Since that refpects of fortune are his love,

I fhall not be his wife.

France. Fairest Cordelia, that art moft rich, being poor, Moft choice, forfaken; and most lov'd, defpis'd! Thee and thy virtues here I feize upon :

Be't lawful, I take up what's caft away.

Gods, Gods! 'tis ftrange, that from their cold'ft neglect My love should kindle to enflam'd respect.

Thy dow'rlefs daughter, King, thrown to my chance, Is Queen of us, of ours, and our fair France:

Not all the Dukes of wat'rifh Burgundy

Can buy this unpriz'd precious maid of me.
Bid them farewell, Cordelia, tho' unkind;
Thou lofeft here, a better where to find.

Lear. Thou haft her, France; let her be thine, for we
Have no fuch daughter; nor fhall ever fee
That face of hers again; therefore be gone
Without our grace, our love, our benizon:
Come, noble Burgundy.

[Flourish.

Exeunt Lear and Burgundy.

France. Bid farewel to your fifters.

Cor. Ye jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes

Cordelia leaves you: I know what you are,

And, like a fifter, am moft loth to call

Your faults, as they are nam'd. Love well our father:

To your profeffing bofoms I commit him;

But yet, alas! flood I within his grace,

I would prefer him to a better place.

So farewel to you both.

Reg. Prefcribe not us our duty.

Gon. Let your ftudy

Be to content your lord, who hath receiv'd you
At fortune's alms; you have obedience scanted,

And well are worth the Want that you have wanted. (4)

(4) And well are worth the Want that you have wanted.] This is a very obfcure expreffion, and must be pieced out with an implied fense, to be understood. This I take to be the poet's meaning, ftript of the jingle which makes it dark; "You well deferve to meet with that "Want of love from your husband, which you have profeffed to want "for our father."

Cor.

Cor. Time fhall unfold what plaited cunning hides, Who covers faults, at laft with fhame derides.

Well may you profper!

France. Come, my fair Cordelia.

[Exeunt France and Cor. Gon. Sifter, it is not little I've to say, Of what most nearly appertains to us both; I think, our father will go hence to night.

Reg. That's certain, and with you; next month with us. Gon. You fee how full of changes his age is, the obfervation we have made of it hath not been little; he always lov'd our fifter most, and with what poor judgment he hath now caft her off, appears too grofsly.

Reg. 'Tis the infirmity of his age; yet he hath ever but flenderly known himself.

Gon. The best and foundest of his time hath been but rash; then must we look, from his age, to receive not alone the imperfections of long-engrafted condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness, that infirm and cholerick years bring with them.

Reg. Such unconftant ftarts are we like to have from him, as this of Kent's banishment.

Gon. There is further compliment of leave-taking between France and him; pray you, let us hit together: if our father carry authority with fuch difpofition as he bears, this laft surrender of his will but offend us.

Reg. We fhall further think of it.

Gon. We must do something, and i' th' heat. [Exeunt. SCENE changes to a Caftle belonging to the Earl of Glofter.

Enter EDMUND, with a Letter.

HOU, Nature, art my Goddess; to thy law

Edm.

Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curtefy of nations to deprive me, (5)

For

(5) The nicety of nations.] This is Mr. Pope's reading, ex Cathedra ; for it has the fanction of none of the copies, that I have met with.

They

For that I am fome twelve or fourteen moon-fhines
Lag of a brother? Why baftard? wherefore bafe?
When my dimenfions are as well compact,

My mind as gen'rous, and my fhape as true,
As honeft Madam's iffue? why brand they us
With base? with basenefs? bastardy? base, base?
Who, in the lufty stealth of nature, take (6)
More compofition and fierce quality;

Than doth, within a dull, ftale, tired bed,

Go to creating a whole tribe of fops,

They all, indeed, give it us, by a foolish corruption,the Curiofity of nations; but I fome time ago prov'd, that our Author's word was, Cartely. So again, in As You like it;

The curtesy of nations allows you my better, in that you are the firft born.

And again, in Cymbeline, this word stands for Birth-right;

-aye hopeless

To have the curtefy your cradle promis'd.

Nor muft we forget that tenure in our laws, whereby fome lands are held by the Curtesy of England. And I ought to take notice, that I had the concurrence of the ingenious Dr. Thirlby, who hinted to me this very emendation, before he knew I made it.

