Untimely comes this hurt. ift. Serv. 9 I'll never care If this Man come to Good. 2d. Serv. If fhe live long, Give me your arm. And, in the End, meet the old course of Death, ift. Serv. Let's follow the old Earl, and get the To lead him where he would; his roguish Madness 2d. Serv. Go thou; I'll fetch fome Flax and whites Tapply to's bleeding Face. Now, Heaven help him! [Exeunt feverally. ACT IV. SCENE I. Y An open COUNTRY. Enter EDGAR. ET better thus, and known to be contemn'd, The lowest, most dejected thing of Fortune, Stands ftill in efperance; lives not in fear. The wretch, that thou haft blown unto the worst, Enter Glo'fter, led by an old man. But who comes here? My father poorly led? 2 World, world, O world! be contemned. Or perhaps there therefore, make us wait thee. is an errour, which may be rectified thus: Yet better thus unknown to be contemned. When a man divefts himfelf of his real character he feels no pain from contempt. becaufe he fuppofes it incurred only by a voJuntary difguife which he can throw off at pleasure. I do not think any correction neceffary. 2 -World, World, O World! But that thy ftrange Mutations make us hate thee, ] The Reading of this Paffage has been explained, but not fatisfactorily. My Explanation of the Poet's Sentiment was, "If the Number of Changes and Viciffitudes, which happen in Life, did not make us "wait, and hope for fome Turn of Fortune for the better, we could never fupport the "Thought of living to be Old, "on any other Terms." And our Duty, as human Creatures, is piously inculcated in this Reflexion of the Author. I read .. But THEOBALD. O world! But that thy ftrange Mutations make us hate thee, Life would not yield to age.] The fenfe of this obfcure paffage is, O world! fo much are human minds captivated with thy pleafures, that were it not for thofe fucceffive miferies, each worfe than the other, which overload the fcenes of life, we fhould never be willing to fubmit to death, tho' the infirmities of old age would teach us to chufe it as a proper afylum. Befides, by uninterrupted profperity, which leaves the mind at cafe, the body would generally preserve such a state of vigour as to bear up long against the decays of time. Thefe are the two reafons, I fuppofe, why he faid, Life would not yield to age. And how much the pleasures of the body pervert the mind's judgment, and the perturbations of the mind diforder the body's frame, is known to all. WARB. But that thy ftrange Mutations make us hate thee, Old Man. O my good Lord, I have been your tenant, and your father's tenant, away. Good friend, be gone; Glo. Away, get thee Old Man. You cannot fee your way. Glo. I have no way, and therefore want no eyes: Old Man. How now? Who's there? the worft? Yield to fignifies no more than give way to, fink under, in oppofition to the rugging with, bearing up against the infirmities of age. Sir T. HANMER. Our mean fecures us ;—] i. e. moderate, mediocre condition. WARBURTON. Hanmer writes, by an eafy change, meanness fecures us. The two original editions have, Our meanes fecure us. I do not remember that mean is ever used as a fubftantive for low fortune, which is the fenfe here required, nor for mediocrity, except in the phrafe, the golden mean. I fufpect the paffage of corruption, and would either read, Our means feduce us. Our powers of body or fortune draw us into evils. Or, Our maims fecure us. who is't can say, I'm at That hurt or deprivation which makes us defenceless, proves our fafeguard. This is very proper in Glo'fter, newly maimed by the evulfion of his eyes. 4 who is't can say, I'm at the worst? the worst is not, So long as we can fay, this is the worst.] i.e. While we live; for while we yet continue to have a sense of feeling, fomething worse than the prefent may ftill happen. What occafion'd this reflexion was his rafhly faying in the beginning of this fcene, To be worst, The lowest, moft dejected thing of fortune, &c. The wretch, that thou haft blown unto the worst. WARBURTON. I'm worfe, than e'er I was. Old Man. 'Tis poor mad Tom. Edg. [Afide] And worfe I may be yet; the worst is not, So long as we can fay, this is the worst. Old Man. Fellow, where go'ft? Glo. Is it a beggar-man? Old Man. Madman, and beggar too. Glo. He has fome reafon, elie he could not beg. I' th' last night's ftorm I fuch a fellow faw; Which made me think a man, a worm. My fon Was then fcarce friends with him. I've heard more fince. Edg. How fhould this be? Bad is the trade muft play the fool to forrow, Ang'ring itself and others. [Afide. ]-Blefs thee, master. Glo. Is that the naked fellow? Old Man. Ay, my Lord. Glo. Get thee away. If, for my fake, Qld Man. Alack, Sir, he is mad. Glo. 'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind. Do as I bid, or rather do thy pleasure ; Above the reft, be gone. Old Man. I'll bring him the best 'parrel that I have, Come on't, what will. Glo. Sirrah, naked fellow. [Exit. Edg. Poor Tom's a-cold." I cannot daub it further. [Afide. Ang'fhing. Oxford Editor 6 -I cannot daub it—] i. e. and Dr. Warburton.-Vulg. Difguife. WARBURTON Ang'ring, rightly. Glo Glo. Come hither, fellow. Edg. [Afide.] And yet I muft. -Blefs thy fweet eyes, they bleed. Glo. Know'st thou the way to Dover? Edg. Both ftile and gate, horfe-way and foot-path. Poor Tom hath been fear'd out of his good wits Blefs thee, good man, from the foul fiend. Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of Luft, as Obidicut; Hobbididen, Prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Mohu, of murder; and Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing; who fince poffeffs chamber-maids and wa ting zvomen. 7 poles chamber-maids and waiting-women.] Shakespear has made Edgar, in his feigned diftraction, frequently allude to a vile impofture of fome English Jefuits, at that time much the fubject of converfation; the hiftory of it having been just then compofed with great art and vigoar of ftile and composition by Dr. S. Harjener, afterwards archbishop of York, by order of the Privy-Council, in a work intitled, A Declaration of egregious Popib impoftures, to withdraw ber Majesty's fubjects from their Allegiance, &c. pract fed by Edmunds, alias Wefton, a Jefuit, and divers Romith Pricts bis wicked affociates. Printed 1603. The impofture was in fubftance this. While the Spaniards were preparing their Armado against England, the Jefuits were here bury at work to promote it, by making converts; one method they employed was to difpoffefs pretended demoniacks, by which artifice they made feveral hundred converts amongst the com Glo But mon people. The principal fcere of this farce was laid in the family of one Mr. Edmund Peckham, a Roman Catholick, where Marwood, a fervant of Anthony Babington's, (who was afterwards executed for treafon) Trayford, an attendant upon Mr. Peckham, and Sarah and Frifwood Willians, and Anne Smith, three chamber. muids in that family, came into the Prieft's hands for cure. the difcipline of the patients was fo long and fevere, and the Pries fo elate and careless with their fuccefs, that the plot was difcovered on the confeffion of the parties concerned, and the contrivers of it defervedly punished. The five Devils here mentioned, are the names of five of thofe who were made to a in this farce upon the chamber-maids and waiting women; and they were generally fo ridiculously nickna ned, that Harjenct has one chapter on the frange names of their Devils; left, fays he, meeting them otherwife by chance, you mistake them for the name of Taf fters |