With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads, Reg. I am made of that felf metal as my fifter', 2 Only he comes too fhort: that I profess 3 Which the moft precious fquare of fenfe poffeffes; And find, I am alone felicitate In your dear highness' love. • I am made, &c.] Thus the folio. The quarto reads, Sir, I am made of the felf-fame metal that my fifter is. STEEVENS. And prize me] I believe this paffage fhould rather be pointed thus: And prize me at her worth, in my true heart I find, fhe names, &c. That is, And fo may you prize me at her worth, as in my true heart I find, that fhe names, &c. TYRWHITT. I believe we should read: "And prize you at her worth ;" That is, fet the fame high value upon you that fhe does. MONCK MASON. that I profefs] That feems to ftand without relation, but is referred to find, the firft conjunction being inaccurately fuppreffed. I find that the names my deed, I find that I profefs, &c. JOHNSON. The true meaning is this:" My fifter has equally expreffed my fentiments, only fhe comes thort of me in this, that I profefs myself an enemy to all joys but you."-That I profefs means, in that I profefs. MONCK MASON. 3 Which the most precious fquare of fenfe poffeffes;] By the fquare of fenfe, we are, here, to understand the four nobler fenfes, viz. the fight, hearing, tafte, and smell. For a young lady could not, with decency, infinuate that the knew of any pleasures which the fifth afforded. This is imagined and expreffed with great propriety and delicacy. But the Oxford editor, for fquare, reads fpirit. WARBURTON. This is acute; but perhaps Square means only compass, comprehenfion. JOHNSON. So, in a Paranefis to the Prince, by lord Sterline, 1604: "The Square of reafon, and the mind's clear eye." STEEVENS. Cor. Then poor Cordelia! And yet not fo; fince, I am fure, my love's + More pond'rous than my tongue. [Afide. Lear. To thee, and thine, hereditary ever, Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom; No lefs in fpace, validity, and pleasure, 8 Than that confirm'd' on Goneril. Now, our joy, Although the laft, not leaft; to whofe young love The vines of France, and milk of Burgundy, Strive to be interefs'd; what can you fay,' to draw A third, 4 More pond'rous than my tongue.] We fhould read, their tongue, meaning her fifters. WARBURTON. Thus the folio: the quarto I think the prefent reading right. JOHNSON. More pond'rous than my tongue.] reads, more richer. STEEVENS. 5 No less in space, validity, not for integrity, or good title. 6 7 -] Validity, for worth, value; WARBURTON. -confirm'd] The folio reads, conferr'd. STEEVENS. Now cur joy,] Here the true reading is picked out of two copies. Butter's quarto reads: But now our joy, Although the laft, not leaft in our dear love, The folio: -Now our joy, Although our laft, and leaft; to whose young love Strive to be int'refs'd. What can you fay, &c. JOHNSON. 6 Although our laft, not leaft, &c.] So, in the old anonymous play, King Leir fpeaking to Mumford: -to thee laft of all; "Not greeted lait, 'caufe thy defert was fmall." STEEVENS. Again, in The Spanish Tragedy, written before 1593: "The third and last, not least, in our account." MALONE. Strive to be interefs'd;] So, in the Preface to Drayton's Polyolbion: "there is scarce any of the nobilitie, or gentry of this land, but he is fome way or other by his blood intereffed therein." Again, in Ben Jonson's Sejanus: "Our facred laws and just authority Το A third, more opulent than your fifters? Speak. 2. 2 Cor. Nothing. Lear. Nothing can come of nothing: speak again. Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty According to my bond; nor more, nor lefs. Lear. How, how, Cordelia? mend your speech a little, Left it may mar your fortunes. Cor. Good my lord. You have begot me, bred me, lov'd me: I Half my love with him, half my care, and duty: Sure, I fhall never marry like my fifters, s To love my father all. To intereft and to intereffe, are not, perhaps, different fpellings of the fame verb, but are two diftinét words though of the fame import; the one being derived from the Latin, the other from the French intereffer. STEEVENS. -to draw] The quarto reads-what can you fay, to win. STEEVENS, 2 These two speeches are wanting in the quartos. STEEVENS. 3 How, how, Cordelia?] Thus the folio. The quarto reads -Go to, go to. STEEVENS. 4 Haply, when I fall wed, &c.] So, in The Mirror of Magiftrates, 1586, Cordila fays: "To love you as I ought, my father, well; "Yet fhortly I may chance, if fortune will, "To find in heart to beare another more good will: "Thus much I faid of nuptial loves that meant.” STEEVENS. • To love my father all.-] Thefe words are reftored from the first edition, without which the fenfe was not complete. POPE. Lear. Lear. But goes thy heart with this? Lear. So young, and fo untender? Lear. Let it be fo,-Thy truth then be thy dower! From whom we do exist, and cease to be; 6 Scythian, The barbarous Or he that makes his generation meffes Kent. Good my liege, Lear. Peace, Kent! Come not between the dragon and his wrath: On her kind nursery.-Hence, and avoid my fight! [To Cordelia". So be my grave my peace, as here I give Her father's heart from her!-Call France ;-Who ftirs? Call Burgundy. Cornwall, and Albany, With my two daughters' dowers digeft this third: • Hold thee, from this,] i, e. from this time. STEEVENS. [To Cordelia.] Rather, as the author of the Revifal obferves, 7 to Kent. For in the next words Lear fends for France and Burgundy to offer Cordelia without a dowry. STEEVENS. Mr. Monck Mafon obferves, that Kent did not yet deserve fuch treatment from the King, as the only words he had uttered were, "Good my liege." EDITOR. VOL. IX. C ċ Pre Preheminence, and all the large effects That troop with majefty. Ourself, by monthly course, With refervation of an hundred knights, By you to be fuftain'd, fhall our abode Make with you by due turns. 8 Only we shall retain The fway, revenue, execution of the reft, Whom I have ever honour'd as my king, thus: Only retain The name, and all the additions to a king : The fway, revenue, execution, Beloved fons, be yours; -] The old books read the lines The fway, revenue, execution of the reft, This is evidently corrupt; and the editors not knowing what to make off the reft, left it out. The true reading, without doubt, was: The fway, revenue, execution of th' heft, Beloved fons, be yours. Heft is an old word for regal command: fo that the fenfe of the whole is, I will only retain the name and all the ceremonious obfervances that belong to a king; the effentials, as sway, revenue, administration of the laws, be yours. WARBURTON. -execution of the reft,] I do not fee any great difficulty in the words, execution of the reft, which are in both the old copies. The execution of the reft is, I fuppofe, all the other business. Dr. Warburton's own explanation of his amendment confutes it; if heft be a regal command, they were, by the grant of Lear, to have rather the heft than the execution. JOHNSON. 9 As my great patron thought on in my prayers,-] An allufion to the custom of clergymen praying to their patrons, in what is commonly called the bidding prayer. HENLEY. See also note to the epilogue to King Henry IV. Part II. EDITOR. Kent. |