But being widow, and my Gloster with her, Upon my hateful life: Another way, The news is not so tart.—I'll read and answer. [Exit. Alb. Where was his son, when they did take his eyes? Mess. Come with my lady hither. Alb. He is not here. Mess. No, my good lord; I met him back again. Alb. Knows he the wickedness? Mess. Ay, my good lord; 'twas he inform'd against him; And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment Might have the freer course. Alb. Gloster, I live To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king, And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend; [Exeunt. Tell me what more thou knowest, [SCENE III1. The French Camp near Dover. Enter KENT, and a Gentleman2. Kent. Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back know you the reason3? 1 This scene is left out in the folio copy, but is necessary to continue the story of Cordelia, whose behaviour is most beautifully painted. 2 The gentleman whom he sent in the foregoing act with letters to Cordelia. 3 The king of France being no longer a necessary personage, it was fit that some pretext for getting rid of him should be formed before the play was too near advanced towards a conclusion. Decency required that a monarch should not be silently shuffled into the pack of insignificant characters; and therefore his dismission (which could be effected only by a sudden recall to his own dominions) was to be accounted for before the audience. For this purpose, among others, the present scene was introduced. It is difficult to say what use could have been made of the king, had he appeared at the head of his own armament, and survived the murder of his queen. His conjugal concern on the occasion might have weakened the effect of Lear's paternal sorrow; and being an object of respect as well as pity he would naturally have divided the spectator's attention, and thereby diminished the consequence of Albany, Edgar, and Kent, whose exemplary virtues deserved to be ultimately placed in the most conspicuous point of view. -Steevens. Gent. Something he left imperfect in the state, Which since his coming forth is thought of; which Imports to the kingdom so much fear and danger, That his personal return was most required, And necessary. Kent. Who hath he left behind him general? Gent. The Mareschal of France, Monsieur le Fer. Kent. Did your letters pierce the queen to any demonstration of grief? Gent. Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence; And now and then an ample tear trill'd down Sought to be king o'er her. O, then it mov'd her. Kent. Gent. Not to a rage: patience and sorrow strove Who should express her goodliest. You have seen Sunshine and rain at once; her smiles and tears Were like; a better way. Those happy smiles5, 4 Both the quartos read, were like a better way. Steevens reads, upon the suggestion of Theobald, a better day, with a long and somewhat ingenious, though unsatisfactory argument in defence of it. Warburton reads, a wetter May,' which is plausible enough. Malone adopts part of his emendation, and reads a better May.' I have been favoured by Mr. Boaden with the following solution of this passage, which, as it preserves the reading of the old copy, merits attention: The difficulty has arisen from a general mistake as to the simile itself; and Shakspeare's own words here actually convey his perfect meaning, as indeed they commonly do. I understand the passage thus : 66 You have seen Sunshine and rain at once; her smiles and tears the conjunction of Now in what did smiles seeming un That is, Cordelia's smiles and tears were like sunshine and rain, in a better way or manner this better way consist? Why simply in the conscious of the tears; whereas the sunshine has a watery look through the falling drops of rain ،، Those happy smiles That play'd on her ripe lip, seem'd not to know "That the point of comparison was neither a "better day," nor a "wetter May," is proved by the following passages, cited by Steevens and Malone:"Her tears came dropping down like rain in sunshine." Sidney's Arcadia, p. 244. Again, p. 163, edit. 1593:"And with that she prettily smiled, which mingled with her tears, one could not tell whether it were a mourning pleasure, or a delight That play'd on her ripe lip, seem'd not to know What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence, As pearls from diamonds dropp'de.-In brief, sorrow Would be a rarity most belov'd, if all Could so become it. Kent. Made she no verbal question?? Gent. 'Faith, once, or twice, she heav'd the name of father Pantingly forth, as if it press'd her heart; Cried, Sisters! sisters!-Shame of ladies! sisters! And clamour moisten'd9: then away she started Kent. ful sorrow; but like when a few April drops are scattered by a gentle zephyrus among fine-coloured flowers." Again, in A Courtlie Controversie of Cupid's Cautels. &c. translated from the French by H. W. [Henry Wotton ], 1578, p. 289 "Who hath viewed in the spring time raine and sunneshine in one moment, might beholde the troubled countenance of the gentlewoman-with an eye now smyling, then bathed in teares." I may just observe, as perhaps an illustration. that the better way of CHARITY is that the right hand should not know what the left hand giveth.' 5 The quartos read smilets, which may be a diminutive of the poet's coining. 6 Steevens would read dropping, but as must be understood to signify as if. I do not think that jeweled pendants were in the poet's mind. A similar beautiful thought in Middleton's Game of Chess has caught the eye of Milton: the holy dew lies like a pearl Dropt from the opening eyelids of the morn 7 i. e. discourse, conversation. 8 i. e. let not pity be supposed to exist. It is not impossible but Shakspeare might have formed this fine picture of Cordelia's agony from holy writ, in the conduct of Joseph, who, being no longer able to restrain the vehemence of his affection, commanded all his retinue from his presence; and then wept aloud, and discovered himself to his brethren.-Theobald. 9 That is, her outcries were accompanied with tears. 10 Conditions are dispositions. 11 i. e. the selfsame husband and wife. Gent. No. Kent. Was this before the king return'd? Gent. No, since. Kent. Well, sir; The poor distress'd Lear is i'the town: Who sometime, in his better tune, remembers Gent. Why, good sir? Kent. A sovereign shame so elbows him: his own unkindness, That stripp'd her from his benediction, turn'd her To foreign casualties, gave her dear rights To his dog-hearted daughters, these things sting His mind so venomously, that burning shame Detains him from Cordelia. Gent. Alack, poor gentleman! Kent. Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard not! Gent. "Tis so, they are afoot. Kent. Well, sir, I'll bring you to our master And leave you to attend him: some dear cause12 [Exeunt. ] SCENE IV. The same. A Tent. L Enter CORDELIA, Physician, and Soldiers. Cor. Alack, 'tis he; why, he was met even now As mad as the vex'd sea: singing aloud; Crown'd with rank fumiter, and furrow weeds, 12 Important business. 1 i. e. fumitory, written by the old herbalists fumittery. Mr. Boucher suggests that furrow should be farrow, fær, empty. With harlocks2, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, In the restoring his bereaved sense? He, that helps him, take all my outward worth. Phy. There is means, madam: Our foster-nurse of nature is repose, The which he lacks; that to provoke in him, Cor. All bless'd secrets, All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth, Spring with my tears! be aidant, and remediate, In the good man's distress!-Seek, seek for him; Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life That wants the means to lead it5. Mess. Enter a Messenger. Madam, news; The British powers are marching hitherward. My mourning, and important tears, hath pitied. 2 The quartos read hardocks, the folio hardokes. Drayton mentions harlocks in one of his Eclogues : The honey-suckle, the harlocke, The lily, and the lady-smocke,' &c. Perhaps the charlock, sinapis arvensis, or wild mustard, may be meant. 3 Darnel, according to Gerard, is the most hurtful of weeds among corn. 4 Steevens says that do should be omitted as needless to the sense of the passage, and injurious to the metre. Thus in Hamlet: Try what repentance can; What can it not.' Do, in either place, is understood, though suppressed. Do is found none of the old copies but quarto B. 5 i. e. the reason which should guide it. Important for importunate, as in other places of these plays. See Comedy of Errors, Act v. Sc. 1. The folio reads importuned. |
