Kent. I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious tale in telling it, and deliver a plain message bluntly: that which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in; and the best of me is diligence. Lear. How old art thou? Kent. Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor so old to dote on her for any thing: I have years on my back forty-eight. Lear. Follow me; thou shalt serve me: if I like thee no worse after dinner, I will not part from thee yet.-Dinner, ho, dinner!-Where's my knave? my fool?-Go you, and call my fool hither. [Exit an Attendant. Enter OSWALD. You, you, sirrah, where's my daughter? Osw. So please you,― [Exit. Lear. What says the fellow there? Call the clotpoll back. [Exit a Knight.]-Where's my fool, ho?—I think the world's asleep. Re-enter Knight. How now! where's that mongrel? Knight. He says, my lord, your daughter is not well. Lear. Why came not the slave back to me when I called him? Knight. Sir, he answered me in the roundest manner, he would not. Lear. He would not! Knight. My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my judgment, your highness is not entertained with that ceremonious affection as you were wont; there's a great abatement of kindness appears as well in the general dependants (27) as in the duke himself also and your daughter. iii. Lear. Ha! sayest thou so? Knight. I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I be mis 666 (4) dependants] "Dependance'?" Walker's Crit. Exam., &c., vol. P. 277. taken; for my duty cannot be silent when I think your highness wronged. Lear. Thou but rememberest me of mine own conception: I have perceived a most faint neglect of late; which I have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity than as a very pretence and purpose of unkindness: I will look further into't. But where's my fool? I have not seen him this two days. Knight. Since my young lady's going into France, sir, the fool hath much pined away. Lear. No more of that; I have noted it well.—Go you, and tell my daughter I would speak with her. [Exit an Attendant.]-Go you, call hither my fool. [Exit an Attendant. Re-enter Oswald. O, you sir, you, come you hither, sir: who am I, sir? Lear. "My lady's father"! my lord's knave: you whoreson dog! you slave! you cur! Osw. I am none of these, my lord; I beseech your pardon. Lear. Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal? Osw. I'll not be struck, my lord. [Striking him. Kent. Nor tripped neither, you base football player. [Tripping up his heels. Lear. I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and I'll love thee. Kent. Come, sir, arise, away! I'll teach you differences: away, away! If you will measure your lubber's length again, tarry but away! go to; have you wisdom? so. [Pushes Oswald out. Lear. Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee: there's earnest of thy service. [Giving Kent money. Enter Fool. Fool. Let me hire him too:-here's my coxcomb. [Offering Kent his cap. Lear. How now, my pretty knave! how dost thou? Kent. Why, fool? (28) Fool. Why, for taking one's part that's out of favour: nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits, thou❜lt catch cold shortly there, take my coxcomb: why, this fellow has banished two on's daughters, and did the third a blessing against his will; if thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb.-How now, nuncle! Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters! Lear. Why, my boy? Fool. If I gave them all my living, I'd keep my coxcombs myself. There's mine; beg another of thy daughters. Lear. Take heed, sirrah,-the whip. Fool. Truth's a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped out, when the lady brach (29) may stand by the fire and stink. Lear. A pestilent gall to me! Fool. Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech. Lear. Do.(30) Fool. Mark it, nuncle; Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest, (28) Kent. Why, fool?] So the quartos.-The folio has "Lear. Why my Boy?"-the eye of the transcriber or compositor having most probably caught the next speech but one. Here Mr. Collier and Delius adhere to the folio, and consequently mark the words "Why, for taking one's part that's out of favour" (which they wrongly point, with the folio, "Why? for taking," &c.) as spoken by the Fool to Lear. But it is plain that the Fool addresses the king for the first time when he "How now, nuncle," &c. says (29) when the lady brach] So the folio.-The quartos have "when lady oth'e brach."-This has been altered to "when the lady's brach," and to "when Lady, the brach" (as in The First Part of King Henry IV. act iii. sc. 1, "Lady, my brach ").-Steevens cites from "the old black-letter Booke of Huntyng," &c., no date, “and small ladi popies," &c. : and see Nares's Gloss. in v. "Brach." (30) Lear. Do.] Capell gives this to Kent. Leave thy drink and thy whore, And keep in-a-door, And thou shalt have more Than two tens to a score. Kent. This is nothing, fool. Fool. Then 'tis like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer,-you gave me nothing for't.-Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle ? Lear. Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing. Fool. [to Kent] Prithee, tell him, so much the rent of his land comes to: he will not believe a fool. Lear. A bitter fool! Fool. Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a bitter fool and a sweet fool? Lear. No, lad, teach me. Fool. That lord that counsell'd thee To give away thy land, Do thou for him stand; Will presently appear; The one in motley here, The other found out there. Lear. Dost thou call me fool, boy? Fool. All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born with. Kent. This is not altogether fool, my lord. Fool. No, faith, lords and great men will not let me; if I had a monopoly out, they would have part on't: and ladies too, they will not let me have all fool to myself; they'll be snatching.(Give me an egg, nuncle, and I'll give thee two crowns. (31) lords and great men will not let me; if I had a monopoly out, they would have part on't: and ladies too, they will not let me have all fool to myself; they'll be snatching.] From "Fool. That lord that counsell'd thee" down to the end of the present quotation is only in the quartos; which have here "loades" and "lodes" instead of "ladies.”- "Modern editors," observes Mr. Collier, "without the slightest authority, read 'and ladies too,' when the old copies have not a word about ladies: all the fool means to say is, that if he had a monopoly of folly, great men Lear. What two crowns shall they be? Fool. Why, after I have cut the egg i' the middle, and eat up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou clovest thy crown i' the middle, and gavest away both parts, thou borest thine ass on thy back o'er the dirt: thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown, when thou gavest thy golden one away. If I speak like myself in this, let him be whipped that first finds it so. Fools had ne'er less grace in a year; For wise men are grown foppish, Their manners are so apish. [Singing. Lear. When were you wont to be so full of songs, sirrah? Fool. I have used it, nuncle, e'er since thou madest thy daughters thy mothers: for when thou gavest them the rod, and puttedst down thine own breeches, Then they for sudden joy did weep, And I for sorrow sung, That such a king should play bo-peep, [Singing. Prithee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool to lie I would fain learn to lie. Lear. An you lie, sirrah, we'll have you whipped. Fool. I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are: they'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'lt have me whipped for lying; and sometimes I am whipped for holding my peace. I had rather be any kind o' thing than a fool and yet I would not be thee, nuncle; thou hast pared thy wit o' both sides, and left nothing i' the middle :-here comes one o' the parings. : Enter GONERIL. Lear. How now, daughter! what makes that frontlet on? Methinks you are too much of late i' the frow would have part of it, and a large part too." But mark the ridiculous inconsistency of expression in the passage, if the Fool be speaking of lords only," they would have part on't"-"and loads too"_ -"they'll be snatching." |