Waft thou not charg'd at peril Corn. Wherefore to Dover? Let him firft anfwer that. [the courfe1. Glo. I'm ty'd to the ftake, and I muft stand Reg. Wherefore to Dover? Glo. Because I would not fee thy cruel nails If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time, Upon these eyes of thine I'll fet my foot. [Glofter is held down, while Cornwall treads out one of bis eyes. Glo. He, that will think to live 'till he be old, I have ferv'd you ever fince I was a child; Reg. How now, you dog? Serv. If you did wear a beard upon your chin, I'd shake it on this quarrel: What do you mean? Corn. My villain 3 ! [Draws, and runs at him. Serv. Nay, then come on, and take the chance of anger. [Fight; Cornwall is wounded. Reg. [To another fervant.] Give me thy fword.A peasant stand up thus ! [Comes behind, and kills him. Corn. Left it fee more, prevent it :-Out, vie jelly! Where is thy luftre now ? [Treads the ether out. Glo. All dark and comfortless.-Where's my fon Edmund ? Edmund, enkindle all the fparks of nature, Reg. Out, treacherous villain ! Thou call'ft on him that hates thee: it was he Glo. O my follies! Kind gods, forgive me that, and profper him! Reg. Go, thruft him out at gates, and let him fmell His way to Dover.-How is 't, my lord? How look you ? Core. I have receiv'd a hurt :-Follow me, ladyTurn out that eyeless villain ;-throw this flave Upon the dunghill.—Regan, I bleed apace: Untimely comes this hurt: Give me your arm. [Exit Cornwall, led by Regan ;-Servants lead Glofter out. ift Serv. I'll never care what wickedness I do, If this man come to good. 2d Serv. If the live long, And, in the end, meet the old course of death, Women will all turn monsters. [Bedlam 1ft Serv. Let's follow the old carl, and get the To lead him where he would; his roguish madnets Allows itself to any thing. 2d Serv. Go thou; I'll fetch fome flax, and whites of eggs, To apply to his bleeding face. [him! Now, heaven help [Exeunt fevera.y, ACT IV. SCENE I. An open Country. Enter Edgar. The lamentable change is from the best ; The worst returns to laughter. Welcome then, Thou unsubstantial air, that I embrace ! The wretch, that thou haft blown unto the worst, ET better thus, and known to be con- Owes nothing to thy blasts.—But who comes here? Edg. YET temn'd, Than ftill contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst, The lowest, and most dejected thing of fortune, Stands ftill in efperance, lives not in fear : Enter Glofter, led by an old maz. My father, poorly led ?-World, world, O world! But that thy ftrange mutations make us hate thee, Life would not yield to age 4. 1i. e. the running of the dogs upon me. 2 i. e. yielded, fubmitted to the neceffity of the occalion. 3 Villain is here perhaps used in its original fenfe of one in fervitude. + The fepie of this obfcure paffage is, O world! fo much are human minds captivated with thy pleasures, that were it not for thofe fucceffive miferies, each worse than the other, which overload the fcenes of life, we should never be willing to fubmit to death, though the infirmities of old age would teach us to chufe it as a proper afylum. Besides, by uninterrupted profperity, which leaves the mind at cafe, the body would generally preferve such a state of vigour as to bear up long against the decays of time. Thele are the two reafons, it is fuppofed, why he said, " Life would not yield to age.” And how much the pleafures of the body pervert the mind's judgment, and the perturbations of the mind diforder the body's frame, is known to all. Old Man. O my good lord, I have been your tepant, and your father's tenant, thefe fourfcore years. Glo. Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone: Thy comforts can do me no good at all, Thee they may hurt. Old Man. Alack, fir, you cannot fee your way. Old Man. How now? Who's there? Edg. [fide.] O Gods! Who is 't can fay, I am at the worst? I am worfe than e'er I was. Qid Man. 'Tis poor mad Tom. Edg. [Afide.] And worfe I may be yet: So long as we can fay, This is the worst. Old Man. Madman and beggar too. [Exit. Old Man. I'll bring him the best 'parrel that I Glo. Sirrah, naked fellow. Edg. Poor Tom's a-cold.-I cannot daub 2 it Glo. Come hither, fellow. [Afide. Edg. Both ftile and gate, horse-way and foot. path. Poor Tom hath been fear'd out of his good wits: Blefs thee, good man's fon, from the foul fiend! Five fiends have been in poor Tom at The once; of luft, as Obidicut; Hobbididance, prince of dumbnefs: Mabu, of ftealing; Modo, of murder; and Flibberigibbet, of mopping and mowing; who fince poffefles chamber-maids and waitingwomen 3. So, blefs thee, master! Glo. He has fome reafon, elfe he could not beg. As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; Edg. How fhould this be? Bad is the trade, that muft play the fool to forrow, mafter! Glo. Is that the naked fellow? [fake, Glo. Then, pr'ythee, get thee gone: If, for my Glo. Here, take this purse, thou whom the hea- Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched, And each man have enough.-Dost thou know Edg. Ay, matter. Glo. There is a cliff, whofe high and bending Looks fearfully on the confined deep: Edg. Give me thy arm; [Exeunt. 2 i. e. disguise. 3 Shakspeare has made Edgar, in i.e. moderate, mediocre condition. his feigned diftraction, frequently allude to a vile impofture of fome English jefuits, at that time much the fubject of converfation; the hiftory of it having been just then composed with great art and vigour of ftile and compofition by Dr. S. Harfenet, afterwards archbishop of York, by order of the privy-council, in a work intitled, A Declaration of egregious Popish Impoftures to withdraw her Ma jefty's Subjects from their Allegiance, &c. practifed by Edmunds, alias Weston, a Jefuit, and divers Romifh Priests his wicked Affociates: printed 1603. The impofture was in fubitance this: While the Spaniards were preparing their armado against England, the jefuits were here bufy at work to promote it, by making converts: one method they employed was to difpoffefs pretended demoniacs, by which artifice they made feveral hundred converts amongst the common people. The principal fcene of this farce was laid in the family of one Mr. Edmund Peckham, a Roman-catholic, where Marwood, a fervant of Anthony Babington's (who was afterwards executed for treafon), Trayford, an attendant upon Mr. Peckham, and Sarah and Frifwood Williams, and Anne Smith, three chamberBut the difcipline of the patients was fo maids in that family, came into the priest's hands for cure. long and fevere, and the priests fo elate and carclefs with their fuccefs, that the plot was difcovered on the confeffion of the parties concerned, and the contrivers of it defervealy punished. The five devils here mentioned, are the names of five of those who were made to act in this farce upon the chamber-maids and waiting-women; and they were generally fo ridiculoufly nick-named, that: Harfenet has one chapter on the strange names of their devils; left, fays he, meeting them otherwife by chance, you 4 Superfluous is here ufed for one living in abunmiftake them for the names of tapfters or jugglers. dance. 5 To flave an ordinance, is to treat it as a flave, to make it subject to us, instead of acting in obedience to it. SCENE SCENE II. The Duke of Albany's Palace. Enter Goneril, and Edmund. Whose reverence the head-lugg'd bear would ic, Moft barbarous, moft degenerate! have youmaCould my good brother fuffer you to do it? [det. A man, a prince, by him fo benefited? If that the heavens do not their visible spirits Send quickly down to tame thefe vile offences, Not met us on the way :-Now, where's your maf-Twill come, humanity muft perforce prey on Gon. Welcome, my lord: I marvel, our mild husband Enter Steward. [ter Stew. Madam, within; but never man fo I told him of the army that was landed; Gon. Then fhall you go no further. [To Edmund. You are not worth the dust which the rude wind Blows in your face. I fear your difpofition: Gon. No more; the text is foolish. Alb. Wisdom and goodness to the vile feem vile: Filths favour but themselves. What have you done? Tygers, not daughters, what have you perform'd? A father, and a gracious aged man, Itfelf, like monsters of the deep 5. Gon. Milk-liver'd man! That bear'ft a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs; France fpreads his banners in our noifelefs land; Alb. See thyfelf, devil! Gon. O vain fool! [Chame, Mef. A fervant that he bred, thrill'd with reOppos'd against the act, bending his fword To his great mafter; who, thereat enrag'd, Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead: But not without that harmful stroke, which fince Hath pluck'd him after. Alb. This fhews you are above, You jufticers, that these our nether crimes So fpeedily can venge!-But, O poor Glufter ' Mef. Both, both, my lord. This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer; 'Tis from your fifter. Gon. [Afide.] One way I like this well; But being widow, and my Glofter with her, May all the building in my fancy pluck Upon my hateful life: Another way, The news is not fo tart.