Lear. "Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good hope

"Thou didst not know on't."

These words, in the quarto, with only strucke, instead of stock'd are given to Goneril at her en

trance.

436. "

"All's not offence, that indiscretion finds.” "To find," here, though I believe it has nothing to do with the technical sense that Mr. Edwards would annex to it, has, certainly, a stronger meaning than that which Mr. Steevens supposes," to think :" it is to have a fixed persuasion, or mental conviction of.

Being weak, seem so.”

Conform, by your deportment, to your real condition; and since you are impotent, do not affect to be powerful.

438. "I and my hundred knights.

Not altogether so."

We should read, as doubtless it was written by the author, "not allto so." Allto or alto, for altogether, occurs in other parts of these works, and is also used by Milton:

439.

"Her wings-that-were allto ruffled," &c. Comus.

Those that mingle reason with

your passion,

"Must be content to think you old, and

so."

Those who do not resign their feelings to passionate complaints, but correct the influence of the complaints with a due mixture of reason,

must be satisfied with imputing them to the infirmity and waywardness of old age.

"Yea, or so many? sith that both charge and danger

"Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house."

I would regulate:

"Yea, or so many? sith both charge and danger Speak 'gainst so great a number? In one house,

"How should so many, under two commands, "Hold amity? 'Tis hard; impossible."

"Almost," before "impossible," is a vile insertion.

To no more,

"I am resolv'd, will I give place, or notice." 440. "You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!"

The repetition of patience is preposterous, and should be removed. Patience is here a trisyllable, as in another place:

441.

"Who can be patíént in such extremes ?" Fool me not so much

"To bear it tamely."

The quarto, much better, in my opinion, has

Elliptically, as I conceive, for as to make me bear it tamely.

No, I'll not weep."

This hemistic may be indulged from the abruptness of the passion.

442. "Let us withdraw."

Some regulation is required here. I would propose:

"Let us withdraw hence; it will be a storm.” "This house is little, and the old man

Reg.

Gon.

Reg.

cannot,

"With all his people, here be well bestow'd."

""Tis his own blame; he hath put himself

from rest,

"I'll receive him, but not one follower." Gon. "So I am purpos'd: where's my lord of Gloster?"

Gladly," as it stands in the text, must be an interpolation. Regan is now speaking sincerely; and she would not gladly receive the king in any form.

443. "'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself."

He will be his own director; and if ill should happen, he is the author of it. B. STRUTT.

ACT III. SCENE I.

The disorder of the verse here might thus be corrected:

444. "Who's here, besides foul weather?"
Gent. "
One that's minded,

"E'en like the weather, most unquietly. Kent. "O sir, I know you now; Where is the

king?"

Dr. Young seems to have borrowed this thought in The Revenge:

Rage on ye winds, burst clouds, and waters

roar;

"Ye bear a just resemblance to my fortune, "And suit the gloomy habit of my soul."

445.

His little world of man.”

A similar thought occurs in K. John, Act IV.

In the body of this fleshly land,

"This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath."

And again in Julius Cæsar:

446. "

The warrant of my art."

The efficacy of this art is denied by Duncan, in Macbeth, who remarks:

"To find the mind's construction in the face."

449. "The king hath cause to plain."

Something here seems wanting. Perhaps,

66

Sir, you may trust me;

"I am a gentleman," &c.

Again the metre is interrupted. I would pro

"But more than all to effect; when we have found

"The king, (in which your pain that way;

I'll this :)

"He that first lights on him, holla the other."

Rowe, in his Jane Shore, has made Dumont propose the same measure to Belmour:

"Who first shall find her, hither let him bring "Her fainting steps, and here we'll meet together."

SCENE II.

450. Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!"

I am persuaded that this line has been corrupted, as well as mutilated; there is a false climax in rage, blow. A word has been lost. Perhaps, the line ran thus: