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Serv. O, I am flain !-My lord, yet you have one

eye left

To fee fome mifchief on him:-O!

[Dies.

Corn. Left it fee more, prevent it:-Out, vile

jelly!

Where is thy luftre now?

[Treads the other out.

Glo. All dark and comfortless.-Where's my fon
Edmund ?

Edmund, enkindle all the fparks of nature,
To quit this horrid act.

Reg. Out, treacherous villain!

Thou call'ft on him that hates thee: it was he

That made the overture of thy treasons to us;

Who is too good to pity thee.

Glo, O my follies!

Then Edgar was abus'd.

Kind gods, forgive me that, and profper him!
Reg. Go, thrust him out at gates, and let him smell
His way to Dover.-How is't, my lord? How look
you?

Corn. I have receiv'd a hurt:-Follow me, lady.-
Turn out that eyelefs villain;-throw this flave
Upon the dunghill.-Regan, I bleed apace :
Untimely comes this hurt: Give me your arm.
[Exit Cornwall, led by Regan;-Servants lead
Glofter out.

8

1ft Serv. I'll never care what wickedness I do, If this man come to good.

2d Serv. If the live long,

I'll never care what wickedness I do,] This fhort dialogue I have inferted from the old quarto, because I think it full of nature. Servants could hardly fee fuch a barbarity committed on their mafter, without pity; and the vengeance that they prefume must overtake the actors of it, is a fentiment and doctrine well worthy of the ftage. THEOBALD.

It is not neceflary to fuppofe them the fervants of Glofter; for Cornwall was opposed to extremity by his own fervant.

JOHNSON.
And,

And, in the end, meet the old courfe of death,
Women will all turn monsters.

ift Serv. Let's follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam

To lead him where he would; his roguifh madness Allows itself to any thing. 2d Serv. Go thou; I'll fetch whites of eggs,

To apply to his bleeding face. him!

fome flax, and

Now, heaven help

[Exeunt feverally.

АСТ IV.

SCENE I

An open country.

Enter Edgar

Edg. Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd Than ftill contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst,

The

-fome flax, &c.] This paffage is ridiculed by Ben Jonfon, in The Cafe is alter'd, 1609:

66

-go, get a white of an egg, and a little flax, and close the breaches of the head, it is the most conducible thing that can be." STEEVENS.

The Cafe is alter'd was written before the end of the year 1599; but Ben Jonfon might have inferted this fneer at our author, between the time of King Lear's appearance, and the publication of his own play in 1609. MALONE.

Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd,] The meaning is, 'Tis better to be thus contemned, and known to yourself to be contemned. Or perhaps there is an error, which may be recti fied thus:

Yet better thus unknown to be contemn'd. When a man divefts himself of his real character he feels no pain from contempt, because he fuppofes it incurred only by a voluntary difguife which he can throw off at pleasure. I do not think any correction neceffary. JOHNSON.

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I can

The lowest, and most dejected thing of fortune,
Stands ftill in efperance, lives not in fear 2:
The lamentable change is from the best;
The worst returns to laughter. Welcome then,
Thou unfubftantial air, that I embrace!

The wretch, that thou haft blown unto the worst,
Owes nothing to thy blafts 3.-But who comes here?

Enter Glofter, led by an old man.

My father, poorly led?

World, world, O world!

But

I cannot help thinking that this paffage fhould be written

thus:

Yet better thus unknown to be contemn'd,

Than ftill contemn'd and flatter'd to be worse.

The loweft, &c.

The quarto edition has no ftop after flatter'd. The firft folio, which has a comma there, has a colon at the end of the line.

The expreffion in this fpeech-owes nothing to thy blafts-(in a more learned writer) might feem to be copied from Virgil, Æn. xỉ. JI:

"Nos juvenem exanimum, et nil jam cœleftibus ullis "Debentem, vano mafti comitamur honore." TYRWHITT, -lives not in fear.] So in Milton's Par. Reg. B. III. STEEVENS, "For where no hope is left, is left no fear." Welcome then,] The next two lines and a half are omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS.

3

-World, world, O world!

