Do de, de de. 7 Seffy, come, march to wakes and

8

fairs, And market towns:-Poor Tom, thy horn is dry. Lear.

Seffey, come, &c.] Here is felley again, which I take to be the French word ceffez pronounced cefey, which was, I fuppofe, like fome others in common ufe among us. It is an interjection enforcing ceffation of any action, like, be quiet, have done. It feems to have been gradually corrupted into, fo, fo. JOHNSON.

This word is wanting in the quarto: in the folio it is printed fefe. It is difficult in this place to fay what is meant by it. It should be remembered, that just before, Edgar had been calling on By to come to him; and he may now with equal propriety invite Sefy (perhaps a female name corrupted from Cecilia) to attend him to wakes and fairs. Nor is it impoffible but that this may be a part of fome old fong, and originally stood thus; Siffy, come march to wakes,

And fairs, and market towns.

So, in Humor's Ordinarie, an ancient collection of fatires, no date:

"To make Siffe in love withal."

Again: "My heart's deare blood, fweet Siffe is my caroufe." There is another line in the character of Edgar which I am very confident I have feen in an old ballad, viz.

Through the fharp haw-thorn blows the cold wind.

STEEVENS.

Dr. Johnfon is furely right, in fuppofing that effy is a corruption of ceffez, be quiet, flop, hold, let alone. It is fo ufed by Chriftofero Sly, the drunken Tinker, in The Taming of the Shrew, and by Edgar himself in a preceding feene-" Dolphin, my boy, S; let him trot by."-But it does not feem equally clear that it has been corrupted into fo, fo. REMARKS.

thy born is dry.] Men that begged under pretence of lunacy ufed formerly to carry a horn, and blow it through the freets. JOHNSON.

A born is at this day employed in many places in the country as a cup for drinking, but anciently the ufe of it was much more general. Thy born is dry, appears to be a proverbial expreffion, introduced when a man has nothing further to offer, when he has faid all he had to fay. Such a one's pipe's out, is a phrase current in Ireland on the fame occafion.

I fuppofe Edgar to fpeak these words afide. Being quite weary of his Tom o' Bedlam's part, and finding himself unable to fupport it any longer, he fays privately, "I can no more: all my materials for fuftaining the character of Poor Tom are now exhaufted;

Lear. Then let them anatomize Regan, see what breeds about her heart: Is there any cause in nature, that makes these hard hearts?-You, fir, I entertain you for one of my hundred; only, I do not like the fashion of your garments: 9 you will fay, they are Perfian attire; but let them be chang'd. [To Edgar. Kent. Now, good my lord, lie here, and reft awhile.

Lear. Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains:

So, fo, fo: We'll go to fupper i' the morning; So, fo, fo.

Fool. And I'll go to bed at noon '.

R-enter Glofter.

Glo. Come hither, friend: Where is the king my master?

Kent. Here, fir; but trouble him not, his wits are

gone.

him:

Glo. Good friend, I pr'ythee take him in thy arms; I have o'er-heard a plot of death upon There is a litter ready; lay him in't, And drive toward Dover, friend, where thou shalt

meet

Both welcome and protection. Take up thy mafter:
If thou fhould'ft dally half an hour, his life,
With thine, and all that offer to defend him,

exhaufted; my born is dry: i. e. has nothing more in it; and accordingly we have no more of his diffembled madness till he meets his father in the next act, when he refumes it for a speech or two, but not without expreffing the fame dislike of it that he STEEVENS, expreffes here, "I cannot daub it further." You will fay they are Perfian;-] Alluding perhaps to Clytus refufing the Perfian robes offered him by Alexander."

STEEVENS.

And I'll go to bed at noon.] Omitted in the quartos.

STEEVENS.

Stand

Stand in affured lofs: Take up, take up
And follow me, that will to fome provision
Give thee quick conduct.

[Kent. Oppreffed nature fleeps:

This reft might yet have balm'd thy broken fenfes, Which, if convenience will not allow,

Stand in hard cure.-Come, help to bear thy mafter; Thou must not stay behind.

Glo. Come, come, away.

[To the Fool.

[Exeunt, bearing off the king.

Manet Edgar.

