Thy valour, and thy heart,-thou art a traitor: EDM. In wisdom, I should ask thy name '; But, since thy outside looks so fair and warlike, And that thy tongue some 'say of breeding breathes * 1 1, First folio, And since thy tongue (some say) of breeding breathes. 7 CONSPIRANT 'gainst-] The quartos read: 66 Conspicuate 'gainst" STEEVENS. 8 BENEATH thy feet,] So the quartos. foot." MALONE. Folio: "below thy 9 In wisdom, I should ask thy name;] Because, if his adversary was not of equal rank, Edmund might have declined the combat. Hence the herald proclaimed-" If any man of quality, or degree," &c. So Goneril afterwards says 66 By the law of arms, thou wast not bound to answer "An unknown opposite." MALone. And that thy tongue some 'say of breeding breathes,] 'Say, for essay, some show or probability. POPE. Say is sample, a taste. So, in Sidney: 66 So good a say invites the eye "A little downward to espy -." Again, in the Preface to Maurice Kyffin's translation of the Andria of Terence, 1588: "Some other like places I could recite, but these shall suffice for a say.” Again, in Revenge for Honour, by Chapman : 66 But pray do not "Take the first say of her yourselves —." Again, in The Unnatural Combat, by Massinger : 66 or to take "A say of venison, or stale fowl —.” Again, in Holinshed, p. 847: "He (C. Wolsey) made dukes and erles to serve him of wine, with a say taken," &c. the assaie was the technical term. STEEVENS. To take What safe and nicely I might well delay 2 ALB. O save him, save him! GON. This is mere practice, Gloster*: By the law of arms, thou wast not bound to an swer 6 An unknown opposite; thou art not vanquish'd, * Quartos, right. 2 What safe and nicely, &c.] The phraseology is here very licentious. I suppose the meaning is, That delay which by the law of knighthood I might make, I scorn to make.' Nicely is punctiliously; if I stood on minute forms. This line is not in the quartos; and furnishes one more proof of what readers are so slow to admit, that a whole line is sometimes omitted at the press. The subsequent line without this is nonsense. See vol. ix. p. 7. MALONE. 3 WHERE they shall rest for ever.] To that place, where they shall rest for ever; i. e. thy heart. MALONE. 4 Alb. O save him, save him! Gon. This is mere practice, Gloster:] Thus all the copies; but I have ventured to place the two hemistichs to Goneril. 'Tis absurd that Albany, who knew Edmund's treasons, and his own wife's passion for him, should be solicitous to have his life saved. THEOBALD. Albany desires that Edmund's life might be spared at present, only to obtain his confession, and to convict him openly by his own letter. JOHNSON. The words-Hold, sir, in Albany's next speech, show that the old copies are right. MALONE. 5 By the law of ARMS,] So the quartos. Folio-of war. MALONE. 6 thou wast not bound to answer -] One of the quartos [quarto B] reads— thou art not bound to offer," &c. STEEVENS. All the quartos read—“ thou art not." BOSWELL. ALB. Shut your mouth, dame, Or with this paper shall I stop it :-Hold, sir:Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil :No tearing, lady; I perceive, you know it. [Gives the Letter to EDMund. GON. Say, if I do; the laws are mine, not Ask me not what I know. [Exit GONERIL. ALB. Go after her: she's desperate; govern her. [To an Officer, who goes out. EDM. What you have charg`d me with, that have I done; And more, much more: the time will bring it out; 'Tis past, and so am I : But what art thou, That hast this fortune on me? If thou art noble, I do forgive thee. EDG. Let's exchange charity. I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund; 7 Most monstrous!] So quartos A and C, and the folio. The other quarto reads-" Monster, know'st thou this paper?" The folio-" Most monstrous, O know'st," &c. MALONE. "Knowest thou these letters?" says Leir to Ragan, in the old anonymous play, when he shows her both her own and her sister's letters, which were written to procure his death. Upon which she snatches the letters and tears them. STEEVENS. 8 Let's exchange charity.] Our author, by negligence, gives his Heathens the sentiments and practices of Christianity. In Hamlet there is the same solemn act of final reconciliation, but with exact propriety, for the personages are Christians: Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet," &c. JOHNSON. The dark and vicious place where thee he got, EDM. Let sorrow split my heart, if ever I Did hate thee, or thy father! EDG. Worthy prince, I know't 2. ALB. Where have you hid yourself? How have you known the miseries of your father? EDG. By nursing them, my lord.-List a brief tale ; And, when 'tis told, O, that my heart would burst! The bloody proclamation to escape, 4 That follow'd me so near, (O our lives' sweetness! 9 to SCOURGE us:] Thus the quartos. I 66 to plague us." The folio reads: STEEVENS. - full circle;] Quarto, full circled. JOHNSON. 2 I know it WELL.] The adverb-well, was supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer for the sake of metre. STEEVENS. 3 That WITH the pain of death, &c.] Thus both the quartos. The folio reads unintelligibly, That we the pain," &c. The original copies have would; but this was, I apprehend, a misprint in those copies for would, i. e. we would, or, as we should now write it, we'd. In The Tempest, Act II. Sc. I. we have sh'ould for she would. MALONE. I cannot think the folio reading— 66 That we the pain of death would hourly die," unintelligible. To die hourly the pains of death, does not seem to me a very harsh ellipsis for, To die suffering the pains of death. BOSWELL. The bloody proclamation to escape, taught me to shift-] A wish to escape the bloody pro clamation, taught me, &c. MALONE. Met I my father with his bleeding rings, Their precious stones new lost; became his guide, Led him, begg'd for him, sav'd him from despair; EDM. This speech of yours hath mov'd me, And shall, perchance, do good: but speak you on; You look as you had something more to say. ALB. If there be more, more woful, hold it in; For I am almost ready to dissolve, Hearing of this. This would have seem'd a period To such as love not sorrow; but another, To amplify too-much, would make much more, 5 his bleeding rings, Their precious stones new lost;] So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609: 6 7 "Her eye-lids, cases to those heavenly jewels MALONE. [Edg.] The lines between crotchets are not in the folio. This would have seem'd a period To such as love not sorrow; but ANOTHER, To amplify Too-much, would make much more, JOHNSON. And top extremity.] The reader easily sees that this reflection refers to the Bastard's desiring to hear more; and to Albany's thinking he had said enough. But it is corrupted into miserable nonsense. We should read it thus: "This would have seem'd a period. But such "As love to amplify another's sorrow "To much, would make much more, and top extremity." i. e. This to a common humanity would have been thought the |