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An honest mind and plain,-he must speak truth:
An they will take it, so; if not, he's plain.

These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness
Harbour more craft, and more corrupter ends,
Than twenty silly ducking observants,

That stretch their duties nicely.

Kent. Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity, Under the allowance of your grand aspéct, Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire On flickering Phoebus' front,

Corn. What mean'st by this?

Kent. To go out of my dialect, which you discommend so much. I know, sir, I am no flatterer: he that beguiled you, in a plain accent, was a plain knave; which, for my part, I will not be, though I should win your displeasure to intreat me to it.7

Corn. What was the offence you gave him?
Stew. Never any:

It pleas'd the king his master, very late,
To strike at me, upon his misconstruction;

When he, conjunct, and flattering his displeasure,
Tripp'd me behind; being down, insulted, rail'd,
And put upon him such a deal of man,
That worthy'd him, got praises of the king
For him attempting who was self-subdu'd ;
And, in the fleshment of this dread exploit,
Drew on me here.

Kent. None of these rogues, and cowards,
But Ajax is their fool.8

Corn. Fetch forth the stocks, ho!

You stubborn ancient knave, you reverend braggart,
We'll teach you-

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Kent. Sir, I am too old to learn:

Call not your stocks for me: I serve the king;
On whose employment I was sent to you:

You shall do small respect, show too bold malice
Against the grace and person of my master,
Stocking his messenger.

Corn. Fetch forth the stocks:

As I've life and honour, there shall he sit till noon.
Reg. Till noon till night, my lord; and all night too.
Kent. Why, madam, if I were your father's dog,

[7] Though I should win you, displeased as you now are, to like me so well as to intreat me to be a knave. JOHNSON.

[8] Ajax is a fool to them, there are none of these knaves and cowards, that if you believe themselves, are not so brave, that Ajax is a fool compared to them. M. MASON.

You should not use me so.

Reg. Sir, being his knave, I will. [Stocks brought out. Corn. This is a fellow of the self-same colour Our sister speaks of :-Come, bring away the stocks. Glo. Let me beseech your grace not to do so : His fault is much, and the good king his master Will check him for't: Your purpos'd low correction Is such, as basest and contemned'st wretches, For pilferings and most common trespasses, Are punish'd with the king must take it ill, That he's so slightly valued in his messenger, Should have him thus restrain'd.,

Corn. I'll answer that.

Reg. My sister may receive it much more worse, To have her gentleman abus'd, assaulted,

For following her affairs.-Put in his legs.

[KENT is put in the stocks. Come, my good lord; away. [Exeunt REG. and CORN. Glo.I am sorry for thee,friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure, Whose disposition, all the world well knows,

Will not be rubb'd, nor stopp'd :9 I'll intreat for thee. Kent. Pray do not, sir: I have watch'd, and travell'd

hard;

Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle.
A good man's fortune may grow out at heels:
Give you good morrow!

Glo. The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill taken.

[Exit.

Kent. Good king, that must approve the common

saw !!

Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st

To the warm sun!

Approach, thou beacon to this under globe,

That by thy comfortable beams I may

Peruse this letter!-Nothing almost sees miracles,
But misery-I know, 'tis from Cordelia ;
Who hath most fortunately been inform❜d
Of my obscured course; and shall find time
From this enormous state,-seeking to give

[9] Metaphor from bowling.

WARBURTON.

That art now to exemplify the common proverb, That out of, &c. That changest better for worse. Hanmer observes, that it is a proverbial saying, applied to those who are turned out of house and home into the open weather. It was perhaps used of men dismissed from an hospital, or house of charity, such as was erected formerly in many places for travellers. Those houses had names properly enough alluded to by heaven's benediction.

JOHNSON:

Losses their remedies :-All weary and o'er-watch'd, Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold

This shameful lodging.

Fortune, good night; smile once more ; turn thy wheel!

SCENE III.

A Part of the Heath, Enter EDGAR.

Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd; And, by the happy hollow of a tree,

[He sleeps.

Escap'd the hunt. No port is free; no place,
That guard, and most unusual vigilance,

Does not attend my taking. While I may scape,
I will preserve myself: and am bethought
To take the basest and most poorest shape,
That ever penury, in contempt of man,

Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth;
Blanket my loins; elf all my hair in knots ;2
And with presented nakedness out-face
The winds, and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numb'd and mortify'd bare arms
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
And with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, 3 sheep-cotes and mills,
Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
Enforce their charity.-Poor Turlygood! poor Tom !4
That's something yet ;-Edgar I nothing am !5 [Exit.

