You should not use me so. Reg. Sir, being his knave, I will. [Stocks brought out. Corn. This is a fellow of the self-same colour Our sister speaks of :-Come, bring away the stocks. Glo. Let me beseech your grace not to do so : His fault is much, and the good king his master Will check him for't: Your purpos'd low correction Is such, as basest and contemned'st wretches, For pilferings and most common trespasses, Are punish'd with the king must take it ill, That he's so slightly valued in his messenger, Should have him thus restrain'd. Corn. I'll answer that. Reg. My sister may receive it much more worse, [KENT is put in the stocks. Come, my good lord; away. [Exeunt REG, and CORN. Glo.I am sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure, Whose disposition, all the world well knows, Will not be rubb'd, nor stopp'd:9 I'll intreat for thee. Kent. Pray do not, sir: I have watch'd, and travell'd hard; Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle. Glo. The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill taken. [Exit. Kent. Good king, that must approve the common saw !! Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st To the warm sun! Approach, thou beacon to this under globe, That by thy comfortable beams I may Peruse this letter !-Nothing almost sees miracles, [9] Metaphor from bowling. WARBURTON. That art now to exemplify the common proverb, That out of, &c. That changest better for worse. Hanmer observes, that it is a proverbial saying, applied to those who are turned out of house and home into the open weather. It was perhaps used of men dismissed from an hospital, or house of charity, such as was erected formerly in many places for travellers. Those houses had names properly enough alluded to by heaven's benediction. JOHNSON. Losses their remedies:-All weary and o'er-watch'd, Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold This shameful lodging. Fortune, good night; smile once more; turn thy wheel! SCENE III. A Part of the Heath. Enter EDGAR. Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd; And, by the happy hollow of a tree, [He sleeps. Escap'd the hunt. No port is free; no place, Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth; [2] Hair thus knotted was vulgarly supposed to be the work of elves and fairies in the night. So in Romeo and Juliet: "plats the manes of horses in the night, "Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes." STEEVENS. [3] Pelting is, I believe, only an accidental depravation of petty. Shakspeare uses it, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, of small brooks. JOHNSON. Again, in Troilus and Cressida, Hector says to Achilles : "We have had pelting wars since you refus'd "The Grecian cause. STEEVENS. [4] We should read Turlupin. In the 14th century there was a new species of gipsies, 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 some of them at Paris. But what sort of religionists they were, appears from Genebrard's account of them. "Turlupin Cynicorum sectam suscitantes, de nuditate pudendorum & publico coitu." Plainly, nothing but a band of Tom-o'-Bedlams. WARBURTON. [5] As Edgar I am out-lawed, dead in law: I have no longer any political existence. JOHNSON. SCENE IV. Before GLOSTER's Castle. Enter LEAR, Fool, and Gentleman. Lea.'Tis strange, that they should so depart from home, And not send back my messenger. Gent. As I learn'd, The night before there was no purpose in them Kent. Hail to thee, noble master! Lear. How ! Mak'st thou this shame thy pastime ? Kent. No, my lord. Fool. Ha,ha; look! he wears cruel garters !6 Horses are tied by the heads; dogs, and bears, by the neck; monkies by the loins, and men by the legs : when a man is over-lusty at legs, then he wears wooden nether-stocks.7 Lear. What's he, that hath so much thy place mistook To set thee here? Kent. It is both he and she, Your son and daughter. Lear. No. Kent. Yes. Lear. No, I say. Kent. I say, yea. Lear. No, no; they would not. Kent. Yes, they have. Lear. By Jupiter, I swear no. Kent. By Juno, I swear, ay. Lear. They durst not do't: They could not, would not do't; 'tis worse than murder, Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way Kent. My lord, when at their home I did commend your highness' letters to them, [6] I believe a quibble was here intended. Creavel-signifies worsted, of which stockings, garters, night-caps, &c. are made. STEEVENS. [7] Nether-stocks-is the old word for stockings. Breeches were at that time called "men's overstocks.”—over-lusty, in this place, has a double signification; lustiness anciently meaning sauciness. STEEVENS. [8] To violate the public and vene able character of a messenger from the king JOHNSON. Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth Deliver❜d letters, spite of intermission, Which presently they read: on whose contents, The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks: Display'd so saucily against your highness,) Fool. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way. I Fathers, that wear rags, Do make their children blind; Shall see their children kind. Fortune, that arrant whore, Ne'er turns the key to the poor. But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours for thy daughters, as thou canst tell in a year.2 Lear. O, how this mother3 swells up toward my heart! Hysterica passio! down, thou climbing sorrow, Thy element's below!-Where is this daughter? Kent. With the earl, sir, here within. Lear. Follow me not; Stay here. [Exit. Gent.Made you no more offence than what you speak of? Kent. None. How chance the king comes with so small a train ? Fool. An thou hadst been set i'the stocks for that question, thou hadst well deserved it. [8] Spite of intermission is without pause, without suffering time to intervene. So in Macbeth: "Gentle heaven "Cut short all intermission." STEEVENS. [9] Meiny-i.e. people. POPE Though the word meiny be now obso lete, the word menial, which is derived from it is still in use. MASON. [1] If this be their behaviour, the king's troubles are not yet at an end. JOHNSON. [2] Quibble intended between dolours and dollars. HANMER. [3] The disease called the Mother, or Hysterica Passio, which in our au thor's time was not thought to bé peculiar to women only. PERCY! Kent. Why, fool? Fool. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring in the winter. All that follow their noses are led by their eyes, but blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty, but can smell him that's stinking. Let go thy hold, when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it ; but the great one that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it. 8 That, sir, which serves and seeks for gain, And follows but for form, Will pack, when it begins to rain, But I will tarry; the fool will stay, The knave turns fool, that runs away ;9 The fool no knave, perdy. Kent. Where learn'd you this, fool? Fool. Not i'the stocks, fool. Re-enter LEAR, with GLOSTER. Lear. Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary? They have travell'd hard to night? Mere fetches; Glo My dear lord, You know the fiery quality of the duke ; In his own course. Lear. Vengeance! plague! death! confusion !Fiery? what quality? Why, Gloster, Gloster, [8] One cannot too much commend the caution which our moral poet uses, ou all occasions, to prevent his sentiment from being perversely taken. So here, having given an ironical precept in commendation of perfidy and base desertion of the unfortunate, for fear it should be understood seriously, though delivered by his buffeon or jester, he has the precaution to add this beautiful corrective, full of fine sense :-"I would have none but knaves follow it. since a fool gives it." WARBURTON. [9] The sense will be mended if we read, But I will tarry; the fool will stay, The fool turns knave, that runs away; The knave no fool, That I stay with the king is proof that I am a fool, the wise men are deserting him. There is knavery in this desertion, but there is no folly. JOHNS. |