20 Kent. All the power of his wits has given way 25 to his impatience:-The gods reward your kind Fool. No; he's a yeoman, that has a gentleman to a son for he's a mad yeoman, that sees 35 his son a gentleman before him. Lear. To have a thousand with red burning spits Come hizzing in upon them: Edg. The foul fiend bites my back. Fool. He's mad, that trusts in the tameness of a 40 wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's ath. Lear. It shall be done, I will arraign them straight: Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer;- 45 [To Edgar. Thou, sapient sir, sit here. [To the Fool.]—Now, you she-foxes! Edg. Look, where he stands and glares!- Fool. "" "And she must not speak "Why she dares not come over to thee.” Edg. The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two white herrings. Croak not, black angel; I have no food for thee. 50 Kent. How do you, sir? Stand you not so amaz'd: Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions? Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;- And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity, [To the Fool. "Sleepest, or wakest thou, jolly shepherd? "And for one blast of thy minikin' mouth, "Thy sheep shall take no harm.” Purre! the cat is grey. Lear. Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my oath before this honourable assembly, she kick'd the poor king her father. Fool. Come hither, mistress; Is your name Lear. She cannot deny it. [stool'. Fool. Cry you mercy, I took you for a jointLear. And here's another, whose warpt looks proclaim What store her heart is made on.---Stop her there! Kent. Opity-Sir, where is the patience now, Edg. My tears begin to take his part so much, They'll mar my counterfeiting. [Aside. Lear. The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me. Edg. Tom will throw his head at them:- Be the mouth or black or white, Do de, de de. Sessy, come, march to wakes and i. e. supporting, helping. 2A bourn in the North signifies a rivulet or brook. Hence the names of many of our villages terminate in burn, as Milburn, Sherburn, &c. › White herrings are pickled herrings. ↑ Minikin was anciently a term of endearment. This is a proverbial expression. To have the roof of the mouth black is in some dogs a proof that their breed is genuine. A racke is a dog that hunts by scent wild beasts, birds, and even fishes; and the female of it is called a brache. 8 A limmer or leamer, a dog of the chace, was so called from the leam or leash in which he was held till he was let slip. 9 Tijk is the Runic word for a little, or worthless dog. Kent. Kent. Now, good my lord, lie here, and rest [curtains: a while. Lear. Make no noise, make no noise; draw the So, so, so: We'll go to supper i'the morning So, so, so. Fool. And I'll go to bed at noon. Re-enter Gloster. 5 Glo. Come hither, friend: Where is the If thou should'st dally half an hour, his life, [senses, Kent. Oppressed nature sleeps:- [ter; when you are going, to a most festinate prepara- Stew. My lord of Gloster hath convey'd him hence: Some five or six and thirty of his knights, 2 Hot questrists after him, met him at gate; boast To have well-armed friends. Corn. Get horses for your mistress. [Exeunt Gonerit, an l Edmund. Corn. Edmund, farewell. Go, seek the traitor Gloster, .0 Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us :-- Stand in hard cure.-Come,help to bear thy mas-25 Glo. Come, come, away. [To the Fool. [Exeunt, bearing off the King. Edg. When we our betters see bearing our woes, 30 He childed, as I father'd!-Tom, away: thee, 35| 40 In thy just proof, repeals and reconciles thee. The traitor? Enter Gloster, brought in by sercants. 4 Corn. Bind fast his corky arms. Glo. What mean your graces?-Good my You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends. I am none. Reg. So white, and such a traitor! These hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin, [truth. [king? Reg. To whose hands have you sent the lunatic Speak. Glo. I have a letter guessingly set down, Which came from one that's of a neutral heart, 55 And not from one oppos'd. Reg. Hang him instantly. Gon. Pluck out his eyes. Corn. Leave him to my displeasure.-Edmund, keep you our sister company; the revenges we are bound to take upon your traiterous father, are not fit for your beholding. Advise the duke, 60 1 i. e. States clear from distress. 2 A questrist is one who goes in search or quest of another. +i. e. dry, To do a courtesy is to gratify, to comply with.