The news is not so tart.—I'll read, and answer. [Exit. Alb. Where was his son when they did take his eyes? Alb. 86 He is not here. 90 Mess. No, my good lord; I met him back again. Alb. Knows he the wickedness? Mess. Ay, my good lord; 'twas he inform'd against him, And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment Alb. Gloucester, I live To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king, 86, 87. Upon...tart.] Vpon...tooke, Qa (in one line). 87. tart. I'll] tart. [To him] I'll Coll. Del. Wh. [Exit.] Om. Ff. 88. Two lines in Ff. 89. He is] He's Pope +, Cap. Dyce ii. Huds. 93. on purpose] of purpose F3F4+. their] there Q of my fancy.' WHITE: The 'in' of the Ff is a mere misprint for on; that is, the building of my fancy, a use of on common enough. 86. Another way] WRIGHT: In contrast with what she has just been saying. She really takes the same view of the position as in the first line of her speech. 90. back again] WRIGHT: That is, on his way back. * SCENE III. The French camp near Dover. *Enter KENT and a Gentleman. * Kent. Why the King of France is so suddenly gone *back know you the reason? SCENE III.] Pope. This Scene is omitted in Ff, Rowe. For this scene Ec. substitutes SCENE V, and calls this, SCENE IV. The French...] Steev. Om. Pope. French Camp under Dover. Cap. Dover. Theob. 1, 2. Why...back] The King of France so suddenly gone back! Pope+, Cap. Why....reason?] Two lines, the first ending backe, in Q,, Pope +, Cap. Jen. 1. France] Fraunce Q, Scene III] JOHNSON: This scene seems to have been left out of the Folio only to shorten the play. [See Appendix, The Text.] As will be seen by the Textual Notes, ECCLES again makes a transposition of scenes. Between the preceding scene and this present one, he inserts Scene V, calling it Scene III. Wherefore our Scenes III and IV are his Scenes IV and V. The object of this change is to bring closer together all those scenes which represent the transactions in the neighborhood of Dover, and to render unnecessary the supposi tion that Lear passes a night in the open fields. Eccles says: The distance probably imagined between the place where Regan has that conference with the Steward, which makes the subject of the Scene now before us [Eccles's Scene III, our Scene V], and the vicinity of Dover, seems to be such as requires the notion of a night intervening before he arrives at the latter, and, consequently, the same space of time must elapse between any scene which precedes that just mentioned and any other wherein he appears to have arrived near Dover, as he does in the sixth scene. It follows, then, that between the fourth and sixth, as hitherto numbered, a night must pass; but the solicitude to find the King, expressed by Cordelia in the former of these, makes it probable that her efforts were attended with success before the coming on of night. Let, therefore, scene the fifth of the ancient distribution stand as the third in this place, and suppose it to pass on the evening of the third day since that, inclusively taken, on the morning of which Lear, attended by certain of his knights, began to be conveyed from the castle of Gloucester on his route towards Dover, and that, in some former part of the same, Edmund had departed from Regan upon the business which she here mentions as the motive of his expedition. . . . It appears that the Steward, not finding Edmund as he expected, sets out towards Dover without loss of time in pursuit of him. I suppose the troops of Albany to have begun their march towards Dover, but in another direction, about the time of the Steward's departure from home charged with the execution of Goneril's commission. That might be either some part of the same day on which she had reached her own habitation accompanied by Edmund, or the morning of the succeeding one, so as to allow time for the Steward to arrive at his destination in the evening, as there is some reason for supposing he had done by Regan's exhortation in this scene [our Scene V] to wait the safe conduct of her forces on the morrow, and her hint respect * Gent. Something he left imperfect in the state which * since his coming forth is thought of, which imports to the * kingdom so much fear and danger that his personal return * was most required and necessary. * Kent. Who hath he left behind him General ? * Gent. The Marshal of France, Monsieur La Far. 3-6. Something......necessary] Four lines, ending state...which...danger,... necessary, Pope+, Cap. Jen. Mal. Ec. Ktly. Ending state...which...danger... requir'd Steev. Bos. Coll. Wh. Ktly. 4. to] Om. Pope+. 