Fall into taint; which to believe of her,

Must be a faith, that reason without miracle
Should never plant in me.

Cor. I yet befeech your Majefty,

If-for I want that glib and oily art,

To speak and purpofe not; fince what I well intend,
I'll do't before I fpeak-that you make known
It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,
No unchafte action, or difhonour'd step,
That hath depriv'd me of your grace and favour,
But ev❜n for want of that, for which I'm richer,
A ftill folliciting eye, and fuch a tongue,

That I am glad I've not; though, not to have it,
Hath loft me in your liking.

Lear. Better thou

Hadft not been born, than not have pleas'd me better.
France. Is it but this? a tardiness in nature,
Which often leaves the history unspoke,
That it intends to do? My Lord of Burgundy,
What say you to the lady? Love's not love,
When it is mingled with regards, that stand

Aloof from th' intire point. Say, will you have her?
She is herself a dowry.

Bur. [To Lear.] Royal King,

Give but that portion which yourself propos'd,
And here I take Cordelia by the hand,

Dutchess of Burgundy.

Lear. Nothing: -I've fworn.

Bur. I'm forry then, you have fo lost a father,

That you must lose a husband.

Cor. Peace be with Burgundy,

Since that refpects of fortune are his love,
I fhall not be his wife.

France. Faireft Cordelia, that art most rich, being

poor,

9 from th' intire point.] Intire,

Rather, fingle, unmixed with

Moft

for right, true. WARBURTON. other confiderations.

Moft choice, forfaken; and moft lov'd, defpis'd.
Thee and thy virtues here I feize upon,

Be't lawful, I take up what's caft away.

Gods, Gods! 'tis ftrange, that from their cold'ft neglect

My love fhould kindle to enflam'd refpect.

Thy dow'rlefs daughter, King, thrown to my chance,
Is Queen of us, of ours, and our fair France;
Not all the Dukes of wat'rish Burgundy

Can buy this unpriz'd, precious, maid of me.
Bid them farewel, Cordelia, tho' unkind;

Thou lofeft here, a better where to find.

Lear. Thou haft her, France; let her be thine, for we

Have no fuch daughter; nor fhall ever fee

That face of hers again; therefore be gone

Without our grace, without our love, our benizon.
Come, noble Burgundy.

[Flourish. Exeunt Lear and Burgundy.

SCENE

France. Bid farewel to your fifters.

IV.

Cor. Ye jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes
Cordelia leaves you; I know what you are,

And, like a fifter, am moft loth to call

Your faults, as they are nam'd. Love well our father,
To your profeffing bofoms I commit him;

But yet, alas! ftood I within his grace,

I would prefer him to a better place.

So farewel to you both.

Reg. Prefcribe not us our duty.

Gen. Let your study

Be to content your Lord, who hath receiv'd you

Thou lofeft here,-] Here and a better refidence in another

where have the power of nouns. place.

Thou lofeft this refidence to find

At

At fortune's alms; you have obedience scanted,
And well are worth the Want that you have wanted.
Cor. Time fhall unfold what plaited cunning hides,
Who covers faults, at last with shame derides.
Well may you profper!

France. Come, my fair Cordelia.

[Exeunt France and Cordelia.

Gon. Sifter, it is not little I've to say, Of what most nearly appertains to us both. 1 think, our father will go hence to night.

Reg. That's certain, and with you; next month with us.

Gon. You see how full of changes his age is, the obfervation we have made of it hath not been little; he always lov'd our fifter moft, and with what poor. judgment he hath new caft her off, appears too grofsly.

Reg. 'Tis the infirmity of his age; yet he hath ever but flenderly known himself.

Gon. The beft and foundest of his time hath been but rash; then must we look, from his age, to receive not alone the imperfections of long-engrafted

condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness, that infirm and cholerick years bring with them.

Reg. Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him, as this of Kent's banishment.

Gon. There is further compliment of leave-taking between France and him. Pray you, let us hit together. If our father carry authority with fuch difpofition as he bears, this laft furrender of his will but offend us.

Reg. We fhall further think of it.

Gon. We must do fomething, and i' th' heat.

SCEN E VI.

[Exeunt,

Changes to a Caftle belonging to the Earl of Glofter.

Edm.s

Enter Edmund, with a Letter.

HOU, Nature, art my Goddess; to

THO

thy

law

My fervices are bound; wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of cuftom, and permit

4 let us bit] So the old quar to. The folío, let us fit.

5. Thou, Nature, art my Goddefs;] He makes his baf tard an Atheist. Italian Atheifm had much infected the Englib Court, as we learn from the beft writers of that time. But this was the general title thofe Atheists in their works gave to Nature; thus Vanini calls one of his books, De admirandis NATURE Regina DEMQUE MORTALIUM Arcanis. So that the title here is emphatical.

WARBURTON.

The

6 Stand in the PLAGUE of cuf

tom,] To ftand in the plague of custom, is an abfurd expreffion. We should read,

Stand in the PLAGE of cuftom. i. e. the place, the country, boundary of cuftom. Why should I, when I profefs to follow the freedom of nature, be confined within the narrow limits of cuftom? Plage, is a word in common ufe amongst the old English writers. So Chaucer,

The PLAGIS of the North by land and fea. From plaga.

WARBURTON.

The

The courtefy of hations to deprive me,

For that I am fome twelve or fourteen moon-fhines
* Lag of a brother? Why baftard? Wherefore bafe?
When my dimenfions are as well compact,
My mind as gen'rous, and my fhape as true,
As honelt Madam's iffue? Why brand they us
With base, with baferiefs, baftardy, bafe, bafe,
"Who, in the lufty ftealth of nature, take
More compofition and fierce quality;
Than doth, within a dull, ftale, tired bed,
Go to creating a whole tribe of fops,
Got 'tween a-fleep and wake? Well then,

7 The courtesy of Nations] Mr. Pope reads Nicety. The Copies give,the Curiofity of Nations; but our Author's Word was, Curtefy. In our Laws, fome Lands are held by the Curtely of England. THEOBALD.

Edmund inveighs against the tyranny of custom, in two inftances, with refpect to younger brothers, and to baftards. In the former he must not be understood to mean himself, but the argument becomes general by implying more than is faid, Wherefore fhould I or any man. HANMER.

Who, in the lufty stealth of nature, &c.] Thefe fine lines are an inftance of our author's admirable art in giving proper fentiments to his characters. The Baftard's is that of a confirmed Atheilt; and his being made to ridicule judicial aftrology was defigned as one mark of fuch a character. For this impious jug

gle had a religious reverence paid to it at that time. And therefore the beft characters in this play acknowledge the force of the ftars' influence. But how much the lines following this, are in character, may be feen by that monstrous with of Vanini, the Italian Atheift, in his tract De admirandis naturæ, &c. printed at Paris, 1616, the very year our poet died. O utinam extra legitimum connubialem horum

em procreatus! Ita enim progenitores mei in Venerem incaluif fent ardentiùs, ac cumulatim affatimque generofa femina contuliffent, è quibus ego forma blanditiam et elegantiam, robuftas corporis vires, mentemque innubilan confequutus fuiffem. At quia conjugatorum fum foboles, his crbatus fum bonis. Had the book been published but ten or twenty years fooner, who would not have believed that Shakespear alluded to this paffage? But the divinity of his genius foretold, as it were, what fuch an Atheist as l'anini, would fay, when he wrote upon fuch a fubject.

C 2

WARBURTON.

Le