Kent. Sir, in good faith, in sincere verity, Under th' allowance of your great aspect, Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire On flickering Phoebus' front, Corn. What mean'st by this? Kent. To go out of my dialect, which you discommend so much. I know, sir, I am no flatterer: he that beguiled you in a plain accent was a plain knave; which, for my part, I will not be, though I should win your displeasure to entreat me to't. Corn. What was th' offence you gave him? Osw. I never gave him any. It pleased the King his master very late To strike at me, upon his misconstruction; Drew on me here again. Kent. But Ajax is their fool.24 None of these rogues and cowards remark upon this speech: "In thus placing these profound general truths in the mouths of such men as Cornwall, Edmund, Iago, &c., Shakespeare at once gives them utterance, and yet shows how indefinite their application is." I may add, that an inferior dramatist, instead of making his villains use any such vein of original and profound remark, would probably fill their mouths with something either shocking or absurd; which is just what real villains, if they have any wit, never do. 23 By "him who was self-subdued," Oswald means himself, pretending that the poor figure he made was the result of virtuous self-control, and not of imbecility or fear.- Fleshment here means pride or elation; or, as we say, flushed. See vol. x. page 90, note 5. 24 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 appear a person of no prowess when compared to them." Call not your stocks for me; I serve the King, On whose employment I was sent to you: Stocking his messenger. Corn. Fetch forth the stocks! As I have life and honour, There shall he sit till noon. Reg. Till noon! till night, my lord; and all night too. You should not use me so. Reg. Sir, being his knave, I will. Corn. This is a fellow of the self-same colour [Stocks brought out. Glos. Let me beseech your Grace not to do so : Corn. I'll answer that. Reg. My sister may receive it much more worse, To have her gentleman abused, assaulted, For following her affairs. Put in his legs. Come, my good lord, away. [KENT is put in the stocks. [Exeunt all but GLOSTER and KENT. Glos. I'm sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure, Whose disposition, all the world well knows, Will not be rubb'd 25 nor stopp'd: I'll entreat for thee. Kent. Pray, do not, sir: I've watch'd, and travell'd hard; Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle. A good man's fortune may grow out at heels: 26 Glos. The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill taken. [Exit. Kent. Good King, that must approve 27 the common saw, Thou out of Heaven's benediction comest To the warm sun! 28 Approach, thou beacon to this under globe, That by thy comfortable beams I may Peruse this letter ! - Nothing, almost, sees miracles But misery.29 I know 'tis from Cordelia ; 25 Rubb'd is impeded or hindered. A rub in a bowling-alley is something that obstructs or deflects the bowl. 26 A man set in the stocks was said to be "punished by the heels"; and Kent probably alludes to this. He also means, apparently, that the fortune even of a good man may have holes in the heels of its shoes; or, as we say, may be "out at the toes," or out at the elbows." 27 Here, again, to approve is to make good, to prove true, to confirm. 28 The saw, that is, the saying or proverb, alluded to is, "Out of God's blessing into the warm sun"; which was used to signify the state of one cast out from the comforts and charities of home, and left exposed to the social inclemencies of the world. Lyly, in his Euphues, has an apt instance of the proverb reversed: "Therefore, if thou wilt follow my advice, and prosecute thine owne determination, thou shalt come out of a warm Sunne into God's blessing." See vol. iv. page 182, note 29. 29 That is, hardly any but the miserable see miracles. Here see probably means experience, - a sense in which it is often used. Kent appears to be thinking of the supernatural cures and acts of beneficence recorded in the Gospels, where indeed miracles are almost never wrought but in behalf of the wretched; and upon this thought he seems to be building a hope of better times, both for himself and the old King; while, on the other hand, nothing short of a miraculous providence seems able to turn their course of misfortune. Who hath most fortunately been inform'd Of my obscured course; and shall find time, Losses their remedies.30 All weary and o'erwatch'd, This shameful lodging. Fortune, good night: smile once more; turn thy wheel! SCENE III. The open Country. [Sleeps. Enter EDGAR. Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd; And by the happy1 hollow of a tree Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place, Does not attend my taking. While I'may 'scape, That ever penury, in contempt of man, Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth; 80 I here adopt the arrangement and explanation proposed to me by Mr. Joseph Crosby. The verbs know and shall find are in the same construction: "I know, and I shall find." Enormous is used in its proper Latin sense of abnormal, anomalous, or out of rule; and refers to Kent's own situation, his "obscurèd course." So, in the Shakespeare portion of The Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1, Mars is addressed, "O great corrector of enormous times, shaker of o'er-rank States." So that the meaning comes thus: "From this anomalous state of mine, I shall gain time to communicate and co-operate with Cordelia in her endeavour to restore the kingdom to its former condition; 'to give losses their remedies,' that is, to reinstate Lear on the throne, Cordelia in his favour, and myself in his confidence, and in my own rights and titles." All this Kent utters in a disjointed way, because half-asleep; and then, having viewed the situation as hopefully as he can, he puts up a prayer to Fortune, and drops off to sleep. 1-Here, as often, happy is propitious or lucky; like the Latin felix. Blanket my loins; elf all my hair in knots;2 4 prayers, CURSOS 2 The entangling and knotting of the hair was supposed to be done by elves and fairies in the night; hence called elf-knots. 8 In The Bell-Man of London, by Dekker, 1640, is an 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, especially in his armes, which paine he gladly puts himselfe to, only to make you believe he is out of his wits. He calls himselfe by the name of Poore Tom, and, coming near any body, cries out, Poor Tom is a-cold." 4 Pelting is paltry or insignificant. See vol. vi. page 165, note 9. 5 Bans is curses. The Poet had no doubt often seen such lunatics roving about in obscure places, and extorting pittances here and there, sometimes by loud execrations, sometimes by petitionary whinings. 6 Turlygood appears to have been a corruption of Turlupin, a name applied to a fanatical sect that overran France, Italy, and Germany in the 13th and 14th centuries. 'Their manners and appearance," says Douce, " exhibited the strongest indications of lunacy and distraction. The common people called them Turlupins. Their subsequent appellation of the fraternity of poor men might have been the cause why the wandering rogues called Bedlam beggars, one of whom Edgar personates, assumed or obtained the title of Turlupins or Turlygoods." |