mountain or the wide sea, and one feels that "all that's spoke is marr'd." I wish here, in the first place, to express my gratitude to my friend, Mr. P. A. Daniel, for much valuable assistance and advice, which he has with the utmost kindness unstintingly afforded me in the preparation of this volume. I wish also to thank my friend Professor Dowden for much kind advice and assistance. I am indebted to my friend Mr. Henry Chichester Hart for some excellent illustrations from Elizabethan literature, and to Professor Rhys for kindly coming to my aid on the question of an ultimate Celtic source for King Lear. My friends Dr. Furnivall, Professor Hales, Professor Ker, Dr. Norman Moore, Mr. Sidney Lee, and Mr. Stephen Gwynn all kindly furnished information and advice, for which I wish here to return thanks. My thanks are also due to Professor Skeat and Mr. Henry Bradley for information on a point of etymology, to Mr. Gosse for a quotation from an unpublished satire, and to Mr. T. Quiller Couch for information as to a supposed Cornish expression. THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR ACT I SCENE I-A State Room in King Lear's Palace. Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND. Kent. I thought the king had more affected the Glou. It did always seem so to us; but now, in the 5 division of the kingdom, it appears not which of the dukes he values most; for equalities are A... Palace] Capell; omitted Q, F. Edmund] F, Bastara Q. 4. kingdom] F, kingdomes Q. 5. equalities] Q, qualities F. 5. values] esteems. See II. ii. 153; also Henry V. 1. ii. 269: "We never valued this poor seat of England." 5, 6. equalities... weighed] equalities, shares are so balanced, one against the other, or perhaps are so carefully considered and adjusted. I prefer, on the whole, this, the Quarto reading, but that of the Folio " qualities" may be right, in which case the sense would be the values-advantages and disadvantages of each share are so equalised. so weighed that curiosity in neither can make Kent. Is not this your son, my lord? Glou. His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am brazed to it. Kent. I cannot conceive you. Glou. Sir, this young fellow's mother could; whereupon she grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault? Kent. I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper. Glou. But I have a son, sir, by order of law, some year older than this, who yet is no dearer in my II. to it] Q, too't F. sir] F, sir a son Q. son, 14. round-wombed] unhyphened Q, F. 6,7. that... moiety] That the most careful scrutiny of either share could not induce either of the dukes to prefer his fellow's portion to his own. 6. curiosity] the most minute and scrupulous attention or examination. See scene ii. line 4, also scene iv. line 76 of this Act; also Timon of Athens, iv. iii. 303, and Ascham, Toxophilus, Arber, p. 147: "A man must not go too hastily to it (shooting with the bow), for that is rashness, nor yet make too much to do about it, for that is curiositie." See Baret, Alvearie, 1580: "Curiositie, piked (i.c. picked) diligence"; also see Webster, The Devil's Law Case, iii. 3: "A precise curiosity has undone me. 7. moiety] Here, as elsewhere in Shakespeare, any portion, though the literal meaning is the exact half, in which sense he also uses it. See All's Well, III. ii. 69, and elsewhere. For IO 15 20 19. a |