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Horfes are tied by the heads; dogs, and bears, by the neck; monkies by the loins, and men by the legs when a man is over-lufty' at legs, then he wears wooden nether-ftocks.2

LEAR. What's he, that hath so much thy place miftook

To fet thee here?

ΚΕΝΤ.

It is both he and fhe,

Your fon and daughter.

Again, in Woman's a Weathercock, 1612:

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Wearing of filk, why art thou ftill fo cruel."

STEEVENS. -over-lufty-] Over-lufty, in this place, has a double fignification. Luftinefs anciently meant faucinefs.

So, in Decker's If this be not a good Play the Devil is in it, 1612:

"upon pain of being plagued for their luftynefs." Again, in Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607:

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fhe'll fnarl and bite,

"And take up Nero for his luftiness."

Again, in Sir Thomas North's tranflation of Plutarch: "Caffius' foldiers did fhewe themselves verie ftubborne and luftie in the campe," &c. STEEVENS.

2then he wears wooden nether-ftocks.] Nether-flocks is the old word for ftockings. Breeches were at that time called "men's overstockes," as I learn from Barrett's Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580.

It appears from the following paffage in the fecond part of The Map of Mock Beggar Hall, &c. an ancient ballad, that the ftockings were formerly fewed to the breeches:

"Their fathers went in homely frees,

"And good plain broad-cloth breeches ; "Their ftockings with the fame agrees,

"Sew'd on with good strong ftitches."

Stubbs, in his Anatomie of Abufes, has a whole chapter on The Diverfitie of Nether-Stockes worne in England," 1595. Heywood among his Epigrams, 1562, has the following:

"Thy upper-flocks, be they ftuft with filke or flocks,
"Never become thee like a nether paire of stocks."

STEEVENS.

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LEAR. NO.

KENT. Yes.

LEAR. No, I fay.

KENT. I fay, yea.

LEAR.3 No, no; they would not.

KENT. Yes, they have.

LEAR. By Jupiter, I swear no.

KENT. By Juno, I swear, ay.4

LEAR. They durft not do't;

They could not, would not do't; 'tis worfe thart murder,

To do upon respect fuch violent outrage: 5 Refolve me, with all modest hafte, which way Thou might'ft deferve, or they impofe, this ufage, Coming from us.

KENT.

My lord, when at their home

3 Lear.] This and the next fpeech are omitted in the folio. -I have left the reft as I found them, without any attempt at metrical divifion; being well convinced that, as they are collected from difcordant copies, they were not all defigned to be preserved, and therefore cannot, in our ufual method, be arranged. STEEVENS.

4 By Juno, I fwear, ay.]

Omitted in the quartos.

STEEVENS. To do upon refpect fuch violent outrage:] To violate the publick and venerable character of a messenger from the king. JOHNSON.

To do an outrage upon refpect, does not, I believe, primarily mean, to behave outrageously to perfons of a respectable character, (though that in substance is the fense of the words,) but rather, to be grossly deficient in respect to thofe who are entitled to it, confidering respect as perfonified. So before in this fcene:

"You fhall do fmall respect, fhow too bold malice
"Against the grace and person of my master,
"Stocking his meffengers." MALONE.

I did commend your highness' letters to them,
Ere I was rifen from the place that show'd
My duty kneeling, came there a reeking poft,
Stew'd in his hafte, half breathlefs, panting forth
From Goneril his miftrefs, falutations;
Deliver'd letters, fpite of intermiffion,"

Which presently they read: on whofe contents, They fummon'd up their meiny," ftraight took horfe;

6 Deliver'd letters, fpite of intermiffion,] Intermiffion, for another meffage, which they had then before them, to confider of; called intermiffion, because it came between their leisure and the Steward's meffage. WARBURTON.

Spite of intermiffion is without paufe, without fuffering time to intervene. So, in Macbeth:

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"Cut fhort all intermiffion," &c. STEEVENS.

Spite of intermiffion, perhaps means in fpite of, or without regarding, that meffage which intervened, and which was entitled to precedent attention.

Spite of intermiffion, however, may mean, in fpite of being obliged to paufe and take breath, after having panted forth the falutation from his miftrefs. In Cawdrey's Alphabetical Table of hard Words, 1604, intermiffion is defined, "foreflowing, a pawfing or breaking off." MALONE.

