Lear, Nothing can come of nothing; fpeak again. Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty According to my bond, no more nor less.

Lear. How, how, Cordelia? mend your speech a little,

Left you may mar your fortunes.
Cor. Good my Lord,

You have begot me, bred me, lov'd me. I
Return thofe duties back, as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
Why have my fifters husbands, if they fay,
They love you, all? haply, when I shall wed,
That Lord, whofe hand muft take my plight, fhall

carry

Half my love with him, half my care and duty.
Sure, I fhall never marry like my fifters,

•

To love my father all.

Lear. But goes thy heart with this?
Cor. Ay, my good Lord.

Lear. So young, and fo untender?
Cor. So young, my Lord, and true.

Lear. Let it be fo, thy truth then be thy dower:
For by the facred radiance of the fun,
The myfteries of Hecat, and the night,
By all the operations of the orbs,
From whom we do exist, and cease to be,
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me

Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barb'rous Scythian,

Or he, that makes his generation meffes
To gorge his appetite, fhall to my bofom

6 To love my father all.-] first edition, without which the Thefe words restored from the fenfe was not compleat. POPE.

Be

Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and reliev'd,
As thou, my fometime daughter.

Kent. Good my Liege-
Lear. Peace, Kent!

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
I lov'd her most, and thought to fet my Reft
On her kind nurs'ry. Hence, avoid my fight!-
[To Cor.

So be my grave my peace, as here I give
Her father's heart from her;-Call France-Who ftirs?
Call Burgundy-Cornwall and Albany,
With my two daughters' dowers digeft the third.
Let pride, which he calls plainnefs, marry her.
I do inveft you jointly with my Power,
Preheminence, and all the large effects
That troop with Majefty. Our felf by monthly course,
With refervation of an hundred Knights,
By you to be fuftain'd, shall our abode
Make with you by due turns; only retain
The name and all th' addition to a King,
The sway, revenue, execution of the reft,
Beloved fons, be yours; which to confirm,

7

the whole is, I will only retain the name and all the ceremonious obfervances that belong to a King; the fentials, as fway, revenue, administration of the laws, be yours.

WARBURTON.

Execution of the reft] I do not fee any great difficulty in the words, execution of the rest, which are in both the old copies. The execution of the rest is, I fuppole, all the other bufinefs. Dr. Warburton's own explanation of his amendment confutes it; if best be a regal command, they were, by the grant of Lear, to have rather the bet than the execution.

This Coronet part between you.
Kent. Royal Lear,

Whom I have ever honour'd as my King,
Lov'd as my father, as my mafter follow'd,
As my great patron thought on in my pray'rs -
Lear. The bow is bent and drawn, make from the
fhaft.

Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade
The region of my heart; be Kent unmannerly,
When Lear is mad. What wouldft thou do, old man?
Think't thou, that duty fhall have dread to speak,
When pow'r to flatt'ry bows? To plainnefs honour's

bound,

When Majefty falls to folly. Reserve thy ftate,
And in thy beft confideration check

This hideous rafhnefs; answer my life my judgment,
Thy youngest daughter does not love thee leaft;
Nor are thofe empty hearted, whofe low found
Reverbs no hollownefs.

Lear. Kent, on thy life no more.
Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn

Think't thou, that duty fhall bave dread to pak,] have given this paffage according to the old folio, from which the modern editions have filently departed, for the fake of better numbers, with a degree of infincerity, which, if not fometimes detected and cenfured, mult impair the credit of antient books. One of the editors, and perhaps only one, knew how much mifchief may be done by fuch clandeftine alterations.

[Giving the Crown.

To wage against thine enemies, nor fear to lofe it,
Thy fafety being the motive.
Lear. Out of my fight!

eye.

Kent. See better, Lear, and let me ftill remain
The true blank of thine
Lear. Now by Apollo-
Kent. Now by Apollo, King,
Thou swear'ft thy gods in vain.
Lear. O vaffal! mifcreant!-

[Laying his band on his fword. Alb. Corn. Dear Sir, forbear. Kent. Kill thy phyfician, and thy fee bestow Upon the foul difeafe; revoke thy doom, Or whilft I can vent clamour from my throat, I'll tell thee, thou doft evil.

Lear. Hear me, recreant!

Since thou haft fought to make us break our vow, Which we durft never yet; and with ' ftrain'd pride,

2

To come betwixt our fentence and our power; 'Which nor our nature, nor our place, can bear;

Our ftood before he corrupted the words, was this: "You have "endeavour'd, fays Lear, to "make me break my oath, "you have prefumed to stop the "execution of my fentence: "the latter of thefe attempts "neither my temper nor high "ftation will fuffer 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.

WARBURTON. Theobald only inferted the parenthesis; he found made good in the best copy of 1623. Dr.

War

Our potency made good, take thy reward.
Five days we do allot thee for provifion,
To fhield thee from disasters of the world;
And, on the fixth, to turn thy hated back
Upon our Kingdom; if, the tenth day following,
Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,
The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter,
This fhall not be revok'd.

Kent. Fare thee well, King; fith thus thou wilt

appear,

Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here. The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid, [To Cordelia. That juftly think'ft, and haft most rightly said. And your large fpeeches may your deeds approve, [To Reg. and Gon. That good effects may fpring from words of love. Thus Kent, O Princes, bids you all adieu; "He'll shape his old courfe in a country new. [Exit.

Warbu ton has very acutely explained and defended the reading that he has chofen, but I am not certain that he has chofen

right. If we take the reading of the folio, our potency made good, the fenfe will be lefs profound indeed, but lefs intricate, and equally commodious. As thou haft come with unreofonable pride between the fentence which I had poffed, and the power by which I fall execute it, take thy reward in another fentence which hall make good, shall establish, hall maintain, that power.

If Dr. Warburton's explanation be chofen, and every reader will wish to choose it, we may better read,

Which nor our nature, nor cur ftate can bear,

Or potency make good.

Mr. Davies thinks, that our potency made good relates only to our place. Which our nature cannot bear, nor our place, without departure from the potency of that place. This is eafy and clear.

Lear, who is characterized as hot, heady and violent, is, with very juft obfervation of life, made to entangle himself with vows, upon any fudden provocation to vow revenge, and then to plead the obligation of a vow in defence of implacability.

4 By Jupiter.] Shakefieare makes his Lear too much a mythologift: he had Hecate and Apallo before.

5 Hel fhape his old course-] He will follow his old maxims; he will continue to act upon the fame principles.

SCENE