Against my fire; And wast thou fain, poor father, Had not concluded all.-He wakes; speak to him. PHYS. Madam, do you; 'tis fittest. majesty ? How fares your Lear. You do me wrong, to take me out o' the Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears COR. Sir, do you know me? LEAR. You are a spirit, I know; When did you die ? COR. Still, still, far wide! PHYS. He's scarce awake; let him alone awhile. LEAR. Where have I been? Where am I?-Fair day-light ? I am mightily abus'd.-I should even die with pity, COR. O, look upon me, sir, "If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time, "All cruels else subscribed." BOSWELL. 7 Had not concluded ALL.] It is wonder that thy wits and life had not all ended. JOHNSON. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, c. viii. : "Ne spared they to strip her naked all." Again, in Timon: "And dispossess her all." STEEvens. 8 I am mightily abus'd.] I am strangely imposed on by apDearances; I am in a strange mist of uncertainty. JOHNSON. And hold your hands in benediction o'er me :- LEAR. Pray, do not mock me': I am a very foolish fond old man, Fourscore and upward2; and, to deal plainly, I fear, I am not in my perfect mind 3. Methinks, I should know you, and know this man ; Remembers not these garments; nor I know not To be my child Cordelia. 9 No, sir, you must not kneel.] This circumstance I find in the old play on the same subject, apparently written by another hand, and published before any edition of Shakspeare's tragedy had made its appearance. As it is always difficult to say whether such accidental resemblances proceed from imitation, or a similarity of thinking on the same occasion, I can only point out this to the reader, to whose determination I leave the question. STEEVENS. MALONE. The words, No, sir, are not in the folio. 'Pray, do not мOCK ME:] So, in The Winter's Tale, Act V.: Let no man mock me, 66 "For I will kiss her." STEEVENS. 2 Fourscore and upward;] Thus the quartos. The folio absurdly adds "Not an hour more or less," i. e. not an hour more or less than an indeterminate number, for such is fourscore and upward. Fourscore seems to have been used proverbially for old age. See vol. viii. p. 106. MALONE. The authenticity of this passage Sir Joshua Reynolds justly suspects. It was probably the interpolation of some player, and is better omitted, both in regard to sense and versification. STEEVENS. We The words not an hour more or less, are judiciously reprobated by Mr. Steevens as the interpolation of some foolish player. should therefore read [as Mr. Heath proposed]: 66 Fourscore, and upward; and, to deal plainly with you." RITSON. 3 I fear, I am not in my perfect mind.] The quarto reads: 66 I fear, I am not perfect in my mind." JOHNSON. So one of the quartos, [quarto B.] The other, [quartos A and C,] reads according to the present text. STEEVENS. COR. And so I am, I am. LEAR. Be your tears wet? weep not: If you have poison for me, I will drink it. COR. LEAR. Am I in France ? ΚΕΝΤ. No cause, no cause. In your own kingdom, sir. LEAR. Do not abuse me. PHYS. Be comforted, good madam: the great rage, 4 5 You see, is cur'd in him: [and yet it is danger To make him even o'er the time he has lost ".] Desire him to go in; trouble him no more, Till further settling. COR. Will't please your highness walk? 4 is CUR'D] Thus the quartos. The folio reads: is kill'd." STEEVENS. 66 - [and yet &c.] This is not in the folio. JOHNSON. And in the quartos, this speech, and the remainder of the scene, excepting the last two lines, are printed as prose. BOSWELL. 6 To make him EVEN O'er the time he has lost.] i. e. To reconcile it to his apprehension. WARBURTON. The uncommon verb-to even, occurs again in Cymbeline, Act III. Sc. IV. : "There's more to be consider'd; but we'll even "All that good time will give us." The meaning there seems to be, we will fully employ all the time we have. So here the Physician says, that it is dangerous to draw from Lear a full relation of all that he felt or suffered while his reason was disturbed; to make him employ as much time in the recital of what has befallen him as passed during his state of insanity. MALONE. I believe, Dr. Warburton's explanation is just. The poor old king had nothing to tell, though he had much to hear. The speaker's meaning therefore I conceive to be-it is dangerous to render all that passed during the interval of his insanity, even (i. e. plain or level,) to his understanding, while it continues in its present state of uncertainty. STEEVENS. LEAR. You must bear with me: Pray now forget and forgive: I am old, and foolish. [Exeunt LEAR, CORDELIA, Physician, and Attendants. [GENT. Holds it true, sir, That the duke of Cornwall was so slain ? His banish'd son, is with the earl of Kent In Germany. KENT. Report is changeable. "Tis time to look about; the powers o' the king dom Approach apace. GENT. The arbitrement is like to be a bloody. Fare you well, sir. [Exit. KENT. My point and period will be throughly wrought, Or well, or ill, as this day's battle's fought.] [Erit. 7 Holds it true, sir,] What is printed in crotchets is not in the folio. It is at least proper, if not necessary; and was omitted by the author, I suppose, for no other reason than to shorten the representation. JOHNSON. It is much more probable, that it was omitted by the players, after the author's departure from the stage, without consulting him. His plays have been long exhibited with similar omissions, which render them often perfectly unintelligible. MALONE. ACT V. SCENE I. The Camp of the British Forces, near Dover. Enter, with Drums and Colours, EDMUND, Regan, Officers, Soldiers, and Others. EDM. Know of the duke, if his last purpose hold; Or, whether since he is advis'd by aught To change the course: He's full of alteration, And self-reproving:-bring his constant pleasure 9. [To an Officer, who goes out. REG. Our sister's man is certainly miscarried. EDM. 'Tis to be doubted, madam. REG. Now, sweet lord, You know the goodness I intend upon you: Tell me, but truly,-but then speak the truth, Do you not love my sister? EDM. In honour'd love. [REG. But have you never1 found my brother's 9 - his CONSTANT pleasure.] His settled resolution. JOHNSON. So, before: 66 We have this hour a constant will," &c. See p. 8, n. 4. STEEVENS. But have you never, &c.] The first and last of these speeches, printed within crotchets, are inserted in Sir Thomas Hanmer's, Mr. Theobald's, and Dr. Warburton's editions; the two intermediate ones, which were omitted in all others, I have restored from the old quartos, 1608. Whether they were left out through negligence, or because the imagery contained in them might be thought too luxuriant, I cannot determine; but sure a material injury is done to the character of the Bastard by the omission; for he is made to deny that flatly at first, which the poet only meant to make him evade, or return slight answers to, till he is urged so far as to be obliged to shelter himself under an immediate falsehood. Query, however, whether Shakspeare |