from us till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find 47 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 50 sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, EDGAR.' Hum! 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 55 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. Glou. 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. Glou. It is his. Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is not in the contents. Glou. Has he never before sounded you in this business? Edm. Never, my lord; but I have heard him oft main 60 65 63. It is his.] It is his? Q. Is it his? 64. but] Om. F‚F‚F+. 2 66. Has] Ff +, Kut. i, Dyce, Del. ii, Sch. Hath Qq et cet. before] Ff+, Knt i, Sing. Dyce, Del. ii, Ktly, Huds. Sch. heretofore Qq et cet. 68. heard him oft] Ff+, Cap. Knt, Dyce, Sta. Glo.+, Sch. often heard him Qq et cet. 47. oldness] SCHMIDT: Not elsewhere used in Sh. 48. idle and fond] JOHNSON: Weak and foolish. 49. who] WRIGHT: For which, the antecedent really being the persons implied in tyranny.' See ABBOTT, § 264. 58. closet] Private apartment. See III, iii, 10, and also Ham. II, i, 77. 59. character] It is almost needless to remark that this word is always used by Sh. in the sense of writing or handwriting. See Ham. I, iii, 59. tain 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. Glou. O 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? 70 75 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 should run a certain course; where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great So 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. Glou. Think you so? Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular 69. at] being at Han. perfect] perfit Qq. declined] FF,F, Rowe, Knt, Coll. Del. Wh. Sch. declind F. declining Qq et cet. 70. the father] his father Qq. as ward] as a Ward Q3, Pope +. 71. his] the Qq. 73. Abhorred Abhorrid Q. 73, 74. brutish] bruitish QFF, Rowe, Pope. 74. sirrah] fir Qq. I'll Rowe. Ile F,F, I'le FF 1Q, I, Q2 ay, Cam. Wr. 76. lord] L. F,F2. 78. his] this Q4. $5 79. should] Q,Ff (shold F ̧)+, Cap. Jen. Ec. Knt, Cam. Sch. fhal Q, fhall Q, et cet. 81. own] Om. FFF, Rowe, Pope, Han. 82. that] Om. Qq. 83. writ] wrote Qq, Glo. +, Mob. Rowe. auricular] aurigular Qq. 69. sons at perfect age] For instances of the participle being implied, in the case of a simple word, such as being, see ABBOTT, § 381. 79. where] For instances of the use of where' for whereas, see ABBOTT, § 134. 83. your honour] MALONE: The usual address to a lord in Shakespeare's time. 84. pretence] JOHNSON: That is, design, purpose. So afterwards, I, iv, 67. STEEVENS: I can venture to assert, with some degree of confidence, that Sh. never uses this word in any other sense. SCHMIDT (Lex.) gives five instances (of which one, viz: Cymb. III, iv, 106, is, I think, doubtful) where it means pretext. DYCE, in his Gloss., gives no other definition than Johnson's, and cites none of these five instances given by Schmidt. assurance have your satisfaction, and that without any He cannot be such a monster- Glou. * * fur 90 Glou. 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. 95 90. monster-] Dyce, Del. ii, Huds. Glo.+, Mob. monster. QqFf et cet. 91-93. Edm. Nor...earth!] Qq. Om. Ff, Rowe, Pope, Han. Sch. 94. him, I pray you: frame] him, I pray you frame Qq. the] your Qч. 91, 93. Nor ... earth] SCHMIDT (Zur Textkritik, &c., p. 18) makes a strong point in favour of omitting these words, as is done in the Ff. Were there any reproach,' he says, against which it would be hard to defend Sh., it would be the relation between Gloster and Edgar. A father "that so tenderly and entirely loves" his son, but, like Gloucester, condemns him unheard, and drives him forth to misery, is a miscreant in the drama as well as in real life. . . . If there be any single trait which is characteristic of this scene, as well as of the similar first scene of the second Act, it is that not a word of sympathy and warmth for his sons falls from the lips of Gloucester. His levity, when talking with Kent in the very first scene of the play, sufficiently betrays the superficial sense of his marital and parental duties. Only when Edgar is as though dead to him, and the fate of Lear begins to cast its dark shadow over himself (III, vi), does something of fatherly feeling awaken at the thought of his son, hunted through the land. Hitherto, he is indifferent and heartless. Evidently his sons have never stood near to his heart; he knows them not,-nor what might be expected from either the one or the other. That Edmund, before the time when the action of the play begins, has been "out" nine years in foreign parts is expressly mentioned, and in one way or another Edgar has been equally a stranger . . . . and is no more to him than Edmund,-" no dearer in my account," i. e. is of as little account. He has sons and they must be acknowledged, and therein he has done his part. Such and no other is the idea that Sh. would have us form of Gloucester, and therefore he could never have written the words: "To his father that so tenderly and entirely loves him." They stand in contradiction to all that precedes and follows. They are doubtless an addition made by some sensational actor, and they crept into the Qq through some copyist or reporter.' 93. wind me] JOHNSON: I once thought it should be read: wind you;' but, perhaps, it is a familiar phrase, like do me this.' [For other instances of this ethical dative, see ABBOTT, § 220, or Macb. 1II, vi, 41.] 