[2] Hair thus knotted was vulgarly supposed to be the work of elves and fairies in the night. So in Romeo and Juliet:

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-plats the manes of horses in the night,
"And cakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs,
"Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes."

STEEVENS.

[3] Pelting is, I believe, only an accidental depravation of petty. Shak. speare uses it, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, of small brooks. JOHNSON. Again, in Troilus and Cressida, Hector says to Achilles :

"We have had pelting wars since you refus'd
STEEVENS.

"The Grecian causé.

[4] We should read Turlupin. In the 14th century there was a new species of gipsies, called Turlupins, a fraternity of naked beggars, which ran up and down Europe. However the church of Rome hath dignified them with the name of heretics, and actually barned some of them at Paris. But what sort of religionists they were, appears from Genebrard's account of them. "Turlupin Cynicorum sectam suscitantes, de nuditate pudendorum & publico coitu." Plainly, nothing but a band of Tom-o'- Bedlams. WARBURTON. [5] As Edgar I am out-lawed, dead in law: I have no longer any political existence. JOHNSON:

SCENE IV.

Before GLOSTER's Castle. Enter LEAR, Fool, and Gentleman.

Lea.'Tis strange, that they should so depart from home, And not send back my messenger.

Gent. As I learn'd,

The night before there was no purpose in them
Of this remove.

Kent. Hail to thee, noble master!

Lear. How !

Mak'st thou this shame thy pastime ?

Kent. No, my lord.

Fool. Ha,ha; look! he wears cruel garters! Horses are tied by the heads; dogs, and bears, by the neck; monkies by the loins, and men by the legs : when a man is over-lusty at legs, then he wears wooden nether-stocks.?

Lear. What's he, that hath so much thy place mistook To set thee here?

Kent. It is both he and she, Your son and daughter.

Lear. No.

Kent. Yes.

Lear. No, I say.

Kent. I say, yea.

Lear. No, no; they would not.

Kent. Yes, they have.

Lear. By Jupiter, I swear no.

Kent. By Juno, I swear, ay.

Lear. They durst not do't:

They could not, would not do't; 'tis worse than murder, To do upon respect such violent outrage: 8

Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way

Thou might'st deserve, or they impose, this usage,
Coming from us.

Kent. My lord, when at their home

I did commend your highness' letters to them,
Ere I was risen from the place, that show'd
My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,

[6] I believe a quibble was here intended. Creel-signifies worsted, of which stockings, garters, night-caps, &c. are made. STEEVENS.

[7] Nether-stocks-is the old word for stockings. Breeches were at that time called men's overstocks."-over-lusty, in this place, has a double sig. nification; lustiness anciently meaning sauciness. STEEVENS.

[8] To violate the public and venerable character of a messenger from the king. JOHNSON.

Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth
From Goneril his mistress, salutations;
Deliver❜d letters, spite of intermission, &

Which presently they read: on whose contents,
They summon'd up their meiny, straight took horse;
Commanded me to follow, and attend

The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks:
And meeting here the other messenger,
Whose welcome, I perceiv'd, had poison'd mine,
(Being the very fellow that of late

Display'd so saucily against your highness,)
Having more man than wit about me, drew;
He rais'd the house with loud and coward cries :
Your son and daughter found this trespass worth
The shame which here it suffers.

Fool. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that

way.'

Fathers, that wear rags,

Do make their children blind;
But fathers, that wear bags,
Shall see their children kind.
Fortune, that arrant whore,

Ne'er turns the key to the poor.

But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours for thy daughters, as thou canst tell in a year.2

Lear. O, how this mother3 swells up toward my heart! Hysterica passio! down, thou climbing sorrow, Thy element's below!-Where is this daughter? Kent. With the earl, sir, here within.

Lear. Follow me not;

Stay here.

[Exit.

Gent.Made you no more offence than what you speak of? Kent. None.

How chance the king comes with so small a train ? Fool. An thou hadst been set i'the stocks for that question, thou hadst well deserved it.

[83 Spite of intermission is without pause, without suffering time to interSo in Macbeth:

vene.

"Gentle heaven

"Cut short all intermission."

STEEVENS.

[9] Meiny-i. e. people. POPE-Though the word meiny be now obso lete, the word menial, which is derived from it is still in use. MASON. [1] If this be their behaviour, the king's troubles are not yet at an end. JOHNSON.

[2] Quibble intended between dolours and dollars. HANMER. [3] The disease called the Mother, or Hysterica Passio, which in our at thor's time was not thought to be peculiar to women only, PERCY.

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