To shake all cares and business from our age, Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburthen'd crawl toward death.-Our son of Cornwall,- Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife. 37 40 May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy, Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love, Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn, 45 And here are to be answer'd.-Tell me, my daughters, Since now we will divest us both of rule, Interest of territory, cares of state, Which of you shall we say doth love us most? That we our largest bounty may extend Where nature doth with merit challenge.-Goneril, 50 40. Albany] For instances of polysyllabic names receiving but one accent at the end of lines, see ABBOTT, § 469; and see also Goneril,' line 51, and Cordelia' III, i, 46, and elsewhere. 41. constant will] JOHNSON: Seems a confirmation of fast intent.' 43. France and Burgundy] MOBERLY: King Lear lived, as the chronicle says, in the times of Joash, king of Judah.' In III, ii, 95, Sh. himself jokes at this extravagant antiquity; and here he appears to imagine Lear as king in the rough times following Charlemagne, when France and Burgundy had become separate nations. 47. both] See SCHMIDT'S Lex. s. v. for other instances of both' being used with more than two nouns. 51. nature] STEEVENS: That is, where the claim of merit is superadded to that of nature; or where a superior degree of natural filial affection is joined to the claim of other merits. CROSBY (Epitome of Literature, 15 May, 1879): With merit' I take to be an adverbial phrase equivalent to deservedly; and the verb to challenge, in addition to its sense of to contend, or vie with, has an older and less common meaning-viz., to make title to, or claim as due. Chaucer thus uses it, in The Frankeleyne's Tale [488, ed. Morris]: Nat that I chalenge eny thing of right Of yow, my soverayn lady, but youre grace;' and Joye, Exposicion of Daniel, c. 3 (quoted by 4 I love you more than word can wield the matter, 53. Sir,] In a line by itself, Johns. Dyce ii, Wh. Huds. ii. Beginning line 54, QqFf et cet. Erased in Coll. (MS.) 53, 54. Sir, I] As closing line 53, Steev. Mal. Ec. Sir, I...matter,] I love you sir, Pope, Theob. Han. Warb. Sir, I do love 6 52 you Far more...matter: love you Cap. 54. I love] I do love Qq, Jen. Cap. Steev. Ec. Var. word] Ff, Rowe, Knt, Del. i, Sch. words Qq et cet. wield] weild Q,F,FF. yield Cap. conj. (Var. Read, p. 20). Richardson), God oftentymes by clere examples and bodely delyuerances chalengeth to himself the glorye of his owne name.' In our own poet, too, cf. 3 Hen. VI: III, iii, 86: all her perfections challenge sovereignty;' IV, vi, 6: Subjects may challenge nothing of their sovereigns;' IV, viii, 48: These graces challenge grace;' and Oth. I, iii, 188: So much I challenge that I may profess due to the Moor. my lord-i. e. claim as my right. Giving then this meaning to challenge,' the passage may be properly paraphrased, where your natural relation to, and love for, me claim my bounty, by deserving it; or, in other words, that I may extend my largest bounty where your natural affection deservedly claims it as due.' There is no contention or challenge between nature' and 'merit,' in which the king's bounty is to be the prize; he offers it solely to nature,' claiming or demanding it on its own deserts. ULRICI (p. 443): These words cannot possibly have been meant seriously; for apart from the circumstance that they contradict the facts adduced, Lear himself does not act in accordance with them, but does the very opposite. . . . Obviously, therefore, the whole demand was but a freak of the imagination, which Lear did not mean to take into serious consideration, but which it occurred to him to make merely to fill up the time till the return of Gloucester, who had been despatched to fetch the duke of Burgundy and the king of France. The concealed motive of this freak, and its execution, was probably Lear's wish,-by an open and public assurance of his daughters' love and piety,-to convince himself that his abdication could be of no danger to himself, and that doubts about its propriety were unfounded. BUCKNILL (p. 174): That the trial is a mere trick is unquestionable; but is not the significance of this fact greater than Coleridge suspected? Does it not lead us to conclude that from the first the king's mind is off its balance; that the partition of his kingdom, involving inevitable feuds and wars, is the first act of his developing insanity; and that the manner of its partition, the mock-trial of his daughters' affections, and its tragical dénouement is the second, and but the second, act of his madness. 