Gon. Afk me not, what I know.— [Exit Gon. Alb. Go after her. She's defperate; govern her. Edm. What you have charg'd me with, that I have done;

And more, much more: the time will bring it out. 'Tis paft, and fo am I. But what art thou,

That haft this fortune on me? If thou art noble, I do forgive thee.

Edg. Let us exchange charity.

I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;
If more, the more thou haft wrong'd me.
My name is Edgar, and thy father's fon.
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make inftruments 7 to fcourge us :

The dark and vicious place, where thee he got,
Coft him his eyes.

Edm. Thou haft fpoken right; 'tis true;
The wheel is come full circle; I am here.
Alb. Methought, thy very gait did prophefy
A royal nobleness:-I must embrace thee:
Let forrow split my heart, if ever I
Did hate thee, or thy father!

Edg. Worthy prince, I know it.

Alb. Where have you hid yourself?

How have you known the miseries of your father?
Edg. By nurfing them, my lord. Lift a brief tale;-
And, when 'tis told, O, that my heart would burst!
The bloody proclamation to escape,

That follow'd me fo near (O our lives' sweetness!

6 Let us exchange charity.] Our author by negligence gives his heathens the fentiments and practices of christianity. In Hamlet there is the fame folemn act of final reconciliation, but with exact propriety, for the perfonages are Chriftians:

7

Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet, &c.

to fcourge us:] Thus the quartos. -to plague us. STEEVENS. 3 full circle;] Quarto, full circled.

JOHNSON. The folio reads,

JOHNSON.

That

That we the pain of death would hourly bear, Rather than die at once) taught me to shift Into a mad-man's rags; to affume a semblance That very dogs difdain'd: and in this habit Met I my father with his bleeding rings, Their precious stones new loft; became his guide; Led him, begg'd for him, fav'd him from despair; Never (O fault!) reveal'd myself unto him, Until fome half hour paft, when I was arm'd, Not fure, though hoping, of this good fuccefs, I afk'd his bleffing, and from first to laft Told him my pilgrimage. But his flaw'd heart, (Alack, too weak the conflict to fupport) 'Twixt two extremes of paffion, joy and grief, Burft fmilingly.

Edm. This fpeech of yours hath mov'd me, And fhall, perchance, do good: but fpeak you on You look as you had fomething more to say.

Alb. If there be more, more woeful, hold it in;
For I am almoft ready to diffolve,
Hearing of this.

[Edg. 3-This would have feem'd a period
To fuch as love not forrow; but-another,
To amplify too much, to make much, more,
And top extremity.

That we the pain of death would hourly bear, Rather than die at once)] The folio reads, That we the pain of death would hourly die. Mr. Pope made the neceffary alteration, and reads, would hourly bear.

The quartos give the paffage thus:

3

That with the pain of death would hourly die,
Rather than die at once) —

STEEVENS.

Whilft

The lines between crotchets are not in the folio. JOHNS.

This would have feem'd a period

To fuch as love not forrow: but ANOTHER,

To amplify Too much, would make much more,

And top extremity! -] The reader easily fees that this re

flection refers to the Baftard's defiring to hear more; and to VOL, IX.

H h

Albany's

Whilft I was big in clamour, came there a man,
Who having feen me in my worst estate,
Shunn'd my abhorr'd fociety; but then finding
Who 'twas, had fo endur'd, with his strong arms
He fasten'd on my neck, and bellow'd out,
As he'd burst heaven; 3 threw him on my father;
Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him,
That ever ear receiv'd; which in recounting
His grief grew puiffant, and the strings of life
Began to crack. Twice then the trumpet founded,
And there I left him tranc'd.

Alb. But who was this?

Edg. Kent, Sir, the banish'd Kent; who in difguife Follow'd his enemy king, and did him fervice Improper for a flave.]

Enter a Gentleman baftily, with a bloody knife.

Gent. Help! help! O help!

Edg. What kind of help?

Alb. Speak, man.

