With my two daughters' dowers digeft P this third. Call Burgundy.-Cornwall and Albany, Let pride, which fhe calls plainness, marry her. I do invest you jointly 4 with my power, That troop with majesty. Ourfelf by monthly course, By you to be fuftain'd, fhall our abode Make with you by due turns; only r we still retain more. of diverting him from the attempt, he saw he was beginning, to diffuade him from his refolution of difinheriting Cordelia, that he warns him of the danger of continuing it—Come not between the dragon and his wrath; and even after proceeding in it, when Kent interrupted him a second time, and refumed his addreffes, Lear alfo continued his warning-The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft. Kent, seeing that refpectful behaviour had no effect, has recourse to rougher language: even after that, Lear thinks to make him cease by a severe and paffionate prohibition-Kent, on thy life no Kent still perfifts, and urges his own inflexible loyalty as a reason for his being heard: Lear then first bids him out of my fight; Kent further intreats, Lear fwears, Kent returns the oath, and at last urges his reproaches with fuch vehemence, that Lear, defpairing of filencing him any other way, pronounces the final sentence of banishment upon him. This is the natural, not the designed gradation of Lear's anger. It rifes by degrees to its height, and at last falls with its full weight. These steps by which it advances shew a reluctance in the king to be so severe upon one for whom he had the greateft regard: whereas the imaginary breach of filial love and duty, which he foolishly fancied he found in Cordelia, had already extinguished all sparks of his imaginary love to her. The contradiction to his declared intention is the natural effect of his rage, which vented itself in fudden and contrary starts of paffion. The whole scene, in this view, I take to be one of the most beautiful in all Shakespear.Neither qu's nor fo's have any direction in this place. • The qu's read dower. P So the qu's; all the rest read the for this. 9 The qu's read in for with. r P. and all after him omit we ftill; the fo's and Ṛ. instead thereof read we shall. The S The name and all th' additions to a king; This coronet part between you. Kent. Royal Lear, Whom I have ever honour'd as W u [" Giving the crown. my king, Lov'd as my father, as my mafter follow'd, X As my great patron thought on in my prayers Lear. The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft. The region of my heart; be Kent unmannerly, When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound, So the qu's: all the reft addition. When P. omits of the reft, which is in all the editions before him; and is followed by T. and H. ·W. fays this reading is evidently corrupt, and the editors not knowing what to make of-of the reft, left it out (but he does not tell us that it was his friend P. who first omitted it) — The true reading without doubt was of th' heft, &c. Heft is an old word for regal command. W. Heft or beheft is any command as well as regal. i. e. the witch Sycorax's. Temp. act i. fcene iii. did not write of the reft, it is moft likely he wrote jectures intereft. u Not in any edition before Pope's. The 4th f. R. and P. read a for my. Refusing her grand hefts, If we imagine Shakespear all the reft. Heath con * The 2d, 3d, and 4th fo's had omitted great; to fupply the deficiency thereof in the measure R. puts in and, reading And as my patron, &c. followed by all but J. y The 1ft q. reads man for mad. z The qu's read wilt thou. a P. reads and divides in this manner, to plainness honour Is bound, when majefty to folly falls. Referve b When majesty falls to folly. Reverse thy doom, This hideous rafhnefs; anfwer my life my judgment, Thy youngest daughter does not love thee leaft.; Lear. Kent, on * thy life no more. Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn e To wage against thine enemies, f nor fear to lose it, Lear. Out of my fight! Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain h The true blank of thine eye. Lear. Now by Apollo Kent. Now by Apollo, king, Thou swear'st thy gods in vain. Lear. O vaffal, k mifcreant ! 1Alb. Corn. Dear fir, forbear. [Laying his hand on his fword. Referve thy ftate; with better judgment check and is followed by all but F. b The qu's read foops. So the qu's; all the reft read Referve thy ftate. d The fo's and R. read founds reverb. *The 3d and 4th fo's read my for thy. • P. alters enemies to foes; followed by all but J. f The fo's and R. read ne'er for nor. And 8 Omit the. h The blank is the white or exact mark at which the arrow is hot. See. better, fays Kent, and keep me always in your view. J. i The qu's omit 0. k The qu's read recreant. This speech is omitted in the qu's. Kent. Kent. m Do, kill thy physician, and thy fee bestow n Upon the foul disease. Revoke " thy doom, Or whilst I can vent clamour from my throat, I'll tell thee thou doft evil. Lear. Hear me, Precreant! 9 on thine allegiance hear me ! 'Since thou haft fought to make us break our s vow, Which we durft never yet; and with ' strain'd pride, To come " between our w fentence and our pow'r, Which nor our nature nor our place can bear, X Our potency made good, take thy reward. So the qu's; the reft omit Do. n The 3d and 4th fo's and R. read the for thy. • The fo's and R. read gift for doom. P The qu's omit recreant. 9 These words in italic are in all the editions before P. who omits them; and fo do the after-editors. The fo's and R. read That for Since. And vows for vow. The qu's read ftraied. So the qu's; the rest betwixt. w The 1ft f. reads fentences. x P. alters made to make; followed by W. who has the following note. Mr. Theobald by putting the first line (i. e. the line before this) into a parenthesis, and altering make to made in the fecond line (i. e. this line) had destroyed the sense of the whole; which, as it stood before he corrupted the words, was this: "You have endeavoured, fays Lear, to make me "break my oath, you have prefumed to stop the execution of my sentence: “the latter of these attempts neither my temper nor high station will suffer me to bear; and the other, had I yielded to it, my power could not make good or excufe."-Which, in the first line, referring to both attempts: but the ambiguity of it, as it might refer only to the latter, has occafioned all the obfcurity of the paffage. W. ઃઃ . It is not true that T. altered make to made (unless by this he means that T. has altered P.'s copy, which is in truth only restoring); one of the qu's, and all the f. editions read made Which we durft never yet, &c. relating to the former attempt, Which nor our nature, &c. can relate only to the latter. Nor is there any obscurity in this equal to what W. has introduced. Four days we do allot thee for provision, To fhield thee from 2 difeafes of the world; And on the fifth, to turn thy hated back Upon our kingdom; if on the tenth day following, f с d Kent. Why, fare thee well, king, fince e thus thou wilt appear, [To Cor. Friendship lives hence, and banishment is here. So the qu's; all the reft Five, and fixth. z So the qu's; all the reft difafters for diseases. But though the word difeafes in the common sense of the word fignifies sicknesses; here it is used in the uncommon and literal sense, and means, a want of te ease and conveniences of life, i. e. hardships. See Hurd's note on the Callida jun&tura of Hør. Ars Poet. 1. 47. b So the qu's, and 1ft f. the rest omit on. So the qu's; the rest omit why to make the measure of the verse more exact; but it seems to exprefs Kent's blunt humour the more strongly; and the nicety of the measure is not worth insisting on, especially when it robs the paffage of a word of such significancy. So the qu's; all the rest fith. The 2d q. omits thus. f So the qu's; the rest freedom; but friendship seems more properly oppofed to banishment; for what is banishment, but the being driven away from our friends and countrymen? Freedom may with greater propriety be oppofed to flavery. 8 The qu's read protection; but dear fhelter is more like Shakespear. h The qu's read the maid, that rightly thinks, and hath moft, &c. bating that the ift reads haft for hath. So the qu's; the reft make rightly and justly change places. Thus |