have been what I am, had the maidenlieft ftar in the firmament twinkled on my baftardizing.

SCENE XV. Ingratitude in a Child.

(6) Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend, More hideous, when thou fhew'ft thee in a child, Than the fea-monster.

ACT II. SCENE VI.

Flattering Sycophants.

That fuch a flave as this fhould wear a fword, Who wears no honefty: (7) fuch fmiling rogues [as

thefe,]

Like

<<

(6) Ingratitude &c.] Ingratitude a marble hearted-fiend is more hideous and dreadful, when fhewing itself in a child, than even that fea-monfter, which is the emblem itself of impiety and ingratitude by which monfter he means the Hippopotamus, or river-horfe, which, fays Sandys, in his travels, p. 105. fignify'd, Murder, Impudence, Violence and Injustice: for they fay, that he killeth his fire, and ravisheth his own dam." Mr. Upton's alteration of, Than ith' fea-monfter, feems unneceflary: for the poet makes ingratitude, a fiend, a monster itself, and one more odious than even this hieroglyphical fymbol of impiety. See Obfervations on Shakespear, p. 203.

(7) Such, &c. The words as thefe, may be safely omitted without injuring the fenfe; they are flat and spoil the metre. The next lines are read thus in the old editions;

Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwaine,
Which are t' intrince t' unloofe,

Atwaing is doubtless the genuine word, which was commonly ufed, fignifying, in two, afunder, in twain. And Mr. Upton, obferving, that Shakespear fometimes ftrikes off a Syllable or more from the latter part of a word, would preferve intrince in the text, which he explains by intrinficate. 'Tis certain the author uíes intrinficate, but I don't rememember ever to have met with intrince: See vol. I. p. 169. "This fhortening of words is indeed too much the genius of our language ;" and as the reader knows the fenfe of the word, and what the criticks would read, I have kept to the old editions, notwithstanding the quotation made by

me

Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwain
Which are too intrince t'unloose; footh ev'ry paffion,
That in the nature of their lords rebels:
Bring oil to fire, fnow to their colder moods;
Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks
With ev'ry gale and vary of their mafters;
As knowing naught, like dogs, but following.

"

Plain, blunt Men.

This is fome fellow,

Who, having been prais'd for bluntness, doth affect
A faucy roughness; and conftrains the garb,
Quite from his nature. He can't flatter, he,
An honeft mind and plain, he must speak truth;
And they will take it, fo; if not, he's plain.
These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness
Harbour more craft, and more corrupter ends,
Than twenty (8) filly, ducking obfervants,
That ftretch their duties nicely.

SCENE VII. Defcription of Bedlam Beggars,
While I may 'fcape,

I will preferve my felf: and am bethought
To take the bafeft and the poorest shape,

That ever penury in contempt of man

Brought near to beaft: my face I'll grime with filth;
Blanket my loins; elfe all my hair in knots;
And with prefented nakednefs out-face
The winds, and perfecutions of the sky.

me from Mr. Edwards, in the place juft referr'd too. I forbear quoting any fimilar paffages here: Horace and Juvenal abound with them, and Shakespear himself hath excellently painted the character in Polonius. See particularly Hamlet, A&t 4. Sc 7.

(8) Sily] Some read filky: filly is not always taken in a bad fenfe amongst the old writers.

I

The

The country gives me proof and prefident
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numb'd and mortify'd bare arms,
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, fprigs of rofemary;
And with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, theep-coats and mills,
Sometimes with lunatick bans, fometimes with pray'rs,
Inforce their charity.

SCENE X. The faults of Infirmity, pardonable.
Fiery the fiery duke? tell the hot duke, that
No, but not yet; may be, he is not well;
Infirmity doth ftill neglect all office,

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

And am fall'n out with my more headier will,
To take the indispos'd and fickly fit
For the found man.

SCENE XI.

UNKINDNESS.

Thy fifter's naught, oh Regan, she hath tied Sharp-tooth'd unkindnefs, like a vulture here.

SCENE XII. Offences mistaken.

All's not offence that indifcretion (9) finds, And dotage terms fo.

VOL. II.

[Points to his heart.

Rifing

G

(9) Finds Finds is an allufion to a jury's verdict: and the word fo relates to that as well as to terms. We meet with the very fame expreffion in Hamlet, A&t 5. Sc. 1.

Why, 'tis found fo.

Shakespear ufes the word in this fenfe in other places;

The coroner hath fat on her, and finds it chriftian burial. Ib.

As

Rifing Paffion,

I prythee, daughter, do not make me mad,
I will not trouble thee, my child. Farewel;
We'll no more meet, no more fee one another;
But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter,
Or rather a difeafe that's in my flesh,

Which I must needs call mine; thou art a bile,
A plague-fore, or imboffed carbuncle,

In my corrupted blood; but I'll not chide thee.
Let fhame come when it will, I do not call it;
I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,
Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove.

The Neceffaries of Life, few.

(10) O, reafon not the need our bafeft beggars
Are in the pooreft things fuperfluous;

Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life is cheap as beasts.

Lear

As

you like it. A. 4. S. 2. Leander was drown'd, and the foolishi chroniclers [perhaps coroners] of that age found it was----Hero of Seftos." Edwards.

(10) O reafon, &c. The poets abound with fentiments fimilar to this take the two following paffages from Lucretius and Lucan.

O wretched man, in what a mift of life,
Inclos'd with dangers, and befet with ftrife,
He spends his little fpan, and over-feeds
His cram'd defires with more than nature needs.
For nature wifely ftints our appetite,
And craves no more than undifturb'd delight.
Which minds unmixt with cares and fears obtain
A foul ferene, a body void of pain.
So little this corporeal frame requires,
So bounded are our natural defires,
That wanting all and fetting pain afide,
With bare privation fenfe is fatisfy'd.

See LUCRET. B. 2.

Behold

Lear on the Ingratitude of his Daughters.

man,

You fee me here, you gods, a poor old
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
If it be you, that stir these daughters hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; (11) touch me with noble anger;
O let not womens weapons, water-drops,

Stain my man's cheeks. No, you unnatʼral hags,
I will have fuch revenges on you both,

(12) That all the world fhall-- I will do fuch things;→ What they are, yet I know not; but they shall be The terrors of the earth: you think, I'll weep:

Behold, ye fons of luxury, behold,

Who fcatter in excefs your lavish gold;
For whom all earth all ocean are explor'd,

To fpread the various proud voluptuous board:
Behold how little thrifty nature craves.

See Lucan, B. 4. Rozve's tranfl. (11) Touch me, &c.] "If you, ye gods have ftirred my daughters hearts against me: at left let me not bear it with any unworthy tameness; but touch me with noble anger; let me refent it with fuch refolution as becomes a man."---And "let not woman's weapons, water-drops, ftain my man's cheeks."" See Canons of Crit. p. 78.

(12) That, &c.] See vol. 1. p. 110. This feems to have been imitated from the one or the other of thefe paffages fol- . lowing:

Haud quid fit fcio
Sed grande quiddam eft.

What it is I know not

But fomething terrible it is

---

Nefcio quid ferox

Decrevit animus intus, & nondum fibi audet fateri. Medea,

I know not what, my furious mind

Hath inwardly determin'd, and still dares not
Even to itself reveal.

Magnum eft quodcunque paravi :

Quid fit adbuc dubito.

"Tis fomething great I've inly meditated---
What it is, yet I'm doubtful.

G 2

Ovid, Met. 6.

No: