Gon. Hear me, my Lord;

What need you hive and twenty, ten, or five,
To follow in a houfe, where twice fo many
Have a command to tend you?

Reg. What needs one?

Lear. O, reafon not the need; our baseft beggars Are in the pooreft thing fuperfluous.

Allow not nature more than nature needs,

Man's life is cheap as beafts'.

Thou art a lady; If only to go warm were gorgeous,

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'ft,
Which fcarcely keeps thee warm. But for true need!
You heav'ns, give me that patience which I need!
You fee me here, you Gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
If it be you, that ftir thefe daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not fo much.

To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger;
O let not women's weapons, water-drops,

Stain my man's cheeks. No, you unnatʼral hags,
I will have fuch revenges on you both,

That all the world fhali-I will do fuch things,
What they are, yet I know not; but they fhall be
The terrors of the earth. You think, I'll weep;

The quarto has, poor, old fellow.

7-touch me with noble onger.] It would puzzle one at firit to find the fenfe, the drift, and the coherence of this petition. For if the Gods feat this evil for his punishment, how could he expect that they should defeat their own defign, and affift him to revenge his injuries? The folution is, that Shakespeare here makes his fpeaker allude to what the ancient poets tell us of the misfortunes of particular families Namely, that when the

No, I'll not weep. I have full caufe of weeping.
This heart fhall break into a thousand flaws

Or ere I weep. O fool, I fhall

go mad.

[Exeunt Lear, Glo'fter, Kent, and Fool.

Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a ftorm.

[Storm and tempeft. Reg. This houfe is little, the old man and his people Cannot be well beftow'd.

Gon. 'Tis his own blame hath put himself from rest, And must needs tafte his folly.

Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly; But not one follower.

Gon. So I am purpos'd.

Where is my Lord of Glo'fter?

Enter Glo'fter.

Corn. Follow'd the old man forth. He is return'd. Glo. The King is in high rage, and will I know not whither.

Corn. 'Tis beft to give him way, he leads himself. Gon. My Lord, intreat him by no means to stay. Glo. Alack, the night comes on, and the high winds

Do forely ruffle, for many miles about

There's scarce a bush.

Reg. O Sir, to wilful men,

The injuries, that they themselves procure,

Must be their school-mafters. Shut up your doors;

He is attended with a defp'rate train,

And what they may incenfe him to, being apt
To have his ear abus'd, wifdom bids fear.

Corn. Shut up your doors, my Lord, 'tis a wild

night.

My Regan counfels well. Come out o'th' storm. [Exeunt.

ACT

ACT III. SCENE I.

A

HEATH.

Aftorm is heard, with thunder and lightning. Enter Kent, and a Gentleman, feverally.

KENT.

HO's there, befides foul weather?

W Gent. One minded like the weather, most

unquietly.

Kent. I know you. Where's the King?
Gent. Contending with the fretful elements;
Bids the wind blow the earth into the fea;
Or fwell the curled waters 'bove the main,

8

That things might change, or ceafe, tears his white

hair

Which the impetuous blafts with eyeless rage
Catch in their fury, and make nothing of;
Strives in his little World of Man t'outscorn
The to-and-fro-conflicting Wind and Rain.

9 This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch, The lion, and the belly-pinched wolf

Keep their furr dry, unbonnetted he runs,
And bids what will, take all.
Kent. But who is with him?

out-jeft

Gent. None but the Fool, who labours to outHis heart-ftruck injuries.

Kent. Sir, I do know you,

And dare, upon the warrant of my note,

Commend a dear thing to you. There's divifion,
Although as yet the face of it is cover'd

2

With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall,
Who have, (as who have not, whom their great stars
Throne and fet high?) fervants, who seem no less;
Which are to France the fpies and fpeculations
Intelligent of our state. What hath been seen,
Either in fnuffs and packings of the Dukes;
Or the hard rein, which both of them have borne
gainst the old kind king; or fomething deeper,
Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings.

