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Whilst I was big in clamour, came there a man,
Who having seen me in my worst estate,
Shunn'd my abhorr'd society; but then, finding
Who 'twas that so endur'd, with his strong arms
He fasten'd on my neck, and bellow'd out
As he'd burst heaven; threw him on my father;
Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him,
That ever ear receiv'd: which in recounting
His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life
Began to crack: Twice then the trumpet sounded,
And there I left him tranc'd.
But who was this?
Edg. Kent, sir, the banish'd Kent; who in dis-
guise

Alb.

Follow'd his enemy king, and did him service
Improper for a slave.

Enter a Gentleman hastily, with a bloody knife.

Gent. Help! help! O help!
Edg.

What kind of help?

Alb.

Speak, man.

Edg. What means that bloody knife?
Gent.

"Tis hot, it smokes ;

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Gent. Your lady, sir, your lady: and her sister| By her is poison'd; she confesses it.

Edm. I was contracted to them both; all three Now marry in an instant.

Alb. Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead! This judgment of the heavens, that makes us tremble,

Touches us not with pity. [Exit Gentleman.

Edg.

Alb. O! it is he.

Enter Kent.

To lay the blame upon her own despair,
That she fordid2 herself.

a while.

Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence [Edmund is borne off Enter Lear, with Cordelia dead in his arms; Edgar, Officer, and others.

Lear. Howl, howl, howl, howl!-0, you are men of stones;

Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so
That heaven's vault should crack :-0, she is gone
for ever!-

I know when one is dead, and when one lives;
She's dead as earth-Lend me a looking-glass;
If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
Why, then she lives.
Kent.

Is this the promis'd end?
Edg. Or image of that horror?
Alb.
Fall, and cease !4
Lear. This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so,
It is a chance that does redeem all sorrows
That ever I have felt.

I

Kent.

O my good master!

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all!

might have sav'd her; now she's gone for ever!—
What is't thou say'st?-Her voice was ever soft,
Cordelia, Cordelia, stay a little. Ha!
Gentle, and low; an excellent thing in woman :-
I kill'd the slave that was a hanging thee.
Off. 'Tis true, my lords, he did.
Lear.

Did I not, fellow?
I have seen the day, with my good biting faulchion
I would have made them skip: I am old now,
Here comes Kent, sir. And these same crosses spoil me.-Who are you?
Mine eyes are none o'the best :--I'll tell you straight.
Kent. If fortune brag of two she lov'd and hated,
One of them we behold.

The time will not allow the compliment,

Which very manners urges.

Kent.

I am come

To bid my king and master ayel good night;
Is he not here?

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Lear. This is a dull sight: Are you not Kent?
Kent.
The same;
Your servant Kent: Where is your servant Caius?
Lear. He's a good fellow, I can tell you that;

Speak, Edmund, where's the king? and where's He'll strike, and quickly too:-He's dead and

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Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,

nicely discriminates, and so minutely describes the characters of men, he commonly neglects and confounds the characters of ages, by mingling customs ancient and modern, English and foreign.

My learned friend Mr. Warton,5 who has in The Adventurer very minutely criticised this play, remarks, that the instances of cruelty are too savage

And thou no breath at all? O, thou wilt come no and shocking, and that the intervention of Edmund

more,

Never, never, never, never, never!

Pray you, undo this button: Thank you, sir.

destroys the simplicity of the story. These objections may, I think, be answered by repeating, that the cruelty of the daughters is an historical fact, to

Do you see this? Look on her,-look,-her lips,-||which the poet has added little, having only drawn Look there, look there!

[He dies.
Edg.
He faints! My lord, my lord,
Kent. Break, heart; I pr'ythee, break!
Edg.
Look up, my lord.
Kent. Vex not his ghost:-O, let him pass 4 he
hates him,

That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer.

Edg.
O, he is gone, indeed.
Kent. The wonder is, he hath endur'd so long:
He but usurp'd his life.

