mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa: let him trot by.' [Storm still continues. Lear. Why, thou were better in thy grave, than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume.-Ha! here's three of us are sophisticated!-Thou art the thing itself;— unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.-Off, off, you lendings. Come; unbutton here.2 [Tearing off his clothes. Fool. 'Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; this is a naughty night to swim in.-Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher's heart; a small spark, all the rest of his body cold.-Look, here comes a walking

fire.

4

Edg. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet; he

1 "Dolphin my boy, my boy,
Cease, let him trot by;

It seemeth not that such a foe
From me or you would fly."

This is a stanza from a very old ballad, written on some battle fought in France; during which the king (unwilling to put the suspected valor of his son, the dauphin, to the trial), as different champions cross the field, always discovers some objection to his attacking each of them, and repeats the two first lines as every fresh personage is introduced; and at last assists in propping up a dead body against a tree for him to try his manhood upon. Steevens had this account from an old gentleman, who was only able to report part of the ballad. In Jonson's Bartholomew Fair Cokes cries out, "God's my life! He shall be dauphin, my boy!" Hey nonny nonny" is merely the burden of another ballad.

2 The words unbutton here are only in the folio. The quartos read, Come on, be true.

3 Naughty signifies bad, unfit, improper. This epithet was formerly employed on serious occasions.

4 The name of this fiend, though so grotesque, was not invented by Shakspeare, but by those who wished to impose upon their hearers the belief of his actual existence; this, and most of the fiends mentioned by Edgar, being to be found in bishop Harsnet's book, among those which the Jesuits, about the time of the Spanish invasion, pretended to cast out, for the purpose of making converts. The principal scene of this farce was laid in the family of Mr. Edmund Peckham, a Catholic. Harsnet published his account of the detection of the imposture, by order of the privy council. "Frateretto, Fliberdigibet, Hoberdidance, Tocobatto, were four devils of the round or morrice. These four had forty assistants under them, as themselves doe confesse. Flebergibbe is

begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin,' squints the eye, and makes the hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth.

Saint Withold footed thrice the wold;

. 2

He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold,
Bid her alight,

And her troth plight,

And, Aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!3

Kent. How fares your grace?

Enter GLOSTER, with a torch.

Lear. What's he?

Kent. Who's there? What is't you seek? Glo. What are you there? Your names? Edg. Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the tadpole, the wall-newt and the water; 4 that in the fury of the heart, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat, and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; who is whipped from tithing to tithing, and stocked, punished, and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his body, horse to ride, and weapon to wear,—

But mice and rats, and such small deer,

Have been Tom's food for seven long year.5

used by Latimer for a sycophant; and Cotgrave explains Coquette by a Flebergibet or Titifill."

It was an old tradition that spirits were relieved from the confinement in which they were held during the day, at the time of curfew, that is, at the close of the day, and were permitted to wander at large till the first cock-crowing. Hence, in The Tempest, they are said to "rejoice to hear the solemn curfew."

1 The pin and web is a disease of the eyes resembling the cataract in an imperfect stage.

2 About St. Withold we have no certainty. This adventure is not found in the common legends of St. Vitalis, whom Mr. Tyrwhitt thought

was meant.

3 See Macbeth.

4 i. e. and the water-newt.

5 In the metrical Romance of Sir Bevis, who was confined seven years in a dungeon, it is said that

"Rattes and mice, and such smal dere,
Was his meat that seven yere."

Beware my follower. Peace, Smolkin;1 peace, thou

fiend!

Glo. What, hath your grace no better company? Edg. The prince of darkness is a gentleman; Modo he's called, and Mahu.1

Glo. Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile, That it doth hate what gets it.

Edg. Poor Tom's a-cold.

Glo. Go in with me; my duty cannot suffer
To obey in all your daughters' hard commands.
Though their injunction be to bar my doors,
And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,
Yet have I ventured to come to seek you out,
And bring you where both fire and food is ready.
Lear. First let me talk with this philosopher.-
What is the cause of thunder?

Kent. Good my lord, take his offer;

Go into the house.

Lear. I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.

What is your study?

Edg. How to prevent the fiend, and to kill vermin. Lear. Let me ask you one word in private.

Kent. Impórtune him once more to go, my lord; His wits begin to unsettle.2

1 "The names of other punie spirits cast out of Twyford were these:Hilco, Smolkin, Hillio," &c.-Harsnet's Detection, &c. p. 49. Again, "Maho was the chief devil that had possession of Sarah Williams; but another of the possessed, named Richard Mainy, was molested by a still more considerable fiend, called Modu," p. 268; where the said Richard Mainy deposes:-"Furthermore it is pretended, that there remaineth still in mee the prince of devils, whose name should be Modu." And, p. 269 :— "When the said priests had despatched their business at Hackney (where they had been exorcising Sarah Williams), they then returned towards mee, upon pretence to cast the great prince Modu out of mee." In the Goblins, by sir John Suckling, a catch is introduced, which concludes with these two lines:

"The prince of darkness is a gentleman;
Mahu, Mahu is his name."

This catch may not be the production of Suckling, but the original referred to by Edgar's speech.

2 Lord Orford has the following remark in the postscript to his Mysterious Mother:-"The finest picture ever drawn of a head discomposed by misfortune is that of king Lear. His thoughts dwell on the ingrati

Glo.
Canst thou blame him?
His daughters seek his death.-Ah, that good Kent !—
He said it would be thus ;-poor banished man!—
Thou say'st, the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend,
I am almost mad myself. I had a son,

Now outlawed from my blood; he sought my life,
But lately, very late; I loved him, friend,-

No father his son dearer: true to tell thee,

[Storm continues. The grief hath crazed my wits.-What a night's this! I do beseech your grace,

Lear.

Noble philosopher, your company.

Edg. Tom's a-cold.

O, cry you mercy,

Glo. In, fellow, there, to the hovel; keep thee

warm.

Lear. Come, let's in all.

Kent.

Lear. With him;

This way, my lord.

I will keep still with my philosopher.

Kent. Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.

Glo. Take him you on.

Kent. Sirrah, come on; go along with us.

Lear. Come, good Athenian.

Glo.

Hush.

No words, no words.

Edg. Child Rowland1 to the dark tower came,
His word was still,-Fie, foh, and fum,
I smell the blood of a British man.

[Exeunt.

tude of his daughters, and every sentence that falls from his wildness excites reflection and pity. Had frenzy entirely seized him, our compassion would abate; we should conclude that he no longer felt unhappiness."

1 Capel observes, that Child Rowland means the knight Orlando. He would read come, with the quartos, absolutely (Orlando being come to the dark tower); and supposes a line to be lost, "which spoke of some giant, the inhabitant of that tower, and the smeller-out of Child Rowland, who comes to encounter him." He proposes to fill up the passage thus :

"Child Rowland to the dark tower come,

[The giant roared, and out he ran ;]

His word was still," &c.

--

Part of this is to be found in the second part of Jack and the Giants,

SCENE V. A Room in Gloster's Castle.

Enter CORNWALL and Edmund.

Corn. I will have my revenge ere I depart this house.

Edm. How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think of.

Corn. I now perceive it was not altogether your brother's evil disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit,' set a-work by a reprovable badness in himself.

Edm. How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to be just! This is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an intelligent party to the advantages of France. O Heavens! that this treason were not, or not I the detector!

Corn. Go with me to the duchess.

Edm. If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business in hand.

Corn. True or false, it hath made thee earl of Gloster. Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension.

Edm. [Aside.] If I find him comforting the king, it will stuff his suspicion more fully.-I will persevere in my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore between that and my blood.

Corn. I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a dearer father in my love. [Exeunt.

which, if not as old as the time of Shakspeare, may have been compiled from something that was so: they are uttered by a giant:

"Fee, faw, fum,

I smell the blood of an Englishman;

Be he alive, or be he dead,

I'll grind his bones to make my bread."

1 Cornwall seems to mean the merit of Edmund; which, being noticed by Gloster, provoked or instigated Edgar to seek his father's death.