Edm. 3 This is the excellent foppery of the world! that, when we are fick in fortune (often the furfeit of

Our

3 This is the excellent foppery of the world, &c.] In Shakefpeare's beft plays, befides the vices that arife from the fubject, there is generally fome peculiar prevailing folly, principally ridiculed, that runs through the whole piece. Thus, in The Tempeft, the lying difpofition of travellers, and, in As you like it, the fantaftic humour of courtiers, is exposed and satirized with infinite pleafantry. In like manner, in this play of Lear, the dotages of judicial ́aftrology are feverely ridiculed. I fancy, was the date of its firft performance well confidered, it would be found that fomething or other happened at that time which gave a more than ordinary run to this deceit, as these words feem to intimate; I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what should fellow thefe eclipfes. However this. be, an impious cheat, which had fo little foundation in nature or reafon, fo deteftable an original, and fuch fatal confequences on the manners of the people, who were at that time ftrangely befotted with it, certainly deserved the fevereft lafh of fatire. It was a fundamental in this noble science, that whatever feeds of good difpofitions the infant unborn might be endowed with, either from nature, or traductively from its parents, yet if, at the time of its birth, the delivery was by any cafualty fo accelerated or retarded, as to fall in with the predominancy of a malignant conftellation, that momentary influence would entirely change its nature, and bias it to all the contrary ill qualities: fo wretched and monstrous an opinion did it fet out with.. But the Italians, to whom we owe this, as well as moft other unnatural crimes and follies of thefe latter ages, fomented its original impiety to the moft deteftable height of extravagance. Petrus Aponenfis, an Italian phyfician of the 13th century, affures us that thofe prayers which are made to God when the moon is in conjunction with Jupiter in the Dragon's tail, are infallibly heard. The great Milton, with a juft indignation of this impiety, hath, in his Paradife Regained, fatirized it in a very beautiful manner, by putting thefe reveries into the mouth of the devil. Nor could the licentious Rabelais himself forbear to ridicule this impious dotage, which he does with exquifite addrefs and humour, where, in the fable which he fo agreeably tells from Efop, of the man who applied to Jupiter for the lofs of his hatchet, he makes thofe who, on the poor man's good fuccefs, had projected to trick Jupiter by the fame petition, a kind of aftrologic atheists, who afcribed this good fortune, that

they

our own behaviour) we make guilty of our disasters, the fun, the moon, and the stars, as if we were villains on neceffity; fools by heavenly compulfsion; knaves, thieves, 4 and treachers, by fpherical predominance; drunkards, lyars, and adulterers, by an inforc'd obedience of planetary influence; and all that

they imagined they were now all going to partake of, to the influence of fome rare conjunction and configuration of the ftars. "Hen, hen, difent ils-Et doncques, telle eft au temps

prefent la revolution des Cieulx, la conftellation des Aftres, " & afpect des planetes, que quiconque coignée perdra, soub"dain deviendra ainfi riche "-Nou. Prol. du IV. Livre. But to return to Shakespeare. So blafphemous a delufion, therefore, it became the honefty of our poet to expose. But it was a tender point, and required managing. For this impious juggle had in his time a kind of religious reverence paid to it. It was therefore to be done obliquely; and the circumstances of the fcene furnished him with as good an opportunity as he could with. The perfons in the drama are all Pagans, fo that as, in compliance to cuftom, his good characters were not to speak ill of judicial aftrology, they could on account of their religion give no reputation to it. But in order to expofe it the more, he, with great judgment, makes thefe Pagans fatalifts; as appears by these words of Lear,

By all the operations of the orbs,

From whom we do exift and ceafe to be.

For the doctrine of fate is the true foundation of judicial aftrology. Having thus difcredited it by the very commendations given to it, he was in no danger of having his direct fatire againft it mistaken, by its being put (as he was obliged, both in paying regard to custom, and in following nature) into the mouth of the villain and atheift, efpecially when he has added fuch force of reafon to his ridicule, in the words referred to in the beginning of the note. WARBURTON.

4 and treachers,-] The modern editors read treacherous; but the reading of the old copies, which I have restored to the text, may be fupported from most of the old contemporary writers. So in Doctor Dodypole, a comedy, 1600,

"How fmooth the cunning treacher look'd upon it." Again, in Every Man in bis Humour,

Oh, you treachour ?"

Again, in Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601,

Hence, trecher as thou art!" STEEVENS.

we

we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on. 5 An admirable evafion of whore-mafter man, to lay his goatish difpofition to the charge of a ftar! My father compounded with my mother under the Dragon's tail; and my nativity was under Urfa major; fo that it follows, I am rough and lecherous. Tut, I fhould have been what I am, had the maidenlieft ftar in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar

Enter Edgar.

