Fool. Shalt see, thy other daughter will use thee kindly; for though she's as like this as a crab is like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell.

Lear. Why, what canst thou tell, my boy? Fool. She will taste as like this, as a crab does to a crab. Thou canst tell, why one's nose stands, 'the middle of his face?

the Earl of Gloster. Our old English earls usually resided in the counties from whence they took their titles. Lear, not finding his son-in-law and his wife at home, follows them to the earl of Gloster's castle.

1 The Fool quibbles, using the word kindly in two senses; as it means affectionately, and like the rest of her kind, or after their nature.

2 He is musing on Cordelia.

3 The subject of Lear's meditation is the resumption of that moiety of the kingdom he had bestowed on Goneril. This was what Albany apprehended, when he replied to the upbraidings of his wife :- Well, well: the event.' What Lear himself projected when he left Goneril to go to Regan:

Thou shalt find

That I'll resume the shape, which thou dost think
I have cast off for ever; thou shalt, I warrant thee.'
And what Curan afterwards refers to, when he asks
Edmund-Have you heard of no likely wars toward,
twixt the Dukes of Cornwall and Albany?

Edm. Save thee, Curan.

Cur. And you, sir. I have been with your father, and given him notice, that the Duke of Cornwall, and Regan his duchess, will be here with him to night.

Edm. How comes that ?

Cur. Nay, I know not: You have heard of the news abroad: I mean, the whispered ones, for they are yet but ear-kissing arguments?"

Edm. Not I; 'Pray you, what are they?
Cur. Have you heard of no likely wars toward,
'twixt the Dukes of Cornwall and Albany?
Edm. Not a word.

Cur. You may, then, in time. Fare you well, sir.

[Exit. Edm. The duke be here to-night ? The better! Best!

This weaves itself perforce into my business!
My father hath set guard to take my brother;
And I have one thing, of a queasy question,
Which I must act :-Briefness, and fortune,work !-
Brother, a word; descend :—Brother, I say;

Yield:-come before my father;-Light, ho, here! Fly, brother ;-Torches ! Torches !-So farewel. [Exit EDGAR

Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion

[Wounds his Arm, Of my more fierce endeavour: I have seen drunkards

Do more than this in sport.10-Father! Father!
Stop, stop! No help?

Enter GLOSTER, and Servants with Torches,
Glo. Now, Edmund, where's the villain?
Edm. Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword
out,

Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon
To stand his auspicious mistress:-
Glo.

But where is he?

Edm. Look, sir, I bleed. Glo. prompter's books, &c. . Such liberties were indeed exercised by the authors of Locrine, &c. but such another offensive and extraneous address to the audience cannot be pointed out among all the dramas of Shakspeare, 5 Ear-kissing arguments means that they are yet in reality only whispered ones.

Where is the villain, Edmund?

6 This and the following speech are omitted in the quarto B.

7 Queasy appears to mean here delicate, unsettled. So Ben Jonson, in Sejanus:

These times are rather queasy to be touched. Have you not seen or read part of his book ?* Queasy is still in use to express that sickishness of stomach which the slightest disgust is apt to provoke." 8 Have you said nothing upon the party formed by him against the Duke of Albany?

4 This idle couplet (apparently addressed to the females present at the representation of the play) most 9 i. e. consider, recollect yourself. probably crept into the playhouse copy from the mouth 10 These drunken feats are mentioned in Marston's of some buffoon actor who spoke more than was set Dutch Courtezan:-Have I not been drunk for your down for him.' The severity with which the poet health, eat glasses, drunk wine, stabbed arms, and animadverts upon the mummeries and jokes of the done all offices of protested gallantry for your sake? clowns of his time (see Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 2) manifests 11 This was a proper circumstance to urge to Gloster; that he had suffered by their indiscretion. Indecent who appears to have been very superstitious with regard jokes, which the applause of the groundlings occasion-to this matter, if we may judge by what passes between ed to be repeated, would at last find their way into the him and his son in a foregoing scene,

