Reg. This houfe is little; the old man and his people Cannot be well beftowed. Gon. 'Tis his own blame hath put himself from reft, And must needs tafte his folly. Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly; But not one follower, Gon. So am I purpofed. Where is my Lord of Glo'ster? Enter GLO'STER. Corn. Followed the old man forth;---he is returned. Glo. The King is in high rage, and will I know not whither. Corn. 'Tis beft to give him way, he leads himself. Do forely ruffle: for many miles about Reg. O, Sir, to wilful men, The injuries that they themselves procure Must be their school-masters: fhut up your doors; And what they may incenfe him to, being apt Corn. Shut up your doors, my Lord, 'tis a wild night: My Regan counfels well: come out o'the storm. [Exeunt A Storm is heard with Thunder and Lightning. Exter KENT and a Gentleman, feverally. ΚΕΝΤ. Who's there, befides foul weather? Gent. One minded like the weather, most unquietly. Kent. I know you: where's the King? Gent. Contending with the fretful elements; Bids the wind blow the earth into the fea; Or fwell the curled waters 'bove the main, That things might change or ceafe: tears his white (Which the impetuous blaits with eyelefs rage [hair, Catch in their fury, and make nothing of): Strives in his little world of man to outfcorn The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain. This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would Keep their furr dry, unbonneted he runs, Kent. But who is with him? [couch, Gent. None but the fool, who labours to out-jeft His heart-ftruck injuries. Kent. Sir, I do know you, And dare, upon the warrant of my note, Commend a dear thing to you. There's divifion (Although, as yet, the face of it is covered With mutual cunning) 'twixt Albany and Cornwall: Who have (as who have not, whom their great ftárs (25) Throned and fet high?) fervants who feem no lefs; (25) Who have as who have not,~] The eight fubfequent verfes were degraded by Mr Pope, as unintelligible, and to VOL. V. Which are to France the spies and speculations Or the hard rein, which both of them have borne To make your speed to Dover, you shall find I am a gentleman of blood and breeding, Gent. I'll talk further with you. Kent. No, do not: For confirmation that I am much more [fay? Gent. Give me your hand: have you no more to Kent. Few words, but to effect more than all yet; That, when we have found the King, (in which you take no purpose. For my part, I fee nothing in them but what is very easy to be understood; and the lincs feem abfolutely neceffary to clear up the motives upon which France prepared his invafion: nor without them is the sense of the context compleat, That way, I this) he that firft lights on him, [Exeunt feverally. Storm fill. Enter LBAR and Fool. Lear. Blow winds, and crack your cheeks; rage, You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout [blow! 'Till you have drench'd our steeples, drowned the You fulph'rous and thought-executing fires, [cocks! Vaunt couriers of oak-cleaving thunder-bolts, Singe my white head. And thou all-fhaking thunder,. Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world;. Crack Nature's mould, all germins fpill at once (26). That make ungrateful man. Fool. O nuncle, court-holy-water in a dry house is better than the rain waters out o'door. Good nuncle, in, and afk thy daughters blefing: here's. a night that pities neither wife men nor fools.. Lear. Rumble thy belly full, fpit fire, fpout rain; (26) Crack Nature's mauld, all germains Spill at once.] Thus all the editions have given us this paffage, and Mr Pope has explained germain, to mean relations, ot kindred elements. Then it must have been germanes (from the Latin adjective, germanus ;) a word more than once ufed by our Airthor, though always falfe fpelt by his editors. So, in Hamlet; The phrafe would be more germane to the matter, could carry cannon by our fides. And fo in Othello;: if we You'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have courfers for coufins, and gennets for germanes. But the Poet means here, Crack Nature's mould, and fpill all the feeds of matter that are hoarded within it. Toretrieve which fenfe, we must write germins; (a substantive derived from germen, wopd, as the old gloffaries expound it;) and fo we must again in Macbeth; -Though the treasure Of Nature's germins tumble ali together,, And to put this emendation beyond all doubt, I'll produce one more paffage, where our Author not only ufes the fame Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters; That have, with two pernicious daughters, joined Fool. He that has a houfe to put's head in, has a good head-piece: The cod-piece that will house, before the head has any, The head and he fhall lowfe; fo beggars marry many. That man that makes his toe, what he his heart fhould make, Shall of a corn cry woe, and turn his fleep to wake: For there was never yet fair woman, but she made mouths in a glass. To them enter KENT. Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience, I will fay nothing. Kent. Who's there? Fool. Marry, here's grace, and a cod-piece, that's a wife man and a fool. Kent. Alas, Sir, are you here? things that love night, Love not fuch nights as thefe: the wrathful fkics Gallow the very wanderers of the dark, And make them keep their caves: fince I was man, Such theets of fire, fuch bursts of horrid thunder, Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never thought again, but the word that afcertains my explication. In Winter's Tale; Let Nature crush the fides o' th' earth together, |