P. 513. Critical Remarks, 1. 37. the public has decided.] Dr. Johnson should rather have said that the managers of the theatres royal have decided, and the public has been obliged to acquiesce in their decision. The altered play has the upper gallery on its side; the original drama was patronized by Addison. "Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni." STEEVENS.

ACT I.

SCENE 1.

P. 513, c. 1, l. 7. in the division of the kingdom,] There is something of obscurity or inaccuracy in this preparatory scene. The king has already divided his kingdom, and yet when he enters he examines his daughters, to discover in what proportions he should divide it. Perhaps Kent and Gloster only were privy to his design, which he still kept in his own hands, to be changed or performed as subsequent reasons should determine him. JOHNSON. Id. 1. 9. that curiosity in neither-] Curiosity is scrupulousness, or captiousness. Id. l. 10. of either's moiety.] The strict sense of the word moiety is half, one of two equal parts: but Shakspeare commonly uses it for any part or division. Id. c. 2, 1. 2.

some. Id. l. 4.

being so proper.] i. e. hand

some year elder than this,] i. e. about a year.

P.514, c. 1, 1.7. express our darker purpose.] That is, we have already made known in some measure our desire of parting the kingdom; we will now discover what has not been told before, the reasons by which we shall regulate the partition. This interpretation will justify or palliate the exordial dialogue. JOHNId. l. 9. and 'lis our fast intent-] Our de

SON.

termined resolution.

Id. l. 15. -constant will-] Constant is firm, determined. Constant will is the certa voluntas of Virgil.

Id. 1.36. Beyond all manner of so much-] Beyond all assignable quantity. I love you beyond limits, and cannot say it is so much, for how much soever I should name, it would be yet

Id.

Id.

possesses:] Perhaps square means only com-
pass, comprehension; or, the full complement
of all the senses.
1. 59. No less in space, validity,] Validity, for
worth, value; not for integrity, or good title.
l. 63. Strive to be interess'd;] To interest and
to interesse, are not, perhaps, different spel-
lings of the same verb, but are two distinct
words, though of the same import; the one
being derived from the Latin, the other from
the French intéresser.

Id. 1. 68. "will come"-MALONE.

Id. c. 2. 1. 21. --generation-] i. e. his children. Id. l. 43. - all the additions to a king ;] All the titles belonging to a king.

Id. l. 45. execution of the rest,] All the other business.

Id. 1. 66. Reverbs-] This is, perhaps, a word of the poet's own making, meaning the same as reverberates.

Id. l. 73. The true blank of thine eye,] The blank is the white or exact mark at which the arrow is shot. See better, says Kent, and keep me always in your view.

P. 515, c. 1, 7. 12. (Which nor our nature nor our place can bear)

Our potency made good,] i. e. They to whom I have yielded my power and authority, yielding me the ability to dispense it in this instance, take thy reward.

Id. l. 18. By Jupiter,] Shakspeare makes his Lear too much a mythologist: he had Hecate and Apollo before. JOHNSON.

Id. 1. 29. He'll shape his old course-] He will follow his old maxims; he will continue to act upon the same principles.

Id.

1. 37. quest of love?] Quest of love is amorous expedition. The term originated from Romance. A quest was the expedition in which a knight was engaged.

Id. l. 44. seeming-] is beautiful, or rather, Id. l. 50. owes,] i. e. is possessed of. specious.

Id. l. 55. Election makes not up on such conditions.] Election comes not to a decision; in the same sense as when we say, "I have made up my mind on that subject." 1. 73. --or your fore-vouch'd affection

Id.

Fall into taint :] Either her offence must be monstrous, or, if she has not committed any such offence, the affection which you always professed to have for her must be tainted and decayed, and is now without reason alienated from her.

Id. l. 17. Thou, nature, art my goddess ;] Edmund calls nature his goddess, for the same reason that we call a bastard a natural son; one, who, according to the law of nature, is the child of his father, but according to those of civil society, is nullius filius. Id. 1. 19. Stand in the plague of custom :] Wherefore should I acquiesce, submit tamely to the plagues and injustice of custom?

Id. 1. 20. The curiosity of nations-] i, e. the idle, nice distinctions of the world. Id. l. 20. to deprive me,] To deprive was, in our author's time, synonymous to disinherit. Id l. 42. subscrib'd his power!] To subscribe in Shakspeare, is to yield or surrender. Id. l. 43. exhibition!] is allowance. The term is yet used in the universities. Id. l. 44. All this done

Upon the gad! i. e. is done suddenly, or, as before, while the iron is hot. A gad is an iron bar.

