

So out went the candle and we were left darkling."

Once or twice in the course of this play, we find the fool making observations which could not fail of touching the king rather sharply. When, however, he does so, he finds an excellent method of getting out of the dilemma, by making some silly remark at the end of the speech, by which means the hearer may be induced to believe the whole speech without meaning. Another example of this may be found in Act I. Sc. 4, "For there was never yet fair woman, but she made mouths in a glass," &c.

A passage, the meaning of which is not very evident, is in Act I. Sc. 5.

"FOOL. The reason why the seven stars are no more than seven is a pretty reason.

LEAR. Because they are not eight?

FOOL. Yes, indeed, thou wouldst have made a good fool.

LEAR. To take it again perforce! Monster ingratitude.”

It is evident to the careful reader that the fool is endeavouring here to withdraw the thoughts of the unhappy Lear from the melancholy subject with which they are occupied; and it is a beautiful little exhibition of the tenderness of the good old king to his fool, which our sublime author has given us, when the wronged father turns from the contemplation of the griefs under which he labours, for a brief moment, to answer the ridiculous question of the fool, rather than chide him with impatience for his untimely wit. Instantly, however, do his thoughts recur to the wrongs he has suffered, and he meditates forcibly reclaiming the crown, which he now repents having given away: this is the meaning of the expression, " to take it again perforce."

There is an allusion in the following passage to an old saw, which I do not know the exact words.

"KENT. Good king, that must approve the common saw,

Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st

To the warm sun!"

of

It is evident, however, that the "coming to the sun,” alluded to, means having no house and home. This is also what Hamlet means by the expression, "I am too much i' the sun." As applied to Lear, it alludes to his having given up his home, and finding none to go to; in that of Hamlet, to his being cheated of royalty by Claudius, and, therefore, having no real home of his own, which he had a right to by hereditary succession.

Act II. Sc. 4:—

"FOOL. Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it; but the great one that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after."

This is addressed to Kent, for the purpose of answering his question,

"How chance the king comes with so small a train ?”,

and contains the very epitome of worldly wisdom. The fool seems

to say,

"Do you wonder that so few follow the king in his adversity? a very little knowledge of the world would teach you to hold by none that is declining in the heaven of fortune, lest you also decline; follow rather that star which is in the ascendant, that you may catch some glory from it, and rise with it."

Much has been said respecting the expression used by Lear, Act II. Sc. 4,

"Do you but mark how this becomes the house."

Theobald declares it to be unintelligible, and proposes to read "the use," which Warburton justly says "signifies less." This gentleman, however, does not quite understand it, but declares. it to be a "most expressive phrase." At this idea Dr. Johnson sneers, and declares that according to his belief no reader can be satisfied with it. He therefore gives us a reading which is intended to improve the text, and which he believes to have been originally written:

"Ask her forgiveness?

Do you but mark how this becometh-thus.
Dear daughter," &c.

I could not think that Shakspere would write so poor a passage, even if I could not see the peculiar force of the expression "house." "The house" is here used for the head of the house, and the force of the passage is," Do mark and see how well it becomes the master of the house to be kneeling for forgiveness to his inferior." Thus "the house" has a most powerful meaning. As a familiar example of the master of the house being called "the house," I may refer you to the constant habit in times not very far back of addressing the landlord of an inn, as "House!"

In Act III. Sc. 4, we have the following passage, which I think may require a little explanation, to make it intelligible to the generality of readers :—

"LEAR. Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than this? Consider him well: thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three of us are sophisticated. Thou art the thing itself, unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. Off-off-you lendingsCome, unbutton here."

To make this clear, it must first be remarked, that it is all addressed to Edgar, who is naked, by the king, who still retains his robes, as well as the other two to whom he alludes, namely, Kent and the fool. Seeing one less accommodated than himself, he instantly moralizes thus :-"Is then man supplied by nature with nought but this uncovered frame? This should be considered. Thou (to Edgar) art not indebted to the silk-worm, or the beast, or the sheep, for clothing; neither to the civet-cat for unnecessary perfume. We three are better provided, but thou art indebted to no art. If, then, this be so, these garments are but lendings, not Off with them, unbutton here." If understood in this passage.

our own.

way, we extract a very fine meaning from the

Act II. Sc. 4 :

"EDGAR. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet! he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock."

It may be well to remind the reader that all spirits walking the earth by night, are recalled to their several dwelling-places at the first cock-crowing. See Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 1:

"I have heard

The cock, that is the trumpet of the moru,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat,
Awake the God of day; and at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire,-in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine."

Lear's description of the flattery with which he was assailed in his prosperity, "They flattered me like a dog, and told me I had white hairs in my beard, ere the black ones were there; to say aye and no to everything that I said aye and no to, was no good divinity," (Act IV. Sc. 6,) reminds me strongly of the description of the flatterer in Juvenal, (III. 100,) which it may be interesting to the reader to compare with it. It runs thus::

"Rides? majore cachinno

Concutitur; flet, si lacrymas inspexit amici,

Nec dolet; igniculum brumæ si tempore poscas,
Accipit endromidem; si dixeris, 'Estuo,' sudat."

In the same scene, a very few lines farther on, we have a passage which has been brought forward by those who support the doctrine that the loss of his power was the cause of Lear's madness.