Edg. Arm'd, brother? *

Edm. Brother, I advise you to the beft; go arm'd; I am no honeft man, if there be any good meaning towards you: I have told you what I have feen and heard, but faintly; nothing like the image and horror of it: Pray you, away.

Edg. Shall I hear from you anon?

Edm. I do ferve you in this bufinefs. [Exit Edgar. A credulous father, and a brother noble, Whose nature is fo far from doing harms, That he fufpects none; on whose foolish honefty My practices ride eafy!-I fee the bufinefs.Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit: All with me's meet, that I can fashion fit.

A Room in the Duke of Albany's Palace.
Enter GONERIL, and STEWARD.

[Exit.

Gon. Did my father ftrike my gentleman for chiding of his fool?

Stew. Ay, madam.

Gon. By day and night! he wrongs me; every hour He flashes into one grofs crime or other,

That fets us all at odds: I'll not endure it:

His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us
On every trifle:-When he returns from hunting,
I will not speak with him; fay, I am fick :-

If you come flack of former fervices,

You fhall do well; the fault of it I'll answer.

By day and night! be wrongs me;] It has been fuggefted by Mr. Whalley that we ought to point differently:

By day and night, he wrongs me;

not confidering these words as an adjuration. But that an adjuration was intended, appears, I think, from a paffage in King Henry VIII. The king, fpeaking of Buckingham, (A& I. fc. ii.) fays,

By day and night

"He's traitor to the height."

It cannot be fuppofed that Henry means to fay that Buckingham is a traitor in the night as well as by day. MALONE.

Stew. He's coming, madam; I hear him.

[Horns within.
Gon. Put on what weary negligence you please,
You and your fellows; I'd have it come to question:
If he dislike it, let him to my fister,

Whofe mind and mine, I know, in that are one,
Not to be over-rul'd2. Idle old man,
That ftill would manage those authorities,
That he hath given away!-Now, by my life,
Old fools are babes again; and must be us'd

With checks, as flatteries,-when they are feen abus'd3.
Remember what I have faid.

Stew. Very well, madam.

Gon. And let his knights have colder looks among you; What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows fo: I would breed from hence occafions, and I fhall,

2 Not to be over-rul'd, &c.] This line, and the four following lines, are omitted in the folio. MALONE.

3 Old foals are babes again; and must be us'd

With checks, as flatteries, when they are feen abus'd.] The sense feems to be this: Old men must be treated with checks, when as they are feen to be deceived with flatteries: or, when they are weak enough to be feen abused by flatteries, they are then weak enough to be ufed with checks. There is a play of the words ufed and abufed. To abufe is, in our authour, very frequently the fame as to deceive. This conftruction is harsh and ungrammatical; Shakspeare perhaps thought it vicious, and chofe to throw away the lines rather than correct them, nor would now thank the officiousness of his editors, who reftore what they do not understand. JOHNSON.

The objection to Dr. Johnson's interpretation is, that he supplies the word with or by, which are not found in the text: "when as they are seen to be deceived with Batteries," or, "when they are weak enough to be seen abused by flatteries," &c. and in bis mode of conftruction the word with preceding checks, cannot be understood before flatteries.

I think Mr. Tyrwhitt's interpretation the true one.

MALONE.

The plain meaning, I believe, is-old fools must be used with checks, as flatteries must be check'd when they are made a bad ufe of. TOLLET.

I understand this paffage thus. Old fools-must be used with checks, as well as flatteries, when they [i. e. flatteries] are seen to be abused.

TYRWHITT.

4 I would breed, &c.] This line and the first four words of the next are found in the quartos, but omitted in the folio. MALONE. That

That I may speak :-I'll write ftraight to my fifter,
To hold my very courfe :-Prepare for dinner. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

A Hall in the fame.

Enter KENT, difguifed,

Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow, That can my speech diffufe, my good intent May carry through itself to that full iffue

For which I raz'd my likeness.-Now, banish'd Kent, If thou can't ferve where thou doft stand condemn'd, (So may it come!) thy mafter, whom thou lov'st, Shall find thee full of labours.

Horns within. Enter LEAR, Knights, and Attendants. Lear. Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go, get it ready. [Exit an Attendant.] How now, what art thou? Kent. A man, fir.

