Page:Some Textual Difficulties in Shakespeare.djvu/103

Rh of ideas; they spring out of one another upon the mere suggestion of words—first one reminder and then another. On the same principle, the "ay and no" conception was started up in Lear's mind by Gloucester's "I—know—that voice." So also the "Peace, peace," reminded him of a "piece" of something which for his present purposes happened to be cheese.

The insane mind, in its highly imaginative form, is the prey of the least suggestion; and like the sane mind it moves easiest along the line of similarities, as in these cases. Next to ideas aroused by mere similarities of words, Lear's mind most easily enlarges upon an idea by thinking of its opposite. "There's your press-money." That moment he is thinking of war; he has enlisted or impressed a soldier, and the soldier does not draw the bow to suit him. Suddenly his mind jumps to "Peace, peace; this piece of toasted cheese will do 't." The very opposite of military power, brute force, is the small shrewdness of catching a mouse. From thinking of war he thought of peace, and the suggested "piece" furnished him with just what he wanted—something quite shrewd and the very opposite of war. Lear had been anything but shrewd all through his life; and the mind always likes to think itself that which it is not. But instantly there is a reaction and he is the old mandatory Lear who knows nothing but power—"there's my gauntlet; I'll prove it on a giant." And finally