Edg. What means this bloody knife?

Albany's thinking he had faid enough. But it is corrupted into miferable nonfenfe. We fhould read it thus:

This would have feem'd a period. But fuch

As love to amplify another's forrow,

To much, would make much more, and top extremity. i. e. This to a common humanity would have been thought the utmost of my fufferings; but fuch as love cruelty are always for adding much to more, till they reach the extremity of mifery. WARBURTON.

The fenfe may probably be this. This would have feemed a period to fuch as love not forrow; but,—another; i. e. but I must add another, i. e. another period, another kind of conclufion to my ftory, fuch as will increafe the horrors of what has been already told. STEEVENS.

3

-threw HIM on my father ;] The quartos read,
threw me on my father."

The modern editors have corrected the paffage, as it is now printed. STEEVENS.

Gent.

Gent. 'Tis hot, it smoaks;

It came even from the heart of

Alb. Who, man? fpeak.

Gent. Your lady, Sir, your lady: and her fifter By her is poifon'd; fhe confeffes it.

Edm. I was contracted to them both: all three Now marry in an instant.

Enter Kent.

Alb. Produce the bodies, be they alive or dead.— [Gonerill and Regan's bodies brought out. This judgment of the heavens, that makes us tremble, Touches us not with pity.

Edg. 4 Here comes Kent, Sir.

Alb. O! it is he!

The time will not allow

The compliment which very manners urge.

Kent. I am come

To bid my king and mafter aye good night:
Is he not here?

Alb. Great thing of us forgot!

Speak, Edmund, where's the king? and where's Cordelia ?

See'ft thou this object, Kent?

Kent. Alack, why thus?

Edm. Yet Edmund was belov'd:
The one the other poifon'd for my fake,
And after flew herself.

Alb. Even fo.-Cover their faces.

Edm. I pant for life;-fome good I mean to do, Defpight of mine own nature. Quickly fend— Be brief in it-to the caftle; for my writ

Is on the life of Lear, and on Cordelia:

-Nay, fend in time.

Alb. Run, run, O run

+ Here comes Kent, Sir.] The manner in which Edgar here mentions Kent, feems to require the lines which are inferted from the first edition in the foregoing fcene. JOHNSON.

Hh 2

Edg.

Edg. To whom, my lord? Who has the office? Send

Thy token of reprieve.

Edm. Well thought on.

Take my fword,

[Exit Messenger.

4 Give it the captain.

Edg. Hafte thee for thy life.

Edm. He hath commiffion from thy wife and me To hang Cordelia in the prison, and

To lay the blame upon her own despair,

5 That the foredid herself.

Alb.. The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile.

[Edmund is borne off.

Enter Lear, with 6 Cordelia dead in his arms.

Lear. Howl, howl, howl, howl!-O, you are men of stone;

Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them fo,
That heaven's vault fhould crack.-O, fhe is gone

for ever!

I know, when one is dead, and when one lives
She's dead as earth :-lend me a looking-glass;

4 Give it the captain.-] The quartos read,

Take my fword, the captain,

Give it the captain.

-] STEEVENS.

;

That he foredid herself.] To foredo, fignifies to deftroy by fuicide. It is ufed again in Hamlet, act v.

6

did, with defperate hand,

"Foredo its own life."

STEEVENS.

Cordelia dead in his arms.] This princefs, according to the old hiftorians, retired with victory from the battle which the conducted in her father's caufe, and thereby replaced him on the throne; but in a fubfequent one fought against her (after the death of the old king) by the fons of Gonerill and Regan, he was taken and died miferably in prifon. The poet found this in history, and was therefore willing to precipitate her death, which he knew had happened but a few years after. The dramatic writers of this age fuffered as fmall a number of their heroes and heroines to escape as poffible; nor could the filial piety of this lady, any more than the innocence of Ophelia, prevail on Shakespeare to permit her to outlive the time allotted her in the conftruction of his play. STEEVENS.

If