1

8 this unbolted villain ? into mortar, and daub the wall of a jakes with him. Spare my grey beard? you wagtail!

Corn. Peace, Sirrah!

You beaftly knave, know you no reverence?
Kent. Yes, Sir; but anger hath a privilege.
Corn. Why art thou angry?

Kent. That fuch a flave as this should wear a fword,
Who wears no honefty. Such fmiling rogues as these,
'Like rats, oft bite the holy cords in twain
Too 'intrinficate t'unloofe: footh every paffion,

That

nor how Z is an unnecessary letter. Scarron compares his deformity to the fhape of Z, and it may be a proper word of infult to a crook-backed man; but why fhould Gonerill's fteward be crooked, unlefs the allufion be to his bending or cringing posture in the prefence of his fuperiors. Perhaps it was written, thou whorefon C (for cuckold) thou unnecessary letter. C is a letter unneceffary in our alphabet, one of its two founds being reprefented by S, and one by K. But all the copies concur in the common reading. JOHNSON.

Thou whorefon zed! thou unneceffary letter!] Zed is here probably used as a term of contempt, because it is the laft letter in the English alphabet, and as its place may be fupplied by S, and the Roman alphabet has it not. C cannot be the unneceffary letter, as there are many words in which its place will not be fupplied by any other, as charity, chastity, &c. STEEVENS.

this unbolted villain—] i. e. unrefined by education, the bran yet in him. Metaphor from the bakehoufe. WARB. into mortar,] This expreffion was much in ufe in our author's time. So Maffenger, in New Way to pay old Debts, act i. fcene 1.

I will help your memory, "And tread thee into mortar."

STEEVENS.

Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwaine,

Which are t'intrince, t'unloofe ;- -] Thus the firft editors blundered this paffage into unintelligible nonfenfe. Mr. Pope fo far has difengaged it, as to give us plain fenfe; but by throwing out the epithet holy, it is evident that he was not aware of the poet's fine meaning. I will firft eftablish and prove the reading, then explain the allufion. Thus the poet gave it : Like rats, oft bite the holy cords in twain, Too intrinficate t'unloofe:

2

That in the nature of their lords rebels;
Bring oil to fire, fnow to their colder moods,
Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks
With every gale and vary of their masters;
As knowing nought, like dogs, but following.
A plague upon your 3 epileptic visage!
Smile you my fpeeches, as I were a fool?
Goofe, if I had you upon Sarum-plain,
I'd drive ye cackling home to + Camelot.

Corn.

This word again occurs in our author's Antony and Cleopatra, where fhe is fpeaking to the Afpick :

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Come, mortal wretch;

"With thy fharp teeth this knot intrinficate

"Of life at once untie."

And we meet with it in Cynthia's Revels, by Ben Jonson.— Yet there are certain punctilios, or, as I may mere nakedly infinuate them, certain intrinficate ftrokes and words, to which your activity is not yet amounted, &c. It means inward, hidden, perplext; as a knot, hard to be unravelled: it is derived from the Latin adverb intrinfecus; from which the Italians have coined a very beautiful phrafe, intrinficarsi col une, i.e. to grow intimate with, to wind one felf into another. And now to our author's fenfe. Kent is rating the fteward, as a parafite of Gonerill's; and fuppofes very justly, that he has fomented the quarrel betwixt that princefs and her father: in which office he compares him to a facrilegious rat: and by a fine metaphor, as Mr. Warburton obferved to me, ftiles the union between parents and children the holy cords. THEOBALD.

Like rats, oft bite the holy cords in twain

Too intrinficate t'unloofe:] By thefe holy cords the poet means the natural union between parents and children. The metaphor is taken from the cords of the fanctuary; and the fomenters of family differences are compared to thefe facrilegious rats. The expreffion is fine and noble. WARBURTON.

2

and turn their halcyon beaks

With ev'ry gale and vary of their masters;] The balcyon is the bird otherwife called the king-fiber. The vulgar opinion was, that this bird, if hung up by the bill, would vary with the wind, and by that means fhew from what point it blew. STEEVENS.

3

epileptic vifage!] The frighted countenance of a man ready to fall in a fit. JOHNSON.

4

Camelot.] Was the place where the romances fay

A a 2

king

Corn. What art thou mad, old fellow?
Glo. How fell you out? Say that.

Kent. No contraries hold more antipathy,
Than I and fuch a knave.

Corn. Why dost thou call him knave? What is his fault?

Kent. His countenance likes me not.

Corn. No more, perchance, does mine, nor his, nor hers.

Kent. Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain;

I have feen better faces in my time,

Than ftand on any fhoulder that I fee

Before me at this inftant.