6 Pat! 7 he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy: my cue is villainous melancholy, with a

figh

5 An admirable evafion-to lay his-difpofition on the CHARGE of a far!- -] We should read, CHANGE of a star! which both the fenfe and grammar require. It was the opinion of aftrologers (fee what is faid juft above) that the momentary influence did all; and we do not fay, Lay a thing on the charge, but to the charge. Befides, change anfwering to evafion just above, gives additional elegance to the expreffion. WARB. 6 Pat! be comes..-] The quarto reads,

and out he comes.

STEEVENS.

7 he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy:—] This we are to understand, as a compliment intended by the author, on the natural winding up of the plot in the comedy of the ancients; which as it was owing to the artful and yet natural introduction of the perfons of the drama into the scene, juft in the nick of time, or pat, as our author fays, makes the fimilitude very proper. This, without doubt, is the fupreme beauty of comedy, confidered as an action. And as it depends folely on a ftrict obfervance of the unities, it fhews that these unities are in nature, and in the reafon of things, and not in a mere arbitrary invention of the Greeks, as fome of our own country critics, of a low mechanic genius, have, by their works, perfuaded our wits to believe. For common sense requiring that the fubje&t of one comedy fhould be one action, and that that action fhould be contained nearly within the period of time which the reprefentation of it takes up; hence we have the unities of time and action; and, from thefe, unavoidably arifes the third, which is that of place. For when the whole of one action is included within a proportionable fmall space of time, there is no room to change the fcene, but all must be done upon one pot of ground. Now from this laft unity (the neceflary VOL. IX.

Y

iffue

figh like Tom o' Bedlam-O, thefe eclipfes portend thefe divifions! fa, fol, la, me

Edg. How now, brother Edmund? what 'ferious contemplation are you, in?

Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what fhould follow these eclipfes. Edg. Do you bufy yourself with that?

Edm. I promife you, the effects he writes of, fucceed unhappily; as of unnaturalnefs between the

iffue of the two other, which derive immediately from nature) proceeds all that beauty of the catastrophe, or the winding up the plot in the ancient comedy. For all the perfons of the drama being to appear and act on one limited fpot, and being by their feveral interefts to embarras, and at length to conduct the action to its deftin'd period, there is need of confummate fkill to bring them on, and take them off, naturally and necessarily; for the grace of action requires the one, and the perfection of it the other. Which conduct of the action muft needs produce a beauty that will give a judicious mind the highest pleasure. On the other hand, when a comic writer has a whole country to range in, nothing is eafier than to find the perfons of the drama juft where he would have them; and this requiring no art, the beauty we fpeak of is not to be found. Confequently a violation of the unities deprives the drama of one of its greatest beauties; which proves what I afferted, that the three unities are no arbitrary, mechanic invention, but founded in reafon and the nature of things. The Tempest of Shakespeare fufficiently proves him to be well acquainted with thefe unities; and the paffage in queftion fhews him to have been ftruck with the beauty that refults from them. WARB.

४

This fuppofition will not at all fuit with the character of Edmund, nor with the comic turn of his whole fpeech; and I am more apt to think it fatire than panegyric, and intended to ridicule the very aukward conclufions of our old comedies, where the perfons of the fcene made their entry inartificially, and just when the poet wanted them on the stage. WARNER. I promife you,] The folio edition commonly differs from the first quarto, by augmentations or infertions, but in this place it varies by omillion, and by the omiffion of fomething which naturally introduces the following dialogue. It is eafy to remark, that in this fpeech, which ought, I think, to be inferted as it now is in the text, Edmund, with the common craft of fortune-tellers, mingles the past and future, and tells of the future only what he already foreknows by confederacy, er can attain by probable conjecture. JOHNSON.

2

child

child and the parent, death, dearth, diffolutions of ancient amities, divifions in ftate, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles, needlefs diffidences, banishment of friends, diffipation of courts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.

Edg. 9 How long have you been a fectary aftronomical?

Edm. Come, come, when faw you my father last? Edg. The night gone by.

Edm. Spake you with him?

Edg. Ay, two hours together.

Edm. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him, by word or countenance? Edg. None at all.

Edm. Bethink yourself, wherein you may have offended him: and, at my intreaty, forbear his prefence, until fome little time hath qualified the heat of his displeasure; which at this inftant fo rageth in him, that with the mischief of your perfon it would fcarcely allay.

I

Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong.

Edm. That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent forbearance till the fpeed of his rage goes flower; and, as I fay, retire with me to my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my lord fpeak. Pray you, go; there's my key. If you do ftir abroad, go arm'd.

Edg. Arm'd, brother!

Edm. Brother, I advise you to the beft; go arm'd: I am no honeft man, if there be any good meaning toward you: I have told you what I have feen and heard, but faintly; nothing like the image and horror of it. Pray you, away.

9 How long have you- -] This line I have restored from the two eldeft quartos, and have regulated the following speech according the fame copies. STEEVINS.

that with the mischief of your perfon] This reading is in both copies; yet I believe the author gave it, that but with the mischief of your perfon it would fcarce allay. JOHNS.