Corn. Get horses for your mistress. [Exeunt Goneril, and Edmund. Corn. Edmund, farewel.Go, seek the traitor Glofter, Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us:- Enter Glofter, brought in by fervants. Reg. Ingrateful fox! 'tis he. 4 Corn. Bind faft his corky arms. 3 Though well we may not pass upon his life, -1 To do a courtesy is to gratify, to comply with. To pass, is to pass a judicial fentence. JOHNSON. The original of the expreffion, to pass on any one may be traced from Magna Charta: -nec fuper eum ibimus, nifi per legale judicium parium fuorum." It is common to moft of our early writers. So, in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1529: "I do not nowe confider the myfchievous pageants he hath played; I do not now paffe upon them." Again, in If this be not a good Play, the Devil is in It, 1612: "A jury of brokers, impanel'd, and deeply fworn to paffe on all villains in hell." STEEVENS. 4-corky arms.] Day, wither'd, hufky arms. JOHNSON. As Shakspeare appears from other paffages of this play to have had in his eye Bishop Harfenet's Declaration of egregious Popish Impoftures, &c. 1603, 4to, it is probable, that this very expreffive, but peculiar epithet, corky, was fuggefted to him by a paffage in that very curious pamphlet. "It would pofe all the cunning exorcifts, that are this day to be found, to teach an old corkie woman to writhe, tumble, curvet, and fetch her morice gamboles, as Martha Breffier (one of the poffeffed mentioned in the pamphlet) did." PERCY. Glo. Glo. What mean your graces?-Good my friends, confider You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends. Corn. Bind him, I fay. [They bind bim. Reg. Hard, hard :-O filthy traitor! find lo. Unmerciful lady as you are, I am none. Corn. To this chair bind him :-Villain, thou shalt [Regan plucks his beard. Glo. By the kind gods, 'tis moft ignobly done To pluck me by the beard. Reg. 5 By the kind gods,- -] We are not to understand by this the gods in general, who are beneficent and kind to men; but that particular fpecies of them called by the ancients dii hofpitales, kind gods. So, Plautus, in Panulo: "Deum hofpitalem ac tefferam mecum fero:" This was a beautiful exclamation, as thofe who infulted the fpeaker were his guests, whom he had hofpitably received into his houfe. But to fay the truth, Shakspeare never makes his people fwear at random. Of his propriety in this matter take the following inftances. In Troilus and Creffida, Æneas, in an expoftulation with Diomede, fwears by the hand of his mother Venus, as a covert reproof for Diomede's brutality in wounding the goddefs of beauty in the hand, and a fecret intimation that he would revenge her injuries. In Coriolanus, when that hero is exafperated at the fickle inconftant temper of the multitude, he fwears by the clouds: and again, when he meets his wife after a long abfence, by the jealous queen of heaven; for Juno was fuppofed the aveng refs of conjugal infidelity. In Othello, the double Iago is made to fwear by Janus. And in this very play of Lear, a Pagan, much given to judicial astrology, very confonantly to his character, fwears: By all the operations of the orbs, By whom we do exift, and ceafe to be. WARBURTON. By the kind gods,] Shakspeare hardly received any affiftance from mythology to furnish out a proper oath for Glofter. People always invoke their deities as they would have them shew themfelves at particular times in their favour; and he accordingly calls thofe kind gods whom he would wish to find fo on this occafion. He does fo yet a fecond time in this scene. Our own liturgy will fufficiently evince the truth of my fuppofition. STEEVENS. This is one of the many paffages, in which Dr. Warburton fuppofes our author more critical and learned than he really was. Glofter Reg. So white, and such a traitor! Glo. Naughty lady, Thefe hairs, which thou doft ravifh from my chin, 8 Reg. Be fimple-anfwer'd, for we know the truth. Corn. And what confederacy have you with the traitors Late