thy daughters thy mothers; for when thou gavest them the rod, and puttest down thine own breeches,

Then they for sudden joy did weep,

And I for sorrow sung,

That such a king should play bo-peep,

And go the fools among.

[Singing.

Prithee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool to lie; I would fain learn to lie.

Lear. An you lie, sirrah, we'll have you whipped.

Fool. I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are: they'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'lt have me whipped for lying; and sometimes I am whipped for holding my peace. I had rather be any kind of thing than a fool and yet I would not be thee, nuncle; thou hast pared thy wit o' both sides, and left nothing in the middle:here comes one o' the parings.

Enter GONERIL.

Lear. How now, daughter! what makes that frontlet on? 1 Methinks you are too much of late i' the frown.

Fool. Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to care for her frowning; now thou art an O without a figure 2 I am better than thou art now: I am a fool, thou art nothing.-Yes, forsooth, [To GoN.] I will hold my tongue; so your face bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum,

He that keeps nor crust nor crumb,

Weary of all, shall want some.3——

That's a shealed peascod. [Pointing to LEAR.

1 What makes, &c.] What does that expression on your brow? Why that frown? Make for do is common in our old writers. 'What make you from Wittenberg, Horatio,' Hamlet, i. 2.

2 An O without a figure.] A cipher without a significant figure, a mere cipher.

3 Weary of all, &c.] After he has been weary of the whole, he shall come to feel the want of some.

Gon. Not only, sir, this your all-licensed fool,
But other of your insolent retinue

Do hourly carp and quarrel; breaking forth
In rank and not-to-be-endured riots. Sir,

I had thought, by making this well known unto you,
To have found a safe redress; but now grow fearful,
By what yourself too late have spoke and done,
That you protect this course, and put it on

By your allowance; which if you should, the fault
Would not 'scape1 censure, nor the redresses sleep
Which, in the tender of a wholesome weal,
Might in their working do you that offence,-
Which else were shame,-that then necessity
Will call discreet proceeding.2

Fool. For you know, nuncle,

The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,3
That it had its head bit off by its young.

So, out went the candle, and we were left darkling.

1 Would not 'scape.] Ought not to escape. Would was formerly often used for ought to, or requires to. "That would be scanned,' Hamlet, iii. 3. 'The cause is dark, and hath not been rendered by any, and therefore would be better contemplated.'-Bacon's Silva Silvarum, Cent. ii. 3. 'It would be well inquired whether manna, the drug, doth fall but upon certain herbs or leaves only.' Ibid. v. 96.

2 Which, in the tender, &c.] Which redresses, having regard to the interest of the state, might in their execution do you an offence that necessity would justify as discreet proceeding, though but for such necessity they would be shameful.

3 The hedge-sparrow, &c.] The cuckoo builds no nest of her own, but deposits her egg in the nest of some other bird, generally of the hedge-sparrow.

4

* Darkling.] Involved in darkness. Johnson uses the word in his Vanity of Human Wishes:

'Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate,

Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?'

Lear. Are you our daughter?

Gon. I would you would make use of that good wisdom Whereof I know you are fraught;1 and put away These dispositions, which of late transport you

From what you rightly are.

This is not Lear:
Where are his eyes?

Fool. May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse?-Whoop! jug ! 2 I love thee. Lear. Does any here know me? Does Lear walk thus? speak thus? Either his notion weakens, his discernings Are lethargied,-Ha! waking? 'tis not so. Who is it that can tell me who I am?

Fool. Lear's shadow.

Lear. I would learn that;

For by the marks of sovereignty, knowledge, and reason,
I should be false persuaded I had daughters.

Fool. Which they will make an obedient father.
Lear. Your name, fair gentlewoman?

Gon. This admiration, sir, is much o' the favour
Of other your new pranks. I do beseech you
To understand my purposes aright:

As

you are old and reverend, should be wise Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires; Men so disordered, so deboshed, and bold,

1 Whereof I know you are fraught.] Goneril may be supposed here to refer to the wisdom of Lear in transferring the 'cares and business' of sovereignty to 'younger strengths.'

2 Whoop! jug!] Pull away! jog on!

3 Admiration-favour.] Admiration means wonder; favour means complexion.

4 Should be.] Perhaps this is an abridgement of you should be; for Shakspeare sometimes neglects, in this way, the pronominal repetition of a subject; but possibly the construction is 'old and reverend, as you are, should be wise,' where the subject of the verb should is the phrase old and reverend.

That this our court, infected with their manners,
Shows like a riotous inn: epicurism and lust
Make it more like a tavern or a brothel,

Than a graced palace. The shame itself doth speak
For instant remedy: be then desired,

By her that else will take the thing she begs,

A little to disquantity your train ;

And the remainder, that shall still depend,

To be such men as may besort your age,
Which know themselves and you.

Lear. Saddle my

Darkness and devils!

horses! call my train together!— Degenerate bastard! I'll not trouble thee:

Yet have I left a daughter.

Gon. You strike my people; and your disordered rabble Make servants of their betters.

Enter ALBANY.

Lear. Woe, that too late repents.-[To ALB.] O, sir, are you come ?

Is it your will? Speak, sir.-Prepare my horses.—
Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend,

More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child
Than the sea-monster !!

Alb.

Pray, sir, be patient.

Lear. Detested kite! thou liest: [To GONERIL. My train are men of choice and rarest parts,

That all particulars of duty know,

And in the most exact regard support

The worships of their name.-O most small fault,

How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show!

1 The sea-monster.] The poet is thought to refer to the hippopotamus.

Which, like an engine,' wrenched my frame of nature
From the fixed place; drew from my heart all love,
And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear!

Beat at this gate, that let thy folly in, [Striking his head.
And thy dear judgment out!-Go, go, my people.

Alb. My lord, I am guiltless as I am ignorant Of what hath moved you.

It may

be

Lear.
so, my lord.
Hear, Nature, hear; dear goddess, hear!
Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend

To make this creature fruitful!
Into her womb convey sterility!
Dry up in her the organs of increase;
And from her derogate 2 body never spring
A babe to honour her! If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen; that it may live,
And be a thwart disnatured torment to her!
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth;
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks;
Turn all her mother's pains and benefits 3
To laughter and contempt; that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!-Away, away !

[Exit.

Alb. Now, gods that we adore, whereof comes this?
Gon. Never afflict yourself to know more of it;
But let his disposition have that scope

That dotage gives it.

Re-enter LEAR.

Lear. What, fifty of my followers at a clap, Within a fortnight?

1 An engine.] An engine of torture; the rack.

• All her mother's pains, &c.] All her maternal trouble and kind

ness.