Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

Page 20 text:

14 THE AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANNUAL. warfare of animate and inanimate nature, in company with his master. Well is his devotion tested in the sad, eventful days that follow. Speaking to Kent, he says : That, sir, which serves and seeks for gain, And follows but for form. Will pack when it begins to rain And leave thee in the storm. But I will tarry : the fool will stay, And let the wise man fly ; The knave turns fool that runs away, The fool no knave, perdy. Now the King ' s troubles begin in all their frightful force, and henceforth his servant ' s only aim is to soothe and direct the mind weighed down by sorrow, constantly labor- ing to outjest his heartstruck injuries. How touching is the King ' s dependence on his Fool. When he leaves Goneril ' s castle, his last word is to him: so again at Gloucester ' s, in the bitterness of his grief, it is O fool, I shall go mad ! And in that weird and terrible scene where the old gray -haired L,ear braves the wild storm, and meets the half-clad madman, his love for the Fool is touching and pitiful. As they near a hovel, Lear says : In boy, go first, and as he seems to wait — Why get thee in. I ' ll pray and then I ' ll sleep. But the Fool rushes out terrified and trembling, and cries: Come not in here, Nuncle, here ' s a spirit. Help me, help me ! Then Kent says to the highstrung, delicate, sensitive creature: Give me thy hand. They enter and find Edgar, whose feigned madness adds to the wild effect of storm and tempest in na- ture and in the mind of the King. For now at last the dread insanity has come upon L,ear ; tenderly, lovingly, his Fool cares for him and humors his mad fancies. But we must leave the faithful friend of Cordelia, Kent and Lear. The King is borne to Dover, and as he departs, Kent says to the Fool : Come, help to bear thy master: thou must not stay behind. . Thus is recorded his last act of devotion. Perchance he perished on the long, weary trip ; we are not told. His presence in the final scenes might mar the beauty of Cordelia ' s grief and devotion, might detract from the terrible tragedy of the end. It is comforting to feel that he

Page 19 text:

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

Page 21 text:

THE AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANNUAL. 16 did not witness the despair and broken-hearted death of his loved master. But we are sad at parting with him, and can say with King Lear, of this tender, witty, faithful winning Fool: ' ' I have one part in my heart that ' s sorry yet tor thee. ' ' Virginia Lucas. Burns ' s Love of Nature as Shown in his Poetry. AT HEN WE THINK of the rough troubled life that Burns led, it is hard to realize that he was espe- cially the poet of Love and of Nature, and yet he was strong- ly influenced by the wild, touching beauty of the Scottish scener} ' . Do what We may, it is impossible to erase the im- pression that whenever the poet sang, his song came directly from the heart. There is something particularly beautiful in seeing this peasant poet ' s acquaintance with every sigh or smile of Na- ture ; there is not a glen or stream anywhere near his home that has not been immortalized by his song — the banks of Ayr, Doon, Afton, are as familiar to us as is the nearest brook. We see the sweet Afton, gliding from its source in the high hills, winding down, and passing by the house of his Ma 3 We know even better the banks of Ayr, for they seem to be so closely connected with all the poet ' s deepest sorrows. When we wander by these streams, we feel as if treading upon holy ground. Burns has described every phase of beauty or grandeur in Nature : the thunder-storm , when the wrath of heaven seemed turned upon the earth, or the summer loveliness, when the heavens laugh for joy, and the fields sing songs of peace. He has given us one particularly beautiful picture in gray, —