But that thy ftrange Mutations make us wait thee,
Life would not yield to age.

Old Man. O my good Lord, I have been your tenant, And your father's tenant, thefe fourícore years.

Glo. Away, get thee away: good friend, be gone; Thy comforts can do me no good at all,

Thee they may hurt..

Old Man. You cannot fee your way.

Glo. I have no way, and therefore want no eyes
I ftumbled when I faw. Full oft 'tis feen,

Our mean fecures us; and our mere defects
Prove our commodities.-O dear fon Edgar,
The food of thy abused father's wrath;
Might I but live to fee thee in my touch, (38)
I'd fay, I had eyes again!

Old

dation. My explanation of the poet's fentiment was, "If the num"ber of changes and viciffitudes, which happen in life, did not make "us wait, and hope for fome turn of fortune for the better, we "could never fupport the thought of living to be old, on any other "terms." And our duty, as human creatures, is piously inculcated in this reflection of the author. Apollodorus, the comic poet, has left us a moral precept, upon which Shakespeare's reflection might have very well been grounded.

Ο ὐδέποτ' ἀθυμεῖν τὸν κακῶς πράτονα δε,

̓́Ανδρες, τὰ βελτίω δὲ προσδοκῶν ἀεί,

No body, good people, ought to defpond under misfortunes, but always wait for a better turn.

(38) Might I but live to fee thee in my touch,] I cannot but take notice, that thefe fine boldnefjes of expreflion are very infrequent in our English poetry, tho' familiar with the Greeks and Latins. We have pafs'd another fignal one in this very play.

Such facets of fire, fuch burts of horrid thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
Remember to have heard.

For tho' the verb bear properly answers to the thunder, the wind, and rain; yet it does not fo, but figuratively, to the sheets of fire. I have obferv'd an inftance of this implex fort, exactly parallel, in the Hero and Leander of Mufæus the grammarian.

Νηχόμενόν τε Λέανδρον, ὁμοῦ καὶ λύχνον ἀκέν.

1 bear Leander fruim, the candle burn.

The elder fcholiaft upon fchylus tells us very judiciously, [μernyays τὰς αισθήσεις πρὸς τὸ ἐνεργέςερον] that the transferring the properties of one fenfe to another, was used to add the greater force and energy.

Old Man. How now? who's there?

Edg. O gods! who is't can fay, I'm at the worst ?. I'm worse, than e'er I was.

Old Man. 'Tis poor mad Tom.

Edgar. And worse I may be yet: the worst is not,
So long as we can fay, this is the worst.
Old Man. Fellow, where goest?

Glo. Is it a beggar-man?

Old Man. Madman and beggar too.

Glo. He has fome reafon, elfe he could not beg.
I' th' laft night's storm I fuch a fellow faw;
Which made me think a man, a worm.
My fon
Came then into my mind; and yet my mind

Was then fcarce friends with him. I've heard more fince.

As flies to wanton boys, are we to th' gods;
They kill us for their sport.

Edg. How fhould this be?

Bad is the trade muft play the fool to forrow,
Ang'ring itfelf and others.-Blefs thee, master.
Glo. Is that the naked fellow ?

Old Man. Ay, my Lord.

Glo. Get thee away if, for my fake,
Thou wilt o'ertake us hence a mile or twain
I' th' way tow'rd Dover, do it for ancient love;
And bring fome covering for this naked foul,
Whom I'll intreat to lead me.

Old Man. Alack, Sir, he is mad.

[blind:

Glo. 'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the

Do as I bid, or rather do thy pleasure;

Above the reft, be gone.

Old Man. I'll bring him the best 'parrel that I have,

Comé on't, what will.

Glo. Sirrah, naked fellow.

[Exit.

His remark is upon this passage in the Seven Captains before Thebes ; Κτύπον δέδορκα,

Πάταγόν τ' εχ ἑνὸς δορός.

Alack! I fee the found, the dreadful crash,

Not of a fingle spear.

The late learned Dr. Gataker, in his treatife upon the ftyle of the New Teftament, has amafs'd examples of this figure in holy writ, as well as from heathen writers, both Greek and Latin.

D 4

Edg

Edg. Poor Tom's a-cold ;-I cannot daub it further. Glo. Come hither, fellow.

Edg. And yet I must;

Blefs thy fweet eyes, they bleed.

Glo. Know't thou the way to Dover?

