4 To do upon refpect fuch violent outrage:
Refolve me with all modeft hafte, which way
Thou might'st deserve, or they impofe, this ufage,
Coming from us?

Kent. My lord, when at their home

I did commend your highnefs' letters to them,
Ere I was rifen from the place, that shew'd
My duty kneeling, came there a reeking poft,
Stew'd in his hafte, half breathlefs, panting forth
From Gonerill his mistress, falutation;

5 Deliver❜d letters, fpight of intermission,
Which presently they read; on whose contents
6 They fummon'd up their meiny, ftrait took horse;
Commanded me to follow, and attend

The leifure of their anfwer; gave me cold looks:
And meeting here the other meffenger,

Whofe welcome, I perceiv'd, had poison'd mine,
(Being the very fellow, which of late
Difplay'd fo faucily against your highness)
Having more man than wit about me, I drew;
He rais'd the house with loud and coward cries:
Your fon and daughter found this trespass worth
The fhame which here it fuffers.

Fool. 7 Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geefe fly that way. Fathers, that wear rags,

Do make their children blind;
But fathers, that bear bags,
Shall fee their children kind.

To do upon refpect fuch violent outrage:] To violate the public and venerable character of a meffenger from the king. JOHNSON.

5 Deliver❜d letters, fpight of intermiffion,] Intermission, for another meffenger which they had then before them, to confider of; called intermiffion, because it came between their leisure and the steward's meffage. WARBURTON.

6

• They fummon'd up their meiny,] Meiny, i. e. People.

POPE.

7 Winter's not gone yet, &c.] If this be their behaviour, the king's troubles are not yet at an end. JOHNSON.

Fortune,

Fortune, that arrant whore,

Ne'er turns the key to the poor.

8

But, for all this, thou fhalt have as many dolours for thy daughters, as thou canst tell in a year.

Lear. Oh, how this mother fwells up toward my

heart!

Hyfterica paffio! Down, thou climbing forrow,
Thy element's below! Where is this daughter?
Kent. With the earl, Sir, here within.
Lear. Follow me not; ftay here.

[Exit.

Gent. Made you no more offence, but what you fpeak of?

Kent. None.

How chance the king comes with so small a number? Fool. An thou hadst been fet i' the ftocks for that question, thou hadft well deferv'd it.

Kent. Why, fool?

Fool. We'll fet thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring in the winter. 9 All that follow their nofes are led by their eyes, but blind men; and there's not a nofe among twenty, but can smell him that's ftinking. Let go thy hold, when a great wheel runs down a hill, left it break thy neck with following it; but the great one that goes upward, let

8

dolours] Quibble intended between dolours and dollars. HANMER.

All that follow their nofs are led by their eyes, but blind men; and there's not a nofe among twenty, but can smell, &c.] There is in this fentence no clear feries of thought. If he that follows his nofe is led or guided by his eyes, he wants no information from his nofe. I perfuade myfelf, but know not whether I can perfuade others, that our author wrote thus:" All men are "led by their eyes, but blind men, and they follow their nofes; "and there's not a nofe among twenty but can fmell him that's ftinking.". -Here is a fucceflion of reafoning. You afk, why the king has no more in his train? why, because men who are led by their eyes fee that he is ruined; and if there were any blind among them, who, for want of eyes, followed their nofes, they might by their nofes difcover that it was no longer fit to follow the king. Jonsson. JOHNSON.

66

him

him draw thee after. 1 When a wife man gives thee better counfel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, fince a fool gives it. That, Sir, which ferves for gain,

And follows but for form,

Will pack, when it 'gins to rain,
And leave thee in the ftorm.

2 But I will tarry; the fool will stay,
And let the wife man fly;

The knave turns fool, that runs away;
The fool no knave, perdy.

Kent. Where learn'd you this, fool?
Fool. Not i' the ftocks, fool.

Re-enter Lear and Glofter.

Lear. Deny to speak with me?

They are fick?

They have travell'd hard to-night?

Mere fetches;

They are weary?