—I'll read, and answer. [Exit. 1 It must be remembered that Albany, the husband of Goneril, difliked, in the end of the frå act, the fcheme of oppreffion and ingratitude. 2 This expreffion is a proverbial one. 30 tain, for within the bounds that nature prefcribes. 4 Alluding to the ufe that witches and enchanters are faid to make of wither'd branches in their charms. A fine infinuation in the speaker, that the was ready for the most unnatural mischief, and a preparative of the poet to her plotting with the batteri against her husband's life. 5 Filhes are the only animals that are known to prey upon their own fpecies. • i. e. Diabolic qualities appear not fo horrid in the devil to whom they belong, as a woman who unnaturally affumes them. 7 By felf-cover'd our author probably means, thou that bast disguifid nature by wickednefs; thou that hait hid the woman under the fiend. Alb. Where was his fon, when they did take | Elfe one felf mate and mate 4 could not beget his eyes? Mef. Come with my lady hither. Alb. He is not here. Mef. No, my good lord; I met him back again. Mf. Ay, my good lord; 'twas he inform'd Kent. Well, fir; the poor diftreffed Lear is i'the Who fometimes, in his better tune, remembers [ment What we are come about, and by no means And quit the house on purpose, that their punish-Will yield to fee his daughter. Might have the freer courfe. Gent. Something he left imperfect in the state, Kent. Who hath he left behind him general? Kent. O, then it mov'd her. Gent. Not to a rage: patience and forrow ftrove Who should exprefs her goodlieft. You have feen Sunshine and rain at once: her fmiles and tears Were like a better day. Thofe happy fmiles, That play'd on her ripe lip, feem'd not to know What guests were in her eyes: which parted thence, As pearls from diamonds dropt. In brief, forrow Would be a rarity most belov'd, if all Could fo become it. Gent. Why, good fir? [unkindness, A Tent in the Camp at Dover. What can man's In the reftoring his bereaved fenfe? Kent. Made fhe no verbal question? name of father' Pantingly forth, as if it prefs'd her heart ; Let pity not be believed 2 !'-There she shook Kent. It is the stars, The stars above us, govern our conditions; Cor. All bleft fecrets, 1 A better day is the best day, and the best day is a day most favourable to the productions of the earth. Such are the days in which there is a due mixture of rain and funshine. 2 i. e. Let not fuch a thing as pity be supposed to exift! 3 i. e. her out-cries were accompanied with tears. 4 The fame husband and the same wife. 5 The metaphor is here preferved with great knowledge of nature; the venom of poisonous animals being a high cauftic falt, that has all the effect of fire upon the part. i.e. the reafon which fhould guide it. Reg. I know your lady does not love her hufI am fure of that: and, at her late being here, She gave ftrange œiliads 4, and most speaking looks To noble Edmund: I know, you are of her bofom. Stew. I, madam ? [it: But in my garments. Glo. Methinks, you are better fpoken. And dizzy 'tis, to caft one's eyes so low! [a foot Glo. Set me where you stand. Glo. Let go my hand. Profper it with thee! Go thou further off; Here, friend, is another purfe; in it, a jewel Reg. speak in understanding; you are, I know Well worth a poor man's taking : Fairies, and gods, Therefore, I do advise you, take this note : My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd; And more convenient is he for my hand, Than for your lady's :-You may gather more 6. If you do find him, pray you, give him this; And when your mistress hears thus much from you, I pray, defire her call her wifdom to her. So, fare you well. If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor, Important for importunate. 2 i. e. no Edg. Why do I trifle thus with his defpair?'Tis done to cure it. Glo. O you mighty gods! This world I do renounce; and, in your fights, I To quarrel with your great oppofelefs wilk, inflated, no fwelling pride. 3 i, e. his life made dark as night by the extinction of his eyes. 4 Oeillade, Fr. a caft, or fignificant glance of the eye. 5 Note means in this place not a letter, but a remark. 6 i. e. You may infer more than I have di rectly told you. 7" Samphire grows in great plenty on most of the fea-cliffs in this country: 4 is terrible to fee how people gather it, hanging by a rope feveral fathom from the top of the pending rocks as it were in the air." Smith's Hift. of Waterford. i. c. her cock-boat. 9 Top is to tumble. 1 Upright has the fame fenfe as the Latin fupinus. IC |