Glou.　No futher,sir; a man may rot even here.
Edg.　　What! in ill thoughts again? Men must endure
　　　　Their going hence, even as their coming hither:
　　　　Ripeness is all. Come on.
Glou.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　And that's true too.　　[�N. ii 8-11]

Jan Kott's thoughts on 'Ripeness is all' are as follows:

「成熟がすべてです。」このシェイクスピア的な、翻訳不能の《成熟》(ripeness) という言葉は、文字通り成熟することであると同時に、あきらめて身をゆだねることをも意味する。人は成長して死に達しなければならないのだ。それがすべてなのだ。
"Ripeness is all."　The word, ripeness, which is Shakespearian and unable to be translated, not only means ripeness literally but also means surrender.　A man grows up, and must reach his death.　That is all.
[Jan Kott: Shakespeare Our Contemporary, Japanese version trans. Akio Minetani and Tetsuo Kishi]
(The corresponding paragraph is omitted in the English version trans. B.Taborski.)

I remember Touchstone in "As You Like It".　He not only says that all is mortal in nature(�K.iv.50) but he also says that from hour to hour we ripe, and ripe,and then from hour to hour we rot,and rot.(�K.vii.26-27)　Of cource, we grow up and we shall all die.　But is that all the meaning of life?　Why shouldn't we take our mortality for granted?　Why did Jan Kott think that ripeness partly means surrender and acceptance of death?　As every living thing is mortal in nature, all human affairs make sense to us, doesn't they?　My chief motif in this work is that I want to answer these questions.

Having come home in Belmont from the court of Venice, Portia utters her thoughts, which I think symbolize the happy ending of the play:

That light we see is burning in my hall:
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　["The Merchant Of Venice" �N.i.89-91]

Shakespeare wrote "King Lear" about eight years after "The Merchant Of Venice".　He closed the play with making Edgar speak:

The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　[�N.iii.323-6]

Cordelia was hanged just now.　She won't come forever.　In his deep grief, Lear breathes his last.　In spite of Albany's request for ruling in the realm, not only Kent says that he has a journey to go after his master, but also Edgar speaks only his personal feeling, not his regal formality.
Obviously that little candle burning in the world of "The Merchant of Venice" cannot throw its beams into that of "King Lear".　Only the Fool knew it from the beginning:

For you know, Nuncle,
　　The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,
　　That it's had it head bit off by it young.
So out went the candle, and we were left darkling.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　[�J.ix. 223-6]

The dark tone of life prevails over this play, which seems tell us that life is not worth living just like that Macbeth's nihilistic words.[Macbeth:�N.v.19-28]
Shakespeare's "King Lear" is a ruthless tragedy.　In his play, not only Lear dies, having lost his sanity, but also Cordelia is killed, who we can think is given the character of a typical good daughter.　The play ends with Edgar's personal feelings, not with his resolute regal proclamation.
We cannot feel that the order of the world has been restored completely again.　The view of nature in which Edmund believed broke down in the end.　The other view of nature in which King Lear believed, however, cannot be said to have been healed again.

I haven't read "Shakespeare's Doctrine of Nature" by John F. Danby.　The introduction of The Arden Shakespeare edited by Kenneth Muir refers to it as follows:
if we are to believe Danby, Shakespeare presents two constracting views of nature -- the traditional view of Hooker and Bacon, which assumes that nature is benignant, rational, and divinely ordered; and the view of the rationalists that man is governed by appetite and self-interest.

That is why Edgar says that the weight of this sad time we must obey.　King Lear before the storm scene got angry with his two dishonest daughters because he believed in his view of nature.　In the storm, however, he realized the law of nature to which Edmund's services were bound, saying, "O, ho! 'tis foul!."[�L.ii.24]　After that, his wits began to turn because he was, under that hard situation, unable to have much trust in his view of nature.
What is the weight of this sad time Edgar says?　It may be that a good deed never shines in a wicked world.　Considering from the context of this play, it is horrible times when humanity must perforce prey on itself, like monster of the deep,[�M.ii.49-50] just as the Fool prophesied.[�L.ii.81-94]
Cordelia's death proves that honesty never pays in this sad time.　Edgar says that we must obey the weight of this sad time.　What are his thoughts?　What views of the future does Shakespeare take?　The light Portia saw went out.　Does he dare us to go on living in the dark in spite of that?　What is his intention?　What on earth is the theme of "King Lear"?
Jan Kott points out the grotesque elements in "King Lear":

