GON. Combine together 'gainst the enemy: ALB. Let us then determine With the ancient of war on our proceedings. GON. No. REG. 'Tis most convenient; pray you, go with us. GON. O, ho, I know the riddle: [Aside.] I will go. As they are going out, enter EDGAR, disguised. EDG. If e'er your grace had speech with man so poor, Hear me one word. ALB. I'll overtake you.-Speak. [Exeunt EDMUND, REGAN, GONERIL, Officers, Soldiers, and Attendants. EDG. Before you fight the battle, ope this letter. If you have victory, let the trumpet sound For him that brought it: wretched though I seem, I can produce a champion, that will prove What is avouched there: If you miscarry, Your business of the world hath so an end, For these domestick and particular broils-] This is the reading of the folio. The quartos have it 66 For these domestick doore particulars." STEEVENS. Doore, or dore, as quartos A and C have it, was probably a misprint for dear; i. e. important. MALONE. Door particulars, signify, I believe, particulars at our very doors, close to us, and consequently fitter to be settled at home. STEEVENS. 2 Are not to question here.] Thus the quartos. The folio reads "Are not the question here." STEEVENS. 3 Edm.] This speech is wanting in the folio. STEEVENS. Fortune love you* ! And machination ceases1. Fortune love EDG. [Exit. ALB. Why, fare thee well; I will o'erlook thy paper. Re-enter EDMUND. EDM. The enemy's in view, draw up your powers. Here is the guess of their true forces 5 strength and By diligent discovery ;-but your haste ALB. We will greet the time. [Exit. EDM. To both these sisters have I sworn my love; Each jealous of the other, as the stung Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take? * First folio, loves you. 4 And MACHINATION ceases.] life will have an end. STEEVENS. † Quartos, great. i. e. All designs against your These words are not in the quartos. In the latter part of this line, for love, the reading of the original copies, the folio has loves. MALONE. S HERE is the guess, &c.] The modern editors read, "Hard is the guess." So the quartos. But had the discovery been diligent, the guess could not have proved so difficult. I have given the true reading from the folio. STEEVENS. The original reading is, I think, sufficiently clear. The most diligent inquiry does not enable me to form a conjecture concerning the true strength of the enemy. Whether we read hard or here, the adversative particle but in the subsequent line seems employed with little propriety. According to the present reading, it may mean, "but you are now so pressed in point of time, that you have little leisure for such speculations." The quartos readtheir great strength." MALONE. 66 "We will greet the time,] We will be ready to meet the occasion. JOHNSON. Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd, Her husband being alive. Now then, we'll use 7 carry out my side,] Bring my purpose to a successful issue, to completion. Side seems here to have the sense of the French word partie, in prendre partie, to take his resolution. JOHNSON. So, in The Honest Man's Fortune, by Beaumont and Fletcher: and carry out 66 "A world of evils with thy title." Again, in one of the Paston Letters, vol. iv. p. 155: “Heydon's son hath borne out the side stoutly here," &c. STEEVENS. The Bastard means, "I shall scarcely be able to make out my game." The allusion is to a party at cards, and he is afraid that he shall not be able to make his side successful. 66 So, in Ben Jonson's Silent Woman, Centaure says of EpiceneShe and Mavis will set up a side." That is, will be partners. And in Massinger's Unnatural Combat, Belgard says: 66 And if now "At this downright game, I may but hold your cards, In The Maid's Tragedy, the same expression occurs: "Dula. I'll hold your cards against any two I know. 66 'Dula. I will refuse it; "She will pluck down a side, she does not use it." But the phrase is still more clearly explained in Massinger's Great Duke of Florence, where Cozimo says to Petronella, who had challenged him to drink a second bowl of wine: "Pray you, pause a little ; "If I hold your cards, I shall pull down the side; "I am not good at the game." M. MASON. The same phrase has forced its way into Chapman's version of the fifth Iliad: 66 thy body's powers are poor, : “And therefore are thy troops so weak the soldier evermore "Follows the temper of his chief; and thou pull'st down a side." STEEVENS. Edmund, I think, means, hardly shall I be able to make my side, i. e. my party good; to maintain my cause. We should now say" to bear out," which Coles, in his Dictionary, 1679, interprets, "to make good, to save harmless." MALONE. His countenance for the battle; which being done, [Exit. SCENE II. A Field between the two Camps. Alarum within. Enter, with Drum and Colours, LEAR, CORDELIA, and their Forces; and exeunt. Enter EDGAR and GLOSTER". EDG. Here, father, take the shadow of this tree * For your good host; pray that the right may thrive: If ever I return to you again, I'll bring you comfort. GLO. Grace go with you, sir! Stands on me, &c.] I do not think that for stands, in this place, as a word of inference or causality. The meaning is, rather-" Such is my determination concerning Lear; as for my state it requires now, not deliberation, but defence and support." JOHNSON. 9 Enter Edgar, &c.] Those who are curious to know how far Shakspeare was here indebted to the Arcadia, will find a chapter from it entitled,-" The pitifull State and Storie of the Paphlagonian unkinde King, and his kinde Sonne; first related by the Sonne, then by the blind Father." P. 141, edit. 1590, quarto, annexed to the conclusion of this play. STEEVENS. Alarums; afterwards a Retreat. Re-enter EDGAR. EDG. Away, old man, give me thy hand, away; King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en : Give me thy hand, come on. GLO. No further, sir; a man may rot even here EDG. What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither: Ripeness is all1: Come on. GLO. And that's true too 2. [Exeunt. SCENE III. The British Camp near Dover. Enter, in Conquest, with Drum and Colours, EdMUND; LEAR and CORDELIA, as Prisoners; Officers, Soldiers, &c. EDM. Some officers take them away: good guard; Until their greater pleasures first be known That are to censure them 3. COR. We are not the first, Who, with best meaning, have incurr'd the worst *. For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down; Myself could else out-frown false fortune's frown. 1 Ripeness is all:] i. e. To be ready, prepared, is all. The same sentiment occurs in Hamlet, scene the last: "— if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all." STEEVENS. And that's true too.] Omitted in the quarto. STEEVENS. to CENSURE them.] i. e. to pass sentence or judgment on them. So, in Othello : 3 66 To you, lord governor, "Remains the censure of this hellish villain." STEEVENS. 4 Who, with best meaning, have incurr'd THE WORST.] i. e. the worst that fortune can indict. MALONE. |