To temper clay.-Ha! is it come to this? Gon. Do you mark that, my lord? Gon. Pray you, content.-What, Ofwald, ho! You, fir, more knave than fool, after your matter. [To the Fool. Fool. Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry, and take the fool with thee. A fox, when one has caught her, Should fure to the flaughter, Gon. This man hath had good counsel :hundred knights! 'Tis politic, and fafe, to let him keep [Exit. -A [dream, At point, a hundred knights. Yes, that on every Gon. Safer than truft too far: Let me still take away the harms I fear, Not fear ftill to be taken. I know his heart : Enter Sterward. ters: acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you know, than comes from her demand out of the letter: If your diligence be not speedy, I fhall be there before you. Kant. I will not fleep, my lord, 'till I have deivered your letter. [Exit. Fool. If a man's brains were in his heels, wert not in danger of kibes ? Lear. Ay, boy. Fool. Then, pr'ythee, be merry; thy wit fl not go flip-fhod. Lear. Ha, ha, ha! Fool. Shalt fee, thy other daughter will use thee kindly; for though the's as like this as a crab s like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell. Lear. Why, what can't thou tell, boy? Fool. She will tafte as like this, as a crab dres to a crab. Thou can't tell, why one's nofe ftands 'the middle of one's face? Lear. No. Fool. Why, to keep one's eyes on either fale one's nofe; that what a man cannot fmell out, he may fpy into. Lear. I did her wrong 4: Fool. Can't tell how an oyiter makes his fhell? Lear. No. Fool. Nor I neither; but I can tell why a faal has a house. Lear. Why? Gon. Take you fome company, and away to horfe: fool. And thereto add fuch reafons of your own, Get you gone; And haften your return. No, no, my lord, Lear. To take it again perforce 5!-Monster, ingratitude! Foel. If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'd have thee beaten for being old before thy time. Lear. How's that? Fool. Thou fhould'ft not have been old, before thou hadft been wife. Lear. O, let me not be mad, not mad, fweet heaven! Keep me in temper, I would not be Alb. How far your eyes may pierce, I cannot tell; mad!Striving to better, oft we mar what's well. Ga”. Nay, then - Ab. Well, well; the event. [Exeunt S C E N E V. ACourt-Yard before the Duke of Albany's Palace. Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool. Lear. Go you before to Glofter with thefe let Enter Gentleman. How now? Are the horses ready? At point, probably means completely armed, and confequently ready at appointment or command 2 That is, Unite one circumstance with another, io as to make a confiftent On the flightcit notice. 3 To be at tok, is to be liable to reprehenfion and correction. 4 He is musing on account. Cordelia. 5 He is meditating on his daughter's having in fo violent a manner deprived hm of thofe privileges which before the had agreed to grant him. ACT Gla. But where is he? Edmund ? When by no means To his unnatural purpofe, in fell motion, Glo. Let him Ay far: Not in this land fhall he remain uncaught; This weaves ittelf perforce into my business ! Enter Edgar. My father watches :-O, fir, fly this place; Intelligence is given where you are hid; Bringing the murderous coward to the stake; You have now the good advantage of the night :-1 threaten'd to difcover him: He replied, Upon his party 'gainft the duke of Albany ? Advise yourself. "Of any truft, virtue, or worth, in thee 66 Edg. I am fure on 't, not a word. Edm. I hear my father coming,-Pardon me :-"15 the fuggeftion, plot, and damned practice : In cunning, I muit draw my word upon you :-" And thou must make a dullard of the world, Draw: Seem to defend yourself: Now quit you" If they not thought the profits of my death well. [here!" Were very pregnant and potential fpurs Yield :-come before my father;-Light, ho," To make thee teek it.” [Trumpets within. Fly, brother;-Torches ! torches !-So, farewel.- Glo. O trange, taften'd villain! [Exit Edgar. Would he deny his letter, faid he ?——I never got him. Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion Hark, the duke's trumpets! I know not why he [Wounds his arm. Of my more fierce endeavour: I have feen drunkards Do more than this in fport.-Father! father! Stop, top! No help? Enter Glofter, and Servants with torches. our, Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon comes : All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not scape; Enter Cornwall, Regan, and Attendants. 1 Ear-kiffing arguments means, that they are yet in reality only whisper'd ones. 2 Queazy means delicate; what requires to be handled nicely. 3 1. e. frighted. 