The goujeers shall devour them,' flesh and fell,'

The same allusion occurs in our author's 44th Sonnet: "Till my bad angel fire my good one out." STEEVENS. So, in Marlowe's King Edward II. 1598:

"Advance your standard, Edward, in the field,

"And march to fire them from their starting holes." Mr. Upton, however, is of opinion that "the allusion is to the scriptural account of Sampson's tying foxes, two and two together by the tail, and fastening a fire-brand to the cord; then letting them loose among the standing corn of the Philistines." Judges xv. 4.

The words-shall bring a brand from heaven, seem to favour Mr. Upton's conjecture. If it be right, the construction must be, they shall bring a brand from heaven, and, like foxes, fire us hence: referring foxes, not to Lear and Cordelia, but to those who should separate them. MALONE.

The brands employed by Sampson were not brought from heaven. I therefore prefer the common and more obvious explanation of the passage before us. STEEVENS.

1 The goujeers shall devour them,] The goujeres, i. e. Morbus Gallicus. Gouge, Fr. signifies one of the common women attending a camp; and as that disease was first dispersed over Europe by the French army, and the women who followed it, the first name it obtained among us was the gougeries, i. e. the disease of the gouges. HANMER.

The resolute John Florio has sadly mistaken these goujeers. He writes "With a good yeare to thee!" and gives it in Italian, "Il mal' anno che dio ti dia." FARMER.

Golding, in his version of the 3d book of Ovid's Metamorphosis, has fallen into the same error, or rather, the same mis-spelling. -Juno is the speaker:

"Perfeci quid enim toties per jurgia? dixit." which is thus anglicized, p. 35:

"And what a good-yeare have I wonne by scolding erst ? she sed." STEEVENS.

The old copies have good yeares, the common corruption in Shakspeare's time of the other word. Sir T. Hanmer made the correction. MALONE.

*-flesh and fell,] Flesh and skin. JOHNSON.

-flesh and fell,] So, Skelton's works, p. 257:
"Nakyd asyde,

"Neither flesh nor fell."

Ere they shall make us weep: we'll see them starve first.

Come.

[Exeunt LEAR and CORDELIA, guarded.

EDM. Come hither, captain; hark.

Take thou this note; [Giving a Paper.] go, follow them to prison:

One step I have advanc'd thee; if thou dost
As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way
To noble fortunes: Know thou this,-that men
Are as the time is: to be tender-minded

Does not become as word:-Thy great employ

ment

Will not bear question; either say,
Or thrive by other means.

thou❜lt do't,

Chaucer uses fell and bones for skin and bones :
"And said that he and all his kinne at ones,
"Were worthy to be brent with fell and bones."
Troilus and Cresseide.

GREY,

In The Dyar's Play, among the Chester Collection of Mysteries, in the Museum, Antichrist says:

"I made thee, man, of flesh and fell." Again, in The Contention betwyxte Churchyeard and Camell

&c. 1560:

"This lesson heether to I kept, and shall here after kepe, Tylle I to earthe retorne again where fleshe and fell must sleepe." STEEVENS.

'Take thou this note;] This was a warrant, signed by the Bastard and Goneril, for the execution of Lear and Cordelia. In a subsequent scene Edmund says

66 quickly send,

"Be brief in't,-to the castle: for my writ
"Is on the life of Lear, and of Cordelia :-
"He hath commission from thy wife and me
"To hang Cordelia in the prison." MALONE.

Thy great employment

Will not bear question;] By great employment was meant the commission given him for the murder; and this, the Bastard tells us afterwards, was signed by Goneril and himself. Which was sufficient to make this captain unaccountable for the execution. WARBURTON.

OFF.

I'll do't, my lord.

EDM. About it; and write happy, when thou hast done.

Mark,-I say, instantly; and carry

As I have set it down.

it so,

OFF. I cannot draw a cart," nor eat dried oats; If it be man's work, I will do it. [Exit Officer.

Flourish.

Enter ALBANY, GONERIL,
GONERIL, REGAN,
Officers, and Attendants.

ALB. Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain,

And fortune led you well: You have the captives
Who were the opposites of this day's strife:
We do require them of you; so to use them,
As we shall find their merits and our safety
May equally determine.

EDM.

Sir, I thought it fit
To send the old and miserable king

To some retention, and appointed guard;"
Whose age has charms in it, whose title more,

The important business which is now entrusted to your management, does not admit of debate: you must instantly resolve to do it, or not. Question, here, as in many other places, signifies discourse, conversation. MALONE.

So, in The Merchant of Venice:

"You may as well use question with the wolf."

› I cannot draw &c.]

STEEVENS.

These two lines I have restored from

the old quarto. STEEVENS.

We do require them of you;] So the folio. The quartos read: "We do require then of you so to use them." MALONE. and appointed guard;] These words are omitted in the quarto of which the first signature is B, and in the folio.

7

MALONE.

To pluck the common bosom on his side,
And turn our impress'd lances in our eyes
Which do command them. With him I sent the
queen;

My reason all the same; and they are ready
To-morrow, or at further space, to appear

Where you shall hold your session. [At this time,' We sweat, and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend;

And the best quarrels, in the heat, are curs'd
By those that feel their sharpness:-

The question of Cordelia, and her father,
Requires a fitter place.']

ALB.

Sir, by your patience,

I hold you but a subject of this war,
Not as a brother.

REG.

That's as we list to grace him. Methinks, our pleasure might have been demanded, Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers; Bore the commission of my place and person;

And turn our impress'd lances in our eyes-] i. e. Turn the launcemen whom we have hired by giving them press-money (See p. 541, n. 3.) against us.

So, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act III. sc. vii:

people

"Ingross'd by swift impress."

Impress, however, in this place, may possibly have its common signification. STEEVENS.

9[At this time, &c.] This passage, well worthy of restoration, is omitted in the folio. JOHNSON.

1 Requires a fitter place.] i. e. The determination of the question what shall be done with Cordelia and her father, should be reserved for greater privacy. STEEVENS.

* Bore the commission of]

Commission, for authority.

WARBURTON.

The which immediacy3 may well stand up,
And call itself your
your brother.

GON.

Not so hot:

In his own grace he doth exalt himself,
More than in your advancement.5

REG.

In my rights,

By me invested, he compeers the best.

GON. That were the most, if he should husband

you."

REG. Jesters do oft prove prophets.

GON.

Holla, holla! That eye, that told you so, look'd but a-squint."

3

The which immediacy-] Immediacy is supremacy in opposition to subordination, which has quiddam medium between itself and power. JOHNSON.

Immediacy here implies proximity without intervention in rank, or such a plenary delegation of authority, as to constitute the person on whom it is conferred, another SELF: alter et idem. HENLEY.

Immediacy is, I think, close and immediate connexion with me, and direct authority from me, without, to use Dr. Johnson's words, quiddam medium. So, in Hamlet:

let the world take note,

"You are the most immediate to our throne."

MALONE.

* In his own grace-] Grace here means accomplishments, or honours. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "With all good grace to grace a gentleman."

5

addition.

STEEVENS.

in your advancement.] So the quartos. Folio-your MALONE.

"Gon. That were the most, if he should husband you.] If he were married to you, you could not say more than this, nor could he enjoy greater power. Thus the quartos. In the folio this line is given to Albany. MALONE.

7 That eye, that told you so, look'd but a-squint.] Alluding to the proverb: "Love" being jealous makes a good eye look asquint." See Ray's Collection. STEEVENS.