Hello everybody,
In Shakespeare's King Lear there is a memorable scene (Act IV sc.
6) in which Edgar saves his blind father Gloucester from the suicide he
wishes to commit from grief (he does not know Edgar is alive and passing
himself off as a beggar). Knowing his intention, he pretends to go along
with him tricks him into believing that he is on the edge of a cliff though
he isn't. Gloucester jumps and faints. When he comes too, Edgar persuades
him that he did in fact fall from that great height but that he was saved
miraculously. After that there is no more question of suicide. Before,
Edgar has said that he will cure his father of despair.
Despair as a sin against one of the theologal virtues (hope) was
considered as extremely dangerous to the soul in the middle ages. An
illustration of this is in F.Ohly's excellent book on The Damned and the
Elect. Shakespeare was certainly aware of this, as can be seen in the third
scene of the fifth act of Richard III where the ghosts of all the victims
of the wicked king tell him to despair and die.
I wonder whether the theme of a child saving his father (or mother)
from despair and voluntary death by tricking him is a medieval theme and if
anyone recognizes it from exempla or other parts of medieval (or any other)
literature.
Many thanks
Torfi H. Tulinius
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Torfi H. Tulinius, associate professor
University of Iceland
101 Reykjavik ICELAND
tel. +354 525 4562
fax +354 552 6806
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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