Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile. Enter LEAR, with CORDELIA dead in his arms2; EDGAR, Officer, and Others. Lear. Howl, howl, howl, howl!-0, you are men of ftones; Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them fo That heaven's vault should crack:-O, she is gone for ever! I know when one is dead, and when one lives; Kent. Is this the promised end? 2 Alb. ·Cordelia dead in bis arms.] This princess, according to the old historians, retired with victory from the battle which the conducted in her father's caufe, and thereby replaced him on the throne: but in a fubfequent one fought against her (after the death of the old king) by the fons of Goneril and Regan, fhe was taken, and died miferably in prifon. The poet found this in hiftory, and was therefore willing to precipitate her death, which he knew had happened but a few years after. The dramatick writers of this age fuffered as small a number of their heroes and heroines to escape as poffible; nor could the filial piety of this lady, any more than the innocence of Ophelia, prevail on Shakspeare to extend her life beyond her misfortunes. STEEVENS. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the original relater of this story, fays, that Cordelia was thrown by her nephews into prifon, "where, for grief at the lofs of her kingdom, the killed herself." MALONE. 3 Kent. Is this the promis'd end? Edg. Or image of that borror?] It appears to me that by the promifed end Kent does not mean that conclufion which the state of their affairs feemed to promife, but the end of the world. In St. Mark's Gofpel, when Chrift foretels to his difciples the end of the world, and is defcribing to them the figns that were to precede, and mark the approach of, our final diffolution, he fays, "For in those days fhall be affliction fuch as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created, unto this time, neither fhall be:" and afterwards he fays, "Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the faber the fon; and children fhall rise up against their parents, and fall cauje 'Alb. Fall, and cease! Lear. aufe them to be put to death." Kent in contemplating the unexampled fcene of exquifite affliction which was then before him, and the unnatural attempt of Goneril and Regan against their father's life, recollects thefe paffages, and afks, whether that was the end of the world that had been foretold to us. To which Edgar adds, or only a reprefentation and resemblance of that horror? So Macbeth, when he calls upon Banquo, Malcolm, &c. to view Duncan murdered, fays, up, up, and fee The great doom's image! There is evidently an allufion to the fame paffages in scripture, in a fpeech of Glofter's, which he makes in the second scene of the first act: "Thefe late eclipfes in the fun and moon portend no good to us ;love cools; friendship falls off; brothers divide; in cities, mutinies; in countries, difcord; in palaces treafon; and the bond crack'd 'twixt fon and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's fon against father; the king falls off from the bias of nature; there's father against child: We have feen the beft of our time." If any criticks fhould urge it as an objection to this explanation, that the perfons of the drama are pagans, and of confequence unacquainted with the fcriptures, they give Shakspeare credit for more accuracy than I fear he poffefied. MASON. I entirely agree with Mr. Mafon in his happy explanation of this paffage. In a fpeech which our poet has put into the mouth of young Clifford in The Second Part of King Henry VI. a fimilar imagery is found. On feeing the dead body of his father, who was flain in battle by the duke of York, he exclaims, "O, let the vile world end, "And the premised flames of the last day "Now let the general trumpet blow his blast, "To ceafe!" There is no trace of thefe lines in the old play on which The Second Part of King Henry VI. was formed. Image is again ufed for delineation or reprefentation, in K. Henry IV. P. I. No counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed." Again, in Hamlet: "The play is the image of a murder done in Vienna." MALONE. 4 Fall, and cease!] Albany is looking with attention on the pains employed by Lear to recover his child, and knows to what mileries he muft furvive, when he finds them to be ineffectual. Having these images prefent to his eyes and imagination, he cries out, Rather fall, and ceafe to be, at once, than continue in exiftence only to be wretched. So Lear. This feather ftirs; fhe lives! if it be fo, It is a chance that does redeem all forrows That ever I have felt. Kent. O my good master! Lear. Pr'ythee, away. Edg. 