Reg. Sister, you'll go with us?

Gon. No.

Reg. 'Tis most convenient; pray you, go with us. Gon. O, ho, I know the riddle: [Aside.] I will go.

As they are going out, enter EDGAR, disguised. Edg. If e'er your grace had speech with man so poor, Hear me one word.

Alb.

I'll overtake you.-Speak.
[Exeunt EDM. REG. GON. Officers, Soldiers,
and Attendants.

Edg. Before you fight the battle, ope this letter.
If you have victory, let the trumpet sound
For him that brought it: wretched though I seem,
I can produce a champion, that will prove
What is avouched there: If you miscarry,
Your business of the world hath so an end,
And machination ceases. Fortune love you!
Alb. Stay till I have read the letter.

Edg.
I was forbid it.
When time shall serve, let but the herald cry,
And I'll appear again.

[Exit. Alb. Why, fare thee well; I will o'erlook thy paper.

Re-enter EDMUND.

Edm. The enemy 's in view, draw up your powers. Here is the guess1 of their true strength and forces By diligent discovery;—but your haste

Is now urg'd on you.

Alb.

We will greet the time.2 [Exit.

• And machination ceases.] i. e. All designs against your life will have an end. Steevens.

These words are not in the quartos. In the latter part of this line, for love, the reading of the original copies, the folio has loves. Malone.

1 Here is the guess &c.] The modern editors read, Hard is the guess. So the quartos. But had the discovery been diligent, the guess could not have proved so difficult. I have given the true reading from the folio. Steevens.

The original reading is, I think, sufficiently clear. The most diligent inquiry does not enable me to form a conjecture concerning the true strength of the enemy. Whether we read hard or here, the adversative particle but in the subsequent line seems employed with little propriety. According to the present reading, it may mean, but you are now so pressed in point of time, that you have little leisure for such speculations. The quartos read-their great strength. Malone.

We will greet the time,] We will be ready to meet the occasion.

Johnson.

Edm. To both these sisters have I sworn my love; Each jealous of the other, as the stung

Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take?
Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd,
If both remain alive: To take the widow,
Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril;
And hardly shall I carry out my side,3

3 carry out my side,] Bring my purpose to a successful issue, to completion. Side seems here to have the sense of the French word partie, in prendre partie, to take his resolution. Johnson.

So, in the The Honest Man's Fortune, by Beaumont and Fletcher : 66 and carry out

"A world of evils with thy title."

Again, in one of the Paston Letters, Vol. IV, p. 155: "Heydon's son hath borne out the side stoutly here" &c. Steevens.

The Bastard means, "I shall scarcely be able to make out my game." The allusion is to a party at cards, and he is afraid that he shall not be able to make his side successful.

So, in Ben Jonson's Silent Woman, Centaure says of Epicene"She and Mavis will set up a side.”

That is, will be partners. And in Massinger's Unnatural Combat, Belgard says:

66

And if now

"At this downright game, I may but hold your cards,
"I'll not pull down the side."

In The Maid's Tragedy, the same expression occurs:

"Dula. I'll hold your cards against any two I know.
"Evad. Aspasia take her part.

"Dula. I will refuse it;

"She will pluck down a side, she does not use it."

But the phrase is still more clearly explained in Massinger's Great Duke of Florence, where Cozimo says to Petronella, who had challenged him to drink a second bowl of wine:

"Pray you, pause a little;

"If I hold your cards, I shall pull down the side;

"I am not good at the game."

M. Mason.

The same phrase has forced its way into Chapman's version of the fifth Iliad:

66

thy body's powers are poor,

"And therefore are thy troops so weak: the soldier ever

more

"Follows the temper of his chief; and thou pull'st down a side." Steevens.

Edmund, I think, means, hardly shall I be able to make my party good; to maintain my cause. We should now say-to bear out, which Coles, in his Dictionary, 1679, interprets, to make good, to save harmtess.

Side, for party, was the common language of the time. So, in a Letter from William Earl of Pembroke to Robert Earl of Leicester,

Her husband being alive. Now then, we 'll use
His countenance for the battle; which being done,
Let her, who would be rid of him, devise
His speedy taking off. As for the mercy
Which he intends to Lear, and to Cordelia,
The battle done, and they within our power,,
Shall never see his pardon: for my state
Stands on me to defend, not to debate.

SCENE II.

A Field between the two Camps.

[Exit.

Alarum within. Enter, with Drum and Colours, LEAR, CORDELIA, and their Forces; and exeunt.

Enter EDGAR and GLOSTER.5

Edg. Here, father, take the shadow of this tree For your good host; pray that the right my thrive: If ever I return to you again,

I'll bring you comfort.

Glo. Grace go with you sir! [Exit EDG. Alarums; afterwards a Retreat. Re-enter EDGAR. Edg. Away, old man, give me thy hand, away; King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter taʼen: Give me thy hand, come on.