4 i. e. chief; a word now used only in compofition, as arch-angel, arch-duke. 5 Pight is itched, fixed, fettled. • Curft is fevere, harth, vehemently angry. 7 i. e. capable of fucceeding to my land, notwithstanding the legal bar of thy illegitimacy. (Which I can call but now) I have heard ftrange Your graces are right welcome. SCENE II. Enter Kent and Steward feverally. Stew. Pr'ythee, if thou love me, tell me. Stew. Why then I care not for thee. Stew. Why dost thou use me thus ? I know thee not. Kent. Fellow, I know thee. Stew. What doft thou know me for? Kent. A knave, a rafcal, an eater of broken meats; a bafe, proud, fhallow, beggarly, threefuited 5, hundred-pound 6, filthy wonted-itock.ng/ knave; a lily-liver'd, action-taking knave; a whorefon, glafs-gazing, fuper-ferviceable, finical Edmund, 1 hear that you have fhewn your father rogue; one-trunk-inheriting flave; one that A child-like office. Corn. If he be taken, he fhall never more Be fear'd of doing harm: make your own purpose, How in my strength you pleafe.-For you, Edmund, Whofe virtue and obedience doth this inftant So much commend itself, you shall be ours; Natures of fuch deep truft we shall much need; You we first feize on. Edm. I fhall ferve you, fir, Truly, however else. Glo. For him I thank your grace. Corn. You know not why we came to vifit you,--| Reg. Thus out of feafon; threading dark-ey'd night. Occafions, noble Glofter, of fome prize 2, Glo. I ferve you, madam : would't be a bawd, in way of good fervice, and art nothing but the compofition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the fon and heir of a mungrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deny'st the least syllable of thy addition 9. Stew. Why, what a monftrous fellow art then, thus to rail on one, that is neither known of thee, nor knows thee? Kent. What a brazen-fac'd varlet art thou, to deny thou know'ft me? Is it two days ago, fince I tript up thy heels, and beat thee, before the king? Draw, you rogue: for though it be right, yet the moon fhines; I'll make a fop o' the moonthine of you10: Draw, you whoreion cullionly barber-monger 11, draw. [Drawing bis fed. Stew. Away; I have nothing to do with thee. Kent. Draw, you rafcal: you come with letters against the king; and take vanity the puppet's part, against the royalty of her father: Draw, you rogue, or I'll fo carbonado your thanks :draw, you rafcal; come your ways. Stew. Help, ho! murder! help! Kent. Strike, you flave; ftand, rogue, ftand; you neat flave 12, strike. [Beating bim, Stew. Help, ho! murder! murder! Enter Edmund, Cornwall, Regan, Glofter, and Servants. Edm. How now? What's the matter? Part. 2 Prize, ar i. e. difcover, betray. Practice is always ufed by Shakspeare for infidious mifchief. price, for value. 3 i. e. not at home, but at fome other place. 4 Lipfbury pinfeld may be a cant expreffion impor.ing the fame as Lob's Found. 5 Three-fuited knave might mean, in an age of oftentatious finery like that of Shakspeare, one who had no greater change of rayment than three faits would furnish him with. 6 A hundred pound gentleman is a term of reproach. 1 A worfled-Rocking knave is another term of reproach. The stockings in England, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, were remarkably expenfive, and scarce any other kind than filk were worn, even by those who had not above forty fhillings a year wages. 8 Lilly-liver'd is cowardly; white-blooded 'and white-hver’d are fill in vulgar ufe. 9 i. e. titles. 10 This is equivalent to our modern phrafe of making the fun fhine through any one. 11 Barber-monger may mean dealer in the lower tradefmen: a flur upon the Iteward, as taking fees for a recommendation to the business of the family. 12 You mest flavt, means no more than you finical rafcal, you who are an affemblage of foppery and poverty. Kent Kent. With you, goodman boy, if you please ;[ come, I'll flesh you; come on, young mafter. Glo. Weapons! arms! What's the matter here? He dies, that ftrikes again: What is the matter? Corn. What is your difference? speak. Stew. I am fcarce in breath, my lord. [valour. Corn. Thou art a strange fellow : Kent. Ay, a tailor, fir: aftone-cutter, or a painter could not have made him fo ill, though they had been but two hours at the trade. Kent. His countenance likes 7 me not. [or hers. Corn. This is fome fellow, Who, having been prais'd for bluntnefs, doth affect Kent. Sir, in good footh, or in fincere verity,` Corn. Speak yet, how grew your quarrel? have ípar'd, On flickering 11 Phoebus' front, Corn. What mean'ft thou by this? Kent. To go out of my dialect, which you difcommend fo much. I know, fir, I am no flatterer: he that beguil'd you, in a plain