'Tis noble Kent, your friend. [kneeling. Lear. A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all! What is't thou fay'ft?-Her voice was ever soft, Lear. Did I not, fellow? I have seen the day, with my good biting faulchion And So, in All's Well, &c. to ceafe is ufed for to die and in Hamlet, the death of majesty is called "the cease of majesty." Again, in All's Well that Ends Well: "Or, ere they meet, in me, O nature, cease! "And both fhall ceafe, without your remedy." STEEVENS The word is ufed nearly in the fame fenfe in a former fcene of this play: "Bids the wind blow the earth into the fea, I doubt, however, whether Albany's fpeech is addreffed to Lear. 5 This feather firs ;-] So, in Vittoria Corombona, 1612: "Fetch a looking-glafs, fee if his breath will not ftain it; or pull fome feathers from my pillow, and lay them to his lips." STEEVENS. There is the fame thought in King Henry IV. P. II. A& IV. fc. iv, by his gates of breath "There lies a downy featber, which stirs not." WHALLEY. 6 murderers, traitors all!] Thus the folio. The quartos readmurderous traitors all. MALONE. 7 I have feen the day, with my good biting faulebion I would have made them fkip] It is difficult for an author who never peruses his first works, to avoid repeating fome of the fame thoughts in his later productions. What Lear has just said, had been anticipated by Juftice Shallow in the Merry Wives of Windfor: “I And these fame croffes fpoil me.-Who are you? Lear. This is a dull fight: Are you not Kent? Where is your fervant Caius ? Lear. He's a good fellow, I can tell you that; Kent. That, from your firft of difference and decay, Have follow'd your fad steps. Lear. You are welcome hither. Kent. Nor no man elfe; all's cheerlefs, dark, and Your eldest daughters have fore-doom'd themfelves3, have seen the time, with my long fword, I would have made you four It is again repeated in Othello: tall fellows skip like rats." 66 I have feen the day "That with this little arm and this good fword STEEVENS. 8 If fortune brag of two she lov'd and bated, One of them we bebold.] I fuppofe by the two whom fortune once loved, and then hated, Kent means, Lear and himself; and that each of them, looking on the other, faw a rare inftance of her caprice. He may, however, be only thinking of Lear, the object of her hate. This is the reading of the folio. The quartos read-lov'd er hated; and they may be right, if the interpretation last given be the true one. MALONE. 9 This is a dull fight:] This paffage is wanting in the quartos. STEEVENS. of difference and decay,] Decay for misfortunes. WARBURT. The quartos read: That from your life of difference and decay. 2 Nor no man elfe;] Kent means, I welcome! elfe. MALONE. STEEVENS. 3 fore-doom'd themselves,] Thus the quartos. The folio reads fordone. Have fore-doom'd themselves is-have anticipated their own doom. To fordo is to deftroy. STEEVENS. See Vol. II. p. 536, n. 3, and Vol. IX. p. 244, n. 6. MALONE. Lear. Lear. Ay, fo I think. Alb. He knows not what he fays; and vain it is That we prefent us to him. Edg. Very bootlefs. Enter an Officer. Of. Edmund is dead, my lord. Alb. That's but a trifle here. You lords, and noble friends, know our intent. To him our abfolute power:-You, to your rights; [to Edgar and Kent, With boot3, and fuch addition as your honours Have more than merited.-All friends fhall tafte The wages of their virtue, and all foes The cup of their defervings.-O, fee, fee! Lear. And my poor fool is hang'd7! No, no, no life: Why 4-be fays;] The quartos read—he fees, which may be right. STEEVENS. 5 What comfort to this great decay may come,] This great decay is Lear, whom Shakspeare poetically calls fo, and means the fame as if he had faid, this piece of decay'd royalty, this ruin'd majefty. STEEV. A preceding paflage in which Glofter laments Lear's frenzy, fully fupports Mr. Steevens's interpretation: "O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world "Shall fo wear out to nought." Again, in Julius Cæfar: "Thou art the ruins of the nobleft man," &c. MALONE. 6 With boot,-] With advantage, with increase. JOHNSON. And my poor fool is bang'd!] This is an expreffion of tenderness for his dead Cordelia, (not his fool, as fome have thought,) on whofe lips he is ftill intent, and dies away while he is fearching for life there. Poor fool, in the age of Shakspeare, was an expreffion of endearSo, in his Antony and Cleopatra: ment. poor venomous fool, "Be angry and dispatch.-" Again, in King Henry VI. P. III: "So many weeks ere the poor fools will yean." Again, in Romeo and Juliet: "And, pretty fool, it stinted and said—ay.” |