Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified1 Of murderous lechers: and, in the mature time, [Exit EDGAR, dragging out the Body. Edg. Re-enter EDGAR. Give me your hand: Far off, methinks, I hear the beaten drum. Come, father, I'll bestow you with a friend. [Exeunt. SCENE VII. A Tent in the French Camp. LEAR on a Bed asleep: Physician, Gentleman, and others attending: Enter CORDELIA and KENT. Cor. O. thou good Kent, how shall I live, and work, To match thy goodness? My life will be too short, And every measure fail me. Kent. To be acknowledg'd, madam, is o'erpaid. All my reports go with the modest truth; Nor more, nor clipp'd, but so. Cor. Be better suited: 5 These weeds are memories of those worser hours; I pr'ythee, put them off. Kent. Pardon me, dear madam; Yet to be known, shortens my made intent:" My boon I make it, that you know me not, Till time and I think meet. Cor. Then be it so, my good lord.-How does the king? [To the Physician. Phys. Madam, sleeps still. Cor. O, you kind gods, Cure this great breach in his abused nature! him; I doubt not of his temperance. Cor. Very well. 1 Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified,' &c. i. e. I'll cover thee. In Staffordshire, to rake the fire, is to cover it for the night. Unsanctified refers to his want of burial in consecrated ground. 2 That is, the Duke of Albany, whose death is machinated by practice or treason. 3 Ingenious feeling, Bullokar, in his Expositor, interprets ingenious by quick conceited, i. e. acute. This makes Warburton's paraphrase unnecessary. 4 In the folio, the Gentleman and the Physician are one and the same person. 5 i. e. be better dressed, put on a better suit of clothes. 6 Memories are memorials. Phys. Please you, draw near.-Louder the music there." Cor. O, my dear father! Restoration, hang Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss Repair those violent harms, that my two sisters Have in thy reverence made! Kent. Kind and dear princess! Cor. Had you not been their father, these white 7 A made intent is an intent formed. We say in common language to make a design, and to make a resolution. flakes Had challeng'd pity on them. Was this a face 8 That is, changed by his children; a father whose jarring senses have been untuned by the monstrous ingratitude of his daughter. So care-crazed, crazed by care; to-wearied, wearied by wo, &c. 9 This and the foregoing speech are not in the folio. It has been already observed that Shakspeare considered soft music as favourable to sleep. Lear, we may suppose, had been thus composed to rest; and now the Physician desires louder music to be played, for the purpose of waking him. So again in Pericles, Cerimon, to recover Thaisa, who had been thrown into the sea, says: The rough and woful music that we have, Again in the Winter's Tale : 'Music awake her, strike! 10 Restoration is no more than recovery personified. Cor. How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty ? Lear. You do me wrong, to take me out o' the Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound grave:Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears Do scald like molten lead. Cor. Sir, do you know me? Lear. You are a spirit, I know; When did you die? Cor. Still, still, far wide! Phys. He's scarce awake; let him alone awhile. Lear. Where have I been? Where am I?-Fair day-light? Iam mightily abus'd.13-I should even die with pity, To see another thus.-I know not what to say.-- Cor. I Lear. Pray, do not mock me: Fourscore and upward ;15 and, to deal plainly, I am a very foolish fond old man, fear, I am not in my perfect mind. Methinks, I should know you, and know this man: Yet I am doubtful: for I am mainly ignorant What place this is; and all the skill I have Remembers not these garments; nor I know not Where I did lodge last night: Do not laugh at me; The al 11 The lines in crotchets are not in the folio. lusion is to the forlorn hope of an army, called in French enjans perdus; amongst other desperate adventures in which they were engaged, the night-watches seem to have been a common one. Warburton is wrong in sapposing that those ordered on such services were lightly or badly armed; the contrary is clearly the fact, and in such a fact is the allusion of the poet, Poor perdu, you are exposed to the most dangerous situation, not with the most proper arms, but with a mere helmet of thin and hoary hair. The same allusion occurs in Davenant's Love and Honour, 1649: I have endured Another night would tire a perdu More than a wet furrow and a great frost." So in Beaumont and Fletcher's Little French Lawyer:'I am set here like a perdu To watch a fellow that has wrong'd my mistress. 