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Gon. Hear me, my Lord;

What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,
To follow in a houfe, where twice fo many

Have a command to tend you?

Reg. What needs one?

Lear. O, reafon not the need; our bafeft beggars Are in the poorelt thing fuperfluous.

Allow not nature more than nature needs,

Man's life is cheap as beafts'.

Thou art a lady; If only to go warm were gorgeous,

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'ft,
Which fcarcely keeps thee warm. But for true need!
You heav'ns, give me that patience which I need!
You fee me here, you Gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
If it be you, that ftir thefe daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not fo much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger;
O let not women's weapons, water-drops,

Stain my man's cheeks. No, you unnat❜ral hags,
I will have fuch revenges on you both,

That all the world fhall-I will do fuch things,
What they are, yet I know not; but they fhall be
The terrors of the earth. You think, I'll weep;

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No, I'll not weep. I have full caufe of weeping.
This heart fhall break into a thousand flaws

Or ere I weep. O fool, I fhall go mad.

[Exeunt Lear, Glo'iter, Kent, and Fool.

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Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a ftorm.

[Storm and tempeft.

Reg. This houfe is little; the old man and his people Cannot be well bestow'd.

Gon. 'Tis his own blame hath put himself from reft, And muft needs tafte his folly.

Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly; But not one follower.

Gon. So I am purpos'd.

Where is my Lord of Glo'fter?

Enter Glo'fter.

Corn. Follow'd the old man forth. He is return'd,
Glo. The King is in high rage, and will I know not
whither.

Corn. 'Tis best to give him way, he leads himself.
Gon. My Lord, intreat him by no means to stay.
Glo. Alack, the night comes on, and the high
winds

Do forely ruffle, for many miles about

There's scarce a bush.

Reg. O Sir, to wilful men,

The injuries, that they themselves procure,

Must be their school-mafters. Shut up your doors,

He is attended with a defp'rate train,

And what they may incenfe him to, being apt

To have his ear abus'd, wisdom bids fear.

Corn. Shut up your doors, my Lord, 'tis a wild

night.

My Regan counfels well. Come out o'th' ftorm. [Exeunt.

ACT

H

ACT III. SCENE I.

A

HEATH.

A form is heard, with thunder and lightning. Enter Kent, and a Gentleman, feverally.

KENT.

HO's there, befides foul weather?

W Gent. One minded like the weather, most

unquietly.

Kent. I know you. Where's the King?
Gent. Contending with the fretful elements;
Bids the wind blow the earth into the fea;
Or fwell the curled waters 'bove the main,

8

That things might change, or ceafe, tears his white

hair

Which the impetuous blafts with eyeless rage
Catch in their fury, and make nothing of;
Strives in his little World of Man t'outfcorn
The to-and-fro-conflicting Wind and Rain.

This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch, The lion, and the belly-pinched wolf

Keep their furr dry, unbonnetted he runs,
And bids what will, take all.
Kent. But who is with him?

8 -tears his white hair ;] The fix following verfes were omitted in all the late Editions: I have replaced them from the firft, for they are certainly ShakeSpear's.

POPE.

The first folio ends the fpeech at change, or ceafe, and begins again with Kent's queftion, but who is with him? The whole

fpeech is forcible, but too long for the occafion, and properly retrenched:

9 This night wherein the Cubdrawn bear would couch.] Cubdrawn has been explained to fignify drawn by nature to its young whereas it means, whofe dugs are drawn dry by its young. For no animals leave their dens by night but for prey. So that the meaning is, that even hunger, and "the fupport of its young, "would not force the bear to "leave his den in fuch a night."

WARBURTON.
Gent.

Gent. None but the Fool, who labours to out-jeff His heart-ftruck injuries.

Kent. Sir, I do know you,

And dare, upon the warrant of my ' note,
Commend a dear thing to you. There's divifion,
Although as yet the face of it is cover'd

2

With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall,
Who have, (as who have not, whom their great ftars
Throne and fet high?) fervants, who feem no less
Which are to France the fpies and fpeculations
Intelligent of our state. What hath been seen,
Either in fnuffs and packings of the Dukes;
Or the bard rein, which both of them have borne
Against the old kind king; or something deeper,
Whereof, perchance, thefe are but furnishings.

3

4

[ But true it is, from France there comes a power

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Into this fcatter'd kingdom; who already,
Wife in our negligence, have fecret fee
In fome of our beft ports, and are at point
To fhew their open banner-Now to you,
If on my credit you dare build fo far
To make your speed to Dover, you fhall find

And fo he frequently uses feath
for hurt or damage. Again,
what a strange phrafe is, having
fea in a port, to fignify a fleet's
lying at anchor? which is all
it can fignify. And what is
ftranger till, a fecret Jea, that is,
lying incognito, like the army at
Knight's-bridge in the Rehearsal.
Without doubt the poet wrote,
-have fecret SEIZE

In fome of our best portsi. e. they are fecretly fecure of fome of the beft ports, by having a party in the garrifon ready to fecond any attempt of their friends, &c. The exactness of the expreffion is remarkable; he fays, fecret jeize in fome, not of Jome. For the firft implies a confpiracy ready to feize a place on warning, the other, a place already feized. WARBURTON.

The true ftate of this fpeech cannot from all these notes be discovered. As it now ftands it is collected from two editions: the lines which I have diftinguithed by Italicks are found in the folio, not in the quarto; the following lines inclofed in crotchets are in the quarto, not in the folio. So that if the fpeech be read with omiffions of the Ita licks, it will ftand according to the first edition; and if the Italicks are read, and the lines that follow them omitted, it will then ftand according to the fecond. The fpeech is now tedious, be

cause it is formed by a coalition of both. The fecond edition is generally beft, and was probably nearest to Shakespeare's laft copy, but in this paffage the firft is preferable; for in the folio, the meffenger is fent, he knows not why, he knows not whither. I fuppofe Shakejp are thought his plot opened rather too early, and made the alteration to veil the event from the audience; but trufting too much to himself, and full of a fingle purpose, he did not accommodate his new lines to the rest of the scene.

The learned critick's emendations are now to be examined. Scattered he has changed to feathed; for fcattered, he fays, gives the idea of an anarchy,

which was not the cafe. It may be replied that carbed gives the idea of ruin, wafte, and defolation, which wa not the cafe. It is unworthy a lover of truth, in queftions of great or little moment, to aggravate or extenuate for mere convenience, or for vanity yet lefs than convenience. Scattered naturally means divided, unfettled, dijunited.

Next is offered with great pomp a change of fea to feize; but in the first edition the word is fee, for hire, in the sense of having any one in fe, that is, at de-votion for money. Fce is in the fecond quarto changed to fee, from which one made fea and another feize.

Some

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