Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,
With my two daughters'o dowers digest this third.

Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.

I do invest you jointly 9 with my power,

Pre-eminence, and all the large effects

That troop with majesty. Ourself by monthly course,
With refervation of an hundred knights,
By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode

Make with you by due turns; only we still retain

more.

of diverting him from the attempt, he saw he was beginning, to dissuade him
from his resolution of disinheriting Cordelia, that he warns him of the dan-
ger of continuing it-Come not between the dragon and his wrath; and even
after proceeding in it, when Kent interrupted him a second time, and re-
fumed his addresses, Lear also continued his warning-The bow is bent and
drawn, make from the shaft. Kent, seeing that respectful behaviour had no
effect, has recourse to rougher language: even after that, Lear thinks to
make him cease by a severe and passionate prohibition-Kent, on thy life no
Kent still persists, and urges his own inflexible loyalty as a reason for
his being heard: Lear then first bids him out of my fight; Kent further in-
treats, Lear swears, Kent returns the oath, and at last urges his reproaches
with fuch vehemence, that Lear, despairing of filencing him any other way,
pronounces the final sentence of banishment upon him. This is the natural,
not the designed gradation of Lear's anger. It rises by degrees to its height,
and at last falls with its full weight. These steps by which it advances shew
a reluctance in the king to be so severe upon one for whom he had the great-
eft regard: whereas the imaginary breach of filial love and duty, which he
foolishly fancied he found in Cordelia, had already extinguished all sparks of
his imaginary love to her. The contradiction to his declared intention is the
natural effect of his rage, which vented itself in fudden and contrary starts of
paffion. The whole scene, in this view, I take to be one of the most beau-
tiful in all Shakespear.
Neither qu's nor fo's have any direction in this
place.

• The qu's read dower.
P So the qu's; all the rest read the for this.

The qu's read in for with.

Paand all after him omit we ftill; the fo's and R. instead thereof read we shall.

The

The name and all th' additions to a king;
The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
Beloved fons, be yours; which to confirm,

[" Giving the crown.

This coronet part between you.

Kent. Royal Lear,

Whom I have ever honour'd as w my king,
Lov'd as my father, as my master follow'd,
As my x great patron thought on in my prayers-

Lear. The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft.

Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade

The region of my heart; be Kent unmannerly,
When Lear is y mad. What would'st thou do, old man?
Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak
When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound,
When
When majesty falls to folly. Reverse thy doom,
And in thy best consideration check

This hideous rafhness; answer my life my judgment,
Thy youngest daughter does not love thee leaft;
Nor are those empty hearted, whose low d sound
Reverbs no hollowness.

Lear. Kent, on * thy life no more.

Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn
To wage against thine enemies, f nor fear to lose it,

Thy fafety being & the motive.

Lear. Out of my fight!

Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain

The true blank chine eye.

:

Lear. Now by Apollo

Kent. Now by Apollo, king,

Thou swear'st thy gods in vain.

Lear. O vassal, * miscreant!

Alb. Corn. Dear fir, forbear.

[Laying his hand on his fword.

Referve thy ftate; with better judgment check

This bideous rashness; with my life I answer, &c.

and is followed by all but J.

b The qu's read Aoops.

• So the qu's; all the rest read Referve thy state.

The fo's and R. read founds reverb.

• The 3d and 4th fo's read my for thy.

• P. alters enemies to foes; followed by all but J.

Kent. m Do, kill thy physician, and thy fee bestow

Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy doom,

Or whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,
I'll tell thee thou dost evil.

Lear. Hear me, Precreant! I on thine allegiance hear me! Since thou hast fought to make us break ours vow,

Which we durft never yet; and with strain'd pride,
To come " between our w sentence and our pow'r,
Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,
Our potency made good, take thy reward.

So the qu's; the rest omit Do.

The 3d and 4th fo's and R. read the for thy.

• The fo's and R. read gift for doam.

P The qu's omit recreant.

These words in italic are in all the editions before P. who omits them;

and fo do the after-editors.

The fo's and R. read That for Since. And

• vews for vow.

• The qu's read ftraied.

u So the qu's; the rest betwixt.

The ift f. reads fentences.

* P. alters made to make; followed by W. who has the following note. Mr. Theobald by putting the first line (i. e. the line before this) into a parenthesis, and altering make to made in the second line (i. e. this line) had destroyed the sense of the whole; which, as it stood 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 station 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 obscurity of the passage. W.

It is not true that T. altered make to made (unless by this he means that T. has altered P.'s copy, which is in truth only restoring); one of the qu's, and all the f. editions read made-Which we durft never yet, &c. relating to the former attempt, Which nor our nature, &c. can relate only to the latter. Nor is there any obfcurity in this equal to what W. has introduced.

Four

Four days we do allot thee for provision,
To shield thee from diseases of the world;
And on the fifth, to turn thy hated back
Upon our kingdom; if on the tenth day following,
Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,

The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter,

This shall not be revok'd.

Kent. Why, fare thee well, king, a since thus thou wilt

appear,

Friendship lives hence, and banishment is here.

thee, maid,
justly said.

[To Cor.

The gods to their & dear shelter take
That i rightly think'st, and haft most
And your large speeches may your deeds approve,
That good effects may spring from words of love.

So the qu's; all the rest Five, and fixth.

[To Reg. and Gon.

2 So the qu's; all the rest disafters for diseases. But though the word diseases in the common sense of the word signifies ficknessfes; here it is ufed in the uncommon and literal sense, and means, a want of t e eafe and conveniences of life, i. e. hardships. See Hurd's note on the Callida junctura of Hor. Ars Poet. 1. 47

b So the qu's, and ist f. the rest omit on.

• So the qu's; the rest omit why to make the measure of the verse more exact; but it seems to express Kent's blunt humour the more strongly; and the nicety of the measure is not worth infifting on, especially when it robs the passage of a word of fuch significancy.

So the qu's; all the reft fith.

• The ad q. omits thus.

f So the qu's; the rest freedom; but friendship seems more properly opposed to banishment; for what is banishment, but the being driven away from our friends and countrymen? Freedom may with greater propriety be opposed. to flavery.

& The qu's read protection; but dear shelter is more like Shakespear.

The qu's read the maid, that rightly thinks, and bath most, &c. bating that the ift reads haft for hath.

i so the qu's; the rest make rightly and justly change places.

Thus