Chapter 14

[W: found, dispatch'd.] I do not see how this change mends the sense: I think it may be better regulated as in the page above. The sense is interrupted. He shall be caught--and found, _he shall be punished_. Dispatch.

II.i.67 (363,2) And found him pight to do it, with curst speech] _Pight_ is _pitched_, fixed, settled. _Curst_ is severe, harsh, vehemently angry.

II.i.122 (366,7) Occasions, noble Glo'ster, of some prize] [W: poize] _Prize_, or _price_, for value. (1773)

II.i.126 (366,8) from our home] Not at home, but at some other place.

II.ii.9 (367,1) Lipsbury pinfold] The allusion which seems to be contained in this line I do not understand. In the violent eruption of reproaches which bursts from Kent in this dialogue, there are some epithets which the commentators have left unexpounded, and which I am not very able to make clear. Of a _three-suited knave_ I know not the meaning, unless it be that he has different dresses for different occupations. _Lilly-liver'd_ is _cowardly_; _white-blooded_ and _white-liver'd_ are still in vulgar use. An _one-trunk-inheriting slave_, I take to be a wearer of old cast-off cloaths, an inheritor of torn breeches.

II.ii.36 (368,4) barber-monger] Of this word I do not clearly see the force.

II.ii.39 (368,5) Vanity the puppet's] Alluding to the mysteries or allegorical shews, in which vanity, iniquity, and other vices, were personified.

II.ii.45 (369,6) neat slave] You mere slave, you very slave.

II.ii.69 (369,8) Thou whoreson zed; thou unnecessary letter!] I do not well understand how a man is reproached by being called _zed_, nor how Z is an _unnecessary letter_. Scarron compares his deformity to the shape of Z, and it may be a proper word of insult to a crook-backed man; but why should Gonerill's steward be crooked, unless the allusion be to his bending or cringing posture in the presence of his superiors. Perhaps it was written, _thou whoreson_ C (for cuckold) _thou unnecessary letter_. C is a letter unnecessary in our alphabet, one of its two sounds being represented by S, and one by K. But all the copies concur in the common reading.

II.ii.87 (371,3) epileptic visage!] The frighted countenance of a man ready to fall in a fit.

II.ii.103 (372,5) constrains the garb/Quite from his nature] Forces his _outside_ or his _appearance_ to something totally _different from_ his natural disposition.

II.ii.109 (372,8) Than twenty silly ducking observants] [W: silky] The alteration is more ingenious than the arguments by which it is supported.

II.ii.119 (373,8) though I should win your displeasure to intreat me to't] Though I should win you, displeased as you now are, to like me so well as to intreat me to be a knave.

II.ii.167 (375,3)

Good king, that must approve the common saw! Thou out of heaven's benediction com'at To the warm sun!]

That art now to exemplify the common proverb, _That out of_, &c. That changest better for worse. Hanmer observes, that it is a proverbial saying, applied to those who are turned out of house and home to the open weather. It was perhaps first used of men dismissed from an hospital, or house of charity, such as was erected formerly in many places for travellers. Those houses had names properly enough alluded to by _heaven's benediction_.

II.ii.173 (376,4)

I know 'tis from Cordelia; Who hath most fortunately been inform'd Of my obscur'd coarse, and shall find time From this enormous state, seeking to give Losses their remedies]

This passage, which some of the editors have degraded, as spurious, to the margin, and others have silently altered, I have faithfully printed according to the quarto, from which the folio differs only in punctuation. The passage is very obscure, if not corrupt. Perhaps it may be read thus:

--Cordelia--has been--informed. Of my obscur'd course, and shall find time From this enormous state-seeking, to give Losses their remedies.--

Cordelia is informed of our affairs, and when the _enormous_ care of _seeking her fortune_ will allow her time, she will employ it in remedying losses. This is harsh; perhaps something better may be found. I have at least supplied the genuine reading of the old copies. _Enormous_ is unwonted, out of rule, out of the ordinary course of things.

II.iii.18 (377,2) Poor pelting villages] _Pelting_ is, I believe, only an accidental depravation of _petty_. Shakespeare uses it in the _Midsummer-Night's Dream_ of _small brooks_.

II.iii.20 (378,3) Poor Turlygood! poor Tom!] [W: Turlupin] Hanmer reads, _poor_ Turlurd. It is probable the word _Turlygood_ was the common corrupt pronunciation.

