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

2

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.

Bless thy fweet eyes, they bleed.

Glo. Know'st thou the way to Dover?

[Afide.

Edg. Both stile and gate, horfe-way and foot-path. Poor Tom hath been fcar'd out of his good wits. Blefs thee, good man, from the foul fiend. d Five fiends have been in

2 H. reads firrah, you, naked fellow.

poor

a For daub (which W. interprets disguise) the qu's and P. read dance; H. dally, omitting it.

b The qu's omit and yet I must.

The fo's and R. read good man's son, 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 Jefuits, at that time much the subject of conversation; the history of it having been just then compofed with great art and vigour of stile and composition Dr. S. Harfenet, afterwards Archbishop of York, by order of the privy-council, in a work entitled, A déclaration of egregious popish impoftures, to withdraw his majesty's fubjects from their allegiance, &c. under pretence of casting out devils, practised by Edmunds, alias Weston, a Jefuit, 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 Jefuits were here bufy to promote it, by making converts; one method they employed was to difpof fefs pretended demoniacs, by which artifice they made several hundred con→ verts 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 treafon) Trayford, an attendant upon Mr. Peckham, and Sarah and Frifwood Williams, and Anne Smith, three chambermaids in that family were fuppofed

I

e

poor Tom at once; of luft, as Obidicut; f Hobbididence prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; 8 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 purfe, thou whom the heaven's plagues Have humbled to all ftrokes. 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 so elate and careless with their fuccefs, that the plot was discovered on the confeffion of the parties concerned, and the contrivers of it defervedly 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 Harsenet has one chapter on the strange names of their devils; lest, 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.

e P. omits of luft, as Obidicut.
f So the qu's; the reft Hobbididen.

8 So the qu's; the rest Mohu.

ħ The qu's read Stiberdigebit.

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

The fubftance

k 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 feems 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.

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

50

So diftribution should 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 a on the confined deep;

Bring me but to the very brim of it,

And I'll repair the mifery thou doft bear,

With fomething rich about me. From that place

I fhall nor leading need.
Edg. Give me thy arm,
Poor Tom fhall lead thee.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The duke of Albany' palace.

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 master?

Stew. Madam, within; but never man so 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 worfe. Of Glo'fter's treachery,
And of the loyal fervice of his fon,

• The qu's read under for undo.

P 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, feems pleasant to him;
What like, offenfive."

Gon. Then thou shalt go no further.

[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 distaff

Into my husband's hands. This trusty fervant

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

If

you dare venture in your own behalf,

Ꮓ

A miftrefs's command. Wear this; [a gives him a ring]

fpare fpeech;

Decline your head. This kifs, if it durst speak,

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 2d 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 Ift զ. reads Edgar for Edmund.

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

y So all before P. who reads you ere long frall hear; followed by the reft.

2 The 2d q. reads coward for command.

This direction added by H.

b The 1st q reads far you well; the 2d faryewell.

Alb. Oh, Gonerill,

You are not worth the duft, which the i rude wind
Blows in your face. I fear your difpofition:

That nature, which contemns its origin,
Cannot be border'd certain in itself;

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

This line is not in the qu's.

d So all before P. who inferts ftrange after the; followed by the rest. The 2d q. omits a.

f The 1ft q. reads a fool ufurps my bed; the ad my foot ufurps my head. g So the qu's; the reft omit this direction.

m P. reads fhiver.

» T. H. and J. read maternal for material; to fupport which latter reading, in the usual sense of the word, W. has a long note; but after all confesses 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 But a few words material English tongue by John Bouchier, printed 1525.

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 must infallibly wither and die, lies in this, that it is separated from a communication with that which fupplies it with the very identical matter by which it (the branch) lives, and of which it is compofed.