Id. l. 71. Id. c. 2, l. 28. whereas.

idle and fond-] Weak and foolish. where, if you-] Where, for

| Id l. 33. —to your honour,] It has been already observed that this was the usual mode of address to a lord in Shakspeare's time. Id. 1. 33.

Id. Purpose.

45.

· pretence-] Pretence is design,

I would unstate myself to be in a due resolution.] i. e. he would give all he possessed to be certain of the truth; for that is the meaning of the words to be in a due resolution.

Id. l. 47. convey the business-] To convey is to carry through; in this place it is to manage artfully we say of a juggler, that he has a clean conveyance.

Id. 1. 50. -the wisdom of nature-] that is, though natural philosophy can give account of eclipses, yet we feel their consequences. Id. l. 70. and treachers,] for treacherous. P. 517, c. 1, l. 5.0, these eclipses do portend

these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi.] The commentators, not being musicians, have regarded this passage perhaps as unintelligible nonsense, and therefore left it as they found it, without bestowing a single conjecture on its meaning and import. Shakspeare however shows by the context that he was well acquainted with the property of these syllables in solmization, which imply a series of sounds so unnatural, that ancient musicians prohibited their use. The monkish writers on music say, mi contra fa est diabolus: the interval fa mi, including a tritonus, or sharp 4th, consisting of three

tones, without the intervention of a semi-tone, expressed in the modern scale by the letters FGA B, would form a musical phrase extremely disagreeable to the ear. Edmund, speaking of eclipses as portents and prodigies, compares the dislocation of events, the times being out of joint, to the unnatural and offensive sounds, fa, sol, la, mi. DR. BURNEY.

SCENE III.

Id. c. 2, l. 1. Old fools are babes again; and must be us'd

With checks, as flatteries-when they are seen abus'd.] i. e. when old fools will not yield to the appliances of persuasion, harsh treatment must be employed to compel their submission. When 'flatteries are seen to be abus'd by them, checks must be used, as the only means left to subdue them.

SCENE IV.

Id. l. 14. That can my speech diffuse,] To diffuse speech, signifies to disorder it, and so to disguise it. Id. 1. 31.- -to converse with him that is wise, and says little;] To converse signifies immediately and properly to keep company, not to discourse or talk.

Id.

1. 32. -and to eat no fish.] In queen Elizabeth's time the Papists were esteemed, and with good reason, enemies to the government. Hence the proverbial phrase of, He's an honest man, and eats no fish; to signify he's a friend to the government and a Protestant. P. 518, c. I, l. 8. -jealous curiosity,] Puncti

lious jealousy. Id. 1. 8. — a very pretence-] Pretence in Shakspeare generally signifies design.

Id. 1. 13. Since my young lady's going into France, sir, the fool hath much pined away.] This is an endearing circumstance in the fool's character, and creates such an interest in his favour, as his wit alone might have failed to procure for him. STEEVENS. 1. 52.

Id.

all my living,] Living in Shakspeare's time signified estate, or property.

Id. 1. 57. Lady, the brach,] Brach is a bitch of the hunting kind.

Id. 1. 65. Lend less than thou owest.] That is, do not lend all that thou hast. To owe, in old English, is to possess.

Id. 1. 67. Learn more than thou trowest.] To trow, is an old world which signifies to believe. Id. c. 2. 1. 20.. if I had a monopoly out, they

Id.

would have part on't:] A satire on the gross
abuses of monopolies at that time; and the
corruption and avarice of the courtiers, who
commonly went shares with the patentee.
1. 33. Fools had ne'er less grace in a year ;]
There never was a time when fools were less
in favour; and the reason is, that they were
never so little wanted, for wise men now supply
their place. Such I think is the meaning.
JOHNSON.

Id. 1. 60.——— that frontlet-] A frontlet was a forehead-cloth, used formerly by ladies at night to render that part smooth. Lear, I suppose, means to say, that Goneril's brow was as completely covered by a frown, as it would be by a frontlet. MALONE.

Id. 1. 70. That's a sheal'd peascod.] i. e. now a mere husk, which contains nothing. The outside of a king remains, but all the intrinsic parts of royalty are gone: he has nothing to give. Id. l. 78. -put it on—] i. e. promote, push it forward.

Id. 1.79. By your allowance ;] By your approbation.

