s the fact that he is not known to have
been represented as a boy or youth till Macready produced _King
Lear_.[177]

But even if this obstacle were serious and the Fool were imagined as a
grown man, we may still insist that he must also be imagined as a timid,
delicate and frail being, who on that account and from the expression of
his face has a boyish look.[178] He pines away when Cordelia goes to
France. Though he takes great liberties with his master he is frightened
by Goneril, and becomes quite silent when the quarrel rises high. In the
terrible scene between Lear and his two daughters and Cornwall
(II. iv. 129-289), he says not a word; we have almost forgotten
his presence when, at the topmost pitch of passion, Lear suddenly turns
to him from the hateful faces that encompass him:

You think I'll weep;
No, I'll not weep:
I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws
Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad.

From the beginning of the Storm-scenes, though he thinks of his master
alone, we perceive from his words that the cold and rain are almost more
than he can bear. His childishness comes home to us when he runs out of
the hovel, terrified by the madman and crying out to the King 'Help me,
help me,' and the good Kent takes him by the hand and draws him to his
side. A little later he exclaims, 'This cold night will turn us all to
fools and madmen'; and almost from that point he leaves the King to
Edgar, speaking only once again in the remaining hundred lines of the
scene. In the shelter of the 'farm-house' (III. vi.) he revives, and
resumes his office of love; but I think that critic is right who
considers his last words significant. 'We'll go to supper i' the
morning,' says Lear; and the Fool answers 'And I'll go to bed at noon,'
as though he felt he had taken his death. When, a little later, the King
is being carried away on a litter, the Fool sits idle. He is so benumbed
and worn out that he scarcely notices what is going on. Kent has to
rouse him with the words,

Come, help to bear thy master,
Thou must not stay behind.

We know no more. For the famous exclamation 'And my poor fool is hanged'
unquestionably refers to Cordelia; and even if it is intended to show a
confused association in Lear's mind between his child and the Fool who
so loved her (as a very old man may confuse two of his children), sti