Like rats oft bite the holy cords atwain Which are too intrince t'unloofe: footh ev'ry paffion, Bring oil to fire, fnow to their colder moods; Plain, blunt Men This is fome fellow, Who, having been prais'd for bluntnefs, doth affect SCENE VII. Defcription of Bedlam Beggars. While I may 'fcape, I will preferve myself: and am bethought Brought near to beaft: my face I'll grime with filth; And the word, and what the critics would read, I have kept to the old editions, notwithstanding the quotation made by me from Mr. Edwards, in the place juft referred to. 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 Hamki, Act 4. Sc. 7. (8) Silly.] Some read filky: filly is not always taken in a bad fenfe amongst the old writers. And with presented nakedness out-face SCENE X. The faults of Infirmity pardonable. Fiery? the fiery duke? tell the hot duke, that Whereto our health is bound; we're not ourselves, And am fall'n out with my more headier will, For the found man. SCENE XI. Unkindness. Thy fifter's nought; oh Regan, fhe hath tied Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture here. [Points to his heart. SCENE XII. Offences mistaken. All's not offence that indifcretion (9) finds, And dotage terms fo. Rifing (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, Act. 5. Sc. 1. Why Rifing Paffion. I pr'ythee, daughter, do not make me mad, Which I must needs call mine; thou art a bile, In my corrupted blood; but I'll not chide thee. The Neceffaries of Life, few. (10) O, reafon not the need: our basest beggars Are in the pooreft things fuperfluous; Why, 'tis found fo. Shakespear ufes the word in this sense in other places; Allow The coroner hath fet on her, and finds it chriftian burial. Ib. As you like it. A. 4. S. 2. Leander was drown'd, and the foolish chroniclers [perhaps coroners] of that age found it was-Hero of Seftos." Edwards. (10) 0, 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 mist of life, His cram'd defires with more than nature needs. For nature wifely stints our appetite, And craves no more than undisturb'd delight. Which minds unmixt with cares and fears obtain; So little this corporeal frame requires, H 2 That Allow not nature more than nature needs, Lear on the Ingratitude of his Daughters. You fee me here, you gods, a poor old man, Stain my man's cheeks. No, you unnatʼral hags, (12) That all the world fhall-I will do fuch things;What they are, yet I know not; but they fhall be That wanting all, and fetting pain afide, The See LUCRET. B. 2. Behold, ye fons of luxury! behold, To fpread the various proud voluptuous board: See Lucan, B. 4. Rowe's tranfl. (11) Touch me, &c.] "If you, ye gods, have stirred my daughters' hearts against me: at left let me not bear it with any unworthy támeness; 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, stain my man's cheeks. See Canons of Crit. p. 78. (12) That, &c.] This feems to have been imitated from the ene or the other of thefe paffages following: Haud quid fit fcio, Sed grande quiddam eft. What it is I know not But fomething terrible it is Senec. Thyeft. A. 2. Nefcio The terrors of the earth; you think, I'll weep: SCENE XIII. Wilful Men. O, fir, to wilful men, The injuries, that they themselves procure, ACT III. SCENE I. Defcription of Lear's Diftrefs amidst the Storm. Kent. Where's the king? Gent. Contending with the fretful elements ; Bids the wind blow the earth into the fea; Or fwell the curled waters 'bove the main, That things might change, or ceafe: tears his white hair, (Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage, Catch in their fury ;) Strives in his little world of man t'out-fcorn The to-and-fro conflicting wind and rain. -Nefcio quid ferox Decrevit animus intus, et nondum fibi audet fateri. Medea. I know not what my furious mind Hath inwardly determin'd, and still darès not Even to itself reveal. Magnum ef quodcunque paravi: Quid fit adhuc dubito. 'Tis fomething great I've inly meditated What it is, yet I'm doubtful. This Ovid. Met. 6. (13) I have, &c:] Perhaps this fhould be, Tho' I've full caufe. |