P. 519, c. 1, 7. 9. -were left darkling.] Shakspeare's fools are certainly copied from the life. The originals whom he copied were no doubt men of quick parts; lively and sarcastic. Though they were licensed to say any thing, it was still necessary to prevent giving offence, that every thing they said should have a playful air; we may suppose therefore that they had a custom of taking off the edge of too sharp a speech by covering it hastily with the end of an old song, or any glib nonsense that came into the mind. I know no other way of accounting for the incoherent words with which Shakspeare often finishes his fool's speeches. SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. Id. l. 24. —for by the marks of sovereignty, knowledge, and reason, &c.] Were I to judge from the marks of sovereignty, of knowledge, or reason, I should be induced to think I had daughters, yet that must be a false persuasion; -it cannot be.

Id. l. 25. Which they will make an obedient father.] Which, is on this occasion used with two deviations from present language. It is referred, contrary to the rules of grammarians, to the pronoun 1, and is employed, according to a mode now obsolete, for whom, the accusative

case of who.

Id. l. 28. o'the favour-] i. of the complexion. Id. l. 41. - still depend,] Depend, for continue

in service.

Id. l. 56. Than the sea-monster!] Mr. Upton observes, that the sea-monster is the hippopotamus, the hieroglyphical symbol of impiety and ingratitude.

Id. l. 64. - like an engine,] By an engine is meant the rack.

Id. l. 77. - from her derogate body-] Derogate for degraded, blasted.

Id. c. 2, 1.3. cadent tears-] i. e. falling tears. Id. 1 4. Turn all her mother's pains, and benefits,]

Her maternal cares and good offices. Id. 1. 25. The untented woundings-] Untented wounds, means wounds in their worst state, not having a tent in them to digest them: and may possibly signify here such as will not admit of having a tent put into them for that purpose. Id. 1. 52. At point,] Completely armed, and consequently ready at appointment or command on the slightest notice.

Id. l. 58. "trust too far:"-MALONE. Id. l. 71. compact it more.] Unite one circumstance with another, so as to make a con

Id. l. 25. Advise yourself] i. e. consider, recollect yourself. -gasted-] Frighted.

Id. 1. 65.Id. l. 71. arch-] i. e. chief; a word now used only in composition, as arch-angel, arch-duke. Id. 1. 76. And found him pight to do it, with curst speech-] Pight is pitched, fixed, settled. Curst is severe, harsh, vehemently angry. P. 521, c. 1, l. 5. My very character,-] i. e. my very handwriting.

Id. 1. 21. of my land

Id.

To make thee capable.] i. e. capable of succeeding to my land.

1. 53. He did bewray his practice;] i. e. discover, betray. Practice is always used by Shakspeare for insidious mischief.

Id. l. 71. · of some poize,] i. e. of some weight -from our home;] Not at home, else

or moment.

Id. 1. 75. where.

SCENE II.

Id. l. 21. · action-taking knave ;] i. e. a fellow, who, if you beat him, would bring an action for the assault. - addition.] i. e. titles. These titles Id. 1. 28. were probably familiar in Shakspeare's time the lower classes, although their meanamong ing be now lost. The conjectures of the aunotators have been but idly employed on them. vanity the puppet's part.] Alluding l. 41. to the old moralities, in which vanity, iniquity, and other vices, were personified.

Id.

Id. l. 47. Id. l. 75.

neat slave,] You finical rascal.

this unbolted villain-] Unbolted mortar is mortar made of unsifted lime, and therefore to break the lumps it is necessary to tread it by men in wooden shoes. This unbolted villain is therefore this coarse rascal.

P. 522, c. 1, l. 8. Which are too intrinse] for intrinsicate.

Id. l. 12. -and turn their halcyon beaks, &c.] The halcyon is the bird otherwise called the king-fisher. The vulgar opinion was, that this bird, if hung up, would vary with the wind, and by that means show from what point it blew.

ld. 1.15. — epileptic visage !] The frighted countenance of a man ready to fall in a fit. Id. 1. 18.. -Camelot.] Was the place where the romances say king Arthur kept his court in the West; so this alludes to some proverbial speech in those romances.

Id. 1. 26. Id 1.36.

Id.

likes me not.] i. e. pleases me not.
-constrains the garb,

Quite from his nature:] Forces his outside or his appearance to something totally diffe rent from his natural disposition.

Id. l. 47. On flickering Phœbus' front,] To flicker is to flutter; like the motion of a flame. 1.53.though I should win your displeasure to entreat me to it.] Though I should win you, displeased as you now are, to like me so well as to entreat me to be a knave. JOHNSON. Id. l. 55. "I never gave him any :"-MALONE. Id. l. 63. fleshment-] A young soldier is said

to flesh his sword, the first time he draws blood with it. Fleshment, therefore, is here metaphorically applied to the first act of service, which Kent, in his new capacity, had performed for his master.

