Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm!
I will go feek the king.

Gent. Give me your hand: have you no more to fay?

Kent. Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet;

That, when we have found the king,

(I'll this way, you that) he that first lights on him, holla

the other.

SCENE

• [Exeunt feverally.

II.

2

Storm continues. Enter Lear and Fool.

Lear. Blow z wind, and crack your cheeks; rage, blow!

* You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout

Till you have drencht the steeples, d drown'd the cocks.
You fulph'rous and thought-executing fires,
• Vaunt-couriers f to oak-cleaving thunder-bolts,

Singe my white head: and thou all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o'th' world,

Crack nature's & mould, all germins spill at once,

So the qu's; the fo's and R. in which your pain that way, I'll this, be

that first, &c. P. and all after, in (H. for) which you take that way, 6c. 2 So the qu's; all the rest winds.

- The qu's read your for you.

The qu's read hircanios.

So the qu's; the rest our for the.

The fo's and R. read drown.

• Vaunt couriers, i. e. fore-runners. P. - The qu's read vaunt-currers: the fo's and R. vaunt-curriors.

f So the qu's; the rest of for to.

The fo's and R. read moulds.

All before T. read germains; which P. explains, all relations or kindred

elements that compose man. T. explains germins, the feeds of matter, from germen.

That

That i make ingrateful man.

Fool. O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry house is better than this rain-water out o' door. Good nuncle, in, mand afk thy daughter's blessing, here's a night n pities neither • wise man nor fool.

Lear. Rumble thy belly full, spit fire, spout rain;
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters.
I' tax not you, you elements, with unkindness,
I never gave you a kingdom, call'd you children;
You owe me no subscription; . why then let fall
Your horrible pleasure: here I stand, your slave;
A poor, infirm, weak, and despis'd old man:
But yet I call you servile ministers,

u That have with two pernicious daughters join'd
Your high-engender'd" battles 'gainst a head
So old and white as this. * Oh! oh! 'tis foul.

Fool. He that has a house to put's head in, has a good head-piece.

i The fo's and R. read makes.

* So the qu's, and 1st and 2d fo's; the rest the for this.

1 P.'s 12mo and all after read rain-waters.

So the qu's, T. W. and J.; the rest omit and.

Before pities P. inserts that; followed by the rest.

• So the qu's; the rest wife men nor fools.

P The qu's read taske for tax.

J. reads kingdoms, as no other edition.

P. and H. read fubmiffion.

* So the qu's; the rest omit why.

W. reads brave for flave.

u The fo's and R. read that will with two pernicious daughters join. The qu's read battell.

* The qu's read O'tis foule; the fo's, R. P. and H. O, ho! 'tis foul.

The

The cod-piece that will house,

Before the head has any, The head and he shall lowfe;

So beggars marry many.
y The man that makes his toe,
What he his heart fhould make,

Shall have a corn cry, woe!
And turn his fleep to wake.

For there was never, yet fair woman, but she made mouths

in a glass.

SCENE III.

To them enter Kent.

Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience,

I will fay nothing.

Kent. Who's there?

[Sitting down.

Fool. Marry, here's grace and a cod-piece, that's a wife man

and a fool.

Kent. Alas, fir, a fit you here? Things that love night Love not fuch nights as thefe; the wrathful fkies b Gally the very wanderers of the dark,

So the qu's; the reft that for the.

z So the qu's; the rest of for have.

a So the qu's; the rest are you here? This feems to be an alteration made for the ease of the actors, that he who acted Lear might not have the trouble of fitting down on the ground, and rising again : but if propriety of action take place, what can be more proper than Lear's feating himself, after his laft fpeech?

b All the editions read gallow; but the right word is galiy, and fignifies to fcare or frighten, used by the west-country people, according to Lye (v. add. · to Jun.) where he explains it terrere; vox Auglis occid. ufitatiffima.

The qu's read wanderer.

And

f

And d make them keep their caves. Since I was man,
• Such fheets of fire, fuch burfts 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 fear.

Lear. Let the great gods,

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

Unwhipt of justice. Hide thee, thou bloody hand,
Thou i perjur'd, and thou fimular man of virtue,
That art incestuous. Caitiff, to pieces shake,
m That under covert and convenient seeming,
Haft practis'd on man's life. Clofe pent-up guilts,
Rive your concealing continents, and cry
These dreadful fummoners grace.-

[ocr errors]

-I am a man

More finn'd againft,

than finning.

The qu's and 3d and 4th fo's read makes.

Ο Βρυχία δ' εχω παραμυκᾶται

Βροντῆς, ἔλικες δ ̓ ἐκλάμπεσι

Στεροπῆς ὁ πυροι.

Æfchyl. Prom, vinctus, v. 1081.

The qu's read nere for never.

The qu's, P. T. H. and W. read force for fear.

The 1ft q. reads powther; the ad q. P. and H. thundering; the fo's

and all the rest pudder, except F. who reads pother.

So all before T. he and all after read perjure.

So the qu's and P. the fo's and all the reft omit man.

I P. and all after read shake to pieces; the qu's read in for to.

W. rather thinks the poet wrote, that under cover of convivial ferming,

i. e. under cover of a frank, open, focial conversation.

The qu's read concealed centers.

So all before P. who, with all after, reads afk for cry.

The qu's read their for than.

[blocks in formation]

Kent. Alack, bare-headed?

Gracious, my lord, hard by here is a hovel,
Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempeft;
Repose you there, while I to this hard house,
( More hard than is the stone whereof 'tis rais'd,
Which even but now, demanding after you,
Deny'd me to come in) return, and force
Their scanted courtesy.

Lear. My wits begin to turn.

Come on my boy. How dost, my boy? art cold?
I'm cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow?

The art of our necessities is strange,

That can make u vilde things precious. Come, your hovel: Poor fool and knave, I've one w part of my heart,

That's forry yet for thee.

Fool. He that has a little tyny wit,

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

The fo's and R. read more harder than the stones, &c.

The qu's read me for you.

• The qu's read my wit begins, &c.

T. W. and J. read the for this.

So all before P. he and all after vile.

w P. alters part to thing; which gives occasion to H. and W. to read

[blocks in formation]

The qu's read that forrowes yet for thee.

So the qu's; the rest put and or an before a.

a After rain J. proposes to read in his way, to make this fecond line

rhime with the fourth.

b The qu's read for for though.

2

Lear.

« AnteriorContinua »