And dare, upon the warrant of 7 my note, With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall; 2 note,] My obfervation of your character. JOHNSON. The quartos read: -upon the warrant of my art: i. e. on the ftrength of my skill in phifiognomy. STEEVENS. Who have (as who have not,] The eight fubfequent verfes were degraded by Mr. Pope, as unintelligible, and to no purpose. For my part, I fee nothing in them but what is very eafy to be understood; and the lines feem abfolutely neceflary to clear up the motives upon which France prepared his invafion: nor without them is the fenfe of the context complete. The quartos omit these lines. STEEVENS. THEOBALD. • what hath been feen,] What follows, are the circumftances in the ftate of the kingdom, of which he fuppofes the fpies gave France the intelligence. STEEVENS. 1 Either in fnuffs or packings] Snuffs are dislikes, and packings underhand contrivances. So, in Henry IV. first part: " Took it in fnuff;" and in King Edward III. 1599: This packing evil, we both shall tremble for it.” Again, in Stanyhurst's Virgil, 1582: "With two gods packing one woman filly to cozen." We ftill talk of packing juries, and Antony fays of Cleopatra, that she has " pack'd cards with Cæfar." STEEVENS, 2 are but furnishings.] Furnishings are what we now call colours, external pretences. JOHNSON. A furnish anciently fignified a fample. So, in the Preface to Greene's Groat fworth of Wit, 1621: "To lend the world a furnish of wit, the lays her own to pawn,” I i4 STEEVENS. [But, [But, true it is, from France there comes a power Into this fcatter'd kingdom; who already, Wife 3 But, true it is, &c.] In the old editions are the five following lines which I have inferted in the text, which feem neceffary to the plot, as a preparatory to the arrival of the French army with Cordelia in A& IV. How both these, and a whole fcene between Kent and this gentleman in the fourth act, came to be left out in all the later editions, I cannot tell; they depend upon each other, and very much contribute to clear that incident. POPE. from France there comes a power Into this fcatter'd kingdom; who already, In fome of our beft ports. Scatter'd kingdom, if it have any fenfe, gives us the idea of a kingdom fallen into an anarchy: but that was not the cafe. It fubmitted quietly to the govern ment of Lear's two fons-in-law. It was divided, indeed, by this means, and fo hurt, and weaken'd. And this was what Shakfpeare meant to fay, who, without doubt, wrote: fcathed kingdom; i. e. hurt, wounded, impaired. And fo he frequently uses feath for hurt or damage. Again, what a ftrange phrafe is, having fea in a port, to fignify a fleet's lying at anchor? which is all it can fignify. And what is ftranger ftill, a fecret fea, that is, lying incognito, like the army at Knight's Bridge in The Rebearfal Without doubt the poet wrote: -have fecret feixe In fome of our beft ports; i. e. they are fecretly fecure of some of the best ports, by having a party in the garrifon ready to fecond any attempt of their friends, &c. The exactnefs of the expreffion is remarkable; he Says, fecret feize in fome, not of fome. For the first implies a confpiracy ready to feize a place on warning, the other, a place already feized. WARBURTON. The true fate of this fpeech cannot from all these notes be discovered. As it now ftands it is collected from two editions: the eight lines, degraded by Mr. Pope, are found in the folio, not in the quarto; the following lines inclofed in crotchets are in the quarto, not in the folio. So that if the fpeech be read with omiffion of the former, it will stand according to the first edition; and if the former are read, and the lines that follow them omitted, it will then ftand according to the fecond. The fpeech is now tedious, because it is formed by a coalition of both. 