Old Man. I'll bring him the best 'parrel that I have,

Come on't what will.

Glo. Sirrah, naked fellow.

Edg. Poor Tom's a-cold.-I cannot a daub it further.

Glo. Come hither, fellow.

Edg. [afide.]

And yet I must.

[Afide.

Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed.

Glo. Know'st thou the way to Dover?

Edg. Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path. Poor

Tom hath been scar'd out of his good wits. Bless thee,

* good man, from the foul fiend. d Five fiends have been in

H. reads firrah, you, naked fellow.

poor

a For daub (which W. interprets disguise) the qu's and P. read dance; H. dally, omitting it.

The qu's omit and yet I must.

• The fo's and R. read good man's fon, from, &c. d What is in italic is omitted in the fo's and R.

Shakespeare has made Edgar, in his feigned distraction, frequently allude to a vile imposture of some English Jesuits, at that time much the subject of converfation; the history of it having been just then composed with great art and vigour of stile and composition by Dr. S. Harfenet, afterwards Archbishop of York, by order of the privy-council, in a work entitled, A declaration of egregious popish impostures, to withdraw his majesty's fubjects from their allegiance, &c. under pretence of cafting out devils, practised by Edmunds, alias Weston, a Jefuit, and divers Romish priests his wicked associates. Printed 1603. The imposture was in substance this, while the Spaniards were preparing their armada against England, the Jesuits were here bufy to promote it, by making converts; one method they employed was to difpofsess pretended demoniacs, by which artifice they made several hundred converts amongst the common people. The principal scene of this farce was laid in the family of one Mr. Edmund Peckham, a Roman Catholic, where Marwood, a fervant of Anthony Babington's, (who was afterwards executed for treason) Trayford, an attendant upon Mr. Peckham, and Sarah and Frifwood Williams, and Anne Smith, three chambermaids in that family were fuppofed

I

poor Tom at once; • of lust, as Obidicut; f Hobbididence prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; & Modo, of murder * Flibbertigibbet of i mobbing and k mowing; who fince pofSeffes chamber-maids and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master.

Glo. Here, take this purse, thou whom the heaven's plaguee Have humbled to all strokes. That I am wretched, Makes thee the happier. Heavens deal so still! Let the superfluous, m and lust-dieted man, That braves your ordinance, that will not fee Because he does not feel, feel your power quickly :

supposed to be possessed with devils, and came into the priest's hands for cure. But the discipline of the patients was so long and severe, and the priests so elate and careless with their success, that the plot was discovered on the confeffion of the parties concerned, and the contrivers of it defervedly punished. The five devils here mentioned, are the names of five of those who were to act in this farce upon the chambermaids and waiting-women; and they are generally so ridiculously nick-named, that Harfenet has one chapter on the strange names of their devils; left, says he, meeting them otherwise by chance, you mistake them for the names of tapsters and jugglers. W. The substance of this note is in T.'s edition.

• P. omits of lust, as Obidicut.

f So the qu's; the rest Hobbididen.

8 So the qu's; the rest Mohu.

h The qu's read Stiberdigebit.

1 The qu's read mobin; P. moping; the rest mopping.

k The qu's read Mohing, printed as a proper name of one of the fiends, and retained as fuch by P. (and spelt Mowing) on account of which he excluded Obidicut, as the number five is complete without it. But mobbing seems to allude to the mobs which gathered to see the possessed people; and mowing. i. e. making mouths, to the distortions of their faces when the pretended fit was upon them.

1 All but the qu's omit so, bless thee, good master.

mR. reads and the luft-dieted, &c.

n So H. and W.; the qu's read stands; the fo's slaves.

So

So distribution should undo excess,

And each man have enough. Do'st thou know Dover?
Edg. Ay, master.

Glo. There is a cliff whose high and bending head

Looks fearfully 9 on the confined deep;
Bring me but to the very brim of it,

And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear,

With something rich about me. From that place
I shall no leading need.

Edg. Give me thy arm,

Poor Tom shall lead thee.

[Exeunt.

!

Enter Goneril and Edmund.

Gon. Welcome, my lord; I marvel, our mild husband

Not met us on the way.

Enter Steward.

Now, where's your master?

Stew. Madam, within; but never man so chang'd.

I told him of the army that was landed;

He smil'd at it. I told him, you were coming,
His answer was, the worse. Of Gloster's treachery,
And of the loyal service of his fon,

• The qu's read under for undo.

The qu's read firmly for fearfully.
The qu's and fo's read in for on.

* The two last fo's and R. and T.'s 8vo read lending for leading.

When I inform'd him, then he call'd me fot;
And told me, I had turn'd the wrong fide out.
• What most he should dislike, seems pleasant to him;
What like, offenfive.

[To Edmund.

Gon. Then thou shalt go no further.
It is the cowish terror of his spirit,
That dares not undertake; he'll not feel wrongs,

Which tie him to an answer.

May prove effects. Back,

u Our wishes on the way Edmund, to my brother;

Hasten his musters, and conduct his powers.
I must change arms at home, and give the distaff
Into my husband's hands. This trusty fervant
Shall pass between us; y ere long you are like to hear,
If you dare venture in your own behalf,

A mistress's command. Wear this; [a gives him a ring]

spare speech;

Decline your head. This kiss, if it durst speak,
Would stretch thy spirits up into the air.

Conceive, and fare thee well.

Edm. Yours in the ranks of death.

Gon. My most dear Glo'ster!

• The qu's read what he should most defire.

The 2d q. reads curre for terror.

[Exit Edmund.

■H. reads that our wishes on th' way may prove effets, back to my brother, &c.

The 1st q. reads Edgar for Edmund.

* The fo's and R. read names for arms.

reft.

So all before P. who reads you ere long shall hear; followed by the

2 The 2d q. reads coward for command.

• This direction added by H.

b The ist q. reads far you well; the ad faryewell.

Oh

}

Oh, the d difference of man, and man!
To thee a woman's services are due;

My fool ufurps my body.

Stew. Madam, here comes my lord.

Enter Albany.

Gon. I have been worth the h whistle.

Alb. Oh, Gonerill,

[& Exit Steward.

You are not worth the dust, which the i rude wind
Blows in your face. k I fear your difpofition:

That nature, which contemns' its origin,

Cannot be border'd certain in itself;

She that herself will m filver, and dif-branch,
From bermaterial fap, perforce must wither,
And come to deadly use.

• This line is not in the qu's.

So all before P. who inferts strange after the; followed by the rest.
The ad q. omits a.

The ist q. reads a fool ufurps my bed; the ad my foot ufurps my head.
& So the qu's; the rest omit this direction.

The ist q. reads whistling.

i The ad q. omits rude.

What follows in italic is omitted in the fo's and R.

1 The ist q. reads ith; the ad it for its.

P. reads shiver.

T. H. and J. read maternal for material; to fupport which latter reading, in the usual sense of the word, W. has a long note; but after all confeffes that material may fignify maternal; and quotes the title of an old English book to prove that material has been used in that sense; the title is as follows, Syr John Froissart's chronicle translated out of the Frenche into our material English tongue by John Bouchier, printed 1525. But a few words will determine the reading to be material in the usual sense; for the force of Albany's argument to prove that a branch torn from a tree must infallibly wither and die, lies in this, that it is separated from a communication with that which supplies it with the very identical matter by which it (the branch) lives, and of which it is composed.