51. Goneril] MOBERLY: This name seems to be derived from 'Gwenar,' the British form of Vener (Venus). Regan is probably of the same origin as Rience,' in the Holy Grail; 'reian' meaning in the Cornish 'to give bounteously.' 53. Sir] COLLIER (Notes, &c., p. 449): This is clearly redundant, and Regan soon afterwards commences her speech without it. It is erased in the (MS.). WALKER (Crit. iii, 275) suggests, but thinks it sounds very harsh as one line: Our eldest-born, speak first. Sir, I do love you more,' &c. MOBERLY, who follows the QqFf in arrangement, says that 'Sir' is hypermetric, and represents the time taken on the stage for a deep reverence. SCHMIDT (Zur Textkritik) thinks that exple 1 Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty, Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare, No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour, As much as child e'er loved or father found; A love that makes breath poor and speech unable; Cor. [Aside] What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent. Lear. Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, 55. and or Qq. 58. much as] much a Qq. e'er] Rowe. e're FF. ere QqF, 58. found] friend Qq. 55 60 61. [Aside] Pope. Om. QqFf. tives like this are in a large measure interpolations of the actors. Even at this day, he says, Englishmen are fond of introducing what they are about to say with such little words, which, like tuning-forks, give the key in which they intend to speak. 54. word] KNIGHT and DELIUS (ed. 1) adopt word of Ff, and the latter justifies it by reference to III, ii, 81, 'more in word than matter;' the note, however, is omitted in his second edition. DYCE in both of his eds. ascribes word to Collier's first ed. It is not so in my copy of that ed. The repetition of the same phrase in the same play ought to be a sufficient authority, I should think, for adhering to 'word of the Ff, although, to be sure, a taint of spuriousness attaches to the lines in III, ii, 80. Under any circumstances, 'word' is, to me, more truly Shakespearian than words. ED. 55. space] WRIGHT: The limits within which motion is possible. Compare Ant. and Cleop. I, i. 34. Rather,' says SCHMIDT (ad loc.), is "space," space in general, the realm of external appearances, the world; "eyesight" is the capacity to comprehend it; "liberty" the freedom to enjoy it. The lack of natural filial affec tion could not be more clearly manifested than in such exaggerations. Regan's "square of sense," line 73, affords a commentary on these words of Goneril.' 60. so much] JOHNSON: 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 yet be more. WRIGHT: Beyond all these comparisons by which Goneril sought to measure her love. SCHMIDT (ad loc.) thinks the phrase would have been clear at once had the old editions only used quotation-marks: beyond all manner of “so much" I love you.' 61. speak] Apart from authority, the choice of readings here seems to me to depend on whether we take Love' and 'be silent' as infinitives or imperatives. If they are infinitives, we should read do' with the Q4, but if imperatives, we should follow the Ff. I think they are imperatives, and I am supported by SCHMIDT (Zur Textkritik, p. 12). Moreover, KNIGHT pronounces do of the Qg feeble, because it destroys the force of the answer: 'Love, and be silent.' WHITE and DYCE, on the other hand, assert that the answer plainly shows that the Qq are right and the Ff wrong. With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd, Reg. I am made of that self metal as my sister, 65 70 69. worth. In...heart] worth. In ...heart, Ff. worth in...heart, Qq. worth, in...heart. Theob. +. worth, in ...heart Tyrwhitt. 70-72. I find...joys] Two lines, the first ending short, Qq. 71. comes too short] came fhort Qq. short:] Theob. Short, QqFf, Rowe, Pope, Han. Coll. Del. Wh. Mob. Sch. short,-Steev. Ec. Var. Knt, Sing. Dyce, Sta. that] in that Ktly. 63. champains] WRIGHT: Plains. Compare Deut. xi. 30 (ed. 1611): 'the Canaanites, which dwell in the champion ouer against Gilgal.' In Ezekiel xxxvii. 2, the marginal note to valley' is 'or, champian.' See Twelfth Night, II, v, 174, where it is spelt champian' in the Ff: Daylight and champian discovers not more.' In Florio we find, Campagna, a field or a champaine.' 67. DYCE: F, omits Speak;' but Lear has concluded his address to Goneril with 'speak first; and he afterwards finishes that to Cordelia with speak.' 