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More compofition and fierce quality,
Than doth, within a dull, ftale, tired bed,
Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,
Got 'tween a-fleep and wake? Well then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund,
As to the legitimate: fine word,-legitimate.
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the bafe
7 Shall be the legitimate. I grow; I profper:-
8 Now, gods, ftand up for baftards!

66

Vanini, the Italian atheift, in his tract De admirandis Natura, &c. printed at Paris, 1616, the very year our poet died. "O "utinam extra legitimum & connubialem thorum effem procreatus! "Ita enim progenitores mei in venerem incaluiffent ardentiùs, "ac cumulatim affatimque generofa femina contuliffent, è

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quibus ego forma blanditiam et elegantiam, robuftus corporis "vires, mentemque innubilem confequutus fuiffem. At quia conjugatorum fum foboles, his orbatus fum bonis." Had the book been published but ten or twenty years fooner, who would not have believed that Shakespeare alluded to this paffage? But the divinity of his genius foretold, as it were, what fuch an atheist as Vanini would fay, when he wrote upon fuch a fubject. WARBURTON.

7 Shall be the legitimate.

-] Here the Oxford Editor would fhew us that he is as good at coining phrases as his author, and fo alters the text thus,

Shall toe th' legitimate.

i. e. fays he, fand on even ground with him, as he would do with his author. WARBURTON.

Hanmer's emendation will appear very plausible to him that fhall confult the original reading. Butter's quarto reads, Edmund the base

Shall tooth' legitimate.

The folio,

Edmund the base

Shall to th' legitimate.

Hanmer, therefore, could hardly be charged with coining a word, though his explanation may be doubted. To toe him, is perhaps to kick him out, a phrafe yet in vulgar ufe; or, to toe, may be literally to fupplant. The word be has no authority. JOHNSON.

Mr. Edwards would read,-Shall top the legitimate. STEEV. Now, gods, ftand up fer baftards!] For what reafon? He does not tell us; but the poet alludes to the debaucheries of the Pagan gods, who made heroes of all their baftards. WARB.

To

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To him enter Glofter.

Glo. Kent banifh'd thus! and France in choler

parted!

And the king gone to-night! fubscrib'd his power!
Confin'd to 2 exhibition! 3 All this done
Upon the gad!-Edmund! how now? what news?
Edm. So please your lordship, none.

[Putting up the letter. Glo. Why fo earnestly feek you to put up that letter? Edm. I know no news, my lord.

Glo. What paper were you reading?

Edm. Nothing, my lord.

Glo. No! What needed then that terrible dispatch of it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath not fuch need to hide itself. Let's fee: come. If it

be nothing, I fhall not need fpectacles.

Edm. I befeech you, Sir, pardon me: it is a letter from my brother, that I have not all o'er read; for fo much as I have perus'd, I find it not fit for your over-looking.

Glo. Give me the letter, Sir.

Edm. I fhall offend, either to detain, or give it. The contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame.

I

— fubfcrib'd his power!] Subfcrib'd, for transferred, alienated. WARBURTON.

To fubfcribe, is, to transfer by figning or fubfcribing a writing of teftimony. We now ufe the term, He fubfcribed forty pounds to the new building. JOHNSON.

2

exhibition!] Is allowance. The term is yet ufed in the univerfities. JOHNSON.

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all this done

Upon the gad!

editions read,

All is gone

Upon the gad!

-] So the old copies: the later

which, befides that it is unauthorized, is less proper. To do upon the gad, is, to act by the sudden stimulation of caprice, as cattle run madding when they are ftung by the gad fly.

JOHNSON.

Glo,

Glo. Let's fee, let's fee.

Edm. I hope, for my brother's juftification, he wrote this but as an effay, or 4 taste of my virtue.

6

Glo. reads.] 5 This policy, and reverence of age makes the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us, till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppreffion of aged tyranny, which fways, not as it hath power, but as it is fuffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would fleep till I wak'd him, you fhould enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, Edgar.-Hum-Confpiracy!fleep, till I wake him-you should enjoy half his revenue. -My fon Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain to breed it in ?-When came this to you? Who brought it?

