P. 522.-606.-184.
Edg. Do de, de de. Sessa. Come, march to wakes
and fairs, and market towns :-Poor Tom, thy horn is
dry.
I do not think these words are to be spoken
aside, and understood as Mr. Steevens explains
them.

P. 524.-609.-186.
Kent.

Oppress'd nature sleeps :
This rest might yet have balm’d thy broken senses,
Which, if convenience will not allow,
Stand in hard cure.

I think Theobald's reading broken senses is the true one.

P. 537.4619.-202.
Edg. Poor Tom hath been scared out of his good
wits : bless the good man from the foul fiend ! Five
fiends have been in poor Tom at once.

I incline to read with Theobald, bless thee, good man, from, &c.

P. 539.-620.--203.
Glo.

Heavens, deal so still !
Let the superfluous, and lust-dieted man,
That slaves your ordinance, that will not see

Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly.
I incline to understand that slaves the ordi-
nance of heaven, as Mr. Steevens does.

P. 542.623.-207.
Gon. I have been worth the whistle.
Alb.

O Goneril!
You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
Blows in your face.

I think with Mr. Malone that Mr. Steevens's interpretation is the true one.

Alb.

P. 544.-625.-210.
Fools do those villains pity, who are punish'd
Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum?
France spreads his banners in our noiseless land ;
With plumed helm thy slayer begins threats ;
While thou a moral fool, sits still, and cry’st,
Alack, why does he so?

See thyself, devil !
Proper deformity seems not in the fiend
So horrid as in woman.

This fiend, in Mr. Malone's note, clearly means Goneril. I think she means her father, and prefer the punctuation of the folio, viz. a full point after mischief.

Ibid.
Gon.

O vain fool!
Alb. Thou chang'd and self-cover'd thing, for shame,

Be-monster not thy feature. I incline to Mr. Malone's interpretation of self-cover'd thing

P. 549.-630.-218.
Gent.

There she shook
The holy water from her heavenly eyes,
And clamour moisten'd: then away she started

To deal with grief alone.
I think Malone is right.

P. 553.–633.-222.
Reg. Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home?

Stew. No, madam. I think with Ritson and Malone, that your lord is the right reading.

P. 554.-634.--223.
Reg. Why should she write to Edmund ? Might not you
Transport her purposes by word ? Belike,
Something I know not what :-- I'll love thee much,
Let me unseal the letter.
Stew.

Madam, I had rather
Reg. I know your lady does not love her husband.

Y

“ Dr. Johnson wonders that Shakespeare “ should represent the steward, who is a mere

agent of baseness, capable of fidelity! When

a man is amply rewarded for his iniquitous “ compliances with the commands of his supe“riors, it is but natural to imagine that he will “ be true to his employers, especially as he will “ have reason to dread the punishment which " would be inflicted for his disobedience. That “ such a wretch should be anxious, when dying, “ for the delivery of that letter which he would “not suffer to be unsealed, is not very sur“prising; it was only the consequence of his

pursuing the track of his accustomed practice.” Davies's Dram. Miscel. Vol. II. p. 310.

P. 556.-636.-226.
Edg. Come on, sir; here's the place :-stand still.-
How fearful!
And dizzy, 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low, &c.
I think Mr. M. Mason's remark is just.

P. 558.4637.-228.
Edg. Give me your hand : you are now within a foot
Of the extreme verge : for all beneath the moon
Would I not leap upright. ;;
I incline to think that Malone is right.
Heron explains it thus: “Edgar says he is
“so near the precipice, that, for all beneath the

moon, he would not leap upright, for even in "doing so, the slight bend which his body * would make, would throw him over ; or the “ fallacious brink crumble beneath his feet.” Letters of Literature, p. 307.

P. 559.-638.-229.
Glos. Now, fellow, fare thee well.

[He leaps, and falls along. Edg. Gone, sir ? farewell.

I incline to read good sir, with the second folio, and the modern editors.

P. 560.639.-230.

Edg. Ten masts at each make not the altitude,
Which thou hast perpendicularly fell;
Thy life's a miracle.

66

"Mr. Pope altered at each to attach'd; and "Dr. Johnson thinks it may stand, if the word "was known in our authors time. Minsheu, "who published his Dictionary of nine languages in 1617, a year after Shakespeare's "death, explains the word in the sense in which "it is applied by Mr. Pope, attach, to tack or "fasten together.” Davies's Dramatic Miscel. p. 311.

This is a contradiction of Mr. Malone's assertion, that the word was not used in the sense required here in Shakespeare's time.

P. 561-641.-232.

But who comes here?

Edg.
Enter Lear, fantastically dressed up with flowers.
The safer sense will ne'er accommodate
His master thus.

I agree with Mr. Steevens.

P. 564.-642.-236.

Lear. 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 them, there I
smelt them out.

The probability of an allusion to the story of Canute had occurred to me before I read Mr. Steevens's note.

P. 564.-643.-237.

Lear. Behold yon' simpering dame,
Whose face between her forks presageth snow;
That minces virtue, and does shake the head
To hear of pleasure's name.

Mr. Edwards is certainly right. I am surprised that the passage should ever have been understood otherwise.

P. 567-646.-240.

Lear. Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear;
Robes, and furr'd gowns, hide all. Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks :
Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it.

Ilia subter
Cœcum vulnus habes: sed lato balteus auro
Prætegit.

Pers. IV. 43.

P. 573.-652.-249.
Let us see:

Edg.

Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not:
To know our enemies' minds, we'd rip their hearts;
Their papers, is more lawful.

[Reads.] Let our reciprocal rows be remember'd. You
have many opportunities to cut him off: if your will want
not, time and place will be fruitfully offered. There is
nothing done, if he return the conqueror: then am I the
prisoner, and his bed my gaol; from the loath'd warmth
whereof deliver me, and supply the place for your labour.
Your wife, (so I would say,) and your
affectionate servant,

O undistinguish'd space of woman's will!
A plot upon her virtuous husband's life;
And the exchange, my brother.

GONERIL.

I think Mr. Steevens is right. Mr. Davies (Dram. Miscel. p. 314.) says, "Edgar's reflec"tion imports no more than that a vicious "woman sets no bounds to her appetites; such "an one he knew Goneril was, and to her it is "applied."