II.iii.21 (378,4) Edgar I nothing am] As Edgar I am out-lawed, dead in law; I have no longer any political existence.

II.iv (378,1) _Changes again to the earl of Glo'ster's castle_] It is not very clearly discovered why Lear comes hither. In the foregoing part he sent a letter to Glo'ster; but no hint is given of its contents. He seems to have gone to visit Glo'ster while Cornwall and Regan might prepare to entertain him.

II.iv.24 (380,4) To do upon respect such violent outrage] To violate the public and venerable character of a messenger from the king.

II.iv.46 (380,7) Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way] If this be their behaviour, the king's troubles are not yet at an end.

II.iv.70 (381,9) All that follow their noses are led by their eyes, but blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty, but can smell him that's stinking] There is in this sentence no clear series of thought. If he that follows his nose is led or guided by his eyes, he wants no information from his nose. I persuade myself, but know not whether I can persuade others, that our author wrote thus:--"All men are led by their eyes, but blind men, and they follow their noses; and there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him that's stinking."--Here is a succession of reasoning. You ask, why the king has no more in his train? why, because men who are led by their eyes see that he is ruined; and if there were any blind among them, who, for want of eyes, followed their noses, they might by their noses discover that it was no longer fit to follow the king.

II.iv.83 (382,2)

But I will tarry; the fool will stay, And let the wise man fly; The knave turns fool, that runs away; The fool no knave, perdy]

I think this passage erroneous, though both the copies concur. The sense mill be mended if we read,

But I will tarry; the fool will stay, And let the wise man fly; The fool turns knave, that runs away; The knave no fool,--

That I stay with the king is a proof that I am a fool, the wise men are deserting him. There is knavery in this desertion, but there is no folly.

II.iv.116 (383,3) Is practice only] _Practice_ is in Shakespeare, and other old writers, used commonly in an ill sense for _unlawful artifice_.

II.iv.122 (384,4) Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels, when she put them i' the paste alive] Hinting that the eel and Lear are in the same danger.

II.iv.142 (384,7) Than she to scant her duty] The word _scant_ is directly contrary to the sense intended. The quarto reads,

--_slack_ her duty,

which is no better. May we not change it thus:

You less know bow to value her desert, Than she to _scan_ her duty.

To _scan_ may be to _measure_ or _proportion_. Yet our author uses his negatives with such licentiousness, that it is hardly safe to make any alteration.--_Scant_ may mean to _adapt_, to _fit_, to _proportion_; which sense seems still to be retained in the mechanical term scantling. (see 1765, VI, 67, 4)

II.iv.155 (385,1) Do you but mark how this becomes the house?] [T: the use?] [Warburton called "becomes the house" "a most expressive phrase"] with this _most expressive phrase_ I believe no reader is satisfied. I suspect that it has been written originally,

Ask her forgiveness? Do you but mark how this becometh--thus. Dear daughter, I confess, &c.

_Becomes the house_, and _becometh thus_, might be easily confounded by readers so unskilful as the original printers.

II.iv.157 (386,2) _Age is unnecessary_] i.e. Old age has few wants.

II.iv.162 (386,3) Look'd black upon me] To _look black_, may easily be explained to _look cloudy_ or _gloomy_. See Milton:

"So frown'd the mighty combatants, that hell Grew darker at their frown."--

II.iv.170 (386,4) To fall, and blast her pride!] Thus the quarto: the folio reads not so well, _to fall and blister_. I think there is still a fault, which may be easily mended by changing a letter:

--Infect her beauty, Ye fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun, _Do_, fall, and blast her pride!

II.iv.174 (387.6) Thy tender-hested nature shall not give/Thee o'er to harshness] This word, though its general meaning be plain, I do not critically understand.

II.iv.178 (387,7) to scant my sizes] To contract my allowances or proportions settled.

II.iv.203 (388,9) much less advancement] The word _advancement_ is ironically used here for _conspicuousness_ of punishment; as we now say, _a man is advanced to the pillory_. We should read,

--but his own disorders Deserv'd much _more_ advancement.

II.iv.204 (388,1) I pray you, father, being weak, seem so] [W: deem't so] The meaning is, since _you are weak_, be content to think yourself weak. No change is needed.

II.iv.218 (389,3) base life] i.e. In a _servile_ state.

