O let not womens weapons, water-drops, [Exeunt Lear, Glo'fter, Kent and Fool. Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a ftorm. [Storm and tempeft. Reg. This houfe is little; the old man and his people Cannot be well beftow'd. Gon. 'Tis his own blame hath put himself from reft, And muft needs tafte his folly. Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly ; But not one follower. Gon. So am I purpos'd. Where is my Lord of Glo'fter? Enter Glo'fter. Corn. Follow'd the old man forth;-he is return'd. Gla. The King is in high rage, and will I know not whither, Lear as alluding to this, makes his prayer exceeding pertinent and fine, Mr. Warburton. (24) I will have fuch revenges on you both, That all the world fhali---] This fine abrupt breaking off, and fup. preffion of paffion in its very height, (a figure, which the Greek rhe toricians have call'd, dwociensis) is very familiar with our author, as with other good writers, and always gives an energy to the subject. That, by Neptune in the first book of the neis, is always quoted as a celebrated inftance of this figure: Quos ego-----Sed motos præftat componere fluctus. What Lear immediately fubjoins here, I will do fuch things,----What they are, yet I know not--› .-] -feems to carry the vifible marks of imita Corn. 'Tis beft to give him way, he leads himself. Gon. My Lord, intreat him by no means to ftay. Glo. Alack, the night comes on: and the high winds Do forely ruffle, for many miles about There's fcarce a bufh. Reg. O Sir, to wilful men, The injuries, that they themselves procure, And what they may incenfe him to, being apt Corn. Shut up your doors, my Lord, 'tis a wild night. My Regan counfels well: come out o' th' ftorm. [Exeunt. A form is heard with thunder and lightning. Enter Kent, and a Gentleman, feverally. KENT. HO's there, befides foul weather? WH Gent. One minded like the weather, moft un- Kent. I know you, where's the King? Or fwell the curled waters 'bove the main, That things might change, or ceafe: tears his white hair, This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch, C 4 The The lion, and the belly-pinched wolf Keep their furr dry; unbonnetted he runs, Kent. But who is with him? Gent. None but the fool, who labours to out-jeft His heart-ftruck injuries. Kent. Sir, I do know you, And dare, upon the warrant of my note, Commend a dear thing to you. There's divifion (Although as yet the face of it is cover'd With mutual cunning) 'twixt Albany and Cornwall : I am a gentleman of blood and breeding, Gent. I'll talk further with you. Kent. No, do not: (25) Who bave, as who have not,---] The eight fubfequent verfes were degraded by Mr. Pope, as unintelligible, and to no purpose. For my part, I fee nothing in them but what is very easy to be underfood; and the lines feem abfolutely neceffary to clear up the motives, upon which France prepar'd his invafion: nor without them is the fente of the context compleat. For For confirmation that I am much more That yet you do not know. Fie on this ftorm! Gent. Give me your hand, have you no more to say? Kent. Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet; That, when we have found the King, (in which you take That way, I this :) he that first lights on him, Hollow the other. Storm ftill. [Exeunt feverally. Enter Lear and Fool. Lear. Blow winds, and crack your cheeks; rage, blow! You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout 'Till you have drencht our steeples, drown'd the cocks! You fulph'rous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunder-bolts, Singe my white head. And thou all-fhaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o' th' world; Crack nature's mould, all germins fpill at once (26) That make ingrateful man. Fool. (26) Crack nature's mould, all germains Spill at once.] Thus all the editions have given us this paffage, and Mr. Pope has explain'd germains, to mean, relations, or kindred elements. Then it must have been germanes (from the Latin adjective, germanus;) a word more than once used by our author, tho' always falfe fpelt by his editors. So, in Hamlet; The phrafe would be more germane to the matter, if we could carry cannon by our fides: And fo in Othello; You'll have your nephews neigh to you; You'll have courfers for coufins, and gennets for germanes. But the poet means here," Crack nature's mould, and fpill all the feeds of matter, that are hoarded within it." To retrieve. which fenfe, we must write germins; (a fubftantive deriv'd from germen, op: as the old gloffaries expound it;) and so we must again in Macbeth; -Tho' the treasure Of nature's germins tumble all together, Ev'n till deftruction ficken. C 5 And Fool. O nuncle, court-holy-water in a dry houfe is better than the rain-waters out o' door. Good nuncle, in, and afk thy daughters bleffing: here's a night, that pities neither wife men nor fools. Lear. Rumble thy belly full, fpit fire, fpout rain; That have with two pernicious daughters join'd Fool. He that has a houfe to put's head in, has a good head-piece : The cod-piece that will houfe, before the head has any: The head and he shall lowfe; fo beggars marry many. That man that makes his toe, what he his heart fhould make, Shall of a corn cry woe, and turn his fleep to wake. For there was never yet fair woman, but he made mouths in a glafs. To them, Enter Kent. Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience, I will fay nothing. Kent. Who's there? Fool. Marry here's grace, and a cod-piece, that's a wife man and a fool. Kent. Alas, Sir, are you here? things that love night, Love not fuch nights as thefe: the wrathful fkies Gallow the very wand'rers of the dark, And make them keep their caves: fince I was man, And to put this emendation beyond all doubt, I'll produce one more paffage, where our author not only ufes the fame thought again, but the word that afcertains my explication. In Winter's Tale ; Let nature crush the fides o' th' earth together, And marr the feeds within. Such |