Stew. I, madam ?

Reg. I speak in understanding: you are; I know it :

Therefore, 5 I do advise you, take this note:
My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd;

And more convenient is he for my hand,

Than

I do advise you, take this note:] Note means in this place not a letter but a remark. Therefore observe what I am faying. JOHNSON.

Therefore, I do advise you, take this note :
My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd;
And more convenient is be for my hand,

Than for your lady's. You may gather more.
If you do find him, pray you, give him this;

And when your mistress hears thus much from you,

I pray, defire her call her wisdom to her.] This passage, by a word's being left out, and a word misplaced, and a full stop put where there should be but a comma, has led all our editors into a very great mistake; as will, I hope, appear, when we proceed a little further in the fame play. The emendation is as follows:

Therefore I do advise you, a take note of this;
My lord is dead, &c.

If you fo find him, pray you give him this :

i. e. This answer by word of mouth. The editors, not so regardful of confistency as they ought to have been, ran away with the thought that Regan delivered a letter to the steward; whereas she only defired him to give or deliver so much by word of mouth. And by this means another blunder, as egregious as the former, and arifing out of it, presents itself to view in the fame act, scene 9. page 121.

And give the letters, which thou find'st about me,
To Edmund earl of Glo'fter, &c.

Edg. Let's fee these pockets: the letters, that he speaks of,
May be my friends.-

[Reads the letter.]

Obferve, that here is but one letter produced and read, which is Gonerill's. Had there been one of Regan's too, the audience no doubt should have heard it as well as Gonerill's. But it is plain, from what is amended and explained above, that the Steward had no letter from Regan, but only a melage to be

"

• The like expression, Tavelfib Night, act ii. fc. 4.- "Sir Toby. Challenge me the duke's youth, to fight with him; hurt him in eleven places; my

廖

Than for your lady's. 6 You may gather more.
If you do find him, pray you, give him this;
And when your mistress hears thus much from you,
I pray, defire her call her wisdom to her.

So fare you well.

If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,

Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.

Stew. 'Would I could meet him, madam! I should
shew

7 What party I do follow.
Reg. Fare thee well.

S

CENE

The country near Dover.

VI.

Enter Glo'ster, and Edgar as a peasant.

Glo. When shall I come to the top of that same
hill?

Edg. You do climb up it now. Look, how we

labour.

Glo. Methinks the ground is even.

Edg. Horrible steep:

Hark, do you hear the fea?

Glo. No, truly.

Edg. Why then your other fenfes grow imperfect

By your eyes' anguifh.

delivered by word of mouth to Edmund earl of Glo'ster. So that
it is not to be doubted, but the latt passage should be read thus
And give the letter, which thou find'st about me,
To Edmund earl of Glo'fter.-

6

Edg. Let's see these pockets: the letter, that he speaks of,
May be my friend.-

Thus the whole is connected, clear, and consistent. Dr. GRAY.
- You may gather more.] You may infer more than I
have directly told you. JOHNSON.

1

What party-] Quarto, What lady. JOHNSON.

SCENE VI.] This scene, and the stratagem by which
Glo'fter is cured of his desperation, are wholly borrowed from
Sidney's Arcadia. JOHNSON.

Glo.

:

!

Glo. So may it be, indeed. Methinks, thy voice is alter'd; and thou speak'st In better phrase and matter than thou didst.

Edg. You are much deceiv'd: in nothing am I

chang'd,

But in my garments.

Glo. Methinks, you are better spoken.

Edg. Come on, Sir; here's the place:-stand still.

