Imatges de pàgina
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Stew. I am fcarce in breath, my lord.

Kent. No marvel, you have fo beftir'd your valour; you cowardly rafcal! nature difclaims all fhare in thee: a taylor made thee.

Corn. Thou art a ftrange fellow; a taylor make a man? Kent. I, a taylor, Sir; a ftone-cutter, or a painter could not have made him fo ill, tho' they had been but two hours o' th' trade.

Corn. Speak yet, how grew your quarrel?

Stew. This ancient ruffian, Sir, whofe life I have fpar'd at fuit of his grey beard

Kent. Thou whorfon zed! thou unnecessary letter ! my lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the wall of a jakes with him. Spare my grey beard? you wagtail!Corn. Peace, Sirrah!

You beaftly knave, know you no reverence?
Kent. Yes, Sir, but anger hath a privilege.
Corn. Why art thou angry?

Kent. That fuch a flave as this fhou'd wear a fword, Who wears no honefty: fuch fmiling rogues as these, Like rats, oft bite the holy cords in twain (15)

Too

(15) Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwaine, Which are t' intrince, t' unloofes] Thus the firft editors blunder'd this paffage into unintelligible nonfenfe. Mr. Pope fo far has difengag'd them, as to give us plain fenfe; but by throwing out the epithet boly, 'tis evident, he was not aware of the poet's fine meaning. I'll fiift establish and prove the reading; then explain the allufion. Thus the poet gave it;

Like rats, oft bite the holy cords in twain,

Top 'intrinficate t' unloofe

This word again occurs in our auther's Antony and Cleopatra, where. fhe is fpeaking to the afpick;

Come, mortal wretch;

With thy fharp teeth this knot intrinficate

Of life at once untie.

And we meet with it in Cynthia's Revels by Ben. Jenson.

Yet there are certain puntilio's, or (as I may more nakedly infinuate them) certain intrinficate ftrokes and wards, to which your activity is not yet amounted; &c.

It means, inward, hidden; perplext; as a knot, hard to be unra vell'd; it is deriv'd from the Latin adverb intrinfecus; from which

the

Too 'intrinficate t' unloofe: footh every paffion,
That in the nature of their lords rebels:

Bring oil to fire, fnow to their colder moods;
Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks
With ev'ry Gale and Vary of their masters;
As knowing nought, like dogs, but following.
A plague upon your epileptick visage!
Smile you my fpeeches, as I were a fool ?
Goofe, if I had you upon Sarum-plain,
I'd drive ye cackling home to Camelot. (16)
Corn. What art thou mad, old fellow?
Glo. How fell you out? fay that.

Kent. No contraries hold more antipathy,
Than I and fuch a knave.

Corn. Why doft thou call him knave? what is his fault? Kent. His countenance likes me not.

Corn. No more, perchance, does mine, nor his, nor hers. Kent. Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain;

I have seen better faces in my time,

Than ftand on any fhoulder that I fee
Before me at this inftant.

Corn. This is fome fellow,

Who having been prais'd for bluntnefs, doth affect
A faucy roughness; and constrains the garb,
Quite from his nature. He can't flatter, he,-

the Italians have coin'd a very beautiful phrafe, intrinficarfi col uno, i. e, to grow intimate with, to wind one felf into another. And now to our author's fenfe. Kent is rating the fteward, as a parafite of Gonerill's; and supposes very justly, that he has fomented the quarrel betwixt that princefs and her father: in which office, he compares him to a facrilegious rat: and by a fine metaphor, as Mr. Warburton obferved to me, ftiles the union between parents and children the boly cords.

(16) cackling bome to Camelot.] As Sarum, or Salisbury, plain is mention'd in the preceding verfe, I prefume this Camelot to be that mention'd by Holingfbead, and call'd Camaletum, in the marshes of Somerfetfpire, where there was an old tradition of a very strong Caftle. Langbam in his account of queen Elizabeth's reception at Kenil worth, fays, from king Arthur's acts, that that Prince kept his royal court at Camelot: but whether this be the place already mention'd, or fome other of that name in Wales, or the Camelot in Sterling-County in Scotland, I am not able to fay.

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An honeft mind and plain, he must speak truth;
An they will take it, fo; if not, he's plain.

These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness
Harbour more craft, and more corrupter ends,
Than twenty filly ducking obfervants,

That ftretch their duties nicely.

Kent. Sir, in good faith, in fincere verity, Under th' allowance of your grand afpect, Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire On flickering Phœbus' front

Corn. What mean'ft by this ?

