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When mifery could beguile the tyrant's rage,
And fruftrate his proud will.

Edg. Give me your arm.

Up.-So.-How is't? Feel you your legs? Youstand. Glo. Too well, too well.

Edg. This is above all strangeness.

Upon the crown o' the cliff, what thing was that
Which parted from you?

Glo. A poor unfortunate beggar.

Edg. As I ftood here below, methought his eyes Were two full moons; he had a thousand nofes, Horns welk'd, and wav'd like the enridged fea: It was fome fiend. Therefore, thou happy father, Think, that the cleareft gods, who make them honours Of mens' impoffibilities, have preferv'd thee.

Glo. I do remember now. Henceforth I'll bear Affliction, till it do cry out itself,

Enough, enough, and die. That thing you speak of,
I took it for a man; often 'twould say,
The fiend, the fiend-He led me to that place.
Edg. 3 Bear free and patient thoughts.-

Enter Lear, mad.

But who comes here?

The fafer fenfe will ne'er accommodate

His mafter thus.

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evil.

Lear.

the clearest gods,] The pureft; the most free from JOHNSON.

Bear free and patient thoughts.-] To be melancholy is to have the mind chained down to one painful idea; there is therefore great propriety in exhorting Glo'fter to free thoughts, to an emancipation of his foul from grief and despair. JOHNSON. 4 The SAFER fenfe will ne'er accommodate

His mofler thus.] Without doubt Shakespeare wrote,

The fober fenfe,

i. e. while the understanding is in a right frame it will never thus accommodate its owner; alluding to Lear's extravagant des. Thence he concludes him to be mad. WARBURTON.

Lear. No, they cannot touch me for coining: I am the king himself.

Edg. O thou fide-piercing fight!

Lear. Nature's above art in that refpect.-There's your prefs-money. That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper. Draw me a clothier's yard.-Look, look, a moufe! Peace, peace;-this piece of toasted cheese will do't.-There's my gauntlet; I'll prove it on a giant. -Bring up the brown bills. 70, well flown, bird! i' the clout, i' the clout: hewgh.. 8 Give the word.

---

Edg. Sweet marjoram.

Lear. País.

I read rather,

The Janer fenfe will ne'er accommodate

His mafter thus.

"Here is Lear, but he must be mad: his found or fane fenfes "would never fuffer him to be thus difguifed." JOHNSON.

5 That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper.] Mr. Pope in his last edition reads cow-keeper. It is certain we must read crow-keeper. In feveral counties to this day, they call a stuffed figure, reprefenting a man, and armed with a bow and arrow, fet up to fright the crows from the fruit and corn, a crowkeeper, as well as a feare-crow. THEOBALD.

This crow-keeper was fo common in the author's time, that it is one of the few peculiarities mentioned by Ortelius in his account of our island. JOHNSON.

6 Draw me a clothier's yard.] Perhaps the poet had in his mind a ftanza of the old ballad of Chevy Chace;

"An arrow of a cloth-yard long,

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Up to the head drew he," &c. STEEVENS. 70, well flown, bird!] Lear is here raving of archery, and fhooting at buts, as is plain by the words i' the clout, that is, the white mark they fet up and aim at: hence the phrafe, to hit the white. So that we must read, O, well-flown, Barb! i. e. the barbed, or bearded arrow. WARBURTON.

The author of The Revifal thinks there can be no impropriety in calling an arrow a bird, from the fwiftnefs of its flight, efpecially when immediately preceded by the words well-flown. STEEVENS.

8

Give the word.] Lear fuppofes himself in a garrifon, and before he lets Edgar pafs, requires the watch-word. JOHNS.

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Glo. I know that voice.

Lear. 7 Ha! Gonerill!-with a white beard! 8 They flattered me like a dog; and told me, I had white hairs in my beard, ere the black ones were there. To fay ay, and no, to every thing that I faid!-Ay and no too was no good divinity. 9 When the rain came to wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter; when the thunder would not peace at my bidding; there I found 'em, there I felt 'em out. Go to, they are not men o' their words: they told me I was every thing; 'tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.

I

Glo. The trick of that voice I do well remember: Is't not the king?

Lear. Ay, every inch a king.

When I do ftare, fee, how the fubject quakes.
I pardon that man's life: what was the cause?
Adultery.-

Thou shalt not die. Die for adultery!

No:
The wren goes to't, and the fmall gilded fly
Does lecher in my fight.