Edm. It was not brought me, my lord, there's the cunning of it. I found it thrown in at the cafement of my closet.

Glo. You know the character to be your brother's? Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durst fwear it were his; but, in respect of that, I would fain think it were not.

Glo. It is his.

Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but, I hope, his heart is not in the contents.

Glo. Hath he never before founded you in this bufinefs?

Edm. Never, my lord. But I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit, that, fons at perfect age, and

4 tale of my virtue.] Though tafte may ftand in this place, yet I believe we fhould read, affay or teft of my virtue: they are both metallurgical terms, and properly joined. So in Hamlet,

Bring me to the teft. JOHNSON.

5 This policy and reverence of ages-] Age is the reading of both the copies of authority. Butter's quarto has, this policy of ages; the folio, this policy and reverence of age. JOHNSON,

9

idle and fond

-] Weak and foolish.

JOHNSON.

fathers

fathers declining, the father fhould be as a ward to the fon, and the fon manage his revenue.

Glo. O villain, villain!-His very opinion in the letter!- Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detefted, brutish villain! worse than brutish! Go, firrah, feek him; I'll apprehend him:-abominable villain! where is he?

Edm. I do not well know, my lord. If it fhall please you to suspend your indignation against my brother, till you can derive from him better teftimony of his intent, you should run a certain course; where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your honour, and to no other 7 pretence of danger.

Glo. Think you fo?

Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you fhall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular affurance have your fatisfaction; and that without any further delay than this very evening.

Glo. He cannot be fuch a monster.

Edm. Nor is not, fure.

Glo. To his father, that fo tenderly and entirely loves him-Heaven and earth! Edmund, feek him out; 8 wind me into him, I pray you. Frame the business after your own wifdom: 9 I would unftate myself to be in a due refolution.

7

Edm.

-pretence] Pretence is defign, purpofe. So afterwards in this play,

8

Pretence and purpose of unkindness. JOHNSON.

wind me into him, I once thought it fhould be read, you into him; but, perhaps, it is a familiar phrafe, like do me this. JOHNSON.

9

I would unftate myself to be in a due refolution.] i. e. I will throw afide all confideration of my relation to him, that I may act as justice requires. WARBURTON.

Such

Edm. I will feek him, Sir, presently; I the business as I fhall find means, and acquaint you convey withal.

Glo. These late eclipfes in the fun and moon portend no good to us: tho' the wisdom of nature can reafon it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself fcourg'd by the sequent effects. Love cools; friendship falls off; brothers divide. In cities, mutinies; in countries, difcord; in palaces, treafon; and the bond crack'd 'twixt fon and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's fon against father: the king falls from bias of nature; there's father against child. We have seen the best of our time. Machinations, hollownefs, treachery, and all ruinous diforders follow us difquietly to our graves!Find out this villain, Edmund; it fhall lofe thee nothing; do it carefully:- -and the noble and true-hearted Kent banish'd! his offence, honesty!Strange! ftrange!

[Exit.

Such is this learned man's explanation. I take the meaning to be rather this, Do you frame the bufinefs, who can act with lefs emotion; I would unftate myself; it would in me be a departure from the paternal character, to be in a due refolution, to be fettled and compofed on fuch an occafion. would and fhould are in old language often confounded. JOHNS. The words The fame word occurs in Antony and Cleopatra,

1

"Yes, like enough, high-battled Cæfar will
"Unftate his happiness, and be ftag'd to fhew
Against a fworder."
STEEVENS.

convey the bufinefs-] Convey, for introduce: but convey is a fine word, as alluding to the practice of clandeftine conveying goods, fo as not to be found upon the felon. WARB.

To convey is rather to carry through than to introduce; in this place it is to manage artfully: we fay of a juggler, that he has a clean conveyance. JOHNSON.

2

the wifdem of nature] That is, though natural philofophy can give account of eclipfes, yet we feel their confequences. JOHNSON.

Edm.

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