Old Man. I'll bring him the best 'parrel that I have, Come on't what will.

Glo. Sirrah, naked fellow.

Edg. Poor Tom's a-cold.—I cannot a daub it further.

Glo. Come hither, fellow.

b

Edg. [afide.] And yet I muft.

Blefs thy fweet eyes, they bleed.

Glo. Know'st thou the way to Dover?

Edg. Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot path. Tom hath been fcar'd out of his good wits.

[Afide.

Poor

Bless thee,

good man, from the foul fiend. d Five fiends have been in

2 H. reads firrah, you, naked fellow.

poor

For daub (which W. interprets disguise) the qu's and P. read dance; H.

dally, omitting it.

The qu's omit and yet I must.

The fo's and R. read good man's fon, from, &c.

What is in italic is omitted in the fo's and R.

Shakespeare has made Edgar, in his feigned distraction, frequently allude to a vile imposture of fome English Jesuits, at that time much the subject of conversation; the history of it having been just then composed with great art and vigour of stile and compofition by Dr. S. Harfenet, afterwards Archbishop of York, by order of the privy-council, in a work entitled, A declaration of egregious popish impostures, to withdraw his majesty's fubjects from their allegiance, &c. under pretence of cafting out devils, praised by Edmunds, alias Weston, a Jesuit, and divers Romish priests his wicked affociates. Printed 1603. The imposture was in fubftance this, while the Spaniards were preparing their armada against England, the Jesuits were here busy to promote it, by making converts; one method they employed was to difpoffefs pretended demoniacs, by which artifice they made feveral hundred converts amongst the common people. The principal scene of this farce was laid in the family of one Mr. Edmund Peckham, a Roman Catholic, where Marwood, a fervant of Anthony Babington's, (who was afterwards executed for treason) Trayford, an attendant upon Mr. Peckham, and Sarah and Frifwood Williams, and Anne Smith, three chambermaids in that family were

fuppofed

e

poor Tom at once; of luft, as Obidicut; f Hobbididence prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; & Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet of i mobbing and k mowing; who fince poffeffes chamber-maids and waiting-women. So, bless thee, mafter.

Glo. Here, take this purse, thou whom the heaven's plagues Have humbled to all strokes. That I am wretched, Makes thee the happier. Heavens deal so still! Let the fuperfluous, m and luft-dieted man, That braves your ordinance, that will not fee Because he does not feel, feel your power quickly :

fuppofed to be poffeffed with devils, and came into the priest's hands for cure. But the difcipline of the patients was fo long and fevere, and the priests fo elate and careless with their fuccefs, that the plot was discovered on the confeffion of the parties concerned, and the contrivers of it deservedly punished. The five devils here mentioned, are the names of five of those who were to act in this farce upon the chambermaids and waiting-women; and they are generally fo ridiculously nick-named, that Harfenet has one chapter on the ftrange names of their devils; left, says he, meeting them otherwise by chance, you mistake them for the names of tapfters and jugglers. W. of this note is in T.'s edition.

P. omits of luft, as Obidicut.

f So the qu's; the reft Hobbididen.

8 So the qu's; the reft Mobu.

h The qu's read Stiberdigebit.

1 The qu's read mobin; P. moping; the rest mopping.

The fubftance

* The qu's read Mohing, printed as a proper name of one of the fiends, and retained as fuch by P. (and spelt Mowing) on account of which he excluded Obidicut, as the number five is complete without it. But mobbing seems to allude to the mobs which gathered to fee the poffeffed people; and mowing. i. c. making mouths, to the distortions of their faces when the pretended fit was upon them.

1 All but the qu's omit fo, bless thee, good mafter.

m R. reads and the luft-dieted, &c.

n So H. and W.; the qu's read ftands; the fo's flaves.

So diftribution fhould undo excess,

And each man have enough. Do'st thou know Dover?
Edg. Ay, mafter.

Glo. There is a cliff whofe high and bending head
Looks P fearfully 9 on the confined deep;

Bring me but to the very brim of it,

And I'll repair the misery thou doft bear,

With fomething rich about me. From that place

Enter Goneril and Edmund.

Gon. Welcome, my lord; I marvel, our mild husband Not met us on the way.

Enter Steward.

Now, where's your mafter?

Stew. Madam, within; but never man fo chang'd. I told him of the army that was landed;

He fmil'd at it. I told him, you were coming,

His answer was, the worse. Of Glofter's treachery,
And of the loyal fervice of his fon,

• The qu's read under for undo.

The qu's read firmly for fearfully.
The qu's and fo's read in for on.

The two laft fo's and R. and T.'s 8vo read lending for leading.

When I inform'd him, then he call'd me fot;
And told me, I had turn'd the wrong fide out.

• What most he should dislike, seems pleasant to him;
What like, offenfive.

Gon. Then thou shalt go no further.

It is the cowish terror of his fpirit,

[To Edmund.

That dares not undertake; he'll not feel wrongs,
Which tie him to an answer.

W

u Our wishes on the way

May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother;
Haften his musters, and conduct his powers.

I must change arms at home, and give the diftaff

Into my husband's hands. This trusty servant

Shall pafs between us; y ere long you are like to hear,

If you dare venture in your own behalf,

A mistress's command. Wear this; [a gives him a ring] fpare speech;

Decline your head. This kifs, if it durft fpeak,

Would stretch thy fpirits up into the air.

Conceive, and fare thee well.

Edm. Yours in the ranks of death.

Gon. My moft dear Glofter!

The qu's read what he should most defire.

The ad q. reads curre for terror.

[Exit Edmund.

H. reads that our wishes on th' way may prove effects, back to my brother, &c.

w The 1ft q. reads Edgar for Edmund.

x The fo's and R. read names for arms.

reft.

So all before P. who reads you ere long hall hear; followed by the

2 The 2d q. reads coward for command.

This direction added by H.

The 1ft q. reads far you well; the ad faryewell.

Oh,

e Oh, the d difference of man, and man! To thee a woman's fervices are due;

My fool ufurps my body.

Stew. Madam, here comes my lord.

[8 Exit Steward.

Enter Albany.

Gon. I have been worth the h whistle.

Alb. Oh, Gonerill,

You are not worth the duft, which the i rude wind
Blows in your face.—k I fear your disposition :
That nature, which contemns its origin,
Cannot be border'd certain in itfelf;

She that herself will m filver, and dif-branch,
From ber material fap, perforce must wither,
And come to deadly ufe.

• This line is not in the qu's.

So all before P. who inferts ftrange after the; followed by the rest.
The ad q. omits a.

f The 1ft q. reads a fool ufurps my bed; the ad my foot ufurps my head.

* So the qu's; the rest omit this direction.

b The 1ft q. reads whistling.

i The ad q. omits rude.

What follows in italic is omitted in the fo's and R.

1 The ift q. reads ith; the 2d it for its.

m P. reads fhiver.

"T. H. and J. read maternal for material; to fupport which latter reading, in the ufual fenfe of the word, W. has a long note; but after all confeffes that material may signify maternal; and quotes the title of an old English book to prove that material has been used in that fenfe; the title is as follows, Syr John Froiffart's chronicle tranflated out of the Frenche into our material English tongue by John Bouchier, printed 1525. But a few words will determine the reading to be material in the ufual fenfe; for the force of Albany's argument to prove that a branch torn from a tree muft infallibly wither and die, lies in this, that it is feparated from a communication with that which supplies it with the very identical matter by which it (the branch) lives, and of which it is compofed.