To temper clay.-Ha! is it come to this? Gon. Do you mark that my lord? Alb. I cannot be fo partial, Goneril, To the great love I bear you. Gon. Pray you, content.-What, Ofwald, ho! You, fir, more knave than fool, after your mafter. [To the Fool Lear. Ha, ha, ha! Fool. Shalt fee, thy other daughter will use thee kindly; for though fhe's as like this as a crab is Fool. Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry, and take 15 like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell. the fool with thee. A fox when one has caught her, Lear. Why, what canft thou tell, boy? Fool. She will tafte as like this, as a crab does to a crab. Thou canst tell why one's nofe ftand's i' the middle of one's face? Lear. No. Gon. Take you fome company, and away to horfe: 40 fool. Fool. If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'd have thee beaten for being old before thy time. [Exit Steward. 45 Lear. How's that? This milky gentleness, and course of yours, Alb. How far your eyes may pierce, I cannot tell; Gon. Nay, then Alb. Well, well; the event. [Exeunt. SCENE V. Fool. Thou fhould'st not have been old before thou hadst been wife. Lear. O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! Keep me in temper; I would not be 5c mad! A Court-yard before the Duke of Albany's Palace. 55 Lear. Go you before to Glofter with these let Enter a Gentleman. Gent. Ready, my lord. Lear. Come, boy. [departure, Fool. She that's a maid now, and laughs at my Shall not be a maid long unless things be cut fhorter. [Exeunt. • At point, probably means completely armed, and confequently ready at appointment or command on the flighteft notice. 2 That is, Unite one circumstance with another, fo as to make a confiftent account. 3 To be at task, is to be liable to reprebenfion and correction. 4 He is mufing on Cordelia. 5 He is meditating on his daughter's having in fo violent a manner deprived him of those privileges which before she had agreed to grant him. ACT АСТ II. 5 Glo. But where is he? Edm. Look, fir, I bleed. Gloft. Where is the villain, Edmund ? he could Edm. Fled this way, fir. When by no means To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion, Edm. The duke be here to-night? The better! 20 This weaves itself perforce into my business! My father watches :-O, fir, fly this place; Edg. I am fure on't, not a word. Glo. Let him fly far: That he, which finds him, fhall deserve our thanks, Edm. When I diffuaded him from his intent, And found him pight 5 to do it, with curft fpeech 3c I threaten'd to discover him: He replied, 35 Edm. I hear my father coming,-Pardon me :- Enter Glofter, and Servants with torches. Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon "Thou unpoffeffing bastard! doft thou think, "To thy fuggeftion, plot, and damned practice: Would he deny his letter, faid he?--I never got him. comes: All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not scape; Enter Cornwall, Regan, and Attendants. Ear-kiffing arguments means, that they are yet in reality only whisper'd ones. delicate; what requires to be handled nicely. only in compofition, as arcb-angel, arch-duke. fevere, harsh, vehemently angry. legal bar of thy illegitimacy, 3 i. e. frighted. 4 i. e. chief; a word now used 5 Pight is pitch'd, fixed, fettled. 7 i. c. capable of fucceeding to my land, notwithstanding the (Which I can call but now) I have heard strange news. Reg. If it be true, all vengeance comes too fhort,| Which can pursue the offender. How does my lord? Glo. O, madam, my old heart is crack'd, is 5 crack'd! [life? Reg. What, did my father's godfon feek your Glo. O, lady, lady, shame would have it hid! Glo. I know not, madam: It is too bad, too bad. [knights Edm. Yes, madam, he was of that confort. Kent. Fellow, I know thee. Stew. What doft thou know me for? Reg. No marvel then, though he were ill affected; 15 thee not. Corn. Nor I, affure thee, Regan. Edmund, I hear that you have shewn your father Edm. 'Twas my duty, fir. Glo. He did bewray his practice; and receiv'd This hurt you fee, striving to apprehend him. Corn. Is he purfu'd? Glo. Ay, my good lord. Corn. If he be taken, he fhall never more Edm. I fhall ferve you, fir, Truly, however elfe. Glo. For him I thank your grace. Kent. A knave, a rafcal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, fhallow, beggarly, three20 fuited 5, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking 7 knave; a lily-liver'd3, action-taking knave; a whorefon, glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting flave; one that would't be a bawd, in way of good service, and 25 art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the fon and heir of a mungrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamourous whining, if thou deny'st the least syllable of thy addition. 1301 Stew. Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail en one, that is neither known of thee, or knows thee? Kent. What a brazen-fac'd varlet art thou, to deny thou know'ft me? Is it two days ago, fince 35 tript up thy heels, and beat thee, before the king? Draw, you rogue: for though it be night, yet the moon fhines; I'll make a fop o' the moonthine of you 10: Draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger 1, draw. [Drawing bis fword. 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, 45 you rafcal; come your ways. Corn. You know not why we came to vifit you, 40 Occafions, noble Glofter, of fome prize 2, Glo. I ferve you, madam: Stew. Help, ho! murder! help! Kent. Strike, you flave; ftand, rogue, ftand; you neat flave 12, ftrike. [Beating bi Stew. Help, ho! murder! murder! 50 Enter Edmund, Cornwall, Regan, Glofter, and Servants. Edm. How now? What's the matter? Part. 2 Prize, of i. e. difcover, betray. Practice is always used by Shakspeare for infiduous mischief. price, for value. 3 i.e. not at home, but at fome other place. + Lipfbury pinfold may be a cant expreffion importing the fame as Lob's Pound. 5 Three-fuited knave might mean, in an age of oftentatious finery like that of Shakspeare, one who had no greater change of raiment than three fuits would furnish him with. 6 A bundred pound gentleman is a term of reproach. 