art now; I am a fool, thou art nothing. [To
Goneril.] Yes, forsooth, I will hold my

tongue; so your face bids me, though you

220

Gon. Not only, sir, this your all-licens'd fool,

But other of your insolent retinue

Do hourly carp and quarrel, breaking forth
In rank and not-to-be-endured riots. Sir,

I had thought, by making this well known unto you,
To have found a safe redress; but now grow fear-

ful,

By what yourself too late have spoke and done,
That you protect this course, and put it on

225

212, 213. [To Goneril] Pope; omitted Q, F. 217. nor crust] F, neither crust Q. 219. Pointing to Lear] Johnson, Spoken of Lear Warburton, To Kent showing Lear Capell. 221. other] Q, F; others Johnson. 227. put it on] F, put on Q.

218. Weary of all] sick, dissatisfied with everything, caring for nothing.

219. a shealed peascod] a pod with its peas taken out. To "sheal" or "shill " peas is still provincially used for to take peas out of the pod. See in Cotgrave's French Dictionary, "Goussepiller, to unshale, or take pulse out of the swad's; Gousse is defined, 'the huske, swad, cod, hull of beanes, peas, etc." See also Cavendish's First Voyage, 1587: "The tops of the trees grow full of cods, out of which the cotton groweth, and in the cotton is a seed of the bigness of a pea, and in every cod there are seven or eight of these seeds." Payne, Voy

ages of Elizabethan Seamen, 1880, p. 278.

222. carp] may be, as Schmidt explains it, to find fault with; but it may also mean to prate, to talk noisily. Compare "carping fools," 1 Henry IV. III. ii. 63 (reading of Q 2).

223. rank] gross, excessive. See Hamlet, 1. ii. 136.

224. unto] Perhaps "to" should here stand.

225. a safe redress] safe, sure, certain. See Cymbeline, IV. ii. 131: "in all safe reason He must have some attendants." Still in occasional use.

227. put it on] instigate it, encourage it. See Coriolanus, II. iii. 260; Hamlet, v. ii. 394.

By your allowance; which if you should, the fault
Would not 'scape censure, nor the redresses sleep,
Which, in the tender of a wholesome weal,

Might in their working do you that offence,

Which else were shame, that then necessity

Will call discreet proceeding.

Fool. For you know, nuncle,

230

The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long, 235
That it had it head bit off by it young.

So out went the candle, and we were left darkling. Lear. Are you our daughter?

229. redresses] F, redresse Q. 232. F, must Q; proceeding] F, proceedings Q.

Which] F, that Q. 233. Will] 234. know] F, trow Q. 236.

it had it head] Q, its had it head F, it had its head F 2; by it] F, F 2, beit Q, by it's F 3.

So

228. allowance] approbation. Othello, I. i. 128: "If this be known to you and your allowance." See "allow" in this play, 11. iv. 189; also see Huloet's Dictionary, 1572, Allowance, acception or tion"; also Beaumont and Fletcher, Love's Cure of the Martial Maid, iv. I: "" one that is, By your allow ance, and his choice, your servant."

66

estima

228-233.] Goneril's speech is a little confused. This is the sense: I will check you if you countenance the riots of your retainers, and this severity, due to my anxious desire to have a court free from corruption, may chance offend you. To do this I grant would be under ordinary circumstances reprehensible on my part, and I would be justly censured for so doing; but as it is, considering the purity of my motives, everyone will justify me and will applaud my firmness in not yielding to you.

230. Which]i.e.which remedial proceeding.

230. the tender] the strong desire for. Shakespeare frequently has the verb to tender in the sense of to have

235, 236. The hedge-sparrow. young] This couplet may have been proverbial. "Exactly," says the fool; poor Lear, being now an encumbrance, must suffer from the cruel rapacity of those who, by his kindness, were made so portly.

236. it] its. So often, as in 2 Henry IV. 1. ii. 131: "It hath it original from much grief." And see also Cotgrave's French Dictionary: "Marisque, a great unsavoury fig, which, ripening, opens on the sides, and discovers it seeds."

237. out darkling] It is rather remarkable, as Knight points _out, that in the part of Spenser's Faerie Queene which contains the story of King Leyr (Book II. Canto x. 240293) there is, in much the same connection, a not dissimilar thought:

Gon. Come, sir,

239

I would you would make use of that good wisdom,
Whereof I know you are fraught; and put away
These dispositions which of late transport you
From what you rightly are.

Fool. May not an ass know when a cart draws the

horse? Whoop, Jug! I love thee.

Lear. Doth any here know me?

This is not Lear:

245

Does Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his

eyes?

Either his notion weakens, or's discernings

Are lethargied.

Ha! waking? 'tis not so.

Who is it that can tell me who I am?

Fool. Lear's shadow.

