Foot. Pr'ythee, nuncle, tell me, whether a madman be a gentleman, or a yeoman?

LEAR. A king, a king!

FOOL.3 No; he's a yeoman, that has a gentleman to his fon for he's a mad yeoman, that fees his fon a gentleman before him.

LEAR. To have a thousand with red burning fpits

Come hizzing in upon them :

EDG.4 The foul fiend bites my back.

FOOL. He's mad, that trufts in the tameness of a

The History of Gargantua had appeared in English before 1575, being mentioned in Langham's Letter, printed in that year. RITSON.

I

- Pray, innocent,] Perhaps he is here addreffing the Fool. Fools were anciently called Innocents. So, in All's well that ends well: " the Sheriff's Fool-a dumb innocent, that could not fay him nay." See Vol. VIII. p. 357, n. 6.

Again, in The Whipper of the Satyre his Pennance in a white Sheete, &c. 1601:

"A gentleman that had a wayward foole,

"To paffe the time, would needs at push-pin play;
"And playing falfe, doth stirre the wav'ring ftoole :
"The innocent had spi'd him, and cri'd stay," &c.

2 Fool. Pr'ythee, nuncle, tell me,] A&t, fc. iii:" Cry to it, nuncle." the old King, nuncle? But we have The Pilgrim, by Fletcher:

STEEVENS.

And before, in the fame Why does the Fool call the fame appellation in

"Farewell, nuncle," A& IV. fc. i.

And in the next fcene, alluding to Shakspeare:

"What mops and mowes it makes." WHALLEY.

See Mr. Vaillant's very decifive remark on this appellation, p. 358, n. 6. STEEVENS.

3 Fool.] This fpeech is omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS. 4 Edg.] This and the next thirteen speeches (which Dr. Johnfon had enclosed in crotchets) are only in the quartos.

STEEVENS.

wolf, a horfe's health,5 a boy's love, or a whore's oath.

LEAR. It fhall be done, I will arraign them

ftraight:

Come, fit thou here, moft learned jufticer; 6.

[To EDGAR. Thou, fapient fir, fit here. [To the Fool.]-Now, you the foxes!

EDG. Look, where he ftands and glares!Wanteft thou eyes at trial, madam ? 8

S a horfe's health,] Without doubt we should readheels, i. e. to stand behind him. WARBURton.

Shakspeare is here fpeaking not of things maliciously treacherous, but of things uncertain and not durable. A horfe is above all other animals fubject to difeafes. JOHNSON.

Heels is certainly right." Truft not a horfe's heel, nor a dog's tooth," is a proverb in Ray's Collection; as ancient at least as the time of our Edward II:

Et ideo Babio in comoediis infinuat, dicens ;

"In fide, dente, pede, mulieris, equi, canis, eft fraus. "Hoc fic vulgariter eft dici:"

"Till horfis fote thou never traift,

"Till hondis toth, no woman's faith."

Forduni Scotichronicon, L. XIV. c. xxxii. That in the text is probably from the Italian. RITSON.

6 - most learned jufticer;] The old copies read-juflice. The correction was made by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

7 Wanteft &c.] I am not confident that I understand the meaning of this defultory fpeech. When Edgar fays, Look where he ftands and glares! he seems to be speaking in the character of a mad man, who thinks he fees the fiend. Wanteft thou eyes at trial, madam? is a queftion which appears to be addreffed to the vifionary Goneril, or fome other abandon'd female, and may fignify, Do you want to attract admiration, even while you stand at the bar of justice? Mr. Seward propofes to read, wanton fi inftead of wanteft. STEEVENS.

8

at trial, madam ?] It may be observed that Edgar, being fuppofed to be found by chance, and therefore to have no

Come o'er the bourn, Beffy, to me: 9Fool. Her boat hath a leak,

And he must not speak

Why he dares not come over to thee.

knowledge of the reft, connects not his ideas with thofe of Lear, but pursues his own train of delirious or fantastick thought. To thefe words, At trial, madam? I think therefore that the name of Lear fhould be put. The process of the dialogue will fupport this conjecture. JOHNSON.

9. Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me:] Both the quartos and the folio have-o'er the broome. The correction was made by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

As there is no relation between broom and a boat, we may better read:

Come o'er the brook, Beffy, to me.

JOHNSON.

At the beginning of A very mery and pythie Commedie, called, The longer thou liveft, the more Foole thou art, &c. Imprinted at London by Wyllyam How, &c. black letter, no date, “ Entreth Moros, counterfaiting a vain gefture and foolish countenance, fynging the foote of many fongs, as fooles were wont ;" and among them is this paffage, which Dr. Johnson has very juftly fufpected of corruption:

"Com over the boorne Beffé,

"My little pretie Beffé,

"Com over the boorne, Beffé, to me."

