Glo. Let the superfluous, and lust-dieted man, That slaves your ordinance, that will not see Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly;

That slaves your ordinance,--] Superfluous is here used for one living in abundance. But the next line is corrupt. The only sense I know of, in which slaves your ordinance can be understood, is when men employ the form or semblance of religion to compass their ill designs. But this will not do here. Gloster is speaking of such who by an uninterrupted course of prosperity are grown wanton, and callous to the misfortunes of others; such as those who fearing no reverse, slight and neglect, and therefore may be said to brave the ordinance of heaven: which is certainly the right reading. And this is the second time in which slaves has, in this play, been read for ́ braves. WARB.

The emendation is plausible, yet I doubt whether it be right. The language of Shakspeare is very licentious, and his words have often meanings remote from the proper and original use. To slave or beslave another is to treat him with terms of indignity in a kindred sense, to slave the ordinance, may be, to slight or ridicule it. JOHN.

That slaves your ordinance.' Slave' in both the passages quoted by Mr. Steevens is enslave: but that is a sense which will not suit here, for we cannot talk of enslaving an ordinance. There is little doubt but that the Poet wrote:

Who slives your ordinance.'

To slive is an old word signifying to creep or go about dronishly. "Let the man," says Shakspeare," who is indifferent to, or negligent of your decrees, quickly feel your power." B.

Alb. Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shaine,

Be-monster not thy feature.

Thou changed, and self-cover'à thing,-] Of these lines there is but one copy, and the editors are forced upon conjecture. They have published this line thus:

Thou chang'd and self-converted thing;

but I cannot but think that by self-cover'd the author meant,

thou that hast disguised nature by wickedness: then that hast hid the woman under the fiend. Joan.

I think it not improbable but that the poet might write "self-convict," (contraction of self-convicted,) alluding to her open and violent abuse of her father. B.

Gon. But being widow, and my Gloster with

her,

May all the building in my fancy pluck

Upon my hateful life.

Upon my hateful life.'

Hateful life' is not, in this

place, a life which causes abhorrence, but one which is abhorrent, which is filled with hate. B.

Gent.

Patience and sorrow strove

You have

Who should express her goodliest.

seen

Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears

Were like a better day.

-her smiles and tears

Were like a better day.——]

It is plain, we should read, ———a wetter May.

i. e. A spring season wetter than ordinary.

We should read,

WARB.

"You have seen," says the gentleman, "sunshine and rain at once: Cordelia's smiles and tears were like the better day," i. e. like to that day in which sunshine prevails over rain. B.

Kent. Made she no verbal question?

Made she no verbal question?] Dr. Warburton would substitute quest, from the Latin questus, i. e. complaint: because, says he, what kind of question could she make but verbal. STEEV.

I do not see the impropriety of verbal question: such pleonasms are common. So we say, my ears have heard, my eyes have beheld. Besides, where is the word quest to be found? JOHN.

Verbal question.' 'Verbal' is here used in the sense of Verbose: was she not exuberant in words? was she not prolix-particular in her questions? This may well be supposed of Cordelia, and the more so by Kent, who knew her goodness and love of her father. And we find, indeed, that such were her inquiries-"What! i' the storm? i' the night?" B,

Gent. What ? ' the storm ? i the night 2 Let pity not be believed! There she shook The holy water from her heavenly eyes,

And clamor moisten'd her; then away she started To deal with grief alone.

Let pity not be believed!] i, e. Let not such a thing as pity be supposed to exist! Thus the old copies; but the modern editors have hitherto read,

Let pity not believe it!

STEEV.

"Let pity not be believed." I should prefer beleved, i. e. left, abandoned.

Let pity not be beleved!"

i. e. "Let not pity be abandoned! let not pity be wholly thrown off as unworthy of us." B:

And clamor moisten'd.] It is not impossible but Shakspeare might have formed this fine picture of Cordelia's agony from holy writ, in the conduct of Joseph; who, being no longer able to restrain the vehemence of his affection, commanded all his retinue from his presence; and then wept aloud, and discovered himself to his brethren. THEOB.

Clamor moisten'd her ;] that is, her out-cries were accom panied with tears.

JouN.

"And clamor moistened her." I do not like this “ five picture" of a lady moistened by clamor. Beside, enough had been already said of Cordelia's tears. I read : "And clamor motion'd her. Then away she started

"To pine with grief alone."

i. c. "She became agitated with passion, or seized with a kind of phrensy: after which she started away to mourn alone." A natural and beautiful picture! B.

Kent. Well, Sir: The poor distressed Lear is î' the town:

Who sometimes, in his better tune, remembers
What we are come about, and by no means
Will yield to see his daughter.

"Who sometimes in his better tune remembers." This "better tune" should be better "lune, " i. e. some remission of his madness, of his lunatic fit. B.

Cor. O dear father,

It is thy business that I go about;
Therefore great France

My mourning, and important tears, hath pitied.
Important.] In other places of this author for importunate.

JOHN.

"Important tears mean not that she was whining or importunate: beside, she had already mentioned her mourning. "Important tears" signify the greatness, the importance of her cause; a cause that had for its object no less than the preservation of her father's life. B.

Edg. From the dread summit of this chalky
bourn:

Look up a-height;-the shrill-gorg'd lark so far
Cannot be seen or heard.

Chatky bourn.] Bourn seems here to signify a hill. Its Milton in Comus uses common signification is a brook. bosky bourn, in the same sense perhaps with Shakspeare. But in both authors it may mean only a boundary. JOHN.

"Chalky bourn’ '-we should read "borne," a boundary, to distinguish it from bourn, a brook or river. Bourn, as Dr. Johnson observes, is in this place a hill.

Hills, it is well known, serve in several parts of the world as boundaries of particular countries, such are the Alps, the Pyrenees, &c. &c. The term borne, therefore, which originally signified nothing more than boundary, was at length corruptedly employed to signify the hill itself and thence "chalky borne, bosky borne," &c. B.

Edg. Therefore, thou happy father,

Think that the clearest gods, who make them

honors

Of men's impossibilities, have preserv'd thee.

The clearest gods-The purest; the most free from evil. JOHN.

I should think the poet wrote "dearest gods." He frequently applies the epithet dear to the gods. The c and /, in clearest, when joined, make a perfect d.. B.

Lear. O, well-flown, bird!-i' the clout, i' the clout: hewgh!

O, well flown, bird!] Lear is here raving of archery, and shooting at buts, as is plain by the words i the clout, that is, the white mark they set up and aim at: hence the phrase, to hit the white. So that we must read, O, well-flown, barb! i. e. the barbed or bearded arrow. WARB.

"Well-flown bird." There is no connection in this speech of Lear, no regular train of reasoning. Bird may therefore stand, and for the Falconer's expression. B.

Lear. Behold yon' simpering dame,

Whose face between her forks presageth snow;
That minces virtue, and does shake the head

To hear of pleasure's name.

Whose face between her forks.] The construction is not "whose face between her forks, &c." but "whose face presages snow between her forks." So in Timon, Act IV. sc. iii. "Whose blush does thaw the consecrated snow "That lies on Dian's lap." Canons af Criticism. To preserve the modesty of Mr. Edwards's happy explanation, I can only hint a reference to the word fourcheure in Cotgrave's Dictionary. STEEV.

"Whose face between her forks.”

This happy explanation of Mr. Edwards,' as Mr. S. is pleased to call it, must be considered as singularly unhappy, to say little in regard of its modesty :-for should this modest interpretation be admitted, we must of necessity read fork. If forks, however, must be retained in the text, Warburton's explication will be the true one. But I am still of opinion that forks' should be ferks,