Must be their school-masters: shut up your doors; And what they may incenfe him to, being apt Corn. Shut up your doors, my lord, 'tis a wild night. My Regan counfels well come out o' th' ftorm. [Exeunt. A CT III. SCENE, a Heath. A form is heard, with thunder and lightning. Enter Kent, and a Gentleman, feverally. KENT. HO's there, befides foul weather? WH Gent. One minded like the weather, moft unquietly. Kent. I know you; where's the King? Gent. Contending with the fretful elements; Bids the wind blow the earth into the fea; Or fwell the curled waters 'bove the main, That things might change, or cease: tears his white hair; This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch, Keep their furr dry; unbonnetted he runs, And bids what will, take all. Kent. But who is with him? ?, Gent. None but the Fool, who labours to out-jest His heart-ftruck injuries. Kent. Sir, I do know you, And dare, upon the warrant of my note, Commend a dear thing to you. There's divifion (AL (Although as yet the face of it is cover'd With mutual cunning) 'twixt Albany and Cornwall: Or the hard rein, which both of them have borne If on my Now to you, To make your fpeed to Dover, you fhall find I am a gentleman of blood and breeding, And from fome knowledge and affurance of you, Gent. I'll talk further with you. Kent. No, do not: For confirmation that I am much more Than my out-wall, open this purfe and take What it contains. If you fhall fee Cordelia, (As, fear not, but you fhall) fhew her that Ring, And the will tell you who this fellow is That yet you do not know. I will go feek the King. Fie on this ftorm! (13) Who have, as who have not,——. -] The eight fubfequent: Verfes were degraded by Mr. Pope, as unintelligible, and to no purpose. For my part, I fee nothing in them but what is very eafy to be understood; and the Lines feem abfolutely neceffary to clear up the Motives, upon which France prepar'd his Invasion: nor without them is the Senfe of the Context compleat. Gent. Give me your hand, have you no more to fay?" Kent. Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet; That, when we have found the King, (in which you take That way, I this :) he that firft lights on him, Halloo the other. [Exeunt feverally. Storm ftill. Enter Lear and Fool. Lear. Blow winds, and crack your cheeks; rage, blow! You cataracts, and hurricanoes, fpout 'Till you have drencht our steeples, drown'd the cocks! Crack nature's mould, all germins fpill at once (14) Fool. O nuncle, court-holy-water in a dry houfe is better than the rain-waters out o' door. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters bleffing: here's a night, that pities neither wife men nor fools. Lear. Rumble thy belly full, fpit fire, fpout rain; (14) Crack Natures Mould, all Germains spill at once.] Thus all the Editions have given us this Paffage, and Mr. Pope has explain'd Germains, to mean relations, or kindred Elements. Then it must have been germanes (from the Latin Adjective, germanus ;) a Word more than once ufed by our Author, tho' always falfe fpelt by his Editors. But the Poet means here, Crack Nature's Mould, and spill all the Seeds of Matter, that are hoarded within it." To retrieve which Senfe, we must write Germins; (a Subftantive deriv'd from Germen, πopa: as the old Gloffaries expound it ;) And to put this Emendation beyond all Doubt, I'll produce one Paffage, where our Author not only ufes the fame Thought again, but the Word that afcertains my Explication. In Winter's Tale; Let Nature crush the Sides o' th' Earth together, Your ake 1 Your horrible pleasure; here I ftand, your flave; But That have with two pernicious daughters join'd So old and white as this. Oh! oh! 'tis foul. Fool. He that has a house to put's head in, has good head-piece: The codpiece that will house, before the head has any, Shall of a corn cry woe, and turn his fleep to wake. To them, Enter Kent. Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience, Kent. Who's there? Fool. Marry here's grace, and a cod-piece, that's a wife man and a fool. Kent. Alas, Sir, are you here? things, that love night, And make them keep their Caves: fince I was man, groans of roaring wind and rain, I never Remember to have heard. Man's nature cannot carry Th' affliction, nor the force. Lear. Let the Gods, That keep this indful pudder o'er our heads, Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch, Unwhipt of juftice, Hide thee, thou bloody hand, Thou Perjure, and the That art incestuous: caitiff, fhake to pieces, Clofe pent-up guilts, Thefe Rive your concealing continents, and ask C 4 I am a many Thefe dreadful fummoners grace. Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel; Lear. My wits begin to turn.. Come on, my boy. How doft, my boy? art cold? That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel:. Fool. He that has an a little tynie wit, With heigh ho, the wind and the rain s Lear. True, my good boy: come, bring us hovel. Fool. 'Tis a brave night to cool a curtezan. No 'Squire in debt, nor no poor Knight; Come to great confufion :: Then comes the time, who lives to fee't, to this [Exit.. |