Edg. When we our betters fee bearing our woes,

2 Take up, take up.] One of the quartos reads-Take king, &c. the other-Take up to keep, &c. STEEVENS.

up the

-Oppreffed nature fleeps.] Thefe two concluding fpeeches by Kent and Edgar, and which by no means ought to have been cut off, I have reftored from the old quarto. The foliloquy of Edgar is extremely fine; and the fentiments of it are drawn equally from nature and the fubject. Befides, with regard to the ftage, it is abfolutely neceffary: for as Edgar is not defigned, in the conftitution of the play, to attend the king to Dover; how abfurd would it look for a character of his importance to quit the fcene without one word faid, or the leaf intimation what we are to expect from him? THEOBALD.

The lines inferted from the quarto are in crotchets. The omiflion of them in the folio is certainly faulty: yet I believe the folio is printed from Shakspeare's laft revifion, carelessly and hafily performed, with more thought of fhortening the fcenes, than of continuing the action. JOHNSON.

4 - thy broken fenfes,] The quarto, from whence this fpeech is taken, reads, thy broken finews, Senfes is the conje&tural emendation of Theobald. STEEVENS.

Theobald might have fupported his emendation, by a paffage in Macbeth:

-the innocent fleep,

Balm of hurt minds.-

Yet, I believe fineaus was the author's word. The king's whole frame may well be fuppofed to have been greatly relaxed by the agitation of his mind; and broken agrees better with fines than with fenfes. Nor is the former word likely to have been mistaken either by the eye or the ear, for the latter.

MALONE.

We

We fcarcely think our miseries our foes.
Who alone fuffers, fuffers most i' the mind;
Leaving free things, and happy fhows, behind:
"But then the mind much fufferance doth o'erfkip,
When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.
How light and portable my pain feems now,
When that, which makes me bend, makes the king
bow;

He childed, as I father'd!--Tom, away:

Mark the high noifes; and thyfelf bewray 3, When falfe opinion, whofe wrong thought defiles thee, In thy juft proof, repeals, and reconciles thee. What will hap more to-night, fafe fcape the king! Lurk, Lurk.

[Exit.

5 free things,-] States clear from diftrefs. JOHNSON. But then the mind much fufferance doth o'er-fkip,

When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.] So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece:

"And fellowship in woe doth woe affuage."

- Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

Or, if four woe delights in fellowship.-"

Solamen miferis focios habuiffe doloris. Incer. Aut.

MALONE.

7 Mark the high noifes!] Attend to the great events that are approaching, and make thyfelf known when that false opinion now prevailing against thee fhall, in confequence of just proof of thy integrity, revoke its erroneous fentence, and recall thee to honour and reconciliation. JOHNSON.

and thy felf bewray,] Bewray, which at prefent has only a dirty meaning, anciently fignified to betray, to discover. In this fenfe it is ufed by Spenfer; and in Promos and Caffandra, 1578:

"Well, to the king Andrugio now will hye,

cr

Hap lyfe, hap death, his fafetie to bewray."

Again, in the Spanish Tragedy:

"With ink bewray what blood began in me."

Again, in Lylly's Endymion, 1591:

"-left my head break, and fo I bewray my brains."

STEEVENS.

SCENE

Enter Cornwall, Regan, Goneril, Edmund, and Servants.

Corn. Poft speedily to my lord your husband; fhew him this letter:-the army of France is landed Seek out the traitor Glofter.

Reg. Hang him inftantly.
Gon. Pluck out his eyes.

[Exeunt fervants.

Corn. Leave him to my difpleasure.-Edmund, keep you our fifter company; the revenges we are bound to take upon your traitorous father, are not fit for your beholding. Advise the duke, when you are going, to a moft feftinate preparation; we are bound to the like. Our pofts fhall be swift, and intelligent betwixt us. Farewel, dear fifter ;farewel, ' my lord of Gloster.

Enter Steward.

How now? Where's the king?

Stew. My lord of Glofter hath convey'd him hence: Some five or fix and thirty of his knights,

* Hot questrists after him, met him at gate;
Who, with fome other of the lord's dependants,
Are gone with him towards Dover; where they boast
To have well-armed friends.

-and intelligent betwixt us.] So, in a former fcene:
fpies and fpeculations

Intelligent of our ftate. STEEVENS.

my lord of Glofter.] Meaning Edmund, newly invefted with his father's titles. The fteward, fpeaking immediately after, mentions the old earl by the fame title. JOHNSON.

2 Hot queftrifts after him,] A queftrift is one who goes in fearch or queft of another. Mr. Pope and fir T. Hanmer read quefters. STEEVENS.

5

Corn.