Which thou haft perpendicularly fall'n. Edg. From the dread summit of this chalky bourn! Is wretchedness depriv'd that benefit, Edg. Give me your arm. Up, fo-how is't? feel you your legs you stand. Edg. This is above all strangenefs. Upon the crown o' th' cliff, what thing was that, Glo. A poor unfortunate beggar. Edg. As I stood here below, methought, his eyes Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses, Horns welk'd, and wav'd like the enridged sea: It was some fiend. Therefore, thou happy father, Think, that the clearestgods, who make them honours(48) Of men's impoffibilities, have preferv'd thee. Glo. I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear Afliction, 'till it do cry out itself, Enough, enough, and die. That thing you speak of, Enter Lear, dreft madly with Flowers. But who comes here ? least---a poor, dragging expression. All the old copies read, as I have reftor'd in the text, ten mafts at each. 'Tis certain, 'tis a bold phrafe, but I dare warrant, it was our author's; and means, ten masts placed at the extremity of each other. (48) Think, that the dearest gods---] This too is Mr. Pope's reading. All the authentick copies have it, clearest gods; i. e, open, and righteous, in their dealings. So, our author again, in his Timon; Roots, ye clear beau'ns! The The safer sense will ne'er accommodate His master thus. Lear. No, they cannot touch me for coining: I am the King himself. Edg. O thou side piercing fight! Lear. Nature's above art in that respect. There's your press-money. (49) That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper: draw me a clothier's yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace;-this piece of toafted cheese will do't-there's my gauntlet, I'll prove it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O, well flown, Barb! (50) i' th' clout, i' th' clout: hewgh. Give the word. Lear. Ha! Gonerill! hah! Regan! they flatter'd me (49) That fellow handles bis bow like a cow-keeper.] Thus Mr. Pope in his last edition; but I am afraid, I betray'd him into the error by an abfurd conjecture of my own, in my SHAKESPEARE reftored. 'Tis certain we must read crow-keeper here; as likewise in this passage of Romeo and Juliet : We'll have no Cupid hooded with a scarf, And, it seems, in several counties to this day, they call a stuff'd figure, representing a man, and arm'd with a bow and arrow, (set up to fright the crows, and other birds of prey, from the fruit and corn; a croru-keeper; as well as a scare-crow. To fome such figure our author again alludes in Meafure for Meafure. We must not make a scare-erow of the law, Their perch, and not their terror. But Beaumont and Fletcher in their Bonduca have a passage which will excellently well explain our author's reading. Can these fight? They look Like empty scabbards all; no metal in 'em: Like men of clouts, set to keep crows from orchards; (50) O well flown bird,] Lear is here raving of archery, and sheeting at buts, as is plain by the words i' th' clout, that is, the white mark they fet up and aim at; hence the phrase, to hit the white. So that we must certainly read, O well-flown, bark! i, e. the barbed, or like a dog, and told me, I had white hairs in my beard, ere the black ones were there. To say ay, and no, to every thing that I faid-Ay, and no, too was no good divinity. 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 'em, there I smelt 'em out. Go to, they are not men o' their words; they told me, I was every thing: 'tis a lie, I am not agueproof. bearded arrow. Mr. Warburton. Glo. The trick of that voice I do well remember: Is't not the King? Lear. Ay, every inch a King. When I do ftare, fee, how the subject quakes. I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause ? Adultery? thou shalt not die; die for adultery ? no, the wren goes to't, and the small gilded fly does letcher in my fight. Let copulation thrive: for Glo'ster's baftard fon was kinder to his father, than my daughters got 'tween the lawful sheets. To't, luxury, pell-mell; for I lack foldiers. Behold yon fimpering dame, whose face 'tween her forks presages snow; that minces virtue, and does shake the head to hear of pleasure's name. The fit-chew, nor the foiled horse goes to't with a more riotous appetite: down from the waste they are centaurs, though women all above: but to the girdle do the gods inherit, beneath is all the fiends. There's hell, there's darkness, there is the fulphurous pit, burning, fcalding, stench, confumption: fie, fre, fie; pah, pah; give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination! there's money for thee. Glo. O, let me kiss that hand. Lear. Let me wipe it first, it smells of mortality.. Glo. O ruin'd piece of nature! this great world Shall fo wear out to naught. Do'st thou know me? Lear. I remember thine eyes well enough: doft thou squiny at me? no, do thy worst, blind Cupid; I'll not love. Read thou this challenge, mark but the penning of it. Glo. Were all the letters suns, I could not see one. Edg Edg. I would not take this from report; it is, And my heart breaks at it. Lear. Read. Glo. What, with this case of eyes ? Lear. Oh, ho, are you there with me? no eyes in your head, nor no money in your purse? your eyes are in a heavy cafe, your purse in a light; yet you see how this world goes. Glo. I see it feelingly. Lear. What, art mad? a man may fee how this world goes, with no eyes. Look with thine ears: fee, how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark in thine ear: change places, and handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast feen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? (51) Glo. Ay, Sir. Lear. And the creature run from the cur? there thou might'st behold the great image of authority; a dog's obey'd in office. Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand: : (51) Thou baft feen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? &c.] This exquifite piece of fatire, dreft up in a figure and method of imagining from absent circumftances, has greatly the air of imitation from the ancients. It is that fort of figure, by which (as Minturnus has observ'd in his elaborate treatise De Poeta) oftenditur interdum, quafi ante oculos fit, fitta imago: a feign'd image of things is sometimes represented, as if really in view. Plautus is very full of this imagery: and I'll fubjoin two instances that have very much the caft of this in our author, only more ludicrous in their turn: In his Menæchmei, Act. 1. Sc. 2. Men. Dic mibi, nunquàm tu vidisti tabulam pictam in pariete, Pen. Sæpè, Sed quid iftæ picture ad me attinent ? And in his Muftellaria. Act. 3. Sc. 2. Tra. Viden' pictum, ubi ludificatur corn'x una volturios duo? Queso, buc ad me specta, cornicem ut confpicere poffies. Robes Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate fins with g Now, now, now, now. Pull off my boots: harder, harde Reason in madness! Lear. If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my e I know thee well enough, thy name is Glo'ster; Thou must be patient; we came crying hither: Thou know'it, the first time that we smell the air, We wawle and cry. I will preach to thee: mark Glo. Alack, alack the day! Lear. When we are born, we cry, that we are c To this great ftage of fools. -This a good block !It were a delicate stratagem to shooe A troop of horse with felt; I'll put't in proof; And when I've stol'n upon these fons-in-law, Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill. Enter a Gentleman, with. Attendants. Gent. O, here he is, lay hand upon him; Sir, Your most dear daughter Lear. No rescue? what, a prisoner ? I am even The natural fool of fortune. Use me well, You shall have ransom. Let me have furgeons, I am cut to th' brains. Gent. You shall have any thing. Lear. No seconds? all myself? Why this would make a man, a man of falt; To use his eyes for garden-water-pots, And laying autumn's dust. I will die bravely, Like a smug bridegroom. What? I will be jovial Come, come, I am a King. My masters, know you th Gent. You are a royal one, and we obey you. Lear. Then there's life in't. Come, an you get |