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 can smell him that's stinking 13. 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 again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it 14.

That, sir, which serves and seeks for gain,
And follows but for form,

Will pack, when it begins to rain,

And leave thee in the storm.
But I will tarry, the fool will stay,
And let the wise man fly:

The knave turns fool, that runs away;
The fool no knave, perdy.

Kent. Where learn'd you this, fool?
Fool. Not i' the stocks, fool.

Re-enter LEAR, with GLOSTER.

Lear. Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary?

13 All men, but blind men, though they follow their noses, are led by their eyes; and this class of mankind, seeing the king ruined, have all deserted him: with respect to the blind, who have nothing but their noses to guide them, they also fly equally from a king whose fortunes are declining; for of the noses of blind men there is not one in twenty but can smell him who, being 'muddy'd in fortunes mood, smells somewhat strong of her displeasure.' You need not therefore be surprised at Lear's coming with so small a train.

14 One cannot too much commend the caution which our moral poet uses on all occasions to prevent his sentiment from being perversely taken. So here, having given an ironical precept in commendation of perfidy and base desertion of the unfortunate, for fear it should be understood seriously, though delivered by his buffoon or jester, he has the precaution to add this beautiful corrective, full of fine sense:-"I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it."-Warburton.

They have travell'd hard to-night? Mere fetches; The images of revolt and flying off!

Fetch me a better answer.

Glo.

My dear lord,

You know the fiery quality of the duke;
How unremoveable and fix'd he is

In his own course.

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 so. Lear. Inform'd them! Dost thou understand me, man?

Glo. Ay, my good lord.

Lear. The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father

Would with his daughter speak, commands her service:

Are they inform'd of this?-My breath and blood!

Fiery? the fiery duke?-Tell the hot duke, that— No, but not yet:-may be, he is not well: Infirmity doth still neglect all office,

Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves,

When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind
To suffer with the body: I'll forbear;

And am fallen out with my more headier will,
To take the indispos'd and sickly fit

fore

For the sound man. Death on my state! where[Looking on KEnt. Should he sit here? This act persuades me,

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,
Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,

Or at their chamber door I'll beat the drum,
Till it cry-Sleep to death 15.

Glo. I'd have all well betwixt you.

[Exit.

Lear. O me, my heart, my rising heart!—but,

down.

Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney 16 did to the eels, when she put them i' the paste alive; she rapp'd 'em o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cry'd,

15 The meaning of this passage seems to be, I'll beat the drum till it cries out-Let them awake no more; let their present sleep be their last. Somewhat similar occurs in Troilus and Cressida:the death tokens of it

Cry no recovery.'

Mason would read, ' death to sleep,' instead of 'sleep to death.’ 16 Bullokar, in his Expositor, 1616, under the word Cockney, says, It is sometimes taken for a child that is tenderly or wan tonly brought up; or for one that has been brought up in some great town, and knows nothing of the country fashion. It is used also for a Londoner, or one born in or near the city (as we say), within the sound of Bow bell.' The etymology (says Mr. Nares) seems most probable, which derives it from cookery. Le pays de cocagne, or coquaine, in old French, means a country of good cheer. Cocagna, in Italian, has the same meaning. Both might be derived from coquina. This famous country, if it could be found, is described as a region' where the hills were made of sugar-candy, and the loaves ran down the hills, crying Come eat me.' Some lines in Camden's Remaines seem to make cokeney a name for London as well as its inhabitants. This Lubberland, as Florio calls it, seems to have been proverbial for the simplicity or gullibility of its inhabitants. A cockney and a ninny-hammer, or simpleton were convertible terms. Thus Chaucer, in The Reve's Tale :

'I shall be holden a daffe or a cokeney.'

It may be observed that cockney is only a diminutive of cock; a wanton child was so called as a less circumlocutory way of saying, my little cock,' or my bra-cock. Decker, in his Newes from Hell, 1568, says, 'Tis not our fault; but our mother's, our cockering mothers, who for their labour made us to be called cockneys.' In the passages cited from the Tournament of Tot tenham and Heywood it literally means a little cock. The reader will find a curious article on the subject in Mr. Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 151.

Down, wantons, down: 'Twas her brother, that in kindness to his horse, butter'd his hay.

pure

[KENT is set at liberty.

Reg. I am glad to see your highness.

Lear. Regan, I think you are; I know what reason
I have to think so: if thou should'st not be glad,
I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb,
Sepúlchring an adultress.-O, are you free?
[TO KENT.

Some other time for that.-Beloved Regan,
Thy sister's naught: O Regan, she hath tied
Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture here,-
[Points to his heart.
I can scarce speak to thee; thou❜lt not believe,
Of how deprav'd a quality—O Regan!
Reg. I pray you, sir, take patience; I have hope,
You less know how to value her desert,
Than she to scant her duty 17.

Lear.

Say, how is that?
Reg. I cannot think, my sister in the least
Would fail her obligation: If, sir, perchance,
She have restrain'd the riots of your followers,
'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end,
As clears her from all blame.

Lear. My curses on her!
Reg.

O, sir, you are old;

17 It is clear that the intended meaning of this passage is as Steevens observes: You less know how to value her desert, than she (knows) to scant her duty, i. e. to be wanting in it.' It is somewhat inaccurately expressed, Shakspeare having, as on some other occasions, perplexed himself by the word less. But all the verbiage of Malone was not necessary, to lay this open.

Nature in you stands on the very verge
Of her confine: you should be rul'd, and led
By some discretion, that discerns your state
Better than you yourself: Therefore, I pray you,
That to our sister you do make return;

Say, you have wrong'd her, sir 18.

Lear. Ask her forgiveness? Do you but mark how this becomes the house 19: Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;

Age is unnecessary20: on my knees I beg, [Kneeling. That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food. Reg. Good sir, no more; these are unsightly tricks : Return you to my sister.

Lear.

She hath abated me of half

Never, Regan:

my train;

Look'd black upon me: struck me with her tongue, Most serpentlike, upon the very heart:

All the stor❜d vengeances of heaven fall

On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,
You taking airs, with lameness!

Corn.

Fye, fye, fye! Lear. You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding

flames

Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,
You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun,
To fall 21 and blast her pride!

18 Say,' &c. This line and the following speech is omitted in the quartos.

19 i.e. the order of families, duties of relation. So Sir Thomas Smith, in his Commonwealth of England, 1601 :- The house I call here, the man, the woman, their children, their servants, bond and free.'

20 Unnecessary is here used in the sense of necessitous; in want of necessaries and unable to procure them. Perhaps this is also the meaning of the word in The Old Law, by Massinger:Your laws extend not to desert,

But to unnecessary years, and, my lord,
His are not such."

21 Fall seems here to be used as an active verb, signifying to