His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life Alb. But who was this? Edg. Kent, sir, the banish'd Kent; who in disguise Follow'd his enemy king, and did him service Improper for a slave. Enter a Gentleman hastily, with a bloody knife. Gent. Help, help! oh help! Edg. What kind of help? Alb. Speak, man. "Tis hot, it smokes ; Edg. What means that bloody knife? It came even from the heart of-Oh! she's dead. Alb. Who dead? speak, man. Gent. Your lady, sir, your lady: and her sister By her is poisoned; she hath confess'd it. Edm. I was contracted to them both: all three Now marry in an instant. Alb. Produce the bodies, be they alive or dead.This judgment of the heavens, that makes us tremble, Touches us not with pity. [Exit Gentleman. Enter KENT'. Edg. Here comes Kent. Alb. Oh! it is he. The time will not allow the compliment, Which very manners urges. Kent. I am come To bid my king and master aye good night: Is he not here? Alb. Great thing of us forgot! Speak, Edmund, where's the king? and where's Cordelia ? Who dead? speak, man.] We follow the folio: the 4tos. read thus: "Gent. It's hot, it smokes: it came from the heart of, Alb. Who, man? speak." In the next line but one," she hath confess'd it" of the 4tos. seems more proper than "she confesses it" of the folio. 5 Enter Kent.] In the folio the entrance of Kent is marked too early, and Edgar's speech," Here comes Kent," is erroneously placed before "produce the bodies," &c. The folio also fixes the bringing out of the bodies of Goneril and Regan too early. The 4tos. are right in this respect. Seest thou this object, Kent? [The bodies of GONERIL and REGAN are brought in. Kent. Alack! why thus? Edm. Yet Edmund was belov'd: The one the other poison'd for my sake, And after slew herself. Alb. Even so.- Edm. I pant for life:-some good I mean to do, Is on the life of Lear, and on Cordelia. Nay, send in time. Edg. To whom, my lord ?-Who has the office? send Thy token of reprieve. Edm. Well thought on: take my sword, Give it the captain. Alb. Haste thee, for thy life. [Exit Edgar. EDGAR. Edm. He hath commission from thy wife and me To hang Cordelia in the prison, and To lay the blame upon her own despair, That she fordid herself. Alb. The gods defend her!-Bear him hence awhile. [EDMUND is borne off. Enter LEAR, with CORDELIA dead in his arms; EDGAR, Officer, and others. Lear. Howl, howl, howl, howl!-Oh! you are men of stones; Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so That heaven's vault should crack.-She's gone for ever.- Is this the promis'd end'? 6 If that her breath will mist or stain the STONE,] "Stone" is altered to shine in the corr. fo. 1632 with great appearance of fitness, but we adhere to the old text as intelligible. "Stone" and shine might be confounded by the old printer, and it was certainly the shine of the glass that was to be misted, or stained by the breath of Cordelia. We relinquish shine unwillingly. 7 Is this the promis'd end?] i. e. "The promis'd end" of the world, according to the interpretation of Monck Mason, in which Steevens and Malone concur : Edg. Or image of that horror? Alb. Fall, and cease! Lear. This feather stirs; she lives!-If it be so, It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows That ever I have felt. Kent. Lear. Pr'ythee, away. Edg. 'Tis noble Kent, your friend. What is't thou say'st ?-Her voice was ever soft, Off. 'Tis true, my lords, he did. Lear. This is a dull light'.-Are you not Kent ? consistently with this notion, Edgar returns "Or image of that horror?" namely the "horror" of doomsday. 8 MURDERERS, traitors all!] So the folio: the 4tos. "murderous traitors all," which may be right. 9 I would have made THEM skip :] This is the reading of the 4tos: the folio has him for "them." 1 she lov'd AND hated,] The 4tos," she lov'd or hated." The meaning of this passage, says Monck Mason, appears to me to be this: If Fortune, to display the plenitude of her power, should brag of two persons, one of whom she had highly elevated, and the other she had wofully depressed, we now behold the latter. 2 This is a dull LIGHT.] "This is a dull sight" are the words in the folio, 1623: the 4tos. have no corresponding passage. The corr. fo. 1632 alters sight to "light," a very happy literal improvement. Lear's eye-sight is bad, and he complains of the want of "light," in order to enable him to ascertain whether it be Kent indeed he has just previously said, "Mine eyes are not o' the best," and a few lines lower, when Kent tells him " I am the very man," Lear still doubts it from the imperfectness of his vision, and says, “I'll see that straight," as he had before said "I'll tell you straight." Albany afterwards remarks of Lear, "He knows not what he sees," and some may perhaps doubt whether it ought to be "sees," as in the 4tos, or says, as in the folios; but "sees" certainly well supports the new reading, "This is a dull light." We wonder therefore that Mr. Singer, who still prints sight instead of "light," adopted "sees" instead of says. In our first impression we preferred says, but we were not then aware of the excellent emendation in the corr. fo. 1632 of "light" for sight. Prof. Mommsen, the German Kent. Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius? The same, Lear. He's a good fellow, I can tell you that; He'll strike, and quickly too.-He's dead and rotten. Kent. No, my good lord; I am the very man. Lear. I'll see that straight. Kent. That from your first of difference' and decay, Have follow'd your sad steps. Lear. You are welcome hither. Kent. Nor no man else. All's cheerless, dark, and deadly: Your eldest daughters have foredoom'd themselves', And desperately are dead. Lear. Ay, so I think. Alb. He knows not what he sees'; and vain is it, That we present us to him. Edg. Very bootless. Enter an Officer. Off. Edmund is dead, my lord. Alb. That's but a trifle here. 6 You lords, and noble friends, know our intent. To him our absolute power.-You, to your rights [To EDGAR and KENT. With boot, and such addition as your honours The wages of their virtue, and all foes The cup of their deservings.-Oh! see, see! editor of the last edition of Schlegel and Tieck's Shakespeare (Berlin: von Georg Reimer, 1855), translates the line exactly, "Wie dunkel ist es hier.-bist du nicht Kent ?" There could, surely, be no reasonable doubt about it. 3 your FIRST of difference] The 4tos. read, obviously corruptly, "your life of difference." Your eldest daughters have FOREDOOM'D themselves,] The folio, 1623, has "foredone themselves," but only Goneril has foredone or destroyed herself. Two of the 4tos. have "foredoom'd," and the third foredoome. Mr. Singer does not make his case in favour of "foredoom'd" as strong as he might have done, for he tells us that only "one of the 4tos." has "foredoom'd." Nevertheless, we think his text right, though he does not well support it. 5 He knows not what he SEES;] Thus the 4tos: the folio, 1623, saies. to this GREAT decay] Meaning Lear. The 4tos. omit "great." Lear. And my poor fool is hang'd'! No, no, no life: And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more, Pray you, undo this button: thank you, sir. Do you see this? Look on her,-look,-her lips,- Edg. [He dies. He faints! My lord, my lord!— Kent. Break, heart; I pr'ythee, break'! Edg. Look up, my lord. Kent. Vex not his ghost: oh! let him pass: he hates him, That would upon the rack of this tough world' Stretch him out longer. Edg. He is gone, indeed. 7 And my poor fool is hang'd!] It has been disputed whether, in these words, Lear refers to Cordelia or to his fool, of whom, in the two last acts, we have heard nothing. Sir Joshua Reynolds was of opinion that Shakespeare thus meant to inform the audience of the fate of the fool; but it may be urged that, as Cordelia had been hanged, the poet would probably have chosen some other death for the fool, in order to render the matter quite clear, supposing Lear to have allowed his thoughts thus to wander from his daughter, lying dead before him. On the other hand, if Shakespeare did not mean to revert to the fool, he has certainly omitted to account for a prominent and interesting character. 8 Do you see this? &c.] This line and the following hemistich are not in the 4tos. After "thank you, sir," they have only the interjection Oh! five times repeated. 9 Break, heart; &c.] This line is in the 4tos. erroneously given to Lear, whose death is not there marked in the stage-directions. 1 That would upon the rack of this TOUGH world] Pope altered "tough" to rough, but surely with little reason, and the Rev. Mr. Dyce supports him, we must say, with still less. The epithet "tough" does not so much apply to the "world as to the "rack on which Lear was not to be stretched out longer. Besides, there is not a single old copy, 4to. or folio, in which the word is not "tough," and it remains "tough" in the corr. fo. 1632; while to apply the poor and trite epithet of rough to the world would be very unlike Shakespeare. Mr. Dyce must have forgotten how frequently our poet (and other poets too) places the epithet belonging to one word before another word in the same sentence. We may mention incidentally, that in all the old impressions "rack" is printed, or rather misprinted, wracke; and those, who in our modern typography would preserve antiquated irregularities of the kind, should bear in mind the confusion thus in many cases introduced, while in fact nothing is gained, excepting that in some few instances it may be necessary, for the sake of rhyme only, to print wrack, swound, vilde, &c. The invariable practice now is to spell them "wreck," "swoon," and "vile." In the passage before us, we believe that all editors have conformed to the usual course; only, if we are to adhere to wrack in other places, there seems no sufficient reason for abandoning it here. In a note in this very play (p. 697) we have shown how the old mis-spelling of "vile" vilde has obscured and perverted the meaning of the poet. |