From her material sap, perforce must wither, 5 GON. No more; the text is foolish. ALB. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile : Filths savour but themselves. done? What have you Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd? A father, and a gracicus aged man, ↑ She that herself will sliver and disbranch From her MATERIAL sap,] She who breaks the bonds of filial duty, and becomes wholly alienated from her father, must wither and perish, like a branch separated from that sap which supplies it with nourishment, and gives life to the matter of which it is composed. So, in A Brief Chronycle concernynge the Examinacyon and Death of Syr Johan Oldcastle, 1544: "Then sayd the lorde Cobham, and spredde his armes abrode: This is a very crosse, yea and so moche better than your crosse of wode, in that y' was created as God: yet will I not seeke to have y' worshipped. Then sayd the byshop of London, Syr, ye wote wele that he dyed on a materyall crosse.' Mr. Theobald reads maternal, and Dr. Johnson thinks that the true reading. Syr John Froissart's Chronicle (as Dr. Warburton has observed) in the title-page of the English translation printed in 1525, is said to be " translated out of French to our material English Tongue by John Bourchier." And I have found material (from mater) used in some other old books for maternal, but neglected to note the instances. I think, however, that the word is here used in its ordinary sense. mous words,) would introduce a Material sap is strictly correct. end, the branch was the figurative Maternal sap (or any synonymixed and confused metaphor. From the word herself to the object of the poet's thought. MALONE. Throughout the plays of our author I do not recollect a single instance of the adjective-maternal. STEEVENS. 5 And come to deadly USE.] Alluding to the use that witches and inchanters are said to make of wither'd branches in their charms. A fine insinuation in the speaker, that she was ready for the most unnatural mischief, and a preparative of the poet to her plotting with the bastard against her husband's life. WARBURTON." Dr. Warburton might have supported his interpretation by the passage in Macbeth, quoted in the preceding page, n. 3. MALONE. Whose reverence the head-lugg'd bear would lick, Most barbarous, most degenerate! have you madded. Could my good brother suffer you to do it? If that the heavens do not their visible spirits "Twill come, Humanity must perforce prey on itself, Like monsters of the deep. GON. Milk-liver'd man! That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs; Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know'st', France spreads his banners in our noiseless land; 6 would lick,] This line, which had been omitted by all my predecessors, I have restored from the quartos. STEEVENS. THESE vile offences,] In quartos A and B, we find-the vile offences; in quarto C,-this vile. This was certainly a misprint for these. MALONE. 7 8 like monsters of the deep.] Fishes are the only animals that are known to prey upon their own species. JOHNSON. This, as Mr. Douce observes, is an error. BOSWELL. 9 that not know'st, &c.] The rest of this speech is omitted in the folio. STEEVENS. I Fools do those villains pity, &c.] She means, that none but fools would pity those villains, who are prevented from executing their malicious designs, and punished for their evil intention. It is not clear whether this fiend means her father, or the King of France. If these words were intended to have a retrospect to Albany's speech, which the word pity might lead us to suppose, Lear must be in her contemplation; if they are considered as connected with what follows-"Where's thy drum?" &c. the other interpretation must be adopted. The latter appears to me the true one; and perhaps the punctuation of the quarto, in which there is only a comma after the word mischief, ought to have been preferred. MALONE. With plumed helm thy slayer begins threats; Whilst thou, a moral fool, sit'st still, and cry'st, