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. Come, my good lord; away. [Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER and KENT. GLO. I am sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure, Whose disposition, all the world well knows, Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle. (*) First folio omits, good. a For following her affairs,-Put in his legs.-] A line not found in the folio. b Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st This "common saw" we meet with in Heywood's "Dialogues on Proverbs," "In your running from him to me, ye runne Out of God's blessing into the warme sunne." It is found also in Howell's collection of English Proverbs in his Dictionary, 1660, and there explained,-"He goes out of God's blessing to the warm sun, viz. from good to worse." The application, we must suppose, is to Lear's quitting one daughter only to meet more inhospitable treatment from another. A good man's fortune may grow out at heels: GLO. [Aside.] The duke's to blame in this; mon saw, Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st Approach, thou beacon to this under globe, I know 't is from Cordelia; Who hath most fortunately been inform'd Some editors have gone so far as to degrade this passage altogether from the text: Steevens and others conjecture it to be made up from fragments of Cordelia's letter. We agree with Malone that it forms no part of that letter, but are opposed to his notion that "two half lines have been lost between the words state and seeking." The slight change of "she'll" for shall,-the ordinary reading being, "and shall find time," &c.-appears to remove much of the difficulty; that occasioned by the corrupt words, "enormous state-seeking," will some day probably find an equally facile remedy. EDG. I heard myself proclaim'd; And, by the happy hollow of a tree, turn thy [Sleeps. Escap'd the hunt. No port is free; no place, Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may scape, Blanket my loins; elf all my hair* in knots;a b Tom! That's something yet;-Edgar I nothing am. [Exit. My lord, when at their home From Goneril, his mistress, salutations; SCENE IV.-Before Gloucester's Castle. KENT They summon'd up their meiny, straight took in the Stocks. horse; Commanded me to follow, and attend The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks: (*) First folio, haires. (t) First folio, Messengers. (*) First folio omits, is. (†) First folio, painting. (1) First folio, those. the name of poore Tom, and comming neere any body cries out, Poore Tom is a-cold." dcruel garters!] The same quibble on cruel and crewel, i.e. worsted of which stockings, garters, &c., were made, is found in many of our old plays. e-nether-stocks.] Stockings were formerly called nether. stocks, and breeches over-stocks or upper-stocks. f No, no; they would not.] This and the next speech are not in the folio. 8 They summon'd up their meiny,-] Meing here signifies train or retinue. KENT. Why, fool? FOOL. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring i' the winter. All that follow their noses are led by their eyes but blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him that's stinking. Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it: but the great one that goes up the hill,§ let him draw thee after. When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it. That sir which serves and seeks for gain, And leave thee in the storm. KENT. Where learned you this, fool? them so.d LEAR. Inform'd them! Dost thou understand me, man? GLO. Ay, my good lord. LEAR. The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father Would with his daughter speak, commands her service: + Are they inform'd of this?-My breath and blood! Fiery? the fiery duke ?-Tell the hot duke, thatNo, but not yet:-may be, he is not well: Infirmity doth still neglect all office, Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves, When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind (†) First folio, commands, tends, service. d Well, my good lord, &c.] This speech and Lear's rejoinder are found only in the folio. e Is practice only.] Practice, it need hardly be repeated, meant artifice, conspiracy, &c. f Till it cry sleep to death.] Till the clamour of the drum destroys or is the death of sleep. The line is usually given, however, "Till it cry, Sleep to death!" that is, till it cry out, awake no more, and this very possibly was the poet's idea. LEAR. O me, my heart, my rising heart!—but, down! FOOL. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels when she put 'em i' the paste alive; she the cockney-] "Cockney," of old, bore more than one signification; as employed by Chaucer, in "The Reve's Tale," verse 4205, "And when this jape is told another day, it plainly means an effeminate spoony. In Dekker's "Newes from Hell," &c. 1602,-"Tis not their fault, but our mothers', our cockering mothers, who for their labour made us to be called knapp'd 'em o'the coxcombs with a stick, and cried, Down, wantons, down: 't was her brother, that, in pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay. cockneys," it has the same import. According to Percy, whose authority is the following couplet from the ancient ballad called "The Turnament of Tottenham," "At that feast were they served in rich array; Every five and five ha a cokenay," it meant a cook or scullion; and that, perhaps, is the sense of the word in the present place. Some other time for that.-Beloved Regan, You less know how to value her desert, LEAR. LEAR. My curses on her! REG. O, sir, you are old; Nature in you stands on the very verge Of her confine: you should be rul'd, and led By some discretion that discerns your state Better than you yourself. Therefore, I pray you, That to our sister you do make return; Say you have wrong'd her, sir.† LEAR. Ask her forgiveness? Do you but mark how this becomes the house: (5) Dear daughter, I confess that I am old; REG. Good sir, no more; these are unsightly tricks: Return you to my sister. LEAR. [Rising.] Never, Regan! She hath abated me of half my train; Look'd black upon me; tongue, (*) First folio, Mother, Do comfort, and not burn. 'Tis not in thee LEAR. Who put my man i'the stocks? [Trumpets without. CORN. What trumpet's that? REG. I know't my sister's: this approves her letter, That she would soon be here.- struck me with her If you do love old men, if your sweet sway Allow obedience, if yourselves are old, (†). First folio omits, sir. a Say, how is that?] This and the next speech are not in the quartos. blow taking airs,—]. To take, in old language, signified to blast, or infect with baneful influence. So in Act III. Sc. 4,— "Bless thee from whirlwinds, star blasting, and taking.” e. Te fall and blast her pride!] The folio tamely reads,→ "To fall and Mister,” (*) First folio inserts, you. d Thy tender-hefted nature-] Tender-hefled is a very doubtful expression; and "tender hested," the reading of the quartos, is not much less so: but we have not sufficient confidence in the substitution, "tender-hearted,” which Rowe and Pope adopt, to alter the ancient text. • -- to scant my sizes,-! "Sizes" are allowances of provision. f Allow obedience,-] That is, approve obedience. |