(Which I can call but now) I have heard strange Your graces are right welcome. news. Reg. If it be true, all vengeance comes too short, Which can pursue the offender. How does my lord? Glo. O, madam, my old heart is crack'd, is 5 crack'd! [life? Reg. What, did my father's godson seek your He whom my father nam'd? your Edgar? Glo. O, lady, lady, shame would have it hid! Reg. Was he not companion with the riotous 10 That tend upon my father? Glo. I know not, madam: It is too bad, too bad. [knights Edm. Yes, madam, he was of that consort. Corn. Nor I, assure thee, Regan.— Edm. 'Twas my duty, sir. Glo. He did bewray his practice'; and receiv'd This hurt you see, striving to apprehend him, Corn. Is he pursu'd? Glo. Ay, my good lord. Corn. If he be taken, he shall never more Be fear'd of doing harm: make your own purpose, SCENE II. [Excunt 4 Stew. Why then I care not for thee. Kent. If I had thee in Lipsbury 1 pinfold, I would make thee care for me. Stew. Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not. Kent. Fellow, I know thee. Stew. What dost thou know me for? Kent. A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three20 suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking' knave; a lily-liver'd, action-taking knave; a whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that would'st be a bawd, in way of good service, and 25 art nothing but the composition of a knave, beg. gar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mungrel bitch; one whom I will beat into cla mourous whining, if thou deny'st the least syllable of thy addition. 30 Stew. Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail on one, that is neither known of thee, or knows thee? Kent. What a brazen-fac'd varlet art thou, to deny thou know'st me? Is it two days ago, since Natures of such deep trust we shall much need; 35 tript up thy heels, and beat thee, before the You we first seize on. Edm. I shall serve you, sir, Truly, however else." Glo. For him I thank your grace, Corn. You know not why we came to visit you. 40| night. Occasions, noble Gloster, of some prize 2, Glo. I serve you, madam: king? Draw, you rogue: for though it be night, yet the moon shines; I'll make a sop o' the moonshine of you 10: Draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger", draw. [Drawing his sword. Stew. Away; I have nothing to do with thee. Kent. Draw, you rascal: you come with letters against the king; and take vanity the puppet's part, against the royalty of her father: Draw, you rogue, or I'll so carbonado your shanks:-draw, 45 you rascal; come your ways. Stew. Help, ho! murder! help! Kent. Strike, you slave; stand, rogue, stand; you neat slave, strike. [Beating him. Stew. Help, ho! murder! murder! 50 Enter Edmund, Cornwall, Regan, Gloster, and Sercants. Edm. How now? What's the matter? Part. Prize, 1i. e. discover, betray.-Practice is always used by Shakspeare for insidious mischief. or price, for value. i. e. not at home, but at some other place. * Lipsbury pinfold may be a cant expression importing the same as Lob's Pound. Three-suited knave might mean, in an age of ostentatious finery like that of Shakspeare, one who had no greater change of raiment than three suits would furnish him with. A hundred-pound gentleman is a term of reproach. 'A worstedstocking knave is another term of reproach.-The stockings in Eugland, in the reign of queen Eliza, beth, were remarkably expensive, and scarcely any other kind than silk were worn, even by those who had not above forty shillings a year wages. Lily-liver'd is cowardly; white-blooded and white-liver'd are still in vulgar use. 9 ? i. e. titles. 10 This is equivalent to our modern phrase of making the sun shine through any one. "Barber-monger may mean dealer in the lower tradesmen : a slur upon the steward, as taking fees for a recommendation to the business of the family. a cat slave, means no more than you finical rascal, you who are an assemblage of foppery and poverty. 12 You Kent. Corn. What is your difference? Speak. Corn. Thou art a strange fellow : A tailor make a man? Kent. Ay, a tailor, sir: a stone-cutter, or a paint-15 er could not have made him so ill, though they had been but two hours at the trade. Corn. Speak yet, how grew your quarrel? Stew. This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spar'd At suit of his grey beard, Kent. His countenance likes me not. [or hers I have seen better faces in my time Corn. This is some fellow, [affect 9 Kent. Sir, in good sooth, or in sincere verity, Under the allowance of your grand aspect, Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire 20On flickering " Phoebus' front, Kent. Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter!--My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar, and] daub the wall of a jakes with him.-Spare my 25 grey beard, you wagtail? Corn. Peace, sirrah! You beastly knave, you know no reverence? Kent. That such a slave as this should wear a [these, Corn. Why dost thou call him knave? What's 30 Corn. What mean'st thou by this? Kent. To go out of my dialect, which you discommend so much. I know, sir, I am no flatterer: he that beguil'd 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 it. Corn. What was the offence you gave him? It pleas'd the king his master, very late, Kent. None of these rogues, and cowards, 40 But Ajax is their fool 12. [gart, Corn. Fetch forth the stocks, ho! Kent. Sir, I am too old to learn: 45 Call not your stocks for me: I serve the king; 50 Corn. Fetch forth the stocks: The 'Mr. Steevens observes, that Zed is here probably used as a term of contempt, because it is the last letter in the English alphabet, and as its place may be supplied by S, and the Roman alphabet has it not, neither is it read in any word originally Teutonic. Unbolted mortar, according to Mr. Tollett, is mortar made of unsifted lime; and therefore, to break the lumps, it is necessary to tread it by men in wooden shoes. This unbolted villain is, therefore, this course rascal. By these holy cords, the poet means the natural union between parents and children.-The metaphor is taken from the cords of the sanctuary; and the fomenters of family-differences are compared to these sacrilegious rats. halcyon is the bird otherwise called the king-fisher.-The vulgar opinion was, that this bird, if hung up, would vary with the wind, and by that means shew from what point it blew. The frighted countenance of a man ready to fall in a fit. "Camelot was the place where, the romances say, king Arthur kept his court in the West: so this alludes to some proverbial speech in those romances.-In Somersetshire, adds Hanmer, near Camelot, are many large moors, where are bred great quantities of geese, so that many other places are from hence supplied with quills and feathers. 'i. e. pleases me not. i.e. forces his outside or his appearance to something totally different from his natural disposition. Silly here means only simple, or rustic. 10 i. e. foolishly. Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, rays; this word means to flutter, Their fool means here, their butt, their laughing-stock. As I have life and honour, there shall he sit 'till noon. Regan. 'Till noon! 'till night, my lord; and all night too. Kent. Why, madam, if I were your father's dog, 5 You should not use me so. Regan. Sir, being his knave, I will. [Stocks brought out. Corn. This is a fellow of the self-same colour Our sister speaks of:-Come, bring away the|10| stocks. Glo. Let me beseech your grace not to do so: Is such, as basest and the meanest wretches, Corn. I'll answer that. [worse, 20 [Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold Fortune, good night; smile once more; turn thy SCENE III. Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd; [Kent is put in the stocks. 25 Come, my good lord; away. [Exeunt Regan, and Cornwall. Glo. I am sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure, Whose disposition, all the world well knows, [thee, 30 Kent. Pray, do not, sir: I have watch'd, and Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle. Glo. The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill Kent. Good king, that must approve the com mon saw! Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st To the warm sun'! Approach, thou beacon to this under globe, 35 40 1451 [time? Kent. Hail to thee, noble master! Fool. Ha, ha; look! he wears cruel' garters! That art now to exemplify the common proverb, that out of, &c.; that changest better for worse. Hanmer observes, that it is a proverbial saying, applied to those who are turned out of house and home to the open weather. It was perhaps first used of men dismissed from an hospital, or house of charity, such as was erected formerly in many places for travellers. Those houses had names properly enough alluded to by heaven's benediction.-The suw alluded to, is in Heywood's Dialogues on Proverbs, book ii. chap. 5. "In your running from him to me, ye runne 3i. e. skewers. 2 Hair knotted, was vulgarly supposed to be the work of elves and fairies in the night. i. e. paltry. To ban, is to curse. Mr. Steevens believes that a quibble was here intended. ? Over-lusty in * Nether-stocks is the Crewel signifies worsted, of which stockings, garters, night-caps, &c. are made. Fool. