Imatges de pàgina
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Such fheets of fire, fuch bursts of horrid thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never

Remember to have heard. Man's nature cannot carry Th' affliction, nor the force.

Lear. Let the great gods,

That keep this dreadful pudder o'er our heads,
Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch, (27)
That haft within thee undivulged crimes,

Unwhipt of juftice. Hide thee, thou bloody hand;
Thou Perjure, and thou Simular of virtue, (28)
That art incestuous: caitiff, fhake to pieces,
That under covert and convenient feeming,
Haft practis'd on man's life!-Clofe pent-up guilts,
Rive your concealing continents, and ask
Thefe dreadful fummoners grace.-I am a man,
More finn'd againft, than finning.

Kent. Alack, bare-headed?

Gracious my Lord, hard by here is a hovel;
Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempeft:
Repofe you there, while I to this hard houfe
(More hard than is the ftone whereof 'tis rais'd;
Which even but now, demanding after you,
Denied me to come in) return, and force
Their fcanted courtefy.

Lear. My wits begin to turn.

Come on, my boy. How doft, my boy art cold? I'm cold myself. Where is the ftraw, my fellow ? The art of our neceffities is ftrange,

That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel;

(27) Tremble, thou wretch,] Thus Juvenal in his 13th fatire; Hi funt qui trepidant, & ad omnia fulgura pallent,

Cum tonat; &c.

(28) Thou perjur'd, and thou fimular man of virtue,] The first Folio leaves out man in this verfe; and, I believe, rightly to the poet's mind. He would ufe a fimular of virtue to fignify, a falfe pretender to it; a diffembler, that would make an outward fhew of it as he elfewhere employs perjure fubftantively, for a perjur'd creature. So in Love's Labour loft;

Why, he comes like a Perjure, wearing papers.

And fo, in his Troubl-fom Reign of King John, in two parts#
But now black-fpotted Perjure as he is.

Poor

Poor fool and knave, I've one part in my heart,
That's forry yet for thee.

Fool. He that has an a little tyny wit,

With heigh ho, the wind and the rain;
Muft make content with his fortunes fit,
Though the rain it raineth every day.

Lear. True, my good boy: come, bring us to this

hovel.

Fool. 'Tis a brave night to cool a curtezan.
I'll speak a prophecy, or ere I go;
When priests are more in words than matter,
When brewers marr their malt with water;
When nobles are their taylors tutors;
No hereticks burn'd, but wenches fuitors;
When every cafe in law is right,

No Squire in debt, nor no poor Knight;
When flanders do not live in tongues,
And cut-purfes come not to throngs;
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 :

Then comes the time, who lives to fee't,

That going thall be us'd with feet.

[Exit.

This prophecy Merlin shall make, for I do live before

his time.

[Exit.

SCENE, An apartment in Glofler's caftle.

Enter Glo'fter, and Edmund.

Glo. A Lack,

natural dealing; when I defired their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the use of mine own houfe; charg'd me, on pain of perpetual difpleasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for him, or any way fuftain him.

Edm. Most favage and unnatural!

Gle. Go to; fay you nothing. There is divifion be

tween

tween the Dukes, and a worfe matter than that: I have
receiv'd a letter this night, 'tis dangerous to be fpoken;
(I have lock'd the letter in my closet:) thefe injuries,
the King now bears, will be revenged home; there is
part of a power already footed; (f) 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 ask for me,
I am ill, and gone to bed; if I die for it, as no lefs is
threaten'd me, the King my old mafter must be relieved.
There are ftrange things toward, Edmund; pray you,
be careful.
[Exit
Edm. This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the Duke
Inftantly know, and of that letter too.

This seems a fair deferving, and muft draw me
That which my father lo es; no less than all.
The younger rifes, when the old doth fall.

[Exit.

SCENE changes to a part of the Heath,

with a hovel.

Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool.

Ere is the place, my Lord; good my Lord,

Kent.

HE

enter;

The tyranny o' th' open night's too rough

For nature to endure.

cum.

Lear. Let me alone.

Kent. Good my Lord, enter here.

[Storm Aill.

