THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR ACT I SCENE I. King Lear's palace. Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND. Kent. I thought the king had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall. Glou. It did always seem so to us; but now, in the ACT 1] Actus Primus. Ff. SCENE 1.] Scoena Prima. F. Scana Prima. F. Scena Prima. FF. King Lear's palace.] A Palace. Rowe. The King's Palace. Theob. A Stateroom in King Lear's Palace. Cap. Ec. Gloucester] F. Glofter QF. Glo 3' cefter QF, Gloufter F, Qq. 2. Albany] Albency Q Cornwall Cornwell Q. Cornewall Q, Cornew all F„ 3. so] Om. FFF. The Tragedy, &c.] 'Of all Shakespeare's plays,' says COLERIDGE, ‘Macbeth is the most rapid, Hamlet the slowest, in movement. Lear combines length with rapidity,-like the hurricane and the whirlpool, absorbing while it advances. It begins as a stormy day in summer, with brightness; but that brightness is lurid, and anticipates the tempest.' 1-6. WALKER (Crit. i, 13) would read these as seven lines of verse, ending th' duke . . . always . . . division . . . o' th' dukes . . . pois'd [sic] . . . choice moiety. After moiety,' he adds, there is a short pause in the conversation, which is resumed in prose. Yet th' duke, in this place, seems very unlike Sh.; and equalities is perhaps more in place than " qualities." 2. Albany] WRIGHT: Holinshed (Chron. i, fol. 39 b; ed. 1577) gives the following account of the origin of this name: The third and last part of the Island he allotted vnto Albanacte hys youngest sonne. . . . This later parcel at the first, toke the name of Albanactus, who called it Albania. But now a small portion onely of the Region (beyng vnder the regiment of a Duke) reteyneth the sayd 4 division of the kingdom, it appears not which of the dukes 4. kingdom] kingdomes Qq, Coll. i. denomination, the reast beyng called Scotlande, of certayne Scottes that came ouer from Ireland to inhabite in those quarters. It is deuided from Loegres also by the Humber, that Albania as Brute left it, conteyned all the north part of the Island that is to be found beyond the aforesayd streame, vnto the point of Cathenesse.' 4. division] JOHNSON: There is something of obscurity or inaccuracy in this preparatory scene. The king has already divided his kingdom, and yet when he enters he examines his daughters, to discover in what proportion he should divide it. Perhaps Kent and Gloster only were privy to his design, which he still kept in his own hands, to be changed or performed as subsequent reasons should determine him. COLERIDGE: It was not without forethought, nor is it without its due significance, that the division of Lear's kingdom is in the first six lines of the play stated as a thing already determined in all its particulars, previously to the trial of professions, as to the relative rewards of which the daughters were to be made to consider their several portions. The strange, yet by no means unnatural, mixture of selfishness, sensibility, and habit of feeling derived from, and fostered by, the particular rank and usages of the individual;-the intense desire of being intensely beloved,— selfish, and yet characteristic of the selfishness of a loving and kindly nature alone;— the self-supportless leaning for all pleasure on another's breast;-the craving after sympathy with a prodigal disinterestedness, frustrated by its own ostentation, and the mode and nature of its claims;-the anxiety, the distrust, the jealousy, which more or less accompany all selfish affections, and are amongst the surest contradistinctions of mere fondness from true love, and which originate Lear's eager wish to enjoy his daughters' violent professions, whilst the inveterate habits of sovereignty convert the wish into claim and positive right, and an incompliance with it into crime and treason; these facts, these passions, these moral verities, on which the whole tragedy is founded, are all prepared for, and will to the retrospect be found implied, in these first four or five lines of the play. They let us know that the trial is but a trick, and that the grossness of the old king's rage is in part the natural result of a silly trick suddenly and most unexpectedly baffled and disappointed. It may here be worthy of notice that Lear is the only serious performance of Shakespeare, the