Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage, This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,+ The lion and the belly-pinched wolf omitted in all the late editions; I have replaced them from the first, for they are certainly Shakspeare's. POPE. The first folio ends the speech at change or cease, and begins again at Kent's question, But who is with him? The whole speech is forcible, but too long for the occasion, and properly retrenched. JOHNSON. 3 Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.] Thus the old copies. But I suspect we should read-out-storm: i. e. aş Nestor expresses it in Troilus and Cressida : 66 with an accent tun'd in self-same key, "Returns to chiding fortune :" i. e. makes a return to it, gives it as good as it brings, confronts it with self-comparisons. Again, in King Lear, Act V: "Myself could else out-frown false fortune's frown.” Again, in King John: "Threaten the threatner, and out-face the brow "Of bragging horror." Again, (and more decisively) in The Lover's Complaint, attributed to our author: 66 Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.” The same mistake of scorn for storm had also happened in the old copies of Troilus and Cressida: 66 as when the sun doth light a scorn," instead of a-storm. See Vol. XV. p. 235. n. 8. STEEVENS. * This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,] Cubdrawn has been explained to signify drawn by nature to its young; whereas it means, whose dugs are drawn dry by its young. For no animals leave their dens by night but for prey. So that the meaning is, " that even hunger, and the support of its young, would not force the bear to leave his den in such a night." WARBURTON. Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs, KENT. But who is with him? GENT. None but the fool; who labours to out Sir, I do know you; 6 And dare, upon the warrant of my art, With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Corn wall; Who have (as who have not," that their great stars Shakspeare has the same image in As you like it : "A lioness, with udders all drawn dry, Lay couching." Again, ibidem: "Food to the suck'd and hungry lioness." STEEVENS. 5 And bids what will take all.] So, in Antony and Cleopatra, Enobarbus says, 6 "I'll strike, and cry, Take all." STEEVENS. upon the warrant of my art,] Thus the quartos. The folio-" my note.". "The warrant of my art" seems to meanon the strength of my skill in physiognomy. STEEVENS. upon the warrant of my art,] On the strength of that art or skill, which teaches us "to find the mind's construction in the face." The passage in Macbeth from which I have drawn this paraphrase, in which the word art is again employed in the same sense, confirms the reading of the quartos. The folio reads -upon the warrant of my note: i. e. says Dr. Johnson, "my observation of your character." MALONE. 7 Who have (as who have not,] The eight subsequent verses were degraded by Mr. Pope, as unintelligible, and to no purpose. For my part, I see nothing in them but what is very easy to be understood; and the lines seem absolutely necessary to clear up the motives upon which France prepared his invasion: nor without them is the sense of the context complete. THEOBALD. The quartos omit these lines. STEEVENS. 8 Thron'dand set high?) servants, who seem no less; what hath been seen,] What follows, are the circumstances in the state of the kingdom, of which he supposes the spies gave France the intelligence. STEEVENS. ? Either in snuffs and packings-] Snuffs are dislikes, and packings underhand contrivances. So, in Henry IV. P. I: "Took it in snuff;" and in King Edward III. 1599: "This packing evil, we both shall tremble for it." Again, in Stanyhurst's Virgil, 1582: "With two gods packing one woman silly to cozen.' We still talk of packing juries, and Antony says of Cleopatra, that she had "pack'd cards with Cæsar." STEEVENS, 1 are but furnishings;] Furnishings are what we now call colours, external pretences. JOHNSON. A furnish anciently signified a sample. So, in the Preface to Greene's Groatsworth of Wit, 1621: To lend the world a furnish of wit, she lays her own to pawn." STEEvens. 2 But, true it is, &c.] In the old editions are the five followlowing lines which I have inserted in the text, which seem necessary to the plot, as a preparatory to the arrival of the French army with Cordelia in Act IV. How both these, and a whole scene between Kent and this gentleman in the fourth Act, came to be left out in all the later editions, I cannot tell; they depend upon each other, and very much contribute to clear that incident. POPE. 3 - from France there comes a power Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already, Wise in our negligence, have secret feet In some of our best ports,] This speech, as it now stands, To show their open banner.-Now to you: To make your speed to Dover, you shall find is collected from two editions: the eight lines, degraded by Mr. Pope, are found in the folio, not in the quarto; the following lines inclosed in crotchets are in the quarto, not in the folio. So that if the speech be read with omission of the former, it will stand according to the first edition; and if the former are read, and the lines that follow them omitted, it will then stand according to the second. The speech is now tedious, because it is formed by a coalition of both. The second edition is generally best, and was probably nearest to Shakspeare's last copy; but in this passage the first is preferable: for in the folio, the messenger is sent, he knows not why, he knows not whither. I suppose Shakspeare thought his plot opened rather too early, and made the alteration to veil the event from the audience; but trusting too much to himself, and full of a single purpose, he did not accommodate his new lines to the rest of the scene. Scattered means divided, unsettled, disunited. JOHNSON, have secret feet In some of our best ports,] One of the quartos (for there are two that differ from each other, though printed in the same year, and for the same printer,) reads secret feet. Perhaps the author wrote secret foot, i. e. footing. So, in a following scene: what confederacy have you with the traitors "Late footed in the kingdom?" A phrase, not unlike that in the text, occurs in Chapman's version of the nineteenth Book of Homer's Odyssey: what course for home would best prevail "To come in pomp, or beare a secret sail." 66 Ι STEEVENS. These lines, as has been observed, are not in the folio. Quarto A reads-secret fee; quarto B-secret feet. I have adopted the latter reading, which I suppose was used in the sense of secret footing, and is strongly confirmed by a passage in this Act: "These injuries the king now bears, will be revenged home; there is part of a power already footed: we must incline to the king." Again, in Coriolanus: Why, thou Mars, I'll tell thee, Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow I am a gentleman of blood and breeding; GENT. I will talk further with you. KENT. No, do not. For confirmation that I am much more Than my out wall, open this purse, and take What it contains: If you shall see Cordelia, (As fear not but you shall,*) show her this ring; And she will tell you who your fellow is That yet you do not know. Fye on this storm! I will go seek the king. GENT. Give me your hand: Have you no more to say? KENT. Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet; That, when we have found the king, (in which your pain, That way; I'll this ;) he that first5 lights on him, Holla the other. [Exeunt severally. *(As fear not but you shall,)] Thus quarto B and the folio. Quarto A-As doubt not but you shall. MALone. 5 -the king, (in which your pain, That way; I'll this;) he that first &c.] Thus the folio. The late reading: 66 -for which you take "That way, I this," was not genuine. The quartos read: "That when we have found the king, "Ile this way, you that, he that first lights |
