Glo. I do remember now.

Henceforth I'll bear

Affliction, till it do cry out itself,

Enough, enough, and die.

That thing you speak of,

I took it for a man; z often would it say,

The fiend, the fiend. He led me to that place.
Edg. Bear free and patient thoughts.

SCENE VII.

Enter Lear, dreft madly with flowers.

But who comes here?

The safer sense will ne'er accommodate

His mafter thus.

b

Lear. No, they cannot touch me for coining; I am the king himself.

Edg. O thou fide-piercing fight!

Lear. Nature's above art in that refpect. There's your prefs-money. That fellow handles his bow like a crowkeeper. Draw me a clothier's yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace; this d piece of toafted cheefe will do't.There's my gauntlet, I'll prove it on a giant. Bring up the

Z So the rft q.; the 2d often would he fay; all the rest often 'twould fay. a W. alters fafer to fober; and J. propofes faner; but I choose to read, with all the copies before, fafer: Nor do I think the man of safe discretion, that does affect to alter it. See Meafure for Meafure, Sc. I.

b The fo's read crying for coining.

c R. and P. read cow-keeper. All before and after, crow-keeper; and T. fays this must be the reading, meaning the fame as fcare-crow, viz. a stuff'd figure representing a man armed with a bow and arrow, fet up to fright the crows from the fruit and corn.

d The qu's omit piece of.

The qu's read do it.

K 3

brown

brown bills. O, well-flown, fbird! i'th' clout, i'th' clout: hewgh. Give the word.

Edg. Sweet marjoram.

Lear. País.

Glo. I know that voice.

Lear. Ha! Gonerill! Ha! Regan!-They flatter'd me like a dog, and told me, I had h white hairs in my beard, ere the black ones were there. To fay ay and no to i every thing k that I faid—Ay and no too, was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter; when the thunder would not peace at my bidding; there I found 'em, there I fmelt 'em out. Go to, they are not men o' their words; they told me I was every thing; 'tis a lye; I am not m ague-proof.

f So all before T. who reads barb, by W.'s conjecture; followed alfo by H.-W. has the following note,

Lear is here raving of archery, and shooting at buts, as is plain by the words i'th' clout, that is, the white mark they set up and aim at : hence the phrafe to hit the white. So that we must read O well-flown, barb! i. e. the barbed or bearded arrow.

W.

But why might not Lear, by a metaphor, call his arrow bird, especially as he cries well-flown to it, which is certainly a metaphor taken from the flying of a bird? See Heath.

The qu's read well flowne bird in the ayre, hagh, give the word. Here, perhaps, the editor, not knowing what to make of a bird's being flow'n in the clout, put, inftead thereof, in the air: which feems to prove that the true reading was bird.

The fo's, R. and 7. read Ha! Gonerill with a white beard? They flatter'd, &c.

h Before white the fo's infert the.

The 2d q. reads all for every thing,

k The qu's omit that.

The qu's read them for 'em.

* The qu's read argue-proofe.

Glo,

Glo. The trick of that voice I do well remember :

Is't not the king?

Lear. Ay, every inch a king.

When I do ftare, fee how the fubject quakes.

n

I pardon that man's life. What was thy caufe?
Adultery?

Thou shalt not die: die for adultery? No.
The wren goes to't, and the fmall gilded fly
P Does lecher in my fight.

Let copulation thrive, for Glofter's baftard fon
Was kinder to his father, than my daughters
Got 'tween the lawful fheets.

To't, luxury, pell-mell; for I lack foldiers.

Behold yon fimpering dame,

r

Whose face between her forks presages snow;

That minces virtue, and does fhake the head
To hear of pleasure's name.

The fitchew, nor the foyled horse, goes to't

With a more riotous appetite;

Down from the waist they are centaurs, tho' women all above;

But to the girdle do the gods inherit,

Beneath is all the fiends; there's hell, there's darkness,

n T.'s duodecimo, W. and F. read the for thy,

• The qu's read not die for adultery, &c,

P The qu's read do.

9 The two first fo's and 7. read yond.

r R.'s duodecimo, P. T. H. and W. read 'tween.

The qu's read prefageth.

t The qu's read do shake the head hear of pleasure's name to fichew, &c.

There is the u fulphurous pit, burning, fcalding, stench,
w confumption. Fie, fie, fie; pah, pah:
Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary,

* To fweeten my imagination: there's money for thee.
Glo. O let me kifs that hand.

Lear. Y Let me wipe it first, it fmells of mortality.
Glo. O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world
Shall fo wear out to nought. a Do you know me?

Lear. I remember b thine eyes well enough: doft thou fquiny at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid; I'll not love. Read thou this challenge, mark but the penning

e on't.

Glo. Were all the letters funs, I could not fee one.

Edg. I would not take this from report: it is,

And my heart breaks at it.

Lear. Read.

Glo. What with h the cafe of eyes?

Lear. Oh, ho, are you there with me? no eyes in your

The qu's read fulphury.

w The rft q. reads confumation; ad confummation.

x The fo's and R.'s octavo omit to.

y The qu's read here wipe it first, &c.

z The qu's read should for fall.

a So the qu's; the reft doft thou.

b The qu's read thy.

c P. and H. read squint, *The qu's read on.

a The qu's omit but.

So the 2d q.; the 1ft oft; all the rest of it.

f The fo's and R. read thy.

g The rat and 2d fo's omit one.

h So all before R. who alters the to this, but without neceffity. Having

loft my eyes, would you have me read with the fockets? R. is followed by

all the reft.

head,

head, nor i no money in your purfe? Your eyes are in ka heavy cafe, your purfe in a light; yet you fee how this world goes.

Glo. I fee it feelingly.

n

Lear. What, art mad? a man may fee how this world goes, with no eyes. Look with thine ears: fee, how "yond juftice rails upon yond fimple thief. Hark in thine ear': ° change places, and handy-dandy, P which is the juftice, which is the thief? Thou haft feen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar?

Glo. Ay, fir.

r

Lear. And the creature run from the cur. There thou might'ft behold the great image of authority; a dog's obey'd in office,

Thou rafcal beadle, hold thy bloody hand :

Why doft thou lafh that whore? ftrips thine own back;
Thou hotly luft'ft to use her in that kind,

For which thou whip'ft her. The ufurer hangs the "co

zener.

i The 2d q. P. and H. omit no.

k The 3d and 4th fo's, R. P. and H. omit a.

1 The qu's read thy.

m The qu's read yon.

The qu's omit change places, and.

P The qu's read which is thief, which is the juftice.

9 The 3d and 4th fo's omit ay.

office.

The 1ft q. reads a dogge, so bade in office; the ad a dogge, fo bad in