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

Cor. I yet befeech your Majefty,

If-for I want that glib and oily art,

To fpeak and purpofe not; fince what I well intend,
I'll do't before I speak-that you make known
It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,
No unchafte action, or difhonour'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 ftill folliciting eye, and fuch a tongue,

That I am glad I've not; though, not to have it,
Hath loft me in your liking.

Lear. Better thou

Hadit not been born, than not have pleas'd me better.
France. Is it but this? a tardiness in nature,
Which often leaves the hiftory 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 fo loft a father,

That you must lose a husband.

Cor. Peace be with Burgundy,

Since that refpects of fortune are his love,
I fhall not be his wife.

France. Faireft Cordelia, that art most rich, being

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Most choice, forfaken; and most lov'd, despis'd.
Thee and thy virtues here I feize upon,
Be't lawful, I take up what's caft away.

Gods, Gods! 'tis ftrange, that from their cold'st neglect

My love fhould kindle to enflam'd refpect.

Thy dow'rlefs daughter, King, thrown to my chance, Is Queen of us, of ours, and our fair France;

Not all the Dukes of wat'rifh Burgundy

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Can buy this unpriz'd, precious, maid of me.
Bid them farewel, Cordelia, tho' unkind;

Thou lofeft here, a better where to find.

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

Have no fuch daughter; nor fhall 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 moft loth to call

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

Το your profeffing bofoms I commit him;

But yet, alas! ftood I within his grace,

I would prefer him to a better place.

So farewel to you both.

Reg. Prefcribe 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. place.

Thou lofeft this refidence to find

At

At fortune's alms; you have obedience scanted,

2

And well ate worth the Want that you have wanted. Cor. Time fhall unfold what plaited cunning hides, "Who covers faults, at laft with fhame 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 fay,
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 fee how full of changes his age is, the obfervation we have made of it hath not been little; he always lov'd our fifter 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

2 And well are worth the Want that you have wanted.] This is a very obfcure Expreffion, and must be pieced out with an implied Senfe to be understood. This I take to be the Poet's Meaning, ftript of the Jingle which makes it dark:

that you have WANTED.] This nonfenfe must be corrected thus,

And well are worth the Want that you have VAUNTED. . e. that difherifon, which you fo much glory in, you deferve. You WARBURTON.

"well deferve to meet with that "Want of Love from your Huf"band, which you have profeffed to want for our Father." THEOBALD.

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

3

ho covers faults, &c.] And well are worth the Want rira bien, qui rira le dernier.

VOL. VI.

C

con

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

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

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

Reg. We fhall further think of it.

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

SCENE VI.

[Exeunt.

Changes to a Caftle belonging to the Earl of Glo❜fter.

Edm.s

Enter Edmund, with a Letter.

HOU, Nature, art my Goddess; to thy law

TH

My fervices are bound; wherefore fhould I
Stand in the plague of cuftom, 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 Atheift. Italian Atheifm had much infected the Engli Court, as we learn from the beft 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 MORTA-• LIUM Arcanis. So that the title here is emphatical.

WARBURTON.

The

Stand in the PLAGUE of cuf tom,] To ftand in the plague of cuftom, is an abfurd expreffion. We should read,

Stand in the PLAGE of cuftom. i. e. the place, the country, the boundary of cuftom. 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 commun ufe amongst the old English writers. So Chaucer,

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

WARBURTON.

The

The courtefy of nations to deprive me,

For that I am fome twelve or fourteen moon-fhines
* Lag of a brother? Why baftard? Wherefore bafe?
When my dimenfions are as well compact,
My mind as gen'rous, and my fhape as true,
As honeft Madam's iffue? Why brand they us
With bafe, with baseness, baftardy, base, base,

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* Who, in the lufty ftealth of nature, take
More compofition 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 myfelf to the emendation propofed, though I have nothing

better to offer.

The courtesy of Nations] Mr. Pope reads Nicety. The Copies give,the Curiofity of Nations; but our Author's Word was, Curiefy. In our Laws, fome Lands are held by the Curtely of England. THEOBALD.

Edmund inveighs against the tyranny of cuftom, in two inftances, with respect to younger brothers, and to baftards. In the former he must not be understood to mean himself, but the argument becomes general by implying more than is faid, Wherefore fhould I or any man. HANMER.

Who, in the lufty fealth of nature, &c.] Thefe fine lines are an inftance of our author's admirable art in giving proper fentiments to his characters. The Baftard's is that of a confirmed Atheist; and his being made to ridicule judicial aftrology was defigned as one mark of fuch a character. For this impious jng

gle had a religious reverence paid to it at that time. And therefore the best characters in this play acknowledge the force of the tars' influence. But how much the lines following this, are in character, may be feen by that monftrous wifh of Vanini, the Italian Atheift, in his tract De admirandis naturæ, &c. printed at Paris, 1616, the very year our poet died. O utinam extra legitimum connubialem borum

em procreatus! Ita enim progenitores mei in Venerem incaluiffent ardentiùs, ac cumulatim affatimque generofa femina contuliffent, è quibus ego forma blanditiam et elegantiam, robuftas corporis vires, mentemque innubilam confequutus fuiffem. At quia conjugatorum fum foboles, his orbatus fum bonis. Had the book been published but ten or twenty years fooner, who would not have believed that Shakespear alluded to this paffage? But the divinity of his genius foretold, as it were, what fuch an Atheist as Vanini, would fay, when he wrote upon fuch a fubject.

C 2

WARBURTON.

Le

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