3 How fearful

And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low !
The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air,
Shew scarce so gross as beetles: half way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade!
Methinks, he seems no bigger than his head.
The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yon' tall anchoring bark,
Diminish'd to + her cock; her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for fight. The murmuring furge,
That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high :-I'll look no more;
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient fight
Topple down headlong.

thy voice is alter'd, &c.] Edgar alters his voice in order to pass afterwards for a malignant spirit. JOHNSON. How fearful

S

And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low!] This description has been much admired since the time of Addison, who has remarked, with a poor attempt at pleasantry, that "he who can " read it without being giddy, has a very good head, or a very bad one." The description is certainly not mean, but I am far from thinking it wrought to the utmost excellence of poetry. He that looks from a precipice finds himself affailed by one great and dreadful image of irrefiftible destruction. But this overwhelming idea is dissipated and enfeebled from the inftant that the mind can restore itself to the observation of particulars, and diffuse its attention to distinct objects. The enumeration of the choughs and crows, the samphire-man, and the fishers, counteracts the great effect of the prospect, as it peoples the defert of intermediate vacuity, and stops the mind in the rapidity of its defcent through emptiness and horror. JOHNS. -ber cock;-) Her cock-boat. JOHNSON.

Glo.

Glo. Set me where you stand.

Edg. Give me your hand: you are now within a foot

Of the extreme verge: 5 for all beneath the moon Would I not leap upright.

Glo. Let go my hand.

Here, friend, is another purse; in it, a jewel
Well worth a poor man's taking. Fairies, and gods,
Profper it with thee! Go thou further off;
Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.
Edg. Now fare ye well, good Sir.
Glo. With all my heart.

[Seems to go.

Edg. Why do I trifle thus with his despair? 'Tis done to cure it.

Glo. O you mighty gods!
This world I do renounce; and in your fights
Shake patiently my great affliction off:
If I could bear it longer, and not fall
To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
My snuff, and loathed part of nature, should
Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O bless him!
- Now, fellow, fare thee well.

Edg. Good Sir, farewell..

[He leaps, and falls along.

And yet I know not how conceit may rob

The treasury of life, 6 when life itself
Yields to the theft. Had he been where he thought,
By this, thought had been paft.-Alive or dead?

Ho, you, Sir! friend!-Hear you, Sir?-Speak!

Would I not leap UPRIGHT. ] But what danger is in leaping upright or upwards? He who leaps thus must needs fall again on his feet upon the place from whence he rose. We should read,

Would I not leap outright;

i. e. forward: and then being on the verge of a precipice he must needs fall headlong. WARBURTON.

6

when life itself

Yields to the theft. When life is willing to be destroyed. JOHNSON.

Thus

Thus might he pass, indeed: yet he revives. What are you, Sir?

Glo. Away, and let me die.

Edg. Hadft thou been aught but gofsomer, fea

thers, air,

So many fathom down precipitating,

Thou hadst shiver'd like an egg: but thou doft breathe,
Haft heavy fubstance; bleed'it not; speak'ft; artfound.
9 Ten masts at each make not the altitude,
Which thou haft perpendicularly fallen.
Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again.
Glo. But have I fallen, or no?

Edg. From the dread fummit of this chalky bourn:
Look up a-height:-the shrill-gorg'd lark fo far
Cannot be feen or heard. Do but look up.
Glo. Alack, I have no eyes.
Is wretchedness depriv'd that benefit,

To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort,

7 Thus might be pass, indeed :-) Thus he might die in reality. We still use the word paffing bell. JOHNSON.

8

Hadst thou been aught but GOSSOMER, feathers, air, Goffomore, the white and cobweb-like exhalations that fly about in hot funny weather Skinner fays, in a book called The French Gardiner, it fignifies the down of the fow-thiftle, which is driven to and fro by the wind:

"As fure some wonder on the cause of thunder,
"On ebb and flood, on goffomer and mist,

" And on all things, till that the cause is wist.”

Dr. GRAY.

Ten mafts AT EACH make not the altitude,] So Mr. Pope found it in the old editions; and feeing it corrupt, judicioufly corrected it to attacht. But Mr. Theobald restores again the old nonsense, at each. WARBURTON.

Mr. Pope's conjecture may stand if the word which he uses were known in our author's time, but I think it is of later in troduction. We may say,

1

Ten masts on end

JOHNSON.

In Mr. Rowe's edition it is, Ten masts at least. STEEVENS. chalky bourn :) Bourn seems here to fignify a bill. Its common fignification is a brook. Milton in Comus uses bosky bourn in the same sense perhaps with Shakespeare. But in both authors it may mean only a boundary. JOHNSON.

VOL. IX.

Ff

When