Hark, the duke's trumpets! I know not why he comes: All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not 'scape; Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, and Attendants. CORN. How now, my noble friend? since I came hither, (Which I can call but now,) I have heard strange news.4 REG. If it be true, all vengeance comes too short, Which can pursue the offender. How dost, my lord? GLO. O, madam, my old heart is crack'd, is crack'd! REG. What, did my father's godson seek your life? father nam'd? your Edgar? of my land, - To make thee capable.] i. e. capable of succeeding to my land, notwithstanding the legal bar of thy illegitimacy. So, in The Life and Death of Will Summers, &c.-" The king next demanded of him (he being a fool) whether he were capable to inherit any land," &c. Similar phraseology occurs also in Chapman's version of the sixteenth Iliad: "That is no city libertine, nor capable of their gowne. strange news.] Thus the quartos. words the folio has-strangeness. MALONE. STEEVENS. Instead of these GLO. O, lady, lady, shame would have it hid! REG. Was he not companion with the riotous knights That tend upon my father? GLO. It is too bad, too bad. EDM. I know not, madam: Yes, madam, he was.5 REG. No marvel then, though he were ill af fected; 'Tis they have put him on the old man's death, To have the waste and spoil of his revenues. my sister I have this present evening from tions, That, if they come to sojourn at my house, CORN. Nor I, assure thee, Regan.Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father A child-like office. EDM. 'Twas my duty, sir. "Yes, madam, he was.] Thus the quartos. The folio deranges the metre by adding of that consort. STEEVENS. • To have the waste and spoil of his revenues.] Thus quarto B. The other quarto reads To have these-and waste of this his revenues. The folio: To have the expence and waste of his revenues. These in quarto A was, I suppose, a misprint for-the use. MALONE. The remark made in p. 378, n. 1, is confirmed by the present circumstance; for both my quartos read with Mr. Malone's quarto A: To have these-and waste of this his evenues. It is certain therefore that there is a third quarto which I have STEEVENS. never seen. GLO. He did bewray his practice;" and receiv'd This hurt you see, striving to apprehend him. CORN. Is he pursued? GLO. Ay, my good lord, he is.o CORN. If he be taken, he shall never more Be fear'd of doing harm: make your own purpose, How in my strength you please.-For you, Edmund, Whose virtue and obedience doth this instant So much commend itself, you shall be ours; Natures of such deep trust we shall much need; You we first seize on. EDM. Truly, however else. GLO. I shall serve you, sir, For him I thank your grace.1 CORN. You know not why we came to visit you, 7 He did bewray his practice;] i. e. Discover, betray. So, in The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601: "We were bewray'd, beset, and forc'd to yield." Again, in The Devil's Charter, 1607: "Thy solitary passions should bewray "Some discontent.". Practice is always used by Shakspeare for insidious mischief. So, in Sidney's Arcadia, Book II: "-his heart fainted and gat a conceit, that with bewraying this practice, he might obtaine pardon." The quartos read-betray. STEEVENS. See Minsheu's Dictionary, 1617, in v: "To bewraie, or disclose, a Goth. bewrye." MALONE. he is.] These words were supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer to complete the measure. STEEVENS. 9 Whose virtue and obedience doth-] i. e. whose virtuous obedience. MALONE. 'For him I thank your grace.] Sir Thomas Hanmer, judiciously, in my opinion, omits-For him, as needless to the sense, and injurious to the metre. STEEVENS. REG. Thus out of season; threading dark-ey'd night.2 Occasions, noble Gloster, of some poize,3 Your needful counsel to our business,5 Which craves the instant use. GLO. I serve you, madam : [Exeunt. Your graces are right welcome. 2 threading dark-ey'd night.] The quarto reads: Shakspeare uses the former of these expressions in Coriolanus, Act III: 3 "They would not thread the gates." STEEVENS. - of some poize,] i. e. of some weight or moment. So, in Othello: "full of poize and difficulty, "And fearful to be granted." Thus the quarto B. The other quarto of 1608, and the folio, have prize. Malone. Here again both my quartos read with Mr. Malone's quarto A-prize; though poize is undoubtedly the preferable reading. STEEVENS. -from our home;] Not at home, but at some other place. JOHNSON. Thus the folio. The quarto B reads-which I lest thought it fit to answer from our home. The other quarto—which I best thought it fit to answer from our hand. MALOne. Both my quartos-best,-and- from our hand. STEEVENS. to our business,] Thus the quartos. Folio-to our businesses. MALONE. SCENE II. Before Gloster's Castle. Enter KENT and Steward, severally. STEW. Good dawning to thee, friend: Art of the house?7 KENT. Ay. STEW. Where may we set our horses? KENT. I' the mire. STEW. Pr'ythee, if thou love me, tell me. STEW. Why, then I care not for thee. "Good dawning to thee, friend:] Thus the folio. The quartos -Good even. STEEVENS. We should read with the folio-" Good dawning to thee, friend." The latter end of this scene shows that it passed in the morning; for when Kent is placed in the stocks, Cornwall says, "There he shall sit till noon ;" and Regan replies, "Till noon, till night" and it passed very early in the morning; for Regan tells Gloster, in the preceding page, that she had been threading dark-ey'd night to come to him. M. MASON. Dawning is again used, in Cymbeline, as a substantive, for morning : 66 that dawning May bare the raven's eye." It is clear, from various passages in this scene, that the morning is now just beginning to dawn, though the moon is still up, and though Kent, early in the scene, calls it still night. Towards the close of it, he wishes Gloster good morrow, as the latter goes out, and immediately after calls on the sun to shine, that he may read a letter. MALONE. of the house?] So the quartos. Folio-of this house. MALONE. |