interest and situations of which are derived from the assumption of a gross improbability; whereas Beaumont and Fletcher's tragedies are, almost all of them, founded on some out-of-the-way accident or exception to the general experience of mankind. But observe the matchless judgement of our Shakespeare. First, improbable as the conduct of Lear is in the first scene, yet it was an old story rooted in the popular faith, a thing taken for granted already, and consequently without any of the effects of improbability. Secondly, it is merely the canvas for the characters and passions,— a mere occasion for,-and not, in the manner of Beaumont and Fletcher, perpetually recurring as the cause and sine qua non of,-the incidents and emotions. Let the first scene of this play have been lost, and let it only be understood that a fond father had been duped by hypocritical professions of love and duty on the part of two daughters to disinherit the third, previously, and deservedly, more dear to him; -and all the rest of the tragedy would retain its interest undiminished, and be perfectly intelligible. The accidental is nowhere the groundwork of the passions, but that which is catholic, which in all ages has been, and ever will be, close and native he values most; for qualities are so weighed that curiosity in neither can make choice of either's moiety. Kent. Is not this your son, my lord? Glou. His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge; I have so often blushed to acknowledge him that now I am brazed to't. Kent. I cannot conceive you. Glou. Sir, this young fellow's mother could; whereupon she grew round-wombed, and had indeed, sir, a son for her 5. qualities] Ff+, Knt, White, Sch. equalities QQ, et cet. 6. neither] nature Q3. 3 4 5 1Ο 10. to 't] FF+, Ec. Knt, Dyce, Sta. too 't FF to it Qq et cet. 2* 13. round-wombed] round womb'd Ff. to the heart of man,-parental anguish from filial ingratitude, the genuineness of worth, though coffined in bluntness, and the execrable vileness of a smooth iniquity. Perhaps I ought to have added the Merchant of Venice; but here too the same remarks apply. It was an old tale; and substitute any other danger than that of the pound of flesh (the circumstance in which the improbability lies), yet all the situations and the emotions appertaining to them remain equally excellent and appropriate. Whereas take away from the Mad Lover of Beaumont and Fletcher the fantastic hypothesis of his engagement to cut out his own heart, and have it presented to his mistress, and all the main scenes must go with it. HUDSON: The opening thus forecasts Lear's madness by indicating that dotage has already got the better of his reason and judgment. ANON (cited by HALLIWELL) thinks Johnson's note is needless, because it is clear that Lear's two councillors, Kent and Gloucester, are talking of the division he has proposed in the secrecy of the council-board, and afterwards he opens his hidden ("darker") meaning to those whom it concerned (his sons and daughters), before ignorant of it.' 5. qualities] CAPELL. (Notes, &c., vol. i, part ii, p. 140): Qualities' appears to be a printer's corruption; both as suiting less with the context and as taking some. thing from the passage's numerousness. [What this numerousness' exactly means I do not know. Capell does not print the passage as verse.] SCHMIDT (Zur Textkritik, p. 12): Equalities cannot be right here; at best it can but be equality. Equality cannot be predicated of a part by itself, but only of the relationship of parts to each other; it is therefore essentially a singular idea. We cannot say the equalities of the three parts are perfect,' but only: 'the equality,' &c. 5. curiosity] WARBURTON: Curiosity' for exactest scrutiny. STEEVENS: That is, scrupulousness or captiousness. [For the pronunciation, see I, ii, 4.] : 6. moiety] STEEVENS: The strict sense of this is half, one of two equal parts, but Sh. commonly uses it for any part or division. Thus, 1 Hen. IV: III. i, 96 :Methinks my moiety north from Burton here In quantity equals not one of yours,' and here the division was into three parts. WRIGHT: It may be in the present passage the word is used in its literal sense, for it is not clear that Gloucester knew anything of Lear's intention to include Cordelia in the distribution of the kingdom. 