Imatges de pàgina
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O let not womens weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man's cheeks. No, you unnat❜ral hags,
I will have fuch revenges on you both, (24)
That all the world fhall-I will do fuch things,
What they are, yet I know not; but they fhall be
The terrors of the earth: you think, I'll weep:
No, I'll not weep. I have full caufe of weeping:
This heart fhall break into a thoufand flaws,
Or ere I weep. O fool, I fhall go mad.

[Exeunt Lear, Glo'fter, Kent and Fool. Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a ftorm.

[Storm and tempeft. Reg. This houfe is little; the old man and his people Cannot be well beftow'd.

Gon. 'Tis his own blame hath put himself from reft, And muft needs tafte his folly.

Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly ; But not one follower.

Gon. So am I purpos'd.

Where is my Lord of Glo'fter?

Enter Glo'fter.

Corn. Follow'd the old man forth;-he is return'd. Gla. The King is in high rage, and will I know not whither,

Lear as alluding to this, makes his prayer exceeding pertinent and fine, Mr. Warburton.

(24) I will have fuch revenges on you both, That all the world fhali---] This fine abrupt breaking off, and fup. preffion of paffion in its very height, (a figure, which the Greek rhe toricians have call'd, dwociensis) is very familiar with our author, as with other good writers, and always gives an energy to the subject. That, by Neptune in the first book of the neis, is always quoted as a celebrated inftance of this figure:

Quos ego-----Sed motos præftat componere fluctus. What Lear immediately fubjoins here, I will do fuch things,----What they are, yet I know not--› .-] -feems to carry the vifible marks of imita

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Corn. 'Tis beft to give him way, he leads himself. Gon. My Lord, intreat him by no means to ftay. Glo. Alack, the night comes on: and the high winds Do forely ruffle, for many miles about There's fcarce a bufh.

Reg. O Sir, to wilful men,

The injuries, that they themselves procure,
Must be their school-masters: fhut up your doors;
He is attended with a defp'rate train;

And what they may incenfe him to, being apt
To have his ear abus'd, wisdom bids fear.

Corn. Shut up your doors, my Lord, 'tis a wild night. My Regan counfels well: come out o' th' ftorm.

[Exeunt.

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A form is heard with thunder and lightning. Enter Kent, and a Gentleman, feverally.

KENT.

HO's there, befides foul weather?

WH

Gent. One minded like the weather, moft un-
quietly.

Kent. I know you, where's the King?
Gent. Contending with the fretful elements;
Bids the wind blow the earth into the fea;

Or fwell the curled waters 'bove the main,

That things might change, or ceafe: tears his white hair,
(Which the impetuous blafts with eyelefs rage
Catch in their fury, and make nothing of.)
Strives in his little World of Man t' outfcern
The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.

This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,

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The

The lion, and the belly-pinched wolf

Keep their furr dry; unbonnetted he runs,
And bids what will, take all.

Kent. But who is with him?

Gent. None but the fool, who labours to out-jeft

His heart-ftruck injuries.

Kent. Sir, I do know you,

And dare, upon the warrant of my note,

Commend a dear thing to you.

There's divifion

(Although as yet the face of it is cover'd

With mutual cunning) 'twixt Albany and Cornwall :
Who have (as who have not, whom their great ftars (25)
Thron'd and fet high?) fervants, who feem no less;
Which are to France the fpies and fpeculations
Intelligent of our state. What hath been seen,
Either in fnuffs and packings of the Dukes;
Or the hard rein, which both of them have borne
Against the old kind King; or fomething deeper,
(Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings
But true it is, from France there comes a power
Into this fcatter'd kingdom; who already,
Wife in our negligence, have fecret fea
In fome of our best ports, and are at point
To fhew their open banner-Now to you,
If on my credit you dare build fo far
To make your speed to Dover, you shall find
Some that will thank you, making just report
Of how unnatural and bemadding forrow
The King bath caufe to plain.

I am a gentleman of blood and breeding,
And from fome knowledge and affurance of you,
Offer this office.

Gent. I'll talk further with you.

Kent. No, do not:

(25) Who bave, as who have not,---] The eight fubfequent verfes were degraded by Mr. Pope, as unintelligible, and to no purpose. For my part, I fee nothing in them but what is very easy to be underfood; and the lines feem abfolutely neceffary to clear up the motives, upon which France prepar'd his invafion: nor without them is the fente of the context compleat.

For

For confirmation that I am much more
Than my out-wall, open this purfe and take
What it contains. If you fhall fee Cordelia,
(As, fear not, but you fhall) fhew her that ring,
And the will tell you who this fellow is,

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

Gent. Give me your hand, have you no more to say? Kent. Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet; That, when we have found the King, (in which you take That way, I this :) he that first lights on him, Hollow the other.

Storm ftill.

[Exeunt feverally.

Enter Lear and Fool.

Lear. Blow winds, and crack your cheeks; rage, blow! You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout

'Till you have drencht our steeples, drown'd the cocks! You fulph'rous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunder-bolts,

Singe my white head. And thou all-fhaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o' th' world;

Crack nature's mould, all germins fpill at once (26) That make ingrateful man.

Fool.

(26) Crack nature's mould, all germains Spill at once.] Thus all the editions have given us this paffage, and Mr. Pope has explain'd germains, to mean, relations, or kindred elements. Then it must have been germanes (from the Latin adjective, germanus;) a word more than once used by our author, tho' always falfe fpelt by his editors. So, in Hamlet;

The phrafe would be more germane to the matter, if we could carry cannon by our fides:

And fo in Othello;

You'll have your nephews neigh to you; You'll have courfers for coufins, and gennets for germanes.

But the poet means here," Crack nature's mould, and fpill all the feeds of matter, that are hoarded within it." To retrieve. which fenfe, we must write germins; (a fubftantive deriv'd from germen, op: as the old gloffaries expound it;) and so we must again in Macbeth;

-Tho' the treasure

Of nature's germins tumble all together,

Ev'n till deftruction ficken.

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And

Fool. O nuncle, court-holy-water in a dry houfe is better than the rain-waters out o' door. Good nuncle, in, and afk thy daughters bleffing: here's a night, that pities neither wife men nor fools.

Lear. Rumble thy belly full, fpit fire, fpout rain;
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters;
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindnefs;
I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children;
You owe me no fubfcription. Then let fall
Your horrible pleasure;-here I ftand, your flave;
A poor, infirm, weak, and defpis'd old man!
But yet I call you fervile minifters,

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 houfe to put's head in, has a good head-piece :

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The cod-piece that will houfe, before the head has any: The head and he shall lowfe; fo beggars marry many. That man that makes his toe, what he his heart fhould

make,

Shall of a corn cry woe, and turn his fleep to wake. For there was never yet fair woman, but he made mouths in a glafs.

To them, Enter Kent.

Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience, I will fay nothing.

Kent. Who's there?

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

Kent. Alas, Sir, are you here? things that love night, Love not fuch nights as thefe: the wrathful fkies Gallow the very wand'rers of the dark,

And make them keep their caves: fince I was man,

And to put this emendation beyond all doubt, I'll produce one more paffage, where our author not only ufes the fame thought again, but the word that afcertains my explication. In Winter's Tale ;

Let nature crush the fides o' th' earth together,

And marr the feeds within.

Such

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