Glo. No further, sir; a man may rot even here. Edg. What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither: Ripeness is all: Come on.

Glo.

And that's true too. [Exeunt.

Michaelmas Day, 1625,-Sydney Papers, Vol. II, p. 361: "The queenes side, and so herself, labour much to ly at Salisbury." Malone. 4 for my state

Stands on me &c.] I do not think that for stands, in this place, as a word of inference or casuality. The meaning is, rather-Such is my determination concerning Lear; as for my state it requires now, not deliberation, but defence and support. Johnson.

5 Enter Edgar &c.] Those who are curious to know how far Shakspeare was here indebted to the Arcadia, will find a chapter from it entitled,- "The pitifull State and Storie of the Paphlagonian unkinde King, and his kinde Sonne; first related by the Sonne, then by the blind Father." P. 141, edit. 1590, quarto, annexed to the conclusion of this play. Steevens.

Ripeness is all] i. e. To be ready, prepared, is all.

SCENE III.

The British Camp near Dover.

Enter, in Conquest, with Drum and Colours, EDMUND; LEAR and CORDELIA, as Prisoners; Officers, Soldiers, &c.

Edm. Some officers take them away: good guard; Until their greater pleasures first be known

That are to censure them.8

Cor.
We are not the first,
Who, with best meaning, have incurr'd the worst.9
For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down;
Myself could else out-frown false fortune's frown.-
Shall we not see these daughters, and these sisters?
Lear. No, no, no, no! Come, let 's away to prison:
We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness: So we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we 'll talk with them too,-
Who loses, and who wins; who 's in, who 's out;-
And take upon us the mystery of things,

As if we were God's spies: And we 'll wear out,
In a wall'd prison, packs and sects,2 of great ones,

The same sentiment occurs in Hamlet, scene the last: "if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all." Steevens.

7 And that's true too.] Omitted in the quarto. Steevens.

8

to censure them.] i. e. to pass sentence or judgment on them. So, in Othello:

"To you, lord governor,

"Remains the censure of this hellish villain." Steevens. 9Vho, with best meaning, have incurr'd the worst.] i. e. the worst that fortune can inflict. Malone.

1 And take upon us the mystery of things,

As if we were God's spies:] As if we were angels commissioned to survey and report the lives of men, and were consequently endowed with the power of prying into the original motives of action and the mysteries of conduct. Johnson.

2

packs and sects —] Packs is used for combinations or collections, as is a pack of cards. For sects, I think sets might be more commodiously read. So we say, affairs are now managed by a new set. Sects, however, may well stand. Johnson.

Take them away.

That ebb and flow by the moon.

Edm.

Lear. Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,

The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee ?4

He, that parts us, shall bring a brand from heaven,
And fire us hence, like foxes.5 Wipe thine eyes;
The goujeers shall devour them, flesh and fell,7

3 Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,

The gods themselves throw incense.] The thought is extremely noble, and expressed in a sublime of imagery that Seneca fell short of on the like occasion. "Ecce spectaculum dignum ad quod respiciat intentus operi suo deus: ecce par deo dignum, vir fortis cum malâ fortuna compositus." Warburton.

4 Have I caught thee?] Have I caught my heavenly jewel, is a line of one of Sir Philip Sidney's songs, which Shakspeare has put into Falstaff's mouth in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Malone. See Vol. III, p. 94, n. 3. Steevens.

And fire us hence, like foxes.] I have been informed that it is usual to smoke foxes out of their holes.

So, in Harrington's translation of Ariosto, B. XXVII, stan. 17:
"Ev'n as a foxe whom smoke and fire doth fright,
"So as he dare not in the ground remaine,

"Bolts out, and through the smoke and fire he flieth
"Into the tarrier's mouth, and there he dieth."

Again, Every Man out of his Humour:

66 my walk and all,

"You smoke me from, as if I were a fox."

The same allusion occurs in our author's 44th Sonnet:
"Till my bad angel fire my good one out." Steevens.

So, in Marlowe's King Edward II, 1598 :

"Advance your standard, Edward, in the field,

"And march to fire them from their starting holes." Mr. Upton, however, is of opinion that "the allusion is to the scriptural account of Sampson's tying foxes, two and two together by the tail, and fastening a fire-brand to the cord; then letting them loose among the standing corn of the Philistines." Judges xv, 4.

The words-shall bring a brand from heaven, seem to favour Mr. Upton's conjecture. If it be right, the construction must be, they shall bring a brand from heaven, and, like foxes, fire us hence: referring foxes, not to Lear and Cordelia, but to those who should separate them. Malone.

The brands employed by Sampson were not brought from heaven. I therefore prefer the common and more obvious explanation of the passage before us. Steevens.

6 The goujeers shall devour them,] The goujeres, i. e. Morbus Gallicus. Gouge, Fr. signifies one of the common women attending a camp; and as that disease was first dispersed over Europe by the