7 A worsted stocking know is another term of reproach. The ftockings in England, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, were remarkably expensive, and scarce any other kind than filk were worn, even by those who had not above forty fhillings a year wages. Lily-liver'd is cowardly; white-blooded and white-liver'd are ftill in vulgar 9 i. e. titles. 10 This is equivalent to our modern phrase of making the fun shine through any one. 11 Barber-monger may mean dealer in the lower tradefmen: a flur upon the steward, as taking fees for a recommendation to the bufinefs of the family. 12 You neat flave, means no more than you ufe. 8 finical rafcal, you who are an affemblage of foppery and poverty. Kert, Kent. His countenance likes 7 me not. [or hers. I have feen better faces in my time Than stand on any shoulder that I fee Before me at this inftant. Corn. This is fome fellow, Who, having been prais'd for bluntness, doth affe& Kent. No marvel, you have fo beftirr'd your 10 Quite from his nature: He cannot flatter, he! You cowardly rafcal, nature difclaims in thee; A tailor made thee. Corn. Thou art a strange fellow : A tailor make a man? Kent. Ay, a tailor, fir: a stone-cutter, or a painter 15 could not have made him fo ill, though they had been but two hours at the trade. Corn. Speak yet, how grew your quarrel? Stew. This ancient ruffian, fir, whofe life have spar'd At fuit of his grey beard, An honeft mind and plain,—he must speak truth: Kent. Sir, in good footh, or in fincere verity, Kent. Thou whorefon zed1! thou unneceffary letter! My lord, if you will give me leave, 1| will tread this unbolted2 villain into mortar, and daub the wall of a jakes with him.-Spare my 25 grey beard, you wagtail? Who wears no honefty. Such fmiling rogues as Corn. Why deft thou call him knave? What's Corn. What mean'ft thou by this? Kent. To go out of my dialect, which you difcommend so 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 displeasure to entreat me to it. Corn. What was the offence you gave him? 30 It pleas'd the king his master, very late, Kent. None of thefe rogues, and cowards, 40 But Ajax is their fool 12. Corn. Fetch forth the ftocks, ho! [gart, You ftubborn ancient knave, you reverend brag- Kent. Sir, I am too old to learn: 45 Call not your ftocks for me: I ferve the king; Corn. Fetch forth the stocks : '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 fupplied by S. and the Roman alphabet has it not, neither is it read in any word originally Teutonic. 2 Unbolted mortar, according to Mr. Tollett, 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 coarse rascal. 3 By thefe boly 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 these facrilegious rats. The balcyon is the bird otherwife called the king-fiber. The vulgar opinion was, that this bird, if hung up, would vary with the wind, and by that means fhew from what point it blew. 5 The frighted countenance of a man ready to fall in a fit. 6 Camelot was the place where the romances fay king Arthur kept his court in the Weft; fo this alludes to fome proverbial speech in those romances. In Somersetshire, adds Hanmer, near Camelot, are many large moors, where are bred great quantities of geefe, so that many other places are from hence supplied with quills and feathers. 7 i. e. pleases me not. fition. 8 i. e. forces his outfide or his appearance to something totally different from his natural difpo. Silly here means only fimple, or ruftic. o i. e. foolishly. 11 Dr. Johnson in his Dictionary fays, this word means to flutter. 12 Their fool means here, their batt, their laughing-fuck As I have life and honour, there fhall he fit 'till noon. Regan. 'Till noon! 'till night, my lord; and all night too. Kent. Why, madam, if I were your father's dog, 5 You should not use me fo. Regan. Sir, being his knave I will. [Stocks brought out. Corn. This is a fellow of the felf-fame colour ftocks. Glo. Let me beseech your grace not to do fo : Is fuch, as bafeft and the meaneft wretches, Corn. I'll answer that. Reg. My fifter may receive it much more worse, Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold Fortune, good night; smile once more; turn thy SCENE III. A Part of the Heath. Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd ; And, by the happy hollow of a tree, [Kent is put in the stocks. 25 Come, my good lord; away. [Exeunt Regan, and Cornwall. Glo. I am forry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure, Whofe difpofition, all the world well knows, [thee, 30 Kent. Pray, do not, fir: I have watch'd, and Some time I fhall fleep out, the reft I'll whistle. Glo. The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill [Exit. Kent. Good king, that must approve the com mon faw! Thou out of heaven's benediction com'ft To the warm fun! Approach, thou beacon to this under globe, 35 40 Fool. Ha, ha; look! he wears cruel garters! Horfes are ty'd by the heads; dogs and bears by the neck; monkies by the loins, and men by the legs when a man is over-lufty at legs, then he 50 wears wooden nether-ftocks 8. [mistook Lear. What's he, that hath so much thy place To fet thee here? That art now to exemplify the common proverb, that cut of, &c. That changest better for worse. Hanmer obferves, that it is a proverbial faying, applied to thofe who are turned out of house and home to the open weather. It was perhaps first used of men dismissed from an hospital, or house of chanty, fuch as was erected formerly in many places for travellers. Thofe houses had names properly enough alluded to by beaven'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 2 Hair knotted, was vulgarly supposed to be the work of elves and fairies in the night. 3 i. e. fkewers. 4 i. e. paltry. 5 To ban, is to curfe. 6 Mr. Steevens believes that a quibble was here intended. Crewel fignifies worsted, of which stockings, garters, night-caps, &c. are made. this place has a double fignification. Luftinefs anciently meant faucinefs. word for fuckings. Breeches were at that time called "men's over-flocks." |