Soon after Perillus laments over Leir's evil case when his daughters begin to treat him cruelly, calling him "the myrour of mild patience" (p. 403), an expression resembling King Lear's words, " I will be the pattern of all patience" (III. ii. 37), and says later (p. 403):

Well, I will counsel him the best I can.
Would I were able to redress his wrong;
Yet what I can, unto my utmost power,

He shall be sure of to the latest hour.

And later still (p. 406), he joins his master in disguise as Kent joins Lear, and on Leir asking,

What man art thou that takest any pity
Upon the worthless state of old [King] Leir,

Perillus replies,

One that doth bear as great a share of grief
As if it were my dearest father's case.

Though there is little or no resemblance between the mild Perillus and fiery Kent, yet they have this in common, each follows his master's "sad steps" "from their first of difference and decay" to the end. Again, in the unscrupulous "Messenger" of the old play we doubtless have the origin of Oswald; with little otherwise in common, one is as ready as the other to carry out the base and criminal orders of their respective mistresses.

Now, though we have thus seen that this old play unquestionably furnished our poet with some important details, and it may indeed, as Malone darkly hints, have suggested to his mind the idea of dramatising the subject, and though it is not without merit, having some very pathetic scenes, notably one describing the meeting in

France between Cordella and her father, which the writer of "Hohenlinden " and " The Battle of the Baltic" could not read with dry eyes, we must not forget what a gulf there is between it and Shakespeare's marvellous presentation. Nowhere, I think, has he or any other hand given to the world a work more deeply and truly pathetic. With that key so peculiarly his own, he has here fairly unlocked the gates of pity and terror; and that out of apparently such unpromising materials he should have created such a matchlessly wondrous and perfect result, must indeed be regarded as one of the greatest miracles in all art. We must never, indeed, forget that whatever hints he may have taken as to the rude plan of his work from this or any other quarter, of the real King Lear there is but one source or fountainhead from which he drew, and that is the depths of his own ever-prolific imagination.

The story of King Lear and his three daughters is a very old one, probably of Celtic origin; Welsh, and possibly having a still more ancient Irish original. Professor Rhys thus writes to me: "Although I know no trace of the story of King Lear in Welsh literature, I see no reason whatever for supposing that Geoffrey invented it, but I think rather that he found it in a Celtic story." Since I received the above from Professor Rhys, he has kindly referred me to his Celtic Folk-Lore (Clarendon Press (1901), p. 547), where I read the following:-" As to the Leir of Geoffrey's Latin, that name looks as if given its form on the strength of the legr of Legraceaster, the Anglo-Saxon name for the town of Leicester, on which William of Malmesbury

writes: Legroceastre est civitas antiqua in mediteraneis Anglis a Legra fluvio præterfluente sic vocata' (Gesta Pontificium, paragraph 176). Professor Stevenson, how

ever, with much plausibility, regards Legra as an old name of the river Soar, and as surviving in that of the village of Leire, spelled 'Legre' in the Doomsday Book."

Professor Rhys also informs me that the translation of The Red Book of Jesus College calls Leir always Llyr," which is the Welsh for the Irish Lir in such names as Mannannan Mac Lir, but that this Llyr is nearly quite unconnected with Welsh literature, and is mixed up with the Lludd Llawereint, the Welsh equivalent of the Irish king, Nuada Arget Lamh, that is, Lludd or Nuada of the Silver Hand; and Professor Rhys has no doubt that the name of the daughter of this Lludd, the Creurdilad of The Black Book of Carmarthen, and Creeidylat in the Kulhwch and Olwen story, is the basis (at several removes perhaps) of the name Cordelia in Shakespeare's King Lear.

The earliest known account, however, of the story of King Leir and his three daughters is contained in the celebrated Historia Britonum of Geoffrey of Monmouth, written about 1135, dedicated to Robert, Earl of Gloucester, and professedly translated from a Welsh, some say a Breton, MS.

I here give a translation of Geoffrey's chronicle by Thompson, revised by Giles. As far as it deals with the events related in King Lear, it is given unabridged; after Lear's departure to France the outline is only sketched.

"Leir, the son of Bladud, was advanced to the throne, and nobly governed his country sixty years. He built, upon the river Sore, a city called in the British tongue Kaer Leir, in the Saxon Leircestre. He was without male issue, but had three daughters, whose names were Gonorilla, Regau, and Cordeilla, of whom he was dotingly fond; but especially of his youngest Cordeilla. When he began to grow old, he had thoughts of dividing his kingdom among them, and of bestowing on them such husbands as were fit to be advanced to the government with them. But to make trial who was worthy of the best part of his kingdom, he went to each of them to ask which of them loved him most. The question being proposed, Gonorilla, the eldest, made answer 'that she called Heaven to witness, she loved him more than her own soul.' The father replied: 'Since you have preferred my declining age before your own life, I will marry you, my dearest daughter, to whomsoever you shall make choice of, and give with you the third part of my kingdom.' Then Regau, the second daughter, willing after the example of her sister to prevail on her father's good nature, answered with an oath, 'that she could not otherwise express her thoughts but that she loved him above all creatures.' The credulous father upon this made her the same promise that he did to her eldest sister, that is the choice of a husband with the third part of his kingdom ('cum alia tertia parte regni,' Geoffrey). But Cordeilla, the youngest, understanding how easily he was satisfied with the flattering expressions of her sisters, was desirous to make trial of his affection after a different manner. 'My father,' said she, 'is there any daughter

that can love her father more than duty requires? In my opinion, whoever pretends to it must disguise her real sentiments under the veil of flattery; I have always loved you as a father, nor do I yet depart from my purposed duty; and if you insist to have something more extorted from me, hear now the greatness of my affection which I always bear you, and take this for a short answer to all your questions: look how much you have, so much is your value, and so much I love you.' The father, supposing she spoke this out of the abundance of her heart, was highly provoked, and immediately replied, 'Since you have so far despised my old age as not to think me worthy the love that your sisters express for me, you shall have from me the like regard, and shall be excluded from any share with your sisters in my kingdom. Notwithstanding I do not say but that since you are my daughter, I will marry you to some foreigner if fortune offers you any such husband; but will never, I do assure you, make it my business to procure so honourable a match for you as for your sisters; because, though I have hitherto loved you more than them, you have, in requital, thought me less worthy your affections than they.' And without further delay, after consultation with his nobility, he bestowed his two other daughters upon the Dukes of Cornwall and Albania, with half the island at present, but after his death the inheritance of the whole monarchy of Britain. happened, after this, that Aganippus, King of the Franks, having heard the fame of Cordeilla's beauty, forthwith sent his ambassadors to the king to demand her in marriage. The father, retaining yet his anger towards

It