250

239. Come, sir] Q, omitted F. 240. that] Q, your F. 242. which] F, that Q; transport] F, transforme Q. 246, 247. Doth] Q, Do's F; This] F, Why this Q. 248. weakens] F, weakness Q; or's discernings] S. Walker conject., or his discernings Q, his discernings F. 249. lethargied] F, lethergie Q1, lethergy, Q2; Ha! waking?] F, sleeping or waking; ha! sure Q. 251. Fool. Lear's shadow] F, Lears shadow Q (giving words to Lear).

Joan. See the Birth of Merlin, II. i. Her name is Joan... come forward Jug. It was sometimes used as a term of endearment, and also, much oftener, as a wanton. Many rather fantastical explanations have been proposed in a note to Furness' Variorum edition.

248. notion] intellectual power. So Macbeth, III. i. 83; also Milton, Paradise Lost, vii. 176-179:

"the acts of God... Cannot without process of speech be told,

So told as earthly notion can receive."

251. Lear's shadow] See the History of King Leir, Nichols, Six Old Plays, ii. 414. Leir says:

"Cease, good Perillus, for to call me lord,

And think me but the shadow of myself."

Lear. I would learn that; for by the marks of sove

reignty, knowledge, and reason, I should be
false persuaded I had daughters.

Fool. Which they will make an obedient father. 255 Lear. Your name, fair gentlewoman?

Gon. This admiration, sir, is much o' the savour

Of other your new pranks.

I do beseech you

260

To understand my purposes aright:

As you are old and reverend, should be wise.

Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires ;
Men so disorder'd, so debosh'd, and bold,

That this our court, infected with their manners,

Shows like a riotous inn: epicurism and lust
Makes it more like a tavern or a brothel

265

Than a graced palace. The shame itself doth speak
For instant remedy; be then desired

252-255. I would... father] Q, omitted F. 257. This admiration, sir] F, Come, sir, this admiration Q; savour] Q, F; favour Q3, followed by Capell. 259. To] F, omitted Q. 260. As you... should] Q 1, F; As you you should Q 2. 261. a] F, one Q. 262. debosh'd] F, deboyst Q, debauch'd Pope. 265. Makes it more] F, make more Q, make it more Rowe; a brothel] F, Brothel, Q. 266. graced] grad'd F, great Q. 267. then] F, thou Q.

Fletcher, The Knight of Malta, ii. 5: "That most deboshed knight."

264. Shows] looks, appears. So Coriolanus, IV. v. 68: "thou show'st a noble vessel."

264. epicurism] gluttony. See Middleton's The Tryumphs of Honour and Industry, 1617; Bullen, Works, vii. 305: "I commend my lord, and his right honourable guests, to the solemn pleasure of the feast, from whence, I presume, all epicurism is banished." Compare also "the English epicures," Macbeth, v. iii. 8.

266. graced] honourable, the abode of stately decorum graced with the presence of a sovereign (Warburton). 267. desired] order'd ; as in

Lear.

By her, that else will take the thing she begs,
A little to disquantity your train;

And the remainder, that shall still depend,
To be such men as may besort your age,
Which know themselves and you.

270

Darkness and devils!

Saddle my horses; call my train together.

Degenerate bastard! I'll not trouble thee:

Yet have I left a daughter.

275

Gon. You strike my people, and your disorder'd rabble

Make servants of their betters.

Enter ALBANY.

Lear. Woe, that too late repents; O! sir, are you come? Is it your will? Speak, sir. Prepare my horses. Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,

280

More hideous, when thou show'st thee in a child,
Than the sea-monster.

270. remainder] Q, remainders F. 272. Which] F, That Q1, And Q 2. 277. Enter Albany] F, Enter Duke Q. 278. Woc. repents] F, We that too late repent's Q 1, We that too late repent's us Q2; O, sir.. come?] Q, omitted F. 279. will?... Prepare my horses] F (comma after will), will that we prepare any horses Q. Cymbeline, 1. vi. 54: "Desire my man's abode where I did leave him."

269. disquantity]cut down, diminish. Compare disproperty, Coriolanus, 11. i. 264.

270. depend] remain in the position of dependants.

271. besort] fit, suit. See Othello, I. iii. 239.

280. marble hearted] Compare marble-breasted in Twelfth Night, v. i. 127, which is also found in T. Heywood, Dialogues (Pelopea and Alope). See Pearson, Works, vi. 300:

"There's none so marble-breasted
but doth melt
To hear of your disaster."

282. the sea-monster] What seamonster was Shakespeare thinking of? The hippopotamus, which Sandys in his travels had given a very bad character to, is suggested; also the whale; but I think that it is not likely Shakespeare had here any special kind of monster in his thoughts, but was thinking of those monsters of classical mythology slain by Hercules and by Perseus in defence of beauty- these stories were then very popular. See his reference to the Hercules and Hesione story, in the Merchant of Venice, III. ii. 57: "The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy

To the sea-monster."