The images of revolt and flying off!
Fetch me a better anfwer.-

1

Glo. My dear lord,

When a wife man gives thee, &c.] One cannot too much commend the caution which our moral poet ufes, on all occafions, to prevent his fentiments from being perverfly taken. So here, having given an ironical precept in commendation of perfidy and bafe defertion of the unfortunate, for fear it fhould be understood seriously, though delivered by his buffoon or jefter, he has the precaution to add this beautiful corrective, full of fine fenfe:-" I would have none but knaves follow it, "fince a fool gives it." WARBURTON.

2 But I will tarry; the fool will ftay,

And let, &c.] I think this paffage erroneous, though both the copies concur. The fenfe will be mended if we read, But I will tarry; the fool will stay,

And let the wife man fly;

The fool turns knave, that runs away;

The knave no fool,

That I ftay with the king is a proof that I am a fool, the wife men are deferting him. There is knavery in this defertion, but there is no folly. JOHNSON.

You

You know the fiery quality of the duke;

How unremovable, and fixt he is
In his own course.

Lear. Vengeance! plague! death! confufion!Fiery? what quality? Why Glo'fter, Glo'fter, I'd fpeak with the duke of Cornwall and his wife. Glo. Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them fo. Lear. Inform'd them? Doft thou underftand me, man?

Glo. Ay, my good lord.

Lear. The king would fpeak with Cornwall: the dear father

Would with his daughter fpeak, commands her fervice: Are they inform'd of this ?-My breath and blood!— Fiery? The fiery duke? Tell the hot duke, that

[Glofter offers to go. No, but not yet:may be he is not well; Infirmity doth ftill neglect all office,

Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves, When nature, being opprefs'd, commands the mind To fuffer with the body. I'll forbear:

And am fallen out with my more headier will,

To take the indifpos'd and fickly fit

For the found man.

Should he fit here?

Death ca my ftate! Wherefore

[Looking on Kent.

This act perfuades me,

That this remotion of the duke and her

3 Is practice only. Give me my fervant forth.
Go, tell the duke and his wife, I'd fpeak with them,
Now! presently! Bid them come forth and hear me,
Or at their chamber-door I'll beat the drum,

Till it cry, fleep to death.

[Exit.

Glo. I would have all well betwixt you.
Lear. Oh me, my heart, my rifing heart! but down.

Pratice is in Shakespeare, and

other old writers, ufed commonly in an ill fenfe for unlawful

3 Is practice only.

Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to 4 the eels, when she put them i' the paste alive: fhe rapt 'em o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cry'd, Down, wantons, down. 'Twas her brother, that, in pure kindness to his horfe, butter'd his hay.

Enter Cornwall, Regan, Glofter, and Servants. Lear. Good morrow to you both.

Corn. Hail to your grace! [Kent is fet at liberty. Regan. I am glad to fee your highness.

Lear. Regan, I think you are; I know what reason I have to think fo; if thou shouldst not be glad, I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb, Sepulch'ring an adultrefs.-O, are you free? [To Kent. Some other time for that.-Beloved Regan, Thy fifter's naught. Oh Regan, 5 fhe hath tied Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here:

[Points to his heart.

I can scarce fpeak to thee; thou'lt not believe,
6 Of how deprav'd a quality-Oh Regan!-
Reg. I pray you, Sir, take patience; I have hope,
You lefs know how to value her defert,

7 Than fhe to fcant her duty.

Lear.

4 the ecls, when she put them i the pafte-] Hinting that the eel and Lear are in the fame danger. JOHNSON.

fhe hath tied

Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here:] Alluding to the fable of Prometheus. WARBURTON.

6

Of how deprav'd a quality-] Thus the quarto. The folio reads,

With how deprav'd a quality

JOHNSON.

7 Than fe to feant her duty.] The word fcant is directly contrary to the fenfe intended. The quarto reads,

flack her duty,

which is no better. May we not change it thus : You lefs know how to value her defert,

Than fhe to fean her duty.

To fean my be to measure or proportion. Yet our author uses his negatives with fuch licentioufnefs, that it is hardly fafe to

make