SCENE IL

Corn. Keep peace, upon your lives

He dies, that strikes again: What is the matter?
Reg. The messengers from our sister and the

3 An equivoque is here intended, by an allusion to
the old dish of eggs in moonshine, which was eggs
broken and boiled in sallad oil till the yolks became
hard. It is equivalent to the phrases of modern times,
APll baste you,' or beat you to a mummy w

4 Barber-monger may mean dealer with the lower
tradesmen; a siur upon the Steward, as taking fees for
a recommendation to the business of the family.
05 Alluding to the moralities or allegorical shows, in
which Vanity, Iniquity, and other vices were per-
sonified.

6 Neat slave may mean you base cowherd, or it may
mean, as Steevens suggests, you finical rascal, you
assemblage of foppery and poverty. See Cotgrave, in
Mirloret, Mistoudin, Mondinet; by which Sherwood
renders a neate fellow

7 To diselaim in, for to disclaim simply, was the

Harbour more craft, and more corrupter ends,
Than twenty silly ducking observants,
That stretch their duties nicely.

What mean'st by this?

I'll answer that. Reg. My sister may receive it much more worse, To have her gentleman abus'd, assaulted, For following her affairs.-Put in his legs.[KENT is put in the Stocks. [Exeunt REGAN and CORNWALL. Glo. I am sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure,

Come, my good lord; away.

Will not

Kent. 'Prav, do not, sir: I have watch'd, and travell'd hard;

Kent. Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity, Under the allowance of your grand aspect, Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire On flickering' Phœbus' front, Corn. Kent. To go out of my dialect, which you dis-Whose disposition, all the world well knows, commend so much. I know, sir, I am no flatterer: be rubb'd, nor stopp'd;10 I'll entreat for he that beguiled you, in a plain accent, was a plain thee. knave; which, for my part, I will not be, though I should win your displeasure to entreat me to it. Corn. What was the offence you gave him? Stew. I never gave him any: It pleas'd the king his master, very late, To strike at me, upon his misconstruction: When he, conjunct, and flattering his displeasure, Tripp'd me behind; being down, insulted, rail'd, And put upon him such a deal of man, That worthy'd him, got praises of the king For him attempting who was self-subdu'd; And, in the fleshment of this dread exploit, Drew on me here again.

Kent.

None of these rogues, and cowards,
But Ajax is their fool."
Corn.

Fetch forth the stocks, ho!
You stubborn ancient knave, you reverend braggart,
We'll teach you-

Kent.
Sir, I am too old to learn;
Call not your stocks for me: I serve the king;
On whose employment I was sent to you:
You shall do small respect, show too bold malice

moors, where are bred great quantities of geese. It wa the place where the romances say King Arthur kept his court in the west.

1 Hence Pope's expression :

'The strong antipathy of good to bad.'

2 i. e. pleases me not.

3 Forces his outside, or his appearance, to something totally different from his natural disposition.'

Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle.
A good man's fortune may grow out at heels:
Give you good morrow!

Glo. The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill
taken.
[Exit.
Kent. Good king, that must approve the common

saw !11

Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st
To the warm sun!

Approach, thou beacon to this under globe,
That by thy comfortable beams I may
Peruse this letter!-Nothing almost sees miracles,
But misery ;-I know 'tis from Cordelia;
Who hath most fortunately been inform'd
Of my obscured course; and shall find time
From this enormous state,-seeking,—to give
Losses their remedies: 12-All weary and o'er-

Was cry'd incomparable, and the ensuing night
Made it a fool and beggar.

9 This kind of exhibition was familiar to the ancientTM
stage. In Hick Scorner, which was printed in the reign
of Henry VIII.. Pity is put into the stocks, and left there
until he is freed by Perseverance and Contemplacyon.
It should be remembered that formerly in great hou
ses, as lately in some colleges, there were moveable
stocks for the correction of the servants.
10 A metaphor from bowling.

