Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

Enter Cornwall, Regan, and Attendants.

Corn. How now, my noble friend? Since I came hither,

Which I can call but now, I have heard ftrange news. Reg. If it be true, all vengeance comes too fhort, Which can pursue th' offender. How does my lord? Glo. O Madam, my old heart is crack'd, it's crack'd.

Reg. What, did my father's godfon feek your life? He wh m my father nam'd? Your Edgar?

Gle. O lady, lady, Shame would have it hid.

[ocr errors]

Reg. Was he not companion with the riotous Knights,

That tend upon my father?

Glo. I know not, Madam. 'Tis too bad, too bad. Edm. Yes, Madam, he was cf that confort.

Reg. No marvel then, though he were ill affected; 'Tis they have put him on the old man's death, To have th' expence and wafte of his revenues. I have this prefent evening from my sister

Been well inform'd of them; and with fuch cautions, That if they come to fojourn at my houfe,

I'll not be there.

Corn. Nor I, I affure thee, Regan.

Edmund, I hear, that you have fhewn your father
A child-like office.

Edm. 'Twas my duty, Sir.

Glo. He did bewray his practice, and receiv'd This hurt you fee ftriving to apprehend him. Corn. Is he purfu'd?

Glo. Ay, my good lord.

Corn. If he be taken, he fhall never more

Be fear'd of doing harm. Make your own purpose, How in my ftrength you pleafe. As for you, Edmund,

Whole

Whofe virtue and obedience in this inftance
So much commends itfelf, you fhall be ours;
Natures of fuch deep Trust we shall much need:
You we first feize on.

.Edm. I fhall ferve you, Sir,

Truly, however elfe.

Glo. I thank your Grace.

Corn. You know not why we came to vifit
Reg. Thus out of feason,

night;

you

threading dark-ey'd

* Occafions, noble Glofter, of fome prize,
Wherein we must have use of your advice.-
Our father he hath writ, fo hath our sister,
Of diff rences, which I beft thought it fit

To answer from our home: the fev'ral meffengers
From hence attend defpatch. Our good old friend,
Lay Comforts to your bofom; and bestow

Your needful counfel to our bufineffes,
Which crave the inftant use.

Glo. I ferve you, Madam.
Your Graces are right welcome.

-threading dark-ey'd Night.]

I have not ventur'd to displace this Reading, tho' I have great Sufpicion that the Poet wrote,

-treading dark-ey'd Night. i. e. travelling in it. The other carries too obfcure and mean an Allufion. It must either be borrow'd from the Cant-phrafe of threading of Alleys, i. e. going thro' bye paffages to avoid the high Streets; or to threading

[Exeunt.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

Enter. Kent, and Steward, feverally.

Stew. Good dawning to thee, friend. Art of this houfe?

Kent. Ay.

Stew. Where may we fet our horses?

Kent: I'th' mire.

Stew. Pr'ythee, if thou lov'ft me, tell me.

Kent. I love thee not.

Stew. Why then I care not for thee.

5

Kent. If I had thee in Lipu y pinfold, I would make thee care for me.

Stew. Why doft thou use me thus? I know thee

not.

Kent. Fellow, I know thee.

Stew. What doft thou know me for?

Kent. A knave, a rafcal, an eater of broken meats, a bafe, proud, fhallow, beggarly, three-fuited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted stocking knave; a lillyliver'd, action-taking knave; a whorfon, glafs-gazing, fuper-serviceable, finical rogue; one trunk-inheriting flave; one that would't be a bawd in way of

4 Grod evening] In the common editions it is GOOD DAWNNo, tho' the time be apparently night. But this was not Shakerear's phrafe. The common editions wer: corrupt indeed, and fhould have given it us, as the poet wrote it, GOOD DOWNING. ... good reft, the common evening-falutation of that time. WARBURTON. It is plainly paft evening, and may, without any inconvenience, be fuppofed to be dawning.

s Lipfbury pinfold.] The alluTion which feems to be contained 1. this line I do not underfand.

