Stew. I, madam ? Reg. I fpeak in understanding: you are; I know it: Therefore, 5 I do advise you, take this note: My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd; And more convenient is he for my hand, 5 Than I do advise you, take this note :] Note means in this place not a letter but a remark. Therefore obferve what I am faying. JOHNSON. Therefore, I do advise you, take this note: I pray, defire her call her wisdom to her.] This paffage, by a word's being left out, and a word mifplaced, and a full ftop put where there fhould be but a comma, has led all our editors into a very great mistake; as will, I hope, appear, when we proceed a little further in the fame play. The emendation is as follows: Therefore I do advise you, take note of this; If you fo find him, pray you give him this: i. e. This anfwer by word of mouth. The editors, not fo regardful of confiftency as they ought to have been, ran away with the thought that Regan delivered a letter to the steward; whereas the only defired him to give or deliver fo much by word of mouth. And by this means another blunder, as egregious as the former, and arifing out of it, prefents itself to view in the fame act, fcene 9. page 121. And give the letters, which thou find't about me, To Edmund earl of Glofter, &c. Edg. Let's fee thefe pockets: the letters, that he speaks of, [Reads the letter.] Obferve, that here is but one letter produced and read, which is Gonerill's. Had there been one of Regan's too, the audience no doubt fhould have heard it as well as Gonerill's. But it is plain, from what is amended and explained above, that the Steward had no letter from Regan, but only a menage to be The like expreffion, Tavelfth Night, at ii. fc. 4.-"Sir Toby. Challenge "me the duke's youth, to fight with him; hurt him in eleven places; my "niece hall take note of it." delivered Than for your lady's. You may gather more. So fare you well. If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor, Stew. 'Would I could meet him, madam! I fhould fhew 7 What party I do follow. Reg. Fare thee well. The country near Dover. Enter Glofter, and Edgar as a peasant. Glo. When fhall I come to the top of that fame hill? Edg. You do climb up it now.Look, how we labour. Glo. Methinks the ground is even. Edg. Horrible fteep: Hark, do you hear the sea? Glo. No, truly. Edg. Why then your other fenfes grow imperfect By your eyes' anguifh. delivered by word of mouth to Edmund earl of Glo'fter. So that it is not to be doubted, but the last paffage should be read thus And give the letter, which thou find'st about me, To Edmund earl of Glo'fter. Edg. Let's fee thefe pockets: the letter, that he speaks of, Thus the whole is connected, clear, and confiftent. Dr. GRAY. have directly told you. JOHNSON. 7 What party] Quarto, What lady. JOHNSON. SCENE VI.] This fcene, and the ftratagem by which Glo'fter is cured of his defperation, are wholly borrowed from Sidney's Arcadia. JOHNSON. Glo. Glo. So may it be, indeed. 2 Methinks, thy voice is alter'd; and thou speak'st In better phrase and matter than thou didst. Edg. You are much deceiv'd: in nothing am I chang'd, But in my garments. Glo. Methinks, you are better spoken. Edg. Come on, Sir; here's the place:-stand still.3 How fearful And dizzy 'tis, to caft one's eyes fo low! The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air, 2 thy voice is alter'd, &c.] Edgar alters his voice in order to pass afterwards for a malignant fpirit. JOHNSON. S How fearful And dizzy 'tis, to caft one's eyes fo low!] This description has been much admired fince the time of Addison, who has remarked, with a poor attempt at pleafantry, that " he who can "read it without being giddy, has a very good head, or a "very bad one." The defcription is certainly not mean, but I am far from thinking it wrought to the utmost excellence of poetry. He that looks from a precipice finds himself affailed by one great and dreadful image of irrefiftible deftruction. But this overwhelming idea is diffipated and enfeebled from the inftant that the mind can reftore itself to the observation of particulars, and diffuse its attention to distinct objects. The enumeration of the choughs and crows, the famphire-man, and the fishers, counteracts the great effect of the profpect, as it peoples the defert of intermediate vacuity, and ftops the mind in the rapidity of its defcent through emptinefs and horror. JOHNS. • ——ber cock ; —] Her cock-boat. JOHNSON. Gle. Glo. Set me where you stand. Edg. Give me your hand: you are now within a foot Of the extreme verge: 5 for all beneath the moon Would I not leap upright. Glo. Let go my hand. Here, friend, is another purfe; in it, a jewel Well worth a poor man's taking. Fairies, and gods, Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going. Glo. With all my heart. [Seems to go. Edg. Why do I trifle thus with his despair ?— 'Tis done to cure it. Glo. O you mighty gods! This world I do renounce; and in your fights Edg. Good Sir, farewell. [He leaps, and falls along. And yet I know not how conceit may rob The treasury of life, when life itself Yields to the theft. Had he been where he thought, By this, thought had been paft.-Alive or dead? Ho, you, Sir! friend!-Hear you, Sir?-Speak! Would I not leap UPRIGHT.] But what danger is in leaping upright or upwards? He who leaps thus must needs fall again on his feet upon the place from whence he rofe. We should read, Would I not leap outright; : i. e. forward and then being on the verge of a precipice he muft needs fall headlong. WARBURTON. 6 when life itself Yields to the theft. deftroyed. JOHNSON. When life is willing to be Thus might he pafs, indeed: What are you, Sir? Glo. Away, and let me die. -yet he revives. Edg. Hadit thou been aught but goffomer, fea thers, air, So many fathom down precipitating, Thou hadst shiver'd like an egg: but thou doft breathe, Edg. From the dread fummit of this chalky bourn: Is wretchedness depriv'd that benefit, To end itself by death? 'Twas yet fome comfort, 7 Thus might be pass, indeed :-] Thus he might die in reality. We ftill ufe the word paffing bell. JOHNSON. 8 Hadft thou been aught but GOSSOMER, feathers, air,] Gossomore, the white and cobweb-like exhalations that fly about in hot funny weather Skinner fays, in a book called The French Gardiner, it fignifies the down of the fow-thiftle, which is driven to and fro by the wind: "As fure fome wonder on the caufe of thunder, 9 Ten mafts AT EACH make not the altitude,] So Mr. Pope found it in the old editions; and feeing it corrupt, judiciously corrected it to attacht. But Mr. Theobald reftores again the old nonfenfe, at each. WARBURTON. Mr. Pope's conjecture may ftand if the word which he ufes were known in our author's time, but I think it is of later introduction. We may fay, 1 Ten mafts on end JOHNSON. In Mr. Rowe's edition it is, Ten mafts at least. STEEVENS. chalky bourn:] Bourn feems here to fignify a hill. Its common fignification is a brook. Milton in Comus ufes befky bourn in the fame fenfe perhaps with Shakespeare. But in both authors it may mean only a boundary. JOHNSON. VOL. IX. Ff When |