Inforce their charity.- Poor Turlygood! poor Tom! That's fomething yet;-Edgar I nothing am. [Exit. Lear. 'Tis ftrange, that they should so depart from home, And not fend back my meffenger. Gent. poor Turlygood! poor Tom!] We should read Turlupin. In the fourteenth century there was a new fpecies of gipfies, called Turlupins, a fraternity of naked beggars, which ran up and down Europe. However, the church of Rome hath dignified them with the name of heretics, and actually burned fome of them at Paris. But what fort of religionifts they were, appears from Genebrard's account of them. "Turlupin Cynicorum fectam fufcitantes, de nuditate pudendorum, & publico coitu." Plainly, nothing but a band of Tom-o'- Bedlams. WARBURTON. Hanmer reads, poor Turlurù. It is probable the word Turlygood was the common corrupt pronunciation. JOHNSON. 9-Edgar I nothing am.] As Edgar I am outlawed, dead in law; I have no longer any political existence. JOHNSON. The author of THE REMARKS fays, "The critic's idea is "both too complex and too puerile for one in Edgar's fituation. "He is purfued, it feems, and proclaimed, i. e. a reward has "been offered for taking or killing him. In affuming this character, fays he, I may preferve myself; as Edgar I am "inevitably gone." EDITOR. Earl of Glafter's cafile.] It is not very clearly discovered why Lear comes hither. In the foregoing part he fent a letter to Glofter; but no hint is given of its contents. He seems to have gone to vifit Glofter while Cornwall and Regan might prepare to entertain him. JOHNSON. It is plain, I think, that Lear comes to the earl of Glocester's in confequence of his having been at the duke of Cornwall's, and having heard there, that his fon and daughter were gone to the earl of Glocefter's. His first words fhew this: "'Tis frange that they (Cornwall and Regan) should fo depart from home, and 2 not Gent. As I learn'd, The night before there was no purpose in them Kent. Hail to thee, noble master! Lear. How! mak'ft thou this fhame thy pastime? Kent. No, my lord. Fool. Ha, ha; look! he wears cruel garters! Horses are ty'd by the heads; dogs, and bears, by the neck; monkies by the loins, and men by the legs when a man is over-lufty at legs, then he wears wooden nether-stocks.. 4 Lear. not fend back my meffenger (Kent)." It is clear alfo from Kent's fpeech in this fcene, that he went directly from Lear to the duke of Cornwall's, and delivered his letters, but instead of being fent back with any anfwer, was ordered to follow the duke and dutchefs to the earl of Glocefter's. But what then is the meaning of Lear's order to Kent in the preceding act, fcene v. Go -The obvious meanyou before to Glocefter with these letters. ing, and what will agree beft with the courfe of the fubfequent events, is, that the duke of Cornwall and his wife were then refiding at Glocefter. Why Shakspeare fhould choose to fuppofe them at Glocefter, rather than at any other city, is a different queftion. Perhaps he might think, that Glocefter implied fuch a neighbourhood to the earl of Glocefter's caftle, as his ftory required. TYRWHITT. No, my lord.] Omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS. 3-be wears cruel garters.-] I believe a quibble was here intended. Crewel fignifies worfled, of which stockings, garters, night-caps, &c. are made; and it is ufed in that fenfe in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady, A&t II. "For who that had but half his wits about him "Would commit the counfel of a ferious fin. "To fuch a crewel night-cap.". So again in the comedy of The Two angry Women of Abington, printed 1599: 66 -I'll warrant you, he'll have "His cruell garters crofs about the knee." So, in the Bird in a Cage, 1633: "I fpeak the prologue to our filk and cruel STEEVENS. 