"The time is out-of-joint: O, cursed spight, "That ever I was born, to set it right."

SCENE VI.

492. "Stand in hard cure.".

In Othello we meet with a similar phrase :

"Stand in bold cure.".

SCENE VII.

500. "All cruels else subscrib'd.".

All other cruelties yielding place or pre-eminence to that being underwritten-or underrated.

hate thee,

Life would not yield to age."

Life would resist the miseries and diseases of age, were its end not hastened forward by the hate and distaste which we experience in the mutations of it. B. STRUTT.

506. "

The worst is not, "So long as we can say, This is the worst.”

So long as we are capable of feeling our miseries, the measure of them may still be extended.

"Came then into my mind.".

This is an admirable touch of delicacy and na

ture.

SCENE II.

513. "Conceive, and fare thee well."

"Conceive what I would say, and fare thee well.” O, the difference of man, and man! To thee."

"O" is interpolated.

515. "And come to deadly use."

Gon. "

No more; the text is foolish."

It is at least superfluous here, to say no more. 516. "Twill come,

Humanity must perforce," &c.

The metre wants regulation and correction here:

"Twill come, humanity must prey on'ts self, (or on's self)

"Like monsters of the deep."

i. e. It will come to pass.

We must reject the superfluous word "

force."

per

Gon."

Milk-liver'd man."

"Milk-liver'd." In the Merchant of Venice we hear of cowards with "livers white as milk;" and in Macbeth, "lily-liver'd."

It is not easy to affix a meaning to this expression; perhaps the sense is:-Thou thing, whose exterior exhibits thy real character; thou who diffusest thy inward and essential wickedness over all thy person. Changed, I believe, means, not so much altered in disposition, as alienated from parental regard.

518. "To let these hands of mine obey my blood."

How could any editor hesitate, in this case, to supply the deficient foot?

"A woman's shape doth shield thee from my wrath."

Gon. "Marry, your manhood now stands forth!"

The words here supplied seem necessary.

His great master; who, thereat enrag'd,

"Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead."

No pains or ingenuity of Mr. Malone will reconcile to concord the reading,

"Who flew on him, and among them fell'd him dead."

i. e. Says Mr. Malone, they, the servants, fell'd him, &c.

Alb. "

Knows he the wickedness that has been

done ?"

"And tell me whatsoever more thou know[Exeunt.

est."

SCENE III.

Why the king of France," &c.

I must repeat, it is impossible that Shakspeare, writing in verse, would ever have thrust into the context such awkward prose as this scene begins with. We might read:

"But wherefore, pr'ythee, is the king of France "So suddenly gone back? back? Know Know you the rea

son ?"

521. "That his personal return was most required, and necessary.'

"Personal" should be omitted.

"Did your letters," &c.

Again is Kent condemned to halt in prose: "But tell me, did your letters pierce the queen "To any demonstratíón of grief?"

"Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and

tears

"Were like a better day."

This passage has not been satisfactorily explained; it is probably corrupt: the quarto reads "better way." Dr. Warburton's emendation appears the most plausible, "a wetter May." I wish there were any authority for " an April day," which would be exactly congruous, and is a simile so applied by Otway:

"Beauteous Belvidera

Came weeping forth,

"Shining thro' tears like April suns in showers, "That labour to o'ercome the cloud that loads them."

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524. As pearls from diamonds dropp'd—In brief, sorrow."

It should, undoubtedly, as Mr. Steevens has suggested, be "dropping."

"A sovereign shame so elbows him.”

I am persuaded that "elbows" was never the poets word: if it even possessed a better sense than can here be annexed to it; its not conforming to the metre is an evidence of its corruption. the word was I suppose

66

awes:

"A sovereign shame so awes him, his own unkindness."

"Tis so; they are afoot."

What has "tis so" to do with Kent's question? Some words are wanting:

527.

"'Tis so delivered me; they are a-foot.”

Along with me."

This hemistic could easily be removed :

"Lending me this acquaintance: pray go with

me."

[Exeunt.