-To pass, is to pass a judicial sentence. Favours here means the same as features, i, e. the different parts of • Simple means plain. 3 P4 wither'd, husky arms. which a face is composed. Wast Wast thou not charg'd at peril Corn. Wherefore to Dover? Let him first an- Glo. Because I would not see thy cruel nails The sea, with such a storm as his bare head [up, jelly! Where is thy lustre now? [Treads the other out. Glo. All dark and comfortless.-Where's my son Edmund? Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature, In hell-black night endur'd, would have buoy'd 10 To quit this horrible act. And quench'd the stelled fires: yet, poor old heart, If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time, Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot. (15 [Gloster is held down, while Cornwall treads 20 Glo. He, that will think to live 'till he be old, Reg. How now, you dog? Serv. If you did wear a beard upon your chin, I'd shake it on this quarrel: What do you mean? Corn. My villain'! [Draws, and runs at him. Serv. Nay, then come on, and take the chance 25 Reg. Out, treacherous villain! Thou call'st on him that hates thee: it was he Glo. O my follies! Then Edgar was abus'd. Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!" Corn.I have receiv'da hurt:--Follow me, lady.-- 1st Serv. I'll never care what wickedness I do, If this man come to good. 2d Serv. If she live long, 30 And, in the end, meet the old course of death, of anger. [Fight; Cornwall is wounded. 35 Reg. [Toanother servant.]Give me thy sword.A peasant stand up thus! [Comes behind, and kills him. 1st Serv. Let's follow the old earl, and get the To lead him where he would; his roguish madness Allows itself to any thing. 2d Serv. Go thou; I'll fetch some flax, and whites of eggs, [him! To apply to his bleeding face. Now, heaven help [Exeunt severally. ACT SCENE L An open Country. Enter Edgar. IV.. The lamentable change is from the best The worst returns to laughter. Welcome then, The wretch, that thou hast blown unto the worst, Edg. YET better thus, and known to be con-50 Owes nothing tothy blasts.---But who comes here? temn'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 : Enter Gloster, led by an old man. My father, poorly led?-World, world, O world ! 1i. e. the running of the dogs upon me. e. yielded, submitted to the necessity of the occasion. Villain is here perhaps used in its original sense of one in servitude. 4 The sense of this obscure passage is, O world! so much are human minds captivated with thy pleasures, that were it not for those successive miseries,cach worse than the other, which overload the scenes of life, we should never be willing to submit to death, though the infirmities of old age would teach us to choose it as a proper asylum. Besides, by uninterrupted prosperity, which leaves the mind at ease, the body would generally preserve such a state of vigour as to bear up long against the decays of time. These are the two reasons, it is supposed, why he said,. "Life would not yield to age." And how much the plea sures of the body pervert the mind's judgement, and the perturbations of the mind disorder the body's frame, is known to all. Old Man. O my good lord, I have been your te- Old Man. Alack, sir, you cannot see your way. Old Man. How now? Who's there? -Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed. Glo. Know'st thou the way to Dover? [Aside Edg. [Aside.] O Gods! Who is 't can say, I am 15 Edg. Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot at the worst? I am worse than e'er I was. Old Man. 'Tis poor mad Tom. Edg. [Aside.] And worse I may be yet: The So long as we can say, This is the worst. Glo. Is it a beggar-man? Old Man. Madman and beggar too. path.-Poor Tom hath been scar'd out of his good wits: Bless thee, good man's son, from the foul iend! Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once;of lust, as Obidicut; Hobbididance, prince 20of dumbness: Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of mur der; and Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowng; who since possesses chamber-maids and waiting-women'. So, bless thee, master! Glo. He has some reason, else he could not beg.25 more since: As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; Edg. How should this be?- Glo. Here, take this purse, thou whom the hea- Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched, Bad is the trade, that must play the fool to sorrow, master! And each man have enough.