4-over-lufty in this place has a double fignification. Lufti efs anciently meant faucinefs. So, Lear. What's he, that hath so much thy place miftook To fet thee here? Kent. It is both he and she, Your fon and daughter. Lear. No. Kent. Yes. Lear. No, I fay. Kent. I fay, yea. Lear. No, no; they would not. Lear. By Jupiter, I swear, no. So, in Decker's If this be not a good play the Devil is in it, 1612: upon pain of being plagued for their luftyness.” Again, in Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607: -fhe'll fnarl and bite, "And take up Nero for his luftiness." Again, in fir Thomas North's tranflation of Plutarch: "Caffius' foldiers did fhewe themselves verie ftubborne and luftie in the campe, &c." STEEVENS. then he wears wooden nether-ftocks.] Nether-ftocks is the old word for stockings. Breeches were at that time called "men's overstockes," as I learn from Barret's Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580. part of It appears from the following paffage in the fecond The Map of Mock Beggar Hall, &c. an ancient ballad, that the ftockings were formerly fewed to the breeches : "Their fathers went in homely frees "And good plain broad cloth breeches ; "Their flockings with the fame agrees, "Sow'd on with good strong ftitches.' Stubbs, in his Anatomie of Abuses, has a whole chapter on The Diverfitie of Nether-Stockes worne in England, 1595. Heywood among his Epigrams, 1562, has the following: "Thy upper-stocks, be they ftuft with filke or flocks, "Never become thee like a nether paire of flocks." Again, in Reginald Scott's Difcovery of Witchcraft, 1585: "-to cover the pot with my right netherstock." STEEVENS. 6 Lear.] This and the next speech are omitted in the folio. STEEVENS. Lear. 8 Lear. They durft not do't; They could not, would not do't; 'tis worse than murder, To do upon refpect fuch violent outrage: Refolve me, with all modeft hafte, which way Thou might'ft deserve, or they impose, this usage, Coming from us. Kent. My lord, when at their home I did commend your highness' letters to them, 7 By Juno, I fwear, ay.] Omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS. To do upon respect fuch violent outrage:] To violate the public and venerable character of a meffenger from the king. JOHNSON. Deliver'd letters, Spight of intermiffion,] Intermiffion, for another meffage, which they had then before them, to confider of; called intermiffion, because it came between their leisure and the steward's meffage. WARBURTON. Spight of intermiffion is without pause, without suffering time to intervene. So, in Macbeth: "Cut fhort all intermiffion, &c." STEEVENS. They fummon'd up their meiny,] Meiny, i. e. people. Mefne, a houfe. Mefnie, a family, Fr. So, in Monfieur D'Olive, 1605. -if fhe, or her fad meiny, "Be towards fleep, I'll wake them." РОРЕ. Again, in the bl. 1. Romance of Syr Eglamoure of Avtoys, na Commanded me to follow, and attend The leisure of their anfwer; gave me cold looks: Whose welcome, I perceiv'd, had poifon'd mine, (Being the very fellow which of late Difplay'd fo faucily against your highness) 2 Fool. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geefe fly that way. Fathers, that wear rags, Do make their children blind; Shall fee their children kind. Ne'er turns the key to the poor. 3 But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dofours from thy dear daughters, as thou can't tell in a year. Lear. O, how this mother + fwells up toward my heart! Hyfterica "Here cometh the king of Ifrael, "With a fayre meinye." STEEVENS. Though the word meiny be now obfolete, the word menial, which is derived from it, is still in use. On whofe contents, means the contents of which. MONCK MASON. Winter's not gone yet, &c.] If this be their behaviour,the king's troubles are not yet at an end. JOHNSON. This fpeech is omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS. 3 --dolours.] Quibble intended between dolours and The fame quibble had occurred in the Tempest, and in Measure for Meafure. STEEVENS. 4 Oh, how this mother, &c.] Lear here affects to pass off the fwelling of his heart ready to burst with grief and indignation, for the difeafe called the Mother, or Hyfterica Paffio, which, in our author's time, was not thought peculiar to women only. In Harfnet's Declaration of Popish Impoftures, Richard Mainy, Gent. one of the pretended demoniacs, depofes, p. 263, that the firft |