II.iv.227 (390,5) embossed carbuncle] _Embossed_ is _swelling, protuberant_.

II.iv.259 (391,6) Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd:/ When others are more wicked] Dr. Warburton would exchange the repeated epithet _wicked_ into _wrinkled_ in both places. The commentator's only objection to the lines as they now stand, is the discrepancy of the metaphor, the want of opposition between _wicked_ and _well-favoured_. But he might have remembered what he says in his own preface concerning _mixed modes_. Shakespeare, whose mind was more intent upon notions than words, had in his thoughts the pulchritude of virtue, and the deformity of wickedness; and though he had mentioned _wickedness_, made the correlative answer to _deformity_.

III.i.7 (394,1) That things might change, or cease: tears his white hair] The first folio ends the speech at _change, or cease_, and begins again with Kent's question, _But who is with him?_ The whole speech is forcible, but too long for the occasion, and properly retrenched.

III.i.18 (395,3) my note] My observation of your character.

III.i.29 (395,6) _are but furnishings_] _Furnishings_ are what we now call _colours, external pretences_. (1773)

III.i.19 (395,8)

There is division, Although as yet the face of it is cover'd with mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall; _Who have (as who have not, whom their great stars Throne and set high?) servants, who seem no less; Which are to France the spies and speculations Intelligent of our state. What hath been seen, Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes; Or the hard rein, which both of them have borne Against the old kind king; or something deeper, Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings._ [But, true it is, from France there comes a power Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already, Wise in our negligence, have secret fee In some of our best ports, and are at point To shew their open banner.--Now to you:]]

The true state of this speech cannot from all these notes be discovered. As it now stands it is collected from two editions: the lines which I have distinguished by Italics are found in the folio, not in the quarto; the following lines inclosed in crotchets are in the quarto, not in the folio. So that if the speech be read with omissions of the Italics, it will stand according to the first edition; and if the Italics are read, and the lines that follow them omitted, it will then stand according to the second. The speech is now tedious, because it is formed by a coalition of both. The second edition is generally best, and was probably nearest to Shakespeare's last copy, but in this passage the first is preferable; for in the folio, the messenger is sent, he knows not why, he knows not whither. I suppose Shakespeare thought his plot opened rather too early, and made the alteration to veil the event from the audience; but trusting too much to himself, and full of a single purpose, he did not accommodate his new lines to the rest of the scene.--The learned critic's [Warburton] emendations are now to be examined. _Scattered_ he has changed to _scathed_; for _scattered_, he says, gives _the idea of an anarchy, which was not the case_. It may be replied that _scathed_ gives the idea of ruin, waste, and desolation, _which was not the case_. It is unworthy a lover of truth, in questions of great or little moment, to exaggerate or extenuate for mere convenience, or for vanity yet less than convenience. _Scattered_ naturally means _divided, unsettled, disunited_.--Next is offered with great pomp a change of _sea_ to _seize_; but in the first edition the word is _fee_, for _hire_, in the sense of having any one in _fee_, that is, at _devotion for money_. _Fee_ is in the second quarto changed to _see_, from which one made _sea_ and another _seize_.

III.ii.4 (398,1) thought-executing] Doing execution with rapidity equal to thought.

III.ii.19 (399,4) Here I stand, your slave] [W: brave] The meaning is plain enough, he was not their _slave_ by right or compact, but by necessity and compulsion. Why should a passage be darkened for the sake of changing it? Besides, of _brave_ in that sense I remember no example.

III.ii.24 (399,5) 'tis foul] Shameful; dishonourable.

III.ii.30 (399,6) So beggars marry many] i.e. A beggar marries a wife and lice.

III.ii.46 (400,1) Man's nature cannot carry/The affliction, nor the fear] So the folio: the later editions read, with the quarto, _force_ for _fear_, less elegantly.

III.ii.56 (401,3) That under covert and convenient seeming] _Convenient_ needs not be understood in any other than its usual and proper sense; _accommodate_ to the present purpose; _suitable_ to a design. _Convenient seeming_ is _appearance_ such as may promote his purpose to destroy.

III.ii.53 (401,4) concealing continents] _Continent_ stands for that which _contains_ or _incloses_.

III.ii.72 (401,(5) Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart,/ That's sorry yet for thee] Some editions read,

--_thing_ in my heart;

from which Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, have made _string_, very unnecessarily; both the copies have _part_.

