335. Now, gods, stand up for bastards !” This fragment I should be inclined to reject as spurious and unnecessary. "Exhibition (says Dr. Johnson) is allowance." But I rather think it is exterior shew-the name and all the addition to a king." "Done upon the gad!". Dr. Johnson's explanation of this phrase is, I believe, the true one. In K. Henry IV. Hotspur is "nettled and stung" with pismires. Mr. Ritson says, it means done suddenly, or while "the iron is hot" because (says he) a gad is an iron bar." But unless it were a hot iron bar, it might, for the present purpose, as well be any thing else." 338. If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his." It should be "was" his: the subjunctive mood only belongs to the preceding member of the sentence and again-I would fain think it were not;-it ought to be "is not." 66 SCENE III. We might read, preserving the measure349. What, did my father strike my gentleman for only chiding of his fool ?" Stew. "Ay, madam.” 350. "He's coming, madam; I hear him." This might be repaired : "He's coming hither madam now; I hear him." "Old fools are babes again; and must be us'd "With checks, as flatteries,-when they are seen abus'd." I believe the meaning is this:-Old men must be treated like children, and should be rebuked or caressed according to their wayward tempers. Abused, here, is to be deceived or mistaking. 351. "What grows of it, no matter: advise your fellows so. "So" is an unnecessary hypermeter. "I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall." "From should be ejected. SCENE IV. 352. "For which I raz'd my likeness.-Now, banish'd Kent." "Now" could be spared, to accommodate the verse. 358. "Thou'lt catch cold." "Catch cold," I believe, is no more than a cant phrase for meeting with disaster; it is still current in this sense. 359. "Ride more than thou goest." 66 "To go," seems here, by a strange licence, to signify walking," in contradistinction to "riding." 363. "How now, daughter? What makes that frontlet on ?" The metre requires a transposition: Daughter, how now! What makes that frontlet on ?" What makes that frontlet on ?" "Frontlet," I believe, means neither "a part of a woman's dress," as Mr. Steevens supposes, nor of her "undress," as Mr. Malone explains it; but merely, countenance-aspect:-Why put you on that imperious look? The wrinkles on the lady's forehead would seem ill-expressed by the name of the bandage which was used to prevent or smooth those wrinkles. 365. "In rank and not-to-be-endured riots. Sir." "Sir" should be omitted. But now grow fearful, By what yourself too late have spoke and done, "That you protect this course, and put it on By your allowance; which if you should, the fault "Would not 'scape censure, nor the redresses sleep; "Which, in the tender," &c. This is obscure. We might read: "That you protect this course, and put it on By your allowance; which did you not, the fault "Would not 'scape censure," &c. Yet it appears, in the conclusion, that the censure or the punishment is not in the king's hands. I do not understand it. Perhaps, we should read "Which if you should, the fault 366. "Come, sir," &c. It is, perhaps, impossible to obtain purity by any labour upon some of those passages that have been corrupted, and stand, among regular verses, degraded into prose-but let us try what can be done. "Come, sir, I would you would employ that wisdom "Whereof I know that you are fraught, and put "Away these dispositions which of late "Transform you so from what you rightly are." "Does any here know me ?" I am inclined to think this dialogue was metrical, and afterwards corrupted into prose. Perhaps, we might regulate it in this way: "Does any here know me ?-This is not Lear: "Does Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes? "Either his notion weakens; his discernings "Are lethargied-Ha! sleeping! waking! Sure "It is not so, or if.-Who is it now "Can tell me who I am?-Lear's shadow? I "Would fain learn that; for by the marks I have "Of sovereignty, of knowledge, and of reason, "I should be false persuaded I had daughters." "Your name, fair gentlewoman?" Gon. "O, come, sir.' " 367. "His notion weakens, his discernings "Are lethargied." His understanding declines, his discernings VOL. II. H are, &c. The quarto reads, "his notion is weakness, or his discernings are lethargy." 369. "As you are old and reverend, you should be wise." We might read, within compass, "Being old and reverend, you should be wise." Or else, with Theobald, You, as you're old and reverend, should be wise." 370. "Shows like a riotous inn.". "Riotous," as Mr. Steevens has suggested, might certainly be omitted, and with advantage to the sense, as it hurts the climax of "tavern and brothel." "Shows like an inn: epicurism and lust "Yet have I left a daughter." Something seems to have been omitted here: "Yet have I left a daughter.-Ho! my horses!" What follows is corrupt-perhaps we might supply a word or two : Gon. "You strike my peaceful people; and your rude "Disordered rabble make servants of their betters." "Than the sea-monster!" Alb. "Pray, you, sir, be patient." Some words appear to have been lost. haps Albany added, I know not how". Lear. "Detested kite! thou liest." Per |