“Fool.—Why, after I have clove the egg i’ the middle and eat up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou clovest thy crown i’ the middle and gavest away both parts, thou borest thine ass on thy back o’er the dirt; thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown when thou gavest thy golden one away.”
Upon another occasion the following dialogue occurs:—
“Fool.—Canst thou tell how an oyster makes his shell?
“Lear.—No.
“Fool.—Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.
“Lear.—Why?
“Fool.—Why to put his head in; not to give it away to his daughters and leave his horns without a case.”
Lear is so stung with the sense of his folly by these “analogies” of his jester that he exclaims in rage and bitterness, “I shall forget my nature!” It is the argument of Nathan, “Thou art the man.”
Upon the same principle, but in a different way, the Psalmist reasons with those who “slay the widow and the stranger and murder the fatherless,” and who say, “The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.” Thus he argues: “Understand, ye brutish among the people; and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?”
Under this head must we also place the judgment of Solomon, when the two women came before him, each claiming the living child. “Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth and thy son is dead; and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead and mine is the living one. And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, Divide the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other. Then spoke the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her heart yearned upon her son, and she said, O my Lord, give her the living child and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither thine nor mine, but divide it. Then the king answered and said, Give her (the first) the living child, and in no wise slay it; she is the mother thereof.” Solomon had to use a sharp argument, but he settled the controversy.