In Shakespeare's play there is neither Christian heaven, nor the heaven predicted and believed in by humanists.　"King Lear" makes a tragic mockery of all eschatologies: of the heaven promised on earth, and the heaven promised after death; in fact -- of both Christian and secular theodicies; of cosmogony and of the rational view of history; of the gods and natural goodness, of man made in the 'image and likeness'.　In "King Lear", both the medieval and the renaissance orders of established values disintegrate.　All that remains at the end of this gigantic pantomime is the earth --- empty and bleeding.　On this earth, through which a tempest has passed leaving only stones, the King, the Fool, the Blind Man and Madman carry on their distracted dialogqe.
[Jan Kott: Shakespeare Our Contemporary, trans. B.Taborski, London, Methuen, University Paperbacks 1967, p. 116-7]

Grotesque means tragedy rewritten in different terms, says Jan Kott.　My summary of his definition is this:
Though both the tragic hero and the grotesque actor always lose their struggle against the absolute in some compulsory and inescapable situation, tragedy is an appraisal of human fate, a measure of the absolute and ends with catharsis because the downfall of the hero is a confirmation and recognition of the absolute; whereas the grotesque is a criticism of the absolute in the name of frail human experience and offers no consolation whatsoever because the downfall of the actor not only means mockery of the absolute and its desecration, but it also means mockery of himself.

Gloucester, whose eyes have been gouged out, makes an appeal to the cruel Gods:

As flies to wanton boys, are we to th' Gods;
They kill us for their sport.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　[�M.i.36-7]

He decides to commit suicide in order to end his miserable fortune.　He still believes that he lives in the time when misery could beguile the tyrant's rage, and frustrate his proud will.[�M.vi.63-4]　Guided by his own son, who fains madness, he has reached at the top of the cliff of Dover.　Saying his last words: "O you mighty Gods!　This world I do renounce, and in your sights shake patiently my great affliction off;　- - - - - - -　Now, fellow, fare thee well"[�M.vi.34-41], he jumps off the cliff.　If both the medieval and the renaissance orders of established values disintegrate in "King Lear" as Jan Kott points out, Gloucester's suicide has no meaning of his protest against the Gods, just or unjust, who he thinks have been making fun of him.　 It means only his death because there aren't any Gods.　In fact, he fails in his suicidal leap.　He has been tricked by Edgar.　He doesn't know it.　He will notice it clearly just before his death.　He regrets his destiny: Is wretchedness depriv'd that benefit to end itself by death?[�M.vi.61-2]　Blinded Gloucester must continue to live in affliction.　Is it a grotesque situation?　 Edgar has gazed at the suicide mime.　Is he cruel?　Was Shakespeare also a nihilist in the early 17th century?　The 1962 production by Peter Brook was enormously successful, for it answered many modern feelings about the play; and the fall over 'Dover Cliff', aimed at a grotesque and nihilistic comedy, was thought to be the central image of the whole structure; so the servants who bind up Gloucester's eyes and prophesy the downfall of wickedness(�L.vii.98-106) were omitted as providing too sugary an image.[See the introduction of New Penguin Shakespeare "King Lear" p.52]　If we want to understand Shakespeare's real intention of "King Lear", however, we should take the omitted words into consideration as well.　I agree with Jan Kott in point of some grotesque elements in "King Lear".　He seems, however, to have emphsized them too much.　I don't think that the theme of "King Lear", as he says, is the decay and fall of the world, nor conclude that a man's journey from the cradle to the grave is grotesque.　I think that the theme of "King Lear" is an inquiry how to go on our journey even in the decay and fall of the world.

I will, now, go back to the beginning of this essay.

The context is this:　Lear's troops have been defeated; he and Cordelia are captured.　Made known of it, Gloucester loses his courage to go and he will give up his life: No futher, sir, a man may rot even here.　Edgar, however, cheers him up: What! in ill thoughts again?　Men must endure their going hence, even as their coming hither: Ripeness is all.　Come on.　It is obvious that Jan Kott didn't take some words into consideration ----- What! in ill thoughts again.　Edgar finds that Gloucester has been possessed again by ill thoughts.　The reason why he says so is that he wants Gloucester to get rid of the ill thoughts.　Gloucester agrees with him: And that's true too.　'Ripeness', therefore, never means surrender and acceptance of death.

