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In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee;
Let shame come when it will, I do not call it :
I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,

Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove:
Mend, when thou canst; be better, at thy leisure:
I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,

I, and my hundred knights.

Reg.

Not altogether so, sir;
I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided
For your fit welcome: Give ear, sir, to my sister;
For those that mingle reason with your passion,
Must be content to think you old, and so-

But she knows what she does.

Lear.

Is this well spoken now?

Reg. I dare avouch it, sir: What, fifty followers? Is it not well? What should you need of more? Yea, or so many? sith that both charge and danger Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house, Should many people, under two commands,

Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.

Gon. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance From those that she calls servants, or from mine?

Reg. Why not, my lord? If then they chanc'd to slack you,

We could controul them: If you will come to me, (For now I spy a danger) I entreat you

To bring but five and twenty; to no more

Will I give place, or notice.

Lear. I gave you all

Reg.

And in good time you gave it.

Lear. Made you my guardians, my depositaries;

But kept a reservation to be follow'd

With such a number: What, must I come to you

With five and twenty, Regan? said you so?

Reg. And speak it again, my lord; no more with me. Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look well-fa

vour'd,

When others are more wicked; not being the worst,

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embossed carbuncle,] Embossed is swelling, protuberant.

So, in Timon of Athens:

"Whom once a day with his embossed froth
"The turbulent surge shall cover." Steevens.

Johnson.

Stands in some rank of praise :--I'll go with thee;

Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,
And thou art twice her love.

[To GON.

Gon.
Hear me, my lord;
What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,
To follow in a house, where twice so many
Have a command to tend you?

Reg.

What need one?

Lear. O, reason not the need: our basest beggars

Are in the poorest thing superfluous :

Allow not nature more than nature needs,

Man's life is cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;

If only to go warm were gorgeous,

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,
Which scarcely keeps thee warm.-But, for true need,—
You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need !5
You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,6
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger!
O, let not women's weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man's cheeks!-No, you unnatural hags,
I will have such revenges on you both,

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That all the world shall I will do such things,
What they are, yet I know not; but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You think, I 'll weep;
No, I'll not weep:-

I have full cause of weeping; but this heart

4 Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,

When others are more wicked;] This passage, I think, should

be pointed thus:

Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,
When others are more wicked; not being the worst
Stands in some rank of praise.-

That is, to be not the worst deserves some praise. Tyrwhitt.

5

- patience, patience I need!] I believe the word patience was repeated inadvertently by the compositor. Malone.

The compositor has repeated the wrong word: Read:
You heavens, give me that patience that I need.

Or, still better, perhaps :

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You heavens, give me patience!—that I need. Ritson.

poor old man,] The quarto has, poor old fellow. Johnson.

Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,7
Or ere I'll weep:-O, fool, I shall go mad!

[Exeunt LEAR, GLO. KENT, and Fool. Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a storm.

[Storm heard at a Distance.
This house

Reg.
Is little; the old man and his people cannot
Be well bestow'd.

Gon.
'Tis his own blame; he hath put
Himself from rest, and must needs taste his folly.
Reg. For his particular, I 'll receive him gladly,
But not one follower.

Gon.

So am I purpos'd.

Re-enter GLOSTER.

Where is my lord of Gloster?

Corn. Follow'd the old man forth:-he is return'd.
Glo. The king is in high rage.
Corn.

Whither is he going?

Glo. He calls to horse ;9 but will I know not whither. Corn. 'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself. Gon. My lord, entreat him by no means to stay.

Glo. Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds, Do sorely ruffle ;1 for many miles about

There's scarce a bush.

Reg.

O, sir, to wilful men,

The injuries, that they themselves procure,
Must be their schoolmasters: Shut up your doors;
He is attended with a desperate train;

7

into a hundred thousand flaws,] A flaw signifying a crack or other similar imperfection, our author, with his accustomed license, uses the word here for a small broken particle. So again, in the fifth Act:

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But his flaw'd heart

"Burst smilingly."

he hath put

Malone.

