p. 210.

p. 211.

But plainly this passage was rewritten before the folio was printed. The last part of the second line as it appears in the 4to. shows that the figurative allusion to the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy could have formed no part of the passage when that text was printed. And in the rewriting there was a happy change made from the common-place of last not least' to an allusion to the personal traits and family position of Cordelia. The impression produced by all the passages in which she appears or is referred to, is, that she was her father's little pet, while her sisters were big, bold, brazen beauties. Afterwards, in this very scene, Lear says of her to Burgundy,

"Sir, there she stands :

If aught within that little seeming substance,
Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced," &c.

When she is dead, too, her father, although an infirm old
man, "fourscore and upward," carries her body in his
arms. Cordelia was evidently the least, as well as the
youngest and best beloved, of the old King's daughters,
and therefore he says to her, "Now our joy, what can you
say to justify my intention of giving you the richest third
of the kingdom, although you are the youngest born, and
the least royal in your presence?" The poet's every touch
upon the figure of Cordelia paints her as, with all her firm-
ness of character, a creature to nestle in a man's bosom
- her father's or her husband's and to be cherished
almost like a little child; and this happy afterthought
brings the picture into perfect keeping, and at the very
commencement of the drama impresses upon the mind a
characteristic trait of a personage who plays an important
part in it, although she is little seen.

[To love my father all]”: - This hemistich is found only in the 4tos.

"But goes thy heart with this?"

The 4tos., "But goes this with thy heart," which, I take it, is not a mere accidental variation.

"The mysteries of Hecate": - It is hardly worth while to notice the misprint of the folio, "The miseries," &c., which was corrected in the second folio.

There is no stage

Hence, and avoid my sight!” direction in the old copies as to these words; but they are most probably addressed to Cordelia. Yet it may be rea

sonably urged that Cordelia does not go out, as she would be likely to do upon such a command, and that although Kent has merely broken in with "Good, my liege," Lear

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p. 212.

p. 213.

p. 215.

"

p. 216.

is choleric and unreasonable enough to hound him from the presence upon such slight provocation.

"With my two daughters' dowers digest the third": i. e., break it up, divide, dissolve it.

Reverse thy doom : So the 4tos.; the folio, "Reserve thy state," which I cannot regard as other than an accidental variation, because Kent makes no attempt to induce Lear to abandon his design of dividing his kingdom and abdicating his throne; he simply pleads for Cordelia. Between reverse' and 'reserve' the difference is only the transposition of two letters; and that change once made by accident, the other would naturally follow by design.

"That thou hast sought," &c.: So the folio; the 4tos., "Since thou," &c. &c. The latter reading is more in accordance with the common usage of the present day; but either is correct; and the former seems to me more in keeping with the style of this play. Of old “that had, as it still has among our best writers, the sense of for that, seeing that, assuming.

- The 4tos.,

"To shield thee from disasters,", &c. :"from diseases." "That she, who even but now : The folio, "whom even;" the 4tos., "that even.

"The best, the dearest":— So the folio; the 4tos., "Most best, most dearest," a duplication of the superlative not uncommon in Shakespeare's day. In the last line of the speech the 4tos. have, "Could never plant in me."

"It is no vicious blot, murther, or foulness " - Mr. Collier's folio of 1632 has, "It is no vicious blot nor other foulness; " which is only specious; for "vicious blot is altogether too general a term to be put in the alternative with "foulness," almost as general, and of like meaning. I do not doubt that Shakespeare wrote murther.'

"Royal King":- So the folio; the 4tos., "Royall Lear." See "God save King Richard, England's royal King!" Richard the Third, Act III. Sc. 7; and in Antony and Cleopatra, Act V. Sc. 2,

"It is well done, and fitting for a princess
Descended of so many royal kings."

"Since that respects of fortune":
prints, respects and fortune."

The folio mis

"Ye jewels of our father": — The old copies, "The jewels," &c. But can there be a doubt that Rowe,

p. 217.

p. 218.

p. 219.

p. 220.

p 221.

Capell, and others were right in supposing that we owe this singularly awkward, if not senseless reading to the same typographical error which in Coriolanus, Act I. Sc. 6, made "Ye Roman gods" "The Roman gods”?

at last shame them derides :-The folio misprints, "at last with shame derides."

then must we look from his age to receive," &c.: The 4tos., "then must we looke to receive from his age."

SCENE II.

“Stand in the plague of custom : Here 'in' seems to be used in the sense of exposed to, as it is when we say in peril' or in the phrase "you stand within his danger," Mer. of Ven., Act IV. Sc. 1. But 'plague' has been regarded with suspicion by several editors. "The curiosity of nations" is what Johnson would have called the scrupulosity of nations; and "to deprive me means to cut me off, disinherit me.

"Shall top th' legitimate": - - The folio," Shall to' th' Legitimate;" the 4tos., "Shall tooth' legitimate. The ingenious correction first appeared in Edwards' Canons of Criticism, "into which," says Capell, (Notes and Various Readings, Part 2, p. 146,) "it was receiv'd from this editor (together with other communications concerning readings of copies,) by that ingenious work's writer."

subscrib'd his power":-i. e., yielded his power. This seems to be a perversion of the figurative use of ‘subscribe' in the sense of submit, to which yield' is a synonyme, though not in a transitive sense; e. g., Taming of the Shrew, Act I. Sc. 1,

Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe."

