That haft within thee undivulged crimes, 2 Unwhipt of justice. Hide thee, thou bloody hand, Kent. Alack, bare-headed? Gracious my Lord, hard by here is a hovel, Lear. My wits begin to turn. Come on, my boy. How doft, my boy? art cold? G 2 .e. under cover of a frank, open, focial converfation. This raifes the fenfe, which the poet expreffes more at large in Timon of Athens, where he fays, -The fellow that Is th' readieft man to kill him.— Convenient needs not be understood in any other than its ufual and proper sense; accommodate to the prefent purpose ; fuitable to a defign. Convenient Seeming is appearance fuch as may promote his purpose to destroy. 4-concealing continents-] Continent ftands for that which contains or incloses. I'm I'm cold myself. Where is the straw, my fellow? That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel. Poor fool and knave, I've one part in my heart, That's forry yet for thee. 6 Fool. He that has an a little tyny wit, With beigh bo, the wind and the rain; Lear. True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this hovel. 5 -one part in my heart,] Some editions read, --thing in my heart, from which Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, have made firing, very unneceffarily; both the copies have part. 6 He that has but a little tyny wit,] I fancy that the fecond line of this ftanza had once a termination that rhymed with the fourth; but I can only fancy it; for both the copies agree. It was once pe haps written, With heigh ho, the wind and the rain in his way. The meaning feems likewife to require this infertion. He that has wit, however fall, and finis wind and rain in his way, muft content himself by thinking, that fomewhere or other it raineth every day, and others are therefore fuffering like himself. 7 I'll speak a prophecy or ere I go; When priests are more in words than matter; When brewers marr their malt with water; go. [Exit. When When nobles are their tailors tulos; No bereticks burn'd, but wenches' When every cafe in law is right, When flanders do not live in And cut-purfes come not to throngs; When ufurers tell their gold i'th' fie d, And bards, and whores, do Then shall the realm of Albion That Going fhall be us'd with feet. The judicious reader will obferve through this heap of nonsense and confufion, that this is not one but two prophecies. The firft, a fatyrical de fcription of the present manners as future: And the fecond, a fatyrical defcription of future manners, which the corruption of the When priests are more in words than matter, the prefent would prevent from ever happening. Each of thefe prophecies has its proper inference or deduction: yet, by an unaccountable ftupidity, the first editors took the whole to be all one prophecy, and fo jumbled the two contrary inferences together. The whole then fhould be read as follows, only premifing that the first line is corrupte d' by the lofs of a word -or ere I go, is not English, and fhould be helped thus, 1. I'll Speak a prophecy or two ere 1 go. When priefts are more in words than matter, When brewers marr their malt tutors; No hereticks burnt, but wenches' Then comes the time, who lives That Going fhall be us'd with feet. i. e. Now. 2. When every fe in law is right No Jquire in debt, and no poor knight; When flanders do not live in tongues; And cut-purfes come not to brongs When ufurers tell their gold 'th' field; And awds and whores do Then jhall the realm of Albion The agacity and acuteness of Dr. Warburton are very confpicuous in this note. He has difentangled the confufion of the paffage, and I have inferted his emendation in the text. Or e'er is proved by Mr. Upton to be good English, but the controverfy was not neceflary, for or is not in the old copies. When ufurers tell their gold i'th' field; And bawds and whores do churches build: Come to great confusion. This prophecy Merlin fhall make, for I do live before his time. [Exit. Glo. A An Apartment in Glo'fter's Caftle. Enter Glo'fter, and Edmund. LACK, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing; when I defir'd their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the use of mine own houfe; charg'd me on pain of perpetual displeasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for him, or any way sustain him. Edm. Moft favage and unnatural! Glo. Go to; fay you nothing. There is divifion between the Dukes, and a worse matter than that. I have receiv'd a letter this night. 'Tis dangerous to be spoken. I have lock'd the letter in my clofet. These injuries, the King now bears, will be revenged home, there is part of a power already footed; we must incline to the King; I will look for him, and privily relieve him; go you, and maintain talk with the Duke, that my charity be not of him perceiv'd; if he ask for me, I am ill, and gone to bed. If I die for it, as no less is threaten'd me, the King my old mafter must be reliev'd. There are ftrange things toward, Edmund; pray, you, be careful. [Exit. Edm. This curtesy, forbid thee, fhall the Duke Inftantly know, and of that letter too. This feems a fair deferving, and muft draw me That which my father loses; no less than all. The younger rifes, when the old doth fall. [Exit, SCENE SCENE V. Changes to a part of the Heath with a Hovel. Kent. H Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool. ERE is the place, my Lord; good my The tyranny o'the open night's too rough For nature to endure. Lear. Let me alone. Kent. Good my Lord, enter here. Kent. Good my Lord, enter here. Lear. Will't break my heart? [Storm fill. Kent. I'd rather break mine own; good my Lord, enter. Lear. Thou think'ft 'tis much, that this contentious ftorm Invades us to the fkin; fo 'tis to thee; But where the greater malady is fixt, The leffer is fcarce felt. Thou'dft fhun a bear; free, When the mind's The body's delicate; the tempeft in my mind Kent. Good my Lord, enter here. G 4 Lear. |