p. 150.

he hath laid on twelve": - The folio acciden

tally omits 'laid.'

p. 151.

"

no tongues else for's turn": - The folio repeats 'tongue' in the place of turn.'

" "He did comply with his dug": - i. e., he exchanged compliments. See in this play, Act II. Sc. 2, "let me comply with you." Some doubt has been thrown upon this definition of comply;' but its correctness in this particular case would seem to be settled by the following passage in the Preface to Ulpian Fullwell's Arte of Flatterie, 4to., 1579, of which, indeed, Hamlet's speech is not improbably a reminiscence: "Flatterie hath taken such habit in man's affections, that it is in most men altera natura; yea the very sucking babes hath a kind of adulation towards their nurses for the dugge."

"

and many more of the same bery" : - The 4tos., 'the same breed,' a less characteristic classification of Osric. The folio has, "mine" for many an obvious misprint.

a kind of yesty collection, which carries them
through and through the most fann'd and winnowed opin-
ions": - The folio has, "the most fond and winnowed."
But 'fan' and 'winnow' are so often coupled in the writ-
ings of Shakespeare's day, and fond' [foolish] sorts so
ill with winnowed' in its figurative sense, that I think,
with Warburton and Mr. Dyce, that fond' in the folio
is a misprint of fand.' But of the meaning of the pas-
sage in this form I am not quite sure, though it is proba-
bly to be found in Dr. Johnson's paraphrase
have got the cant of the day, a superficial readiness of
slight and cursory conversation, a kind of frothy collec-
tion of fashionable prattle, which yet carries them through
the most select and approving judgments." The 4tos.
read, "a kind of histy [or hesty] collection which carries
them through and through the most prophane and tren-
nowed [or trennowned] opinions."

"these men

" "Enter a Lord": - From the entrance of this lord to his exit, the text is to be found only in the second and the later 4tos. But the 4to. of 1603 preserves fragments of Hamlet's and Horatio's conversation.

p. 152.

"

how ill all's here about my heart": - Thus the 4tos.; the folio, by a mere misprint, "how all heere," &c. it is such a kind of gaingiving": - i. e., againstgiving, misgiving.

"

"If your mind dislike any thing, obey it": - The folio merely, "obey."

;

p. 152.

. 153.

p. 154.

p. 155.

"

"Since no man has aught of what he leaves," &c.: - So the folio, except the omission of 'Let be,' at the end of the speech; the 4tos., "since no man of ought he leaves, knowes what ist to leaue betimes let be." The text of the folio is not very clear in its application, but that of the 4tos. is manifestly wrong.

"Enter King, Queen... Attendants with foils": - The folio has, "with Foyles, Gauntlets, a Table and Flagons of Wine on it."

"And hurt my brother": - So the 4tos. The folio misprints, "mother."

"To keep my name ungor'd" : - The folio only, "ungorg'd."

an union shall he throw":- So the folio; the 4to. of 1604, "an Vnice;" which in the next 4to. was changed to "an Onix." A union was a pearl of the highest value.

He's fat, and scant of breath":- See the "Remarks on the Preliminary Matter," &c., Vol. II. p. xli. "Here, Hamlet, take my napkin": - So the 4tos.; the folio, "Here's a napkin."

- you make a wanton of me" : - i. e., a childish, effeminate person.

p. 157. "shall leave behind me" : - The folio, "shall live behind me." But as this reading infelicitously makes "Things standing thus unknown" parenthetical, and as the 4to. of 1604 has "shall I leave behind me," and that of 1603, "What a scandal wouldst thou leave behind," I have no doubt that in the folio there is a slight misprint. The possible objection that Hamlet, and not the things unknown, would leave the name, is of a prosaic sort that need not be regarded.

"

"The rest is silence":- At the end of this line the folio has "O, o, o, o" - the addition, doubtless, of some actor.

p. 158. "This quarry cries on havoc": - i. e., this heap of dead proclaims an indiscriminate slaughter. See the Note on "I'll make a quarry," &c., Coriolanus, Act I. Sc. 1.

"

p. 159.

his commandment is fulfill'd": - Commandment' was spelled commandement, and when uncontracted, pronounced as a quadrisyllable.

"Which now to claim my vantage":- The folio misprints, "Which are," &c.

"whose voice will draw on more":-i. e., more voices; alluding to Hamlet's declaration, just above, that Fortinbras has his dying voice for the succession,

KING LEAR.

(199) "M. William Shakespeare: HIS True Chronicle Historie of the life and death of King Lear and his three Daughters. With the unfortunate life of Edgar, sonne and heire to the Earle of Gloster, and his sullen and assumed humour of Toм of Bedlam: As it was played before the Kings Maiestie at Whitehall vpon S. Stephans night in Christmas Hollidayes. By his Maiesties seruants playing vsually at the Gloabe on the Bancke-side. LONDON, Printed for Nathaniel Butter, and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard, at the signe of the Pide Bull neere St. Austins Gate. 1608." 4to. 41 leaves.

The Same, in two impressions.

Butter.. 1608." 4to. 44 leaves.

"Printed for Nathaniel

King Lear occupies twenty-seven pages in the folio of 1623, viz., from p. 283 to p. 309, inclusive, in the division of Tragedies. The last page but one is erroneously numbered 38, instead of 308. The Acts and Scenes are all regularly marked, but the list of Dramatis Persone was first given by Rowe.

(200)

T

HE story of King Lear is probably of the remotest antiquity. It is told in the Gesta Romanorum of a Roman Emperor Theodosius. But, according to the British Chronicles, King Lear preceded the first of the two Cæsars of that name more than a thousand years. They might as well have said two thousand; for the elements of the tale which Shakespeare wrought into the grandest and subtlest existing work of imagination are so simple in their essence and so primitive in their form, that we may be sure they underlie the accumulated heaps of lighter and more complicated texture, through which, at remote intervals, they have cropped out. A doting, irascible, unreasonable father; the division of a patrimony, in which the largest shares are won by the loudest professions of loyalty and love; the bitter experience of filial ingratitude from those who pretended and who owed most filial piety, and the manifestation of tenderness, respect, and care from the quarter whence it was least expected: if we would discover the first recital of these incidents we should be able to look with Brahma's eyes among "the vanished gods," and antedate the times of Saturn and of Ops.

Shakespeare could have found Lear's story in Holinshed's Chronicles, in the Mirror of Magistrates, in the Romance of Perceforest, in the tenth Canto of the second Book of the Faerie Queen, in the fifteenth Chapter of the third Book in Albion's England, and in Camden's Britannia; and he probably read it in

* Holinshed says that "Leir, the son of Paldub, was admitted ruler over the Britains in the year of the world 3105. At what time Joas reigned as yet in Judea." It must have comforted the gentle reader of Holinshed's day to know that Leir did not ascend the British throne in A. M. 3104 or 3105.