Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly; So distribution should undo excess,

And each man have enough.-Dost thou know Dover ?

EDG. Ay, master.

GLO. There is a cliff, whose high and bending head

Looks fearfully in the confined deep 2:

Bring me but to the very brim of it,

And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear,

With something rich about me: from that place I shall no leading need.

GON. Welcome, my lord: I marvel, our mild husband 3

"What shall I do? my love I will not slave

"To an old king, though he my love should crave.”

Again, in Marston's Malcontent, 1604:

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All

O powerful blood, how dost thou slave their soul ! "That slaves your ordinance," is the reading of the folio. the quartos have-"That stands your ordinance;" perhaps for withstands. Stands, however, may be right :-that abides your ordiThe poet might have intended to mark the criminality of the lust-dieted man only in the subsequent words, that will not see, because he doth not feel." MALONE.

nance.

66

2 Looks FEARFULLY IN the confined deep :] So the folio. The quartos read-Looks firmly. Mr. Rowe and all the subsequent editors for in read on. I see no need of change. Shakspeare considered the sea as a mirrour. To look in a glass, is yet our colloquial phraseology. MALONE.

In for into. We still say that a window looks into the garden or the stable-yard. STEEVENS.

Not met us on the way :-Now, where's your mas

ter?

STEW. Madam, within; but never man SO chang'd:

I told him of the army that was landed;
He smil'd at it: I told him, you were coming;
His answer was, The worse: of Gloster's treachery,
And of the loyal service of his son,

When I inform'd him, then he call'd me sot;
And told me, I had turn'd the wrong side out:-
What most he should dislike, seems pleasant to

him;

What like, offensive.

GON.

Then shall you go no further.
To EDMUND.

It is the cowish terror of his spirit,
That dares not undertake: he'll not feel wrongs,
Which tie him to an answer: Our wishes, on the

way,

May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother;

3 — our mild husband-] It must be remembered that Albany, the husband of Goneril, disliked, in the end of the first Act, the scheme of oppression and ingratitude. JOHNSON.

4 Our wishes, ON THE WAY,

May prove effects.] She means, I think, 'The wishes, which we expressed to each other on our way hither, may be completed, and prove effectual to the destruction of my husband.' entrance she said

66

I marvel our mild husband "Not met us on the way."

On her

Again, more appositely, in King Richard III.: "Thou know'st our reasons, urg'd upon the way." See also Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: Umbella: A kind of round thing like a round skreene, that gentlemen use in Italie in time of summer,-to keep the sunne from them, when they are riding by the way." MALONE.

I believe the meaning of the passage to be this: "What we wish, before our march is at an end, may be brought to happen," i. e. the murder or despatch of her husband. On the way, however, may be equivalent to the expression we now use, viz. By the way, or By the by, i. e. en passant. STEEVENS.

Hasten bis musters, and conduct his powers:

5

I must change arms at home, and give the distaff
Into my husband's hands. This trusty servant
Shall pass between us: ere long you are like to
hear,

If you dare venture in your own behalf,
A mistress's command. Wear this; spare speech;
[Giving a Favour.
Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak,
Would stretch thy spirits up into the air;—
Conceive, and fare thee well.

EDM. Yours in the ranks of death.
GON.

My most dear Gloster!

[Exit EDMUND.

O, the difference of man, and man!
To thee a woman's services are due;
My fool usurps my bed.

The wishes we have formed and communicated to each other, on our journey, may be carried into effect. M. MASON.

5 I must change ARMS] Thus the quartos. The folio reads -change names. STEEVENS.

• Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak,

Would stretch thy spirits up into the air ;] She bids him decline his head, that she might give him a kiss (the Steward being present) and that it might appear only to him as a whisper.

STEEVENS.

7 O, the difference of man, and man!] Omitted in the quartos.

STEEVENS.

