Infirmity doth ftill neglect all office,

Whereto our health is bound; we're not ourselves,
When Nature, being oppreft, commands the mind
To fuffer with the body. I'll forbear;

And am fall'n out with my more headier will,
To take the indifpos'd and fickly fit,

For the found man.-Death on my ftate! but wherefore Should he fit here? this Act perfuades me,

That this remotion of the Duke and her

Is practice only. Give me my fervant forth;
Go, tell the Duke and's wife, I'd fpeak with them :
Now, presently,-bid them come forth and hear me,
Or at their chamber-door I'll beat the drum,

'Till it cry, fleep to death.

[Exit.

Glo. I would have all well betwixt you. Lear. Oh me, my heart! my rifing heart! but down. Fool, Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the Eels, when he put them i' th' Pafty alive; fhe rapt 'em o' th' coxcombs with a ftick, and cry'd, down wantons, down; 'Twas her brother, that in pure kind、 nefs to his horse butter'd his hay.

Enter Cornwall, Regan, Glo'fter, and Servants.
Lear. Good-morrow to you both.

Corn. Hail to your Grace!

[Kent is fet at liberty.

Reg. I am glad to fee your Highness.

Lear, Regan, I think, you are; 1 know, what reafon

I have to think fo; if thou wert not glad,

I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb,
Sepulchring an adult'refs. O, are you free? [To Kent.
Some other time for that. Beloved Regan,
Thy fifter's nought: oh Regan, fhe hath tied
Sharp-tooth'd unkindnefs, like a vulture, here;

[Points to his heart.

I can scarce speak to thee; thou❜lt not believe,
With how deprav'd a quality-oh Regan!--
Reg. I pray you, Sir, take patience; I have hope,
You lefs know how to value her defert,

Than the to fcant her duty.

Lear,

Lear. Say? How is that?.

Reg. I cannot think, my fifter in the least Would fail her obligation. If, perchance, She have reftrain'd the riots of your

followers;

'Tis on fuch ground, and to fuch wholesom end,
As clears her from all blame.

Lear. My curfes on her!-
Reg. O Sir, you are old,

Nature in you ftands on the very verge
Of her confine; you should be rul'd and led
By fome discretion, that difcerns your ftate
Better than you yourself: therefore, I pray you,
That to our fifter you do make return;
Say, you have wrong'd her, Sir.

Lear. Afk her forgiveness?

Do you but mark, how this becomes the Ufe? (18) Dear daughter, I confefs, that I am old;

Age is unneceffary: on my knees I beg,

That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.
Reg. Good Sir, no more; these are unfightly tricks:
Return you to my fifter,

Lear. Never, Regan:

She hath abated me of half my train;

(18) Do you but mark bow this becomes the houfe?] This phrafe is to me unintelligible, and feems to fay nothing to the purpose: Neither can it mean, as I conceive, how this becomes the order of families. Lear would certainly intend to reply, how does asking my daughter's forgiveness become me as a father, and agree with commen fashion, the establish'd rule and cuftom of nature? And therefore it feems no doubt to me, but the poet wrote, as I have alter'd the text. Let us examine, how he has exprefs'd elsewhere upon this sentiment. Alonso says, in the Tempest ;

But, oh, how oddly will it found, that I

Muft afk my child forgiveness?

And Volumnia, in Coriolanus, fays to her fon;
I kneel before thee, and unproperly

Shew duty as miftaken all the while
Between the child and parent.

Now what is odd, and improper, and mistaken, must be concluded to be against rule and cuftom: And that Shakespeare employs Ufe in this fignification, is too obvious to want a proof.

Look'd

Look'd blank upon me; ftruck me with her tongue, (19) Moft ferpent-like, upon the very heart.

All the stor'd vengeances of heaven fall

On her ingrateful Top! ftrike her young bones,
You taking airs, with lameness!

Corn. Fie, Sir! fie!

Lear. You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames Into her fcornful eyes! infect her beauty,

You fen-fuck'd fogs, drawn by the pow'rful fun
To fall, and blaft her pride.

Reg. O the bleft gods!

So will you wish on me, when the rash mood is on. Lear. No, Regan, thou fhalt never have my curfe: Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give (20)

Thee

(19) Look'd black upon me,] This is a phrase which I do not under. fland neither have I any where else met with it. But to look blank is a known expreffion, fignifying, either to give discouraging looks to another, or to ftand difmay'd and difappointed one's-felf. The poct means here, that Regan gave him cold looks, as he before phrates it in this play. In Hamlet, he has chang'd the adjective into a verb;

Each oppofite, that blanks the face of joy.

