And I have one thing, of a queazy question,2 Which I must act:-Briefness, and fortune,work!Brother, a word;-descend:-Brother, I say;

Enter EDGAR.

My father watches:-O sir, fly this place;
Intelligence is given where you are hid;
You have now the good advantage of the night
Have you not spoken 'gainst the duke of Cornwall?
He's coming hither; now, i'the night, i'the haste,
And Regan with him; Have you nothing said
Upon his party 'gainst the duke of Albany?+

queazy question,] Something of a suspicious, questionable, and uncertain nature. This is, I think, the meaning.

Again, in Ben Jonson's New Inn:

"Notes of a queasy and sick stomach, labouring
"With want of a true injury."

JOHNSON. Queazy, I believe, rather means delicate, unsettled, what requires to be handled nicely. So, Ben Jonson, in Sejanus: "Those times are somewhat queasy to be touch'd."Have you not seen or read part of his book?" Again, in Letters from the Paston Family, Vol. II. p. 127: "the world seemeth queasy here."

Again, in Much Ado about Nothing:

"Despight of his quick wit, and queazy stomach."

STEEVENS.

Queazy is still used in Devonshire, to express that sickishness of stomach which the slightest disgust is apt to provoke.

HENLEY.

3

-i' the haste,] I should have supposed we ought to read only-in haste, had I not met with our author's present phrase in XII merry Jests of the Wyddow Edyth, 1573:

"To London they tooke in all the haste,

"They wolde not once tarry to breake their faste."

STEEVENS.

Have you nothing said

Upon his party 'gainst the duke of Albany?] The meaning is, have you said nothing upon the party formed by him against the duke of Albany? HANMER.

Advise yourself."

EDG.

I am sure on't, not a word.

EDM. I hear my father coming,-Pardon me :In cunning, I must draw my sword upon you :Draw: Seem to defend yourself: Now quit you well.

Yield: come before my father;-Light, ho, here!

Fly, brother;-Torches ! torches !-So, farewell.[Exit EDGAR. Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion [Wounds his Arm. Of my more fierce endeavour: I have seen drunk

ards

Do more than this in sport.-Father! father!
Stop, stop! No help?

Enter GLOSTER, and Servants with Torches.

GLO. Now, Edmund, where's the villain? EDM. Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out,

I cannot but think the line corrupted, and would read: Against his party, for the duke of Albany? JOHNSON. Upon his party-] i. e. on his behalf. HENLEY.

Advise yourself.] i. e. consider, recollect yourself. So, in Twelfth Night: "Advise you what you say." STEEVENS.

-I have seen drunkards

Do more than this in sport.] So in a passage already quoted in a note on The Winter's Tale, Act II. sc. ii: "Have I not been drunk for your health, eat glasses, drunk urine, stabbed arms, and done all offices of protested gallantry for your sake?"Marston's Dutch Courtezan. STEEVENS.

VOL. XVII.

2 C

Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon To stand his auspicious mistress: 8

GLO.

But where is he?

EDM. Look, sir, I bleed.

GLO.

Where is the villain, Edmund? EDM. Fled this way, sir. When by no means he could

GLO. Pursue him, ho!-Go after.-[Exit Serv.] By no means,-what?

EDM. Persuade me to the murder of your lordship;

But that I told him, the revenging gods
'Gainst parricides did all their thunders' bend;
Spoke, with how manifold and strong a bond
The child was bound to the father ;-Sir, in fine,
Seeing how loathly opposite I stood
To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion,
With his prepared sword, he charges home
My unprovided body, lanc'd mine arm:
But when he saw my best alarum'd spirits,
Bold in the quarrel's right, rous'd to the encounter,

Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon-] This was a proper circumstance to urge to Gloster; who appears, by what passed between him and his bastard son in a foregoing scene, to be very superstitious with regard to this matter.

WARBURTON.

The quartos read, warbling instead of mumbling. STEEVENS. ·conjuring the moon

To stand his auspicious mistress:] So, in All's well that ends well:

"And fortune play upon thy prosperous helm,
"As thy auspicious mistress." MALONE.

9

their thunders-] First quarto; the rest have it, the thunder. JOHNSON.

Or whether gasted' by the noise I made,
Full suddenly he fled.

GLO.

Let him fly far:
Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;
And found-Despatch.-The noble duke2 my mas-
ter,

My worthy arch3 and patron, comes to-night:
By his authority I will proclaim it,

That he, which finds him, shall deserve our thanks,
Bringing the murderous coward* to the stake;
He, that conceals him, death.

EDM. When I dissuaded him from his intent, And found him pight to do it, with curst speech5 I threaten'd to discover him: He replied,

1-gasted-] Frighted. JOHNSON.

So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit at several Weapons: "-either the sight of the lady has gasted him, or else he's drunk." STEEVENS.

Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;

And found-Despatch.-The noble duke &c.] The sense is interrupted. He shall be caught-and found, he shall be punished. Despatch. JOHNSON.

arch-] i. e. Chief; a word now used only in com, position, as arch-angel, arch-duke. So, in Heywood's If you know not me, you know Nobody, 1613: "Poole, that arch for truth and honesty." STEevens.

murderous coward-] The first edition reads caitiff. JOHNSON.

And found him pight to do it, with curst speech-] Pight is pitched, fixed, settled. Curst is severe, harsh, vehemently angry.

JOHNSON.

So, in the old morality of Lusty Juventus, 1561: "Therefore my heart is surely pyght

"Of her alone to have a sight.'

Thus, in Troilus and Cressida :

66

tents

"Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains."

STEEVENS.

Thou unpossessing bastard! dost thou think,
If I would stand against thee, would the reposal
Of any trust, virtue, or worth, in thee
Make thy words faith'd? No: what I should deny,
(As this I would; ay, though thou didst produce
My very character,7) I'd turn it all

To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practice:
And thou must make a dullard of the world,
If they not thought the profits of my death
Were very pregnant and potential spurs9
To make thee seek it.

GLO. Strong and fasten'd villain!' Would he deny his letter?-I never got him.2 [Trumpets within.

6

would the reposal-] i. e. Would any opinion that men have reposed in thy trust, virtue, &c. WARBURTON.

STEEVENS.

The old quarto reads, could the reposure.

7-though thou didst produce

My very character,-] i. e. my very hand-writing. See Vol. VI. p. 385, n. 8. MALONE.

8

- make a dullard of the world,] So, in Cymbeline: "What, mak'st thou me a dullard in this act?"

STEEVENS.

9

-pregnant and potential spurs-] Thus the quartos. Folio: potential spirits. MALONE.

1

Strong and fasten'd villain!] Thus the quartos. The folio reads-O strange and fasten'd villain. MALONE.

Strong is determined. Of this epithet our ancestors were uncommonly fond. Thus in the ancient metrical romance of The Sowdon of Babyloyne, MS:

"And my doghter that hore stronge

"I bronte shal be" &c.

The same term of obloquy is many times repeated by the hero of this poem. STEEVENS.

? Would he deny his letter?-I never got him.] Thus the quartos. The folio omits the words-I never got him; end, instead of them, substitutes-said he? MALONE.