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Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee;
But where the greater malady is fix'd,

The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear;
But if thy flight lay toward the roaring sea2,

Thou'dst meet the bear i̇' the mouth. When the mind's

free,

The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else,
Save what beats there.-Filial ingratitude!
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand,
For lifting food to't?-But I will punish home.-
No, I will weep no more.-In such a night
To shut me out!-Pour on; I will endure3:-
In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!-
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all1,—
O! that way madness lies; let me shun that;

No more of that.

Kent.

Good my lord, enter here.

Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyself; seek thine own ease: This tempest will not give me leave to ponder On things would hurt me more.-But I'll go in:

In, boy; go first.-[To the Fool.] You houseless po

verty,

Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.

[Fool goes

in.

Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O! I have ta'en

2

the ROARING Sea,] So one of the quartos and the folio: the other quartos, "raging sea."

3 To shut me out!-Pour on; I will endure :] Omitted in the quartos, which just above read, "I will punish sure," for "I will punish home."

4 whose frank heart gave all,] The quartos, "gave you all.”

"I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.] This and the preceding line are only in the folio.

6 This pitiless STORM,] The quartos, "this pitiless night." Other variations are of comparatively little import.

Too little care of this. Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou may'st shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.

Edg. [Within.] Fathom and half', fathom and half! Poor Tom! [The Fool runs out from the Hovel. Fool. Come not in here, nuncle; here's a spirit. Help me! help me!

Kent. Give me thy hand.-Who's there?

Fool. A spirit, a spirit: he says his name's poor Tom.

Kent. What art thou that dost grumble there i' the straw?

Come forth.

Enter EDGAR, disguised as a Madman.

Edg. Away! the foul fiend follows me !Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind3.— Humph! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.

Lear. Hast thou given all to thy two daughters? And art thou come to this?

Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame', through ford and whirlpool, over bog and quagmire ; that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge'; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor.-Bless thy five wits! Tom's a-cold.-O! do

7 Fathom and half,] This speech is not in the quartos.

8

blows the cold wind.] The folio reads incorrectly, as appears on its own authority afterwards, "blow the winds," and subsequently, “go to thy bed." The words, "Go to thy cold bed, and warm thee," occur in the "Taming of the Shrew," Vol. iii. p. 107. See the note upon them. Lear's next speech stands thus in the folio, "Didst thou give all to thy daughters?"

9- and through flame,] These words are only in the folio, which, however, reads corruptly, sword, instead of "ford" of the quartos.

[blocks in formation]

2 Bless thy five wits?] The five senses were formerly called "the five wits,"

de, do de, do de.-Bless thee from whirlwinds, starblasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes.-There could I have him now, and there, and there, and there again, and there. [Storm continues. Lear. What! have his daughters brought him to

this pass1?

Could'st thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all?

Fool. Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed.

Lear. Now, all the plagues, that in the pendulous air

Hang fated o'er men's faults, light on thy daughters! Kent. He hath no daughters, sir.

Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have subdued nature

To such a lowness, but his unkind daughters.

as many authorities establish, but perhaps none so clearly as the following passage from the interlude of " The Worlde and the Chylde," printed by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1522, and introduced into vol. xii. of the last edition of "Dodsley's Old Plays." I am indebted to Mr. Bruce for directing my attention to it it occurs on p. 334 :

3

"Age. Of the v. wittes I wolde have knowynge.

"Perseveraunce. Forsoth, syr, herynge, seynge, and smellynge,

66

The remenaunte tastynge, and felynge:

These ben the v. wittes bodely,

And, syr, other v. wittes there ben.

Age. Syr perseveraunce I know not them.

"Perseveraunce. Now, repentaunce, I shall you ken.

66

They are the power of the soule :
Clere in mynde, there is one,
Imagynacyon, and all reason,

Understondynge, and compassyon:

These belonge unto perseveraunce.

Age. Gramercy, perseveraunce, for your trewe techynge."

star-blasting, and TAKING!] We have had “taking" in the same sense before in this play, p. 410 :

"Strike her young bones,

You taking airs, with lameness."

"Taking," in both these instances, means the same as blasting. The preceding interjections, to indicate shuddering with cold, are not in the quartos.

♦ WHAT! HAVE his daughters brought him to this pass?] The folio omits "What!" necessary to the metre ; and the quartos omit " have," (which in the folio is printed has) necessary to the sense.

Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers

Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?
Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot
Those pelican daughters.

Edg. Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill3:—

Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!

Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.

Edg. Take heed o' the foul fiend. Obey thy parents; keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array. Tom's a-cold.

Lear. What hast thou been?

Edg. A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair, wore gloves in my cap, served the lust of my mistress's heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one, that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it. Wine loved I deeply; dice dearly; and in woman, out-paramoured the Turk false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes, nor the rustling of silks, betray thy poor heart to woman: keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend. Still through the hawthorn blows the cold

5 Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill :] Mr. Halliwell has pointed out to me, that "Pillicock" is thus mentioned in Ritson's "Gammer Gurton's Garland :”

"Pillycock, Pillycock sat on a hill;

If he's not gone, he sits there still."

It is also introduced into the second edition of Mr. Halliwell's "Nursery Rhymes,” p. 159, and it is certainly singular, as he observes, that neither Douce, nor any of the commentators, should have referred to it. He adds, that the meaning of "Pillicock" may be found in MS. Harl. No. 913, fo. 54, of as early a date as the thirteenth century. The Rev. Mr. Barry has referred me to a much later authority, Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1611.

6 keep thy word justly,] The reading of the folio is, "keep thy word's justice," which the second folio altered to "keep thy word, justice."

wind; says suum, mun, ha no nonny. Dolphin my boy, my boy; sessa! let him trot by'.

[Storm still continues.

Lear. Why, thou wert better in thy grave, than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume.-Ha! here's three on's are sophisticated: thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.-Off, off, you lendings.Come; unbutton here.

[Tearing off his clothes.

Fool. Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis a naughty night to swim in.-Now, a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher's heart; a small spark, all the rest on's body cold.-Look! here comes a walking fire.

Edg. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin', squints the eye, and makes the hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth.

7

Saint Withold footed thrice the wold1;

He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;

SESSA; let him trot by.] The quartos, with some other minute variations, read cease for " cessa," which is printed sesey in the folio. See "The Taming of the Shrew," Vol. iii. p. 107. It may be doubted whether it is not a mere interjection.

8 Come; unbutton here.] This is the reading of the folio: the quarto with the publisher's address has only, “Come on," and the quarto without the publisher's address, "Come on, be true."

9 - he gives the web and the pin,] i. e. the cataract in the eye. See Vol. iii. p. 444. In Mr. Botfield's interesting volume, printed for the Roxburghe Club, "Manners and Household Expenses of England in the thirteenth and fifteenth Centuries," p. 280, "a webbe and a pynne" is mentioned as a disorder in the eye, to be cured by a receipt there given, and by an error it is stated in a note that "pynne " there means pain.

1 SAINT WITHOLD footed thrice the WOLD ;] In all the old copies, Saint Withold is printed Swithold; and for " wold," they read old.

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