Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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12 THE AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANNUAL. The Fool : a Stud) from King Lear. TN ancient times, amid the purple hangings and - - gold fringed draperies of the royal court, where king and courtiers shone in their jeweled robes, often was seen the merry face of the court jester. Arrayed in motley robe, with shaven crown, and a long cowl surrounded by a cox- comb, right gaily did the fool jingle his bells and crack his jokes. A pleasant life was his. The only dut} of his office was to be witty, and hard a task as this would be to some of us, not so to him. We cannot help feeling a certain respect for this strange, quaint fellow. The difference is so great between one who intentionally and for sufficient rea- sons makes a fool of himself, and one who by nature is spared the task. Perhaps the kind hand of fortune has been more lavish than of yore; at an} rate the ancient fool has now no more employment. Yet he was a vast improvement on the ordinary modern affair. He openly confessed his vocation and gloried in his profession, and all his foolishness did not deprive him of constancy to those whom he served, and of kind and faithful affection. Keen to discern men ' s character, sharp to reveal their faults, his wit was of no ordinary kind, and even now it excites the envy of his many rivals. And if men must be fools of some kind, give me your good old fool with bells and hollow cap, rather than your modem one, with a hollow head and no cap. Of sterling quality was the jester who whiled away the hours for Lear, King of Ancient Britain ; a man of mature age and bright and winning parts, and of nervous, sensitive temperament was he who for many years was an atten- dant on the King. Perchance in other days he had played with a little Goneril and Regan, and had carried in his arms a bright-haired, blue-eyed Cordelia. And when this lovely babe grew tall and winsome, he still had tended her; with growing joy had watched her rounding form, her ripening lips and cheeks, the sweet unfolding of her womanhood. How well he knew her older sisters too: their dark, fierce

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THK AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANNUAL. 11 Call up him who left half told, The story of Caiiibuscaii bold, Of Cainbull atul of Algarsife, And who had Canace to wife. That owned the virtuous ring and glass. Still we see in her a bright, happy girl, delighted with the present of the wonderful ring and glass, full of pity and sorrow for the heart-broken falcon, carrying her home and, day and night, watching and caring for her till healed. What patterns of submission, patien ce, and loyalty are Uorigene, Griselda and Constance ! In them are portrayed some of woman ' s noblest traits. When Dorigene, sorrow- fully but submissively at the bidding of her super-chivalrotis husband, goes forth to keep her troth, for truthe is the hyest thing that man may kepe, her lover Aurelius gives his opinion of her character — As of the treweste and the beste wyf. That evere jet I knew in al my lyf. Griselda ' s patience is proverbial; but though the story of her many trials is interestingly and sweetly told, there is not enough of the earth, earthy, to make weak mortals realh ' admire her character. Constance, driven from her home by one mother-in-law, ' a scorpion, a wicked goost, a serpent under femy- mynytee, is kept by her faith in the cross of Christ fro the feend and fro his clawes, and when on reaching a strange land she is again plotted against, accused of murder, and brought before the King, help comes to her from heaven, proclaiming her innocence. No sooner has she married Alia, the King, than the second mother-in-law, Donegal , intercepts her letters and causes her to be sent away from the home where she had found new love and happiness. But at last, after all her wanderings and misfortunes, by means of the litel son, Maurice, and his resemblance to his mother, Constance and Alia came together again. ' •In joy and bliss at mete I let hem dw elle, A thousand foold wel moore than I kan telle ' Sue Browne Stribling.

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TIIK AUGUSTA SICMINARY ANNUAL. l ' eyes, the last vestige of far off southern blood, their flattery, deceit and jealousy. , King Lear was growing old, and as the years advanced his strength began to fail. Deceived by the promises of his wily daughters, and angered by Cordelia ' s seeming want of love, he divided his realm ; Cordelia ' s share was a curse, and her dog-hearted sisters received the whole do- main. Thus in the mind of Lear we see the first flash of madness, which flamed up twice or thrice, ere, like the fire of the prairie, it swept in awful fury over his whole being. Cordelia, under her father ' s frenzied curse, had left her na- tive shores to share the throne of the noble King of France. Time wore on : Goneril and Regan began to treat their kind old father with harshness and neglect. It is here that Shakespeare first mentions the Fool ; the King re- turned from the hunt, inquires for him. A knight replies : Since my young lady ' s going into France the fool hath much pined away. ' ' What a story is this of heartache and longing; ol secret tears and sad repining for her whose happy laughter and whose winsome ways had long lit up the royal palace. That graceful form, that sunny face had flitted through the winding corridors for the last time: the young, free-hearted girl was to return no more to her old home, and even her native land should never see her as she had been of yore. Now the Fool has a new and arduous task before him. Lear may still be persuaded to undo the folly which will else prove fatal . In a thousand ways he strives to show the King what has been his mistake and to warn him of his danger. But throughout the brilliant sallies of wit and ridi- cule, there sounds a strain of tenderness, which is echoed in the fond words of King Lear as he calls the Fool m} boy, lad and bears his cutting speeches without reproach. In his turn the Fool addresses his master in the most familiar terms, calling him Nuncle and even boy, and faithfully he follows him, striving to defend him from his cruel daughters. When the poor old King, enraged by her treatment, is leaving Goneril, the Fool cries out: Nuncle Lear, Nuncle Lear, tarry and take the fool with thee! Nor does he shrink from the rough journey, nor the fierce