'The fecond edition is generally beft, and was probably neares to Shakspeare's laft copy, but in this paffage the firft is preferable; for in the folio, the meffenger is fent, he knows not why, he Wife in our negligence, have fecret fee I am a gentleman of blood and breeding, Gent. I will talk further with you, he knows not whither. I fuppofe Shakspeare thought his plot opened rather too early, and made the alteration to veil the event from the audience; but trufting too much to himself, and full of a fingle purpose, he did not accommodate his new lines to the reft of the fcene. The learned critic's emendations are now to be examined. Scattered he has changed to scathed; for Scattered, he fays, gives the idea of an anarchy, which was not the cafe. It may be replied that fcathed gives the idea of ruin, wafte, and defolation, which was not the cafe. It is unworthy a lover of truth, in queftions of great or little moment, to exaggerate or extenuate for mere convenience, or for vanity yet less than convenience. Scattered naturally means divided, unfettled, difunited. Next is offered with great pomp a change of fea to feize; but in the first edition the word is fee, for hire, in the fenfe of having any one in fee, that is, at devotion for money. Fee is in the fecond quarto changed to fee, from which one made sea and another feize. JOHNSON. One of the quartos (for there are two that differ from each other, though printed in the fame year, and for the fame printer) reads fecret feet. Perhaps the author wrote fecret foot, i. e. footing. So, in a following scene: -what confederacy have you with the traitors Late footed in the kingdom? STEEVENS. That foot is the true reading is, I think, clearly ascertained, both by the paffage quoted by Mr. Steevens, and another in the third act, which is ftill more appofite: thefe injuries the king now bears, will be revenged home; there is part of a power already footed: we must incline to the king." Again, in Coriolanus: -Why, thou Mars, I'll tell thee, Kent. Kent. No, do not. For confirmation that I am much more Gent. Give me your hand: Have you no more to Kent. Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet; That, when we have found the king, (in which your pain That way; I'll this,) he that first lights on him, Holla the other. SCENE [Exeunt feverally, II. Another part of the heath. Storm fill. Enter Lear, and Fool. Lear. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout 'Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks! You fulphurous and thought-executing fires, the king, in which your pain, That way, I'll this; he that firft, &c.] Thus the folio, The late reading: -for which you take That way, I this, was not genuine. The quartos read; That when we have found the king, Ile this way, you that, he that first lights On him, hollow the other. STEEVENS. thought-executing—] Doing execution with rapidity equal to thought. JOHNSON, 1 Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunder-bolts, Singe my white head! And thou all-fhaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world! ? Crack nature's moulds; all germens fpill at once', That make ingrateful man! Fool. O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry houfe is better than this rain-water out o' door. Good nunçle, in, and ask thy daughters bleffing; here's a night pities neither wife men nor fools. Lear. Rumble thy belly full! Spit, fire! fpout, rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters: 7 Vaunt-couriers.] Avant couriers, Fr. This phrafe is not unfamiliar to other writers of Shakspeare's time. It originally meant the foremoft fcouts of an army. So, in Jarvis Markham's English Arcadia, 1607: as foon as the first vancurrer encountered him face to face." Again, in The Tragedy of Mariam, 1613: Might to my death, but the vaunt-currier prove." Again, in Darius, 1603: "Th' avant-corours, that came for to examine." STEEVENS. Strike flat, &c.] The quarto reads, -Smite flat. STEEVENS. 9 Crack nature's moulds, all germains Spill at once,] Thus all the editions have given us this paffage; and Mr. Pope has explained germains to mean relations, or kindred elements. But the poet means here," Crack nature's mould, and fpill all the feeds of matter, that are hoarded within it," To retrieve which fenfe we must write germins from germen. Our author not only uses the fame thought again, but the word that afcertains my expli cation, in The Winter's Tale: "Let nature crush the fides o' the earth together, Theobald is right. So, in Macbeth: "Of nature's germins tumble altogether." STEEVENS. -fpill at once.] To Spill is to deftroy. So, in Gower De Confeffione Amantis, lib. iv. fol. 67: So as I fhall myfelf pill. STEEVENS. 2 -court holy-water Ray, among his proverbial phrafes, p. 184, mentions court holy-water to mean fair words. The French have the fame phrafe. Eaû benite de cour; fair empty words. Chambaud's Dictionary. STEEVENS, |