h different in kind,
would probably have been equal in magnitude: though I think it very
doubtful, whether even then the change of the catastrophe would not have
been a deformity, rather than an improvement. Unquestionably our
affection for persecuted virtue is strengthened by the very distresses
in which it is involved. The triumph of Cordelia would certainly draw
from us an instantaneous acknowledgment of satisfaction: but the
impression could not be lasting; while her fall is fixed more deeply on
the attention, and raises a more permanent feeling of pity for her
sufferings, and indignation against her persecutors. Shakspeare must
have thought so, when he chose, in violation of the truth of history, to
deprive her of poetical justice. To conclude the question relative to
the catastrophe, it is utterly impossible that the mind of Lear should
be capable of surviving so violent a change of circumstances. In the
original, he is very naturally represented by Shakspeare as bending
under the weight of his calamities, and expiring of a broken heart.

"_Enter Lear, with Cordelia dead in his arms._

"_Lear._ Howl, howl, howl, howl!--O, you are men of stones;
Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so
That heaven's vault should crack:--O, she is gone forever!--
I know, when one is dead, and when one lives;
She's dead as earth.----

"Cordelia, Cordelia, stay a little. Ha!
What is't thou says't?--Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle, and low; an excellent thing in woman:--
I kill'd the slave that was a hanging thee.
And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life:
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,
And thou no breath at all? O, thou wilt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!--

"Pray you, undo this button: Thank you sir.--
Do you see this?--Look on her,--look,--her lips,--
Look there,--look there!-- [_He dies._"

What a "luxury of wo" does this exquisite scene afford? What can Tate
produce to counterbalance its value?

The next material alteration is the intrusion of love.[J] Cordelia is in
love with Edgar. Why, of what an abominable taste must that man have
been possessed, who in his sober senses could think of thus corrupting
the noble simplicity of Cordelia's character. As for the language of
love here introduced, it is about equal to what might be looked for from
such a man. Take for a specimen an exquisitely pithy scene of about t