Corn. Peace, sirrah!

You beastly knave, know you no reverence?
Kent. Yes, sir; but anger has a privilege.

Corn. Why art thou angry?

Kent. That such a slave as this should wear a sword, Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these, Like rats, oft bite the holy cords in twain

Which are too intrinse' t'unloose: smooth every passion
That in the natures of their lords rebels;

Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods;
Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon2 beaks
With every gale and vary of their masters,
As knowing nought, like dogs, but following.—
A plague upon your epileptick visage !a
Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool?
Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain,

I'd drive ye cackling home to Camelot."
Corn. What, art thou mad, old fellow?

Glo.

Say that.

How fell you out?

Kent. No contraries hold more antipathy, Than I and such a knave.

Corn. Why dost thou call him knave? What's his Kent. His countenance likes me not.c

[offence?

Corn. No more, perchance, does mine, or his, or hers, Kent. Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain;

I have seen better faces in my time,

Than stands on any shoulder that I see
Before me at this instant.

Corn.

This is some fellow,

Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect
A saucy roughness; and constrains the garb,

intrinse]-for intrinsicate, i. e. Intricate.

and turn their halcyon beaks, &c.] The 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 show from what point it blew.STEEVENS.

a

epileptick visage !] The frighted countenance of a man ready to fall in a

fit.-JOHNSON.

bCamelot.] In Somersetshire, 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.-HANMER.

с

likes me not,] i. e. Pleases me not.

Quite from his nature: He cannot flatter, he !—
An honest mind and plain,-he must speak truth:
An they will take it, so; if not, he's plain.

These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness
Harbour more craft, and more corrupter ends,
Thantwenty sillye ducking observants,

That stretch their duties nicely.f

Kent. Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity,

Under the allowance of your grand aspéct,
Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire
On flickerings 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 it.h

Corn. What was the offence you gave him?

Stew.

I never gave him

any:

It pleas'd the king his master, very late,

To strike at me, upon his misconstruction;

When he, conjunct, and flattering his displeasure,
Tripp'd me behind: being down, insulted, rail'd,
And put upon him such a deal of man,
That worthy'd him, got praises of the king
For him attempting who was self-subdu'd;
And, in the fleshment of this dread exploit,
Drew on me here.

Kent.

None of these rogues, and cowards,

But Ajax is their fool.k

constrains the garh,

Quite from his nature:] Forces his outside or his appearance to something totally different from his natural disposition.-JOHNSON.

g

silly,] i. e. Simple.

nicely,] i. e. With punctilious folly. Niais, Fr.-STEEVENS.
flickering,] i. e. Wavering as a flame.

Though I should win your displeasure to entreat me to it.] Though I should win you, displeased as you now are, to like me so well as to entreat me to be a knave.-JOHNSON.

· fleshment-] A young soldier is said to flesh his sword, the first time he draws blood with it. Fleshment, therefore, is here metaphorically applied to the first act of service, which Kent, in his new capacity, had performed for his master.-HENLEY.

But Ajax is their fool.] i. e. Is a fool to them.-M. MASON.

Corn.

Fetch forth the stocks, ho!

You stubborn ancient knave, you reverend braggart,

We'll teach you—

Kent.
Sir, I am too old to learn:
Call not your stocks for me: I serve the king;
On whose employment I was sent to you:
You shall do small respect, show too bold malice
Against the grace and person of my master,
Stocking his messenger.

Corn.

Fetch forth the stocks:

As I've life and honour, there shall he sit till noon.

Reg. Till noon! till night, my lord; and all night too. Kent. Why, madam, if I were your father's dog,

You should not use me so.

Reg.

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 stocks.
Glo. Let me beseech your grace not to do so:
His fault is much, and the good king his master
Will check him for't: your purpos'd low correction
Is such, as basest and contemned'st wretches,
For pilferings and most common trespasses,
Are punish'd with: the king must take it ill,
That he's so slightly valued in his messenger,
Should have him thus restrain'd.

I'll answer that.

Corn.
Reg. My sister may receive it much more worse,
To have her gentleman abus'd, assaulted,

For following her affairs.-Put in his legs.—

Come, my good lord; away.

