Page images
PDF
EPUB

Edg. Shall I hear from you anon?

Edm. I do ferve you in this business. [Exit Edgar. A credulous father, and a brother noble, Whose nature is so far from doing harms, That he fufpects none; on whofe foolish honefty My practices ride eafy! I fee the business. Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit: All with me's meet that I can fashion fit.

[blocks in formation]

The duke of Albany's palace.

Enter Gonerill and Steward.

Gon. Did my father ftrike my gentleman For chiding of his fool?

Stew. Ay, madam.

[Exit.

Gon. By day and night he wrongs me; every hour He flashes into one grofs crime or other,

That fets us all at odds: I'll not endure it.

His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us
On every trifle. When he returns from hunting,
I will not speak with him; fay, I am fick.-
If you come flack of former fervices,
You fhall do well; the fault of it I'll answer.
Stew. He's coming, madam, I hear him.

[Horns within. Gon. Put on what weary negligence you please, You and your fellows; I'd have it come to question. If he dislike it, let him to my fifter,

Whofe mind and mine, I know, in that are one,
Not to be over-rul'd. I Idle old man,

I

Idle old man,] The following lines, as they are fine in themselves, and very much in character for Gonerill, I have reftored from the old quarto. The laft verfe, which I have ventur'd to amend, is there printed thus:

With checks, like flatt'ries when they are seen abus'd.

THEOBALD.

That

That ftill would manage thofe authorities,
That he hath given away!-Now, by my life,

2

Old fools are babes again; and must be us'd

With checks, as flatteries when they are seen abus’d. Remember what I have faid.

2 Old FOOLS are babes again; and must be used

Stew.

With checks LIKE flatt'ries when they are feen abus'd.] Thus the old quarto reads thefe lines. It is plain they are corrupt. But they have been made worse by a fruitless attempt to correct them. And first, for

Old fools are babes again ;

A proverbial expreffion is here plainly alluded to; but it is a ftrange proverb which only informs us that fools are innocents. We fhould read,

Old folks are babes again ;

Thus fpeaks the proverb, and with the ufual good sense of one. The next line is jumbled out of all meaning:

With checks like flatt'ries when they're feen abus'd. Mr. Theobald reftores it thus,

With checks like flatt'rers when they're feen to abuse us. Let us confider the fenfe a little. Old folks, fays the speaker, are babes again; well, and what then? Why then they muft be used like flatterers. But when Shakespeare quoted the proverb, we may be affured his purpose was to draw fome inference from it, and not run rambling after a fimilitude. And that inference was not difficult to find, had common sense been attended to, which tells us Shakespeare must have wrote,

Old folks are babes again; and must be used

With checks, not flatt'ries, when they're seen abus'd. i. e. Old folks being grown children again, they fhould be used as we ufe children, with checks, when we find that the little flatt'ries we employed to quiet them are abufed, by their becoming more peevish and perverfe by indulgence,

when they're feen abus'd.

i. e. When we find that thofe flatt'ries are abus'd.

WARB.

Thefe lines hardly deferve a note, though Mr. Theobald thinks them very fine. Whether fools or folks fhould be read is not worth enquiry. The controverted line is yet in the old quarto, not as the editors reprefent it, but thus:

With checks as flatteries when they are feen abus'd. I am in doubt whether there is any error of tranfcription. The fense seems to be this: Old men must be treated with checks, when as they are seen to be deceived with flatteries: or, when they are weak enough to be seen abused by flatteries, they are then weak enough to be used with checks. There is a play of the words 3 ujed

Y

Stew. Very well, madam.

Gon. And let his knights have colder looks among

you;

What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows fo:
I would breed from hence occafions, and I fhall,
That I may speak :-I'll write ftrait to my fifter,
To hold my very courfe:-Prepare for dinner.

[blocks in formation]

[Exeunt.

Changes to an open place before the palace.
Enter Kent difguifed.

Kent.

If but (as will I other accents borrow, That can my speech diffufe) my good intent May carry thro' itfelf to that full iffue,

ufed and abufid. To abufe is, in our author, very frequently the fame as to deceive. This conftruction is harsh and ungrammatical; Shakespeare perhaps thought it vicious, and chofe to throw away the lines rather than correct them, nor would now thank the officioufhefs of his editors, who restore what they do not understand. JOHNSON.

