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five of those who were made to act in this farce upon the chamber-maids and waiting-women; and they were generally so ridiculously nick-named, that Harsnet has one chapter on the strange names of their devils; lest, says he, meeting them otherwise by chance, you mistake them for the names of tapsters or jugglers.

WARBURTON.

The passage in crotchets is omitted in the folio, because I suppose as the story was forgotten, the jest was lost. JOHNSON.

P. 82, 1. 5. 6. Let the superfluous, and lustdieted man,

That slaves your ordinance,] Lear has before uttered the same sentiment, which indeed cannot be too strongly impressed, though it may be too often repeated. JOHNSON.

Superfluous is here used for one living in abundance. WARburton.

The language of Shakspeare is very licentious, and his words have often meanings remote from the proper and original use. To slave or beslave another is to treat him with terms of indignity: in a kindred sense, to slave the ordinance, may be, to slight or ridicule it. JOHNSON.

To slave an ordinance, is to treat it as a slave, to make it subject to us, instead of acting in obedience to it. STEEVENS.

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P. 82, l. 12-14. There is a cliff, whose high and bending head Looks fearfully in the confined deep: Mr. Rowe and all the subsequent editors for in read I see no need of change. Shakspeare considered the sea as a mirrour. To look in a glass, is yet our colloquial phrasealogy. MALONE.

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P. 82, 1. 25-27.

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I marvel, our mild husband

Not met us on the way:] It must be remembered that Albany, the husband of Goneril, disliked, in the end of the first act, the scheme of oppression and ingratitude. JOHNSON.

P, 83, 1. 8. 9. Our wishes, on the way,

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May prove effects.] I believe the meaning of the passage to be this: "Whas we wish, before our march is at an end, may be brought to happen, i. e. the murder or despatch of her husband. On the way, however, may be equivalent to the expression we now use, viz. By the way, or By the by, i. e. en passant. STEEVENS.

The wishes we have formed and communicated to each other, on our journey, may be carried into effect. M. MASON.

She means, I think, The wishes, which we expressed to each other on our way hither, may be completed, and prove effectual to the destruction of my husband. MALONE,

P. 85, 1. 17. 18. Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak,

Would strech thy spirits up into the air; She bids him decline his head, that she might give him a kiss (the steward being present) and that it might appear only to him as a whisper.

STEEVENS.

P. 83, 1. 28. I have been worth the whistle.} This expression is a reproach to Albany for having neglected her; though you disregard me thus, I have been worth the whistle, I have found one that thinks me worth calling. JOHNSON."

This expression is a proverbial one. Heywood in one of his dialogues, consisting entirely of proverbs, says:

"It is a poor dog that is not worth the whistling." Goneril's meaning seems to be There was a time when you would have thought me worth the calling to you; reproaching him for not having summoned her to consult with on the present critical occasion. STEEVEns.

I think Mr. Steevens's interpretation the true one. MALONE. P. 83, 1. 32. 33. That nature, which contemns its origin,

Cannot be border'd certain in itself;] The sense is, That nature which is arrived to such a pitch of unnatural degeneracy, as to contemn its origin, cannot from thenceforth be restrained within any certain bounds, but is prepared to break out into the most monstrous excesses' every way, as occasion or temptation may offer. HEATH. P. 83, last 1. & P. 84, 1. 1. 2. She that herself will sliver and disbranch

From her material sap, perforce must wither And come to deadly use. .] To sliver signifies to tear off or disbranch. WARBURTON.

She who breaks the bonds of filial duty, and becomes wholly alienated from her father, must wither and perish, like a branch separated from that sap which supplies it with nourishment, and gives life to the matter of which it is composed.

MALONE.

Alluding to the use that witches and inchanters are said to make of wither'd branches in their charms. A fine insinuation in the speaker, that she was ready for the most unnatural mischief, and a preparative of the poet to her plotting with the bastard against her husband's life. WARBURTON.

P. 84, 1. 15. 16. Humanity must perforce prey on itself,

Like monsters of the deep.] Fishes are the only animals that are known to prey upon their own species. JOHNSON.

P. 84, 1. 21. Fools do those villains pity,] She means, that none but fools would pity those villains, who are prevented from executing their malicious designs, and punished for their evil intention. It is not clear whether this fiend means her father, or the King of France. MALONE. ·P. 84, 1. 29. 30. Proper deformity seems not in the fiend

So horrid, as in woman.]i.e. Diabolic qualities appear not so horrid in the devil to whom they belong, as in woman who unnaturally assu→ mes them. WARBURTON.

P. 84, 1. 32-34. Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame,

Be-monster not thy feature.] Of these lines there is but one copy, and the editors are forced upon conjecture. They have published the first line thus:

Thou chang'd, and self converted thing; but I cannot but think that by self-cover'd the author meant, thou that hast disguised nature by wickedness: thou that hast hid the woman under the fiend. JOHNSON.

The following words bemonster not thy feature, seem rather to support the reading of the former editors, which was self-converted. M. MASON.

By thou self-cover'd thing, the poet, I think, means, thou who hast put a covering on thyself, which nature did not give thee. The covering

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which Albany means, is, the semblance and appearance of a fiend. MALONE.

MALONE.

Feature in Shakspeare's age meant the general cast of countenance, and often beauty. P. 85, 1. 15. and amongst them fell'd him dead:] i.e. they (Cornwall and his other servants) among'st them fell'd him dead. MALONE.

P. 85, 1. 19. 20. You justicers, that these our nether crimes

So speedily can venge!] Most of the old copies have justices; but it was certainly a misprint. The word justicer is used in two other places in this play; and though printed rightly in the folio, is corrupted in the quarto in the same manner as here. Some copies of quarto B read rightly justicers', in the line before us.

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MALONE. P. 85, 1. 25-29. Gon. [Aside] One way I like this well; &c.] Goneril's plan was to poison her sister to marry Edmund-to murder Albany and to get possession of the whole kingdom. As the death of Cornwall facilitated the last part of her scheme, she was pleased at it but disliked it, as it put it in the power of her sister to marry Edmund.

M. MASON.

P. 86, 1. 11 & fol. This scene, left out in all the common books, is restored from the old edition; it being manifestly of Shakspeare's writing, and necessary to continue the story of Cordelia, whose behaviour is here most beautifully painted.

POPE.

The scene seems to have been left out only to shorten the play, and is necessary to continue the action. It is extant only in the quarto, being

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