Some epithet to difference was probably omitted in the folio. Malone. According to the present regulation of this passage, the measure is complete. STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens speaks of the regulation of this passage in his late editions, which was as follows:

8

66

O, the difference of man, and man! To thee

"A woman's services are due; my fool," &c. BOSWELL.

my FOOL

Usurps my BED.] One of the quartos reads: "My foot usurps my head; the other, "My foot usurps

Quarto A reads "my foot usurps my body."

my body." STEEVENS. Quarto B-"my

STEW.

Madam, here comes my lord.

Enter ALBANY.

[Exit Steward.

GON. I have been worth the whistle * 9.

ALB.

O Goneril! You are not worth the dust which the rude wind Blows in your face.-I fear your disposition': That nature, which contemns its origin,

2

Cannot be border'd certain in itself 2;

She that herself will sliver and disbranch3

* Quartos B and C, the whistling.

foot usurps my head." Quarto C-" a fool usurps my bed." The folio reads-" My fool usurps my body." MALONE.

9 I have been worth the whistle.] This expression is a reproach to Albany for having neglected her; "though you disregard me thus, I have been worth the whistle, I have found one that thinks me worth calling." JOHNSON.

This expression is a proverbial one. Heywood, in one of his dialogues, consisting entirely of proverbs, says:

66

It is a poor dog that is not worth the whistling." Goneril's meaning seems to be-" There was a time when you would have thought me worth the calling to you; reproaching him for not having summoned her to consult with on the present critical occasion. STEEVENS.

I

MALONE.

I think Mr. Steevens's interpretation the true one. - I fear your disposition:] These words, and the lines that follow, to monsters of the deep, are found in the quartos, but are improperly omitted in the folio. They are necessary, as Mr. Pope has observed, "to explain the reasons of the detestation which Albany here expresses to his wife." MALONE.

2 That nature, which contemns its origin,

Cannot be BORder'd certain in itself;] The sense is, 'That nature which is arrived to such a pitch of unnatural degeneracy, as to contemn its origin, cannot from thenceforth be restrained within any certain bounds, but is prepared to break out into the most monstrous excesses every way, as occasion or temptation may offer. HEATH.

3 She that herself will SLIVER and disbranch] To sliver signifies to tear off or disbranch. So, in Macbeth:

66

slips of yew

"Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse." WARBURTON.

From her material sap, perforce must wither,
And come to deadly use ".

GON. No more; the text is foolish.

ALB. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem

vile :

Filths savour but themselves.

done?

What have you

Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd? A father, and a gracious aged man,

4 She that herself will sliver and disbranch

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From her MATERIAL sap,] She who breaks the bonds of filial duty, and becomes wholly alienated from her father, must wither and perish, like a branch separated from that sap which supplies it with nourishment, and gives life to the matter of which it is composed. So, in A Brief Chronycle concernynge the Examinacyon and Death of Syr Johan Oldcastle, 1544: Then sayd the lorde Cobham, and spredde his armes abrode: This is a very crosse, yea and so moche better than your crosse of wode, in that y' was created as God: yet will I not seeke to have y' worshipped. Then sayd the byshop of London, Syr, ye wote wele that he dyed on a materyall crosse."

Mr. Theobald reads maternal, and Dr. Johnson thinks that the true reading. Syr John Froissart's Chronicle (as Dr. Warburton has observed) in the title-page of the English translation printed in 1525, is said to be "translated out of French to our material English Tongue by John Bourchier." And I have found material (from mater) used in some other old books for maternal, but neglected to note the instances. I think, however, that the word is here used in its ordinary sense. Maternal sap (or any synonymous words,) would introduce a mixed and confused metaphor. Material sap is strictly correct. From the word herself to the end, the branch was the figurative object of the poet's thought.

MALONE.

Throughout the plays of our author I do not recollect a single instance of the adjective-maternal. STEEVENS.

5 And come to deadly USE.] Alluding to the use that witches and inchanters are said to make of wither'd branches in their charms. A fine insinuation in the speaker, that she was ready for the most unnatural mischief, and a preparative of the poet to her plotting with the bastard against her husband's life.

WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton might have supported his interpretation by the passage in Macbeth, quoted in the preceding page, n. 3.

MALONE.