SCENE III. Patience and Sorrow.

Patience and forrow ftrove

Which should exprefs her goodlieft; you have seen
Sun-fhine and rain at once :-her fimiles and tears
(zo) Were like a better day. Thofe happieft fmiles,
That play'd on her ripe lip, seem'd not to know
What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence,
As pearls from diamonds dropt.-In brief,
Sorrow would be a rarity most belov'd,
If all could fo become it.

SCENE IV. Defcription of Lear diftracted.

(21) Alack, 'tis he; why, he was met even now As mad as the vext fea; finging aloud; Crown'd with rank fumiterr, and furrow-weeds, With hardocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, G 5

Darnel,

(20) Were like a better day. So the old editions read; Mr. Warburton fays, "without question we should read,

A wetter May

i. e. e. a fpring-feafon wetter than ordinary:" I cannot come into his opinion; nor by any means apprehend, how her fmiles and tears can with any propriety be compar'd to a fpring-feason, wetter than ordinary: the poet is comparing her patience and forrow, expreft, the one by fmiles, the other by tears, to a day, wherein there is both fun-fhine and rain at the fame time; you have feen, fays he, fun-fhine and rain at once; fuch was her patience and forrow: her fmiles and tears were like a day fo chequer'd, when the rain and the fun-fhine contended as it were together. This I apprehend to be the fenfe of the paffage. But then what must we do with better? I own myself incapable of fixing any sense to it, nor does any emendation ftrike me, that the reader perhaps will judge plaufible enough he'll fee, I had an eye in the explaining of the paffage, on chequer'd ;

Her fmiles and tears

Were like a chequer'd day;

which is the most probable word that occurs at prefent, tho' I advance it not with any degree of certainty. He speaks of a chequer'd fhadow, in Titus Andronicus, Act 2. Sc. 4

(21) Alack, &c.] See Hamlet, A&t 4. Sc. 10. and the note.

Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
In our fuftaining corn.

SCENE VI. Defcription of Dover-Cliff.

Come on, fir, here's the place-ftand ftill. How fearful

And dizzy 'tis, to caft one's eyes fo low !
The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air,
Shew scarce fo grofs as beetles. Half way down
Hangs one that gathers famphire; dreadful trade!
Methinks, he seems no bigger than his head.
The fisher-men, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,
Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy
Almoft too small for fight. The murmuring furge,
That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard fo high. I'll look no more,
Left my brain turn, and the deficient fight
Topple down headlong.

1

Glofter's Farewel to the World.

(22) O, you mighty gods!

This world I do renounce; and in your fights
Shake patiently my great affliction off:
If I could bear it longer, and not fall
To quarrel with your great oppofelefs wills,

My

(22) Gloffer is afterwards convinced of his mistake, and con Ermed in the duty of fufferance: he fays;

I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear
Affliction, till it do cry out itself,
Enough, enough, and die.

At the end of the Oedipus, Coloneus of Sophocles, there is a fine res Hection like this ;.

Τὸ φέρον ἐκ Θες, &c.

1

That which the gods bring on us, we fhould bear
With refignation, nor confume with forrow.

My fnuff and loathed part of nature should
Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!

SCENE VII. Lear, in his Madness, on the grofs
Flatterers of Princes.

Ha! Goneril! ha! Regan! they flatter'd 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. 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 finelt 'em out. Go to, they are not (23) men o' their words; they told me, I was every thing: 'tis a lie, I am not ague-prcof.

"},

On the Abufe of Power.

Thou rafcal-beadle, hold thy bloody hand:
Why dost thou lash that whore? ftrip thy own back;
Thou hotly luft'ft to use her in that kind,

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

cozener.

Through tatter'd cloaths small vices do appear;
Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate fins with gold,
And the ftrong lance of juftice hurtless breaks:
Arm it in rags, a pigmy's ftraw doth pierce it.
None does offend, none, I say, none; I'll able 'em ;
Take

(23) See Act 2. Sc. 6. foregoing. Mr. Upton, misled by the beginning of this fpeech; and apprehending, the king in his madnefs ufed exact connexion, tells us, we should not read, men o' their words, but women of their words: whereas it is plain, he runs off from the thought of his daughters, to those who flatter'd him, and all thro' the fpeech fpeaks of them only: the criticism is fcarce worth remarking, except it be to fhew, how fubject all of us are to mistakes, and how little reafon the very wifeft have to triumph over the errors of others,

Take that of me, my friend, who have the pow'r
To feal th' accufer's lips. Get thee glass eyes,
And, like a scurvy politician, seem

To see the things thou do'st not.

SCENE X. Cordelia, on the Ingratitude of her

Sifters.

** st:

7

O, my dear father, reftauration hang
Thy medicine on my lip; and let this kifs
Repair thofe violent harms that my two fifters
Have in thy reverence made!

Had you not been their father, these white flakes
Did challenge pity of them. Was this a face,
To be expos'd against the warring winds?
To stand against the deep, dread-bolted thunder ?
In the most terrible and nimble stroke

Of quick, crofs lightning?

* * * And waft thou fain, poor father,
To hovel thee with swine and rogues forlorn,
In fhort and mufty ftraw? alack, alack!
"Tis wonder, that thy life and wits, at once,
Had not concluded all.

ACT V.

SCENE V.

1.1

tola

Lear to Cordelia, when taken Prisoners.

1

No, no, no, nos come, let's away to prifon;
We two alone will fing, like birds i'th cage:
When thou dost ask me bleffing, I'll kneel down,
And afk of thee forgiveness: fo we'll live,
And pray, and fing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies (24) and hear poor rogues

14

d

1:

(24) And, &c.]

Tis a catalogue
Of all the gamefters of the court and city:
Which lord lies with that lady, and what gallant.
Sports with that merchant's wife: and does relate

Talk

Who

Talk of court-news, and we'll talk with them too,
Who lofes, and who wins; who's in, who's out:
And take upon's the mystery of things,

As if we were God's fpies. And we'll wear out,
In a wall'd prifon, packs and fects of great ones,
That ebb and flow by th' moon.

Edm. Take them away.

Lear. Upon fuch facrifices, my Cordelia, The gods themselves throw incense.

SCENE VIII. The Justice of the Gods..

(25) The gods are juft, and of our pleasant vices Makes inftruments to scourge us.

Edgar's Account of his discovering himself to his Father, &c.

Lift a brief tale,

And when 'tis told, O, that my heart would burst !
The bloody proclamation to efcape,

That

Who fells her honour for a diamond,
Who for a tiffue robe: whose husband's jealous.
And who so kind, that, to fhare with his wife,
Will make the match himself: harmless conceits,
Tho' fools fay they are dangerous..

The Falfe One, A&t 1. Sc. 1. The word fpies, in the text, is taken in the fenfe of, Spies upon any one, to infpect their conduct, not fpies employ'd by a perfon.

(25) The, &c.] This retorting of punishments, and making the means by which we offended the fcourge of our offence, is very common amongst the ancients, and perhaps had its rife from the Jewish people. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, &c. Callima shus, in his Hymn to Pallas, tells us, that goddefs depriv'd the young hunter of his eyes, because they had offended, having feen her in the bath. See the Hymn, v. 75. And, in Sophocles, at the end of Electra, Oreftes cries out to giftus;

Peace, and attend me to that place where thou
Didft murder my poor father, that even there
I too may murder thee,