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Either his notion weakens, or his difcernings

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Are lethargy'd-Ha! waking?-'Tis not so o.Who is it that can tell me who I am?-Lear's fhadow??

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I would learn that; for by the marks

Of

-Ha! waking ?-Tis not fo.] Thus the folio. The quartos

read:

STEEVENS.

-fleeping or waking; ha! fure 'tis not fo. 7-Lear's fhadow?] The folio gives these words to the Fool. STEEVENS.

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for by the marks

Of fou'reignty, of knowledge, and of reafon]

His daughters prove fo unnatural, that, if he were only to judge by the reafon of things, he must conclude, they cannot be his daughters. This is the thought. But how does his kingthip or fovereignty enable him to judge of this matter? The line, by being falfe pointed, has loft its fenfe. We fhould read:

in

Of fovereignty of knowledge.

i. e. the understanding. He calls it, by an equally fine phrafe, Hamlet,-Sov'reignty of reafon. And it is remarkable that the editors had depraved it there too. See note, A&t I. fcene 7. of that play. WARBURTON.

The contefted paffage is wanting in the folio. STEEVENS.

The difficulty, which must occur to every reader, is, to conceive how the marks of fovereignty, of knowledge, and of reafon, fhould be of any use to perfuade Lear that he had, or had not, daughters. No logic, I apprehend, could draw fuch a conclufion from fuch premifes. This difficulty, however, may be entirely removed, by only pointing the paffage thus:

-for by the marks

Of fov'reignty, of knowledge, and of reason,

I fhould be falfe perfuaded-I had daughters.—
Your name, fair gentlewoman?

The chain of Lear's fpeech being thus untangled, we can clearly trace the fucceffion and connection of his ideas. The undutiful behaviour of his daughter fo difconcerts him, that he doubts, by turns, whether fhe is Goneril, and whether he himself is Lear. Upon her first speech, he only exclaims,

--

Are you our daughter?

Upon her going on in the fame ftyle, he begins to question his own fanity of mind, and even his perfonal identity. He appeals to the by-ftanders,

Who is it that can tell me who I am?

I should

Of fov'reignty, of knowledge, and of reafon,
I fhould be falfe perfuaded I had daughters.-
Your name, fair gentlewoman?

Gon.

I fhould be glad to be told. For (if I was to judge myself) by the marks of fovereignty, of knowledge, and of reafon, which once diftinguithed Lear, (but which I have now loft) I should be false (against my own confcioufnets) perfuaded (that I am not Lear). He then flides to the examination of another diftinguishing mark

of Lear:

-I had daughters.

But not able, as it fhould feem, to dwell upon fo tender a fubject, he hastily recurs to his first doubt concerning Goneril,Your name, fair gentlewoman? TYRWHITT.

This note is written with confidence difproportionate to the conviction which it can bring. Lear might as well know by the marks and tokens arifing from fovereignty, knowledge, and reafon, that he had or had not daughters, as he could know by any thing elfe. But, fays he, if I judge by thefe tokens, I find the perfuafion falfe by which I long thought myself the father of daughters. JOHNSON.

1 cannot approve of Dr. Warburton's manner of pointing this paffage, as I do not think that fovereignty of knowledge can mean understanding; and if it did, what is the difference between understanding and reafon? In the paffage he quotes from Hamlet, fovereignty of reafon appears to me to mean, the ruling power, the governance of reason; a sense that would not anfwer in this place.

Mr. Tyrwhitt's obfervations are ingenious, but not fatisfactory; and as for Dr. Johnfon's explanation, though it would be certainly just had Lear expreffed himself in the paft, and faid, "I have been falfe perfuaded I had daughters," it cannot be the juft explanation of the paffage as it ftands. The meaning appears to me to be this:

"Were I to judge from the marks of fovereignty, of know"ledge, or of reafon, I fhould be induced to think I had daughters, yet that must be a falfe perfuafion ;-It cannot be."

I could not at first comprehend why the tokens of fovereignty fhould have any weight in determining his perfuafion that he had daughters; but by the marks of fovereignty he means, those tokens of royalty which his daughters then enjoyed as derived from him. MONCK MASON.

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• I bad daughters.-] Here the quarto interpofes the following fhort and ufelefs fpeech of the fool:

"Which they will make an obedient father."