5 If but as well I other accents borrow,

That can my speech diffuse,] We must suppose that Kent advances looking on his difguife. This circumftance very naturally leads to his fpeech, which, otherwise, would have no very apparent introduction. If I can change my speech as well as I have changed my drefs. To diffufe fpeech, fignifies to diforder it, and fo to difguife it; as in the Merry Wives of Windfor, A&t IV. fc. vii

rush at once

"With fome diffused long."

Again, in the Nice Valour, &c. by Beaumont and Fletcher, Cupid fays to the Paffionate Man, who appears difordered in his drefs: Go not fo diffusedly." Again, in our author's King Henry V: "fwearing, and stern looks, diffus'd attire."

To diffufe fpeecb may, however, mean to speak broad, with a clownish accent. STEEVENS.

Diffufed certainly meant, in our authour's time, wild, irregular, heterogeneous. So, in Greene's Farewell to Follie, 1617:

"I have seen an English gentleman fo defufed in his fuits, his doublet being for the weare of Caftile, his hofe for Venice, his hat for France, his cloak for Germany, that hee feemed no way to be an Englishman but by the face." MALONE.

L13

Lear.

518

Lear. What doft thou profefs? What would't thou with us?

Kent. I do profefs to be no less than I feem; to serve him truly, that will put me in truft; to love him that is honeft; to converfe with him that is wife, and fays little; to fear judgment; to fight, when I cannot choose; and to eat no fish 7.

Lear. What art thou?

Kent. A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the king.

Lear. If thou be as poor for a fubject, as he is for a king, thou art poor enough. What would'st thou? Kent. Service.

Lear. Who would't thou ferve?

Kent. You.

Lear. Doft thou know me, fellow ?

Kent. No, fir; but you have that in your countenance, which I would fain call mafter.

Lear. What's that?

6-to converfe with him that is wife, and fays little ;] To converfe fignifies immediately and properly to keep company, not to difcourfe or talk. His meaning is, that he chufes for his companions men of referve and caution; men who are no tattlers nor tale-bearers. JOHNSON. We still fay in the fame fenfe-he had criminal conversation with her, meaning commerce. So, in King Richard III:

"His apparent open guilt omitted,

fifb.] In queen

"I mean his converfation with Shore's wife." MALONE. 7 and to eat no Elizabeth's time the Papifts were efteemed, and with good reafon, enemies to the government. Hence the proverbial phrafe of, He's an boneft man, and eats no fish; to fignify he's a friend to the government and a Proteftant. The eating fish, on a religious account, being then efteemed fuch a badge of popery, that when it was enjoin'd for a feafon by act of parliament, for the encouragement of the fish-towns, it was thought neceffary to declare the reafon; hence it was called Cecil's faft. To this difgraceful badge of popery Fletcher alludes in his Woman-bater, who makes the courtezan fay, when Lazarillo, in fearch of the umbrano's head, was feized at her house by the intelligencers for a traytor: "Gentlemen, I am glad roof you have discovered him. He fhould not have eaten under my for twenty pounds. And fure I did not like him, when he called for ffb." And Marston's Dutch Courtezan: "I trust I am none of the wicked that eat fish a fridays." WARBURTON.

Kent.

Kent. I can keep honeft counsel, ride, run, mar a curious tale in telling it, and deliver a plain meffage bluntly that which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualify'd in; and the beft of me is diligence.

:

Lear. How old art thou?

Kent. Not fo young, fir, to love a woman for finging; nor fo old, to dote on her for any thing: I have years on my back forty-eight.

Lear. Follow me; thou fhalt ferve me; if I like thee no worse after dinner, I will not part from thee yet.Dinner, ho, dinner!-Where's my knave? my fool? Go you, and call my fool hither:

Enter STEWARD.

You, you, firrah, where's my daughter?
Stew. So pleafe you,-

[Exit.

Lear. What fays the fellow there? Call the clotpole back.-Where's my fool, ho?-I think the world's afleep. How now? where's that mungrel?

Knight. He fays, my lord, your daughter is not well. Lear. Why came not the flave back to me, when I call'd him?

Knight. Sir, he answer'd me in the roundest manner, he would not.

Lear. He would not!

Knight. My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my judgment, your highnefs is not entertain'd with that ceremonious affection as you were wont; there's a great abatement of kindness appears, as well in the general dependants, as in the duke himself alfo, and your daughter.

Lear. Ha! fay't thou fo?

Knight. I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I be miftaken; for my duty cannot be filent, when I think your highness is wrong'd.

of kindness-] Thefe words are not in the quartos. MALONE.