No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step, That hath deprived me of your grace and favour; As I am glad I have not, though not to have it Hadst not been born than not t' have pleased me better. Which often leaves the history unspoke That it intends to do? My Lord of Burgundy, Aloof from the entire point. Will you have her? Give but that portion which yourself proposed, Duchess of Burgundy. Lear. Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm. Burg. I'm sorry, then, you have so lost a father, That you must lose a husband. Cord. Peace be with Burgundy! Since that respects of fortune are his love, I shall not be his wife. France. Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor, 45 "A soliciting eye" here means a greedy, self-seeking, covetous eye. The Poet often has still in the sense of ever or continually.- The preceding line will hardly bear a grammatical analysis, but the sense is plain enough. "The want of that for which" means, simply, "that want for which," or, if you please," the want of that for the want of which." 46 Regards for considerations or inducements. The same with respects in the fourth speech after. So the latter word is commonly used by the Poet. Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised; Be't lawful, I take up what's cast away. Gods, gods! 'tis strange that from their cold'st neglect Thou losest here, a better where to find. Lear. Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see That face of hers again. Therefore be gone Without our grace, our love, our benison.48. Come, noble Burgundy. [Flourish. Exeunt LEAR, BURGUNDY, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GLOSTER, and Attendants. France. Bid farewell to your sisters. Cord. Ye jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes Your faults as they are named. Love well our father: But yet, alas, stood I within his grace, I would prefer him to a better place. 47 Waterish is here used with a dash of contempt. Burgundy, a level, well-watered country, was famous for its pastures and dairy-produce. 48 The Poet uses benison for blessing, when he wants a trisyllable. 49 Professed for professing; the passive form with the active sense. So in Paradise Lost, i., 486: “Likening his Maker to the grazèd ox." Gon. Prescribe not us our duties. Reg. Let your study Be to content your lord, who hath received you At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted, Cord. Time shall unfold what plighted 51 cunning hides: Who cover faults, at last shame them derides. Well may you prosper ! France. Come, my fair Cordelia. [Exeunt FRANCE and CORDELIA. Gon. Sister, it is not a little I have to say of what most nearly appertains to us both. I think our father will hence to-night. Reg. That's most certain, and with you; next month with us. Gon. You see how full of changes his age is; the observation we have made of it hath not been little he always loved our sister most; and with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off appears too grossly. Reg. 'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself. Gon. The best and soundest of his time hath been but rash; then must we look to receive from his age, not alone the imperfections of long-engraffed condition,52 but therewithal the unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with them. Reg. Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him as this of Kent's banishment. 50" 'You well deserve to want that in which you have been wanting." 51 Plight, pleat, and plait are but different forms of the same word, all meaning to fold, complicate, and so make dark. 52 Temper, or disposition, set and confirmed by long habit. Gon. There is further compliment of leave-taking between France and him. Pray you, let us hit together: 53 if our father carry authority with such dispositions as he bears, this last surrender of his will but offend us. Reg. We shall further think of it. Gon. We must do something, and i' the heat.54 [Exeunt. SCENE II. A Hall in GLOSTER'S Castle. Enter EDMUND, with a Letter. Edm. Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law The curiosity of nations to deprive me,2 For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines My mind as generous, and my shape as true, 53"Let us agree or unite in the same plan or course of action."— The meaning of what follows probably is, "If the King continue in the same rash, headstrong, and inconstant temper as he has just shown in snatching back his authority the moment his will is crossed, we shall be the worse off for his surrender of the kingdom to us." 54 So in the common phrase, "Strike while the iron's hot." 1 In this speech of Edmund you see, as soon as a man cannot reconcile himself to reason, how his conscience flies off by way of appeal to Nature, who is sure upon such occasions never to find fault; and also how shame sharpens a predisposition in the heart to evil. - COLERIDGE. 2 To “stand in the plague of custom" is, in Edmund's sense, to lie under the ban of conventional disability.—"The curiosity of nations" is the moral strictness of civil institutions; especially the law of marriage, and the exclusion of bastards from the rights of inneritance. To deprive was sometimes used for to cut off, to disinherit. Exheredo is rendered by this word in the old dictionaries. As honest madam's issue?3 Well, then, Enter GLOSTER. Darning Glos. Kent banish'd thus ! and France in choler parted !5 And the King gone to-night! subscribed his power! Confined to exhibition! All this done Upon the gad!6- Edmund, how now! what news? [Putting up the letter. Glos. Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter? Edm. I know no news, my lord. Glos. What paper were you reading? Edm. Nothing, my lord. 3 From the first drawing-up of the curtain, Edmund has stood before us in the united strength and beauty of earliest manhood. Our eyes have been questioning him. Gifted as he is with high advantages of person, and further endowed by Nature with a powerful intellect and a strong and energetic will, even without any concurrence of circumstances and accident pride will necessarily be the sin that most easily besets him. But Edmund is also the known and acknowledged son of the princely Gloster; he therefore has both the germ of pride, and the conditions best fitted to evolve and ripen it into a predominant feeling.-COLEridge. 4 To top is to rise above, to surpass. A very frequent usage. 5 Parted for departed. Also a frequent usage. 6" Subscribed his power," is yielded or given up his power; as when we say a man has signed away his wealth, his freedom, or his rights. -"Confined to exhibition" is limited to an allowance. So in Ben Jonson's Poetaster: Thou art a younger brother, and hast nothing but thy bare ་་ |