Pantingly forth, as if it press'd her heart; Cried, Sisters! sisters!-Shame of ladies! sisters! Let pity not be believed !-There she shook KENT. It is the stars, Let pity not be believed!] i. e. Let not such a thing as pity be supposed to exist! Thus the old copies; but the modern editors have hitherto read And clamour moisten'd:] It is not impossible but Shakspeare might have formed this fine picture of Cordelia's agony from holy writ, in the conduct of Joseph; who, being no longer able to restrain the vehemence of his affection, commanded all his retinue from his presence; and then wept aloud, and discovered himself to his brethren. THEOBALD. clamour moisten'd:] That is, her out-cries were accompanied with tears. JOHNSON. The old copies read-And clamour moisten'd her. I have no doubt that the word her was inserted by the compositor's eye glancing on the middle of the preceding line, where that word occurs; and therefore have omitted it. It may be observed that the metre is complete without this word. A similar error has See Vol. IX. p. 392, n. 2. happened in The Winter's Tale. She moisten'd clamour, or the exclamations she had uttered, with tears. This is perfectly intelligible; but clamour moisten'd her, is certainly nonsense. MALONE. 5 govern our conditions ;] i. e. regulate our dispositions. See Vol. XII. p. 521, n. 7. MALone. 6 one self mate and mate-] The same husband and the same wife. JOHNSON. Self is used here, as in many other places in these plays, for self-same. MALONE, GENT. No. KENT. Was this before the king return'd? GENT. No, since. KENT. Well, sir; The poor distress'd Lear is i'the town: Who sometime, in his better tune, remembers GENT. Why, good sir? KENT. A Sovereign shame so elbows him: his own unkindness, That stripp'd her from his benediction, turn'd her To foreign casualties, gave her dear rights To his dog-hearted daughters,-these things sting His mind so venomously, that burning shame Detains him from Cordelia. GENT. Alack, poor gentleman! KENT. Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard not? GENT. 'Tis so; they are afoot.3 KENT. Well, sir, I'll bring you to our master Lear, And leave you to attend him: some dear cause 7 these things sting The His mind so venomously, that burning shame-] metaphor is here preserved with great knowledge of nature. The venom of poisonous animals being a high caustick salt, that has all the effect of fire upon the part. WARBUrton. 'Tis so; they are afoot.] Dr. Warburton thinks it necessary to read, 'tis said; but the sense is plain, So it is that they are on foot. JOHNSON. 'Tis so, means, I think, I have heard of them; they do not exist in report only; they are actually on foot. MALONE. Some important business. See MALONE 9 some dear cause-] Timon of Athens, Act V. sc. ii. ? since. Will in concealment wrap me up awhile; [Exeunt. Lear is ers sir? :his d her sting man. you Lear, The ture. that -ces. they not See SCENE IV. The same. A Tent. Enter CORDELIA, Physician, and Soldiers. COR. Alack, 'tis he; why, he was met even now As mad as the vex'd sea: singing aloud; Crown'd with rank fumiter,' and furrow weeds, With harlocks, hemlock,2 nettles, cuckoo-flowers, Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow 1 So, in Romeo and Juliet: 66 a ring, that I must use "In dear employment." STEEvens. -fumiter,] i. e. fumitory: by the old herbalists written fumittery. HARRIS. 2 With harlocks, hemlock, &c.] The quartos read-With hordocks; the folio-With hardokes. MALONE. I do not remember any such plant as a hardock, but one of the most common weeds is a burdock, which I believe should be read here; and so Hanmer reads. JOHNSON. Hardocks should be harlocks. Thus Drayton, in one of his Eclogues: "The honey-suckle, the harlocke, "The lilly, and the lady-smocke," &c. FARMER. One of the readings offered by the quartos (though misspelt) is perhaps the true one. The hoar-dock, is the dock with whitish woolly leaves. STEEVEens. 3 Darnel,] According to Gerard, is the most hurtful of weeds among corn. It is mentioned in The Witches of Lancashire, 1634: In our sustaining corn.-A century send forth; He, that helps him, take all my outward worth. Our foster-nurse of nature is repose, The which he lacks; that to provoke in him, COR. All bless'd secrets, All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth, Spring with my tears! be aidant, and remediate, In the good man's distress!-Seek, seek for him; Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life That wants the means to lead it. MESS. Enter a Messenger. Madam, news; The British powers are marching hitherward. COR. 'Tis known before; our preparation stands In expectation of them.-O dear father, It is thy business that I Therefore great France 3 go about; "That cockle, darnel, poppy wild, See Vol. XIII. p. 99, n. 4. STEEVENS. What can man's wisdom do,] Do should be omitted as needless to the sense of the passage, and injurious to its metre. Thus, in Hamlet: "Try what repentance can: What can it not?" Do, in either place, is understood, though suppressed. 4 STEEVENS. the means to lead it.] The reason which should guide it. JOHNSON. orth; cer. My mourning, and important tears, hath pitied. [Exeunt. SCENE V. A Room in Gloster's Castle.. Enter REGAN and Steward. REG. But are my brother's powers set forth? STEW. REG. In person there? STEW. Ay, madam. Himself Madam, with much ado: Your sister is the better soldier. REG. Lord Edmund spake not with your lord' at home? • — important-] In other places of this author, for importunate. JOHNSON. See Comedy of Errors, Act V. sc. i. The folio reads, importuned. STEEVENS. "No blown ambition-] No inflated, no swelling pride. Beza on the Spanish Armada: "Quam bene te ambitio mersit vanissima, ventus, JOHNSON. In the Mad Lover of Beaumont and Fletcher, the same epithet is given to ambition. Again, in The Little French Lawyer: "I come with no blown spirit to abuse you." STEEVens. 7 — your lord-] The folio reads, your lord; and rightly. Goneril not only converses with Lord Edmund, in the Steward's |
