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"I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats, "But, if it be man's work I will do it."

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584 The let-alone lies not in your good will.”

"Let," here, may either mean hinderance, or permission I rather think it is the former, as Goneril's question, indicates opposition to the match if so, the compounding hyphen should be removed.

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585. If not, I'll ne'er trust poison."

This fragment seems to be an indecorous intrusion.

"A herald," &c.

Albany had already called the herald, and there was no need of Edmund's repeating the call.

586, "And read this out aloud."

Offe

Now, sound the trumpět.”

[Trumpet sounds.

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590. Alb.

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“And who is't shall arraign me for it?"

Monster,

"Knowst thou this paper?"

Ask not what I know."

591. "The gods are just, and of our pleasant

Vices

Do often make the instruments to scourge

us.

592. "Did hate thee or thy father."

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Worthy prince,

"I know it."

Edg.

Alb.

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But where have you hid yourself?"

(O our lives' sweetness!

"That with the pain of death we'd hourly die, "Rather than die at once!!"

This sentiment we find in Julius Cæsar:

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; "The valiant never taste of death but once."

593. "And top extremity.”

I would propose:

"And top extremity; whilst I was big
"In clamour; eagerly came in a man.”
"Touches us not with pity."

Edg.

Here comes Kent."

Alb. "O is it he? the time will not allow "The compliment," &c.

597. "The compliment which manners urge.' Kent. "

I am come."

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"Yet Edmund was of both of them belov'd""And after slew herself."

Alb.

Cover their faces."

598. "Nay send in time, be quick."

Alb.

Edm."

Run, run, O run.'

Thy token of reprieve."

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Well thought: my sword."

"That she distracted did foredo herself."

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599. "That heaven's vault should crack, she's gone for ever."

602. " Cordelá, Cordeliă, stay a little."

"If fortune brag of two she lov'd and hated,

603.

Lear. "

Kent.

"One of them we behold."

"Tis a dull sight."

"Are you not Kent ?"

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The same, your servant Kent. "Where is your servant Caius, good, my liege?

"One of them we behold."

Kent here seems to refer to the king's enquiry, "Who are you?" intimating, at the same time, a similarity of fate to that of his royal master. B. STRUTT. 604. "Ha! do you tell me so, I'll see that straight."

Alb. "

"Edmund is dead, my lord."

That's but a trifle."

607. "And thou no breath at all!-thou❜lt come

609.

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no more,

No, never, never, never, never, never."

Do you see this? Look on her on her lips."

610. "He but usurp'd his life."

This hemistic does not appear of worth enough to obtain the credit of authenticity.

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HAM LE T.

ACT I. SCENE I.

This whole scene appears unnecessary to the design and conduct of the play; and might, I believe, with advantage, be omitted. The hand of Shakspeare is visible in it occasionally, but it is a part of that undigested plan which is manifest throughout this play.

8.

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Therefore I have entreated him along, "With us to watch the minutes of this night. This passage will admit of three different interpretations.

I have entreated him to watch along with us. I have entreated him onward, in order that with us he may watch.

I have, by entreaty, drawn him along with us, that we may together watch.

The first of these, I believe, is the meaning assigned to the speaker.

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-Assail our ears,

"That are so fortified against our story,
"That we two nights have seen.”

If this order of the text must stand, the ellision is very harsh.-So fortified against the effect of our story, against the belief of the spectre that we have twice seen. I am persuaded we should adopt the regulation of Sir Thomas Hanmer, who gives the last line to Marcellus.

10. "

It harrows me with fear, and wonder."

I do not think that "harrows," here, signifies subdues. Does Mr. Steevens suppose that to be the meaning of it in the following passage, in the last scene of this Act, on which there is no note?

I would a tale unfold, whose lightest word "Would harrow up thy soul.".

If he does, what is the force of the particle up, in this last quoted passage?:

LORD CHEDWORTH. This application of " to harrow" is, I believe, in reference, howsoever licentiously, to the agricultural implement, the harrow, and its rugged construction, although employed to compose the still more rugged operation of the plough.

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It harrows me with fear and wonder.” Milton has a similar expression in Comus : "Amaz❜d I stood, harrow'd with grief and fear. Is it not like the king ?".. Hor. As thou art to thyself."

11.

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This vicious idiom occurs in The Historie of King Leir and his Three Daughters:

So like to me as I am to myself."

'Tis strange."

This I take to be an interpolated exclamation. 12. "In what particular thought to work I know not,

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But, in the gross and scope of mine opinion, "This bodes some strange eruption to our state.'

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I know not how to adjust my thoughts, or form a systematic conclusion as to this wonderful event, but the preponderating influence of it, on

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