Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

Which thou haft perpendicularly fall'n.

Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again.

Glo. But have I fall'n, or no?

Edg. From the dread fummit of this chalky bourn Look up a height, the fhrill-gorg'd Lark fo far Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.

Glo. Alack, I have no eyes.
Is wretchednefs depriv'd that benefit,

To end itself by death? 'twas yet some comfort,
When mifery could beguile the tyrant's rage,
And fruftrate his proud will.

Edg. Give me your arm.

Up, fo-how is't? feel you your legs you ftand.
Glo. Too well, too well.

Edg. This is above all ftrangenefs.

Upon the crown o' th' cliff, what thing was that,
Which parted from you?

Glo. A poor unfortunate beggar.

Edg. As I ftood here below, methought, his eyes Were two full moons; he had a thousand nofes, Horns welk'd, and wav'd like the enridged fea: It was fome fiend. Therefore, thou happy father, Think, that the cleareft gods, who make them honours (48) Of men's impoffibilities, have preferv'd thee.

Glo. I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear Affliction, 'till it do cry out itself,

Enough, enough, and die. That thing you speak of,
I took it for a man; often 'twould fay,

The fiend, the fiend-he led me to that place.
Edg. Bear free and patient thoughts.

Enter Lear, dref madly with Flowers.

But who comes here ?

leaft---a poor, dragging expreffion. All the old copies: read, as I have reftor'd in the text, ten mafts at each.

'Tis certain, 'tis a bold phrafe, but I dare warrant, it was our author's; and means, ten mafts placed at the extremity of each other. (48) Think, that the deareft gods---] This too is Mr. Pope's reading. All the authentick copies have it, cleareft gods; i. e. open, and righteous, in their dealings. So, our author again, in his Timon; Roots, ye clear beas'ns!

The

The fafer fenfe will ne'er accommodate

His mafter thus.

Lear. No, they cannot touch me for coining: I am the King himself.

Edg. O thou fide piercing fight!

Lear. Nature's above art in that refpect. There's your prefs-money. (49) That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper: draw me a clothier's yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace ;-this piece of toafted cheese will do't-there's my gauntlet, I'll prove it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O, well flown, Barb! (50) i' th' clout, i' th' clout: hewgh.-Give the word.

Edg. Sweet marjoram.
Lear. Pafs.

Glo. I know that voice.

Lear. Ha! Gonerill! hah! Regan! they flatter'd me

(49) That fellow handles bis bow like a cow-keeper.] Thus Mr. Pope in his laft edition; but I am afraid, I betray'd him into the error by an abfurd conjecture of my own, in my SHAKESPEARE reftored. 'Tis certain we must read crow-keeper here; as likewife in this paffage of Romeo and Juliet:

We'll have no Cupid hooded with a fearf,
Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath,

Scaring the Ladies like a crow-keeper.

And, it feems, in feveral counties to this day, they call a ftuff'd figure, reprefenting a man, and arm'd with a bow and arrow, (fet up to fright the crows, and other birds of prey, from the fruit and corn;} a crow-keeper; as well as a fcare-crow. To fome fuch figure our au thor again alludes in Meafure for Measure.

We must not make a fcare-erow of the law,
Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,

And let it keep one fhape, 'till custom make it

Their perch, and not their terror.

But Beaumont and Fletcher in their Bonduca have a paffage which will excellently well explain our author's reading.

Can these fight? They look

Like empty fcabbards all; no metal in 'em:

Like men of clouts, fet to keep crows from orchards;

(50) O well flown bird,] Lear is here raving of archery, and fhooting at buts, as is plain by the words i' th' clout, that is, the white mark they fet up and aim at; hence the phrase, to hit the bite. So that we muft certainly read, O well-flown, bark! i. e. the barbed, or bearded arrow. Mr. Warburton.

my

like a dog, and told me, I had white hairs in beard, ere the black ones were there. To fay ay, and no, to every thing that I faid-Ay, and no, too was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter; when the thunder would not peace at my bidding; there I found 'em, there I fmelt em out. Go to, they are not men o' their words; they told me, I was every thing: 'tis a lie, I am not agueproof.

Glo. The trick of that voice I do well remember: Is't not the King?

Lear. Ay, every inch a King.

When I do ftare, fee, how the fubject quakes. I pardon that man's life. What was thy caufe? Adultery? thou shalt not die; die for adultery? no, the wren goes to't, and the small gilded fly does letcher in my fight. Let copulation thrive: for Glo'fter's baf tard fon was kinder to his father, than my daughters got 'tween the lawful fheets. To't, luxury, pell-mell; for I lack foldiers. Behold yon fimpering dame, whose face 'tween her forks prefages fnow; that minces virtue, and does shake the head to hear of pleasure's name. The fit-chew, nor the foiled horfe goes to't with a more riotous appetite: down from the wafte they are centaurs, though women all above: but to the girdle do the gods inherit, beneath is all the fiends. There's hell, there's darkness, there is the fulphurous pit, burning, fcalding, ftench, confumption: fie, fie, fie; pah, pah; give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to fweeten my imagination! there's money for thee.