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring in the winter. All that follow their noses are led by their eyes, but blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty but 5 can smell him that's stinking. Let go thy hold, when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it; but the great one that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine 10again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it. [murder Kent. My lord, when at their home 20 I did commend your highness' letters to them, Fool. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese Fathers, that wear rags, Do make their children blind; But fathers, that bear bags, Shall see their children kind. That, sir, which serves and seeks for gain, The knave turns fool, that runs away; Kent. Where learn'd you this, fool? Re-enter Lear, with Gloster. Lear. Deny to speak with me? They are sick, They have travell'd hard to-night? Mere fetches; Glo. My dear lord, 30 You know the fiery quality of the Duke; 35 40 Ne'er turns the key to the poor.But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours | from thy dear daughters, as thou canst tell in a 45 year. Lear. O, how this mother swells toward my Hysterica passio! down, thou climbing sorrow, Kent. None. [Exit. How chance the king comes with so small a train? 50 Lear. Vengeance! plague! death! confusion! Fiery? what quality? Why, Gloster, Gloster, I'd speak with the duke of Cornwall, and his wife. Glo. Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them [me, man? Lear. Inform'd them! Dost thou understand Glo. Ay, my good lord. So. Lear. The king would speak with Cornwall; fore For the sound man.-Death on my state! where[Looking on Kent. Should he sit here? This act persuades me, 55 That this remotion of the duke and her Is practice only. Give me my servant forth: Go, tell the duke and his wife, I'd speak with them, [me, Now, presently; bid them come forth and near That is, to violate the public and venerable character of a messenger from the king. 2 Spite of intermission means without pause, without suffering time to intervene. i. e. people. The meaning .is, If this be their behaviour, the king's troubles are not yet at an end. A quibble is here intended between dolours and dollars. The word twenty refers to the noses of the blind men, and not to the men in general. Practice is here used in au ill sense for unlawful urtifice. Or at their chamber door I'll beat the drum, "Till it cry, Sleep to death. Glo. I would have all well betwixt you. [Exit. Lear. O me, my heart, my rising heart!—but 5 down. Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney' did to the eels, when she put them i' the paste alive; she rapt 'em o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cry'd,] Down, wantons, down:' 'Twas her brother, 10 that, in pure kindness to his horse, butter'd his hay. Enter Cornwall, Regan, Gloster, and Servants. Corn. Hail to your grace! [Kent is set at liberty. 15 Lear. Regan, I think you are; I know what reason Thy tender-hefted' nature shall not give [thine I have to think so: if thou should'st not be glad, I can scarce speak to thee; thou'lt not believe, Reg. I pray you, sir, take patience; I have hope, Lear. Say? how is that? Reg. I cannot think, my sister in the least Lear. My curses on her! Of her contine; you should be rul'd, and led Lear. Ask her forgiveness? Do you but mark how this becomes the house 3? [Kneeling. 50 "That you'll vouchsafe me raiment,bed,and food." Reg. Good sir, no more; these are unsightly Return you to my sister. Lear. Never, Regan: She hath abated me of half my train; [tricks: Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue 2 Reg. I pray you, father, being weak, seem so. If, 'till the expiration of your month, Alluding to the fable of Prometheus. House here signifies 1i. e., probably, a cook or scullion. the order of families, duties of relation. * This may mean, old people are useless. 'i. e. to humble, to pull down. Hefted, Mr. Steevens says, seems to mean the same as heaved: Tender-hefted, i. e. whose bosom is agitated by tender passions. 'i. e. to contract my allowances or proportions settled. -Sizes are certain portions of bread, beer, or other victuals, which in colleges are set down to the account of particular persons. i. e. approve. To find, means little more than to think. 10 By less You advancement is meant, a still worse or more disgraceful situation; a situation not so reputable. |