4 Silly or rather sely, is simple or rustic. Nicely here is with scrupulous nicety, punctilious observance. 5 This expressive word is now only applied to the motion and scintillation of flame. Dr. Johnson says that it means to flutter, which is certainly one of its oldest meanings, it being used in that sense by Chaucer. But its application is more properly made to the fluci. tuating scintillations of flame or light. In The Cuckoo, by Nicols, 1607, we have it applied to the eye :

Their soft maiden voice and flickering eye. 6 Though I should win you, displeased as you now are, to like me so well as to entreat me to be a knave.' 7 A young soldier is said to flesh his sword the first time he draws blood with it. Fleshment, therefore, is here metaphorically applied to the first act of service, which Kent, in his new capacity, had performed for his master; at the same time, in a sarcastic sense, as though he had esteemed it an heroic exploit to trip a man behind who was actually falling.

8 i. e. Ajax is a fool to them. These rogues and cowards talk in such a boasting strain that, if we were to credit their account of themselves, Ajax would ap

11 The sair, or proverb alluded to, is in Heywood's Dialogues on Proverbs, b. ii. c v. :

In your running from him to me ye runne Out of God's blessing into the warme sunne. e. from good to worse. Kent was thinking of the king being likely to receive a worse reception from Regan than that which he had already received from Goneril. 12 How much has been written about this passage, and how much it has been mistaken! Its evident meaning appears to me to be as follows:-Kent addresses the sun, for whose rising he is impatient, that he may read Cordelia's letter. Nothing (says he,) almost sees miracles, but misery: I know this letter which I hold in my hand is from Cordelia; who hath most fortunately been informed of my disgrace and wandering in dis guise; and who seeking it, shall find time (i. e. opportunity,) out of this enormous (i. e. disordered, unnatu ral,) state of things, to give losses their remedies; to restore her father to his kingdom, herself to his love, and me to his favour.'

Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold
This shameful lodging.

Fortune, good night; smile once more; turn thy
wheel!
He sleeps.
SCENE III. A Part of the Heath. Enter EDGAR,

Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd;
And, by the happy hollow of a tree,
Escap'd the hunt. No port is free; no place,
That guard, and most unusual vigilance,
Does not attend my taking. While I may scape,
I will preserve myself: and am bethought
To take the basest and most poorest shape,
That ever penury, in contempt of man,
Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth;
Blanket my loins; elf all my hair in knots;'
And with presented nakedness outface
The winds, and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary ;
And with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes and mills,
Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
Enforce their charity.-Poor Turlygood! poor
Tom!

3

That's something yet; Edgar, I nothing am.

SCENE IV. Before Gloster's Castle."
LEAR, Fool, and Gentleman.
Lear, "Tis strange, that they should so

from home,

[Exit.
Enter

depart

And not send back my messenger.
Gent.
As I learn'd,
The night before there was no purpose in them
Of this remove.

Kent.

Lear. How!

Hail to thee, noble master!

Mak'st thou this shame thy pastime?

To set thee here?

Kent.

It is both he and she,
Your son and daughter.
Lear. No.
Kent. Yes.
Lear. No, I say.
Kent. I say, yea.

Lear. No, no; they would not.
Kent. Yes, they have.
Lear. By Jupiter, I swear, no.
Kent. By Juno, I swear, ay."
Lear. They durst not do't;

They could not, would not do't; 'is worse than
murder,

To do, upon respect, such violent outrage:11
Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way
Thou might'st deserve, or they impose, this usage,
Coming from us.

Kent.