(6) Who, in the lufty stealth of nature,] Thefe fine lines are a very fignal proof of our author's admirable art, in giving proper sentiments to his characters. And fuch a proof, as hath in it fomething very extraordinary. The Baftard's character is that of a confirm'd atheift; and the poet's making him ridicule judicial Aftrology was defign'd as one inftance of that character: For that impious juggle had a religious reverence paid it at that time: and Shakespeare makes his best characters in this very play, own and acknowledge the force of the stars influence. The poet, in fhort, gives an atheistical turn to all his fen-timents; and how much the lines, following this, are in this character, may be feen by that ftrange monftrous wish, which Vanini, the infamous Neapolitan atheist, made in his tract De Admirandis Natura printed at Paris in 1616, the very year that our author dy'd. "O! "Utinam extra legitimum & connubialem thorum effem procreatus! Ita "enim progenitores mei in venerem incaluiffent ardentiùs, ac cumula"tim affatimque generofa Semina contuliffent; e quibus ego formæ "blanditiam et elegantiam, robuftas corporis vires, mentemque innubilam "confequutus fuiffem. At quia Conjugatorum fum foboles, his orbatus. "fum bonis.". -Now had this book been publish'd ten years before, who would not have fworn that Shakespeare hinted at this paffage? But the divinity of his genius here, as it were, foretold what' fuch an atheist, as Vanini was, would fay, when he wrote upon this tubject. Mr. Warburton.

Got

Got 'tween a-fleep and wake? Well then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land;
Our father's love is to the baftard Edmund,
As to th' legitimate; fine word-legitimate--
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall be th' legitimate.--I grow, I profper;
Now, Gods, ftand up for bastards!

To him, Enter Glo'fter.

Glo. Kent banifh'd thus! and France in choler parted! And the King gone to-night! fubfcrib'd his pow'r! Confin'd to exhibition! all is gone

Upon the gad!-Edmund, how now ? what news?
Edm. So please your lordship, none.

[Putting up the letter. Glo. Why fo earnestly seek you to put up that letter ? Edm. I know no news, my lord.

Glo. What paper were you reading?

Edm. Nothing, my lord.

Glo. No! what needed then that terrible dispatch of it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath not fuch need to hide it felf. Let's fee; come, if it be nothing, I fhall not need fpectacles.

Edm. I befeech you, Sir, pardon me, it is a letter from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read; and for fo much as I have perus'd, I find it not fit for your o'erlooking.

Glo. Give me the letter, Sir.

Edm. I fhall offend, either to detain, or give it; the contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame. Glo. Let's fee, let's fee.

Edm. I hope, for my brother's juftification, he wrote this but as an effay, or tafte of my virtue.

Glo. reads.] This policy and reverence of ages makes the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us, 'till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppreffion of aged tyranny; which fways, not as it hath power, but as it is fuffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would

Sleep,

Sleep, till I wak'd him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother Edgar.-Hum

-Confpiracy!--fleep, 'till I wake him--you fhould enjoy half his revenue--My fon Edgar! had he a hand to write this! a heart and brain to breed it in! When came this to you? who brought it?

Edm. It was not brought me, my lord; there's the cunning of it. I found it thrown in at the casement of my closet.

Glo. You know the character to be your brother's? Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durft swear, it were his; but in respect of that, I would fain think, it were not.

Gl. It is his.

Edm. It is his hand, my lord; I hope, his heart is not in the contents.

Glo. Has he never before founded you in this bufinefs? Edm. Never, my lord. But I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit, that fons at perfect age, and fathers declining, the father should be as a ward to the fon, and the fon manage his revenue.

Glo. O villain, villain! his very opinion in the letter. Abhorred villain! unnatural, detefted, brutish villain ! worse than brutish! Go, firrah, seek him ; I'll hend him. Abominable villain! where is he?

appre

Edm. I do not well know, my lord; if it fhall please you to fufpend your indignation againft my brother, 'till you can derive from him better teftimony of his intent, you should run a certain courfe; where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your Honour, and to no other pretence of danger.

Glo. Think you fo?

Edm. If your Honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular affurance have your fatisfaction: and that, without any further delay than this very evening.

Glo.