Cor. Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides, Who covers faults, at last with shame derides. Well may you profper! France. Come, my fair Cordelia. [Exeunt France and Cor. Gon. Sifter, it is not little I've to say, Of what most nearly appertains to us both; I think, our father will go hence to night. Reg. That's certain, and with you; next month with us. Gon. You see how full of changes his age is, the observation we have made of it hath not been little; he always lov'd our fister most, and with what poor judgment he hath now caft her off, appears too grofsly. Reg. "Tis the infirmity of his age; yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself. Gon. The best and foundest of his time hath been but rash; then must we look, from his age, to receive not alone the imperfections of long-engrafted condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness, that infirm and cholerick years bring with them. Reg. Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him, as this of Kent's banishment. Gon. There is further compliment of leave-taking between France and him; pray you, let us hit together: if our father carry authority with fuch difpofition as he bears, this last furrender of his will but offend us. Reg. We shall further think of it. Gon. We must do something, and i'th' heat. [Exeunt. SCENE changes to a Castle belonging to the Earl of Glo'ster. Edm. T Enter EDMUND, with a Letter. HOU, Nature, art my Goddefs; to thy law Stand in the plague of custom, and permit For (5) The nicety of nations.] This is Mr. Pope's reading, ex Cathedra; for it has the fanction of none of the copies, that I have met with. They For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-fhines They all, indeed, give it us, by a foolish corruption, the Curiosity of nations; but I fome time ago prov'd, that our Author's word was, Curtejy. So, again, in As You like it; The curtesy of nations allows you my better, in that you are the first born And again, in Cymbeline, this word stands for Birth-right; aye hopelefs To have the curtesy your cradle promis'd. Nor muft we forget that tenure in our laws, whereby fome lands are held by the Curtesy of England. And I ought to take notice, that I had the concurrence of the ingenious Dr. Thirlby, who hinted to me this very emendation, before he knew I made it. (6) Who, in the lufty stealth of nature, ] These fine lines are a very fignal proof of our author's admirable art, in giving proper sentiments to his characters. And fuch a proof, as hath in it fomething very extraordinary. The Bastard's character is that of a confirm'd atheist; and the poet's making him ridicule judicial Aftrology was design'd as one inftance of that character: For that impious juggle had a religious reverence paid it at that time: and Shakespeare makes his beít characters in this very play, own and acknowledge the force of the stars influence. The poet, in short, gives an atheiftical turn to all his fentiments; and how much the lines, following this, are in this character, may be seen by that strange monstrous with, which Vanini, the infamous Neapolitan atheist, made in his tract De Admirandis Naturæ; printed at Paris in 1616, the very year that our author dy'd. "O! " Utinam extra legitimum & connubialem thorum effem pro reatus! Ita " enim progenitores mei in venerem incaluifent ardentiùs, ac cumula" tim affatimque generofa Semina contuliffent; e quibus ego formæ “ blanditiam et elegantiam, robuftas corporis vires, mentemque innubilam "confequutus fuiffem. At quia Conjugatorum fum foboles, his orbatus Now had this book been publifh'd ten years before, who would not have fworn that Shakespeare hinted at this pafsage? But the divinity of his genius here, as it were, foretold what such an atheist, as Vanini was, would say, when he wrote upon this "fum bonis." fubject. Mr. Warburton. Got 1 Got 'tween a fleep' and wake? Well then, To him, Enter Glo'ster. Glo. Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted! And the King gone to-night! subscrib'd his pow'r! Confin'd to exhibition! all is gone Upon the gad! - Edmund, how now? what news? Edm. So please your lordship, none. [Putting up the letter. Glo. Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter? Edm. Nothing, my lord. Glo. No! what needed then that terrible dispatch of it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath not fuch need to hide it felf. Let's fee; come, if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles. Edm. I beseech you, Sir, pardon me, it is a letter from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read; and for so much as I have perus'd, I find it not fit for your o'erlooking. Glo. Give me the letter, Sir. Edin. I shall offend, either to detain, or give it; the contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame. Glo. Let's fee, let's fee. Edm. I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as an essay, or taste of my virtue. Glo. reads.] This policy and reverence of ages makes the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us, 'till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny; which fways, not as it bath power, but as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would Псер, fleep, till I wak'd him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother Edgar.---Hum -Confpiracy! - fleep, 'till I wake him-you should enjoy half his revenue- My fon Edgar! had he a hand to write this! a heart and brain to breed it in! When came this to you? who brought it? Edm. It was not brought me, my lord; there's the cunning of it. I found it thrown in at the cafement of my closet. Glo. You know the character to be your brother's? Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear, it were his; but in respect of that, I would fain think, it were not. Glo. It is his. Edm. It is his hand, my lord; I hope, his heart is not in the contents. Glo. Has he never before founded you in this business ? Edm. Never, my lord. But I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit, that fons at perfect age, and fathers declining, the father should be as a ward to the fon, and the fon manage his revenue. Glo. O villain, villain! his very opinion in the letter. Abhorred villain! unnatural, detested, brutish villain! worse than brutish! Go, firrah, seek him; I'll apprehend him. Abominable villain! where is he? Edm. I do not well know, my lord; if it shall please you to fufpend your indignation against my brother, 'till you can derive from him better testimony of his intent, you should run a certain course; where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your Honour, and to no other pretence of danger. Glo. Think you fo? Edm. If your Honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular afsurance have your fatisfaction: and that, without any further delay than this very evening. Glo. . Glo. He cannot be such a monster. Edm. Nor is not, fure. Glo. To his Father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him-Heav'n and Earth! Edmund, feek him out; wind me into him, I pray you; frame the business after your own wisdom. I would unstate myself, to be in a due refolution. Edm. I will feek him, Sir, presently: convey the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal. Glo. These late eclipses in the fun and moon portend no good to us; tho' the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourg'd by the frequent effects. Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide. In cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in Palaces, treason; and the bond crack'd 'twixt fon and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction, there's fon against father; the King falls from bias of nature, there's father against child. We have feen the ben of our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves! Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing, do it carefully and the noble and true-hearted Kent banish'd! his offence, Honesty. 'Tis strange. [Exit. Manet Edmund. Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are fick in fortune, (often the furfeits of our own behaviour) we make guilty of our disasters, the fun, the moon and stars (7); as if we were villains on neceffity; fools, by heavenly compulfion; knaves, (7) We make guilty of our disasters, the fun, the moon, and stars :] It was the opinion of judicial astrologers, that whatsoever good difpofitions the infant, unborn, might be endow'd with, either from nature or traductively from its parents; yet if, at the hour of birth, its delivery was by any casual accident so accelerated, or retarded, that it fell in with the predominancy of a malignant constellation; that momentary influence would entirely change its nature, and bias it to all the contrary ill qualities. This was so wretched and monstrous an opinion, that it well deferved and was well fitted for the lash of fatire. Mr. Warburton. thieves, |