36

Pierce every sense about thee ! — Old fond eyes,
Beweep this cause again, I'll pluck you out,
And cast you, with the waters that you lose,
To temper clay. — Ha, is it come to this?
Let it be so I have another daughter,
Who, I am sure, is kind and comfortable :
When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails
She'll flay thy wolfish visage. Thou shalt find
That I'll resume the shape which thou dost think
I have cast off for ever; thou shalt, I warrant thee.
[Exeunt LEAR, KENT, and Attendants.

Gon. Do you mark that, my lord? 37

Alb. I cannot be so partial, Goneril,

To the great love I bear you,

Gon. Pray you, content.

What, Oswald, ho!

[To the FOOL.] You, sir, more knave than fool, after your

master.

Fool. Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry, and take the Fool with thee.

A fox, when one has caught her,

And such a daughter,

Should sure to the slaughter,

If my cap would buy a halter:

So the Fool follows after.

[Exit.

Gon. This man hath had good counsel: a hundred knights! 'Tis politic and safe to let him keep

At point 38 a hundred knights: yes, that, on every dream,

36 Comfortable in an active sense, as giving comfort. Often so. 37 Albany, though his heart is on the King's side, is reluctant to make a square issue with his wife; and she thinks to work upon him by calling his attention pointedly to Lear's threat of resuming the kingdom.

38 At point is completely armed, and so ready on the slightest notice.

Each buz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike,
He may enguard his dotage with their powers,
And hold our lives in mercy. — Oswald, I say!—
Alb. Well, you may fear too far.39

Gon.

Safer than trust too far:

Let me still take away the harms I fear,
Not fear still to be taken: I know his heart.
What he hath utter'd I have writ my sister:
If she sustain him and his hundred knights,
When I have show'd th' unfitness,

Enter OSWALD.

How now, Oswald !

What, have ye writ that letter to my sister?

Osw. Ay, madam.

Gon. Take you some company, and away to horse: Inform her full of my particular fear;

And thereto add such reasons of your own

As may compact it more.40 So get you gone,

And hasten your return. [Exit OSWALD.]—No, no, my
This milky gentleness and course 41 of yours,
Though I condemn it not, yet, under pardon,
You are much more attask'd 42 for want of wisdom
Than praised for harmful mildness.

lord;

39 The monster Goneril prepares what is necessary, while the character of Albany renders a still more maddening grievance possible, namely, Regan and Cornwall in perfect sympathy of monstrosity. Not a sentiment, not an image, which can give pleasure on its own account, is admitted: whenever these creatures are introduced, and they are brought forward as little as possible, pure horror reigns throughout. — COLERIDGE.

40 That is, make it more consistent and credible; strengthen it. 41" Milky and gentle course" is the meaning. See page 71, note 8. 42 The word task is frequently used by Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the sense of tax. So in the common phrase of our time, "Taken to task"; that is, called to account, or reproved.

Alb. How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell : Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.

Gon. Nay, then,—

Alb. Well, well; the event.43

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. Court before the Same.

Enter LEAR, KENT, and the FOOL.

Lear. Go you before to Gloster with these letters. Acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you know than comes from her demand out of the letter. If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there 2 afore you.

Kent. I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered your letter. [Exit. Fool. If a man's brains were in's heels, were't not in danger of kibes ?3

Lear. Ay, boy.

Fool. Then, I pr'ythee, be merry; thy wit shall not go slip-shod.4

43 As before implied, Albany shrinks from a word-storm with his helpmate, and so tells her, in effect, "Well, let us not quarrel about it, but wait and see how your course works."

1 This instruction to Kent is very well-judged. The old King feels mortified at what has happened, and does not want Kent to volunteer any information about it to his other daughter.

2 The word there shows that when the King says, "Go you before to Gloster," he means the town of Gloster, which Shakespeare chose to make the residence of the Duke of Cornwall, to increase the probability of his setting out late from thence on a visit to the Earl of Gloster. The old English earls usually resided in the counties from whence they took their titles. Lear, not finding his son-in-law and daughter at home, follows them to the Earl of Gloster's castle.

3 Kibe is an old name for a common heel-sore. In The Tempest, ii. I, Antonio says of his conscience, "if 'twere a kibe, 'twould put me to my slipper."

4 I do not well see the force or application of this. Perhaps it is, "Thy

Lear. Ha, ha, ha!

Fool. Shalt see, thy other daughter will use thee kindly; 5 for though she's as like this as a crab is like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell.

Lear. What canst tell, boy?

Fool. She will taste as like this as a crab does to a crab. Thou canst tell why one's nose stands i' the middle on's face? Lear. No.

Fool. Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose; that what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into.

Lear. I did her wrong,8.

Fool. Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?
Lear. No.

Fool. Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.

Lear. Why?

Fool. Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his daughters, and leave his horns without a case.

Lear. I will forget my nature. So kind a father! - Be my horses ready?

Fool. Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the seven stars9 are no more than seven is a pretty reason.

wit is not in thy heels, and therefore will have no need of slippers"; referring to what the King has just said,—“I shall be there afore you.”

5 The Fool quibbles, using kindly in two senses; as it means affectionately, and like the rest of her kind, or according to her nature. The Poet often uses kind and its derivatives in this sense. See Hamlet, page 59, note 18.

6 Crab refers to the fruit so called, not to the fish. So in Lyly's Euphues: "The sower Crabbe hath the shew of an Apple as well as the sweet Pippin." 7 Shakespeare often has of where we should use on, and vice versa; as on's in the Fool's preceding speech. See Hamlet, page 108, note 38.

8 Lear is now stung with remorse for his treatment of Cordelia.

"

9 "The seven stars are the constellation called the Pleiades.

Lear. Because they are not eight?

Fool. Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good Fool. Lear. To take't again perforce ! 10-Monster ingratitude! Fool. If thou wert my Fool, nuncle, I'd have thee beaten for being old before thy time.

Lear. How's that?

Fool. Thou shouldst not have been old before thou hadst been wise.

Lear. O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet Heaven! Keep me in temper: I would not be mad! 11____

Enter a Gentleman.

How now! Are the horses ready?

Gent. Ready, my lord.

Lear. Come, boy.

[Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE I.- A Court in GLOSTER'S Castle.

-

Enter EDMUND and CURAN, meeting.

Edm. Save thee, Curan.

Cur. And you, sir. I have been with your father, and given him notice that the Duke of Cornwall and Regan his Duchess will be here with him this night.

Edm. How comes that?

10 He is meditating on what he has before threatened, namely, to "resume the shape which he has cast off."

11 The mind's own anticipation of madness! The deepest tragic notes are often struck by a half-sense of the impending blow. - Coleridge.