5. personal] Om. Pope, Theob. Han. Warb. Cap. 6. and necessary] Om. Voss. 5 7. Who] Whom Warb. Johns. Ec. Coll. Wh. Ktly. 8. Marshal] Qq, Dyce, Wh. Glo. +, Huds. Col. iii. Mareschal Pope et cet. Monsieur] Monfier Qr Moun fieur Q2 La Far] la Far Qq. le Far Pope +, Jen. Knt, Sta. le Fer. Cap. Steev. Ec. Var. Coll. Sing. Ktly. ing the insecurity of travelling. [See Appendix: The Duration of the Action p. 4c9.] When Eccles comes to this present scene, which he calls Scene IV, he says: Let the period of this scene be supposed the fourth morning from that (both, however, inclusively) whereon Lear, with Kent and the rest of his attendants, began his progress from Gloucester's castle, Goneril and Edmund from the same set out for the palace of Albany, and, later in the day, the sightless Gloucester, conducted by the Old Man, began to go to Dover. The Gentleman who enters, conversing with Kent, is the same who was deputed by him as a messenger to Dover on the night of the storm. From their conversation we infer that this meeting has but a very little while before taken place. Kent appears to be but newly arrived. The Gentleman, though he could not have set out many hours before the King and his party, yet, having travelled with more expedition, may reasonably be thought to have been long enough arrived to have had an opportunity for the conference with Cordelia. Gentleman] JOHNSON: The same whom he had sent with letters to Cordelia. 2. reason] STEEVENS: The King of France being no longer a necessary personage, it was fit that some pretext for getting rid of him should be formed before the play was too near advanced towards a conclusion. Decency required that a monarch should not be silently shuffled into the pack of insignificant characters; and therefore his dismission (which could be effected only by a sudden recall to his own dominions) was to be accounted for before the audience. For this purpose, among others, the present scene was introduced. It is difficult indeed to say what use could have been made of the king, had he appeared at the head of his own armament, and survived the murder of his queen. His conjugal concern on the occasion might have weakened the effect of Lear's parental sorrow; and, being an object of respect as well as pity, he would naturally have divided the spectators' attention, and thereby diminished the consequence of Albany, Edgar, and Kent, whose exemplary virtues deserved to be ultimately placed in the most conspicuous point of view. 7. Who] For instances of the neglect of the inflection of who, see V, iii, 249; Macb. III, i, 122; III, iv, 42; IV, iii, 171; Ham. II, ii, 193, and ABBOTT, § 274. * Kent. Did your letters pierce the queen to any de*monstration of grief? * Gent. Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence, * And now and then an ample tear trill'd down * Her delicate cheek. It seem'd she was a queen * Over her passion, who most rebel-like * Sought to be king o'er her. Oh, then it moved her. * Gent. Not to a rage; patience and sorrow strove * Who should express her goodliest. You have seen * Sunshine and rain at once; her smiles and tears * Were like a better way; those happy smilets 9. Did...any] Separate line, Ktly. 9, 10. Did....of grief?] Well; say, sir, did...of her grief? Cap., as verse, the first line ending queen. 11. Ay, sir;] Johns. I, sir, Theob. +, I fay Qq, Pope. them...them] 'em...'em Pope+. 13-15. Her...her.] As in Pope. Two lines, the first ending paffion, Qq. 14. Over] ouer Q1. ore Q2. who] which Pope +. 16-24. Not......it] No punctuation throughout, but commas, in Qq, except dropt; line 22 in Q,. 16. Not to a rage] But not to rage Pope, Theob. Han. Warb. 16. strove] Pope. Atreme Qq. 18, 19. her...way.] Om. Pope, Han. 10 15 19. like a better way.] like a better way Q like a better way, Q, like a wetter May. Warb. Theob. Johns. Cap. Jen. like a betier day. Theob. Steev. Knt, Dyce, Sta. like a better May Tollet, Mal. Ec. Bos. Coll. Wh. chequer'd day Dodd. like a bitter May Lloyd.* like 'em ;—a better way Ktly. happy happiest Pope ii, Theob. Warb. a smilets] smiles Pope + . Cap. Steev. Ec. Var. 12. trill'd] WALKER (Crit. iii, 282) gives other instances of the use of this word from Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, III, ii; Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, b. ii, song iv; and b. i, song v. WRIGHT: Cotgrave has Transcouler, To glide, slide, slip, runne, trill, or trickle (also, to straine) through.' 14, 17. who] For other instances of 'who' personifying irrational antecedents, see ABBOTT, $264. 