Hình ảnh trang
PDF
ePub

She that herself will sliver and disbranch
From her material sap,9 perforce must wither,
And come to deadly use 1

Gon. No more; the text is foolish.

Alb. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile:
Filths savour but themselves. What have you done?
Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform❜d?
A father, and a gracious aged man,

Whose reverence the head-lugg'd bear would lick,2

which is arrived to such a pitch of unnatural degeneracy, as to con temn its origin, cannot from thenceforth be restrained within any certain bounds, but is prepared to break out into the most monstrous excesses every way, as occasion or temptation may offer. Heath. She that herself will sliver and disbranch -] To sliver signifies to tear off or disbranch. So, in Macbeth:

66

slips of yew

“ Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse." Warburton.

• She that herself will sliver and disbranch

From her material sap] She who breaks the bonds of filial duty, and becomes wholly alienated from her father, must wither and perish, like a branch separated from that sap which supplies it with nourishinent, and gives life to the matter of which it is composed. So, in A Brief Chromycle concernynge the Examinacyion and Death of Syr Johan Oldcastle, 1544: "Then sayd the lorde Cobham, and spredde his armes abrode: This is a very crosse, yea and so moche better than your crosse of wode, in that yt was created as God: yet will I not seeke to have yt worshipped. Than sayd the byshop of London, Syr, ye wote wele that he dyed on a materyall crosse.”

Mr. Theobald reads maternal, and Dr. Johnson thinks that the true reading Syr John Froissart's Chronicle (as Dr. Warburton has observed) in the title-page of the English translation printed in 1525, is said to be translated out of French to our material English Tongue by John Bourchier. And I have found material (from mater) used in some other old books for maternal, but neglected to note the instances I think, however, that the word is here used in its ordinary sense. Maternal sap (or any synonymous words) would introduce a mixed and confused metaphor Material sap is strictly correct. From the word herself to the end, the branch was the figurative object of the poet's thought. Malone.

Throughout the plays of our author I do not recollect a single instance of the adjective-maternal. Steevens.

1 And come to deadly use.] Alluding to the use that witches and inchanters are said to make of wither'd branches in their charms. A fine insinuation in the speaker, that she was ready for the most unnatural mischief, and a preparative of the poet to her plotting with the bastard against her husband's life. Warburton.

Dr. Warburton might have supported his interpretation by the passage in Macbeth, quoted above, n. 8. Malone.

Most barbarous, most degenerate! have you madded. Could my good brother suffer you to do it?

A man, a prince, by him so benefited?

If that the heavens do not their visible spirits Send quickly down to tame these wild offences,3 'Twill come,

Humanity must perforce prey on itself,

Like monsters of the deep.4

Gon.

Milk-liver'd man!

That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;
Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning

Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know'st,5
Fools do those villains pity, who are punish'd

Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum?
France spreads his banners in our noiseless land;
With plumed helm thy slayer begins threats;
Whilst thou, a moral fool, sit'st still, and cry'st,
Alack! why does he so?

Alb.

See thyself, devil!

Proper deformity7 seems not in the fiend

2 would lick,] This line, which had been omitted by all my predecessors, I have restored from the quartos. Steevens.

3

these vile offences,] In some of the impressions of quarto B, we find this vile offences; in others, and in quarto A,-the vile. This was certainly a misprint for these. Malone.

4

like monsters of the deep.] Fishes are the only animals that are known to prey upon their own species. Johnson.

5

the folio.

that not know'st, &c.] The rest of this speech is omitted in Steevens.

• Fools do those villains pity, &c.] She means, that none but fools would pity those villains, who are prevented from executing their malicious designs, and punished for their evil intention. It is not clear whether this fiend means her father, or the King of France. If these words were intended to have a retrospect to Albany's speech, which the word pity might lead us to suppose, Lear must be in her contemplation; if they are considered as connected with what followsWhere's thy drum? &c. the other interpretation must be adopted. The latter appears to me the true one; and perhaps the punctuation of the quarto, in which there is only a comma after the word mischief, ought to have been preferred. Malone.

I do not perceive to what the word-fiend, in the fourth line of the foregoing note, refers. Steevens.

7 Proper deformity-] i. e. Diabolick qualities appear not so horrid in the devil, to whom they belong, as in woman, who unnaturally assumes them. Warburton.

So horrid, as in woman.

Gon.

O vain fool!

Alb. Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame, Be-monster not thy feature. Were it my fitness To let these hands obey my blood,1

They are apt enough to dislocate and tear

Thy flesh and bones:-Howe'er thou art a fiend,
A woman's shape doth shield thee.

Gon. Marry, your manhood now !

[ocr errors]

Enter a Messenger.

Alb. What news?

Mess. O, my good lord, the duke of Cornwall's dead; Slain by his servant, going to put out

The other eye of Gloster.

8 Thou changed and self-cover'd thing,] Of these lines there is but one copy, and the editors are forced upon conjecture. They have published this line thus:

Thou chang'd, and self-converted thing,

But I cannot but think that by self-cover'd the author meant, thou that hast disguised nature by wickedness; thou that hast hid the woman under the fiend. Johnson.

This, and the next speech are wanting in the folio. Steevens.

