Imatges de pàgina
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Cor. Time fhall unfold what plaited cunning hides, Who covers faults, at laft with fhame derides.

Well may you profper!

France. Come, my fair Cordelia.

[Exeunt France and Cor. Gon. Sifter, it is not little I've to say, Of what moft nearly appertains to us both; I think, our father will go hence to night.

Reg. That's certain, and with you; next month with us. Gon. You fee how full of changes his age is, the obfervation we have made of it hath not been little; he always lov'd our fifter moft, and with what poor judgment he hath now caft her off, appears too grofsly.

Reg. 'Tis the infirmity of his age; yet he hath ever but flenderly known himself.

Gon. The beft and foundeft of his time hath been but rash; then must we look, from his age, to receive not alone the imperfections of long-engrafted condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardnefs, that infirm and cholerick years bring with them.

Reg. Such unconftant ftarts are we like to have from him, as this of Kent's banishment.

Gon. There is further compliment of leave-taking between France and him; pray you, let us hit together: if our father carry authority with fuch difpofition as he bears, this laft furrender of his will but offend us. Reg. We fhall further think of it.

Gon. We must do fomething, and i' th' heat. [Exeunt.

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SCENE changes to a Caftle belonging to the Earl of Glofter.

Edm.

Enter EDMUND, with a Letter.

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HOU, Nature, art my Goddefs; to thy law
My fervices are bound; wherefore should I

Stand in the plague of cuftom, and permit

The curtely of nations to deprive me, (5)

For

(5) The nicety of nations.] This is Mr. Pope's reading, ex Cathedra ; for it has the fanction of none of the copies, that I have met with.

They

For that I am fome twelve or fourteen moon-fhines
Lag of a brother? Why baftard? wherefore bafe?
When my dimenfions are as well compact,
My mind as gen'rous, and my fhape as true:
As honeft Madam's iffue? why brand they us
With base? with basenefs? bastardy? bafe, bafe?
Who, in the lufty ftealth of nature, take (6)
More compofition and fierce quality;

Than doth, within a dull, ftale, tired bed,
Go to creating a whole tribe of fops,

They all, indeed, give it us, by a foolish corruption,the Curiofity of nations; but I fome time ago prov'd, that our Author's word was, Curtesy. So, again, in As You like it;

The curtesy of nations allows you my better, in that you are the first born

And again, in Cymbeline, this word ftands for Birth-right;

-aye hopelefs

To have the curtefy your cradle promis'd.

Nor muft we forget that tenure in our laws, whereby fome lands are held by the Curtesy of England. And I cught to take notice, that I had the concurrence of the ingenious Dr. Thirlby, who hinted to me this very emendation, before he knew I made it.

(6) Who, in the lufty fealth of nature,] Thefe fine lines are a very fignal proof of our author's admirable art, in giving proper fentiments to his characters. And fuch a proof, as hath in it fomething very extraordinary. The Baflard's chara&ter is that of a confirm'd atheift; and the poet's making him ridicule judicial Aftrology was defign'd as one inftance of that character: For that implous juggle had a religious reverence paid it at that time: and Shakespeare makes his belt characters in this very play, own and acknowledge the force of the flars influence. The poet, in fhort, gives an atheistical turn to all his fentiments; and how much the lines, following this, are in this character, may be seen by that ftrange monstrous wish, which Vanini, the infamous Neapolitan atheist, made in his tract De Admirandis Naturæ; printed at Paris in 1616, the very year that our author dy'd. "Utinam extra legitimum & connub alem thorum effem pro reatus! Ita "enim progenitores mei in venerem incaluiffent ardentiùs, ac cumula

"O!

tim affatimque generofa Semina contuliffent; e quibus ego forma "blanditiam et elegantiam, robuftas corporis vires, mentemque innubilam "confequutus fuiffem. At quia Conjugatorum sum soboles, his orbatus "fum bonis." Now had this book been publifh'd ten years before, who would not have fworn that Shakespeare hinted at this paffage? But the divinity of his genius here, as it were, foretold what fuch an atheift, as Vanini was, would fay, when he wrote upon this fubject. Mr. Warburton.

Got

Got 'tween a fleep and wake? Well then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land;
Our father's love is to the baftard Edmund,
As to th' legitimate; fine word-legitimate-
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall be th' legitimate.I grow, I profper;
Now, Gods, ftand up for bastards!

