ABSTRACT
The world to which Lear belongs is a world beyond the scrutiny of the psychologist—it is, in its ideal form, a kingdom of ends; and it is in the light of this ideal form that Lear is known and realized as a human soul. Poetry is the language of this kingdom, and it is in poetry that vision fulfils itself in the tragic character. Images drawn from the dark resources of our minds, from the unconditioned places of our being, do not come to people in poetic drama, rich primarily in those ambiguities which guide the diagnosis of the clinical psychologist. They come rather as dark materials out of which the character, and through him Shakespeare, frames a new settlement of his spirit, a new order in his vision of the world. They are materials of his moral being, his moral vision. The tragic characters are, indeed, called upon to do what no other character is called upon to do.