Kent. To go out of my dialect, which you difcommend fo much: I know, Sir, I am no flatterer; he, that beguil'd you in a plain accent, was a plain knave; which for my part I will not be, though I should win your displeasure to intreat me to't.

Corn. What was th' offence you gave him?
Stew. I never gave him any:

;

It pleas'd the King his master very lately
To ftrike at me upon his misconstruction
When he conjunct, and flatt'ring his difpleafure,
Tript me behind; being down, infulted, rail'd,
And put upon him fuch a deal of man, that
That worthied him; got praifes of the King,
For him attempting who was felf-fubdu'd;
And, in the fleshment of this dread exploit,
Drew on me here again.

Kent. None of thefe rogues, and cowards,
Le tem

But Ajax is their fool.

Corn. Fetch forth the Stocks.

You ftubborn ancient knave, you rev'rend braggart,

We'll teach you

Kent. Sir, I am too old to learn:

Call not your Stocks for me, I serve the King;

On whofe employment I was fent to you.

You fhall do fmall refpect, fhew too bold malice
Against the grace and perfon of my mafter,

Stocking his meffenger.

Corn. Fetch forth the Stocks;

As I have life and honour, there fhall he fit 'till noon.

Reg.

Reg. 'Till noon! 'till night, my lord, and all night too Kent. Why, Madam, if I were your father's dog, You could not use me fo.

Reg. Sir, being his knave, I will. [Stocks brought out. Corn. This is a fellow of the felf-fame nature Our fifter speaks of. Come, bring away the Stocks, Glo. Let me befeech your Grace not to do fo; His fault is much, and the good King his master Will check him for't; your purpos'd low correction Is fuch, as bafeft and the meaneft wretches For pilf'rings, and moft common trefpaffes, Are punish'd with. The King muft take it ill, That he, fo flightly valued in his meffenger, Should have him thus reftrain'd.

Corn. I'll answer that.

Reg. My Sifter may receive it much more worse, To have her Gentleman abus'd, affaulted,

For following her affairs. Put in his legs

[Kent is put in the Stocks. Come, my lord, away. [Exeunt Regan and Cornwall. Glo. I'm forry for thee, friend; 'tis the Duke's pleasure, Whofe difpofition, all the world well knows, Will not be rubb'd nor ftop'd. I'll intreat for thee.

Kent. Pray, do not, Sir. I've watch'd and travell'd Some time I shall fleep out, the reft I'll whiftle: [hard; A good man's fortune may grow out at heels; Give you good morrow.

Glo. The Duke's to blame in this, 'twill be ill taken.

[Exit. Kent. Good King, that muft approve the common Saw, Thou out of heaven's benediction com'ft

To the warm fun!

Approach, thou beacon to this under-globe,

[Looking up to the moon. That by thy comfortable beams I may Perufe this letter. Nothing almoft fees miracles, But mifery. I know, 'tis from Cordelia; Who hath moft fortunately been inform'd Of my obfcured courfe. "I fhall find time. From this enormous ftate and feek to give

Loffes

x disjecta membra of Cordelia's letter, which Hent atterfiti & read by the moonlight, de King LEAR.

Loffes their remedies." All weary and o'er-watch'd,
Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold

This fhameful lodging.

43

Fortune, good night; smile once more, turn thy wheel.

[He fleeps

SCENE changes to a part of a Heath.

Enter Edgar.

Edg. And, by the happy hollow of a tree,
"VE heard myself proclaim'd;
Efcap'd the hunt. No port is free, no place,
That Guard and most unufual vigilance
Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may 'fcape,
I will preserve myfelf: and am bethought
To take the baseft and the poorest shape,
That ever penury in contempt of man

Brought near to beaft: my face I'll grime with filth;
Blanket my loins; elfe all my hair in knots; (17)
And with presented nakednefs out-face
The winds, and perfecutions of the fky.
The country gives me proof and prefident
Of bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numb'd and mortify'd bare arms
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, fprigs of rosemary;
And with this horrible object, from low farms,

(17) -put all my hair in knots;] This is a modern reading: All the old copies intended to read, and the first folio actually does ;

-elfe all my bair in knots.

i. e. twift it in the manner of elfe-locks: i. e. hairs fo intricately inter-
wove, as not to be difengag'd; and by fuperftition fuppos'd to have
been twifled by Elves, or Fairies. We find them mention'd in our
author's Romeo and Juliet;

That plats the manes of horfes in the night,
And cakes the elf-locks in foul fluttish hairs,

Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes.

And in the induction to Ben. Jonfon's Magnetick Lady.

-But if you light on the wrong end, you will pull all into a knot or elf-lock; which nothing but the heers, or a candle, will un

do or separate.

Poor

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