Id. 1. 64. "Here again."-MALONE.

Id. 1. 66. But Ajax is their fool.] i. e. is a fool to them.

Id. c. 2, l. 18. It should be remembered, that formerly in great houses, as still in some colleges, there were moveable stocks for the correction of the servants. FARMER.

P. 522, c. 2, l. 34. Good king, that must approve | the common saw! &c.] The saw alluded to, is in Heywood's Dialogues on Proverbs, "In your running from him to me, ye runne "Out of God's blessing into the warme sunne."

Id. l. 62.

SCENE III.

-elf all my hair in knots;] Hair thus knotted, was vulgarly supposed to be the work of elves and fairies in the night. Id. l. 66. Of Bedlam beggars,] These were a species of beggars, such as had been in Bedlam, and when partly recovered and allowed to go out, were licensed to beg. Edgar borrows his dress from them, and the phrases of Poor Tom, Poor Tom is a-cold.

Id. l. 68. wooden pricks,] i e. skewers. Id. 1. 70. Poor pelting villages,] Beggarly or petty. Id. 1. 71. lunatic bans,] To ban, is to curse. Id. l. 72. poor Turlygood! poor Tom!] For Turlupin. In the fourteenth century there was a new species of gipsies, called Turlupins, a fraternity of naked beggars, which ran up and down Europe.

SCENE IV.

P. 523, c. 1, 7. 8. he wears cruel garters!] Probably a quibble was here intended. Crewel signifies worsted, of which stockings, garters, nightcaps, &c. are made.

Jd. l. 12.

wooden nether-stocks. ] Netherstocks is the old word for stockings. Breeches were at that time called "men's overstockes." Id. 1.27. To do upon respect such violent outrage:] | To be so grossly deficient in respect. Id. l. 37.. spite of intermission,] i. e. without pause, without suffering time to intervene. Id. 1. 39. They summon'd up their meiny,] Meiny, i. e. people; from mesne, a house. Mesnie, a family, Fr.

Id. l. 58. -dolours-] Quibble betwen dolours

and dollars.

Id. 1. 60. O, how this mother, &c.] Lear here affects to pass off the swelling of his heart, ready to burst with grief and indignation, for the disease called the Mother, or Hysterica passio, which, in our author's time, was not thought peculiar to women only.

Id. c. 2, l. 49. - this remotion-] From their own house to that of the earl of Gloster. la. l. 50. Is practice only.] Practice is, in Shakspeare, and other old writers, used commonly in an ill sense for unlawful artifice.

Id. l. 59.

i'the paste-] The paste, or crust of a pie, in Shakspeare's time, was called a coffin.

P. 524, c. 1, 1. 5. scant her duty.] i. e. be deficient in her duty, but the expression is inaccurate.

Id. l. 21. - -the house?] The order of families, duties of relation.

Id. 1. 23. Age is unnecessary:] i. e. old age has few wants, or it may mean the old people are useless.

Id. l. 41. "mood is on.”—MALONE. Id. l. 44. Thy tender-hefted nature-] Hefted seems to mean the same as heaved. Tenderhefted, i. e. whose bosom is agitated by tender passions.

Id. l. 49. to scant my sizes,] To contract my allowances or proportions settled. Sizes are certain portions of bread, beer, or other victuals, which in public societies are set down to the account of particular persons: a word still used in colleges.

Id. 1. 73. Allow obedience,] Allow sometimes significs approve.

|

Id. c. 2, l. 3. thinks. Id. l. 8.

- that indiscretion finds,] Or.

less advancement.] A still worse or more disgraceful situation.

Id. l. 10. being weak, seem so.] Since you are weak, be content to think yourself weak. Id. l. 25. - and sumpter-] Sumpter is a horse that carries necessaries on a journey, though sometimes used for the case to carry them in. Id. 1. 34. embossed carbuncle,] Embossed is, swelling, protuberant.

P. 525, c. 1. 7. 34. "Tis his own blame; hath put himself," &c.-MALONE.

Id. 1. 60. light of ear,] Credulous of evil, ready to receive malicious reports. Id. c. 2, l. 8.

-

- web and the pin,] Diseases of

the eye. Id. 1. 11. Saint Withold, &c.] i. e. Saint Withold traversing the wold or downs, met the nightmare; he obliged her to alight from those persons whom she rides, and plight her troth to do no more mischief. This is taken from a story of him in his legend. Ninefold means her nine familiars.

