That he, fo flightly valu'd in his meffenger, Should have him thus reftrain'd. Corn. I'll anfwer that. Reg. My fifter may receive it much more worse, To have her gentleman abus'd, affaulted, For following her affairs.-Put in his legs. [Kent is put in the flocks. Come, my lord; away. [Exeunt Regan and Cornwall. Glo. I am forry for thee, friend. 'Tis the duke's pleafure, Whofe difpofition, all the world well knows, 2 Will not be rubb'd, nor stopp'd. I'll intreat for thee. Kent. Pray, do not, Sir. travell'd hard; I have watch'd and Sometime I fhall fleep out, the rest I'll whistle. Glo. The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill taken. Exit. Kent. 3 Good king, that must approve the common faw! Thou out of heaven's benediction com'ft To the warm fun! Approach, thou beacon to this under-globe, [Looking up to the moon. 2 Will not be rubb'd, nor stopp'd.- -] Metaphor from bowling. WARBURTON. Good king, that must approve the common faw!] That art now to exemplify the common proverb, That out of, &c. That changeft better for worfe. Hanmer obferves, that it is a proverbial faying, applied to thofe who are turned out of houfe and home to the open weather. It was perhaps firft ufed of men difmiffed from an hofpital, or houfe of charity, fuch as was erected formerly in many places for travellers. Thofe houfes had names properly enough alluded to by heaven's benediction. JOHNSON. The faw alluded to, is in Heywood's Dialogues on Proverbs, book ii. chap. 5. "In your renning from him to me, ye runne That That by thy comfortable beams I may Perufe this letter. Nothing almoft fees miracles, [Reading the letter. Fortune, good night; fimile once more; turn thy wheel! [He fleeps. -I know 'tis from Cordelia, &c.] This paffage, which fome of the editors have degraded, as fparious, to the margin, and others have filently altered, I have faithfully printed according to the quarto, from which the folio diñers only in punctuation. The paffage is very obfcure, if not corrupt. Perhaps it may be read thus: Cordelia has been-informed. Of my obfcur'd courfe, and fhall find time Loffes their remedies.. Cordelia is informed of our affairs, and when the enormous care of feeking her fortune will allow her time, fhe will employ it in. remedying loffes. This is harfh; perhaps fomething better may be found. I have at leaft fupplied the genuine reading of the old copies. Enormous is unwonted, out of rule, out of the ordinary courfe of things. JOHNSON. From this enormous ftate, feeking to give Lofes their remedies. -] I confefs I do not understand this paffage, unless it may be confidered as a part of Cordelia's letter, which he is reading to himself by moonlight: it certainly conveys the sense of what she would have faid. In reading a letter it is natural enough to dwell on that part of it which promises the change in our affairs which we moft wifh for; and Kent having read Cordelia's affurances that she will find a time to free the injured from the enormous mifrule of Regan, is willing to go to fleep with that pleafing reflection uppermost in his mind. But this is mere conjecture. STEEVENS. SCENE Changes to a part of the heath. Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd; And, by the happy hollow of a tree, Efcap'd the hunt. No port is free; no place, That guard, and moft unusual vigilance Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may 'fcape, I will preserve myfelf; and am bethought To take the basest and most poorest shape, That ever penury, in contempt of man, Brought near to beaft. My face I'll grime with filth; Blanket my loins; elf all my hair in knots; I And with presented nakedness out-face Sometime elf all my hair in knots;] Hair thus knotted was vulgarly fuppofed to be the work of elves and fairies in the night. So in Romeo and Juliet ; - plats the manes of horses in the night, "And cakes the elf-locks in foul fluttish hairs, Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes." STEEVENS. 2 Poor pelting villages,] Pelting is used by Shakespeare in the fenfe of beggarly: I fuppofe from pelt a skin. The poor being generally cloathed in leather. WARBURTON. Pelting is, I believe, only an accidental depravation of petty. Shakespeare ufes it in the Midfummer-Night's Dream of Small brooks. JOHNSON. Beaumont and Fletcher often use the word in the fame sense as Shakespeare. King and no King, act iv. "This pelting, prating peace is good for nothing." Spanish Sometime with lunatic bans, fometime with prayers, Inforce their charity. 3 Poor Turlygood! poor Tom! That's fomething yet:-4 Edgar I nothing am. [Exit. SCENE IV. Changes again to the earl of Glo'fter's caftle. Enter Lear, Fool, and Gentleman. Lear. 'Tis ftrange that they should fo depart from home, And not fend back my meffenger. Gent. As I learn'd, Spanish Curate, act ii. fc. ult. To learn the pelting law." Shakespeare's Midfummer-Night's Dream,-" every pelting river." Meafure for Meajure, act ii. fcene 7. "And every pelting, petty officer.” From this last inftance it appears not to be a corruption of petty, which is ufed the next word to it. And if it comes from pelt, a skin, as Dr. Warburton fays, the poets have furnished villages, peace, law, rivers, and officers of juftice, all cut or one wardrobe. STEEVENS. 3 poor TURLY GOOD! poor Tom!] We fhould read TURLUPIN. In the fourteenth century there was a new fpecies of gipfies, called Turlupins, a fraternity of naked beggars, which ran up and down Europe. However the church of Rome hath dignified them with the name of heretics, and actually burned fome of them at Paris. But what fort of religionists they were, appears from Genebrard's account of them. "Turlupin Cynicorum fectam fufcitantes, de nuditate pudendorum, & "publico coitu." Plainly, nothing but a band of Tom-c’Bedlams. WARBURTON. Hanmer reads, poor Turlurù. It is probable the word Turlygood was the common corrupt pronunciation. JOHNSON. 4 Edgar I nothing am.] As Edgar I am out-lawed, dead in law; I have no longer any political existence. JOHNS. earl of Glofter's caftle.] It is not very clearly difcovered why Lear comes hither. In the foregoing part he fent a letter to Glo'fter; but no hint is given of its contents. He feems to have gone to vifit Glo'fter while Cornwall and Regan might prepare to entertain him. JOHNSON. The The night before, there was no purpose in them. Kent. Hail to thee, noble mafter ! Lear. Ha! makes thou this fhame thy paftime? Kent. No, my lord. Fool, Ha, ha; 2 he wears cruel garters. Horfes are ty'd by the heads; dogs and bears by the neck; monkeys by the loins; and men by the legs. When a man is over-lufty at legs, 3 then he wears wooden nether-stocks. Lear. What's he that hath so much thy place mistook, To fet thee here? Kent. It is both he and she, Your fon and daughter. Lear. No. Kent. Yes. Lear. No, I fay. Kent. I fay, yea. Lear. By Jupiter, I swear, no. Lear. They durst not do't: They could not, would not do't; 'tis worse than murder, 2 he wears CRUEL garters.-] I believe a quibble was here intended. Crewel fignifies worfted, of which stockings, garters, night-caps, &c. are made; and is used in that fenfe in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady, act ii. "For who that had but half his wits about him "Would commit the counsel of a ferious fin So again in the comedy of The Two angry Women of Abington, printed 1599, 3 I'll warrant you he'll have "His cruell garters cross about the knee." STEEV. then he wears wooden nether-stocks.] Nether-stocks is is the old word for flockings. Stubbs, in his Anatomie of Abuses, has a whole chapter on The Diverfitie of Nether-Stockes worn in England, 1595. Heywood among his Epigrams, 1562, has the following: 66 Thy upper focks, be they ftuft with filke or flocks, STEEVENS. Το |