Himself from rest,] The personal pronoun was supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer. He hath was formerly contracted thus; H'ath; and hence perhaps the mistake. Malone.

9 Corn. Whither is he going?

Glo. He calls to horse;] Omitted in the quartos. Steevens.

1 Do sorely ruffle ;] Thus the folio. The quartos read-Do sorely russel, . e. rustle. Steevens.

Ruffle is certainly the true reading. A ruffler, in our author's time, was a noisy, boisterous, swaggerer. Malone.

And what they may incense him to,2 being apt
To have his ear abus'd, wisdom bids fear.

Corn. Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night; My Regan counsels well : come out o' the storm. [Exeunt.

ACT III.....SCENE I.

A Heath.

A Storm is heard, with Thunder and Lightning.
Enter KENT, and a Gentleman, meeting.

Kent. Who's here, beside foul weather?

Gent. One minded like the weather, most unquietly.
Kent. I know you; Where's the king?
Gent. Contending with the fretful element:3

Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea,

Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main,4

That things might change, or cease: tears his white

2

hair ;5

incense him to,] To incense is here, as in other places, to instigate. Malone.

3 - - the fretful element:] i. e. the air. Thus the quartos; for which the editor of the folio substituted elements. Malone.

4 Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main,] The main seems to signify here the main land, the continent. So, in Bacon's War with Spain: "In 1589, we turned challengers, and invaded the main of Spain."

This interpretation sets the two objects of Lear's desire in proper opposition to each other. He wishes for the destruction of the world, either by the winds blowing the land into the waters, or raising the waters so as to overwhelm the land.

So, Lucretius, III, 854:

"terra mari miscebitur. et mare cœlo." See also the Æneid I, 133, and XII, 204.

So, in Troilus and Cressida:

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Steevens.

"Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores
"And make a sop of all this solid globe."

The main is again used for the land, in Hamlet:

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"Goes it against the main of Poland, sir?" Malone.

tears his white hair;] The six following verses were omitted in all the late editions; I have replaced them from the first, for they are certainly Shakspeare's. Pope.

Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,
Catch in their fury, and make nothing of:
Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn
The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.

This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,7
The lion and the belly-pinched wolf

Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,

And bids what will take all.8

Kent.

But who is with him?

Gent. None but the fool; who labours to out-jest His heart-struck injuries.

Kent.

Sir, I do know you;

And dare, upon the warrant of my art,9

The first folio ends the speech at change or cease, and begins again at Kent's question, But who is with him? The whole speech is forcible, but too long for the occasion, and properly retrenched. Johnson. 6 Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn

The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.] Thus the old copies. But I suspect we should read-out-storm: i. e. as Nestor expresses it in Troilus and Cressida:

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with an accent tun'd in self-same key,

"Returns to chiding fortune:"

i. e. makes a return to it, gives it as good as it brings, confronts it with self-comparisons.

Again, in King Lear, Act V:

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Myself could else out-frown false fortune's frown.”

Again, in King John:

“Threaten the threatner, and out-face the brow,

"Of bragging horror."

Again, (and more decisively) in The Lover's Complaint, attributed

to our author:

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Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain." Steevens. 7 This night wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,] Cub-drawn has been explained to signify drawn by nature to its young; whereas it means, whose dugs are drawn dry by its young. For no animals leave their dens by night but for prey. So that the meaning is, " that even hunger, and the support of its young, would not force the bear to leave his den in such a night." Warburton.

Shakspeare has the same image in As you Like it: "A lioness, with udders all drawn dry,

"Lay couching

Again, ibidem:

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Food to the suck'd and hurgry lioness." Steevens.

8 And bids what will take all.] So, in Antony and Cleopatra, Eno

barbus says

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"I'll strike, and cry, Take all." Steevens.

upon the warrant of my art,] Thus the quartos. The folio

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