Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong.

I *

Edm. That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent forbearance, 'till the speed of his rage goes flower; and, as I fay, retire with me to my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my lord fpeak: Pray you, go; there's my key:-If you do ftir abroad, go arm'd.

Edg. Arm'd, brother? *

Edm. Brother, I advife you to the beft; go arm'd; I am no honeft man, if there be any good meaning towards you: I have told you what I have feen and heard, but faintly; nothing like the image and horror of it: Pray you, away.

Edg. Shall I hear from you anon?

Edm. I do ferve you in this bufinefs.-[Exit Edgar. A credulous father, and a brother noble, Whofe nature is fo far from doing harms, That he suspects none; on whofe foolish honefty My practices ride eafy!-I fee the bufinefs.-Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit: All with me's meet, that I can fashion fit.

[Exit.

Gon. Did my father ftrike my gentleman for chiding of his fool?

Stew. Ay, madam.

2

Gon. By day and night he wrongs me : every hour

That's my fear.] All between this and the next afterifk, is omitted in the quartos.

STEEVENS.

By day and night he wrongs me:] This paffage has hitherto been printed as an adjuration:

By day and night! &c.

But wrongly, as was obferved to me by Mr. Whalley,

STEEVENS.

He

He flashes into one grofs crime or other,

That fets us all at odds: I'll not endure it:

His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us
On every trifle:-When he returns from hunting,
I will not fpeak with him; fay, I am fick :-
If you come flack of former fervices,

You fhall do well; the fault of it I'll answer.
Stew. He's coming, madam; I hear him.

[Horns within. Gon. Put on what weary negligence you please, You and your fellows; I'd have it come to queftion: If he diflike it, let him to my sister,

Whofe mind and mine, I know, in that are one,
*Not to be over-rul'd. 'Idle old man,
That still would manage those authorities,
That he hath given away!-Now, by my life,
* Old fools are babes again; and must be us'd

3

With

Idle old man,] The lines from one afterisk to the other, as they are fine in themfelves, and very much in character for Goneril, I have reftored from the old quarto. The last verse, which I have ventur'd to amend, is there printed thus:

With checks, like flatt'ries when they are feen abus'd.
THEOBALD.

+ Old fools are babes again; and must be us'd

With checks like flatt'ries when they are feen abus'd.] Thus the old quarto reads thefe lines. It is plain they are corrupt. But they have been made worfe by a fruitless attempt to correct them. And first, for

Old fools are babes again ;

A proverbial expreffion is here plainly alluded to; but it is a ftrange proverb which only informs us that fools are innocents. We should read,

Old folks are babes again;

Thus fpeaks the proverb, and with the ufual good fenfe of one. The next line is jumbled out of all meaning:

With checks like flatt'ries when they're feen abus'd. Mr. Theobald reftores it thus,

With checks like flatt'rers when they're seen to abuse us. Let us confider the fenfe a little. Old folks, fays the fpeaker, are babes again; well, and what then? Why then they must be ufed like flatterers. But when Shakspeare quoted the proverb,

With checks, as flatteries when they are feen abus'd*.

Remember what I have said.

Stew. Very well, madam.

Gon. And let his knights have colder looks among

you ;

What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows fo: I would breed from hence occafions, and I fhall,

we may be affured his purpose was to draw fome inference from ît, and not run rambling after a fimilitude. And that inference was not difficult to find, had common sense been attended to, which tells us Shakspeare must have wrote,

Old folks are babes again; and must be us'd

With checks, not flatt'ries when they're feen abus'd.

î. e. Old folks being grown children again, they should be used as we ufe children, with checks, when we find that the little flatt'ries we employed to quiet them are abufed, by their becoming more peevish and perverfe by indulgence.

-when they're seen abus'd.

i. e. When we find that thofe flatt'ries are abus'd.

WARBURTON.

