Kent. Why, fool?

Fool. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring in the winter. All that follow their noses are led by their eyes, but blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty, but can smell him that's stinking. Let go thy hold, when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it; but the great one that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.

That, sir, which serves and seeks for gain,

And follows but for form,

Will pack, when it begins to rain,
And leave thee in the storm.

But I will tarry; the fool will stay,
And let the wise man fly :

The knave turns fool, that runs away ;9

The fool no knave, perdy.

Kent. Where learn'd you this, fool?

Fool. Not i'the stocks, fool.

Re-enter LEAR, with GLOSTER.

Lear. Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary?

They have travell❜d hard to night? Mere fetches;
The images of revolt and flying off!

Fetch me a better answer.

Glo My dear lord,

You know the fiery quality of the duke ;
How unremoveable and fix'd he is

In his own course.

Lear. Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!Fiery what quality? Why, Gloster, Gloster,

[8] One cannot too much commend the caution which our moral poet uses, on all occasions, to prevent his sentiment from being perversely taken. So here, having given an ironical precept in commendation of perfidy and base desertion of the unfortunate, for fear it should be understood seriously, though delivered by his buffoon or jester, he has the precaution to add this beautiful corrective, full of fine sense :-"I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it." WARBURTON. [9] The sense will be mended if we read,

But I will tarry; the fool will stay,

And let the wise man fly;

The fool turns knave, that runs away;
The knave no fool,

That I stay with the king is proof that I am a fool, the wise men are deserting him. There is knavery in this desertion, but there is no folly. JOHNS.

5

VOL. VIII.

I'd speak with the duke of Cornwall, and his wife.
Gio. Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so.
Lear. Inform'd them! Dost thou understand me, man?
Glo. Ay, my good lord.

Lear. The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father

Would with his daughter speak, commands her service:
Are they inform'd of this?- -My breath and blood!-
Fiery? The fiery duke ?-Tell the hot duke, that—
No, but not yet :—may be, he is not well:
Infirmity doth still neglect all office,

Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves,
When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind
To suffer with the body: I'll forbear;

And am fallen out with my more headier will,
To take the indispos'd and sickly fit

For the sound man.-Death on my state! wherefore

[Looking on Kent. Should he sit here? This act persuades me,

That this remotion of the duke and her

I

Is practice only. Give me my servant forth :
Go, tell the duke and his wife, I'd speak with them,
Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,
Or at their chamber-door I'll beat the drum,
Till it cry-Sleep to death.

you.

Glo. I'd have all well betwixt [Exit. Lear. O me, my heart, my rising heart!-but, down. Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels, when she put them i'the paste alive; she rapp'd 'em o'the coxcombs with a stick, and cry'd, Down, wantons, down: 'Twas her brother, that, in pure kindness to his horse, butter'd his hay.

Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOSTER, and Servants.. Lear. Good-morrow to you both.

Corn. Hail to your grace! [KENT is set at liberty. Reg, I am glad to see your highness.

Lear. Regan, I think you are; I know what reason I have to think so if thou should'st not be glad,

I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb,

Sepúlch'ring an adultress.-O, are you free? [TO KENT. Some other time for that.-Beloved Regan,

Thy sister's naught : O Regan, she hath tied

[1] Practice is in Shakspeare, and other old writers, used commonly in an ill sense for unlawful artifice.

JOHNSON.

Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here : 2

[Points to his heart.

I can scarce speak to thee; thou'lt not believe,
Of how deprav'd a quality-O Regan!

Reg. I pray you, sir, take patience; I have hope,
You less know how to value her desert,

Than she to scant her duty.3

Lear. Say, how is that?

Reg. I cannot think, my sister in the least
Would fail her obligation: If, sir, perchance,
She have restrain'd the riots of your followers,
'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end,
As clears her from all blame.

Lear. My curses on her!
Reg. O, sir, you are old;

Nature in you stands on the very verge

Of her confíne: you should be rul'd, and led
By some discretion, that discerns your state
Better than you yourself: Therefore, I pray you,
That to our sister you do make return;
Say, you have wrong'd her, sir.

Lear. Ask her forgiveness?

Do you but mark how this becomes the house : 4
Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;

Age is unnecessary :5 on my knees I beg, [Kneeling.
That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.

