Fol. No; he's a yeoman, that has a gentleman to a fon for he's a mad yeoman, that fees 35 his fon a gentleman before him. Lear. To have a thousand with red burning fpits 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 horfe's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath. Lear. It fhall be done, I will arraign them ftraight: Come, fit thou here, most learned justicer ;— 45 [To Edgar. Thou, fapient fir, fit here. [To the Fool.]-Now, you the foxes! Edg. Look, where he stands and glares! Wanteft thou eyes at trial, madam? "Come o'er the bourn 2, Beffy, to me : 150 Fool. "Her boat hath a leak, "And she must not speak "Why fhe 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 herring 3. Croak not, black angel; I have no food for thee. Fool. Come hither, mistress; Is your name Go neril? Lear. She cannot deny it. [ftool 5. Fool. Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint- proclaim What store her heart is made on.-Stop her there! Edg. Blefs thy five wits! Kent. O pity!-Sir, where is the patience now, That you fo oft have boasted to retain ? Edg. My tears begin to take his part so much, They'll mar my counterfeiting. Lear. The little dogs and all, [Afide Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, fee, they bark at me. Edg. Tom will throw his head at them :- Be thy mouth or black or white, And market towns:-Poor Tom, thy horn is dry. Lear. Then let them anatomize Regan, fee what breeds about her heart: Is there any cause in nature, that makes these hard hearts ?—You, fir, I en55tertain you for one of my hundred; only, I do not like the fashion of your garment: you will fay, they are Perfian attire; but let them be chang'd. [To Edgar 1 i. e. fupporting, helping. 2 A bourn in the North fignifies a rivulet or brook. Hence the names of many of our villages terminate in burn, as Milburn, Sherburn, &c. 3 White berrings are pickled berrings. 4 Minikin was anciently a term of endearment. 5 This is a proverbial expreffion. 7 A rache To have the roof of the mouth black is in fome dogs a proof that their breed is genuine. is a dog that hunts by fcent wild beasts, birds, and even fishes, and the female of it is called a bracht. A limmer or leamer, a dog of the chace, was fo called from the leam or leafh in which he was held till he was let flip. 9 Tijk is the Runic word for a little, or worthless dog. Kent. my master? [are gone. 5 when you are going, to a moft feftinate prepara- How now? Where's the king? Stew. My lord of Glofter hath convey'd him hence : Some five or fix and thirty of his knights, Kent. Here, fir; but trouble him not, his wits 10 Hot queftrifts2 after him, met him at gate; I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him: [meet And drive toward Dover, friend, where thou fhalt If thou should'st dally half an hour, his life, Kent. Oppreffed nature fleeps: This reft might yet have balm'd thy broken fenfes, Who, with fome other of the lord's dependants, Are gone with him towards Dover; where they boaft To have well-armed friends. Corn. Get horfes for your mistress. [Exeunt Goneril, and Edmund. Corn. Edmund, farewel.-Go, feek the traitor Glofter, 20 Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us :- Stand in hard cure.-Come, help to bear thy mafter; 25 Glo. Come, come, away. [To the Fool. [Exeunt, bearing off the King. Edg. When we our betters fee bearing our woes, 30 But then the mind much sufferance doth o'erskip, king bow; 35 He childed, as I father'd!-Tom, away: 40 50 Late footed in the kingdom? [king? Reg. To whofe hands have you fent the lunatic Speak. Glo. I have a letter gueffingly fet down, Which came from one that's of a neutral heart, 55 And not from one oppos'd. Gon. Pluck out his eyes. Corn. Leave him to my difpleasure.-Edmund, keep you our fifter company; the revenges we are bound to take upon your traiterous father, are not fit for your beholding. Advise the duke,|60| Corn. Cunning. Corn. Where haft thou fent the king? Reg. Wherefore to Dover? 3 To 4 i. e. dry, wither'd, i. e. States clear from diftress. 2 A queftrift is one who goes in fearch or queft of another. do a courtesy is to gratify, to comply with. To pass, is to pass a judicial fentence. husky arms. 5 Favours here means the fame as features, i. e. the different parts of which a face is compofed. Simple means plain. 6 3 P 4 Wast Waft thou not charg'd at peril Corn. Wherefore to Dover? Let him firft answer that. [the courfe Glo. I'm ty'd to the ftake, and I muft ftand Glo. Because I would not fee thy cruel nails If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time, Upon thefe eyes of thine I'll fet my foot. [Glifter is held down, while Cornwall treads 20 Glo. He, that will think to live 'till he be old, Reg. One fide will mock another; the other too. Serv. Hold your hand, my lord: I have ferv'd you ever fince I was a child; Reg. How now, you dog? 25 Reg. Out, treacherous villain! Thou call'ft on him that hates thee: it was he Glo. O my follies! Kind gods forgive me that, and prosper him! Corn. I have receiv'd a hurt:-Follow me, lady. ift Serv. I'll never care what wickedness I do, If this man come to good. 2d Serv. If the live long, 30 And, in the end, meet the old courfe of death, Serv. If you did wear a beard upon your chin, [Comes bebind, and kills bim. [Bedlam A C T IV. Edg. SCENE I. An open Country. Enter Edgar. The lamentable change is from the best; ET better thus, and known to be con-50 Owes nothing to thy blafts.-But who comes here? YET temn'd, Than ftill contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst, Enter Glofter, led by an old man. My father, poorly led?-World, world, O world! 4 The fenfe of this i.e. the running of the dogs upon me. 2 i. e. yielded, fubmitted to the neceffity of the occafion. 