accent, was a plain knave; which, for my part, I will not be, though I should win your difpleasure to entreat me to it. Corn. What was the offence you gave him? It pleas'd the king his matter, very late, Kent. That fuch a flave as this should wear a To strike at me, upon his mifconftruction ; fword, Kent. No contraries hold more antipathy, Than I and fuch a knave. that When he, conjunct, and flattering his difpleafure, Kent. None of thete rogues, and cowards, Corn. Fetch forth the ftocks, ho! [gart, You ftubborn ancient knave, you reverend brag- Kent. Sir, I am too old to learn: Call not your ftocks for me: I ferve the king; Corn. Why doft thou call him knave? What's Stocking his meffenger. his offence? Corn. Fetch forth the ftocks : 1 Mr. Steevens obferves, that Zed is here probably used as a term of contempt, because it is the laft letter in the English alphabet, and as its place may be supplied by S, and the Roman alphabet has it not; neither is it read in any word originally Teutonic. 2 Unbolted mortar, according to Mr. Tollet, is mortar made of unfifted lime, and therefore to break the lumps it is neceffary to tread it by men in wooden fhoes. This unbolted villain is, therefore, this coarfe ralcal. 3 By thefe holy cords the poet means the natural union between parents and children. The metaphor is taken from the cords of the fanctuary; and the fomenters of family differences are compared to thefe facrilegious rats. 4 The halcyon is the bird otherwife called the king-fifier. The valgar opinion was, that this bird, if hung up, would vary with the wind, and by that incans fhew from what point it 5 The frighted countenance of a man ready to fall in a fit. 6 Camelot was the place blew. where the romances fay king Arthur kept his court in the Weft; fo this alludes to fome proverbial fpeech in thofe romances. In Somersetshire, adds Hanmer, near Camelot, are many large moors, where are pred great quantities of geefe, fo that many other places are from hence fuppited with quills and feathers. 7 i. c. pleases me not. 8 i. e. forces his outfide or his appearance to fomething totally different from his natural difpofition. 9 Silly here means only fimpie, or ruttic. foolishly. Dr. Johnfon in his Dilienary fays this word means to flutter. means here, their butt, their langhing-flock. 10 1. e. 12 Their fool As As I have life and honour, there fhall he fit 'till Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold A Part of the Heath. Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd ; And, by the happy hollow of a tree, Glo. Let nie beseech your grace not to do fo: His fault is much, and the good king his mafter Will check him for 't: your purpos'd low cor-Does not attend my taking. While I may fcape, rection Is fuch, as bafeft and the meaneft wretches, Corn. I'll answer that. Reg. My fifter may receive it much more worfe, [Kent is put in the flock:. [Exeunt Regan, and Cornwall. Glo. I am forry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleafure, Come, my good lord; away. I will preferve myself and am bethought ers, [Tom! Whofe difpofition, all the world well knows, [thee. Inforce their charity.-Poor Turlygood! poor Will not be rubb'd, nor stopp'd: I'll entreat for That's fomething yet ;-Edgar I nothing am. am.[Exit. Kent. Pray, do not, fir: I have watch'd, and SCENE IV. Earl of Glofler's Cafile. Enter Lear, Fool, and Gentleman. Lear. 'Tis ftrange, that they should fo depart And not fend back my meffenger. The night before there was no purpose in them Kent. Hail to thee, noble master! Lear. How! mak'ft thou this shame thy pastine? Fool. Ha, ha; look! he wears crue! 6 garters! I That art now to exemplify the common proverb, that out of, &c. That changest better for worfe. Hanmer obferves, that it is a proverbial faying, applied to those who are turned out of house and home to the open weather. It was perhaps first used of men difmiffed from an hotpital, or house of charity, fuch as was erected formerly in many places for travellers. Thofe houfes had names properly enough alluded to by heaven's benediction. The faw alluded to, is in Heywood's Dialogues on Proverbs, book ii. chap. 5. "In your running from him to me, ye runne 3 i. e. 2 Hair thus knotted, was vulgarly fuppofed to be the work of elves and fairies in the night. skewers. 4 i. e. paltry. s To ban, is to curfe. 6 Mr. Steevens believes that a quibble was here intended. Crewel lignifies worked, of which flockings, garters, night-caps, &c. are made. 7 Over-lufty in this place has a double figuification. Luftiness anciently meant fuucinefs. 8 Netherfleeks is the old word for fachings. Breeches were at that sime called "men's over-stocks." Конф |