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I can produce a champion, that will prove
What is avouched there. If you miscarry,
Your business of the world hath so an end,
And machination ceafes. Fortune love you!
Alb. Stay till I have read the letter.
Edg. I was forbid it.

When time shall serve, let but the herald cry,
And I'll appear again.

[Exit. Alb. Why, fare thee well: I will o'erlook thy paper.

Re-enter Edmund.

Edm. The enemy's in view, draw up your powers. • Here is the guess of their true ftrength and forces, By diligent difcovery; but your hafte

Is now urg'd on you.

Alb. 7 We will greet the time.

[Exit. Edm. To both thefe fifters have I fworn my love; Each jealous of the other, as the ftung

Are of the adder. Which of them fhall I take?
Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd,
If both remain alive. To take the widow,
Exafperates, makes mad her fifter Gonerill;
And hardly fhall I carry out my fide,

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Her husband being alive. Now then, we'll ufe
His countenance for the battle; which being done,
Let her, who would be rid of him, devife

His fpeedy taking off. As for the mercy

Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia,-
The battle done, and they within our power,

Here is the guess, &c.] The modern editors read, Hard is the guefs. So the quartos. But had the difcovery been diligent, the guefs could not have proved fo difficult. I have given the true reading from the folio. STEEVENS.

We will greet the time.] We will be ready to meet the occafion. JOHNSON.

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carry out my fide,] Bring my purpose to a fuccessful iffue, to completion. Side feems here to have the fenfe of the French word partie, in prendre partie, to take his refolution.

JOHNSON.
They

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They fhall never see his pardon: 9 for
Stands on me to defend, not to debate.

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my state

[Exit.

A field between the two camps.

Alarum within. Enter, with drum and colours, Lear, Cordelia, and Soldiers over the stage, and exeunt.

Enter Edgar and Glo'fter.

Edg. Here, father, take the fhadow of this tree For your good hoft; pray, that the right may thrive. If ever I return to you again,

I'll bring you comfort.

Glo. Grace go with you, Sir!

[Exit Edgar.

[Alarum, and retreat, within.

Re-enter Edgar.

Edg. Away, old man, give me thy hand, away: King Lear hath loft, he and his daughter ta'en : Give me thy hand. Come on.

Glo. No further, Sir: a man may rot even here. Edg. What, in ill thoughts again? Men muft

endure

Their going hence,

2 Ripeness is all.

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even as their coming hither. Come on,

Glo. And that's true too.

for my fate

[Exeunt.

Stands on me, &c.] I do not think that for ftands in this place as a word of inference or caufality. The meaning is rather: Such is my determination concerning Lear; as for my state it requires now, not deliberation, but defence and support.

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JOHNSON.

The reader, who is curious to know how far Shakespeare was indebted to the Arcadia, will find a chapter entitled,"The pitifull State and Storie of the Paphlagonian unkinde King, and his kinde Sonne; first related by the Sonne, then "by the blind father." P. 141. edit. 1590. quarto. STEEV. Ripeness is all. i. e. To be ready, prepared, is all. STEEV. SCENE

2

Gg 4

SCENE III.

Enter in conqueft, with drum and colours, Edmund ;
Lear and Cordelia, as prifoners; Soldiers, Captain.
Good guard,
Until their greater pleasures first be known
That are to cenfure them,

Edm. Some officers take them away.

Cor. We are not the first,

Who, with beft meaning, have incurr'd the worst.
For thee, oppreffed king, am I caft down;
Myfelf could elfe out-frown falfe fortune's frown,
Shall we not see these daughters, and these sisters ?
Lear. No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prifon :
We two alone will fing, like birds i' the cage.
When thou doft afk me blefling, I'll kneel down
And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live,
And pray, and fing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court-news; and we'll talk with them too,
Who lofes and who wins; who's in, who's out;
And take upon us the mystery of things,
As if we were God's fpies. And we'll wear out,
In a wall'd prifon, 2 packs and fects of great ones,
That ebb and flow by the moon.

Edm. Take them away.

Lear. 3 Upon fuch facrifices, my Cordelia,

The gods themselves throw incenfe. Have I caught

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thee?

