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Fall into taint; which to believe of her,
Must be a faith, that reason without miracle
Should never plant in me.

Cor. I yet beseech your Majesty,

If-for I want that glib and oily art,
To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend,
I'll do't before I fpeak-that you make known

It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,
No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step,

That hath depriv'd me of your grace and favour,
But ev'n for want of that, for which I'm richer,
A still folliciting eye, and such a tongue,
That I am glad I've not; though, not to have it,
Hath loft me in your liking.

Lear. Better thou

Hadst not been born, than not have pleas'd me better.
France. Is it but this? a tardiness in nature,

Which often leaves the history unspoke,
That it intends to do? My Lord of Burgundy,
What say you to the lady? Love's not love,
When it is mingled with regards, that stand
Aloof from th' intire point. Say, will you have her?
She is herself a dowry.

Bur. [To Lear.] Royal King,

Give but that portion which yourself propos'd,

And here I take Cordelia by the hand,

Dutchess of Burgundy.

Lear. Nothing:

I've fworn.

Bur. I'm forry then, you have so loft a father,

That you must lose a husband.

Cor. Peace be with Burgundy,

Since that respects of fortune are his love,

I shall not be his wife.

France. Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being

poor,

9 from th' intire point.] Intire,

for right, true.

Rather, fingle, unmixed with

WARBURTON.

other confiderations.

Most choice, forsaken; and most lov'd, despis'd.

Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon,

Be't lawful, I také up what's caft away.

Gods, Gods! 'tis strange, that from their cold'st ne

glect

My love should kindle to enflam'd respect.

Thy dow'rless daughter, King, thrown to my chance,
Is Queen of us, of ours, and our fair France;
Not all the Dukes of wat'rish Burgundy
Can buy this unpriz'd, precious, maid of me.
Bid them farewel, Cordelia, tho' unkind;
• Thou lofest here, a better where to find.

Lear. Thou hast her, France; let her be thine, for we

Have no fuch daughter; nor shall ever fee
That face of hers again; therefore be gone
Without our grace, without our love, our benizon.
Come, noble Burgundy.

[Flourish. Exeunt Lear and Burgundy.

SCENE

France. Bid farewel to your sisters.

IV.

Cor. Ye jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes

Cordelia leaves you; I know what you are,

And, like a fifter, am most loth to call

Your faults, as they are nam'd. Love well our father;

To your profeffing bosoms I commit him;
But yet, alas! stood I within his grace,
I would prefer him to a better place.

So farewel to you both.

Reg. Prescribe not us our duty.

Gon. Let your study

Be to content your Lord, who hath receiv'd you

Thou lofeft here,-] Here and

a better refidence in another

where have the power of nouns. Thou lofest this refidence to find

place.

At

At fortune's alms; you have obedience scanted, * And well ate worth the Want that you have wanted. Cor. Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides,

3 Who covers faults, at last with shame derides.

Well may you profper!

France. Come, my fair Cordelia.

:

[Exeunt France and Cordelia.

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Gon: Sifter, it is not little I've to say,
Of what most nearly appertains to us both.
I think, our father will go hence to night.

Reg. That's certain, and with you; next month with us.

Gon. You see how full of changes his age is, the observation we have made of it hath not been little; he always lov'd our sister most, and with what poor judgment he hath now caft her off, appears too grossly.

Reg. 'Tis the infirmity of his age; yet he hath ever but flenderly known himself.

Gon. The best and foundest of his time hath been but rafh; then must we look, from his age, to receive not alone the imperfections of long-engrafted

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that you have WANTED.J This nonsense must be corrected thus,

And well are worth the Want

that you have VAUNTED. i. e. that disherison, which you so much glory in, you deferve. WARBURTON.

I think the common reading very fuitable to the manner of our authour, and well enough explained by Theobald.

3 Who covers faults, &c.] R vira bien, qui rira le dernier.

con

1

condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness, that infirm and cholerick years bring with them.

Reg. Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him, as this of Kent's banishment.

Gon. There is further compliment of leave-taking between France and him. Pray you, let us hit togesher. If our father carry authority with such difpofition as he bears, this last surrender of his will but offend us.

Reg. We shall further think of it.

Gon. We must do something, and i' th' heat.

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[Exeunt.

Changes to a Castle belonging to the Earl of Glo'ster.

Enter Edmund, with a Letter.

HOU, Nature, art

Edm.s

TH

thy law

my Goddefs; to

My services are bound; wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit

4 let us bit] So the old quarto. The folio, let us fit.

s Thou, Nature, art my Goddefs;) He makes his baftard an Atheist. Italian Atheifin had much infected the English Court, as we learn from the best writers of that time. But this was the general title those Atheists in their works gave to Nature; thus Vanini calls one of his books, De admirandis NATURE Regina DEÆQUE MORTALIUM Arcanis. So that the title here is emphatical.

WARBURTON.

:

The

& Stand in the PLAGUE of cuftom,] To stand in the plague of custom, is an absurd expression. We should read,

Stand in the PLAGE of custom. i. e. the place, the country, the boundary of custom. Why should I, when I profefs to follow the freedom of nature, be confined within the narrow limits of cuftom? Plage, is a word in common use amongst the old English writers. So Chaucer,

The PLAGIS of the North by land and fea. From plaga.

WARBURTON.

The

The courtesy of nations to deprive me,
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines
* Lag of a brother? Why bastard? Wherefore base?
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as gen'rous, and my shape as true,
As honest Madam's issue? Why brand they us
With base, with baseness, bastardy, base, base,
* Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take

More composition and fierce quality;
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
Go to creating a whole tribe of fops,
Got 'tween a-fleep and wake? Well then,

The word plague is in all the old copies: I can scarcely think it right, nor can I yet reconcile myself to the emendation proposed, though I have nothing better to offer.

The courtesy of Nations) Mt. Pope reads Nicety. The Copies give, the Curiosity of Nations; but our Author's Word was, Curiefy. In our Laws, some Lands are held by the Curtesy of England.

THEOBALD.

* Edmund inveighs against the tyranny of custom, in two instances, with respect to younger brothers, and to bastards. In the former he must not be understood to mean himself, but the argument becomes general by implying more than is faid, Wherefore Should I or any man. HANMER. & Who, in the lufty stealth of nature, &c.] These fine lines are an instance of our author's admirable art in giving proper sentiments to his characters. The Bastard's is that of a confirmed Atheist; and his being made to ridicule judicial aftroligy was defigned as one mark of fuch a character. For this impious jug

gle had a religious reverence paid to it at that time. And therefore the best characters in this play acknowledge the force of the stars' influence. But how much the lines following this, are in character, may be feen by that monstrous wish of Vanini, the Italian Atheist, in his tract De admirandis naturæ, &c. printed at Paris, 1616, the very year our poet died. O utinam extra legitimum & connubialem sborum essem procreatus! Ita enim progenitores mei in Venerem incaluiffent ardentiùs, ac cumulatim affatimque generosa semina contuliffent, è quibus ego formæ blanditiam et elegantiam, robustas corporis vires, mentemque innubilam confequutus fuissim. At quia conjugatorum sum soboles, his orbatus sum bonis. Had the book been published but ten or twenty years sooner, who would nothave believed that Shakespear alluded to this passage? But the divinity of his genius foretold, as it were, what fuch an Atheist as Vaninı, would say, when he wrote upon fuch a fubject.

WARBURTON.

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