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,
Will not be rubb'd nor stopp'd: I'll entreat for thee.
KENT. Pray do not, sir: I have watch'd and
travell'd hard;

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
To the warm sun!]

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:
Give you good morrow!

GLO. [Aside.] The duke's to blame in this;
't will be ill taken.
[Exit.
KENT. Good king, that must approve the com-

mon saw,

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

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 she'll find time
From this enormous state-seeking, to give
Losses their remedies. All weary and o'er-
watch'd,

I know 't is from Cordelia;

Who hath most fortunately been inform'd
Of my obscured course, and she'll find time
From this enormous state-seeking, to give
Losses their remedies.]

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,
That guard, and most unusual vigilance,

Does not attend my taking. Whiles 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;a
And with presented nakedness out-face
The winds and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars, (2) 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 (3) poor

b

Tom!

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

[Exit.

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

From Goneril, his mistress, salutations;
Deliver❜d letters, spite of intermission,
Which presently they read: on whose contents,

in the Stocks.

horse;

Commanded me to follow, and attend

The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks:
And meeting here the other messenger,
Whose welcome I perceiv'd had poison'd mine,
(Being the very fellow which of late
Display'd so saucily against your highness)
Having more man than wit about me, drew;
He rais'd the house with loud and coward cries:

(*) 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 follows but for form,
Will pack when it begins to rain,

And leave thee in the storm.
But I will tarry; the fool will stay,
And let the wise man fly:
The knave turns fool that runs away;
The fool no knave, perdy.

KENT. Where learned you this, fool?
FOOL. Not i' the stocks, 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,
I sal be hald a daf, a cokenay,"-

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,
Thy sister's naught: O, Regan, she hath tied
Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here!--
[Points to his heart.
I can scarce speak to thee; thou❜lt not believe,
With how deprav'd a quality-O Regan!
REG. I pray you, sir, take patience: I have
hope,

You less know how to value her desert,
Than she to scant her duty.

LEAR.
Say, how is that ? a
REG. I cannot think my sister in the least
Would fail her obligation: if, sir, perchance,
She have restrain'd the riots of your followers,
'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end,
As clears her from all blame.

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;
Age is unnecessary: on my knees I beg, [Kneeling.
That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.

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
To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,
And, in conclusion, to oppose the bolt
Against my coming in: thou better know'st
The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude;
Thy half o'the kingdom hast thou not forgot,
Wherein I thee endow'd.
REG.
Good sir, to the purpose.

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.-

(†). 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.