Gon. Come, fir;

This admiration is much o' the favour

Of other your new pranks. I do befeech you
To understand my purposes aright:

As you are old and reverend, you fhould be wife:
Here do you keep a hundred knights and fquires;
Men fo diforder'd, fo debauch'd, and bold,
That this our court, infected with their manners,
Shews like a riotous inn: epicurism and luft
Make it more like a tavern, or a brothel,
Than'a grac'd palace. The fhame itself doth speak
For inftant remedy: Be then defir'd

By her, that elfe will take the thing fhe begs,
A little to difquantity your train;

Which, is on this occafion ufed with two deviations from prefent language. It is referred, contrary to the rules of grammarians, to the pronoun I, and is employed, according to a mode now obsolete, for whom, the accufative cafe of who.

STEEVENS.

-a grac'd palace.-] A palace grac'd by the prefence of

a fovereign. WARBURTON.

2A little to difquantity your train;] A little is the common reading; but it appears, from what Lear fays in the next fcene, that this number fifty was required to be cut off, which (as the editions flood) is no where specified by Goneril. Pore.

Of fifty to difquantity your train ;] If Mr. Pope had examined the old copies as accurately as he pretended to have done, he. would have found, in the first folio, that Lear had an exit marked for him after these words

To have a thanklefs child.-Away, away.

and goes out while Albany and Goneril have a fhort conference of two fpeeches; and then returns in a ftill greater paffion, having been informed (as it fhould feem) of the exprefs number, without.

What? fifty of my followers at a clap!

This renders all change needlefs; and away, away, being reftored, prevents the repetition of go, go, my people; which, as the text flood before this regulation, concluded both that and the foregoing fpeech. Goneril with great art, is made to avoid mentioning the limited number; and leaves her father to be informed of it by accident, which the knew would be the cafe as foon as he left her prefence. STEEVENS.

And

And the remainder, that shall still depend,
To be fuch men as may befort your age,
And know themfelves and you.

Lear. Darknefs and devils !-
Saddle my horses; call my train together.
Degenerate baftard! I'll not trouble thee;
Yet have I left a daughter.

Gon, You ftrike my people; and your diforder'd
rabble

Make fervants of their betters.

Enter Albany.

Lear. Woe, that too late repents,—O, fir, aré you come?

Is it your will? fpeak, fir.-Prepare my horfes. [To Albany. Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend,

More hideous, when thou fhew'st thee in a child,

Than the fea-monfter!

Alb. Pray, fir, be patient ".

Lear. Detefted kite! thou lieft:

[To Goneril.

My train are men of choice and rareft parts,

That all particulars of duty know;

And in the moft exact regard fupport

The worships of their name-O most small fault,
How ugly didft thou in Cordelia fhew!

Which, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of na

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fervice.

ture

From

that shall fill depend,] Depend, for continue in WARBURTON.

4 Than the fea monster !] Mr. Upton obferves, that the feamonfter is the Hippopotamus, the hieroglyphical fymbol of impiety and ingratitude. Sandys, in his travels, fays" that he "killeth his fire, and ravisheth his own dam." STEEVENS. Pray, fir, be patient.] The quartos omit this fpeech.

STEEVENS. -like an engine,-] Mr. Edwards conjectures that by an engine is meant the rack. He is right. To engine is, in Chaucer,

to

From the fixt 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 7. Alb. My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant Of what hath mov'd you3.

Lear. It may be fo, my lord.

Hear, nature! hear; dear goddess, hear!
Sufpend thy purpose, if thou didst intend
To make this creature fruitful!

Into her womb convey fterility;

Dry up in her the organs of increafe;
And from her derogate body never fpring

to firain upon the rack; and in the following paffage from the Three Lords of London, 1590, engine feems to be used for the fame inftrument of torture:

"From Spain they come with engine and intent "To flay, fubdue, to triumph, and torment." Again, in the Night-Walker, by Beaumont and Fletcher:

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"Ther fouls fhot through with adders torn, on engines."

STEEVENS.

Go, go, my people.] Perhaps thefe words ought to be regulated differently:

Go; go-my people!

By Albany's anfwer it fhould feem that he had endeavoured to appeafe Lear's anger; and perhaps it was intended by the author that he fhould here be put back by the king with thefe words," Go; go;" and that Lear fhould then turn haftily from his fon-in-law, and call his train : My people!" Mes Gens. FR. So, in a former part of this scene:

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"You ftrike my people; and your disorder'd rabble
"Make fervants of their betters."

Again, in Othello:

Call up my people."

However the paffage be understood, thefe latter words must bear this fenfe. The meaning of the whole, indeed, may be only Away, away, my followers!" MALONE.

Of what hath mov'd you.] Omitted in the quartos.

STEEVENS.

9 from ber derogate body] Derogate for unnatural.

WARBURTON.

Rather, I think, degraded; blafted. JOHNSON.

A babe

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