But that thy ftrange mutations make us hate thee,] The read, ing of this paffage has been explained, but not fatisfactorily. My explanation of the poet's fentiment was, "If the number of changes and viciffitudes, which happen in life, did not make us wait, and hope for fome turn of fortune for the better, we could never fupport the thought of living to be old, on any other terms." And our duty, as human creatures, is piously inculcated in this reflection of the author. I read therefore, make us wait thee. THEOBALD.

-O world!

But that thy ftrange mutations makes us hate thee,

Life would not yield to age.] The fenfe of this obfcure paffage is, O world! fo much are human minds captivated with thy pleasures, that were it not for thofe fucceffive, miferies, each worfe than the other, which overload the scenes of life, we should

But that thy ftrange mutations make us hate thee, Life would not yield to age.

Old Man. O my good lord, I have been your tenant, and your father's tenant, these fourfcore years. Glo. Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone: Thy comforts can do me no good at all,

Thee they may hurt.

Old Man. Alack, fir, you cannot fee your way. Glo. I have no way, and therefore want no eyes; I ftumbled when I faw: Full oft 'tis feen,

Our mean fecures us; and our meer defects

never be willing to fubmit to death, though the infirmities of old age would teach us to chufe it as a proper afylum, Befides, by uninterrupted profperity, which leaves the mind at eafe, the body would generally preferve fuch a ftate of vigour as to bear up long against the decays of time. These are the two reasons, I fuppofe, why he said,

Life would not yield to age.

And how much the pleafures of the body pervert the mind's judgment, and the perturbations of the mind disorder the body's frame, is known to all. WARBURTON.

Yield to fignifies no more than give way to, fink under, in op, pofition to the fruggling with, bearing up against the infirmities of age. HANMER.

Qur mean fecures us;] i. e. Moderate, mediocre condi. tion. WARBURTON,

Hanmer writes, by an easy change, meanness fecures us. The two original editions have:

Our meanes fecures us.

I do not remember that mean is ever used as a substantive for low fortune, which is the fenfe here required, nor for mediocrity, except in the phrafe, the golden mean. I fufpect the paffage of corruption, and would either read:

Our means feduce us:

Our powers of body or fortune draw us into evils. Or,

Our maims fecure us..

That hurt or deprivation which makes us defencelefs, proves our fafeguard. This is very proper in Glofter, newly maimed by the evulfion of his eyes. JOHNSON.

There is furely no reason for alteration. Mean is here a subftantive, and fignifies a middle ftate, as Dr. Warburton rightly interprets it, So again in the Marchant of Venice," it is no mean happiness therefore to be feated in the mean.' instances in Dr. Johnson's Dictionary. STEVENS.

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Prove

Prove our commodities.-O, dear fon Edgar,
The food of thy abused father's wrath!
Might I but live to fee thee in my touch",
I'd fay, I had eyes again!

Old Man. How now? Who's there?

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Edg. [Afide.] O gods! Who is't can say, I am at the worst?

I am worse than e'er I was.

Old Man. 'Tis poor mad Tom.

Edg. [Afide.] And worse I may be yet: The worst

is not,

So long as we can fay, This is the worst.
Old Man. Fellow, where goest ?
Glo. Is it a beggar-man?

Old Man, Madman and beggar too.

Glo. He has fome reafon, elfe he could not beg, I' the last night's ftorm I fuch a fellow faw Which made me think a man a worm: My fon Came then into my mind; and yet my mind Was then scarce friends with him: I have heard more fince:

* As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport.

9 -to fee thee in my touch.] So, in another scene, I see it feelingly. STEEVENS.

-who is't can fay, I am at the worst?

-the worft is not,

So long as we can fay, This is the worst.]

i. e. While we live; for while we yet continue to have a sense of feeling, fomething worse than the prefent may still happen'. What occafioned this reflection was his rafhly faying in the be ginning of this scene,

-To be worst,

The lowest, most dejected thing of fortune, &c.

The wretch, that thou hast blown unto the worst, &c.

WARBURTON.

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;

They kill us for their Sport.]

"Dii nos quafi pilas homines habent."-Plaut. Captiv, Prol. 1. 22.

STEEVENS.

Edg.

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