SOURCE: Jayne, Sears. “Charity in King Lear.” Shakespeare Quarterly 15, no. 2 (spring 1964): 277-88.

In the following essay, Jayne advocates a pessimistic reading of King Lear, focusing on the lack of charity among the characters.

In Christopher Morley's novel, The Haunted Bookshop,¹ the proprietor of the shop, confessing that he has never read King Lear, gives as his reason, “If I were ever very ill, I would only need to say to myself, ‘You can't die yet, you haven't read Lear.’” The judgment implied in this remark is, of course, that of a man who has read the play, and is perfectly sound in its suggestion that King Lear belongs among the extremities of human experience. It is a play of the most shattering impact. Violent in language and even more violent in action, it staggers the sensibilities with a relentless torrent of quarrels, curses, stabbings, and a blinding. It...