[KENT is put in the Stocks.'

[Exeunt REGAN and CORNWALL.

Glo. I am sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's plea

sure,

Whose disposition, all the world well knows,

Will not be rubb'd, nor stopp'd: I'll entreat for thee.

It should be remembered, that formerly in great houses, as still in some colleges, there were moveable stocks for the correction of the servants.-FARMER. - rubb'd nor stopp'd:] Metaphor from bowling.-WARBURTON.

m

Kent. Pray, do not, sir: I have watch'd, and travell'd Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle. [hard; A good man's fortune may grow out at heels:

Give you good morrow!

Glo. The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill taken.

[Exit. Kent. Good king, that must approve the common saw!" Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st

To the warm sun!

Approach, thou beacon to this under globe,
That by thy comfortable beams I may

Peruse this letter!-Nothing almost sees miracles,
But misery;-I know, 'tis from Cordelia;
Who hath most fortunately been inform'd
Of my obscured course; and shall find time
From this enormous state,-seeking to give

Losses their remedies :-All weary and o'er-watch'd,
Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold

This shameful lodging.

Fortune, good night; smile once more; turn thy wheel!

[He sleeps.

SCENE III.

A part of the Heath.

Enter EDGAR.

Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd;

And, by the happy hollow of a tree,

Escap'd the hunt. No port is free; no place,

That guard, and most unusual vigilance,

Does not attend my taking. While I may scape,

I will preserve myself: and am bethought

"Good king, that must opprove the common saw! &c.] The saw alluded to, is in Heywood's Dialogues on Proverbs,

"In your running from him to me, ye runne

Out of God's blessing into the warme sunne.”

i. e. from good to worse.-TYRWHITT and MALONE.

and shall find time

From this enormous state,-seeking to give

Losses their remedies :] i. e. “I shall gain time from this enormous state, (i.e. my strange disguise and situation,) which time I shall employ in seeking to remedy our present losses."-To be dressed like a clown, and condemned to the stocks, was an enormous state indeed for a man of Kent's birth.-M. MASON.

To take the basest and most poorest shape,

That ever penury, in contempt of man,

Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth;
Blanket my loins; elf all my hair in knots;"
And with presented nakedness out-face
The winds and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms
Pins, wooden pricks,' nails, sprigs of rosemary;
And with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes and mills,

Sometime with lunatick bans, sometime with prayers,
Enforce their charity.-Poor Turlygood!" poor Tom!
That's something yet;-Edgar I nothing am.

SCENE IV.

Before Gloster's Castle.

Enter LEAR, Fool, and Gentleman.

[Exit.

Lear. 'Tis strange, that they should so depart from home, And not send back my messenger.

As I learn'd,

Gent.
The night before there was no purpose in them
Of this remove.
Kent.

Hail to thee, noble master!

elf all my hair in knots;] Hair thus knotted, was vulgarly supposed to be the work of elves and fairies in the night.-STEEVENS.

a Of Bedlam beggars,]" He swears he has been in Bedlam, and will talke frantickly of purpose: you see pinnes stuck in sundry places of his naked flesh, especially in his armes, which pain he gladly puts himselfe to, only to make you believe he is out of his wits. He calls himselfe by the name of poor Tom, and comming near any body cries out, Poor Tom is a-cold." Decker's Bell-man of London, 5th. edit. 1640. The above description is of a species of impostors whom the author calls Abraham-Men.-STEEVENS.

t

wooden pricks,] i. e. Skewers. pelting,] i. e. Petty. bans,] i. e. Curses. To ban is to curse. Turlygood,] A name for a sort of beggar described in the preceding lines. I cannot persuade myself that this word, however similar in meaning, has any real connexion with Turlupin (a kind of naked beggar common in the fourteenth century), notwithstanding the authority of Warburton and Douce. It seems to be an original English term, being too remote in form from the other, to be a corruption from it.-NARES' Glossary.

X

Edgar I nothing am.] i. e. I retain nothing of my former self:-I am no longer Edgar.