* And found him pight to do it, with curft fpeech I threaten'd to difcover him: He replied, Thou unpoffeffing baftard! doft thou think, 5 If I would stand against thee, would the repofal Make thy words faith'd? No: what I should deny, To thy fuggeftion, plot, and damned practice: [Trumpets within. Glo. Oftrange, fasten'd villain! Would he deny his letter, faid he?—I never got him. Hark, the duke's trumpets! I know not why he comes:- All ports I'll bar; the villain fhall not scape; Enter And found him pight to do it, with curft speech] Pight is pitched, fixed, fettled. Curft is fevere, harsh, vehemently angry. JOHNSON. So, in the old morality of Lufty Juventus, 1561: "Therefore my heart is furely pyght Thus, in Troilus and Creffida: "Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains." STEEVENS. would the repofal] i. e. Would any opinion that men have repofed in thy truft, virtue, &c. WARBURTON. The old quarto reads, could the repofure. STEEVENS. Strange and, &c.] Strong and fallened. Quarto. JOHNSON. 1 Capable of my land- i. c. capable of fucceeding to my Land, notwithfanding the legal bar of thy illegitimacy. So Enter Cornwall, Regan, and attendants. Corn. How now, my noble friend? fince I came hither, (Which I can call but now) I have heard strange news. Reg. If it be true, all vengeance comes too fhort, Which can purfue the offender. How does my lord? Glo. O madam, my old heart is crack'd, is crack'd! Reg. What, did my father's godfon feek your life? He whom my father nam'd? your Edgar? Glo. O, lady, lady, fhame would have it hid! Reg. Was he not companion with the riotous knights That tend upon my father? Glo. I know not madam: It is too bad, too bad. Edm. Yes, madam, he was of that confort. Reg. No marvel then, though he were ill affected; 'Tis they have put him on the old man's death, To have the expence and waste of his revenues. I have this present evening from my fifter Been well inform'd of them; and with fuch cautions, That, if they come to fojourn at my house, I'll not be there. Corn. Nor I, affure thee, Regan. Edmund, I hear that you have fhewn your father A child-like office. Edm. 'Twas my duty, fir. 8 Glo. He did bewray his practice; and receiv'd This So, in the Life and Death of Will Summers, &c.-"The king next demanded of him (he being a fool) whether he were cápable to inherit any land," &c. STEEVENS. He did bewray bis practice ;-] i: e. Discover, betray. So, in The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601: "We were bewray'd, befet, and forc'd to yield." Again, in The Devil's Charter, 1607: Thy folitary paffions fhould bewray "Some difcontent." Fra&ice This hurt you fee, ftriving to apprehend him. Glo. Ay, my good lord. Corn. If he be taken, he fhall never more Be fear'd of doing harm: make your own purpose, How in my ftrength you please.-For you, Edmund, Whofe virtue and obedience doth this inftant So much commend itself, you fhall be ours; Natures of fuch deep trust we shall much need: You we first feize on Edm. I fhall ferve you, fir, Truly, however else. Glo. For him I thank your grace. Corn. You know not why we came to vifit you, Reg. Thus out of feafon; threading dark-ey'd night. 'Occafions, noble Glofter, of fome prize, Practice is always ufed by Shakspeare for infidious mifchief. "Howe'er thou fcap'ft my practices with life.” The quartos read betray. STEEVENS. 9- -threading dark-ey'd night.] I have not ventur'd to difplace this reading, though I have great fufpicion that the poet wrote: treading dark-ey'd night, i. e. travelling in it. The other carries too obfcure and mean an allufion. It must either be borrow'd from the cant phrase of threading of alleys, i. e. going through bye paffages to avoid the high streets; or to threading a needle in the dark. THEOBALD. The quarto reads: -threat'ning dark-cy'd night. JoHNSON. Shakspeare ufes the former of thefe expreflions in Coriolanus, A& 111: They would not thread the gates. STEEVENS. Occafics, noble Glofier, of fome prize,] We thould