If but as well I other accents borrow,
And can my speech difufe,-

whole paffage thus:

-] The firft folio reads the

If but as will I other accents borrow,

That can my fpeech defufe, my good intent.

May carry thro', &c.

Mr. Rowe originally made the alteration; but, printed in the manner I have inferted them in the text, I believe the former words will convey as forcible a meaning. fignifies to diforder it, and fo to difguife it; &c. act iv. fcene 7.

66

rush at once

"With fome diffused fong."

To diffuse speech, as Merry Wives,

-To

So in a book entitled, Green Foreft, or A Natural History, &c. by John Maplet, 1567." In this ftone is apparently feene verie often the verie forme of a tode, with befpotted and coloured feete, but thofe uglye and defufedly." diffufe fpeech may however mean to speak broad, with a clownish accent. The two eldeft quarto's concur with the folio, except that they read well instead of will. STEEVENS,

For

For which I raz'd my likeness.-Now, banish'd Kent, If thou can'ft ferve where thou doft ftand condemn'd, So may it come! thy mafter, whom thou lov'ít, Shall find thee full of labours.

Horns within. Enter Lear, Knights, and Attendants.

Lear. Let me not ftay a jot for dinner: go, get it ready.

How now, what art thou?

Kent. A man, Sir.

[To Kent.

Lear. What doft thou profefs? What wouldst thou with us?

Kent. I do profefs to be no less than I feem; to ferve him truly that will put me in truft; to love him that is honeft; to converfe with 2 him that is wife and fays little; to fear judgment; to fight when I cannot chufe; 3 and to eat no fish.

2

Lear.

him that is wife AND SAYS little ;] Though faying little may be the character of wisdom, it was not a quality to chufe a companion by for his converfation. We should read, TO SAY little; which was prudent when he chofe a wife companion to profit by. So that it was as much as to fay, I profefs to talk little myself, that I may profit the more by the converfation of the wife.

3

To converfe fignifies immediately and properly to keep company, not to difcourfe or talk. His meaning is, that he chufes for his companions men of referve and caution; men who are no tattlers nor tale-bearers. The old reading is the true. JOHNS. and to eat no ffb.] In queen Elizabeth's time the Papifts were esteemed, and with good reafon, enemies to the government. Hence the proverbial phrafe of, He's an honeft man, and eats no fifh; to fignify he's a friend to the government and a Proteftant. The eating fifh, on a religious account, being then efteemed fuch a badge of popery, that when it was enjoin'd for a feafon by act of parliament, for the encouragement of the fish-towns, it was thought neceffary to declare the reafon; hence it was called Cecil's faft. To this difgraceful badge of popery Fletcher alludes in his Woman-hater, who makes the courtezan fay, when Lazarillo, in fearch of the Umbrano's head, was feized at her house by the intelligencers

Y 4

for

Lear. What art thou?

Kent. A very honeft-hearted fellow, and as poor as the king.

Lear. If thou be'ft as poor for a fubject, as he is for a king, thou art poor enough. What wouldst thou? Kent. Service.

Lear. Whom wouldst thou ferve?

Kent. You.

Lear. Doft thou know me, fellow?

Kent. No, Sir; but you have that in your countenance which I would fain call mafter,

Lear. What's that?

Kent. Authority.

Lear. What fervices canft thou do?

Kent. I can keep honeft counfel, ride, run, mar a curious tale in telling it, and deliver a plain meffage bluntly. That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualify'd in; and the beft of me is diligence.

Lear. How old art thou?

Kent. Not fo young, Sir, to love a woman for finging; nor fo old, to doat on her for any thing. I have years on my back forty-eight.

Lear. Follow me; thou fhalt ferve me: if I like thee no worse after dinner, I will not part from thee yet. Dinner, ho, dinner!-Where's my knave? my fool?

Enter Steward.

Go you, and call my fool hither. You, you, firrah, where's my daughter?

Stew. So please you

[Exit. Lear. What fays the fellow there? Call the clot

for a traytor; "Gentlemen, I am glad you have discovered him. He fhould not have eaten under my roof for twenty pounds. And fure I did not like him, when he called for fifb." And Marston's Dutch Courtezan: "I truft I am none "of the wicked that eat fish a Fryday." WARBURTON.

pole

« PreviousContinue »