In the violent eruption of reproaches which burfts from Kent in this dialogue, there are fome epithets which the commentators have left unexpounded, and which I am not very able to make clear. Of a threefuited knave I know not the meaning, unless it be that he has different dreffes for different occupations. Lilly-liver'd is cow ardly; white-blooded and whiteliver'd are fill in vulgar ufe. An one-trunk inheriting flave I take to be a wearer of old caftof cloaths, an inheritor of torn breeches.

good

good service; and art nothing but the compofition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the fon and heir of a mungril bitch; one whom I will beat into clam'rous whining, if thou deny't the leaft fyllable of thy addition.

Stew. Why, what a monftrous fellow art thou, thus. to rail on one, that is neither known of thee, nor knows thee?

Kent. What a brazen-fac'd varlet art thou, to deny thou know'ft me? Is it two days ago, fince I tript up thy heels, and beat thee before the King? Draw, you rogue for tho' it be night, yet the moon fhines; I'll make a fop o' th' moonshine of you. You whorefon, cullionly* barber-monger, draw.

1

[Drawing his fword. Stew. Away, I have nothing to do with thee.

Kent. Draw, you rafcal. You come with letters. against the King; and take 7 Vanity the Puppet's part, against the royalty of her father. Draw, you rogue, or I'll fo carbonado your thanks-Draw, you. raical. Come your ways.

Stew. Help, ho! murder! help

Kent. Strike, you flave. Stand, rogue, ftand, you. † neat flave, strike. [Beating Lim,

Stew. Help, ho! murder! murder!

• I'll make a sop d'ib' moon.

fhine of you;] This is equivalent to our modern phrafe of making the fun fine thro' any one. But, alluding to the natural phi-. lofophy of that time, it is obfcure. The Peripatetics thought, tho' falfly, that the rays of the moon were cold and moist. The fpeaker therefore fays, he would make a fop of his antagonist, which should abforb the humidity of the moon's rays, by letting them into his guts. For ahis reafon, Shakespeare in Ro

[ocr errors]

meo and Juliet fays,

-the moonshine's watry beams. And in Midjammer-Night's dream, Quench'd in the chaft beams of the watry moon.

WARBURTON. barber-merger,] Of this word I do not clearly fee the force.

Vanity the puppet.] Alluding to the myfteries or allegorical fhews, in which Vanity, Iniquity, and over vices, were perfonified.

nea flave,] You mere flave, you very flave. E 3

SCENE

[blocks in formation]

Enter Edmund, Cornwall, Regan, Glo'fter, and Servants.

Edm. How now, what's the matter? PartKent. With you, goodman boy, if you please. Come, I'll flesh ye. Come on, young master.

Glo. Weapons? arms? what's the matter here? Corn. Keep peace, upon your lives; he dies, that ftrikes again. What's the matter?

Reg. The meffengers from our fifter and the King. Corn. What is your difference? Speak.

Stew. I am scarce in breath, my Lord.

Kent. No marvel, you have fo beftirr'd your valour; you cowardly rafcal. Nature difclaims all fhare in thee. A tailor made thee.

Corn. Thou art a strange fellow. A tailor make a man?

Kent. Ay, a taylor, Sir; a ftone-cutter, or a painter could not have made him fo ill, tho' they had been but two hours o' th' trade.

Corn. Speak yet, how grew your quarrel?

Stew. This ancient ruffian, Sir, whofe life I have fpar'd at fuit of his grey beard

8

Kent. Thou whorefon zed! thou unneceffary letter! My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread

Thou whorefon Zed! theu un nec fary letter! I do not well understand how a man is reproached by being called Zed, nor how Z is an unnecessary let ter. Scarron compares his deformity to the fhape of Z, and it may be a proper word of infilt to a crook-backed man; but why should Gonerill's fteward be crooked, unless the allufion

be to his bending or cringing posture in the prefence of his fuperiours? Perhaps it was written, thou whorefon C [for cuckold] thou unneceffary letter. C is a letter unneceffary in our alphabet, one of its two founds being reprefented by S. and one by K. But all the copies concur in the common reading.

this

« PreviousContinue »