The metre is deranged here: I would propose with some of the modern copies :

O, you are come; good morrow to you both."

Corn. "Hail to your grace!"

Reg.

I am glad to see your highness." Lear. "Regan, I think you are; I know what

429.

reason

"I have to think so; shouldst thou not be glad," &c.

-Than she to scant her duty."

"Scant her duty" is here, certainly, a mistake, but I fear it is the author's own: it is a-kin to some others before us, such as in the Merchant of Venice:

"You may as well forbid the mountain pines "To wag their high tops and to make no noise."

Which would seem to be, to bid them be clamorous; the very reverse of the intention.

"Than she to scant her duty."

Lear. "

Say, how is that?"

"Say" is a stupid interpolation.

IVould fail her obligation; if, sir, perchance." And so is "sir."

And to such wholesome end,

"I must believe, as clears her from all blame.

Some words, like these supplied, have, I suppose, been lost."

432. " To fall and blast her pride."

"To fall," I think, is clearly used in the active sense, though the passage will not admit of Mr.

66

Malone's construction; "to fall and blast her pride" is only a continuance or amplification of the curse, and the meaning, I believe is :-" Infect her beauty, ye fen-sucked fogs, which I trust will be drawn up by the sun, for the purpose of putting down and blasting her pride."In this active use of "to fall," Shakspeare has been followed by others, as by Rowe, in a play written professedly in imitation of our poet, Jane Shore, where Gloster says,

"The queen's relations

“Have fall'n their haughty crests.'

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433. Thy tender hefted nature."

The quartos read, "tender hested nature," neither phrase is very intelligible, but the earliest, I think, is the least exceptionable." Thy tender hested," or "tender behested nature" may mean, thy nature, formed to gentleness, by the original pleasure or command of the creator:"hefted," even admitting such a participle of "to heave," can supply no tolerable sense; but I believe the passage is corrupt, and if we dismiss the unintelligible part of it, we shall at least obtain metre:

"Thy tender nature shall not give thee o'er "To harshness; no, her eyes are fierce, but thine "Do comfort," &c.

"Allowance" for estimation, approbation, we find in Troilus and Cressida, Act 2, 491.

"A stirring dwarf we do allowance give
"Before a sleeping lion."

Lion," by the way, I suppose should be

giant."

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.

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

438. "I and

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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

"Will I give place, or notice." Some words, I suppose, are lost:

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 tri

syllable, 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—

- Fool me not too much

"To bear it tamely.".

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,

"And must needs taste his folly."

For his particular,

"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 him

self."

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

B. STRUTT.