7 They fummon'd up their meiny,] Meiny, i. e. people.

Mefne, a house. Mefnie, a family, Fr.

So, in Monfieur D'Olive, 1606:

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if fhe, or her fad meiny,

"Be towards fleep, I'll wake them."

POPE.

Again, in the bl. 1. romance of Syr Eglamoure of Artoys, no

date :

Again:

"Of the Emperoure took he leave ywys,

"And of all the meiny that was there."

"Here cometh the king of Ifrael,

"With a fayre meinye." STEEVENS.

So, in Lambard's Archeion, 1635, p. 2: "—whileft all the world confifted of a few householders, the elder (or father of the family) exercised authoritie over his meyney. REED.

Commanded me to follow, and attend

The leifure of their anfwer; gave me cold looks: And meeting here the other meffenger,

Whose welcome, I perceiv'd, had poison'd mine,
(Being the very fellow that of late

Display'd fo faucily against your highness,)
Having more man than wit about me, drew;8
He rais'd the house with loud and coward cries:
Your fon and daughter found this trespass worth
The fhame which here it fuffers.

FOOL. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geefe fly that way.

Though the word meiny be now obfolete, the word menial, which is derived from it, is ftill in ufe. On whose contents, means the contents of which. M. MASON.

Menial is by fome derived from fervants being intra moenia, or domesticks. An etymology favoured by the Roman termination of the word. Many, in Kent's fenfe, for train or retinue, was used fo late as Dryden's time:

"The many rend the skies with loud applaufe."
Ode on Alexander's Feaft.
HOLT WHITE.

Having more man than wit about me, drew;] The perfonal pronoun, which is found in a preceding line, is understood before the word having. The fame licence is taken by our poet in other places. See A&t IV. fc. ii: “ and amongst them fell'd him dead;" where they is understood. So, in Vol. XV. p. 42:

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-which if granted,

"As he made femblance of his duty, would

"Have put his knife into him."

where he is understood before would.

See alfo Hamlet, A& II.

fc. ii: " -whereat griev'd,―fends out arrefts."-The modern editors, following Sir Thomas Hanmer, read-I drew.

MALONE.

Winter's not gone yet, &c.] If this be their behaviour, the

king's troubles are not yet at an end. JOHNSON.

This fpeech is omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS.

Fathers, that wear rags,

Do make their children blind;
But fathers, that bear bags,

Shall fee their children kind.
Fortune, that arrant whore,

Ne'er turns the key to the poor.

But, for all this, thou fhalt have as many dolours' for thy daughters, as thou can't tell in a year. LEAR. O, how this mother3 fwells up toward my heart!

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dollars.

dolours-] Quibble intended between dolours and HANMER.

The fame quibble had occurred in The Tempest, and in Meafure for Meafure. STEEVENS.

2

-for thy daughters,] i. e. on account of thy daughters' ingratitude. In the first part of the fentence dolours is understood in its true sense; in the latter part it is taken for dollars. The modern editors have adopted an alteration made by Mr.Theobald, -from inftead of for; and following the fecond folio, read-thy dear daughters. MALONE.

3 O, how this mother &c.] Lear here affects to pafs off the fwelling of his heart ready to burft with grief and indignation, for the disease called the Mother, or Hyfterica Paffio, which, in our author's time, was not thought peculiar to women only. In Harfnet's Declaration of Popijh Impoftures, Richard Mainy, Gent. one of the pretended demoniacks, depofes, p. 263, that the first night that he came to Denham, the feat of Mr. Peckham, where these impoftures were managed, he was fomewhat evill at eafe, and he grew worse and worse with an old disease that he had, and which the priests perfuaded him was from the poffeffion of the devil, viz." The disease, I spake of was a spice of the Mother, wherewith I had bene troubled... before my going into Fraunce: whether I doe rightly term it the Mother or no, I knowe not... When I was ficke of this disease in Fraunce, a Scottish doctor of phyfick then in Paris, called it, as I remember, Vertiginem Capitis. It rifeth. . . . of a winde in the bottome of the belly, and proceeding with a great fwelling, caufeth a very painfull collicke in the ftomack, and an extraordinary giddines in the head."

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