ANNOTATIONS ON KING LEAR. ACT I. SCENE I. LINE 4. in the division of the kingdom,] There is something of obscurity or inaccuracy in this preparatory scene. The king has already divided his kingdom, and yet when he enters he examines his daughters, to discover in what proportions he should divide it. Perhaps Kent and Glocester only were privy to his design, which he still kept in his own hands, to be changed or performed as subsequent reasons should determine him. 38. JOHNSON. Line 18. —being so proper.] i. e. handsome. MALONE. -express our darker purpose.] That is, we have already made known in some measure our desire of parting the kingdom; we will now discover what has not been told before, the reasons by which we shall regulate the partition. JOHNSON. Line 61. Where merit doth most challenge it.] i. e. where the claim of merit is superadded to that of nature. STEEVENS. Line 71. Beyond all manner of so much-] Beyond all assignable quantity. I love you beyond limits, and cannot say it is so much, for how much soever I should name, it would be yet JOHNSON. more. Line 84. Only she comes too short,-that I profess &c.] That seems to stand without relation, but is referred to find, the first conjunction being inaccurately suppressed. I find that she names my deed, I find that I'profess, &c. JOHNSON. Line 86. Which the most precious square of sense possesses;] Perhaps square means only compass, comprehension. JOHNSON. Line 94. No less in space, validity,] Validity, for worth, value; not for integrity, or good title. WARBURTON. Line 98. Strive to be interess'd;] interess'd, from the French interesser. Line 135. 137. Hold thee, from this,] i. e. from this time. STEEVENS. -generation-] i. e. his children. MALONE. -execution of the rest,] The execution of the rest is, I suppose, all the other business. JOHNSON. Line 184. Reverbs-] This is, perhaps, a word of the poet's own making, meaning the same as reverberates. Line 186. a pawn STEEVENS. Towage against thine enemies ;] i. e. I never regarded my life, as my own, but merely as a thing of which I had the possession, not the property; and which was entrusted to me as a pawn or pledge, to be employed in waging war against your eneSTEEVENS. mies. Line 191. The true blank of thine eye.] or exact mark at which the arrow is shot. and keep me always in your view. The blank is the white Line 208. (Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,) Our potency made good,] Lear, who is characterised as hot, heady, and violent, is, with very just observation of life, made to entangle himself with vows, upon any sudden provocation to vow revenge, and then to plead the obligation of a vow in defence of implacability. JOHNSON. Line 215. By Jupiter,] Shakspeare makes his Lear too much a mythologist: he had Hecate and Apollo before. Line 239. seeming-] is beautiful. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. Seeming rather means specious. Line 245.—owes,] i. e. is possessed of. STEEVENS. STEEVENS. 251. Election makes not up on such conditions.] To make up signifies to complete, to conclude; as they made up the bargain; but in this sense, it has, I think, always the subject noun after it. To make up, in familiar language, is neutrally, to come forward, to make advances, which, I think, is meant here. JOHNSON. Line 272. If for I want &c.] If this be my offence, that I want the glib and oily art, &c. MALONE. Line 289. tial considerations. with respects,] i. e. with cautious and prudenMALONE. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. Line 290. from the entire point.] Single, unmixed with other considerations. Line 315. Thou losest here,] Here and where have the power of nouns. Thou losest this residence to find a better residence in another place. Line 336. plaited cunning—] i. e. complicated, involved cunning. JOHNSON. Line 355. of long-engrafted condition,] i. e. of qualities of mind, confirmed by long habit. So, in Othello: "—a woman of so gentle a condition!" MALONE. Line 367. hot. - the heat.] i. e. We must strike while the iron's STEEVENS. ACT I. SCENE II. to deprive me,] To deprive was, in our author's Line 371. time, synonymous to disinherit. Line 392. STEEVENS. subscrib'd his power !] To subscribe in Shak MALONE. speare is to yield, or surrender. So, afterwards: "You owe me no subscription." Line 393. exhibition!] is allowance. The term is yet used in the universities. JOHNSON. Upon the gad!] To do upon the gad, is, to act by the sudden stimulation of caprice, as cattle run madding when they are stung by the gad fly. Line 420. idle and fond-] Weak and foolish. JOHNS. JOHNSON. Line 457. "used in the sense -where, if you—] Where was formerly often of whereas. MALONE. -I would unstate myself, to be in a due resolution.] i. e. I will throw aside all consideration of my relation to him, that I may act as justice requires. Line 474. WARBURTON. Line 476. convey the business-] To convey is to carry through; in this place it is to manage artfully: we say of a juggler, that he has a clean conveyance. JOHNSON. Line 480. the wisdom of nature-] That is, though natural philosophy can give account of eclipses, yet we feel their JOHNSON. consequences. Line 512. he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy:] I think this passage was intended to ridicule the very aukward conclusions of our old comedies, where the persons of the scene make their entry inartificially, and just when the poet wants them on the stage. WARNER. Line 522. I promise you,] It is easy to remark, that in this speech, which ought, I think, to be inserted as it now is in the text, Edmund, with the common craft of fortune-tellers, mingles the past and future, and tells of the future only what he already foreknows by confederacy, or can attain by probable conjecture. JOHNSON. ACT I. SCENE III. Line 588. Old fools are babes again; and must be us'd With checks, as flatteries,-when they are seen abus'd.] The sense seems to be this: Old men must be treated with checks, when as they are seen to be deceived with flatteries: or, when they are weak enough to be seen abused by flatteries, they are then weak enough to be used with checks. There is a play of the words used and abused. To abuse is, in our author, very fre quently the same as to deceive. This construction is harsh and ungrammatical; Shakspeare perhaps thought it vicious, and chose to throw away the lines rather than correct them, nor would now thank the officiousness of his editors, WHO RESTORE WHAT JOHNSON. THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND. |