footed in the kingdom? Reg. To whofe hands have you sent the lunatio king? Speak. Glo. I have a letter gueffingly fet down, Which came from one that's of a neutral heart, Corn. Cunning. Reg. And falfe. Corn. Where haft thou sent the king? Glofter invokes the gods by the fame epithet afterwards in the prefent scene, and Cordelia ufes alfo the fame invocation in the 4th A&t: "Oh, you kind gods! "Cure this great breach in his abused nature!" MONCK MASON. MONCK MASON. • Will quicken,—] i. e. quicken into life. -my hofpitable favours] It is nonfenfe to understand it of gifts, kindneffes, &c. We should read favour, i. e. visage. For they pluck'd him by the beard. WARBURTON. Favours means the fame as features, i. e. the different parts of which a face is compofed. So, in Drayton's epiftle from Matilda to K. John: "Within the compafs of man's face we fee, "How many forts of feveral favours be.” Again, in David & Bethfabe, 1599: "To daunt the favours of his lovely face." STEEVENS. Be fimple-anfwer'd,] The old quarto reads, Be fimple fwerer.-Either is good fenfe: fimple means plain. STEEVENS. VOL. IX. M m Glo Glo. To Dover. Reg. Wherefore to Dover? Waft thou not charg'd at peril Corn. Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that. Glo. 'I'm ty'd to the ftake, and I must stand ' the course. Reg. Wherefore to Dover? Glo. Because I would not fee thy cruel nails The fea, with fuch a ftorm as his bare head If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time, I am to'd to the fake,] So, in Macbeth: 66 They have chain'd me to a ftake; I cannot fly, "But, bear-like, I must stand the course." STEEVINS. -the courfe.] The running of the dogs upon me. JOHNSON. 2-stick bearish fangs.] The quartos read-ra boarish fangs. This verb occurs in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. IV. c. ii: "And shields did share, and mailes did rah, and helmes did hew." Again, B. V. c. iii: "Rafbing off helmes, and ryving plates afunder." To raf is the old hunting term for the ftroke made by a wild boar with his fangs. STEEVENS. 3 read, -to rain.] Thus the folio. The quartos read-to ragt. STEEVENS. that stern time,] Thus the folio. Both the quartos that dearn time. -Dearn is a north-country word, fignifying lonely, folitary, melancholy, far from neighbours. So, in the Valiant Scot: "Of all thy joys the dearne and dismal end.” Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. II. c. i: They heard a rueful voice that dearnly cride.” Again, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609: By many a dearne and painful pearch." STEEVENS. All cruels elfe fubfcrib'd:-But I fhall fee Upon these eyes of thine I'll fet my foot. [Glofter is held down, while Cornwall treads out one of his eyes. Glo. He, that will think to live 'till he be old, Give me some help :-O cruel! O ye gods! Reg. One fide will mock another; the other too. Corn. If you fee vengeance, Serv. Hold your hand, my lord: I have ferv'd you ever fince I was a child; Reg. How now, you dog? Serv. If you did wear a beard upon your chin, I'd shake it on this quarrel: What do you mean? Corn. My villain 7 ! [Draws, and runs at bim. Serv. Nay, then come on, and take the chance of anger. [Fight; Cornwall is wounded. Reg. [To another fervant.] Give me thy fword.A peasant stand up thus! [Comes behind, and kills him. -fubfcrib'd:] Yielded, fubmitted to the neceffity of the occafion. JOHNSON. Upon thefe eyes, &c.] In Selimus, Emperor of the Turks, one of the fons of Bajazet pulls out the eyes of an aga on the stage, and fays, Yes thou shalt live, but never see that day, "Wanting the tapers that should give thee light." [Pulls out his eyes. Immediately after, his hands are cut off. I have introduced this paffage to fhew that Shakspeare's drama was not more fanguinary than that of his contemporaries. STEVENS. In Marston's Antonio and Mellida, p. ii. 1602. Piero's tongue is torn out on the ftage. MALONE. "My villain!] Villain is here perhaps used in its original fenfe of one in fervitude. STERVENS. |