-Dost thou know 3 [Exeunt. 1i.e. moderate, mediocre condition. 2 i. e. disguise. Shakspeare has made Edgar, in his feigned distraction, frequently allude to a vile imposture of some English jesuits, at that time much the subject of conversation; the history of it having been just then composed with great art and vigour of style and composition by Dr. S. Harsenet, afterwards archbishop of York, by order of the privy-council, in a work intitled, A Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures to withdraw her Majesty's Subjects from their Allegiance, &c. practised by Edmunds, aliàs Weston, a Jesuit, and divers Romish priests his wicked Associates : printed 1693.-The imposture was in substance this: While the Spaniards were preparing their armado against England, the jesuits were here busy at work to promote it, by making converts: one method they employed was to dispossess pretended demoniacs; by which artifice they made several hundred converts amongst the common people. The principal scene of this farce was laid in the family of one Mr. Edmund Peckham, a Roman-catholic, where Marwood, a servant of Anthony Babington's (who was afterwards executed for treason), Trayford, an attendant upon Mr. Peckham, and Sarah and Friswood Williams, and Anne Smith, three chamber-maids in that family, came into the priest's hands for cure. But the discipline of the patients was so long and severe, and the priests so elate and careless with their success, that the plot was discovered on the confession of the parties concerned, and the contrivers of it deservedly punished.-The five devils here mentioned, are the names of five of those who were made to act in this farce upon the chamber-maids and waiting-women; and they were generally so ridiculously nick-named, that Harsenet has one chapter on the strange names of their devils; lest, says he, meeting them otherwise by chance, you mistake them for the names of tapsters or jugglers. Superfluous is here used for one living in abundance. To slave an ordinance, is to treat it as a slave, to make it subject to us, instead of acting in obedience to it. 4 SCENE The Duke of Albany's Palace. Enter Goneril, and Edmund. Gon. Welcome, my lord: I marvel, our mild Not husband' [master: met,us on the way:-Now, where's your Enter Steward. Stew. Madam, within; but never man so I told him of the army that was landed; [him; Gon. Then shall you gono further. [To Edmund. [ther; 25 May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my bro- drum? France spreads his banners in our noiseless land; Alb. See thyself, devil! Proper deformity seems not in the fiend 35 The other eye of Gloster. [Exit Edmund. Edm. Yours in the ranks of death. Stew. Madam, here comes my lord/ Gon. I have been worth the whistle 2. You are not worth the dust which the rude wind Blows in your face.-I fear your disposition: That nature, which contemns its origin, Gon. No more; the text is foolish. Alb. Gloster's eyes? [morse, Mes. A servant that he bred, thrill'd with reOppos'd against the act, bending his sword To his great master; who, thereat enrag'd, 40 Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead: But not without that harmful stroke, which since Hath pluck'd him after. Alb. This shews you are above, You justicers, that these our nether crimes 45 so speedily can venge!-But, O poor Gloster! Lost he his other eye? 50 55 Mes. Both, both, my lord. This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer; Gon. [Aside.] One way I like this well; But being widow, and my Gloster with her, The news is not so tart.-I'll read, and answer. [Exit. It must be remembered that Albany, the husband of Goneril, disliked, in the end of the first act, the scheme of oppression and ingratitude. 2 This expression is a proverbial one. 3 Certain, for within the bounds that nature prescribes. Alluding to the use that witches and enchanters are said to make of wither'd branches in their charms: A fine insinuation in the speaker, that she was ready for the most unnatural mischief; and a preparative of the poet to her plotting with the bastard against her husband's life. Fishes are the only animals that are known to prey upon their own species. i. e. Diabolic qualities appear not so horrid in the devil to whom they belong, as in woman who unnaturally assumes them. By self-cover'd, our author probably means, Thou that hast disguised nature by wickedness; thou that hast hid the woman under the fiend. 5 Alb. |