95. unstate] HEATH: That is, I would give even my rank and fortune to be resolved on this point. CAPELL: The state that Gloster would lay aside, if he could, on this occasion is, his parental state, the state of father, which endangered his judging rightly, two ways-by acting upon his affections as a kind father, or on his resentments as an injured one. JOHNSON thus paraphrases: Do you frame the bus Edm. I will seek him, sir, presently, convey the business 96 as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal. Glou. 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 se- 100 quent effects; love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, 96. will] fhall Qq. 97. find] fee Qq, Jen. 98, 134. eclipses] Elipfes F. 98. moon] the moon Cap. conj. 99. nature] mankind Han. 99. it] Om. Qq. 100. sequent] frequent Theob. i. iness who can act with less emotion; I would unstate myself; it would be in me a departure from the paternal character, to be in a due resolution, to be settled and composed on such an occasion.' TYRWHITT: It means simply: I would give my estate' (including rank as well as fortune). [There can be no doubt that Heath and Tyrwhitt give the correct interpretation.] 95. resolution] DYCE (Gloss.): Conviction, assurance. 96. convey] JOHNSON: To manage artfully. [See Macb. IV, iii, 71.] 98. These late eclipses] CAPELL: This descant upon what were then esteemed natural prodigies is a weakness which serves admirably to give a requisite degree of the probable to Gloucester's incredulity. MOBERLY: As to current belief in astrology, we may remember that, at the time when this play was written, Dr Dee, the celebrated adept, was grieving for his lost patroness, Queen Elizabeth; that the profligate court of James I. was in 1618 frightened by the appearance of a comet into a temporary fit of gravity; and that even Charles I. sent £500 as a fee to William Lilly for consulting the stars as to his flight from Hampton Court in 1647. [See Appendix, Date of the Composition,' p. 379.] 99. wisdom of nature] JOHNSON: Though natural philosophy can give account of eclipses, yet we feel their consequences. WALKER (Crit. i, 287) marked 'nature' as possibly wrong.' LETTSOM (in a foot-note to Walker): I think man would be better [than mankind of Hanmer]; but perhaps nature' crept in from below without displacing any word; the or ye was a mistake for y, and of was purposely inserted to make some sense of the wisdom nature.' Sh. perhaps wrote merely 'your wisdom," as your excellent sherris.' KEIGHTLEY reads wisdom of man' in his text. [Wisdom of nature' means: wisdom concerning nature, the knowledge of natural laws.-ED.] MOBERLY: This curious view is repeated, with remarkable force of language, by Sir T. Browne, even in the less credulous times (Buckle, i, p. 336) when he wrote his Treatise on Vulgar Errors: That two suns or moons should appear, is not worth the wonder. But that the same should fall out at the point of some decisive action, that these two should make but one line in the book of fate, and stand together in the great Ephemerides of God, besides the philosophical assignment of the cause, it may admit a Christian apprehension in the signality' (i, 2). We learn also from Bishop Burnet that Lord Shaftesbury believed in astrology, and thought that the souls of men live in the stars. treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt 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 105 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, 110 honesty! 'Tis strange. [Exit. Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that 108. disquietly] DELIUS: This is used causatively. 109. lose thee] Note the change to the more affectionate thee.' See also IV, vi, 30.-ED. 112. WARBURTON: In Shakespeare's best plays, besides the vices that arise from the subject, there is generally some peculiar prevailing folly, principally ridiculed, that runs through the whole piece. Thus, in The Tempest, the lying disposition of travellers, and in As You Like It, the fantastick humour of courtiers are exposed and satirized with infinite pleasantry. In like manner, in this play of Lear, the dotages of judicial astrology are severely ridiculed. I fancy, was the date of its first performance well considered, it would be found that something or other happened at that time which gave a more than ordinary run to this deceit, as these words seem to intimate: I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what should follow these eclipses. However this be, an impious cheat, which had so little foundation in nature or reason, so detestable an original, and such fatal consequences on the manners of the people, who were at that time strangely besotted with it, certainly deserved the severest lash of satire. It was a fundamental in this noble science, that whatever seeds of good dispositions the infant unborn might be endowed with, either from nature, or traductively from its parents, yet if, at the time of its birth, the delivery was by any casualty so accelerated or retarded as to fall in with the predominancy of a malignant constellation, that momentary influence would entirely change its nature, and bias it to all the contrary ill qualities. So wretched and monstrous an opinion did it set out with. But the Italians, to whom we owe this, as well as most other unnatural crimes and follies of these latter ages, fomented its original impiety to the most detestable height of extravagance. Petrus Aponensis, an Italian physician of the 13th century, assures us that those prayers which are made to God when the moon is in conjunction with Jupiter in the Dragon's tail, are infallibly heard.... The great Milton, with a just indignation of this impiety, hath, in his Paradise Regained (Book IV, 383), satirized it in a very beautiful manner, by |