and then instantly involves himself in a cloud of irrelevance,
So, out went the candle, and we were left darkling.
i. v.
In the scene which follows, the Fool is performing a variation on the same theme: the sudden removal from one sister to the other is no real escape from the original foolish situation.
i. v. 8.
Fool. If a man's brains were in 's heels, were 't not in danger of kibes?
Lear. Ay, boy.
Fool. Then, I prithee, be merry; thy wit shall ne'er go slip-shod.
To say that Lear is in no danger of suffering from brains in his heels is another way of saying that his flight is folly. He goes on to insist that the other daughter will treat her father 'kindly,' that 'she's as like this as a crab's like an apple.' His laying down that the reason why the nose is in the middle of the face is to keep the eyes on either side of the nose, and that the reason why the seven stars are no more than seven is 'a pretty reason—because they are not eight,' suggests (if it be not pressing it too far) that we must not look for depth where there is only shallowness—the mistake Lear has made in trusting to the gratitude of his daughters. And the general thought of Lear's original folly he brings out, true to the fool's office, from the most unlikely beginnings.
i. v. 26.