7. your son] For COLERIDGE's fine remarks on Edmund, see Appendix, p. 419. 9. brazed] Compare Ham. III, iv, 37. cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault? Kent. I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper. Glou. But I have a son, sir, by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account; though this knave came something saucily into the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair; there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged.Do you know this noble gentleman, Edmund ? Edm. No, my lord. Glou. 20 My lord of Kent. Remember him hereafter as 25 my honourable friend. Edm. My services to your lordship. Kent. I must love you, and sue to know you better. Edm. Sir, I shall study deserving. Glou. He hath been out nine years, and away he shall 30 again. [Sennet within.] The king is coming. 18. a son, sir] Ff+, Knt, Coll. Del. Sing. Dyce, Ktly, Sch. fir a fonne Q1Q2 sir, a son Jen. et cet. year] yeares Q, Han. 19. this] this is Jen. this,...account;] Theob. this.... account, Qq, Cap. Ec. this;...account, Fl, Rowe, Pope. this,...account. Johns. Jen. 20. something fomewhat FF+, Jen. Steev. Ec. Var. Knt, Coll. Del. Wh. into] Q,Q, to Ff, Rowe, Pope, Theob. Warb. Johns. Knt, Sch. in Q. 21. for,...fair] Jen. for,...faire, Qq, Han. Warb. Johns. for :...faire, Ff, 17. proper] MALONE: Comely, handsome. 18. some year] WARBURTON: Edmund afterwards [I, ii, 5] speaks of some twelve or fourteen moonshines.' ECCLES: About a year. [For other instances of the use of some before singular substantives of time, see SCHMIDT, Lex. s. v.] 20. something] For instances of something, used adverbially, like 'somewhat,' see ABBOTT, § 68. 30. out] ECCLES: This circumstance serves to account for Edmund's being unacquainted with so distinguished a man at Lear's court as Kent; indeed, for their mutual ignorance of each other. Gloucester appears to introduce Edmund to Kent for the first time, and that, probably, immediately after his return, either from travel or serving in the army. [See also COLERIDGE'S note on Edmund in Appendix, Sennet. Enter one bearing a coronet, KING LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, Lear. Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Glou- 32 cester. Glou. I shall, my lord. [Exeunt Gloucester and Edmund. Sennet.] Ff. Sound a Sennet, Q, Q Sunday a Cornet, Q3. Enter one bearing a coronet, the lords] my Lords Qq, Jen. 33. my lord] Ff, Rowe, Sch. leige Q. liege Q, et cet. 35 [Exeunt...] Cap. Exit. Ff. Om. p. 420.] WRIGHT: Edmund has been seeking his fortune abroad, there being no career for him at home in consequence of his illegitimate birth. 32. Burgundy] WALKER (Vers. p. 240) says that the pronunciation Burgogne (as it is spelled in the last scene, in F ̧, in Hen. V′) would restore harmony to this line. But DYCE, in a note on 2 Hen. VI: I, i, 7, says that Sh., like other early dram atists, considered himself at liberty occasionally to disregard the laws of metre in the case of proper names; e. g. a blank-verse speech in Rich. II: II, i, 284, contains the following formidable line: Sir John Norberry, Sir Robert Waterton, and Francis Quoint.' [It is spelled Borgoyen in Paston Letters, iii, 79, ed. Arber.] 32. Gloucester] WALKER (Vers. 236): In the Folio this name is printed Gloucester, or Glocester, in the stage-directions and titles of speeches; Gloster, sometimes Glouster, in the text; in either case, with very few exceptions. I speak of all the plays in which the name occurs; the distinction is least observed, perhaps, in Lear. 33. shall] For instances of the use of 'shall' in the sense of I am bound to and I am sure to, and hence often used in the replies of inferiors to superiors, see ABBOTT, $315. darker] WARBURTON: That is, more secret; not indirect, oblique. JOHNSON: That is, we have already made known in some measure our desire of parting the kingdom; we will now discover what has not been told before, the reasons by which we shall regulate the partition. This interpretation will justify or palliate the exordial dialogue. 36. fast] EDWARDS (Can. of Crit. p. 91, ed. 1765): That is, determined resolution; first of the Qq must here signify 'chief. STAUNTON: 'Fast intent,' signifying fixed, settled intent, is, like darker purpose' and constant will,' peculiarly in Shakespeare's manner. |