Edg. Both file and gate, horfe-way and foot-path : poor Tom hath been fcar'd out of his good wits. Blefs thee, good man, from the foul fiend. (39) Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of luft, as Obidicut; Hobbididen, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Mohu, of murder; and Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing; who fince poffeffes chamber-maids and waiting-women. [plagues

Glo. Here, take this purfe, thou whom the heavens
Have humbled to all ftrokes. That I am wretched,
Makes thee the happier: heavens deal so still!
Let the fuperfluous, and luft-dieted man,

That flaves your ordinance, that will not fee
Because he does not feel, feel your power quickly :
So diftribution fhould undo excefs,

And each man have enough. Do'st thou know Dover &
Edg. Ay, mafter.

Glo. There is a cliff, whofe high and bending head Looks fearfully on the confined deep :

Bring me but to the very brim of it,

And I'll repair the mifery, thou do'ft bear,

With fomething rich about me: from that place

I fhall no leading need.

Edg. Give me thy arm;' Poor Tom fhall lead thee.

[Exeunt.

(39) Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once;] This paffage Mr. Pope first reftor'd from the old 40; but miferably man led, as it is there. I have fet it right, as it came from our author, by the help of bifhop Harfenet's pamphlet, already quoted. Ve fnd there, all thefe devils were in Sarah and Frifwood Williams, Mrs. Peckham's two chamber-maids; and particularly Flibbertigibbet, who made them nop and mow like apes, fays that author. And to their fuppos'd poffeffion, our poet is here fatirically alluding,

Now, where's your

Enter Steward.

mafter?

Stew. Madam, within; but never man fo chang'd: I told him of the army that was landed:

He fmil'd at it. I told him you were coming,
His answer was, the worse. Of Glo'fter's treachery,
And of the loyal fervice of his fon,

When I inform'd him, then he call'd me fot;
And told me, I had turn'd the wrong fide out.
What most he should diflike, feems pleasant to him ;
What like, offenfive.

Gon. Then thall you go no further.

It is the cowith terror of his fpirit,

brother;

That dares not undertake: he'll not feel wrongs,
Which tie him to an answer; our wishes on the way
May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my
Halten his mufters, and conduct his powers.
I must change arms at home, and give the diftaff
Into my husband's hands. This trufty fervant
Shall pafs between us: you ere long shall hear,
If you dare venture in your own behalf,

A mi&refs's command. Wear this; fpare fpeech;
Decline your head. This kifs, if it durft speak,
Would itretch thy fpirits up into the air :

Conceive, and fare thee well.

Edm. Yours in the ranks of death.

Gon. My moft dear Glo'fter!

[Exit Edmund.

Oh, the strange difference of man, and man!

To thee a woman's fervices are due,

My fool ufurps my body.

Stew. Madam, here comes my

Lord,

Enter Albany.

Gon. I have been worth the whistle..

Alb. Oh Gonerill,

You are not worth the duft, which the rude wind
Blows in your face.-I fear your difpofition:
That nature, which contemns its origine,
Cannot be border'd certain in itself;

She that herfelf will fliver, and difbranch, (40)
From her maternal fap, perforce muft wither, (41)
And come to deadly use.

(40) She that herself will hiver, and disbranch,] Shiver, in this place fhould bear the fenfe of dibranch; whereas it means, to fhake;, to fly a-pieces into splinters; in which fenfe he afterwards ufes the word in this act;

Thou'd'ft fhiver'd like an egg;

So that we may be affured, he would not have ufed the word in fo contrary and falfe a fenfe here; efpecially, when there is a proper word to express the fenfe of dibranching, fo near this in found, and which he ufes in other places, and that is, liver which, without. doubt, is the true reading here. So in Macbeth;

--and flips of yew,

Sliver'd in the moon's eclipfe ;

And, again, in Hamlet;

There on the pendant boughs, her coronet weeds.
Clamb'ring to hang, an envious Sliver broke ;

Mr. Warburton.

The old 4to reads liver. But I owed this note to my friend's faga-: city, who never once faw that copy. On the other hand, what an inftance is it of Mr. Pope's inaccuracy in collation, who first added, this paffage, from the old Quarto?

(41) From her material sap,] Thus the old 4to; but material sap, I. own, is a phrafe that I don't understand. The mother-tree is the true technical term; and confidering, our author has faid. but just above, That nature, which contemns its origine, there is little room to question, but he wrote, From ber maternal fap.

And fo our beft claffical writers.

Hic plantas tenero abfcindens de corpore matrum; Virg, And again,

Cum femel in fylvis ima de ftirpe recifum

Matre caret,

And Valerius Flaccus ;

Que neque jam frondes, virides neque proferet umbras,
Ut femel eft avulla jugis, & matre perempta.

J

And