Reads the letter. LET our reciprocal vows be remembered. You have many opportunities to cut him off: if your will want not, time and place will be fruitfully offered. There is nothing done, if he return the conqueror. Then am I the prifoner, and his bed my gaol; from the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and fupply the place for your labour. 2 Your (wife, fo I would fay) affectionate fervant, Oh, undistinguish'd space of woman's will!- And the exchange my brother! Here, in the fands [Exit Edgar, removing the body. Glo. The king is mad: how stiff is my vile sense, That I ftand up, 5 and have ingenious feeling 2 Oh, undiftinguish'd space of woman's wit!] So the first quarto reads, but the firft folio better, will. I have no idea of the meaning of the firft reading, but the other is extremely satirical; the varium & mutabile femper, of Virgil, more ftrongly and happily expreffed the mutability of a woman's will, which is fo fudden, that there is no fpace or diftance between the present quill and the next. Honeft Sancho explains this thought with infinite humour, Entre el fi y el no de la muger, no me atreveria Jo à poner una punta d'Alfiler, Between a woman's yes and no I would not undertake to thruf a pin's point. WARBURTON. 3 Thee I'll rake up,-] I'll cover thee. In Staffordshire, to rake the fire, is to cover it with fuel for the night. JOHNSON. 4 the death-practis'd duke.-] The duke of Albany, whose death is machinated by practice or treafon. JOHNSON. sand have ingenious feeling] Ingenious feeling fignifies a feeling from an understanding not disturbed or difordered, but which, reprefenting things as they are, makes the fenfe of pain the more exquifite. WARBURTON, Of Of my huge forrows! Better I were distract, 6 [Drum afar off. And woes, by wrong imaginations, lofe The knowledge of themselves. Re-enter Edgar. Edg. Give me your hand. Far off, methinks, I hear the beaten drum. Enter Cordelia, Kent, and Phyfician. Cor. O, thou good Kent, how shall I live, and work, To match thy goodness? My life will be too fhort, And every measure fail me.. Kent. To be acknowledg'd, madam, is o'erpaid. All my reports go with the modeft truth; Nor more, nor clipt, but fo. Cor. 2 Be better fuited: 3 These weeds are memories of thofe worfer hours; I pr'ythee, put them off. Kent. Pardon, dear madam; Yet to be known, 4 fhortens my made intent; 6 I My fever'd-] The quartos read fenced. STEEVENS. every meafure fail me.] All good which I fhall allot thee, or measure out to thee, will be fcanty. JOHNSON. 2 Be better fuited :] i. e. Be better dreft, put on a better fuit of cloaths. STEEVENS. 3 Thefe weeds are memories of thofe worfer hours;] Memories, i. e. Memorials, remembrancers. Shakespeare uses the words in the fame fenfe, As you like it, at ii. fcene 3. "Oh, my fweet mafter! O you memory STEEVENS. -fhortens my MADE intent ;] There is a diffonancy of terms in made intent; one implying the idea of a thing done, the My boon I make it, that you know me not, Cor. Then be it fo, my good lord.- Phyf. Madam, fleeps still. Cor. O you kind gods! [To the Phyfician. Cure this great breach in his abufed nature ! The untun'd and jarring fenfes, O, wind up 5 Of this child-changed father! Phyf. So please your majefty, That we may wake the king? he hath slept long. Cor. Be govern'd by your knowledge, and proceed I' the fway of your own will. Is he array'd? 6 Lear is brought in in a chair. Gent. Ay, madam; in the heaviness of sleep, We put fresh garments on him. Phyf. Be by, good madam, when we do awake him; I doubt not of his temperance, Cor. 7 Very well. Phyf. Please you draw near.-Louder the mufic there! the other, undone. I fuppofe Shakespeare wrote LAID intent, i. e. projected. WARBURTON. An intent made, is an intent formed. So we fay in common language, to make a defign, and to make a refolution. JOHNS. 5 Of this child-changed father!] i. e. Changed to a child by his years and wrongs; or perhaps, reduced to this condition by his children. STEEVENS. • Ay, madam, &c.] The folio gives thefe four lines to a Gentleman. One of the quartos (they were both printed in the fame year, and for the fame printer) gives the two firft to the Doctor, and the two next to Kent. The other quarto appropriates the two first to the Doctor, and the two following ones to a Gentleman. I have given the two firft, which best belong to an attendant, to the Gentleman in waiting, and the other two to the Phyfician, on account of the caution contained in them, which is more fuitable to his profeflion. STEEVENS. 7 Very well. This and the following line I have reftored from the quartos. STEEVENS. Cor. Cor. O my dear father! Reftoration, hang [Kifles him. Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kifs Repair those violent harms that my two fifters Have in thy reverence made! Kent. Kind and dear princess! Cor. Had you not been their father, these white flakes Had challeng'd pity of them. Was this a face, I Of quick, cross lightning? To watch (poor perdu) With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog, Though he had bit me, fhould have stood that night 8 Reftoration, bang Thy medicine on my lips ;- -] This is fine. She invokes the goddess of health, Hygieia, under the name of Reftauration, to make her the minifter of her rites, in this holy office of recovering her father's loft fenfes. WARBURTON. Reftoration is no more than recovery perfonified. STEEVENS. With this thin helm ?] It ought to be read and pointed thus, With this thin helm? The allufion is to the forlorn-hope in an army, which are put upon defperate adventures, and called in French enfans perdus ; the therefore calls her father poor perdu; perdue, which is the common reading, being the feminine. Thefe enfans perdus being always flightly and badly armed, is the reafon that she adds, With this thin helm ? i. e. bareheaded. WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton's explanation of the word perdu is juft, tho' the latter part of his affertion has not the leaft foundation. Paulus Jovius, fpeaking of the body of men who were anciently fent on this defperate adventure, fays, "Hos ab immoderata "fortitudine perditos vocant, et in fummo honore atque admi" ratione habent.” It is not likely that thofe who deserved fo well of their country for expofing themselves to certain danger, Should be fent out, fumma admiratione, and yet slightly and badly armed. STEEVENS. Mine enemy's dog,] Thus the folio. Both the quartos read, Mine injurious dog. Polibly the port wrote, Mine injurer's dog. STEEVENS. Against Against my fire. And waft thou fain, poor father, To hovel thee with fwine, and rogues forlorn, In fhort and mufty ftraw? Alack, alack! 'Tis wonder, that thy life and wits, at once, 2 Had not concluded all.-He wakes; fpeak to him. Phyf. Madam, do you; 'tis fittest. Cor. How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty? Lear. You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave. Thou art a foul in blifs; but I am bound Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears Cor. Sir, do you know me? Lear. You are a fpirit, I know.-When did you die? Phyf. He's fcarce awake; let him alone awhile. day-light? Fair 3 I am mightily abus'd.-I fhould even die with pity, To fee another thus.-I know not what to fay. I will not fwear thefe are my hands:-let's fee, I feel this pin prick. Of my condition. 'Would I were affur'd Cor. O look upon me, Sir, And hold your hand in benediction o'er me. 4 No, Sir, you must not kneel. Lear. 2 Had not concluded ALL. -] All what? we should read and point it thus: Had not concluded.-Ah! An exclamation on perceiving her father wake. WARB. The plain conftruction is this: It is wonder that the wits and life had not all ended. JOHNSON. 3 I am mightily abus'd.] I am ftrangely imposed on by appearances; I am in a ftrange mist of uncertainty. JOHNSON. 4 No, Sir, you must not kneel.] This circumftance I find in the old play on the fame fubject, apparently written by another hand, and published before any edition of Shakespeare's tragedy had made its appearance. As it is always difficult to fay whether |