Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly, When Lear is mad. What would'st thou do, old man? 'Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak, When power to flattery bows? To plainnefs honour's bound, When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom; And, in thy beft confideration, check This hideous rafhnefs: answer my life my judgment, Lear. Kent, on thy life, no more. 3 Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn To Think'ft thou, that duty shall have dread to speak,] I have given this paffage according to the old folio, from which the modern editions have filently departed, for the fake of better numbers, with a degree of infincerity, which, if not fometimes detected and cenfured, muft impair the credit of ancient books. One of the editors, and perhaps only one, knew how much mischief may be done by fuch clandeftine alterations. The quarto agrees with the folio, except that for referve thy ftate, it gives, reverse thy doom, and has floops, instead of falls to folly. The meaning of answer my life my judgment, is, Let my life be anfwerable for my judgment, or, I will take my life on my opinion.-The reading which, without any right, has poffeffed all the modern copies is this: to plainness honour Is bound, when majefty to folly falls. Reserve thy ftate; with better judgment check Thy youngest daughter, &c. I am inclined to think that reverfe thy doom was Shakspeare's first reading, as more appofite to the prefent occafion, and that he changed it afterwards to reserve thy ftate, which conduces more to the progress of the action." JOHNSON. 2 Reverbs] This is perhaps a word of the poet's own making, meaning the fame as reverberates. STEEVENS. 3 -a pawn To wage against thine enemies ;- -] Cc 2 i. e. To wage against thine enemies: nor fear to lofe it, Thy fafety being the motive. Lear. Out of my fight! Kent. See better, Lear; and let me still remain The true blank of thine eye. Lear. Now, by Apollo, Kent. Now, by Apollo, king, Thou swear'st thy gods in vain. Lear. O, vaffal! mifcreant! [Laying his hand on his fword. Alb. Corn. Dear fir, forbear 5. Kent. Do; kill thy phyfician, and the fee bestow Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy gift°; Or, whilft I can vent clamour from my throat, I'll tell thee, thou doft evil. Lear. Hear me, recreant! On thine allegiance hear me ! i. e. I never regarded my life, as my own, but merely as a thing of which I had the poffeffion not the property; and which was entrusted to me as a parun or pledge, to be employed in waging war against your enemies. To wage against is an expreffion ufed in a letter from Guil. Webbe to Rob'. Wilmot, prefixed to Tancred and Guifmund, 1592: -you fhall not be able to wage against me in the charges growing upon this action." STEEVENS. My life I never held but as a pawn To wage against thine enemies.-7 That is, I never confidered my life as of more value than that of the commoneft of your fubjects. A pawn in chefs is a come mon man, in contradiftinction to the knight; and Shakspeare has feveral allufions to this game, particularly in King John: Who painfully with much expedient march, Again, in King Henry V : Therefore take heed how you impawn our perfon. HENLEY. The true blank of thine eye.] The blank is the white or exa mark at which the arrow is fhot. See better, fays Kent, and keep me always in your view. JOHNSON. Dear fir, forbear.] This fpeech is omitted in thy gift.] The quartos read-thy doom. the quartos. STEEVENS. Since thou haft fought to make us break our vow, (Which we durft never yet,) and, 7 with strain'd pride, To come betwixt our fentence and our power, (Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,) 7 ftrain'd pride] The oldest copy reads ftrayed pride; that is, pride exorbitant; pride paffing due bounds. JOHNSON. • To come betwixt our fentence and our power ;] Power, for execution of the fentence. WARBURTON. Rather, as Mr. Edwards obferves, our power to execute that fentence. STEEVENS. • Which nor our nature, nor our place, can bear, Our potency make good; Mr. Theobald, by putting the first line into a parenthefis, and altering make to made in the fecond line, had deftroyed the fenfe of the whole; which, as it ftood before he corrupted the words, was this: "You have endeavoured, fays Lear, to make me break my oath; you have prefumed to stop the execution of my fentence: the latter of thefe atttempts neither my temper nor high ftation will fuffer me to bear; and the other, had I yielded to it, my power could not make good, or excufe."Which, in the first line, referring to both attempts: but the ambiguity of it, as it might refer only to the latter, has occafioned all the obfcurity of the pasfage. WARBURTON. Theobald only inferted the parenthefis; he found made good in the best copy of 1623. Dr. Warburton has very acutely explained and defended the reading that he has chofen, but I am not certain that he has chofen right. If we take the reading of the folio, our potency made good, the fense will be less profound indeed, but lefs intricate, and equally commodious. As thou haft come with unreasonable pride between the fentence which I had paffed, and the power by which I fhall execute it, take thy reward in another fentence which shall make good, shall establish, shall maintain, that power, If Dr. Warburton's explanation be chofen, and every reader will wish to choose it, we may better read: Which nor our nature, nor our state can bear, Or potency make good. Mr. Davies thinks, that our potency made good, relates only to our place. Which our nature cannot bear, nor our place, without departure from the potency of that place. This is eafy and clear. Lear, who is characterized as hot, heady, and violent, is, with very juft obfervation of life, made to entangle himself with vows, upon any fudden provocation to vow revenge, and then to plead the obligation of a vow in defence of implacability. Cc 3 JOHNSON. Our Our potency made good, take thy reward. Kent. Why, fare thee well, king:, fince thus thou wilt appear, 3 Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.The gods to their dear shelter + take thee, maid, [To Cordelia. That juftly think'ft, and haft most rightly said !And your large fpeeches may your deeds approve, [To Regan and Goneril. That good effects may fpring from words of love.Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu; He'll fhape his old courfe in a country new. [Exit. Re-enter Glofter, with France, Burgundy, and attendants. Glo. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord. We first addrefs towards you, who with this king 2 Bur. -difafters.] The quartos read difcafes. STEEVENS. -By Jupiter,] Shakspeare makes his Lear too much a mythologift: he had Hecate and Apollo before. JOHNSON. 3 Freedom lives hence, -] So the folio: the quartos concur in reading-Friendship lives hence. STEEVENS. 4 -dear shelter-The quartos read-protection. STEEVENS. He'll shape his old course,-] He will follow his old maxims; he will continue to act upon the fame principles. JOHNSON. -queft of love.] Queft of love is amorous expedition. The term Bur, Moft royal majesty, I crave no more than hath your highness offer'd, Lear. Right noble Burgundy, When she was dear to us, we did hold her fo; And nothing mort, may fitly like your grace, Bur. I know no answer. Lear. Sir, will you, with thofe infirmities fhe 8 owes, Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate, Dower'd with our curfe, and stranger'd with our oath, Take her, or leave her? Bur. Pardon me, royal fir; ? Election makes not up on fuch conditions. Lear. Then leave her, fir; for, by the power that made me, term originated from Romance. A queft was the expedition in which a knight was engaged. This phrafe is often to be met with in the Fary Queen. STEEVENS. 7 Seeming] is beautiful. JOHNSON. Seeming rather means fpecious. So, in the Merry Wives, &c. -pluck the borrow'd veil of modefty from the fo Jeeming mistress Page." Again, in Measure for Measure: hence hall we fee, "If power change purpose, what our feemers be." STEEVENS. orves,] i. e. Is poffeffed of. STEEVENS. 9 Election makes not up on fuch conditions.] To make up fignifies to complete, to conclude; as, they made up the bargain; but in this fenfe it has, I think, always the subject noun after it. To make up, in familiar language, is neutrally, to come forward, to make advances, which, I think, is meant here. JOHNSON. Į fhould read the line thus : Election makes not upon fuch conditions. CC 4 MONCK MASON. I tell |