Milton (a ftudious imitator not only of our poet's words, but phrafes;) often ufes blank in our author's fenfe here; There without fign of boaft, or fign of joy, Sollicitous and blank, he thus began. And with confufion blank his worshippers. And noble grace, that dafh'd brute violence; With fudden adoration and blank awe,

Adam, foon as he heard

Par. Reg. B. 2

Sampf. Agonis.

Masque at Ludlow Castle.

The fatal trefpafs done by Eve, amaz'd,
Aftonied food and blank.

Par. loft. B. gi

And in another paffage, with an equivalent expreffion;

Thus while he fpake, each paffion dimm'd his face. Ibid. B. 4.

(20) Thy tender-hearted nature] This, as I prefume, was Mr. Pope's fophiftication; I have reftored from the old copies, tender-beft-. ed; (which, I am fatisfied, was the poet's word) i. e, whose bufom is beau'd with tender paffions. So in Winter's Tale.

-But if one prefent

Th' abhor'd ingredient to his eye make known

How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his fides,

With violent befts.

VOL. VI.

And

Thee o'er to harfhnefs; her eyes are fierce, but thine
Do comfort, and not burn. 'Tis not in thee
To grudge my pleafures, to cut off my train,
To bandy hafty words, to fcant my fizes,
And, in conclufion, to oppofe the bolt
Against my coming in.. Thou better know't
The offices of nature, bond of child-hood,
Effects of courtefy, dues of gratitude :

Thy half o' th' Kingdom thou haft not forgot,
Wherein I thee endow'd.

Reg. Good Sir, to th' purpose.

[Trumpet within, Lear. Who put my man i' th' Stocks?

Enter Steward.

Corn. What trumpet's that?

Reg. I know't, my fifter's: this approves her letter, That she would foon be here.

Is your Lady come ? Lear. This is a flave, whofe eafy-borrowed pride Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows.

Out, varlet, from my fight.

Corn. What means your Grace?

Enter Gonerill.

Lear. Who flockt my fervant? Regan, I've good hope, Thou didst not know on't. -Who comes here ?

O Heav'ns,

If you do love old men, if your fweet fway (21)
Hallow obedience, if yourselves are old,

That creep like fhadows by him, and do figh
At each his needless heavings.

So, fpeaking of Cordelia's grief, in our prefent play,

Once, or twice,

She beav'd the name of father

Pantingly forth.

And fo the Dauphin, in King John.

Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury;

And with a great heart heave away this ftorm.

(21)

if your feet fway

Make

Allow obedience,] Could any man in his fenfes, and Lear has 'em yet, make it a question whether heaven allow'd obedience? undoubtedly,

the

Make it your caufe; fend down and take my part.
Art not asham'd to look upon this beard?

O Regan, will you take her by the hand?

Gon. Why not by th' hand, Sir? how have I offended? All's not offence, that indifcretion finds,

And dotage terms fo.

Lear. Ŏ fides, you are too tough!

Will you yet hold?-how came my man i' th' Stocks? Corn. I fet him there, Sir: but his own diforders Deferv'd much lefs advancement.

Lear. You? did you?

Reg. I pray you, father, being weak, feem fo.
If, 'till the expiration of your month,
You will return and fojourn with my fifter,
Difmiffing half your train, come then to me;
I'm now from home, and out of that provifion
Which shall be needful for your entertainment.
Lear. Return to her? and fifty men difmifs'd ?
No, rather I abjure all roofs, and chufe (22)
To be a comrade with the wolf and owl;
To wage, against the enmity o' th' air,
Neceffity's fharp pinch-Return with her?
Why, the hot-blooded France, that dow'rlefs took
Our youngest born, I could as well be brought
To knee his throne, and 'Squire-like penfion beg,
To keep base life a-foot ;- Return with her?

Perfuade me rather to be flave, and fumpter,

To this detefted groom.

Gon. At your choice, Sir.

the poet wrote----hallow obedience,----i. e. if by your ordinances you hold and pronounce it fanctified; and punish the violators of it as facrilegious perfons. Mr. Warburton.

(22) and chufe To wage against the enmity o' th' air, To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,

Neceffity's fharp pinch.] The breach of the fenfe here is a manifest proof, that thefe lines were tranfpos'd by the firft editors: Neither can there be any syntax or grammatical coherence, unlefs we fuppofe Neceffity's fharp pinch to be the accufative to wage. As I've plac'd the verfes, the fenfe is fine and eafy; and the fentence compleat and finish'd.