Thefe lines hardly deferve a note, though Mr. Theobald thinks them very fine. Whether fools or folks fhould be read is not worth enquiry. The controverted line is yet in the old quarto, not as the editors reprefent it, but thus:

With checks as flatteries when they are seen abus'd. I am in doubt whether there is any error of tranfcription. The fense seems to be this: Old men must be treated with checks, when as they are feen to be deceived with flatteries: or, when they are weak enough to be seen abused by flatteries, they are then weak enough to be used with checks. There is a play of the words ufed and abused. To abufe is, in our author, very frequently the fame as to deceive. This conftruction is harsh and ungrammatical; Shakspeare perhaps thought it vicious, and chofe to throw away the lines rather than correct them, nor would now thank the officioufness of his editors, who reftore what they do not underftand. JOHNSON.

The plain meaning, I believe, is-old fools must be used with checks, as flatteries must be check'd when they are made a bad ufe of. TOLLET.

I understand this paffage thus. Old fools-must be used with checks, as well as flatteries, when they [i. e. flatteries] are seen to be abused. TYRWHITT.

That

That I may speak:-I'll write ftraight to my fifter,
To hold my very course :-Prepare for dinner.

SCENE IV.

An open place before the palace.

Enter Kent, difguifed.

[Exeunt.

Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow, That can my speech diffufe, my good intent May carry through itfelf to that full iffue

For which I raz'd my likeness.-Now, banish'd Kent, If thou can'ft ferve where thou doft ftand condemn'd,

as

$ If but well I other accents borrow,

And can my speech difufe.] Thus Rowe, Pope, and Johnfon, in contradiction to all the ancient copies. The firft folio reads the whole paffage as follows:

If but as will I other accents borrow,

That can my fpeech defufe, my good intent
May carry through, &c.

We must fuppofe that Kent advances looking on his disguise. This circumftance very naturally leads to his fpeech, which otherwife would have no very apparent introduction. If I can change my Speech as well as I have changed my drefs. To diffuse fpeech, fignifies to diforder it, and fo to difguife it; as in the Merry Wives of Windsor, A& IV. fc. vii:

-rush at once

With fome diffufed fong.".

Again, in the Nice Valour, &c. by Beaumont and Fletcher, Cupid fays to the Paffionate Man, who appears difordered in his dress: -Go not fo diffufedly."

Again, in our author's King Henry V :

-fwearing, and ftern looks, diffus'd attire." Again, in a book entitled, A Green Foreft, or A Natural History, &c. by John Maplet, 1567 :-" In this ftone is apparently feene verie often the verie forme of a tode, with befpotted and coloured feete, but those uglye and defufedly."-To diffufe fpeech may, however, mean to speak broad, with a clownish accent.The two eldeft quartos concur with the folio, except that they read well instead of will. STEEVENS.

(So

(So may it come !) thy mafter, whom thou lov't, Shall find thee full of labours.

Horns within. Enter Lear, Knights, and Attendants.

Lear. Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go, get it ready.

How now, what art thou?

Kent. A man, fir.

Lear. What doft thou profefs? What would'ft thou with us?

6

Kent. I do profefs to be no lefs than I feem; to ferve him truly, that will put me in truft; to love him that is honeft; to converfe with him that is wife, and fay little; to fear judgment; to fight, when I cannot choofe; 7 and to eat no fish.

Lear.

• him that is wife, and fays little ;] Though faying little may be the character of wisdom, it was not a quality to chufe a companion by for his converfation. We fhould read,— to fay little; which was prudent when he chofe a wife companion to profit by. So that it was as much as to fay, I profefs to talk little myself, that I may profit the more by the converfation of the wife. WARBURTON.

To converfe fignifics immediately and properly to keep company, not to difcourfe or talk. His meaning is, that he chufes for his companions men of referve and caution; men who are no tattlers nor tale-bearers. The old reading is the true. JOHNSON. We ftill fay in the fame fenfe-he had criminal converfation with her meaning commerce.

So in King Richard III:

"His apparent open guilt omitted,

"I mean his converfation with Shore's wife."

MALONE.

1 --and to eat no fish.] In queen Elizabeth's time the Papifts were cfteemed, and with good reafon, enemies to the government. Hence the proverbial phrafe of, He's an honest man, and eats no fif; to fignify he's a friend to the government and a Proteflant. The eating fif, on a religious account, being then eftcemed fuch a badge of popery, that when it was enjoin'd for a feafon by act of parliament, for the encouragement of the fifhtowns, it was thought neceffary to declare the reafon; hence it

was