Alb. Bear them from hence. Our present busi

ness

Is general wo. Friends of my soul, you twain
[To Kent and Edgar.
Rule in this realm, and the gor'd state sustain.
Kent. I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
My master calls, and I must not say, no.
Alb. The weight of this sad time we must
obey;

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we, that are young,
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

[Exeunt, with a dead march.

it into a series by dialogue and action. But 1 am not able to apologize with equal plausibility for the extrusion of Gloster's eyes, which seems an act too horrid to be endured in dramatic exhibition, and such as must always compel the mind to relieve its distress by incredulity. Yet let it be remembered that our author well knew what would please the audience for which he wrote.

The injury done by Edmund to the simplicity of the action is abundantly recompensed by the addition of variety, by the art with which he is made to co-operate with the chief design, and the opportu nity which he gives the poet of combining perfidy with perfidy, and connecting the wicked son with the wicked daughters, to impress this important moral, that villany is never at a stop, that crimes lead to crimes, and at last terminate in ruin.

But though this moral be incidentally enforced, Shakspeare has suffered the virtue of Cordelia to perish in a just cause, contrary to the natural ideas of justice, to the hope of the reader, and what is yet more strange, to the faith of chronicles. Yet this conduct is justified by The Spectator, who blames Tate for giving Cordelia success and happiness in his alteration, and declares, that in his opinion, the tragedy has lost half its beauty. Dennis has remarked, whether justly or not, that, to secure the favourable reception of Cato, the town The tragedy of Lear is deservedly celebrated criticism, and that endeavours had been used to was poisoned with much false and abominable among the dramas of Shakspeare. There is perhaps discredit and decry poetical justice. A play in no play which keeps the attention so strongly fixed; which the wicked prosper, and the virtuous miswhich so much agitates our passions, and interests carry, may doubtless be good, because it is a just our curiosity. The artful involutions of distinct interests, the striking oppositions of contrary charac-representation of the common events of human life: but since all reasonable beings naturally love justers, the sudden changes of fortune, and the quick tice, I cannot easily be persuaded, that the obsersuccession of events, fill the mind with a perpetual vation of justice makes a tumult of indignation, pity, and hope. There is no other excellencies are equal, the audience will not play worse; or that, if scene which does not contribute to the aggravation always rise better pleased from the final triumph of the distress or conduct to the action, and scarce of persecuted virtue. a line which does not conduce to the progress of the scene. So powerful is the current of the poet's imagination, that the mind, which once ventures within it, is hurried irresistibly along.

dured to read again the last scenes of the play, till I undertook to revise them as an editor.

delia, from the time of Tate, has always retired In the present case the public has decided. Corwith victory and felicity. And, if my sensations On the seeming improbability of Lear's conduct, relate, I was many years ago so shocked by Corcould add any thing to the general suffrage, I might it may be observed, that he is represented accord-delia's death, that I know not whether I ever ening to histories at that time vulgarly received as true. And, perhaps, if we turn our thoughts upon the barbarity and ignorance of the age to which this story is referred, it will appear not so unlikely as while we estimate Lear's manners by our own. Such preference of one daughter to another, or resignation of dominion on such conditions, would be yet credible, if told of a petty prince of Guinea or Madagascar. Shakspeare, indeed, by the mention of his earls and dukes, has given us the idea of times more civilized, and of life regulated by softer manners; and the truth is, that though he so

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There is another controversy among the critics concerning this play. It is disputed whether the predominant image in Lear's disordered mind be the loss of his kingdom or the cruelty of his daughters. Mr. Murphy, a very judicious critic, has evinced by induction of particular passages, that the cruelof his daughters is the primary source of his distress, and that the loss of royalty affects him only as a secondary and subordinate evil. He observes, with great justness, that Lear would move our compassion but little, did we not rather con. sider the injured father than the degraded king. (4) Die. (5) Dr. Joseph Warton.

The story of this play, except the episode of Edmund, which is derived, I think, from Sidney, is taken originally from Geoffry of Monmouth, whom Hollinshed generally copied; but perhaps immediately from an old historical ballad. My reason for believing that the play was posterior to the ballad, rather than the ballad to the play, is, that the ballad has nothing of Shakspeare's nocturnal tempest, which is too striking to have been omitted, and

that it follows the chronicle; it has the rudiments of the play, but none of its amplifications: it first hinted Lear's madness, but did not array it in circumstances. The writer of the ballad added something to the history, which is a proof that he would have added more, if more had occurred to his mind; and more must have occurred if he had seen Shak speare. JOHNSON.

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