Let copulation thrive, for Glo'fter's bastard fon
Was kinder to his father, than my daughters

7

Ha! Gonerill!with a white beard!] So reads the folio, properly; the quarto, whom the later editors have followed, has, Ha! Generill, ha! Regan! they flattered me, &c. which is not fo forcible. JOHNSON.

-They flattered me like a dog ;-] They played the spaniel
JOHNSON.

to me.

9

When the rain came to vet me, &c.] This feems to be an allufion to king Canute's behaviour when his courtiers flattered him as lord of the fea. STEEVENS.

-I

The trick of that voice] Trick (fays Sir Tho. Hanmer) is a word frequently ufed for the air, or that peculiarity in a face, voice, or gefture, which diftinguishes it from others.believe that the meaning of the word trick has hitherto been nifunderstood. To trick means the fame as to trace lightly; and is a phrafe peculiar to drawing. The tricking is the first light out-line. He hath the trick (i. c. faint out-line) of Cœur de Lion's face, is a very proper expreffion; but I am afraid it wants fomething of that propriety when it is applied to a voice.

STEEVENS.

Got

Got 'tween the lawful fheets.

To't, luxury, pell-mell; for I lack foldiers.-
Behold yond fimpering dame,

2 Whofe face between her forks prefages fnow;
That minces virtue, and does shake the head
To hear of pleasure's name.

3 The fitchew, 4 nor the foyled horfe, goes to't With a more riotous appetite.

Down from the waift they are Centaurs,

Though women all above:

But to the girdle do the gods inherit,

Beneath is all the fiend's; there's hell, there's darkness,
There is the fulphurous pit, burning, fcalding, french,
confumption. Fie, fie, fie! pah, pah!
Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary,
To sweeten my imagination! there's money for thee.
Glo. O, let me kifs that hand!

Lear. Let me wipe it firft; it fmells of mortality. Glo. O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world Shall fo wear out to nought.-Doft thou know me?

Lear. I remember thine eyes well enough. Doft thou fquiny at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid; I'll not love. Read thou this challenge; mark but the penning of it.

2

Glo. Were all the letters funs, I could not fee one.

Whofe face between her forks- i. e. Her hand held before her face in fign of modefty, with the fingers fpread out, forky. WARBURTON.

I believe that the forks were two prominences of the ruff rifing on each fide of the face. JOHNSON.

3 The fitcher,] A polecat. POPE.

4 nor the SOYLED berje,-] I read falled horfe. WARB. Sciled horfe is probably the fame as pampered horte, un cheval foulé. JOHNSON.

Soyled horfe is a term ufed for a horfe that has been fed with hay and corn in the ftable during the winter, and is turned out in the fpring to take the firt flush of grafs, or has it cut and carried in to him. This at once cleanfes the animal, and fills him with blood.

STEEVENS.

Ff3

Edg.

Edg. I would not take this from report:—it is, And my heart breaks at it.

Lear. Read.

Glo. What, with this cafe of eyes?

Lear. Oh, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your head, nor no money in your purfe? Your eyes are in a heavy cafe, your purfe in a light: yet you fee how this world goes.

Glo. I fee it feelingly.

Lear. What, art mad? A man may fee how this world goes, with no eyes. Look with thine ears: fee, how yon juftice rails upon yon fimple thief. Hark in thine ear. Change places, and handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? Thou haft feen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar.

Glo. Ay, Sir.

Lear. And the creature run from the cur.

There

thou might'ft behold the great image of authority: a dog's obey'd in office.

Thou rafcal beadle, hold thy bloody hand:

Why doft thou lafh that whore? ftrip thy own back; Thou hotly luft'ft to use her in that kind,

For which thou whipp'ft her. The ufurer hangs the

cozener.

Through tatter'd cloaths fmall vices do appear; 5 Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate fin with

gold,

And the ftrong lance of juftice hurtlefs breaks:
Arm it in rags, a pigmy's ftraw doth pierce it.
None does offend, none, I fay, none; I'll able 'em :

5 Robes and furr'd gowns hide all- -] From bide all to accufer's lips, the whole paffage is wanting in the first edition, being added, I fuppofe, at his revifal. JOHNSON.

6

I'll able 'em:] An old phrafe fignifying to qualify, or uphold them. So Scogan, contemporary with Chaucer, fays, "Set all my life after thyne ordinance,

"And able me to mercie or thou deme."

But the Oxford Editor alters it to abfolve. WARBURTON.
So Chapman, in his comedy of The Widow's Tears, 1612.
Admitted! ay, into her heart, and I'll able it." STEEVENS.

Take

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