Glo.

Say that.

Kent. No contraries hold more antipathy, Than I and such a knave 17.

Corn. Why dost thou call him knave? What's his offence?

Kent. His countenance likes me not 18.

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 prais'd for bluntness, doth affect
A saucy roughness; and constrains the garb,
Quite from his nature 19; 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,
Than twenty silly 20 ducking observants,
That stretch their duties nicely.

Kent. Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity,
Under the allowance of your grand aspéct,
Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire
On flickering 21 Phoebus' front,-

17 Hence Pope's expression:

The strong antipathy of good to bad.'

18 i. e. pleases me not.

19 Forces his outside, or his appearance, to something totally different from his natural disposition.'

20 Silly, or rather sely, is simple or rustick. See vol. ix. p. 123, note 7. Nicely here is with scrupulous nicety, punctilious observance.

21 This expressive word is now only applied to the motion and scintillation of flame. Dr. Johnson says that it means to flutter, which is certainly one of its oldest meanings, it being used in

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 22. 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 23 of this dread exploit,

Drew on me here again.

Kent.

None of these rogues, and cowards,

But Ajax is their fool24.

Corn.

Fetch forth the stocks, ho!

that sense by Chaucer. But its application is more properly made to the fluctuating scintillations of flame or light. In The Cuckoo, by Nicols, 1607, we have it applied to the eye :

Their soft maiden voice and flickering eye.'

22 Though I should win you, displeased as you now are, to like me so well as to entreat me to be a knave.'

1

23 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; and at the same time, in a sarcastic sense, as though he had esteemed it an heroic exploit to trip a man behind who was actually falling.

24 i. e. Ajax is a fool to them. 'These rogues and cowards talk in such a boasting strain that, if we were to credit their account of themselves, Ajax would appear a person of no prowess when compared to them.' So in King Henry VIII. :

now this mask

Was cry'd incomparable, and the ensuing night

Made it a fool and beggar.'

VOL. IX.

PP

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 selfsame colour Our sister speaks of:-Come, bring away the stocks 25.

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, so slightly valu'd in his -Should have him thus restrain'd. Corn.

messenger,

I'll answer that. Reg. My sister may receive it much more worse, To have her gentleman abus'd, assaulted,

25 This kind of exhibition was familiar to the ancient stage. In Hick Scorner, which was printed in the reign of Henry VIII. Pity is put into the stocks, and left there until he is freed by Perseverance and Contemplacyon.

It should be remembered that formerly in great houses, as lately in some colleges, there were moveable stocks for the correction of the servants.

For following her affairs.-Put in his legs.

[KENT is put in the Stocks.

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, Will not be rubb'd, nor stopp'd 26; I'll entreat for thee.

Kent. 'Pray, do not, sir: I have watch'd, and travell'd hard;

Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle.
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 27!

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 28-All weary and o'er-
watch'd,

26 A metaphor from bowling.

27 The saw, or proverb alluded to, is in Heywood's Dialogues on Proverbs, b. ii. c. v. :

In your running from him to me ye runne

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

i. e. from good to worse. Kent was thinking of the king being likely to receive a worse reception from Regan than that which he had already experienced from Goneril.

28 How much has been written about this passage, and how

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
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 knots1;
And with presented nakedness outface
The winds, and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,

much it has been mistaken! Its evident meaning appears to me to be as follows:-Kent addresses the sun, for whose rising he is impatient, that he may read Cordelia's letter. Nothing (says he) almost sees miracles, but misery: I know this letter which I hold in my hand is from Cordelia; who hath most fortunately been informed of my disgrace and wandering in disguise; and who seeking it, shall find time (i. e. opportunity) out of this enormous (i. e. disordered, unnatural) state of things, to give losses their remedies; to restore her father to his kingdom, herself to his love, and me to his favour.'

1 Hair thus knotted was supposed to be the work of elves and fairies in the night. So in Romeo and Juliet :

- plats the manes of horses in the night,

And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes.'

2 Aubrey, in his MS. Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, Part III. p. 234, b. (MS. Lansdowne, 226), says :-' Before the civil warrs, I remember Tom a Bedlams went about begging.