King Lear | Tragic Form in Shakespeare

In this brief excerpt, Ruth Nevo comments one of Lear's famous last speeches, in which he asks Cordelia to join him in the spirit of eternal optimism—"We two alone will sing like birds i' the' cage. . . ."

(From Tragic Form in Shakespeare by Ruth Nevo. © 1972 Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

. . . Lear expresses his complete conviction of the power of love renewed in reconciliation to redeem all sorrow, to compensate for all loss, to sweeten all adversity, and to confer blessedness upon the most meager and wretched of material conditions. For Lear the fullness of time is identical with the fullness of the spirit:

Come, let's away to prison:
We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage:
When thou dost ask...

[The entire page is 503 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

Summary and Analysis – Themes – Characters – And much more...