12 i. e. had not all ended. So in Timon of Athens:And dispossess her all. 13 I am strangely imposed upon by appearances; I am in a strange mist of uncertainty. 14 This circumstance is found in the old play of King Leir, apparently written by another hand, and publishe before any edition of Shakspeare's play had made its appearance. As it is always difficult to say whether such accidental resemblances proceed from imitation, of a similarity of thinking on the same occasion, I can only point out this to the reader, to whose determination I leave the question.'- Steevens. 15 The folio here adds the words not an hour more or less. Which, as they are absurd and superficos, have been justly degraded as the interpolation of inconsiderate player. Lear. Am I in France? Kent. In No cause, no cause. your own kingdom, sir. Lear. Do not abuse me. Cor. Will 't please your highness walk? 'Pray now, forget and forgive: I am old, and foolish. [Exeunt LEAR, CORDELIA, Physician, and Attendants. [Gent. Holds it true, sir, That the Duke of Cornwall was so slain? Gent. Who is conductor of his people? The bastard son of Gloster. Gent. Most certain, sir. As 'tis said, They say, Edgar, His banish'd son, is with the Earl of Kent In Germany. Kent. Report is changeable. "Tis time to look about; the powers o' the kingdom Approach apace. Gent. The arbitrement is like to be a bloody. Fare you well, sir. [Exit. Kent. My point and period will be thoroughly wrought, Or well, or ill, as this day's battle's fought.2] ACT V. [Exit. SCENE I. The Camp of the British Forces, near 4 The first and last of these speeches within crotchets are inserted in Hanmer's, Theobald's, and Warburton's editions, the two intermediate ones, which were omitted in all others, are restored from the 4to. 160S. Whether they were left out through negligence, or because the imagery contained in them might be thought too luxuriant, I cannot determine; but surely a material injury is done to the character of the Bastard by the omission; for he is made to deny that flatly at first, which the poet only meant to make him evade, or return slight answers to, till he is urged so far as to be obliged to shelter himself under an immediate falsehood. Query, however, whether Shakspeare meant us to believe that Edmund had actually found his way to the forefended (i. e. forbidden) place?-Steevens. 5 Imposes on you; you are deceived. 6 This business (says Albany) touches us, as France invades our land, not as it emboldens or encourages the She, and the duke her husband, Enter ALBANY, GONERIL, and Soldier Gon. I had rather lose the battle, than that sister Should loosen him and me. [Aside. Alb. Our very loving sister, well be met.Sir, this I hear,-The king is come to his daughter, With others, whom the rigour of our state Forc'd to cry out. [Where I could not be honest, I never yet was valiant: for this business, It toucheth us as France invades our land, Not bolds the king; with others, whom, I fear, More just and heavy causes make oppose. Edm. Sir, you speak nobly. Reg. Why is this reason'd? Gon. Combine together 'gainst the enemy: For these domestic and particular broils' Are not to question here. Alb. Let us then determine With the ancient of war on our proceedings. Edm. I shall attend you presently at your tent, Reg. Sister, you'll go with us? Gon. No. B Reg. "Tis most convenient; 'pray you, go with us. Gon. O, ho, I know the riddle: [Aside.] I will go. As they are going out, enter EDGAR, disguised. Edg. If e'er your grace had speech with man so poor, Hear me one word. Alb. I I'll overtake you.-Speak. [Exeunt EDMUND, REGAN, GONERIL, Offi cers, Soldiers, and Attendants. Edg. Before you fight the battle, ope this letter. If you have victory, let the trumpet sound can produce a champion, that will For him that brought it; wretched though I seem, What is avouched there: If you miscarry, prove Your business of the world hath so an end, And machination ceases. Fortune love you! Alb. Stay till I have read the letter. Edg. I was forbid it. When time shall serve, let but the herald cry, And I'll appear again. [Exit. Alb. Why, fare thee well; I will o'erlook thy paper. And Pallas bolds the Greeks,' &c. 7 The quartos have it :- 8 This speech is wanting in the folio. 9 i. e. all designs against your life will have an end, These words are not in the quartos. 