Glo. O, let me kifs that hand.

Lear. Let me wipe it firft, it fmells of mortality. Glo. O ruin'd piece of nature! this great world Shall fo wear out to naught. Do'st thou know me?

Lear. I remember thine eyes well enough: doft thou fquiny at me? no, do thy worst, blind Cupid; I'll not love. Read thou this challenge, mark but the penning of it.

Glo. Were all the letters funs, I could not fee one.

Edg.

Edg. I would not take this from report; it is, And my heart breaks at it.

Lear. Read.

Gló. What, with this cafe of eyes?

Lear. Oh, ho, are you there with me? no eyes in your head, nor no money in your purfe? your eyes are in a heavy cafe, your purfe in a light; yet you see how this world goes.

Glo. I fee it feelingly. Lear. What, art mad? a man may fee how this world goes, with no eyes. Look with thine ears; fee, how yond justice rails upon yond fimple thief. Hark in thine ear: change places, and handy-dandy, which is the juftice, which is the thief? Thou haft feen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? (51).

Glo. Ay, Sir.

Lear. And the creature run from the cur? there thou might'ft behold the great image of authority; a dog's obey'd in office.

Thou rafcal beadle, hold thy bloody hand:

Why doft thou lafh that whore? ftrip thy own back; Thou hotly luft'ft to use her in that kind,

For which thou whip'ft her. Th'ufurer hangs the cozener, Through tatter'd cloaths small vices do appear;

(51) Thou baft feen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? &c.] This exquifite piece of fatire, dreft up in a figure and method of imagining from abfent circumftances, has greatly the air of imitation from the ancients. It is that fort of figure, by which (as Minturnus has obferv'd in his elaborate treatise De Poeta) oftenditur interdum, quafi ante aculos fit, fitta imago: a feign'd image of things is fometimes reprefented, as if really in view. Plautus is very full of this imagery: and I'll fubjoin two inftances that have very much the caft of this in our author, only more ludicrous in their turn: In his Menæchmei, A&t. 1, Sc. 2.

Men. Dic mibi, nunquàm tu vidisti tabulam piētam in pariete,
Ubi aquila catamitum raperet, aut ubi venus adoneum?

Pen. Sæpè

Sed quid ifte picturæ ad me attinent ?

Men. Age, me afpice.

And in his Meftellaria. A&t. 3. Sc. 2.

Tra. Viden' pictum, ubi ludificatur cornix una volturios dua?
Cornix aftat, ea volturios duo viciffim vellicat.

Quefo, huc ad me fpecta, cornicem ut confpicere poffies.

Robes

Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate fins with gold,
And the ftrong lance of juftice hurtlefs breaks:
Arm it in rags, a pigmy's ftraw doth pierce it.
None does offend, none, I fay, none; I'll able 'em ;
Take that of me, my friend, who have the pow'r
To feal th' accufer's lips. Get thee glass eyes,
And, like a fcurvy politician, feem

To fee the things thou do'ft not.

Now, now, now, now. Pull off my boots: harder, harder, fo. Edg. O matter and impertinency mixt,

Reafon in madness!

Lear. If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes. I know thee well enough, thy name is Glo'fter; Thou must be patient; we came crying hither: Thou know'ft, the firft time that we fmell the air, We wawle and cry. I will preach to thee: markGlo. Alack, alack the day!

Lear. When we are born, we cry, that we are come To this great ftage of fools.-This a good block!It were a delicate ftratagem to shooe

A troop of horfe with felt; I'll put't in proof;
And when I've stol'n upon these fons-in-law,
Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.

Enter a Gentleman, with. Attendants.

Gent. O, here he is, lay hand upon him; Sir,
Your most dear daughter-

Lear. No refcue? what, a prifoner? I am even
The natural fool of fortune. Ufe me well,
You shall have ranfom. Let me have furgeons,
I am cut to th' brains.

Gent. You fhall have any thing.
Lear. No feconds? all myfelf?

Why this would make a man, a man of falt ;
To ufe his eyes for garden-water-pots,

And laying autumn's duft. I will die bravely,
Like a fmug bridegroom. What? I will be jovial:
Come, come, I am a King. My mafters, know you that?
Gent. You are a royal one, and we obey you.
Lear. Then there's life in't. Come, an you get it,

: You

« PreviousContinue »