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When priests are more in words than matter, When brewers marr their malt with water;

8

" When nobles are their tailors' tutors;

9 No hereticks burnt, but wenches' fuitors;
Then comes the time, who lives to fee't,
That going fhall be us'd with feet.
When every cafe in law is right,
No fquire in debt, and no poor knight;
When flanders do not live in tongues;
And cut-purfes come not to throngs;

the prefent would prevent from ever happening. Each of thefe prophecies has its proper inference or deduction; yet, by an inaccountable stupidity, the firft editors took the whole to be all one prophecy, and fo jumbled the two contrary inferences together. The whole then fhould be read as follows, only premifing that the first line is corrupted by the loss of a word-or ere I go, is not English, and fhould be helped thus,

1. I'll speak a prophecy or two
ere I go.
When priests are more in words
than matter;
When brewers marr their malt
with water;
When nobles are their tailors'

tutors;

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When flanders do not live in tongues;

And cut-purfes come not 10 throngs;

When ufurers tell their gold i'th' field;

And bards and whores do
churches build:

Then fhall the realm of Albion
Come to great confufion. i. e.
Never.

The fagacity and acuteness of Dr. Warburton are very confpicuous in this note. He has difentangled the confufion of the paffage, and I have inferted his emendation in the text. Or e'er is proved by Mr. Upon to be good English, but the contro verfy was not neceffary, for or is not in the old copies.

8 When nobles are their tailors' tutors;] . . invent fashions WARBURTON.

for them.

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When ufurers tell their gold i' th' field;

And bawds and whores do churches build:
Then fhall the realm of Albion

Come to great confufion.

This prophecy Merlin fhall make, for I do live before

his time.

Glo.

A'

SCENE IV,

An Apartment in Glo'fter's Castle.

Enter Glo'fter, and Edmund.

[Exit.

LACK, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing; when I defir'd their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the use of mine own houfe; charg'd me on pain of perpetual difpleafure, neither to speak of him, entreat for him, or any-way fuftain him.'

Edm. Moft favage and unnatural!

Glo. Go to; fay you nothing. There is divifion between the Dukes, and a worle matter than that. I have receiv'd a letter this night. His dangerous to be fpoken. I have lock'd the letter in my clotet. Thefe injuries, the King now bears, will be revenged home, there is part of a power already footed; we muft incline to the King; I will look for him, and privily relieve him; go you, and maintain talk with the Duke, that my charity be not of him perceiv'd; if he afk for me, I am ill, and gone to bed. If I die for it, as no less is threaten'd me, the King my old master must be reliev'd. There are ftrange things toward, Edmund; pray, you, be ca.ciul. [Exit, Edm. This curtely, forbid thee, fhall the Duke Inftantly know, and of that letter too. This feems a fair deferving, and muft draw me That which my father lofes; no less than all. The younger rifes, when the old doth fall.

[Exit. SCENE

Kent.

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Changes to a part of the Heath with a Hovel.

H

Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool.

ERE is the place, my Lord; good my
Lord, enter.

The tyranny o'the open night's too rough

For nature to endure.

Lear. Let me alone.

Kent. Good my Lord, enter here,
Lear. Let me alone.

Kent. Good my Lord, enter here,

Lear. Will't break my heart?

[Storm fill.

Kent. I'd rather break mine own; good my Lord,

enter.

Lear. Thou think'ft 'tis much, that this contentious ftorm

Invades us to the fkin; fo 'tis to thee;

But where the greater malady is fixt,

The leffer is fcarce felt. Thoud'ft fhun a bear;

But if thy flight lay toward the roaring sea,

Thou'dft meet the bear i'th' mouth. When the mind's free,

The body's delicate; the tempeft in my mind
Doth from my fenfes take all feeling elfe
Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!
Is it not, as this mouth fhould tear this hand
For lifting food to't ?—But I'll punish home;
No, I will weep no more-In fuch a night,
To fhut me out?-Pour on, I will endure-
In fuch a night as this? O Regen, Gonerill!—
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all-
O, that way, madness lies; let me fhun that;
No more of that.-

Kent. Good my Lord, enter here,

G 4

Lear.

Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyfelf; seek thine own ease; This Tempeft will not give me leave to ponder On things would hurt me more-But I'll go in,

In, boy, go firft. [To the Fool.] You houfelefs po

verty

Nay, get thee in; I'll pray, and then I'll fleep-
[Fool goes in.
Poor naked wretches, wherefoe'er you are,
That 'bide the pelting of this pitiless ftorm!
How shall your houfeless heads, and unfed fides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggednefs, defend you
From seasons fuch as these? O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this. Take phyfick, Pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou may'ft shake the fuperflux to them,
And fhew the Heav'ns more juft.

Edg. [within.] Fathom and half, fathom and half! poor Tom.

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Fool. Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit. Help me, help me. [The Fol runs out from the bevel. Kent. Give me thy hand, who's there?

Fool. A fpirit, a fpirit; he fays, his name's poor Tem. Kent. What art thou, that doft grumble there i'th' ftraw?

Come forth.

SCENE

VI,

2

Enter Edgar, difguis'd like a madman.

Edg. Away! the foul fiend follows me. Through the fharp hawthorn blows the cold wind. Humph, go to thy bed and warm thee.

In, boy, go first.] Thefe two lines were added in the authour's revision, and are only in the folio. They are very judiciously intended to reprefent that humility, or tenderness, or rgle&

of forms, which affliction forces on the mind.

2

Humph, go to thy bed] So the folio. The quarto,

Go to thy cold bed and warm

bee.

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Lear.

Lear. Didft thou give all to thy daughters? and art thou come to this?

Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, through ford and through whirlpool, o'er bog and quagmire; that hath + laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his pew; fet ratfbane by his porridge; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horfe over four-inch'd bridges, to course his own fhadow for a traitor. Blefs thy five wits; Tom's a-cold. O do de, do de, do de. Blefs thee from whirl-winds, ftar-blafting, and taking. Do poor Tom fome charity, whom the foul fiend vexes. There could I have him now-and there-and here again, [Storm ftill.

and there.

Lear. What, have his daughters brought him to this pafs?

-Couldst thou fave nothing? didft thou give 'em all? Fool. Nay, he referved a blanket, else we had been all fhamed.

Lear. Now all the plagues, that in the pendulous air Hang fated o'er men's faults, light on thy daughters! Kent. He hath no daughters, Sir.

Lear. Death! traitor. Nothing could have fubdued

nature

To fuch a lowness, but his unkind daughters.
Is it the fafhion, that discarded fathers

Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?
Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot
Those pelican daughters.

*

3 led through fire and through flame,] Alluding to the ig mis fatuas, fuppofed to be lights kindled by mischievous beings to lead travellers into deftruction.

4 laid knives under his pillow,] He recounts the temptations by which he was prompted to fuicide; the opportunities of deftroying himself which often oc

curred to him in his melancholy moods.

5 taking.] To take is to blaft, or ftrike with malignant influ

ence.

-frike her young limbs

Ye taking airs with lameness. •-pelican daughters.] The young pelican is fabled to fuck the mother's blood.

Edg.

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