Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool.

 

Tolstoy and Countess Tolstoy

I read George Orwell's essay 'Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool' (1947), many years ago. Orwell found it curious that Tolstoy, a Christian anarchist, would pick on King Lear specifically, and concluded that it was because Tolstoy saw something of King Lear in himself. 

Tolstoy tried to renounce much of his wealth and to escape his privileged position and to live the life of a peasant, but it didn't bring him happiness. Tolstoy's wife, Sophia, called her husband's disciples "riffraff" and they weren't keen on her. She said it wasn't easy having a genius for a husband but she also thought that Tolstoy didn't always live up to his own ideals, and wasn't a particularly good husband or father, to his children. The utopian communes that were inspired by the teachings of Tolstoy, weren't always a great success. 

William Shakespeare wasn't always popular in Britain, even though Tolstoy regarded him as having been universally popular. He was certainly popular in Elizabethan England but became less popular in the late 18th century and early 19th century, and then his popularity steadily increased afterwards. 

A good friend of mine used to say to me that the English know as much about Shakespeare as the French know about good French wine. What we know about the life of Shakespeare could be written on the back of a postage stamp, and some believe, that he didn't write all the plays. Yet, there's never been an English writer who has had as much influence on the English language or the English people as William Shakespeare. English people often use expressions and words coined by Shakespeare without even knowing it or realising it.