That hurt or deprivation which makes us defenceless, proves our
safeguard. This is very proper in Glo'ster, newly maimed by the evulsion
of his eyes.
IV.i.59-64 (431,8) [Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust,
as _Obidicut_; _Hobbididance_, prince of dumbness; _Mahu_, of stealing;
_Modo_, of murder; and _Flibbertigibbet_, of mopping and mowing; who
since possesses chamber-maids and waiting-women. So bless thee,
master!]] The passage in crotchets is omitted in the folio, because I
suppose as the story was forgotten, the jest was lost.
IV.i.68 (432,1) Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man] Lear has before
uttered the same sentiment, which indeed cannot be too strongly
impressed, tho' it may be too often repeated.
IV.i.69 (432,2) That slaves your ordinance] [W: braves] The emendation
is plausible, yet I doubt whether it be right. The language of
Shakespeare is very licentious, and his words have often meanings remote
from the proper and original use. To _slave_ or _beslave_ another is to
_treat_ him _with terms of indignity_; in a kindred sense, to _slave the
ordinance_, may be, to _slight_ or _ridicule_ it.
IV.ii.1 (433,1) our mild husband] It must be remembered that Albany, the
husband of Gonerill, disliked, in the end of the first act, the scheme
of oppression and ingratitude.
IV.ii.29 (434,5) I have been worth the whistle] This expression is a
reproach to Albany for having neglected her; _though you disregard me
thus_, I have been worth the whistle, _I have found one that thinks me
worth calling_. (1773)
IV.ii.35 (435,9) From her maternal sap] [W: material] I suppose no
reader doubts but the word should be _maternal_. Dr. Warburton has taken
great pains without much success, and indeed without much exactness of
attention, to prove that _material_ has a more proper sense than
_maternal_, and yet seemed glad at last to infer from an apparent error
of another press that _material_ and _maternal_ meant the same.
IV.ii.45 (436,2) A man, a prince by him so benefited?] [After this line
I suspect a line or two to be wanting, which upbraids her for her
sister's cruelty to Glo'ster. WARBURTON.] Here is a pompous note to
support a conjecture apparently erroneous, and confuted by the next
scene, in which the account is given for the first time to Albany of
Glo'ster's sufferings.
IV.ii.50 (436,3) Like monsters of the deep] Fishes are the only animals
that are known to prey upon their own species.
IV.ii.62 (437,5) Thou changed, and self-cover'd thing] Of these lines
there is but one copy, and the editors are forced open conjecture. They
have published this line thus;
Thou chang'd, and _self-converted_ thing;
but I cannot but think that by _self-cover'd_ the author meant, thou
that hast _disguised_ nature by wickedness; thou that hast _hid_ the
woman under the fiend.
IV.ii.83 (438,6) One way, I like this well] Gonerill is well pleased
that Cornwall is destroyed, who was preparing war against her and her
husband, but is afraid of losing Edmund to the widow.
IV.iii (439,1) _The French camp, near Dover. Enter Kent, and a
Gentleman_] This scene seems to have been left out only to shorten the
play, and is necessary to continue the action. It is extant only in the
quarto, being omitted in the first folio. I have therefore put it
between crotchets.
IV.iii (439,2) _a Gentleman_] The gentleman whom he sent in the
foregoing act with letters to Cordelia.
IV.iii.26 (440,4) Made she no verbal question?] I do not see the
impropriety of _verbal question_; such pleonasms are common. So we say,
_my ears have heard, my eyes have beheld_. Besides, where is the word
_quest_ [Warburton's emendation] to be found?
IV.iii.33 (440,6) And clamour-moisten'd] _Clamour moisten'd her_; that
is, _her out-cries were accompanied with tears_.
IV.iii.36 (441,7) one self-mate and mate] The same husband and the same
wife.
IV.iii.51 (441,9) 'Tis so they are a-foot] Dr. Warburton thinks it
necessary to read, _'tis said_; but the sense is plain, _So it is_ that
_they are on foot_.
IV.iv.4 (442,1) With bur-docks, hemlock] 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.
IV.iv.20 (443,2) the means to lead it] The reason which should guide it.
IV.iv.26 (443,3) My mourning and important tears hath pitied] In other
places of this author for _importunate_.
IV.iv.27 (443,4) No blown embition] No inflated, no swelling pride. Beza
on the Spanish Armada:
"Quem bene te ambitio mersit vanissima, ventus,
Et tumidos tumidae voa superastis aquae."
IV.v.4 (444,1) _Reg._ Lord Edmund spake not with your lady at home?] The
folio reads, _your lord_; but lady is the first and better reading.
IV.v.22 (444,3) Let me unseal the letter./_Stew._ Madam, I had rather] I
know not well why Shakespeare gives the steward, who is a mere factor of
wickedness, so much fidelity. He now refuses the letter; and afterwards,
when he is dying, thinks only how it may be safely delivered.
IV.v.29 (445,5) I do advise you, take this note] _Note_ means in this
place not a _letter_ but a _remark_. Therefore _observe_ what I am
saying.
IV.v.32 (446,6) You may gather more] You may infer more than I have
directly told you.
IV.vi (446,1) _The country near Dover. Enter Glo'ster, and Edgar as a
peasant_] This scene, and the stratagem by which Glo'ster is cured of
his desperation, are wholly borrowed from Sidney's _Arcadia_.
IV.vi.7 (447,2) thy voice is alter'd] Edgar alters his voice in order to
pass afterwards for a malignant spirit.
IV.vi.11 (447,5) How fearful/And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low!]
This description has been much admired since the time of Addison, who
has remarked, with a poor attempt at pleasantry, that "he who can read
it without being giddy, has a very good head, or a very bad one." The
description is certainly not mean, but I am far from thinking it wrought
to the utmost excellence of poetry. He that looks from a precipice finds
himself assailed by one great and dreadful image of irresistible
destruction. But this overwhelming idea is dissipated and enfeebled from
the instant that the mind can restore itself to the observation of
particulars, and diffuse its attention to distinct objects. The
enumeration of the choughs and crows, the samphire-man, and the fishers,
counteracts the great effect of the prospect, as it peoples the desert
of intermediate vacuity, and stops the mind in the rapidity of its
descent through emptiness and horror.
IV.vi.19 (447,4) her cock] Her cock-boat.
IV.vi.43 (448,6) when life itself/Yields to the theft] When life is
willing to be destroyed.
IV.vi.47 (449,7) Thus might he pass, indeed] Thus he might _die_ in
reality. We still use the word _passing_ bell.
IV.vi.53 (449,9) Ten masts at each make not the altitude] [Pope:
attacht] Mr. Pope's conjecture may stand if the word which he uses were
known in our author's time, but I think it is of later introduction. He
may say,