ABSTRACT
In the first scene of the play, Lear is a foolish old man who is led in the vanity of dotage to stage a scene to gratify his craving for affection. Thus Kenneth Muir, in the New Ardon. For Wilson Knight, A tremendous soul is incongruously geared to a puerile intellect. These are solidifications of Bradley's perception of the event: The rashness of his division of the kingdom troubles us, and we cannot but see with concern that its motive is mainly selfish. The absurdity of the pretence of making the division depend on protestations of love from his daughters, his complete blindness to the hypocrisy which is patent to us at a glance, his piteous delight in these protestations, the openness of his expressions of preference for his youngest daughter all make us smile, but all pain us. The catastrophe occurs because everyone is fixed in a role which is rigidly maintained by the programming of State.