3 Villain is here perhaps ufed in its original fenfe of one in fervitude. obfcure paffage is, O world! fo much are human minds captivated with thy pleafures, that were it not for thofe fucceffive miferics, each worfe than the other, which overload the fcenes of life, we fhould never be willing to fubmit to death, though 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 preferve fuch a ftate of vigour as to bear up long against the decays of time. There are the two reafons, it is fuppofed, why he faid, "Life would not yield to age." And how much the pleafures of the body pervert the mind's judgment, and the perturbations of the mind diforder the body's frame, is known to all. Old Old Man. O my good lord, I have been your te- Old Man. Alack, fir, you cannot see your way. Old Man. How now? Who's there? Edg. [Afide.] O Gods! Who is 't can fay, I am 15 Edg. Both file and gate, horse-way and foot at the worst? I am worse than e'er I was. Old Man. 'Tis poor mad Tom. Edg. [Afide.] And worse I may be yet: The worst is not, So long as we can fay, This is the worst. Old Man. Fellow, where goeft? Glo. Is it a beggar-man? Old Man. Madman and beggar too. Glo. He has fome reason, elfe he could not beg. I' the last night's ftorm I such a fellow faw; As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport. Edg. How fhould this be? path. Poor Tom hath been fear'd out of his good wits: Blefs thee, good man's fon, from the foul fiend! Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of luft, as Obidicut; Hobbididance, prince 20of dumbnefs: Mabu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; and Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing; who fince poffeffes chamber-maids and waitingwomen 3. So, blefs thee, mafter! And each man have enough.-Doft thou know Edg. Ay, mafter. Glo. There is a cliff, whose high and bending head Looks fearfully on the confined deep: Bring me but to the very brim of it, And I'll repair the mifery thou dost bear, 40 With fomething rich about me: from that place i. e. moderate, mediocre condition. 2 i. e. difguife. 3 Shakspeare has made Edgar, in his feigned distraction, 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 vigour of ftile and compofition by Dr. S. Harfenet, afterwards archbishop of York, by order of the privycouncil, in a work intitled, A Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures to withdraw her Majefty's Subjects from their Allegiance, &c. practised by Edmunds, alias Wefton, a Jefuit, and divers Remish Priests bis wicked Affociates: printed 1603. The imposture was in substance this: While the Spaniards were preparing their armado against England, the jefuits were here busy at work to promote it, by making converts: one method they employed was to difpoffefs 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 fervant of Anthony Babington's (who was afterwards executed for treafon), Trayford, an attendant upon Mr. Peckham, and Sarah and Frifwood Williams, and Anne Smith, three chamber-maids in that family, came into the priest's hands for cure. But the difcipline of the patients was fo long and fevere, and the priests so elate and careless with their fuccefs, that the plot was difcovered on the confeffion 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 fo ridiculously nick-named, that Harfenet has one chapter on the frange names of their devils; left, fays he, meeting them otherwife by chance, you mistake them for the names of tapfters or jugglers. 4 Superfluous is here used for one living in abundance. 5 To flave an ordinance, is to treat it as a flave, to make it subject to us, instead of acting in obedience to it. SCENE [ter? Not met us on the way :-Now, where's your maf-| Stew. Madam, within; but never man fol I told him of the army that was landed; He fmil'd at it: I told him you were coming; Gon. Then shall you go no further. [To Edmund. That dares not undertake: he'll not feel wrongs, 25 May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my bro- Decline your head: this kifs, if it durst speak, Edm. Yours in the ranks of death. O, the difference of man, and man! [Exit Edmund. Stew. Madam, here comes my lord. Gon. I have been worth the whistle 2. You are not worth the duft 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. Wisdom and goodness to the vile feem vile: Filths favour but themselves. What have you done? Tygers, not daughters, what have you perform'd? A father, and a gracious aged man, France fpreads his banners in our noiseless land; Alb. See thyfelf, devil! Proper deformity feems not in the fiend Mef. O, my good lord, the duke of Cornwall's [morfe, Mej. A fervant that he bred, thrill'd with re- Alb. This fhews you are above, You jufticers, that these our nether crimes 45 So fpeedily can venge!-But, O poor Gloster! Loft he his other eye? 50 1551 Mef. Both, both, my lord. This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer; Gon. [Afide.] One way I like this well; [Exil It must be remembered that Albany, the husband of Goneril, difliked, in the end of the first act, the fcheme of oppreflion and ingratitude. 2 This expreffion is a proverbial one. 3 Certain, for within the bounds that nature prescribes. 4 Alluding to the ufe that witches and enchanters are faid to make of quitber'd branches in their charms. A fine infinuation in the speaker, that she was ready for the most unnatural mifchief, and a preparative of the poet to her plotting with the baftard against her husband's life. 5 Fishes are the only animals that are known to prey upon their own species. i. e. Diabolic qualities appear not fo horrid in the devil to whom they belong, as in woman who unnaturally affumes them. By felf-cover'd our author probably means, thou that haft disguised nature by wickedness; thou that haft hid the woman under the fiend. 7 Abb. |