The idea may be a mere fancy, but it has seemed to me that this
pre-occupation, and sometimes this oppression, are traceable in other
plays of the period from about 1602 to 1605 (_Hamlet_, _Measure for
Measure_, _Troilus and Cressida_, _All's Well_, _Othello_); while in
earlier plays the subject is handled less, and without disgust, and in
later plays (e.g. _Antony and Cleopatra_, _The Winter's Tale_,
_Cymbeline_) it is also handled, however freely, without this air of
repulsion (I omit _Pericles_ because the authorship of the
brothel-scenes is doubtful).
(2) For references to the lower animals, similar to those in _King
Lear_, see especially _Timon_, I. i. 259; II. ii. 180; III. vi. 103 f.;
IV. i. 2, 36; IV. iii. 49 f., 177 ff., 325 ff. (surely a passage written
or, at the least, rewritten by Shakespeare), 392, 426 f. I ignore the
constant abuse of the dog in the conversations where Apemantus appears.
(3) Further points of resemblance are noted in the text at pp. 246, 247,
310, 326, 327, and many likenesses in word, phrase and idea might be
added, of the type of the parallel 'Thine Do comfort and not burn,'
_Lear_, II. iv. 176, and 'Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn!' _Timon_, V.
i. 134.
(4) The likeness in style and versification (so far as the purely
Shakespearean parts of _Timon_ are concerned) is surely unmistakable,
but some readers may like to see an example.
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