Reg. Good sir, no more: these are unsightly tricks : Return you to my sister.

Lear. Never, Regan :

She hath abated me of half my train ;

Look'd black upon me ;6 struck me with her tongue,

Most serpent-like, upon the very heart :

All the stor❜d vengeances of heaven fall

On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,
You taking airs, with lameness !

Corn. Fye, fye, fye!

Lear. You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames

[2] Alluding to the fable of Prometheus. WARBURTON.

[3] Scant-may mean to adapt, to fit, to proportion; which sense seems still to be retained in the mechanical term scantling. JOHNSON.

[4] Becomes the house-signifies the order of families, duties of rela tion. WARB. So in Milton on Divorce, b. ii. How hurtful. how de structive it is to the house, the church, the commonwealth !" TOLLET. [5] Old age has few wants. JOHNS. [6] To look black-may easily be explained to look cloudy or gloomy, See Milton: "So frown'd the mighty combatants, that hell "Grew darker at their frown".

JOHNSON.

1

Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,
You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the pow'rful sun,
To fall and blast her pride!

Reg. O the blest gods !

So will you wish on me, when the rash mood's on. Lear. No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse; Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give

8

Thee o'er to harshness; her eyes are fierce, but thine
Do comfort, and not burn, 'Tis not in thee
To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes, &
And, in conclusion, to oppose the bolt
Against my coming in. Thou better know'st
The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude;

Thy half o'the kingdom hast thou not forgot,
Wherein I thee endow'd.

Reg. Good sir, to the purpose.

[Trumpets within.

Lear. Who put my man i' the stocks?

Corn. What trumpet's that?

Enter Steward.

Reg. I know't, my sister's: this approves her letter, That she would soon be here.-Is your lady come? Lear. This is a slave, whose easy-borrow'd pride Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows:Out, varlet, from my sight!

Corn. What means your grace?

Lear.Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good hope Thou didst not know of't.—Who comes here? O heavens, Enter GONERIL.

If you do love old men, if your sweet sway

9

Allow obedience, if yourselves are old,

Make it your cause; send down, and take my part !~ Art not asham'd to look upon this beard?

O Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand?

[To GON.

Gon. Why not by the hand, sir? How have I offended? All's not offence, that indiscretion finds,

And dotage terms so.

Lear. O, sides, you are too tough!

[7] Hefted-seems to mean the same as heaved. Tender-hefted-i. e. whose bosom is agitated by tender passions. The formation of such a parti ciple, I believe, cannot be grammatically accounted for.

[8] To contract my allowances or proportions settled.

STEEVENS.
JOHNSON.

[9] To allow-signifies not only to permit, but to approve. So the scripture expression, "The Lord alloweth the righteous,” Ps. xi. 6. STEEV.

Will you yet hold?-How came my man i'the stocks? Corn. I set him there, sir: but his own disorders? Deserv'd much less advancement."

Lear. You did you?

Reg. I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.2
If, till the expiration of your month,

You will return and sojourn with my sister,
Dismissing half your train, come then to me;
I am now from home, and out of that provision
Which shall be needful for your entertainment.
Lear. Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd?
No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
To wage against the enmity o'the air;
To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,—
Necessity's sharp pinch --Return with her?
Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took
Our youngest born, I could as well be brought
To knee his throne, and, squire-like, pension beg
To keep base life afoot.-Return with her?
Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter 3
To this detested groom.

Gon. At your choice, sir.

[Looking on the Steward

Lear. I pr'ythee, daughter, do not make me mad ;

I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell:
We'll no more meet, no more see one another :-
But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;
Or, rather, a disease that's in my flesh,

Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,
A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,

In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee;
Let shame come when it will, I do not call it :

I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,

Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove.

Mend, when thou canst; be better, at thy leisure :
I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,

I, and my hundred knights.

Reg. Not altogether so, sir;

I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided

For your fit welcome: Give ear, sir, to my sister;
For those that mingle reason with your passion,
Must be content to think you old, and so-

[1] Kent's disorders had entitled him to a post of less honour than the stocks. STEEVENS.

[2] Since you are weak, be content to think yourself weak. JOHNSON. [3] Sumpter- is a horse that carries necessaries on a journey, though sometimes used for the case to carry them in. STEEVENS.