4

1

[ But true it is, from France there comes a power

T

my note,] My obferva tion of your character.

2 Who have, as aho have

not-] The eight fubfequent Verfes were degraded by Mr. Pope, as unintelligible, and to no purpofe. For my part, I fce nothing in them but what is very eafy to be understood; and the Lines feem abfolutely neceffary to clear up the Motives, upon which France prepared his Invafion; nor without them is the fenfe of the Context compleat.

THEOBALD.

3 But true it is, &c.] In the old editions are the five following lines which I have inferted in the text, which feem neceffary to the plot, as á preparatory to the arrival of the French army with Cordelia in A7 4. How both thefe, and a whole fcene between Kent and this gentleman in the fourth act, came to

Into

be left out in all the later editions, I cannot tell they depend upon each other, and very much contribute to clear that incident. POPE. -from France there comes

a perwer Into this SCATTER'D kingdom;' who already,

Wise in our negligence, have fri

cret SBA

In Jome of our beft ports. Scatter'd kingdom, if it have any fenfe, gives us the idea of a king dom fallen into an anarchy: But that was not the cafe. It fubmitted quietly to the of Lear's two fons-in-law. It government was divided, indeed, by this means, and fo hurt, and weaken'd. And this was what ShakeSpear meant to fay, who, without doubt, wrote,

——SCATHED kingdom,→→ i. e. hurt, wounded, impaired, And

Into this fcatter'd kingdom; who already,
Wife in our negligence, have fecret fee
In fome of our best ports, and are at point
To fhew their open banner-Now to you,
If on my credit you dare build fo far
To make your speed to Dover, you shall find

And fo he frequently ufes feath
for hurt or damage. Again,
what a strange phrafe is, having
fea in a port, to fignify a fleet's
lying at anchor? which is all
it can fignify. And what is
ftranger till, a jecret fea, that is,
lying incognito, like the army at
Knight's-bridge in the Rehearsal.
Without doubt the poet wrote,
-kave fecret SEIZE

In fome of our best partsi. e. they are fecretly fecure of fome of the best ports, by having a party in the garrifon ready to fecond any attempt of their friends, &c. The exactness of the expreffion is remarkable; he fays, fecret feize in fome, not of Jome. For the first implies a confpiracy ready to feize a place on warning, the other, a place already feized. WARBURTON.

The true fate of this fpeech cannot from all thefe notes be discovered. As it now ftands it is collected from two editions: the lines which I have diftinguithed by Italicks are found in the folio, not in the quarto; the following lines inclofed in crotchets are in the quarto, not in the folio. So that if the fpeech be read with omiffions of the Itakicks, it will and according to the first edition; and if the Italicks are read, and the lines that follow them omitted, it will then ftand according to the fecond. The fpeech is now tedious, be

caufe it is formed by a coalition of both. The fecond edition is generally belt, and was probably nearest to Shakespeare's laft copy, but in this paffage the first is preferable; for in the folio, the meffenger is fent, he knows not why, he knows not whither. I fuppofe Shakelbare thought his plot opened rather too early, and made the alteration to veil the event from the audience; but trusting too much to himself, and full of a fingle purpose, he did not accommodate his new lines to the rest of the fcene.

The learned critick's emendations are now to be examined. Scattered he has changed to feathed; for fcattered, he fays, gives the idea of an anarchy, which was not the cafe. It may be replied that feathed gives the idea of ruin, waste, and defolation, which was not the cafe.. It is unworthy a lover of truth, in queftions of great or little moment, to aggravate or extenuate for mere convenience, or for va nity yet lefs than convenience. Scattered naturally means divided, unfettled, difunited.

Next is offered with great pomp a change of fea to feize; but in the first edition the word is fee, for hire, in the sense of hav ing any one in fe, that is, at devotion for money. Fee is in the fecond quarto changed to fee, from which one made ea and another feize.

Some