Alb. Shut your mouth, dame,

Or with this paper fhall I ftop it :-Hold, fir:-
Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil :-
No tearing, lady; I perceive, you know it.

[Gives the letter to Edmund. Gen. Say, if I do; the laws are mine, not thine ; Who fhall arraign me for't?

Alb. 7 Monster, know'ft thou this paper?
Gon. Afk me not what I know.

[Exit Gon. Alb. Go after her; fhe's defperate: govern her. Edm. What you have charg'd me with, that I have done;

And more, much more: the time will bring it out; 'Tis paft, and fo am I: But what art thou,

That haft this fortune on me? If thou art noble,
I do forgive thee.

Edg.Let us exchange charity.

I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;
If more, the more thou haft wrong'd me.
My name is Edgar, and thy father's fon.
The gods are juft, and of our pleasant vices
Make inftruments to fcourge us :

The dark and vicious place where thee he got,
Coft him his eyes.

7 Monster, know'st thou this paper?] So the quarto; but the folio:

Moft monftrous! O, know'ft thou, &c. JOHNSON. "Knoweft thou thefe letters?" fays Leir to Ragan, in the old anonymous play, when he fhews her both her own and her fifter's letters, which were written to procure his death. Upon which fhe fnatches the letters and tears them.

STEEVENS.

Let us exchange charity.] Our author by negligence gives his heathens the fentiments and practices of chriftianity. In Hamlet there is the fame folemn act of final reconciliation, but with exact propriety, for the perfonages are Christians:

"Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet, &c."

JOHNSON.

to fcourge us:] Thus the quartos, The folio reads:

to plague us.

STEEVENS.

Edm. Thou haft fpoken right, 'tis true;
The wheel is come full circle; I am here.
Alb. Methought, thy very gait did prophefy
A royal noblenefs :-1 muft embrace thee:
Let forrow fplit my heart, if ever I
Did hate thee, or thy father!

Edg. Worthy prince, I know it.

Alb. Where have you hid yourself?

How have you known the miferies of your father?
Edg. By nurfing them, my lord. Lift a brief tale;-
And, when 'tis told, O, that my heart would burst ! —
The bloody proclamation to efcape,

That follow'd me fo near, (O our lives' fweetness!
2 That we the pain of death would hourly bear,
Rather than die at once!) taught me to fhift
Into a mad-man's rags; to affume a femblance
That very dogs difdain'd: and in this habit
Met I my father with his bleeding rings,

Their precious ftones new loft; became his guide,
Led him, begg'd for him, fav'd him from despair;
Never (O fault!) reveal'd myself unto him,
Until fome half hour paft, when I was arm'd,
Not fure, though hoping, of this good fuccefs,
I afk'd his blefling, and from first to laft
Told him my pilgrimage: But his flaw'd heart,
(Alack, too weak the conflict to fupport!)
'Twixt two extremes of paffion, joy and grief,
Burft fmilingly.

I

full circle ;-] Quarto, full circled. JOHNSON. 2 That we the pain of death would hourly bear, Rather than die at once)

The folio reads,

That we the pain of death would hourly die. Mr. Pope, whom I have followed, reads,

would hourly bear.

The quartos give the paffage thus:

That with the pain of death would hourly die,
Rather than die at once)

STEEVENS.

Edm. This fpeech of yours hath mov'd me, And fhall, perchance, do good: but fpeak you on; You look as you had fomething more to fay.

Alb, If there be more, more woeful, hold it in; For I am almoft ready to diffolve,

Hearing of this.

[Edg. This would have feem'd a period To fuch as love not forrow; but, another ;To amplify too-much, would make much more, And top extremity :

Whilft I was big in clamour, came there in a man,
Who having feen me in my worst estate,

Shunn'd my abhorr'd fociety: but then, finding
Who 'twas that fo endur'd, with his ftrong arms
He faften'd on my neck, and bellow'd out

3

Edg.] The lines between crotchets are not in the folio.

4 -This would have feem'd a period :

To fuch as love not forrow: but another,
To amplify too much, would make much more,
And top extremity !-

JOHNSON.

The reader eafily fees that this reflection refers to the Bastard's defiring to hear more; and to Albany's thinking he had faid enough. But it is corrupted into miferable non fenfe. We fhould read it thus:

This would have feem'd a period. But fuch

As love to amplify another's forrow,

To much, would make much more, and top extremity. i. e. This to a common humanity would have been thought the umoft of my fufferings; but fuch as love cruelty are always for adding much to more, till they reach the extremity of mifery. WARBURTON.

The fenfe may probably be this. This would have feemed a period to fuch as love not forrow; but,—another, i. e. but I must add another, i. e. another period, another kind of conclufion to my story, fuch as will increase the horrors of what has been already told.

So in King Richard II :

I play the torturer, by fmall and small,
To lengthen out the worst-

STEEVENS,

As he'd burft heaven; 'threw him on my father;
Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him,
That ever ear receiv'd: which in recounting,
His grief grew puiffant, and the ftrings of life
Began to crack; Twice then the trumpet founded,
And there I left him tranc'd.

Alb. But who was this?

Edg. Kent, fir, the banifh'd Kent; who in difguife Follow'd his enemy king, and did him fervice Improper for a flave.]

Enter a Gentleman baftily, with a bloody knife.

Gent. Help! help! O help!

Edg. What kind of help?

Alb. Speak, man.

Edg. What means this bloody knife?

Gent, 'Tis hot, it fmoaks;

It came even from the heart ofO! fhe's dead! Alb. Who, man? fpeak".

Gent. Your lady, fir, your lady: and her sister

By her is poifon'd; fhe hath confefs'd it.

Edm. I was contracted to them both; all three Now marry in an instant.

Enter Kent.

Alb. Produce the bodies, be they alive or dead!— [Goneril and Regan's bodies brought out. This judgment of the heavens, that makes us tremble,

Touches

-threw him on my father ;] The quartos read,

-threw me on my father."

The modern editors have corrected the paffage, as it is now printed. STEEVENS.

-O! She's dead!] Omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS, 7 Who, man, Speak?] The folio reads, Who dead? Speak an. STEEVENS.

This judgment, &c.] If Shakspeare had audied Ariftotle all

hia

Touches us not with pity.

Edg. Here comes Kent, fir.

Alb. O is this he? The time will not allow The compliment which very manners urge.

Kent. I am come

To bid my king and master aye good night;
Is he not here?

Alb. Great thing of us forgot!

Speak, Edmund, where's the king? and where's Cordelia ?

See'ft thou this object, Kent?

Kent. Alack, why thus?

Edm. Yet Edmund was belov'd: The one the other poison'd for my fake, And after flew herself.

Alb. Even fo.- Cover their faces.

Edm. I pant for life :-Some good I mean to do,
Defpight of mine own nature. Quickly fend,-
Be brief in it,-to the caftle; for my writ

Is on the life of Lear, and on Cordelia :-
Nay, fend in time.

Alb, Run, run, O, run→→

Edg. To whom, my lord ?-Who has the office?

fend

Thy token of reprieve.

Edm. Well thought on; take my fword,

! Give it the captain.

Edg. Hafte thee for thy life.

[Exit Messenger.

Edm. He hath commiffion from thy wife and me To hang Cordelia in the prison, and

his life, he would not perhaps have been able to mark with more precision the diftin&t operations of terror and pity. TYRWHITT.

Here comes Kent, fir.] The manner in which Edgar here mentions Kent, feems to require the lines which are inferted from she first edition in the foregoing fcene. JOHNSON.

Give it the captain.] The quartos read:

-Take my fword, the captain,

Give it the captain.

?

STEEVENS.

To