an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny, who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, EDGAR.”—Humph! -Conspiracy!" Sleep till I waked him,-you should enjoy half his revenue."-My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain to breed it in ?-When came this to you? Who brought it?

Edm. It was not brought me, my lord; there's the cunning of it: I found it thrown in at the casement of my closet.

Glo. You know the character to be your brother's?

Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his; but, in respect of that, I would fain think it were not. Glo. It is his.

Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but, I hope, his heart is not in the contents.

Glo. Hath he never heretofore sounded you in this business ?

Edm. Never, my lord: but I have often heard him maintain it to be fit, that sons at perfect age, and fathers declined, the father' should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue.

Glo. Oh villain! villain!-His very opinion in the letter.— Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested, brutish villain! worse than brutish!-Go, sirrah, seek him; I'll apprehend him. Abominable villain!-Where is he?

Edm. I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please you to suspend your indignation against my brother, till you can derive from him better testimony of his intent, you shall run a certain course; where, if you violently proceed' against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your honour, and to no other pretence of danger. Glo. Think you so?

Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where

and fathers DECLINED, THE father] The 4tos. read, "and fathers declining, his father," &c.: the folio, 1623, as our text.

5

where, if you violently proceed] "Where " was of old constantly employed in the sense of whereas. We have already had various instances of it.

6

tence

"pre

- and to no other pretence] The 4tos, "to no farther pretence:" " is design or intention: see this Vol. p. 413.

you shall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and that without any farther delay than this very evening.

Glo. He cannot be such a monster.

Edm. Nor is not, sure'.

Glo. To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him. -Heaven and earth!-Edmund, seek him out; wind me into him, I pray you: frame the business after your own wisdom. I would unstate myself to be in a due resolution".

Edm. I will seek him, sir, presently, convey the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal.

Glo. These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us: though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects. Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason, and the bond cracked between son and father. This villain of mine' comes under the prediction; there's son against father: the king falls from bias of nature; there's father against child. We have seen the best of our time: machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves. Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing: do it carefully.-And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his offence, honesty!-'Tis strange. [Exit.

Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, (often the surfeit of our own behaviour 10) we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars as if we were villains by necessity; fools, by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence, and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on. An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of

Nor is not, sure.] This speech and Gloster's reply, as far as "Heaven and earth!" are only in the 4tos.

* I would unstate myself to be in a due resolution.] We should hardly have thought a note here necessary, if Warburton, Johnson, Mason, and Steevens, had not disputed regarding the meaning, which seems only to be, "I would be content to sacrifice my estate, if I could but arrive at a thorough conviction as to his design."

"This villain of mine] From these words inclusive, down to "disquietly to our graves," is only in the folio.

10 -

(often the SURFEIT of our own behaviour)] Is there not room to suspect that the poet may have written forfeit-i. e. the penalty of our own misconduct ?

stars! My father compounded with my mother under the dragon's tail, and my nativity was under ursa major; so that, it follows, I am rough and lecherous.-Tut! I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar—

Enter EDGAR.

and' pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy: my cue is villainous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o' Bedlam.-Oh! these eclipses do portend these divisions. Fa, sol, la, mi.

Edg. How now, brother Edmund! What serious contemplation are you in?

Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what should follow these eclipses.

Edg. Do you busy yourself with that?

2

Edm. I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolution of ancient amities; divisions in state; menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.

Edg. How long have you been a sectary astronomical ?
Edm. Come, come; when saw you my father last?
Edg. The night gone by.

Edm. Spake you with him?

Edg. Ay, two hours together.

Edm. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him, by word, or countenance ?

Edg. None at all.

Edm. Bethink yourself, wherein you may have offended him and at my entreaty forbear his presence, till some little time hath qualified the heat of his displeasure, which at this instant so rageth in him, that with the mischief of your person it would scarcely allay.

1 Edgar-and] These two words are not in the folio: the 4tos. read, “out he comes, for "pat he comes;" and farther on they have mine for "my cue;" "them of Bedlam" for "Tom o' Bedlam ;" and they omit " Fa, sol, la, mi," besides some smaller variations.

2 - as of unnaturalness]

These words, and what follows them, down to

"Come, come," in Edmund's next speech, are only in the 4tos.

3

dissipation of COHORTS,] So the old copies; but Johnson very reasonably suggested that "cohorts" was a misprint for courts. No such change is, however, suggested in the corr. fo. 1632.

Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong.

Edm. That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent forbearance, till the speed of his rage goes slower; and, as I say, retire with me to my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my lord speak. Pray you, go: there's my key. -If you do stir abroad, go armed.

Edg. Armed, brother?

[Exit EDGAR.

Edm. Brother, I advise you to the best; I am no honest man, if there be any good meaning towards you: I have told you what I have seen and heard, but faintly; nothing like the image and horror of it. Pray you, away. Edg. Shall I hear from you anon? Edm. I do serve you in this business.— A credulous father, and a brother noble, Whose nature is so far from doing harms, That he suspects none, on whose foolish honesty My practices ride easy!-I see the business.Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit: All with me's meet, that I can fashion fit.

[Exit.

SCENE III.

A Room in the Duke of ALBANY'S Palace.

Enter GONERIL, and OSWALD her Steward.

Gon. Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool ?

Osw. Ay, madam.

Gon. By day and night he wrongs me: every hour

He flashes into one gross crime or other,

That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it.

His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us

On every trifle.-When he returns from hunting,

I will not speak with him; say, I am sick:

If you come slack of former services,

That's my fear.] What follows these words, down to, and including, Edgar's speech," Armed, brother?" is not in the 4tos.

5 Brother, I advise you to the best ;] Here the 4tos. add, "go armed;" but as our text is from the folio, which before has given," If you do stir abroad, go armed," this repetition of the injunction is needless.

You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer.
Osw. He's coming, madam; I hear him.

[Horns within.

Gon. Put on what weary negligence you please,
You and your fellows; I'd have it come to question:
If he distaste it, let him to my sister,

Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one,
Not to be over-ruled. Idle old man',
That still would manage those authorities,
That he hath given away!-Now, by my life,
Old fools are babes again; and must be us'd

With checks as flatteries, when they are seen abus'd.
Remember what I have said.

Osw.

Well, madam.

Gon. And let his knights have colder looks among you.
What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows so:
I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall,
That I may speak ".-I'll write straight to my sister,
To hold my course.-Prepare for dinner.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

A Hall in the Same.

Enter KENT, disguised.

Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow,
That can my speech diffuse, my good intent
May carry through itself to that full issue

For which I raz'd my likeness.-Now, banish'd Kent,
If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd,

6 If he DISTASTE it,] The 4tos, "If he dislike it." In the previous line the 4tos, needlessly, and injuriously as regards the verse, insert servants after "fellows;" but the whole scene is there printed as prose.

7 Not to be over-ruled. Idle old man,] This and the four lines succeeding it are not in the folio.

8 I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall,

That I may speak.] These words are only in the 4tos.

9 That can my speech DIFFUSE,] So all the old editions. To "diffuse " meant, in the time of Shakespeare, to disorder or confuse: "diffus'd attire" is an expression in Henry V." (Vol. iii. p. 633) for disordered dress. A "diffused song," in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," A. iv. sc. 4, is an irregular song. Kent wishes to disguise his speech; and the Rev. Mr. Dyce has a whole page on the point, including various quotations, which seem to prove that he never considers a point sufficiently established.