Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

Lear, Nothing can come of nothing; speak again.
Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave

My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty
According to my bond, no more nor less.

Lear. How, how, Cordelia? mend your speech a little,

Left you may mar your fortunes.

Cor. Good my Lord,

You have begot me, bred me, lov'd me. I
Return those duties back, as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
Why have my fifters hufbands, if they fay,
They love you, all? haply, when I fhall wed,
That Lord, whose hand must take my plight, shall
carry

Half my love with him, half my care and duty.

Sure, I shall never marry like my fifters,

[ocr errors]

To love my father all.

Lear. But goes thy heart with this?

Cor. Ay, my good Lord.

Lear. So young, and fo untender?

Cor. So young, my Lord, and true.

Lear. Let it be fo, thy truth then be thy dower:

For by the facred radiance of the fun,
The mysteries of Hecat, and the night,
By all the operations of the orbs,

From whom we do exist, and cease to be,
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee, from this, for ever.
thian,
Or he, that makes his generation meffes
To gorge his appetite, fhall to my bofom

The barb'rous Sey

6 To love my father all.-] first edition, without which the Thefe words restored from the fenfe was not compleat. POPE.

Be

Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and reliev'd,
As thou, my fometime daughter.
Kent. Good my Liege-

Lear. Peace, Kent!

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
I lov'd her moft, and thought to fet my Reft
On her kind nurs❜ry. Hence, avoid my fight!-

[To Cor.

So be my grave my peace, as here I give
Her father's heart from her;-Call France-Who ftirs?
Call Burgundy-Cornwall and Albany,

With my two daughters' dowers digest the third.
Let pride, which the calls plainnefs, marry her.
I do inveft you jointly with my Power,
Preheminence, and all the large effects

That troop with Majefty. Our felf by monthly course,
With refervation of an hundred Knights,
By you to be fuftain'd, fhall our abode

7

Make with you by due turns; only retain
The name and all th' addition to a King,
The fway, revenue, execution of the reft,
Beloved fons, be yours; which to confirm,

[blocks in formation]

the whole is, I will only retain the name and all the ceremonious obfervances that belong to a King; the effentials, as fway, revenue, administration of the laws, be yours.

WARBURTON.

Execution of the reft] I do not fee any great difficulty in the words, execution of the rest, which are in both the old copies. The execution of the rest is, I fuppofe, all the other bufinefs. Dr. Warburton's own explanation of his amendment confutes it; if heft be a regal command, they were, by the grant of Lear, to have rather the bet than the execution,

This Coronet part between you.
Kent. Royal Lear,

[Giving the Crown.

Whom I have ever honour'd as my King,

Lov'd as my father, as my mafter follow'd,
As my great patron thought on in my pray'rs-
Lear. The bow is bent and drawn, make from the
fhaft.

Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade The region of my heart; be Kent unmannerly, When Lear is mad. What wouldft thou do, old man? * Think't thou, that duty fhall have dread to speak, When pow'r to flatt'ry bows? To plainnefs honour's bound,

When Majefty falls to folly. Referve thy ftate,
And in thy beft confideration check

This hideous rafhnefs; answer my life my judgment,
Thy youngest daughter does not love thee leaft;
Nor are thofe empty hearted, whofe low found
Reverbs no hollownefs.

Lear. Kent, on thy life no more.

Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn

Think' ft thou, that duty fhall bave dread to Speak,] have given this paffage according to the old folio, from which the modern editions have filently departed, for the fake of better numbers, with a degree of infincerity, which, if not fometimes detected and cenfured, mult impair the credit of antient books. One of the editors, and perhaps only one, knew how much mifchief may be done by fuch clandeftine alterations.

The quarto agrees with the folio, except that for refer ve thy fare, it gives, reve se thy dom, and ha cops instead of falls to felly.

The meaning of anf ver my life my judgment is, Let my life

be arfwerable for my judgment, or Iwi lake ny life on my opini.n.

1 he reading which, without any right, has poffeffed all the modern copies is this,

10 plainness Honour Is bound, when Majesty to felly falls. Referve thy ftate; with better judgment check

Ths hideous rafkness; with my life I answer,

Thy youngest daughter, &c.

I am inclined to think that revefe hy doom was Shakespeare's fift reading, as more appofite to the prefent o cafion, and that he changed it afterwards to referve thy fate, which conduces more to the progress of the action.

To

To wage against thine enemies, nor fear to lofe it,
Thy fafety being the motive.

Lear. Out of my fight!

Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain • The true blank of thine eye. Lear. Now by Apollo

Kent. Now by Apollo, King, Thou swear'ft thy gods in vain. Lear. O vaffal! mifcreant!

[Laying his band on his sword.

Alb. Corn. Dear Sir, forbear.

Kent. Kill thy phyfician, and thy fee bestow
Upon the foul difeafe; revoke thy doom,
Or whilft I can vent clamour from my throat,
I'll tell thee, thou dost evil.

Lear. Hear me, recreant!

Since thou haft fought to make us break our vow,
Which we durft never yet; and with ' ftrain'd pride,
To come betwixt our fentence and our power;
'Which nor our nature, nor our place, can bear ;

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

Our

ftood before he corrupted the words, was this: 'You have "endeavour'd, fays Lear, to "make me break my oath, "you have prefumed to stop the "execution of my fentence: "the latter of thefe attempts "neither my temper nor high "station will fuffer me to bear; "and the other, had I yielded "to it, my power could not "make good, or excufe." Which, in the first line, referring to both attempts: But the ambiguity of it, as it might refer only to the latter, has occafioned all the obfcurity of the paffage.

[blocks in formation]

Our potency made good, take thy reward.
Five days we do allot thee for provision,
To fhield thee from difafters of the world;
And, on the fixth, to turn thy hated back
Upon our Kingdom; if, the tenth day following,
Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,
The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter,
This fhall not be revok'd.

Kent. Fare thee well, King; fith thus thou wilt

appear,

Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.
The gods to their dear fhelter take thee, maid,
[To Cordelia.
That juftly think'st, and hast most rightly said.
And your large fpeeches may your deeds approve,

[To Reg. and Gon. That good effects may fpring from words of love. Thus Kent, O Princes, bids you all adieu; 5 He'll shape his old courfe in a country new. [Exit.

Warbu ton has very acutely explained and defended the reading that he has chofen, but I am not certain that he has chofen right. If we take the reading of the folio, our potency made good, the fenfe will be lefs profound indeed, but lefs intricate, and equally commodious. As thou hast come with unreasonable pride between the fentence which I had poffed. and the power by which I fall execute it, take thy reward in another fentence which fhall make good, shall establish, hall maintain, that power.

If Dr. Warburton's explanation be chofen, and every reader will wish to choose it, we may better read,

Which nor our nature, nor cur
flate can bear,
Or potency make good.

[ocr errors]

Mr. Davies thinks, that our potency made good relates only to our place. Which our nature cannot bear, nor our place, without departure from the potency of that place. This is eafy and clear.

Lear, who is characterized as hot, heady and violent, is, with very juft obfervation of life, made to entangle himself with vows, upon any fudden provocation to vow revenge, and then to plead the obligation of a vow in defence of implacability.

4 By Jupiter. ] Shakefieare makes his Lear too much a mythologift: he had Hecate and Apollo before.

s He' fhape his old course-】 He will follow his old maxims; he will continue to act upon the fame principles.

SCENE

« PředchozíPokračovat »