Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn.

SCENE VI. Defcription of Dover-Cliff.

Come on, fir, here's the place-ftand ftill. How fearful

And dizzy 'tis, to caft one's eyes fo low !

The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air,
Shew scarce fo grofs as beetles. Half way down
Hangs one that gathers famphire; dreadful trade !
Methinks, he seems no bigger than his head.
The fisher-men, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,
Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy
Almoft too small for fight. The murmuring furge,
That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard fo high. I'll look no more,
Left my brain turn, and the deficient fight
Topple down headlong.

Glofter's Farewel to the World.

(22) O, you mighty gods!

This world I do renounce; and in your fights
Shake patiently my great affliction off:

If I could bear it longer, and not fall
To quarrel with your great oppofelefs wills,

My

(22) Glofter is afterwards convinced of his mistake, and confirmed in the duty of fufferance: he fays;

I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear
Affliction, till it do cry out itself,

Enough, enough, and die.

At the end of the Qedipus, Coloneus of Sophocles, there is a fine re flection like this ;

Το φερον εκ Θε8, &c.

That which the gods bring on us, we fhould bear
With refignation, nor confume with forrow.

My fnuff and loathed part of nature should

Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, blefs him!

SCENE VII. Lear, in his Madness, on the grofs Flatterers of Princes.

Ha! Goneril! ha! Regan! they flatter'd me like a dog, and told me I had white hairs in my beard, ere the black ones were there. To fay, ay, and no, to every thing that I faid-Ay, and no too, was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter; when the thunder would not peace at my bidding; there I found 'em, there I smelt 'em out. Go to, they are not (23) men o'their words; they told me, I was every thing: 'tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.

On the Abufe of Power.

Thou rafcal-beadle, hold thy bloody hand: Why doft thou lash that whore? ftrip thy own back; Thou hotly luft'st to use her in that kind,

For which thou whip'ft her.

cozener.

The ufurer hangs the

Through tatter'd cloaths small vices do appear;
Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate fins with gold,
And the ftrong lance of juftice hurtlefs breaks:

Arm it in rags, a pigmy's ftraw doth pierce it.
None does offend, none, I fay, none; I'll able 'em ;

Take

(23) See Act 2. Sc. 6. foregoing. Mr. Upton, mifled by the beginning of this fpeech; and apprehending, the king in his madnefs ufed exact connexion, tells us, we should not read, men o' their words, but women of their words: whereas it is plain, he runs off from the thought of his daughters, to thofe who flatter'd him, and all thro' the fpeech fpeaks of them only: the criticifm is fcarce worth remarking, except it be to fhew, how fubject all of us are to mistakes, and how little reafon the very wifeft have to triumph over the errors of others.

Take that of me, my friend, who have the pow'r

To feal th' accufer's lips. Get thee glafs eyes,
And, like a fcurvy politician, seem

To see the things thou do'ft not.

SCENE X. Cordelia, on the Ingratitude of her Sifters.

O, my dear father, reftauration hang

Thy medicine on my lip; and let this kiss
Repair thofe violent harms that my two fifters
Have in thy reverence made!

Had you not been their father, thefe white flakes
Did challenge pity of them. Was this a face,
To be expos'd against the warring winds?
To stand against the deep, dread-bolted thunder ?
In the most terrible and nimble stroke

Of quick, crofs lightning?

*

*

*

*

* And waft thou fain, poor father, To hovel thee with fwine and rogues forlorn,. In fhort and mufty ftraw? alack, alack! "Tis wonder, that thy life and wits, at once, Had not concluded all.

Lear to Cordelia, when taken Prisoners.

No, no, no, no; come, let's away to prison;
We two alone will fing, like birds i'th' cage :
When thou doft ask me bleffing, I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness: fo we'll live,

And pray, and fing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies: (24) and hear poor rogues
(24) And, &c.]

"Tis a catalogue

Talk

Of all the gamefters of the court and city:
Which lord lies with that lady, and what gallant
Sports with that merchant's wife and does relate.

Who

Talk of court-news, and we'll talk with them too,
Who loses, and who wins; who's in, who's out:
And take upon's the myftery of things,

As if we were God's fpies. And we'll wear out,
In a wall'd prifon, packs and fects of great ones,.
That ebb and flow by th' moon.

Edm. Take them away.

Lear. Upon fuch facrifices, my Cordelia, The gods themselves throw incense.

SCENE VIII. The Justice of the Gods.

(25) The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Makes inftruments to fcourge us.

Edgar's Account of his discovering himself to his Father, &c.

Lift a brief tale,

And when 'tis told, O, that my heart would burst !
The bloody proclamation to escape,

Who fells her honour for a diamond,

That

Who for a tiffue robe:. whose husband's jealous.
And who fo kind, that, to share with his wife,
Will make the match himself: harmless conceits,
Tho' fools fay they are dangerous. *

The Falfe One, A&t 1. Sc. 1. The word Spies, in the text, is taken in the fenfe of, Spies upon any one, to infpect their conduct, not spies emp'oy'd by a perfon.

(25) The, &c.] This retorting of punishments, and making the means by which we offended the fcourge of our offence, is very common amongst the ancients, and perhaps had its rife from the Jewish people. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, &c. Callima chus, in his Hymn to Pallas, tells us, that goddess depriv'd the young hunter of his eyes, because they had offended, having feen her in the bath. See the Hymn, v. 75. And, in Sophocles, at the end of Eletra, Oreftes cries out to Ægiftus;

Peace, and attend me to that place where thou
Didft murder my poor father, that even there
I too may murder thee..

That follow'd me fo near, (O, our lives fweetness !
That we the pain of death would hourly bear,
Rather than die at once) taught me to shift
Into a mad-man's rags; t'affume a femblance,
The very dogs disdain'd: and in this habit
Met I my father with his bleeding rings,

Their precious gems new loft; became his guide,
Led him, begg'd for him, fav'd him from defpair;
Never (O, fault!) reveal'd myself unto him,
Until fome half hour past, when I was arm'd,
Not fure, tho' hoping of this good fuccefs,
I afk'd his bleffing, and from first to last
Told him my pilgrimage. But his flaw'd heart,
Alack, too weak the conflict to fupport,
'Twixt two extremes of paffion, joy and grief,
Burft fmilingly.

Baft. This fpeech of yours hath mov'd me,
And shall, perchance, do good; but speak you on,
You look, as you had something more to say.

Alb. If there be more, more woful, hold it in,
For I am almoft ready to diffolve,
Hearing of this.

Edg. (26) This would have feem'd a period,
To fuch as love not forrow: but another,

To

(26) This, &c.] The baftard, whofe favage nature is well difplay'd by it, defires to hear more: the gentle Albany, touch'd at the fad tale, begs him no more to melt his heart: upon which, Edgar obferves, fenfibly affected by Edmund's inhumanity, "One fhould have imagined, this would have feem'd a period, a fufficient end of woe, to fuch as love not forrow, who are not pleased to hear of the diftreffes of others: but another [a perfon of another and more cruel temper] to amplify too much, [to augment and aggravate that which is already too great] would ftill make much more [would ftill increase it] and top extremity itself; that is, even go beyond that which is already at the utmoft limit." No. thing can be plainer than this, which Mr. Warburton condemning as miferable nonfenfe, reads thus, and admits into his text!