Some that will thank you, making juft report,
Of how unnatural and bemadding forrow
The King hath caufe to plain.

I am a gentleman of blood and breeding,
And from fome knowledge and affurance of you,
Offer this Office.]

Gent. I'll talk further with you.

Kent. No, do not.

For confirmation that I am much more

Than my out-wall, open this purfe and take
What it contains. If you fhall fee Cordelia,
As, fear not, but you shall, fhew her that Ring,
And she will tell you who this fellow is,

That yet you do not know. Fy on this ftorm!
I will go feek the King.

5

Gent. Give me your hand, have you no more to say? Kent. Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet; That, when we have found the King, for which you take That way, I this, he that firft lights on him, Halloo the other.

SCEN E II.

[Exeunt feverally.

Storm fill. Enter Lear and Fool.

Lear. Blow winds, and crack your cheeks; rage, blow!

"You cataracts, and hurricanoes, fpout

'Till you have drencht our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You fulph'rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt couriers of oak-cleaving thunder-bolts,
Singe my white-head. And thou all-fhaking thunder,

Strike flat the thick rotundity o'th' world,
"Crack nature's mould, all germins fpill at once.
That make ingrateful man.

Fool. O nuncle, court-holy-water in a dry houfe is better than the rain-waters out o'door. Good nuncle, in and ask thy daughters bleffing, here's a night that pities neither wife men nor fools.

Lear. Rumble thy belly full, fpit fire, fpout rain;
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters.
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness,
I never gave you kingdoms, call'd you children;
"You owe me no fubfcription; then let fall

Your horrible displeasure. Here I stand, your flave,
A poor, infirm, weak, and defpis'd old man.
But yet I call you fervile minifters,

That have with two pernicious daughters join'd
Your high engender'd battles, 'gainst a head
So old and white as this. Oh! oh! 'tis foul.

• Crack Nature's Mould, all Germains Spill at once] Thus all the Editions have given us this Paffage, and Mr. Pope has explain'd Germains to mean relations, or kindred Elements. But the Poet means here, "Crack "Nature's Mould, and fpill all "the Seeds of Matter, that are

hoarded within it." To retrieve which Senfe, we muft write Germins, from Germen. Our Author not only ufes the fame Thought again, but the Word that afcertains my Explication. In Winter's Tale;

Let Nature crush the Sides o'th

Earth together, And marr the Seeds within. THEOBALD. 7 You orve me no fubfcription.] Subfcription, for obedience. WAR. bere I ftand your SLAVE ;] But why fo? It is true, he fays, that they owed him no fubfcrip VOL. VI.

tion; yet fure he owed them none. We fhould read,

-bere I ftand your BRAVE;
i... I defy your worft rage, as
he had faid just before. What
led the editors into this blunder
was what should have kept them
out of it, namely the following
line,

A poor, infirm, weak, and de-
Spis'd old man!

And this was the wonder, that
fuch a one fhould brave them all.
WARBURTON.

The meaning is plain enough, he was not their flave by right or compact, but by neceffity and compulfion. Why should a paf fage be darkened for the fake of changing it? Befides, of Brave in that fenfe, I remember no example.

tis foul.] Shameful; dif

honourable.

G

Feol.

Fool. He that has a houfe to put's head in, has a good head-piece.

The codpiece that will house,
Before the head has any,

The head and he fhall lowfe;

*So beggars marry many.
That man that makes his toe,
What he his heart fhould make,

Shall of a corn cry woe,

And turn his fleep to wake.

For there was never yet fair woman, but she made mouths in a glass.

SCENE HI

To them, Enter Kent.

Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience, I will fay nothing.

: Kent. Who's there?

Fool. Marry here's grace and a cod-piece, that's a wife man and a fool.

Kent. Alas, Sir, are you here? Things that love night,

Love not fuch nights as thefe, the wrathful skies "Gallow the very wand'rers of the dark,

And make them keep their Caves. Since I was man, Such fheets of fire, fuch burfts of horrid thunder, Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never Remember to have heard. Man's nature cannot carry Th' affliction, nor the 'fear.

Lear. Let the great Gods,

That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads,
Find out their enemies now.

So beggars marry many.] That is, a beggar marries a wife and i e. I

9 Gallow the very wand'rers of the dark,] Gallow, a

Tremble, thou wretch,

weft-country word, fignifies to fcar or frighten. WARBURTON.

So the folio, the later editions read, with the quarto, force for fear, lefs elegantly.

That

That haft within thee undivulged crimes,

Unwhipt of juftice.
Thou Perjure, and

Hide thee, thou bloody hand; thou Simular of virtue, That art incestuous. Caitiff, fhake to pieces, 3 That under covert and convenient feeming, Haft practis'd on man's life!-Clofe pent-up guilts, Rive your concealing continents and afk Thefe dreadful fummoners grace.-I am a man, More finn'd against, than finning.

Kent. Alack, bare-headed?

Gracious my Lord, hard by here is a hovel,
Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempeft;
Repofe you there, while I to this hard house,
More hard than is the ftone whereof 'tis rais'd,
Which ev'n but now, demanding after you,
Deny'd me to come in, return, and force
Their fcanted courtesy.

Lear. My wits begin to turn.

Come on, my boy. How doít, my boy? art cold?

2 -thou Simular of virtue,] Shakespear has here kept exactly to the Latin propriety of the term. I will only obferve, that our author feems to have imitated Skelton in making a fubftantive of Simular, as the other did of Diffimular,

With other foure of theyr affy-
nyte,
Dyjdayne, ryotte, Diffymuler,
Jubtylte.

The bouge of Courte.

WARBURTON. 3 That under COVERT AND convenient feeming,] This may be right. And if fo, convenient is used for commodious or friendly. But I rather think the poet wrote,

That under COVER OF convivial
Seeming,

.e. under cover of a frank, open, focial converfation. This raifes the fenfe, which the poet expreffes more at large in Timon of Athens, where he says,

The fellow that

Sits next him now, parts bread
with him, and pledges
The breath of him in a divided
draught;

Is th' readieft man to kill him.-
WARBURTON.

Convenient needs not be underftood in any other than its ufual and proper fenfe; accommodate to the prefent purpofe ; fuitable to a design. Convenient feeming is appearance fuch as may promote his purpofe to destroy.

4-concealing continents-] Continent ftands for that which contains or inclofes. G 2

I'm

I'm cold myself. Where is the ftraw, my fellow?
The art of our neceffities is ftrange,

That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel.

Poor fool and knave, I've one part in my heart,
That's forry yet for thee.

Fool. He that has an a little tyny wit,

With beigh bo, the wind and the rain;
Muft make content with his fortunes fit,
Though the rain it raineth every day.

Lear. True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this

Fool. 'Tis a brave night to cool a curtezan. ? I'll speak a prophecy ere I