(†) There is part of a power already landed.] This reading, notwithstanding Mr. Pope's declaration in his preface, is not ex fide CodiAll the authentick copies read, footed, i. e. on foot, on their march. If this gentleman's nice ear was offended at the word in this place, how came he to let it pafs undisturb'd in fome others? As, for inftance, afterwards in this play;

And what confei'racy have you with the traitors,
Late footed in the kingdom?

And again. in Henry Vth.

Difpatch us with all speed, left that our King
Come here himself to question our delay;

For he is footed in this land already.

Lear.

Lear. Wilt break my heart?

Kent. I'd rather break mine own; good my Lord, enter. Lear. Thou think'ft 'tis much, that this contentious Invades us to the fkin; fo 'tis to thee;

But where the greater malady is fixt,

The leffer is fcarce felt. Thou'dft fhun a bear,
But if thy flight lay toward the roaring fea,

[ftorm

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 Regan, Gonerill,
Your old kind father, whofe frank heart gave all
O, that way madness lies; let me fhun that;
No more of that.

Kent. Good my Lord, enter here.

Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyfelf; feek thine own eafe: This tempeft will not give me leave to ponder On things would hurt me more- -but I'll go in, In, boy, go first. You houfelefs poverty Nay, get thee in; I'll pray, and then I'll fleep. Poor naked wretches, wherefoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless ftorm! How fhall your houseless heads, and unfed fides, Your loop'd and window'd raggedness defend you From feafons fuch as these?-O, I have ta'en Too little care of this! take phyfick, Pomp; Expofe thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou may'ft fhake the fuperflux to them, And fhew the Heavens more juft.

[Tom.

Edg. within. Fathom and half, fathom and half! poor Fool. Come not in here, nuncle, here's a fpirit; help me, help me. [The Fool runs out from the hovel, Kent. Give me thy hand, who's there? Fool. A fpirit, a fpirit; he says, his name's poor Tom.

Kent.

Kent. What art thou, that doft grumble there i' th' Araw come forth.

Enter Edgar, disguis'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.

Lear. Didft thou give all to thy daughters? and art thou come to this? (29)

Edg

(29) Didft thou give all to thy daughters? and art thou come to this?] Here Lear's madness first begins to break out. His mind, long beating on his afflictions, had laid a preparation for his frenzy: and nỏthing was wanting but such an object as Edgar, to fet it on work, as it were by fympathy. In this our author has fhewn an exquifite knowledge of nature; as he has, with no lefs propriety, diftinguish'd the King's real, from the other's affum'd paffion. What Lear fay, for the most part, fprings either from the fource and fountain of his dforder; the injuries done him by his daughters; or his defire of being reveng'd on them. What Edgar fays, feems a fantastick wildnefs, only extorted to disguife fense, and to blunt the fufpicion of his concealment. This makes it, that we are always moft ftrongly affected with the King's madness, as we know it to be a real diftrefs. But tho' what Edgar fays, feems extravagance of thought, and the coinage of the poet's brain only, to the end already mention'd; yet I'll venture to assure my readers, his whole frenzy is fatire levell'd at a modern fact, which made no little noife at that period of time: and confequently, muft have been a rapturous entertainment to the fpectators, when it was first prefented. The fecret is this: While the Spaniards were preparing their armado against England, the Jesuits were here bufily at work to promote the fuccefs by making converts. One method they ufed, to do this, was to difpoffefs pretended demoniacks of their own church: by which artifice, they made feveral hundred converts among the common people, and grew fo elare upon their fuccefs, as to publish an account of their exploits in this wonderful talent of exorcifing. A main fcene of their bufinefs, in this feeming-holy difcipline, lay in the family of one Mr. Edmund Peckbam; where Marwood a fervant of Antony Babington's, (who was afterwards executed for treafon) Trayford an attendant upon Mr. Peckbam, and Sarah and Frifwood Williams and Anne Smith (three chambermaids in that family) were fupposed to be poffefs'd by devils, and came under the hands of the priests for their cure. The parties either fo little lik'd the difcipline, or the jefuits behav'd with fuch ill adı drefs, that the confequence was, the impofture was difcover'd: the demoniacks were examin'd; and their confeffions taken upon oath before the privy council. The whole matter being blown up, the criminals

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