This fong was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company in the year 1564.

A bourn in the north fignifies a rivulet or brook. Hence the names of many of our villages terminate in burn, as Milburn, Sherburn, &c. The former quotation, together with the following inftances, at once confirm the juftness of Dr. Johnson's remark, and fupport the reading.

So, in Drayton's Polyolbion, Song 1:

"The bourns, the brooks, the becks, the rills, the rivulets." Again, in Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. II. c. vi:

My little boat can fafely paffe this perilous bourne." Shakspeare himself, in The Tempeft, appears to have difcriminated bourn from bound of land in general:

"Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none."

Again, in The Vifion of Pierce Plowman, line 8:

"Under a brode banke by bourne syde."

EDG. The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale.' Hopdance cries in Tom's belly 2 2 for two white herring.3 Croak not, black angel; I have no food for thee,

To this I may add, that bourn, a boundary, is from the French borne. Bourne, or (as it ought to be fpelt) burn, a rivulet, is from the German burn, or born, a well. STEEVENS.

There is a peculiar propriety in this address, that has not, I believe, been hitherto obferved. Befly and poor Tom, it seems, ufually travelled together. The author of The Court of Confcience, or Dick Whippers Seffions, 1607, defcribing beggars, idle rogues, and counterfeit madmen, thus fpeaks of these allociates: "Another fort there is among you; they

"Do rage with furie as if they were fo frantique "They knew not what they did, but every day "Make sport with stick and flowers like an antique; "Stowt roge and harlot counterfeited gomme; "One calls herself poor Beffe, the other Tom." The old fong of which Mr. Steevens has given a part, confifted of nine lines, but they are not worth infertion. MALONE.

I

1 in the voice of a nightingale.] Another deponent in Harfnet's book, (p. 225,) fays, that the mistress of the house kept a nightingale in a cage, which being one night called, and conveyed away into the garden, it was pretended the devil had killed it in fpite. Perhaps this paffage fuggefted to Shakspeare the circumftance of Tom's being haunted in the voice of a nightingale.

PERCY.

2- Hopdance cries in Tom's belly-] In Harfnet's book, p. 194, 195, Sarah Williams (one of the pretended demoniacks) depofeth, "that if at any time the did belch, as often times she did by reason that thee was troubled with a wind in her ftomacke, the priests would fay at fuch times, that then the fpirit began to rife in her .... and that the wind was the devil.” And, as the faith, if they heard any croaking in her belly then they would make a wonderful matter of that." Hoberdidance is mentioned before in Dr. Percy's note. STEEVENS. "One time thee remembereth, that fhee having the faid croaking in her belly, they faid it was the devil that was about the bed, that spake with the voice of a toad." Ibidem.

MALONE. 3white herring.] White herrings are pickled herrings. See The Northumberland Household Book, p. 8. STEEVENS.

KENT. How do you, fir? Stand you not fo amaz'd:

Will

you lie down and rest upon the cushions?

LEAR. I'll fee their trial firft:-Bring in the evi

dence.

Thou robed man of juftice, take thy place;

[To EDGAR. And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity, [To the Fool. Bench by his fide :-You are of the commiffion, Sit you too.

EDG. Let us deal justly.

[TO KENT.

Sleepeft, or wakeft thou, jolly Shepherd ? 4

Thy Sheep be in the corn;

And for one blaft of thy minikin mouth,
Thy Sheep shall take no harm.

Pur!5 the cat is grey.

• Sleepest, or wakeft &c.] This feems to be a ftanza of some paftoral fong. A fhepherd is defired to pipe, and the request is enforced by a promife, that though his fheep be in the corn, i. e. committing a trefpafs by his negligence, implied in the question, Sleepest thou or wakeft? yet a single tune upon his pipe fhall fecure them from the pound. JOHNSON,

Minikin was anciently a term of endearment. So, in the enterlude of The Repentance of Marie Magdalaine, 1567, the Vice fays, "What mynikin carnal concupifcence!" Barrett, in his Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580, interprets feat, by "proper, well-fashioned, minikin, handsome."

In The Interlude of the Four Elements, &c. printed by Raftell, 1519, Ignorance fings a fong composed of the scraps of feveral others. Among them is the following line, on which Shakspeare may have defigned a parody:

66

Sleepyft thou, wakyft thou, Geffery Coke."

STEEVENS.

5 Pur!] This may be only an imitation of the noise made by a cat. Purre is, however, one of the devils mentioned in Harfnet's book, p. 50. MALONE.