read, poiss, i. c. weight. WARBURTON. Prize, or price, for value. JOHNSON. To t To answer from our home; the feveral meffengers Your needful counsel to our businesses, Glo. I ferve you, madam: Your graces are right welcome. SCENE II. Enter Kent and Steward, feverally. [Exeunt. Stew. Good even ' to thee, friend: Art of this house? Stew. Where may we fet our horfes? Kent. I' th' mire. Stew. Pr'ythee, if thou love me, tell me. Kent. I love thee not. Stew. Why, then I care not for thee. 4 Kent. If I had thee in + Lipfbury pinfold, I would make thee care for me. 2 Stew. from our home : --- -] Not at home, but at fome other place. JOHNSON. 3 Good even.] Thus the quarto. The folio-Good dawning. STEEVENS. We fhould read with the folio-"Good dawning to thee. friend." The latter end of this fcene fhews that it paffed in the morning; for when Kent is placed in the ftocks, Cornwall fays, "There he fhail fit 'till noon;" and Regan replies, " 'Till noon, 'till night:" and it paffed very early in the morning; for Regan tells Glofter, in the preceding page, that she had been threading dark-ey'd night to come to him. MONCK MASON. 4 -Lipfbury pinfold,] The allufion which feems to be contained in this line I do not understand. In the violent eruption of reproaches which burfts from Kent in this dialogue, there are fome epithets which the commentators have left unexpound ed, and which I am not very able to make clear. Of a threefuited knave I know not the meaning, unless it be that he has different dreffes for different occupations. Lilly-liver'd is cowardly; white-blooded and white-liver'd are fill in vulgar use. Ад Stew. Why doft thou ufe me thus? I know thee not. Kent. An one-trunk-inheriting flave, I take to be a wearer of old caft-off cloaths, an inheritor of torn breeches. JOHNSON. I do not find the name of Lipfbury: it may be a cant phrafe, with fome corruption, taken from a place where the fines were arbitrary. Three-fuited fhould, I believe, be third-fuited, wearing cloaths at the third hand. Edgar, in his pride, had three fuits only. FARMER. Lipfbury pinfold may be a cant expreffion importing the fame as Lob's Pound. So, in Maflinger's Duke of Milan: "To marry her, and fay he was the party "Found in Lob's Pound." A Pinfold is a pound. Thus in Gascoigne's Dan Bartholemew of Bathe, 1587: man. "In fuch a pin-folde were his pleasures pent." Three-fuited knave might mean, in an age of oftentatious finery like that of Shakspeare, one who had no greater change of rayment than three fuits would furnish him with; fo, in Ben Jonfon's Silent Woman: -wert a pitiful fellow, and hadft nothing but three fuits of apparel:" or it may fignify a fellow thrice fued at law, who has three fuits for debt ftanding out against him. Dr. Farmer would read third fuited, i. e. at third hand. Edgar in his pride had three fuits; but he fays he had been a fervingA one-trunk-inheriting fave may be used to fignify a fellow, the whole of whofe poffeffions are confined to one coffer, and that too inherited from his father, who was no better provided, or had nothing more to bequeath to his fucceffor in poverty; a poor rogue bereditary, as Timon calls Apemantus. A worsted-stocking knave is another reproach of the fame kind. The stockings in England, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, (as I learn from Stubbs's Anatomie of Abufes, printed in 1595) were remarkably expenfive, and fcarce any other kind than filk were worn, even (as this author fays) by thofe who had not above forty fhillings. a year wages. So, in an old comedy, called The Hog hath loft bis Pearl, 1611, by R. Taylor: ፡፡ -good parts are no more fet by in these times, than a good leg in a woollen flocking." Again, in The Captain, by Beaumont and Fletcher : "Green fickneffes and ferving-men light on you, "With greafy breeches, and in woollen flockings.' Again, in the Mijeries of inforc'd Marriage, 1607: Two fober young men come to claim their portion from their elder brother who is a fpendthrift, and tell him: "Our birth-right, good brother: |