[Giving the Crown. This Coronet part between you. Whom I have ever honour'd as my King, As my great patron thought on in my pray'rs Lear. The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft. Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade The region of my heart; be Kent unmannerly, When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man ? * Think'ft thou, that duty shall have dread to speak, When pow'r to flatt'ry bows? To plainness honour's bound, When majefty falls to folly. Reserve thy state, This hideous rashness; answer my life my judgment, Nor are those empty hearted, whose low found Lear. Kent, On thy life no more. Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn 8 Think'ft thou, that duty shall have dread to speak,] I have given this passage according to the old folio, from which the modern editions have filently departed, for the fake of better numbers, with a degree of infincerity, which, if not fometimes detected and cenfured, must impair the credit of antient books. One of the editors, and perhaps only one, knew how much mischief may be done by fuch clandestine alterations. The quarto agrees with the folio, except that for referve by ftate, it gives, reverse thy doom, and has stoops instead of falls to folly. The meaning of answer my life my judgment is, Let my life be answerable for my judgment, or I will stake my life on my opinion. The reading which, without any right, has poffeffed all the modern copies is this, - to plainness honour Is bound, when Majesty to folly falls. Reserve thy state; with better judgment check This bideous rashness; with my life I answer, Thy youngest daughter, &c. I am inclined to think that reverse thy doom was Shakespeare's first reading, as more appofite to the present occafion, and that he changed it afterwards to reServe thy ftate, which conduceş more to the progress of the action. To To wage against thine enemies, nor fear to lose it, 9 Lear. Out of my fight! Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain • The true blank of thine eye. Lear. Now by Apollo Kint. Now by Apollo, King, Thou swear'ft thy Gods in vain. Lear. O vaffal! miscreant! [Laying his hand on his fword. 1 Alb. Corn. Dear Sir, forbear. Kent. Kill thy physician, and thy fee bestow Upon the foul disease; revoke thy doom, Lear. Hear me, recreant! I Since thou hast fought to make us break our vow, Our potency made good, take thy reward. Kent. Fare thee well, King; sith thus thou wilt Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here. [To Cordelia. That justly think'st, and haft most rightly faid. That good effects may spring from words of love. He'll shape his old course in a country new. [Exit. Warburton has very acutely explained and defended the reading that he has chosen, but I am not certain that he has chofen right. If we take the reading of the folio, our potency made good, the fenfe will be less profound indeed, but less intricate, and equally commodious. As thou hast come with unreasonable pride between the sentence which I had paffed, and the power by which I jhall execute it, take thy reward in another sentence which Shall make good, shall establish, shall maintain, that power. If Dr. Warburton's explanation be chosen, and every reader will wish to choose it, we may better read, Which nor our nature, nor our Mr. Davies thinks, that our potency made good relates only to our tlace.--Which our nature cannot bear, nor our place, without 'departure from the potency of that place. This is easy and clear. Lear, who is characterized as hot, heady and violent, is, with very just observation of life, made to entangle himself with vows, upon any sudden provocation to vow revenge, and then to plead the obligation of a vow in defence of implacability. 4 By Jupiter.] Shakespeare makes his Lear too much a mythologist: he had Hecate and Apolio before. 5 He'll shape his old course-] He will follow his old maxims; he will continue to act upon the fame principles. SCENE ! SCENE III. Enter Glo'ster, with France and Burgundy, and Attendants. Glo. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble Lord. Lear. My Lord of Burgundy, We first address tow'rd you, who with this King, Bur. Most royal majesty, I crave no more than what your Highness offer'd, Lear. Right noble Burgundy, When she was dear to us, we held her fo; But now her price is fall'n. Sir, there she stands, And nothing more, may fitly like your Grace, Lear. Will you, with those infirmities she owes, Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate, Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath, Bur. Pardon, royal Sir; * Election makes not up on such conditions. Lear. Then leave her, Sir; for by the pow'r that I tell you all her wealth. -For you, great King, made me, Seeming is beautiful. • Election makes not up on fuch conditions.] To make up fignifies to complete, to conclude; as, they made up the bargain; but in this sense it has, I think, always the subject noun after it. To make up, in familiar language, is, neutrally, to come forward, to make advances, which, I think, is meant here. [To France. I would not from your love make fuch a stray, France. This is most strange! That she, who ev'n but now was your best object, 8 That monsters it; or your fore-vouch'd affection 7 Best is added from the first copy. The common books read, or your fore-vouch'd affection. Fall'n into taint: - ) This line has no clear or strong sense, nor is this reading authorised by any copy, though it has crept into all the late editions. The early quarto reads, - or you for vouch'd affections Fal'n into taint. The folio, -or your fore-vouch'd affection Fall into taint. Taint is used for corruption and for disgrace. If therefore we take the oldeft reading, it may be reformed thus: -fure ber offence Must be of fuch unnatural de gree, That monsters it; or you for vouch'd affection Fall into taint. gious, or you must fall into re. proach for having vouched affection which you did not feel. If the reading of th: folio be preferred, we may with a very flight change produce the fame senie. fure ber offence Must be of such unnatural de gree, That monsters it, or your forevouch'd affiction Falls into taint. That is, falls into reproach or cenfure. But there is another possible sense. Or fignifies before, and or ever is before ever; the meaning in the folio may therefore be, Sure her crime must be monstrous before your affection can be infelted with hatred. Let the reader determine. As I am not much a friend to conjectural emendation, I should prefer the latter sense, which re Her offence must be prodi- quires no change of reading. Fall |