Made with the page inverted according to foliation, this drawing describes the distinctive Shakespeare cliff at Dover. Its adjacent beach and a view of the seaside houses that line the coast there fill the right hand side of the page. The land slopes upwards behind it, with another collection of buildings sitting on top of the hill.
Shakespeare cliff is named in acknowledgement of its mention in King Lear. In Act IV scene VI, Edgar takes the Earl of Gloucester towards Dover. Gloucester has had his eyes brutally gouged out, and Edgar pretends to be leading his blind companion towards the top of the cliff:
Come on, sir; here’s the place: stand still. How fearful
And dizzy ’tis to cast one's eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles. Half-way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade;
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.
The fishermen that walk upon the beach
Appear like mice; and yon tall anchoring barque
Diminished to her cock, her cock a buoy
Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge
That on th’unnumbered idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more,
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong.
1Having executed this performance of vertigo, Edgar watches Gloucester pray for forgiveness and eventually lose consciousness. When he wakes up, Edgar expresses amazement at Gloucester’s survival, pretending to have watched him plummet towards the sea from the top of the cliff.
Sketches in this book which include the distinctive form of Shakespeare Cliff can be found on folios 30 recto, 68 verso, 70 recto, 70 verso, 71 verso, 72 recto, and 79 recto (
D17257,
D17323,
D17326–D17328,
D17330, and
D17341).
Towards the top right corner of this page Turner has made another sketch, or collection of sketches. This too appears to describe a coastal prospect, perhaps the cliff-edge viewed from slightly inland.
Maud Whatley
January 2016