Id. l. 22. — the wall-newt, and the water ;] i, e. the water-newt. Id. l. 26. -

whipped from tything to tything.] A tything is a division of a place, a district; the same in the country as a ward in the city.

In the Saxon times every hundred was divided into tythings.

P. 527, c. 2, l. 36. Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.] The names of pretended spirits.

P. 528. c 1, l. 6. Child Rowland-] The word child (however it came to have this sense) is often applied to knights, &c. in old historical songs and romances.

SCENE VI.

Id. 1. 48. Pray, innocent,] Perhaps he is here addressing the fool. Fools were anciently called innocents.

Id. 1. 56. "whizzing"-MALONE.

Id. 1. 69. Come o'er the bourn,—] A bourn in the north signifies a rivulet or brook.

Id. c. 2, l. 40.- brach, or lym, &c.] Names of particular sorts of dogs.

Id. l. 52.

you will say, they are Persian attire ;] Alluding, perhaps, to Clytus' refusing the Persian robes offered him by Alexander. P. 529, c. 1, 7. 9. -free things,] States clear from distress.

Id. 1. 16. Mark the high noises;] Attend to the great events that are approaching, and make thyself known when that false opinion now prevailing against thee shall, in consequence of just proof of thy integrity, revoke its erand thyself bewray,] i. e. discover.

roneous sentence.

Id. l. 16.

Id. 1. 34.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.

World, world, O world!

But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,] O world! if reverses of fortune and changes such as I now see and feel, from ease and affluence to poverty and misery, did not show us the little value of life, we should never submit with any kind of resignation to the weight of years, and its necessary consequence, infirmity and death. MALONE.,

Idl. 46. Our mean secures us;] Mean is here a substantive, and signifies a middle state. Mr. Malone reads, "Our means secure us."

Id. c. 2, l. 12. I cannot daub it-] i. e. disguise.

Id. I. 31. That slaves your ordinance, &c.] The language of Shakspeare is very licentious, and his words have often meanings remote from the proper and original use. To slave or beslave another is to treat him with terms of indignity: in a kindred sense, to slave the ordinance, may be, to slight or ridicule it. JOHNSON.

To slave an ordinance, is to treat it as a slave, to make it subject to us, instead of acting in obedience to it."

Id. l. 65.

Id.

P.

SCENE II.

-Our wishes, on the way,

May prove effects.] What we wish, before our march is at an end, may be brought to happen, i. e. the murder or despatch of her husband.

1.73 Decline your head: &c.] She bids him
decline his head, that she might give him a kiss
(the steward being present), and that it might
appear only to him as a whisper.
531, c. 1. l. 6. I have been worth the whistle.]
Goneril's meaning seems to be-There was a
time when you would have thought me worth
the calling to you; reproaching him for not
having summoned her to consult with on the
present critical occasion.

Id. l. 17. She that herself will sliver and disbranch

From her material sap,] She who breaks the bonds of filial duty, and becomes wholly alienated from her father, must wither and perish, like a branch separated from that sap which supplies it with nourishment, and gives life to the matter of which it is composed. Id. l. 61. amongst them fell'd him dead:] i. e. they fell'd.

SCENE III.

Id. c. 2, 34. "better May :"-MALONE. Id. 1. 41. Made she no verbal question?] Means only, did she enter into no conversation with you? In this sense our poet frequently uses the word question, and not simply as the act of interrogation.

Id. l. 48. Let pity not be believed!] i. e. let not such a thing as pity be supposed to exist! Id. l. 50. clamour moisten'd:] that is, her outcries were accompanied with tears. Id. l. 53. -govern our conditions ;] i. e. regulate our dispositions.

Id. 1. 77. --some dear cause-] Some important

business.

SCENE IV.

P. 532, c. 1, l. 7. — fumiter,] i. e. fumitory. ld. l. 8. -harlocks,] A typographical error for charlock, or wild mustard.

Id. l. 26. the means to lead it.] The reason which should guide it.

Id. 1. 34. important-] For importunate. Id. l. 35. No blown ambition-] No inflated, no swelling pride.

SCENE V

Id. l. 55. His nighted life;] i. e. his life made dark as night, by the extinction of his eyes. Id. 1. 70. She gave strange ciliads,]

ade, Fr. a cast, or significant glance of the eye. Id. l. 74. I do advise you, take this note:] Note means in this place not a letter, but a remark. Therefore observe what I am saying.