10 i. e. the conjecture, or what we can gather by diligent espial, of their strength. So in King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.: -send discoverers forth To know the number of our enemies The passage has only been thought obscure for want of a right understanding of the word discovery, which nei. ther Malone nor Steevens seems to have understood, 11 i. e. be ready to meet the occasion. Edm. To both these sisters have I sworn my At gilded butterflies, and hear pcor rogues love; Each jealous of the other, as the stung Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take? Her husband being alive. Now, then, we'll use SCENE II. [Exit. A Field between the two Camps.- Edg. Here, father, take the shadow of this tree Grace go with you, sir! Glo. No further, sir; a man may rot even here. endure worst.6 For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down; 1 Hardly shall I be able to make my side (i. e. my party) good; to maintain the game. Steevens has shown that it was a phrase commonly used at cards. So in the Paston Letters, vol. iv. p. 155:- Heydon's son hath borne out the side stoutly here,' &c. 2 Such is my determination concerning Lear; as for my state, it requires now not deliberation, but defence and support." Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too, Edm. Lear. Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, He, that parts us, shall bring a brand from heaven, first. Come. [Exeunt LEAR and CORDELIA, guarded. go, follow One step I have advanc'd thee; if thou dost Off Edm. About it; and write happy, when thou hast done. Mark,-I say instantly; and carry it so, If it be man's work, I will do it. Alb. Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant And fortune led you well: You have the captives Edm. Sir, I thought it fit My reason all the same; and they are ready 10 Alluding to the old practice of smoking foxes out of their holes. So in Harrington's translation of Ariosto, b. xxvii. stan. 17: Even as a fare whom smoke and fire doth fright, So as he dare not in the ground remaine, Bolts out, and through the smoke and fire he fieth Into the tarrier's mouth, and there he dieth.” 11 The goujeers shall devour them flesh and fell." The goujeers, i. e. morbus Gallicus. Gouge, Fr. is a soldier's trull; and as the disease was first dispersed over Europe by the French army, and the women who 3 Those who are curious to know how far Shak-followed it, the first name it obtained among us was speare was indebted to the Arcadia, will find a chapter entitled The Pitifull State and Storie of the Paphlagonian unkinde King, and his kinde Sone: first related by the Sonne, then by the blinde Father,' at p. 141 of the edition of 1530, 4to. the goujeries, i, e. the disease of the gouges.-Hammer, The expression, however, soon became obscure, as origin not being generally known, and it was at length corrupted to the good year; a very opposite form of expression. In the present instance the quartos, fillows 4 i. e. to be ready, prepared, is all. So in Hamlet:-ing the common corruption, have the good years. 'If it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. | Flesh and fell is flesh and ski. Thus in The Sport5 i. e. to pass sentence or judgment on them. So in lum Vite, MS. :Othello-Remains the censure of this hellish villain.' 6 That is the worst that fortune can inflict. 7As if we were angels, endowed with the power of prying into the original motives of action and the mys. teries of conduct.' 8 Packs and sects are combinations and parties, 9 The thought is extremely noble, and expressed in a sublime of imagery that Seneca fell short of on a similar occasion:-Ecce spectaculum dignum ad quod res piciat intenti operi suo deus; ecce par deo dignum vir fortis cum mala fortuna compositus.-Warburton. That alle men sal a domesday rise I made thee man of flesh and fell 14 That is the lancemen we have hired by giving them press-money. Reg. In my rights, By me invested, he compeers the best. Reg. Jesters do oft prove prophets. Holla, holla! Gon. Half-blooded fellow, yes. On capital treason; and, in thine, attaint1o I bar it in the interest of my wife; An interlude! Alb. Thou art arm'd, Gloster :-Let the trumpet sound: If none appear to prove upon thy person, Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less That names me traitor, villain-like he lies: 1 i. e. the determination of what shall be done with Cordelia and her father, should be reserved for greater privacy. 