18. Sunshine and rain] MOBERLY: It is the triumph of a poet thus to make two feelings work at once in one mind. Thus Homer makes the women's tears for Patroclus turn to tears for their own bondage (Πατρόκλου πρόφασιν σφῶν δ' αὐτῶν Kŋde' ¿káσT7); the dying Dido in Virgil struggles for the light, but hates it when found (quæsivit cælo lucem ingemuitque reperta). But no poet ever ventures, as Sh. does here, to imagine a grief, the most powerful of which human nature is capable, thus controlled by the tranquil graciousness of a calm nature, which cannot do otherwise than hold its own amid all disturbance, and is incapable of losing its balance; the inward perfection thus giving lovely mildness to the accidental and temporary emotion which still remains entire and undestroyed. 19. like a better way] WARBURTON proposed a wetter May, i. e. a spring season wetter than ordinary;' and THEOBALD supported the conjecture by citing [19. like a better way.] · Shakespeare's May of youth.'-Much Ado, V, i, 76; 'sweet May.'-Rich. II: V, i, 79; 'rose of May.'-Ham. IV, v, 153; &c. HEATH proposed ‘an April day,' because the 'joint appearance of rain and sunshine' was more characteristic of that month than of May. In THEOBALD's second edition, although Warburton's change is still retained in the text, yet the phrase is cited in the note as a better day.' This emendation was adopted, without credit, by STEEVENS in his edition of 1773; in his edition of 1778 he says: A better day is the best day, and the best day is a day most favourable to the productions of the earth. Such are the days in which there is a due admixture of rain and sunshine. The comparative is used by Milton and others, instead of the positive and superlative, as well as by Sh. himself in the play before us: The safer sense,' &c. IV, vi, 81; better part of man.'—Mach. V, viii, 18. The thought is taken from Sidney's Arcadia, p. 244: 'Her tears came dropping down like rain in sunshine.' Cordelia's behaviour is apparently copied from Philoclea's. The same book, in another place, says: her tears followed one another like a precious rope of pearl.' In this same edition of Steevens in 1778 a note is given by TOLLET in which he suggests that a better day' or 'a better May' is better than Warburton's alteration, because it implies that sunshine prevails over rain, whereas Warburton's wetter May' implies that Cordelia's sorrow excelled her patience. MALONE adopted Tollet's emendation, without credit, in the following note: If a better day means either a good day, or the best day, it cannot represent Cordelia's smiles and tears; for neither the one nor the other necessarily implies rain, without which there is nothing to correspond with her tears; nor can a rainy day, occasionally brightened by sunshine, with any propriety be called a good or the best day. We are compelled, therefore, to make some other change. A better May, on the other hand, whether we understand by it a good May, or a May better than ordinary, corresponds exactly with the preceding image; for in every May, rain may be expected, and in a good, or better May than ordinary, the sunshine, like Cordelia's smiles, will predominate. Mr Steevens has quoted a passage from Sidney's Arcadia. Perhaps the following passage in the same book, p. 163, ed. 1593, bears a still nearer resemblance to that before us: And with that she prettily smiled, which mingled with her tears, one could not tell whether it were a mourning pleasure or a delightful sorrow; but like when a few April drops are scattered by a gentle zephyrus among fine-coloured flowers.' [To the citations which he had previously given] STEEVENS afterwards added the following: Again in A Courtlie Controversie of Cupid's Cautels, &c., translated from the French, &c. by H. W. [Henry Wotton], 1578, p. 289: Who hath viewed in the spring time, raine and sunne-shine in one moment, might beholde the troubled countenance of the gentlewoman, after she had read and overread the letters of her Floradin with an eye now smyling, then bathed in teares.' SINGER, in his first edition, gives a note, with which he had been favoured by Mr BOADEN': ""Her smiles and tears Were like; a better way." That is, Cordelia's smiles and tears were like the conjunction of sunshine and rain, in a better way or manner. Now, in what did this better way consist? Why, simply in the smiles seeming unconscious of the tears; whereas the sunshine has a watery look through the falling drops of rain-"Those happy smiles . . . seem'd not to know What guests were in her eyes." The passages cited by Steevens and Malone prove that the point of comparison was neither a "better day” nor a “wetter May." I may just observe, |