My lord, when at their home
I did commend your highness' letters to them,
Ere I was risen from the place that show'd
My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,
Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth
Deliver'd letters, spite of intermission,
From Goneril his mistress, salutations:

Which presently they read; on whose contents,
They summon'd up their meiny, straight took

horse;

Commanded me to follow, and attend

The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks!

or turelureau, Fr.; both, among other things, signify ing a fool or madman. It would perhaps be difficult to decide with certainty whether those words are corrup 1 Hair thus knotted was supposed to be the work of tions of turlupino and turlupin; but at least it seems elves and fairies in the night. So in Romeo and Juliet: probable. The Turlupins were a fanatical sect, which plate the manes of horses in the night, overran the continent in the thirteenth and fourteenth And bakes the elf locks in foul sluttish hairs, centuries, calling themselves Beghards or Beghina Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes.' Their manners and appearance exhibited the strongest 2 Aubrey, in his MS. Remaines of Gentilisme and indications of lunacy and distraction; and their popular Judaisme, Part III. p. 234, b. (MS. Lansdowne, 226,) name, Turlupins, was probably derived from the wolf. says: Before the civil warrs, I remember Toma Bed- ish howlings they made in their fits of religious ralams went about begging. They had been such as had ving. Genebrard thus describes them :- Turlupin cybeeu in Bedlam, and come to some degree of sober-nicorum sectam suscitantes, de nuditate pudendorum, et nesse; and when they were licenced to goe out, they publico coitu." It has not been remarked that Cotgrave had on their left arme an armilla of tiune printed, of interprets Mon Turelureau, My Pillicock, my pretty about three inches breadth, which was sodered on.-H. kave.' Ellis.

Randle Holme, in his Academy of Arms and Blazon, b. iii. c. 3, gives the following description of a class of vagabonds feigning themselves mad: The Bedlam is in the same garb, with a long staff, and a cow or oxhorn by his side; but his cloathing is more fantastick and ridiculous; for being a madman, he is madly deck. ed and dressed all over with rubins, feathers, cuttings of cloth, and what not; to make him seem a madman, or one distracted, when he is no other than a dissembling knave.'

His cruell garters cross about the knee.' 9 The old word for stockings. 10 This dialogue being taken partly from the folío and partly from the quarto, is left without any metrical division, as it was not probably all intended to be preserved.

11 To do, upon respect, such violent outrage,' I think, means to do such violent outrage, deliberately, or upon consideration. Respect is frequently used for consideration by Shakspeare. Cordelia says, in the first scene :

Since that respects of fortune are his love, I shall not be his wife.'

6

There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.'

In the Bell-Man of London, by Decker, 5th edit. 1640, is another account of one of these characters, under the title of Abraham Man:- He sweares he hath been in Bedlam, and will talke frantickely of purpose: you see pinnes stuck in sundry places of his naked flesh, espe cially in his armes, which paine he gladly puts himselfe to, only to make you believe he is out of his wits. He And in Hamlet :calls himselfe by the name of Poore Tom, and coming near any body, cries out Poor Tom is a-cold. Of these Abraham-men some be exceeding merry, and doe nothing but sing songs fashioned out of their own braines some will dance, others will doe nothing but either laugh or weepe: others are dogged, and so sullen both in looke and speech, that spying but a small company in a house they boldly and bluntly enter, compelling the Bervants through feare to give them what they demand. It is probable, as Steevens remarks, that to sham Abra ham, a cant term still in use among sailors and the vulgar, may have this origin. ·

3ie skewers: the euonymus, or spindle-tree, of which the best skewers are made, is called prick-wood. 4 Paltry 5 Curses.

6 Turlygood, an English corruption of furluru, Ital.;

I cannot think that respect here means a respected person, as Johnson supposed; or that it is intended for a personification, as Malone asserts.

12 i. e. spite of leaving me unanswered for a time." Goneril's messenger delivered letters, which they read notwithstanding Lear's messenger was yet kneeling unanswered.

13 Meiny, signifying a family household, or retinue of servants, is certainly from the French meinie, or as was anciently written, mesnie; which word is regarded by Du Cange as equivalent with mesonie or maisonie, from maison; in modern French, menage. It does not appear that the Saxons used many for a family or household.