The folio has, "prescrib'd his power," which might be accepted in the sense of limited, circumscrib'd his power, were it not that the king is manifestly the nominative understood. In the next line exhibition' means allowance, stipend, as in "Like exhibition thou shalt have from me, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I. Sc. 3.

that terrible dispatch of it," &c.: Here 'terrible is not the mere meaningless expletive so often used by uncultivated people. Edmund hides the letter away in haste and terror.

"When came this to you? The folio has an accidental transposition here, "When came you to this?” “——— no other pretence of danger": — i. e., intentio› of danger.

p. 221.

p. 222.

'[Nor is not, sure":-This speech and Gloster's reply, as far as "Heaven and Earth," inclusive, are not in the folio.

"I would unstate myself to be in a due resolution” : i. e., I would give up rank and property to know certainly all I ought to know.

[Edgar and] pat he comes : The words ' and' are found only in the 4tos.

Edgar

these divisions, — fa sol la mi” :— According to modern Italian solmization, fa sol la si; i. e., a progression through the interval of a fourth, ending upon the seventh or leading note of the scale; which, unless followed by the tonic, or used for some very special effect, is a most distracting figure, based upon the most poignant of discords. In Shakespeare's time, and until a comparatively recent date, the syllables for solmization, instead of do re mi fa sol la si, were fa sol la fa sol la mi. Shakespeare often shows that he was a musician as well as a lover of music.

p. 224.

p. 225.

p. 226.

p. 228.

p. 229.

[as of unnaturalness,” &c.: - The text from these words to "Come, come," below, is found only in the 4tos.

SCENE III.

"[Not to be over-rul'd," &c.:- This and the four following lines are found in the 4tos., but not in the folio.

SCENE IV.

"That can my speech diffuse” : i. e., obscure. See the Note on "some diffused song," Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV. Sc. 4.

to converse with him that is wise, and says little": i. e., to have intercourse, companionship, with him that is wise, &c. See the Note on "till their conversations appear," 2 Henry the Fourth, Act V. Sc. 5. Kent's profession "to eat no fish" has been reasonably supposed to be addressed to the strong anti-Romish feeling of Shakespeare's day.

"Kent. Why, Fool?" So the 4tos.; the folio, "Lear. Why, my boy.' But the latter is clearly wrong, as the Fool's reply shows. Lear had taken no "one's part

that's out of favour," but Kent had. The mistake seems to be due to the fact that both Lear and Kent reply interrogatively to the Fool's remark about his coxcomb.

when the lady brach":—i. e., the bitch hound. See the Note on "Brach Merriman," Taming of the Shrew, Induction, Sc. 1.

p. 229.

p. 230.

p. 232.

p. 233.

"This is nothing, Fool": - The 4tos. assign this speech to Lear, and it has been thought that because the Fool's previous speech is "address'd to Lear, it is natural that Lear should make this reply to it." But it should be observed, that in addressing this poor faithful follower, the King never calls him Fool. In speaking of him he gives him his official title; but in speaking to him he always uses some term of familiar and pitiful endearment, generally my boy,' although the poor fellow had plainly had many years' sad experience of the world. It seems a deteriorating misapprehension of this phrase that has led an eminent actor to represent the Fool as a boy in years! I cannot believe that on this solitary occasion Shakespeare was indifferent to the touching nature of the relations which he had established between Lear and his humble counsellor; and I accept the evidence of the folio that this speech is one of Kent's many characteristic interruptions.

"[Fool. That lord, that counsell'd thee" These lines and all that follows them, to "they'll be snatching," in the Fool's second speech below, are found only in the 4tos.

"[And] do thou for him stand": - I am responsible for the conjunction at the beginning of this line. The rhythm so imperatively demanding it, it could not possibly have been omitted in a rhyme like this, even if it were as superfluous as it is appropriate to the sense. It was doubtless omitted by accident.

"That it had it head bit off by it young": — So both folio and 4to. in regard to the last two instances of the pronoun. As to it' in the possessive sense, see the Note on "it's folly," &c., Winter's Tale, Act I. Sc. 2, and "Go to it grandam, child, King John, Act II. Sc. 1; "it lifted up it head," Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 2; and "For do it own life," Ibid. Act V. Sc. 1. The folio has, “That it's had," &c.; the 4tos., "That it had," &c.; the former being a mere misprint, in my judgment, and not an abbreviation of "That it has had.'

"[I [I would learn that," &c. :- This speech and that which follows it are omitted from the folio. The 4to. prints the former as prose; but it seems to have been written as verse, and to have suffered irremediable derangement, and perhaps mutilation.

the rad

"This admiration, sir":—i. e., this wonder ical sense of the word. In Shakespeare's day, or soon after, there was a book published concerning "Admirable Events," among which were murders, rapes, and robberies.