The Listance "string together Gon. This man hath had good counsel! A hundred knights! 'Tis politic and safe to let him keep At point 37 a hundred knights! yes, that, on every dream, Alb. Well, you may fear too far.38 Safer than trust too far: Let me still take away the harms I fear, Re-enter OSWALD. How now, Oswald ! What, have you writ that letter to my sister? Osw. Ay, madam. Gon. Take you some company, and away to horse : Inform her full of my particular fear; And thereto add such reasons of your own 39 As may compact it more. So get you gone, And hasten your return. [Exit OSWALD.]—No, no, my lord; Though I condemn it not, yet, under pardon, 37 At point is completely armed, and so ready on the slightest notice. 39 That is, make it more consistent and credible: strengthen it. " You are much more attask'd 41 for want of wisdom Alb. How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell : Gon. Nay, then Alb. Well, well; the event.43 SCENE V.. Court before the Same. Enter LEAR, KENT, and the Fool. [Exeunt. Ac If your diligence Lear. Go you before to Gloster with these letters. quaint my daughter no further with any thing you know than comes from her demand out of the letter.1 be not speedy, I shall be there2 afore you. Kent. I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered your letter. [Exit. Fool. If a man's brains were in's heels, were't not in danger of kibes ? 3 41 The word task is frequently used by Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the sense of tax. So in the common phrase of our time, " Taken to task"; that is, called to account, or reproved. 42 That is, praised for a mildness that is harmful in its effects. 43 As before implied, Albany shrinks from a word-storm with his helpmate, and so tells her, in effect," Well, let us not quarrel about it, but wait and see how your course works." In their marriage, Goneril had somewhat the advantage of her husband; because, to be sure, she was a king's daughter, and he was not. 1 This instruction to Kent is very well-judged. The old King feels mortified at what has happened, and does not want Kent to volunteer any information about it to his other daughter. 2 The word there shows that when the King says, "Go you before to Gloster," he means the town of Gloster, which Shakespeare chose to make the residence of the Duke of Cornwall, to increase the probability of his setting out late from thence on a visit to the Earl of Gloster. The old English earls usually resided in the counties from whence they took their titles. Lear, not finding his son-in-law and daughter at home, follows them to the Earl of Gloster's castle. 8 Kibe is an old name for a heel-sore. See vol. vii. page 51, note 51. Lear. Ay, boy. Fool. Then, I pr'ythee, be merry; thy wit shall not go slip-shod.4 Lear. Ha, ha, ha ! Fool. Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly;5 for though she's as like this as a crab's like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell. the fruit Lear. What canst tell, boy? Fool. She will taste as like this as a crab does to a crab. Thou canst tell why one's nose stands i' the middle on's face? Lear. No. Fool. Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose; that what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into. Lear. I did her wrong.8 Fool. Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell? Lear. No. Fool. Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house. Lear. Why? Fool. Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his daughters, and leave his horns without a case. 4 I do not well see the force or application of this. The best comment I have met with on the passage is Moberly's: "The Fool laughs at Kent's promise of rapidity, and says, first, that, 'when men's brains are in their heels,' (that is, when they have no more wit than is needed, to go fast,) 'they may get brain-chilblains'; and, secondly, that, as Lear has no brains, he is in no such danger.' 5 The Fool quibbles, using kindly in two senses; as it means affectionately, and like the rest of her kind, or according to her nature. The Poet often uses kind in this sense. See vol. iv. page 220, note 2. 6 Crab refers to the fruit so-called, not to the fish. So in Lyly's Euphues. "The sower Crabbe hath the shew of an Apple as well as the sweet Pippin.” 7 Shakespeare often has of where we should use on, and vice versa; as on's in the Fool's preceding speech. See vol. xiii. page 124, note 5. 8 Lear is now stung with remorse for his treatment of Cordelia. Lear. I will forget my nature. So kind a father ! — Be my horses ready? Fool. Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the seven stars 10 are no more than seven is a pretty reason. Lear. Because they are not eight? Fool. Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good Fool. Lear. How's that? Fool. Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise. Lear. O, let me not be mad,12 not mad, sweet Heaven! Keep me in temper: I would not be mad! — Enter a Gentleman. How now! are the horses ready? Gent. Ready, my lord. Lear. Come, boy. *Fool. She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure, *Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter. [Exeunt. 9 Forget in the sense of put off, disown, or forsake. Lear means that he will renounce the kindness which is naturally his. 10 This is commonly thought to mean the constellation Pleiades. But I am apt to think that Mr. Furness is right: "May it not refer to the Great Bear, whose seven stars are the most conspicuous group in the circle of perpetual apparition in the Northern Hemisphere? - so conspicuous, inded, that the Latin word for North was derived from them. We call this constellation 'The Dipper,' from its fancied resemblance to the utensil of that name; a name, I believe, scarcely known in England. 11 He is meditating on what he has before threatened, namely, to resume the shape which he has cast off." 12 The mind's own anticipation of madness! The deepest tragic notes are often struck by a half-sense of the impending blow. - COLEridge. кле завоно ACT II. SCENE I.. A Court within GLOSTER'S Castle. Enter EDMUND and CURAN, meeting. Edm. Save thee, Curan. Cur. And you, sir. I have been with your father, and given him notice that the Duke of Cornwall and Regan his duchess will be here with him this night. Edm. How comes that? Cur. Nay, I know not. You have heard of the news abroad? I mean the whisper'd ones, for they are yet but earkissing arguments.1 Edm. Not I: pray you, what are they? Cur. Have you heard of no likely wars toward 2 'twixt the Dukes of Cornwall and Albany? Edm. Not a word. Cur. You may do, then, in time. Fare you well, sir. [Exit. Edm. The duke be here to-night? The better! best! This weaves itself perforce into my business. Enter EDGAR. My father watches: O sir, fly this place! 1 "Ear-kissing arguments" are words spoken with the speaker's lips close to the hearer's ear, as if kissing him; whispers. 2 Toward is forthcoming or at hand. See vol. xiv. page 316, note 63. 3 "A queasy question" is a matter delicate, ticklish, or difficult to manage; as a queasy stomach is impatient of motion. |