it is evident that she
has done no such thing, nor does the Gentleman show any curiosity on the
subject. (_c_) In the same scene (III. i.) Kent and the Gentleman
arrange that whichever finds the King first shall halloo to the other;
but when Kent finds the King he does not halloo. These are all examples
of mere carelessness as to matters which would escape attention in the
theatre,--matters introduced not because they are essential to the plot,
but in order to give an air of verisimilitude to the conversation. And
here is perhaps another instance. When Lear determines to leave Goneril
and go to Regan he says, 'call my train together' (I. iv. 275). When he
arrives at Gloster's house Kent asks why he comes with so small a train,
and the Fool gives a reply which intimates that the rest have deserted
him (II. iv. 63 ff.). He and his daughters, however, seem unaware of any
diminution; and, when Lear 'calls to horse' and leaves Gloster's house,
the doors are shut against him partly on the excuse that he is 'attended
with a desperate train' (308). Nevertheless in the storm he has no
knights with him, and in III. vii. 15 ff. we hear that 'some five or six
and thirty of his knights'[269] are 'hot questrists after him,' as
though the real reason of his leaving Goneril with so small a train was
that he had hurried away so quickly that many of his knights were
unaware of his departure.

This prevalence of vagueness or inconsistency is probably due to
carelessness; but it may possibly be due to another cause. There are, it
has sometimes struck me, slight indications that the details of the plot
were originally more full and more clearly imagined than one would
suppose from the play as we have it; and some of the defects to which I
have drawn attention might have arisen if Shakespeare, finding his
matter too bulky, had (_a_) omitted to write some things originally
intended, and (_b_), after finishing his play, had reduced it by
excision, and had not, in these omissions and excisions, taken
sufficient pains to remove the obscurities and inconsistencies
occasioned by them.

Thus, to take examples of (_b_), Lear's 'What, fifty of my followers at
a clap!' (I. iv. 315) is very easily explained if we suppose that in the
preceding conversation, as originally written, Goneril had mentioned the
number. Again the curious absence of any indication why Burgundy should
have the first choice of Cordelia's hand might easily be due to the same
cau