Edmund's artful design made Gloucester proclaim Edgar a traitor.　In order to escape the hunt, Edgar decides to disguise himself as one of Bedlam beggars.　He thinks that he is nothing now, but to be poor Tom is something yet.[�K.iii.20-1]　We may recall the Fool's words to Lear: ... now thou art an 0 without a figure.　I am better than thou art now; I am a Fool, thou art nothing.[�J.iv.200-2]　By the way, could we feel strange if I dare to say that the dramatic function of Bedlam beggars has the likeness of that of the Forest of Arden in "As You Like It"?　From the world of Bedlam beggars, Edgar is given a grass-roots soul:

Yet better thus, and known to be contem'd,
Than, still contemn'd and flatter'd, to be worst.
The lowest and most dejected thing of Fortune,
Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear:
The lamentable change is from the best;
The worst returns to laughter.　Welcome, then,
Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace:
The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst
Owes nothing to thy blasts.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　[�M.i.1-9]

just as the banished Duke learned in the Forest of Arden as follows:

Now my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp?　Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The seasons' difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind,
Which when it bites and blows upon my body
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say
'This is no flattery; these are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am'
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　"As You Like It"[�K.i.1-14]

When Edgar finds his father blind, he utters an inconsolable grief:

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　World, world, O world!
But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,
Life would not yield to age.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　[�M.i.10-2]

But he never breaks down.　He knows what he is.　He can still believe in something: O God!　Who is 't can say "I am at the worst"?　I am worse than e'er I was.　And worse I may be yet; the worst is not so long as we can say "This is the worst."[�M.i.25-8]　 He has become wise and strong(=ripe) enough to be able to say so.　He leads his blind father to Dover Cliff to make him play the suicide mime.　His true reason why he trifles with his father's despair is never to make a cruel mockery of him, but to cure it as he speaks to the audience: Why I do trifle thus with his despair is done to cure it.[�M.vi.33-4]　The suicide mime has finished.　How should we understand the following dialogue?

Edg.　Think that the clearest Gods, who make them honours
　　　　Of men's impossibilities, have preserved thee.
Glou. I do remember now; henceforth I'll bear
　　　　Affliction till it do cry out itself
　　　　"Enough, enough," and die.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　[�M.vi.73-7]

The audience know well that it is not the clearest Gods but Edgar who has performed a miracle.　Do we think that he is a cynical man, who can easily say so in spite of his deceptive guide?　I'll say no.　He may not believe in the heaven promised on earth nor in the heaven promised after death.　We can think, however, that he still trusts in something.　Just as Shakespeare, in the storm scene, made Lear say "I will be the pattern of all patience.", here again he makes Gloucester say the same meaning.　I think the words mean that henceforth I'll bear Affliction till it recognizes that I have been afflicted enough and itself dies. [See the footnote, p.173]　It is not Gloucester but Affliction that does die.　It is clear that Gloucester's words never mean a surrender and the acceptance of the world's greatest cruelty -- death as Jan Kott says.[Shakespeare Our Contemporary, p.119]　Gloucester makes up his mind to go on living in the hands of the Gods.　In the same Scene, he speaks to Them:

You ever-gentle Gods, take my breath from me:
Let not my worser spirit tempt me again
To die before you please:
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　[�M.vi.218-20]

Edgar thinks of our lives' sweetness recalling his past in the last Act.[�N.iii.184-6]　Even if some order of established values broke up and we were driven to despair, we would rather suffer the pain of death every hour of our life than commit suicide at once.　The questions, however, still remain why we were born and why we shall all die.　He must have drawn a conclusion such as this: these questions are beyond our ability; all we can do is to endure our fate.　That's why he says "Men must endure their going hence, even as their coming hither."　The problems of our journey from the cradle to the grave, however, are those of all the earthly affairs that we could, and we must consider.　Appreciating ripeness in the context of this drama, therefore, it not only means in the sense of the word, but it also means a perseverance and living through this hard life.　What we must do when driven to despair is to bear Affliction as if we clapped a fist before our eyes.　Every human affair will begin to make sense to us.　Ripeness is all.

It goes without saying that the Edgar's words don't have any profound, important meaning if we don't give our careful consideration to how the two aged men have lived in their respective sufferings.　Gloucester's eyes having been gouged out, he recovers his inner sight.　Like Lear in the storm, Gloucester also becomes aware that the superfluous and lust-dieted man will not see his distribution exceeded because he does not feel sympathy for the wretches.[�M.i.67-71]　Shakespeare has made Gloucester not kill himself but suffer the pain of death and die.　We feel poetic justice in the following:

Edg.　The Gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
　　　　Make instruments to plague us;
　　　　The dark and vicious place where thee he got
　　　　Cost him his eyes.
Edm.　　　　　　　　　　　　Th' hast spoken right, 'tis true.
　　　　The wheel is come full circle; I am here.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　[�N.iii.170-4]

Gloucester wanted to go mad so as to be relieved from his huge sorrows including the repentance of his past sensualities, but he didn't lose his sanity; while Lear went mad in spite of his determination to be the pattern of all patience in the storm scene.　The difference comes from the fact that Gloucester's suffering came of his gouged eyes, while in the case of Lear the two daughters' ingratitude brought him the disintegration of his view of nature.