Corn. This is fome fellow,

Who, having been prais'd for bluntnefs, doth affect
A faucy roughness; and 5 conftrains the garb
Quite from his nature. He can't flatter, he!
An honeft mind and plain, he must speak truth:
An they will take it, fo; if not, he's plain.
These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness
Harbour more craft, and more corrupter ends,
6 Than twenty filly ducking obfervants,
That stretch their duties nicely.

Kent.

king Arthur kept his court in the Weft; fo this alludes to fome proverbial fpeech in those romances. WARBURTON.

In Somersetshire, near Camelot, are many large moors, where are bred great quantities of geefe, fo that many other places are from hence fupplied with quills and feathers. HANMER. conftrains the garb

5

Quite from his nature.- 1 Forces his outfide or his appearance to fomething totally different from his natural difpofition. JOHNSON.

Than twenty SILLY ducking objervants,] The epithet filly cannot be right. 1t, Becaufe Cornwall, in this beautiful fpeech, is not talking of the different fuccefs of these two kind of parafites, but of their different corruption of heart. 2d, Becaufe he fays thefe ducking obfervants know how to stretch their duties nicely. I am perfuaded we should read,

Than twenty filky ducking obfervants,

which not only alludes to the garb of a court fycophant, but admirably

Kent. Sir, in good faith, in fincere verity, Under the allowance of your grand afpect, Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire 7 On flickering Phoebus' front

Corn. What mean'ft by this?

Kent. To go out of my dialect, which you difcommend fo much. I know, Sir, I am no flatterer: he that beguil'd you in a plain accent, was a plain knave; which, for my part, I will not be, 8 though I fhould win your displeasure to intreat me to't.

Corn. What was the offence you gave him?
Stew. I never gave him any :

It pleas'd the king his master very lately
To ftrike at me upon his mifconstruction,

When he, 9 conjunct, and flattering his displeasure,

admirably well denotes the fmoothnefs of his character. But what is more, the poet generally gives them this epithet in other places. So in Richard III. he calls them,

Silky, fly, infinuating jacks."

when fteel grows

"Soft as the parafite's filk,”

WARBURTON.

The alteration is more ingenious than the arguments by which it is fupported. JOHNSON.

7 On flickering Phabus' front-] Dr. Johnfon in his Dictionary fays this word means to flutter. I meet with it in The Hiftory of Clyomon, Knight of the Golden Shield, 1599,

By flying force of flickering fame your grace shall "understand."

So in The Pilgrim of Beaumont and Fletcher,

"That hovers over her, and dares her daily;
"Some flickring slave.”.

Sir Thomas North, in his traflation of Plutarch, talks of the flickering enticements of Cleopatra.-Stanyhurft, in his tranflation of the fourth book of Virgil's Eneid, 1582, defcribes Iris, "From the sky down flickering," &c. STEEVENS.

8

though I should win your difpleasure to intreat me to't.] Though I should win you, difpleated as you now are, to like me fo well as to intreat me to be a knave. JOHNSON.

Conjunct is the reading of the old quarto; compact of the folio. STEEVENS.

A a 3

Tript

Tript me behind; being down, infulted, rail'd,
And put upon him fuch a deal of man,
That worthied him; got praifes of the king,
For him attempting who was felf-fubdu’d;
And, in the fiefhment of this dread exploit,
Drew on me here again.

Kent. None of thefe rogues and cowards,
But Ajax is their fool.

Corn. Fetch forth the ftocks.

You ftubborn ancient knave, you unreverend braggart,
We'll teach you

Kent. Sir, I am too old to learn.

Call not your ftocks for me: I ferve the king;
On whofe employment I was fent to you.

You fhall do fmall refpect, fhew too bold malice
Againit the grace and perfon of my master,
Stocking his messenger.

Corn. Fetch forth the ftocks:

As I have life and honour, there fhall he fit till noon,
Regan. Till noon! till night, my lord, and all

night too.

Kent. Why, madam, if I were your father's dog, You could not use me fo.

Reg. Sir, being his knave, I will.

[Stocks brought out. Corn. This is a fellow of the felf-fame colour

Our fifter fpeaks of.-Come, bring away the stocks,
Glo. Let me befeech your grace not to do fo:
His fault is much, and the good king his master
Will check him for't. Your purpos'd low correction
Is fuch, as bafcft and the meanest wretches
For pilferings, and most common trefpaffes,
Are punish'd with: the king muft take it ill,

But Ajax is their fool.] "There are none of these rogues and cowards but have the fubtlety to bring a man, as much above their match as Ajax, into difgrace." Or, perhaps, thefe rogues and cowards speak of themselves as if Ajax was a fool to them, STEEVENS,

That

i