III.ii.74 (402,7)

_He that has a little tiny wit,-- With heigh ho, the wind and the rain; Must make content with his fortunes fit, Though the rain it raineth every day_]

I fancy that the second line of this stanza had once a termination that rhymed with the fourth; but I can only fancy it; for both the copies agree. It was once perhaps written,

With heigh ho, the wind and the rain _in his way_.

The meaning seems likewise to require this insertion. "He that has wit, however small, and finds wind and rain in his way, must content himself by thinking, that somewhere or other _it raineth every day_, and others are therefore suffering like himself." Yet I am afraid that all this is chimerical, for the burthen appears again in the song at the end of _Twelfth Night_, and seems to have been an arbitrary supplement, without any reference to the sense of the song. (see 1765, VI, 84, 6)

III.ii.80 (402,8) I'll speak a prophecy ere I go] [W: or two ere] The sagacity and acuteness of Dr. Warburton are very conspicuous in this note. He has disentangled the confusion of the passage, and I have inserted his emendation in the text. _Or e'er_ is proved by Mr. Upton to be good English, but the controversy was not necessary, for _or_ is not in the old copies. [Steevens retained "ere"]

III.ii.84 (403,1) No heretics burnt, but wenches' suitors] The disease to which _wenches' suitors_ are particularly exposed, was called in Shakespeare's time the _brenning_ or _burning_.

III.iv.26 (406,1)

In, boy; go first. [_To the Fool._] You houseless poverty-- Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep]

These two lines were added in the author's revision, and are only in the folio. They are very judiciously intended to represent that humility, or tenderness, or neglect of forms, which affliction forces on the mind.

III.iv.52 (407,3) led through fire and through flame] Alluding to the _ignis fatuus_, supposed to be lights kindled by mischievous beings to lead travellers into destruction.

III.iv.54 (407,4) laid knives under his pillow] He recounts the temptations by which he was prompted to suicide; the opportunities of destroying himself, which often occurred to him in his melancholy moods.

III.iv.60 (407,5) Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking!] To _take_ is to blast, or strike with malignant influence:

--strike her young limbs, Ye taking airs, with lameness.

III.iv.77 (408,6) pelican daughters] The young pelican is fabled to suck the mother's blood.

III.iv.95 (408,8) light of ear] [i.e. Credulous. WARBURTON.] Not merely _credulous_, but _credulous of evil_, ready to receive malicious reports. (1773)

III.iv.103 (409,1) says suum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, boy, Sessy: let him trot by] Of this passage I can make nothing. I believe it corrupt: for wildness, not nonsense, is the effect of a disordered imagination. The quarto reads, _hay no on ny, dolphins, my boy, cease, let him trot by_. Of interpreting this there is not much hope or much need. But any thing may be tried. The madman, now counterfeiting a proud fit, supposes himself met on the road by some one that disputes the way, and cries _Hey!--No--but altering his mind, condescends to let him pass, and calls to his boy _Dolphin_ (Rodolph) not to contend with him. _On--Dolphin, my boy, cease. Let him trot by_.

III.iv.122 (410,3) web and the pin] Diseases of the eye.

III.iv.125 (411,4)

Saint Withold footed thrice the void; He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold; Bid her alight, and her troth plight, And aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee!]

In the old quarto the corruption is such as may deserve to be noted. "Swithold footed thrice the old another night moore and her nine fold bid her, O light, and her troth plight, and arint thee, with arint thee."

III.iv.144 (412,6) _small deer_] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads _geer_, and is followed by Dr. Warburton. But _deer_ in old language is a general word for wild animals.

III.iv.187 (414,8) _Child Rowland_] This word is in some of our ballads. There is a song of _Child Walter, and a Lady_.

III.v.21 (415,2) If I find him comforting the king] He uses the word in the juridical sense for _supporting, helping_, according to its derivation; _salvia_ comfortat _ne vos_.--_Schol. Sal._ (rev. 1778, IX, 477, 3)

III.vi.20 (416,2) a horse's health] [W: heels] Shakespeare is here speaking not of things maliciously treacherous, but of things uncertain and not durable, A horse is above all other animals subject to diseases.