To him, Enter Glo'fter.

Glo. Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted! And the King gone to-night! fubfcrib'd his pow'r ! Confin'd to exhibition! all is gone

Upon the gad!-Edmund, how now? what news?
Edm. So please your lordship, none.

[Putting up the letter. Glo. Why fo earnestly feek you to put up that letter? Edm. I know no news, my lord.

Glo. What paper were you reading?

Edm. Nothing, my lord.

Glo. No! what needed then that terrible dispatch of it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath not fuch need to hide it felf. Let's fee; come, if it be nothing, I fhall not need fpectacles.

Edm. I beseech you, Sir, pardon me, it is a letter from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read; and for ́ fo much as I have perus'd, I find it not fit for your o'erlooking.

Glo. Give me the letter, Sir.

Edin. I fhall offend, either to detain, or give it; the contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame. Glo. Let's fee, let's fee.

Edm. I hope, for my brother's juftification, he wrote this but as an effay, or tafte of my virtue.

Glo. reads.] This policy and reverence of ages makes the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us, 'till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppreffion of aged tyranny; which fways, not as it hath power, but as it is fuffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would

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fleep, till I wak'd him, you should enjoy half his revenue for e-ver, and live the beloved of your brother Edgar. --Hum -Confpiracy!-fleep, 'till I wake him-you fhould enjoy half his revenue -My fon Edgar! had he a hand to write this! a heart and brain to breed it in! When came this to you? who brought it?

Edm. It was not brought me, my lord; there's the cunning of it. I found it thrown in at the cafement of my closet.

Glo. You know the character to be your brother's? Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durft fwear, it were his; but in respect of that, I would fain think, it were not.

Glo. It is his.

Edm. It is his hand, my lord; I hope, his heart is not in the contents.

Glo. Has he never before founded you in this business? Edm. Never, my lord. But I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit, that fons at perfect age, and fathers declining, the father fhould be as a ward to the fon, and the fon manage his revenue.

Glo. O villain, villain! his very opinion in the letter. Abhorred villain! unnatural, detefted, brutish villain! worse than brutish! Go, firrah, feek him; I'll apprehend him. Abominable villain! where is he?

Edm. I do not well know, my lord; if it fhall please you to fufpend your indignation against my brother, 'till you can derive from him better teftimony of his intent, you should run a certain courfe; where, if you violently proceed against him, miftaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour, and fhake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your Honour, and to no other pretence of danger.

Glo. Think you fo?

Edm. If your Honour judge it meet, I will place you where you fhall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular affurance have your fatisfaction: and that, without any further delay than this very evening.

Glo.

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Glo. He cannot be fuch a monster.

Edm. Nor is not, fure.

Glo. To his Father, that fo tenderly and entirely loves him-Heav'n and Earth! Edmund, feek him out; wind me into him, I pray you; frame the business after your own wifdom. I would unftate myself, to be in a due refolution.

Edm. I will feek him, Sir, prefently: convey the bufinefs as I fhall find means, and acquaint you withal.

Glo. These late eclipfes in the fun and moon portend no good to us; tho' the wifdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itfelf fcourg'd by the frequent effects. Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide. In cities, mutinies; in countries, difcord; in Palaces, treafon; and the bond crack'd 'twixt fon and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction, there's fon againft father; the King falls from bias of nature, there's father against child. We have feen the bef of our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous diforders follow us difquietly to our graves! Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall lofe thee nothing, do it carefully-and the noble and true-hearted Kent banifh'd! his offence, Honefty. 'Tis ftrange. [Exit.

Manet Edmund.

Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are fick in fortune, (often the furfeits of our own behaviour) we make guilty of our difafters, the fun, the moon and stars (7); as if we were villains on neceffity; fools, by heavenly compulfion; knaves,

(7) We make guilty of our difafters, the fun, the moon, and flars:] It was the opinion of judicial aftrologers, that whatfoever good difpofitions the infant, unborn, might be endow'd with, either from nature or traductively from its parents; yet if, at the hour of birth, its delivery was by any cafual accident fo accelerated, or retarded, that it fell in with the predominancy of a malignant conftellation; that momentary influence would entirely change its nature, and bias it to all the contrary ill qualities.This was fo wretched and monftrous an opinion, that it well deferved and was well fitted for the lafh of fatire.

Mr. Warburton. thieves,

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