68. self] Compare self mate and mate,' IV, iii, 34; and for many other instances of the use of this word, meaning same, see SCHMIDT'S Lex. 69. worth] THEOBALD: Mr. Bishop prescribed the pointing of this passage as I have regulated it in the text. [See Text-notes.] Regan would say that in the truth of her heart and affection she equals the worth of her sister. Without this change in the pointing, she makes a boast of herself without any cause assigned. TYRWHITT paraphrases his punctuation: And so may you prize me at her worth, as in my true heart I find, that she names,' &c. MASON (p. 338): I believe we should read: prize you at her worth;' i. e. set the same high value on you that she does. 70. deed of love] ECCLES; Describes that kind of agency by which my own love operates, the same effects of which it is productive. DELIUS: The formal, legal definition of love. WRIGHT: That is, exactly describes my love. Myself an enemy to all other joys Which the most precious square of sense professes, 6 72 73. professes] Ff, Rowe, Sch. pos feffes Qq et cet. 71. too short] MOBERLY [see Text-notes]: This means simply short. Compare Homer's ὃς τὸ μὲν ἄλλο τόσον φοίνιξ ἦν, —where τόσον is in the same way superfluous. 71. that] For in that or for that, see ABBOTT, § 284; Ham. I, ii, 2; II, ii, 153; Macb. III, ii, 32. See also WHITE'S note on I, i, 167. 73. square of sense] WARBURTON thinks this refers to the four nobler senses, sight, hearing, taste, and smell, but JOHNSON thinks it may mean only compass, comprehension. EDWARDS (Canons of Crit. p. 170): The full complement of all the senses. HOLT (An Attempte, &c., 1749; Preface, p. v): Sh. evidently intends to describe the utmost perfection of sense (alluding to the Pythagorean Tenet, which held a square to be the most perfect figure). CAPELL: 'Not only the extravagance of these sisters' professions, but the words they are dress'd in paint their hearts to perfection. In Regan's we have "felicitate," an affected expression, and before it a line that's all affectation; the governing phrase in it is borrow'd (as thinks the editor) from some fantastical position of the rosycrucians or cabalists, who use it in the sense the "Canons" have put on it, for-"the complement of all the senses." MR. SMITH (ap. Grey's Notes, &c., 1754, ii, 102) thinks that 'sense' should be sense', because there were two squares referred to by Goneril; the first was eye-sight, space, liberty, and what could be valued rich and rare;' the second square is grace, health, beauty, honour.' But then Goneril says she loves the king no less than these, and consequently she loves these as much as she does the king. And this is the point in which Regan says she falls short of her. The second square is of the superlative kind of joys, and Regan professes herself an enemy to three of the joys, viz. health, beauty, and honour; which are, of all the other joys, the most precious square of sense (i. e. sense's joys) possesses; and declares that his dear Highness' love is the only joy of the square which she values. In this it is plain that she outdoes her sister Goneril.' [I think that is worth transcribing as a curiosity.-ED.] COLLIER (Notes, &c., p. 449): The (MS.) gives 'sphere of sense,' which exactly conveys the meaning of Edward's explanation. Regan loved her father beyond all other joys in the round, or sphere, of sense. SINGER reads sphere, and prefixes spacious instead of 'precious.' Of both these emendations, Blackwood's Maga. (Oct. 1853) says that they are good as modernizations of Sh., but that the old text is quite intelligible; 'square' means compass, area [by which definition the present editor cannot see that any progress is gained]. WHITE (Sh. Scholar, p. 423), while discarding sphere for square,' thinks Singer's spacious is more plausible, and proposes, if change be made, spacious square,' but finds the original text comprehensible, with a smack of Sh. in it.' But by the time WHITE published his ed. in 1861, the original text had become very obscure' to him, although he was by no means confident that it is corrupt,' adding that it seems to mean the entire domain of sensation.' As he does not in his ed. repeat his emendation, spacious square,' it is to be presumed he withdrew it. KEIGHTLEY estimated it more highly; he adopted it. BAILEY (ii, 88) has not much doubt that Sh. wrote 'precious treasure of sense,' because 'precious treasure' occurs in Rom. and Jul., I, i, 239. Objections to this emendation |