III.vi.26 (416,3) Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?] It may be observed that Edgar, being supposed to be found by chance, and therefore to have no knowledge of the rest, connects not his ideas with those of Lear, but pursues his own train of delirious or fantastic thought. To these words, _At trial, madam?_ I think therefore that the name of Lear should be put. The process of the dialogue will support this conjecture. (1773)

III.vi.27 (417,4) _Come oe'er the broom, Bessy, to me_] As there is no relation between _broom_ and a _boat_, we may better read,

Come o'er the _brook_, Bessy, to me.

III.vi.43 (417,6)

_Sleepest, or wakest thou, jolly shepherd? Thy sheep be in the corn; And for one blast of thy minikin mouth, Thy sheep shall take no harm.]

This seems to be a stanza of some pastoral song. A shepherd is desired to pipe, and the request is enforced by a promise, that though his sheep be in the corn, i.e. committing a trespass by his negligence, implied in the question, _Sleepest thou or wakest?_ Yet a single tune upon his pipe shall secure them from the pound. (1773)

III.vi.77 (419,8) Sessy, come] Here is _sessey_ again, which I take to be the French word _cessez_ pronounced _cessey_, which was, I suppose, like some others in common use among us. It is an interjection enforcing cessation of any action, like, _be quiet, have done_. It seems to have been gradually corrupted into, _so, so_.

III.vi.78 (419,9) thy horn is dry] Men that begged under pretence of lunacy used formerly to carry a horn, and blow it through the streets.

III.vi.103-121 (420,2) [_Kent._ Opprest nature sleeps] The lines inserted from the quarto are in crotchets. The omission of them in the folio is certainly faulty: yet I believe the folio is printed from Shakespeare'a last revision, carelessly and hastily performed, with more thought of shortening the scenes, than of continuing the action.

III.vi.111 (421,4) free things] States clear from distress.

III.vi. 117 (421,5)

Mark the high noises! and thyself bewray, When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee, In thy just proof, repeals, and reconciles thee]

Attend to the great events that are approaching, and make thyself known. Then that _false opinion_ now prevailing against thee shall, in consequence of _just proof_ of thy integrity, revoke its erroneous sentence, and recall thee to honour and reconciliation.

III.vii.13 (421,6) ray lord of Glo'ster] Meaning Edmund, newly invested with his father's titles. The steward, speaking immediately after, mentions the old duke by the same title.

III.vii.24 (422,3)

Though well we may not pass upon his life Without the form of justice; yet our power Shall do a courtesy to our wrath]

_To do a courtesy_ is to gratify, to comply with. _To pass_, is to pass a judicial sentence. (1773)

III.vii.29 (422,4) corky arms] Dry, wither'd, husky arms.

III.vii.54 (424,9) I am ty'd to the stake, and I must stand the course] The running of the dogs upon me.

III.vii.65 (425,2) All cruels else subscrib'd] Yielded, submitted to the necessity of the occasion.

III.vii.99-107 (426,3) I'll never care what wickedness I do] [This short dialogue I have inserted from the old quarto, because I think it full of nature. Servants could hardly see such a barbarity committed on their master, without pity; and the vengeance that they presume canst overtake the actors of it is a sentiment and doctrine well worthy of the stage. THEOBALD.] It is not necessary to suppose them the servants of Glo'ster; for Cornwall was opposed to extremity by his own servant.

IV.i.1 (427,1) Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd] The meaning is, _'Tis better_ to be _thus contemned, and_ known _to yourself_ to be contemned. Or perhaps there is an error, which may be rectified thus:

Yet better thus unknown to be contemn'd.

When a man divests himself of his real character he feels no pain from contempt, because he supposes it incurred only by a voluntary disguise which he can throw off at pleasure. I do not think any correction necessary.

IV.i.20 (429,3) Our mean secures us] [i.e. Moderate, mediocre condition. WARBURTON.] Banner writes, by an easy change, _meanness_ secures us. The two original editions have,

Our _meanes_ secures us.--

I do not remember that _mean_ is ever used aa a substantive for low fortune, which is the sense here required, nor for mediocrity, except in the phrase, the _golden mean_. I suspect the passage of corruption, and would either read,

Our means _seduce_ us:--

Our powers of body or fortune draw us into evils. Or,

Our _maims_ secure us.--

That hurt or deprivation which makes us defenceless, proves our safeguard. This is very proper in Glo'ster, newly maimed by the evulsion of his eyes.