ACT I. SCENE I. A Room of ftate in King Lear's Palace, Enter KENT, GLOSTER, and EDMUND. KENT. I thought, the king had more affected the duke of Albany, than Cornwall. GLO. It did always feem fo to us: but now, in the divifion of the kingdom, it appears not which of the dukes he values moft; for equalities are fo weigh'd, that curiofity in neither can make choice of either's moiety.5 in the divifion of the kingdom,] There is fomething of obfcurity or inaccuracy in this preparatory scene. The king has already divided his kingdom, and yet when he enters he examines his daughters, to difcover in what proportions he should divide it. Perhaps Kent and Glofter only were privy to his defign, which he ftill kept in his own hands, to be changed or performed as fubfe quent reasons should determine him. JOHNSON. 3 equalities. -] So, the firft quartos; the folio readsqualities. JOHNSON. Either may ferve; but of the former I find an inftance in the Flower of Friendship, 1568: After this match made, and equalities confidered," &c. STEEVENS. 4 that curiofity in neither-] Curiosity, for exa&est scrutiny. The fenfe of the whole fentence is, The qualities and properties of the feveral divifions are fo weighed and balanced againft one another, that the exadeft fcrutiny could not determine in preferring one fhare to the other. WARBURTON. Curiofity is fcrupuloufnefs, or captioufnefs. So, in The Taming of a Shrew, A& IV. fc. iv: "For curious I cannot be with you." STEEVENS, See Vol. XVIII. p. 158, n. 2; and the prefent tragedy, p. 292, n. 6. MALONE. |