This Coronet part between you. Kent. Royal Lear, [Giving the Crown. Whom I have ever honour'd as my King, Lov'd as my father, as my mafter follow'd, As my great patron thought on in my pray❜rs— Lear. The bow is bent and drawn, make from the fhaft. . Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade When majefty falls to folly. Referve thy state, This hideous rafhnefs; answer my life my judgment, Lear. Kent, On thy life no more. Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn 8 Think'ft thou, that duty shall bave dread to fpeak,] I have given this paffage according to the old folio, from which the modern editions have filently departed, for the fake of better numbers, with a degree of infincerity, which, if not fometimes detected and cenfured, muft impair the credit of antient books. One of the editors, and perhaps only one, knew how much mischief may be done by fuch clandeftine alterations. The quarto agrees with the folio, except that for referve by ftate, it gives, reverfe thy doom, and has foops inftead of falls to folly. The meaning of answer my life my judgment is, Let my life be answerable for my judgment, or I will take my life on my opinion. The reading which, without any right, has poffeffed all the modern copies is this, -to plainnefs honour Is bound, when Majefty to folly falls. Referve thy flate; with better judgment check This hideous rafbnefs; with my life I answer, Thy youngest daughter, &c. I am inclined to think that reverfe thy doom was Shakespeare's firft reading, as more appofite to the prefent occafion, and that he changed it afterwards to referve thy fate, which conduces more to the progress of the action. To To wage against thine enemies, nor fear to lofe it, Lear. Out of my fight! Kent. See better, Lear, and let me ftill remain The true blank of thine eye. Lear. Now by Apollo. Kent. Now by Apollo, King, Thou fwear'ft thy Gods in vain. Lear. O vaffal! mifcreant! [Laying his hand on his fword. Alb. Corn. Dear Sir, forbear. Kent. Kill thy phyfician, and thy fee bestow Lear. Hear me, recreant! Since thou haft fought to make us break our vow, Which we durft never yet; and with 'ftrain'd pride, To come betwixt our fentence and our power; 2 3 Which nor our nature, nor our place, can bear; 9 The true blank of thine eye] The blank is the white or exact mark at which the arrow is fhot. See better, fays Kent, and keep me always in your view. -ftrain'd pride,] The oldeft copy reads, frayed pride; that is, pride exorbitant; pride paffing due bounds. 2 To come betwixt our fentence and our power;] Power, for execution of the fentence. WARBURTON. 3 Which nor our nature, nor our place can bear. Our potency make good;] Mr. Theobald, by putting the first line into a parenthesis, and altering make to made in the fecond line, had deftroyed the fenfe of the whole; which, as it Our ftood before he corrupted the words, was this: "You have "endeavoured, fays Lear, to "make me break my oath, you have prefumed to stop the "execution of my fentence; "the latter of these attempts "neither my temper nor high ftation will fuffer me to bear: " and the other, had I yielded "to it, my power could not "make good, or excufe.". Which, in the first line, referring to both attempts. But the ambiguity of it, as it might refer only to the latter, has occafioned all the obfcurity of the paffage. WARBURTON. Our potency made good, take thy reward. 4 Kent. Fare thee well, King; fith thus thou wilt Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here. [To Cordelia. That justly think'ft, and haft most rightly said. And your large fpeeches may your deeds approve, [To Reg. and Gon. That good effects may fpring from words of love. Thus Kent, O Princes, bids you all adieu; • He'll shape his old courfe in a country new. [Exit. Warburton has very acutely explained and defended the reading that he has chofen, but I am not certain that he has chofen right. If we take the reading of the folio, our potency made good, the fenfe will be lefs profound indeed, but lefs intricate, and equally commodious. As thou hast come with unreasonable pride between the fentence which I had paffed, and the power by which I jhall execute it, take thy reward in another fentence which Shall make good, shall establish, fall maintain, that power. If Dr. Warburton's explanation be chofen, and every reader will wish to choose it, we may better read, Which nor our nature, nor our Mr. Davies thinks, that our potency made good relates only to our tlace.--Which our nature cannot bear, nor our place, without departure from the potency of that place. This is eafy and clear. Lear, who is characterized as hot, heady and violent, is, with very juft obfervation of life, made to entangle himself with vows, upon any fudden provocation to vow revenge, and then to plead the obligation of fence of implacability. vow in de 4 By Jupiter.] Shakespeare makes his Lear too much a mythologift: he had Hecate and Apolio before. 5 He'll shape his old course-] He will follow his old maxims; he will continue to act upon the fame principles. SCENE Enter Glo'fter, with France and Burgundy, and Attendants. Glo. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble Lord. We first address tow'rd you, who with this King, Bur. Most royal majesty, I crave no more than what your Highness offer'd, Lear. Right noble Burgundy, When she was dear to us, we held her fo; And nothing more, may fitly like your Grace, Bur. I know no answer. Lear. Will you, with those infirmities fhe owes, Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate, Dower'd with our curfe, and stranger'd with our oath, Take her, or leave her? Bur. Pardon, royal Sir; Election makes not up on fuch conditions. Lear. Then leave her, Sir; for by the pow'r that made me, 6 Seeming is beautiful. • Election makes not up on fuch conditions.] To make up fignifies to complete, to conclude; as, they made up the bargain; but in this fenfe it has, I think, always the fubject noun after it. To make up, in familiar language, is, neutrally, to come forward, to make advances, which, I think, is meant here. I I tell you all her wealth.-For you, great King, [To France. I would not from your love make fuch a stray, To match you where I hate; therefore befeech you, Than on a wretch, whom nature is afham'd France. This is moft ftrange! That fhe, who ev'n but now was your best object, your age, The beft, the deareft, fhould in this trice of time Commit a thing fo monftrous, to dismantle So many folds of favour! fure, her offence 8 That monsters it; or your fore-vouch'd affection --or you for vouch'd affections Fal'n into taint. The folio, -or your fore-veuch'd affection Fall into taint. Taint is ufed for corruption and for difgrace. If therefore we take the oldeft reading, it may be reformed thus: -fure her offence Must be of fuch unnatural de gree, That monsters it; or you for vouch'd affection Fall into taint. gious, or you must fall into re· proach for having vouched affection which you did not feel. If the reading of th: folio be preferred, we may with a very flight change produce the fame fenie. -fure her offence Must be of fuch unnatural de gree, That monflers it, or your forevouch'd affection Falls into taint. That is, falls into reproach or cenfure. But there is another poffible fenfe. Or fignifies before, and or ever is before ever; the meaning in the folio may therefore be, Sure her crime must be monftrous before your affection can be infected with hatred. Let the reader determine. As I am not much a friend to conjectural emendation, I fhould prefer the latter fenfe, which re Her offence must be prodi- quires no change of reading. Fall |