And take upon's the mystery of things,

He

As if we were God's pies.-] As if we were angels commiffioned to furvey and report the lives of men, and were contequently endowed with the power of prying into the original motives of action and the mysteries of conduct. JOHNSON. packs and fects] Packs is ufed for combinations or collection, as is a pack of cards. For fects I think fets might be more commodiously read. So we fay, affairs are now managed by a new fet. Sect, however, may well ftand. JOHNSON. 3 Upon fuch facrifices, my Cordelia,

The gods themselves throw incense. -] The thought is extremely noble, and expreffed in a fublime of imagery that

Seneca

He that parts us, fhall bring a brand from heaven, 4 And fire us hence, like foxes. Wipe thine eyes; 5 The goujeers fhall devour them, 6 flesh and fell, Ere they shall make us weep: we'll fee them ftarv'd first. Come. [Exeunt Lear and Cordelia guarded.

Edm. Come hither, captain. Hark.

Take thou this note; go, follow them to prifon:
One step I have advanc'd thee; if thou doft
As this inftructs thee, thou doft make thy way
To noble fortunes. Know thou this-that men
Are as the time is: to be tender-minded

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Seneca fell fhort of on the like occafion. "Ecce fpectaculum dignum ad quod refpiciat, intentus operi fuo deus: ecce par "deo dignum, vir fortis cum mala fortuna compofitus."

WARBURTON.

4 And fire us bence, like foxes.-] There is, I believe, fome allufion in this paffage which I do not clearly understand. A thought not unlike it, occurs in Webster's Dutchess of Malfy, 1623:

"Some falling out among the cardinals.

"Thefe factions among great men, they are like
"Foxes, when their heads are divided

"They carry fire in their tails, and all the country
"About them goes to wreck for't."

I have been fince informed that it is ufual to smoke foxes out of their holes. STEEVENS.

5 The goujeers fhall devour them,] The goujeres, i. e. Morbus Gallicus. Gouge, Fr. fignifies one of the common women attending a camp; and as that disease was firft difperfed over Europe by the French army, and the women who followed it, the first name it obtained among us was the gougeries, i. e. the difeafe of the gouges. HANMER.

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-flesh and fell,] Flesh and skin. JOHNSON. flesh and fell,] So Skelton's works, page 257. Nakyd afyde

Neither fleb nor fell."

Chaucer ufes fell and bones for skin and bones:

"And faid that he and all his kinne at once,
"Were worthy to be brent with fell and bone."
Troilus and Creffeide.

Dr. GRAY.

Does

Does not become a fword. 7 Thy great employment
Will not bear queftion; either fay thou'lt do't,
Or thrive by other means.

Capt. I'll do't, my lord.

Edm. About it, and write happy, when thou'st done.

Mark, I fay, inftantly; and carry it fo,

As I have fet it down.

Capt. & I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dry'd oats; If it be inan's work, I will do it.

[Exit Capt.

Flourish. Enter Albany, Gonerill, Regan, and Soldiers.

Alb. Sir, you have fhewn to-day your valiant strain,
And fortune led you well: you have the captives,
Who were the oppofites of this day's ftrife:
We do require them of you; fo to use them,
As we shall find their merits and our fafety
May equally determine.

Edm. Sir, I thought it fit

To fend the old and miferable king
To fome retention and appointed guard;
Whofe age has charms in it, whofe title more,
To pluck the common bofoms on his fide,
And turn our impreft lances in our eyes,

Thy great employment

-] Mr. Theobald could not let

Will not bear question ;this alone, but would alter it to My great employment,

Becaufe (he fays) the perfon fpoken to was of no higher degree than a captain. But he mistakes the meaning of the words. By great employment was meant the commiffion given him for the murder; and this, the Batard tells us afterwards, was figned by Gonerill and himself. Which was fufficient to make this captain unaccountable for the execution. WARBURTON.

3 I cannot draw, &c.] Thefe two lines I have reftored from the old quarto. STEEVENS.

And turn our impreft lances in our eyes,] i. e. Turn the Jaunce-men which are press'd into our fervice, against us.

STEEVENS.

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