The following words, be-monster not thy nature, seems rather to support the reading of the former editors, which was self-converted; and a thought somewhat similar occurs in Fletcher's play of The Captain, where the father says to Lelia

66

Oh, Good God!

"To what an impudence, thou wretched woman,

[ocr errors]

"Hast thou begot thyself again!" M. Mason.

By thou self-cover'd thing, the poet, I think, means, thou who hast put a covering on thyself, which nature did not give thee. The covering which Albany means, is, the semblance and appearance of a fiend. Malone.

Self-cover'd, perhaps, was said in allusion to the envelope which the maggots of some insects furnish to themselves. Or the poet might have referred to the operation of the silk worm, that

66

labours till it clouds itself all o'er."

Steevens.

9 Be-monster not thy feature.] Feature, in Shakspeare's age, meant the general cast of countenance, and often beauty. Bullokar, in his Expositor, 1616, explains it by the words, "handsomeness, comeliness, beautie." Malone.

1 To let these hands obey my blood,] As this line wants a foot, perhaps our author wrote

To let these hands of mine obey my

So, in King John, Vol. VII:

66

This hand of mine

blood.

"Is yet a maiden and an innocent hand." Steevens.

Alb.

Gloster's eyes!

Mess. A servant that he bred, thrill'd with remorse, Oppos'd against the act, bending his sword

To his great master; who, thereat enrag'd,

Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead :*
But not without that harmful stroke, which since
Hath pluck'd him after.

Alb.

This shows you are above,
You justicers,3 that these our nether crimes
So speedily can venge!-But, O poor Gloster!
Lost he his other eye?

Mess.
Both, both, my lord.-
This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer;
'Tis from your sister.

Gon. [aside] One way I like this well ;4
But being widow, and my Gloster with her,
May all the building in my fancy5 pluck
Upon my hateful life: Another way,

The news is not so tart.-I'll read, and answer.

[Exit. Alb. Where was his son, when they did take his eyes? Mess. Come with my lady hither.

Alb.

He is not here.

Mess. No, my good lord; I met him back again.
Alb. Knows he the wickedness?

Mess. Ay, my good lord; 'twas he inform'd against

him;

And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment Might have the freer course.

Gloster, I live

Alb.
To thank thee for the love thou show'd'st the king,

2 and amongst them fell'd him dead:] i.e. they (Cornwall and his other servants) amongst them fell'd him dead. Malone.

You justicers,] Most of the old copies have justices; but it was certainly a misprint. The word justicer is used in two other places in this play; and though printed rightly in the folio, is corrupted in the quarto in the same manner as here. Some copies of quarto B read, rightly-justicers, in the line before us. Malone.

4 One way I like this well;] Goneril's plan was to poison her sister -to marry Edmund-to murder Albany-and to get possession of the whole kingdom. As the death of Cornwall facilitated the last part of her scheme, she was pleased at it; but disliked it, as it put it in the power of her sister to marry Edmund. M. Mason.

5

sc. i: "

all the building in my fancy -] So, in Coriolanus, Act II, - the buildings in my fancy." "Steevens.

And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend;
Tell me what more thou knowest.

[SCENE III.6

The French Camp, near Dover.

Enter KENT, and a Gentleman.7

[Exeunt.

Kent. Why the king of France is so suddenly gone backs know you the reason?

Gent. Something he left imperfect in the state,
Which since his coming forth is thought of; which
Imports to the kingdom so much fear and danger,
That his personal return was most requir'd,
And necessary.

Kent. Who hath he left behind him general?

Gent. The Mareschal of France, Monsieur le Fer.9

[Scene III.] This scene, left out in all the common books, is restored from the old edition; it being manifestly of Shakspeare's writing, and necessary to continue the story of Cordelia, whose behaviour is here most beautifully painted. Pope.

The scene seems to have been left out only to shorten the play, and is necessary to continue the action. It is extant only in the quarto, being omitted in the first folio. I have therefore put it between crotchets. Johnson.

7-a Gentleman.] The gentleman whom he sent in the foregoing act with letters to Cordelia. Johnson.

8 Why the king of France is so suddenly gone back &c.] The king of France being no longer a necessary personage, it was fit that some pretext for getting rid of him should be formed, before the play was too near advanced towards a conclusion. Decency required that a Monarch should not be silently shuffled into the pack of insignificant characters; and therefore his dismission (which could be effected only by a sudden recall to his own dominions) was to be accounted for before the audience. For this purpose, among others, the present scene was introduced It is difficult indeed to say what use could have been made of the King, had he appeared at the head of his own armament, and survived the murder of his queen. His conjugal concern on the occasion, might have weakened the effect of Lear's parental sorrow; and, being an object of respect, as well as pity, he would naturally have divided the spectator's attention, and thereby diminished the consequence of Albany, Edgar, and Kent, whose exemplary virtues deserved to be ultimately placed in the most conspicuous point of view. Steevens.

9 The Mareschal of France, Monsieur le Fer] Shakspeare seems to have been poor in the names of Frenchmen, or he would scarce have given us here a Monsieur le Fer as Mareschal of France, after

« TrướcTiếp tục »