2 Commission for authority. [Trumpet answers within. Enter EDGAR, armed, preceded by a Trumpet. Edg. Know, my name is lost; Edm. Himself;-What say'st thou to him? That if my speech offend a noble heart, Thou liest. Edm. In wisdom, I should ask thy name ;14 But, since thy outside looks so fair and warlike, And that thy tongue some 'say of breeding breathes, What safe and nicely16 I might well delay 11 i. e. valour; a Roman sense of the word. Thus Raleigh:-The conquest of Palestine with singular virtue they performed.' 12 This is according to the ceremonials of the trial by 3 Immediacy is, I think, close and immediate con- combat in cases criminal. The appellant and his pronexion with me, and direct authority from me. Imme-curator first come to the gate. The constable and diate is the reading of the quartos. marshall demand by voice of herald, what he is, and why he comes so arrayed.'-Selden's Duello. 4 Grace here means noble deportment. The folio has addition instead of advancement in the next line. 5 If he were married to you, you could not say more than this, nor could he enjoy greater power.' In the folio this line is given to Albany. 6 Alluding to the proverb, 'Love being jealous makes a good eye look a-squint. So Milton: And gladly banish squint suspicion." Comus. 7 A metaphor taken from the camp, and signifying to surrender at discretion. This line is not in the quartos. STo obstruct their union lies not in your good pleasure, your reto will avail nothing." 9 It appears from this speech that Regan did not know that Albany had discharged her forces. This line is given to Edmund in the quartos. 10 The folio reads thy arrest.' 13 Here I draw my sword. Behold, it is the privi lege or right of my profession to draw it against a traitor. It is the right of bringing the charge, and maintaining it with his sword, which Edgar calls the privilege of his profession. 14 Because, if his adversary was not of equal rank, By the law of arms, thou wast not bound to answer 15 Say, or assay, is a sample, a taste. So in the preface to Maurice Kythin's translation of the Andria of Terence, 1588:- Some other like places I could recite, but these shall suffice for a say. 16 'What safe and nicely I might well delay.' This seems to mean What I might safely well delay, By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn: 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 thine : Who shall arraign me for't? Most monstrous! Alb. And much more: the time will bring it out; The dark and vicious place where thee he got, Worthy prince, I know't. 6 And, when 'tis told, O, that my heart would burst! if I acted punctiliously. This line is omitted in the quartos, but without it the subsequent line is nonsense. 1 To that place where they shall rest for ever: i. e. thy heart. 2 Albany desires that Edmund's life may be spared at present, only to obtain his confession, and to convict him openly by his own letter. 3 Knowest thou these letters?' says Leir to Regan, 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. 4 Shakspeare 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.' 5 The folio reads to plague us.' 6 To die hourly the pains of death,' is a periphrasis for to suffer hourly the pains of death.' The quartos read: "That with the pain of death would hourly die.' 7 So in Pericles: Her eyelids, cases to those heavenly jewels Which Pericles hath lost." The lines within crotchets are not in the folio. Met I my father with his bleeding rings, mey Edm. This speech of yours hath mov'd 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. [Edg. This would have seem'd a period Whilst I was big in clamour, came there a man, Malone's explanation is:-This would have seemed the utmost completion of woe, to such as do not delight in sorrow, but another, of a different disposition, to amplify misery "would give more strength to that which hath too much." Referring to the Bastards desiring to hear more, and to Albany's thinking that enough had been said. 10 The quartos read threw me on my fatherSteevens thus defends the present reading: There is a tragic propriety in Kent's throwing himself on the body of a deceased friend; but this propriety is lost in the act of clumsily tumbling a son over the hifeless remains of his father." 11 Thus the quarto. The folio reads 'she confesses it.' 12 If Shakspeare had studied Aristotle all his life, he would not, perhaps, have been able to mark with more 9 Of this difficult passage, which is probably corrupt, precision the distinct operations of terror and pity.Steevens gives the following explanation:- This would | Tyrwhitt. |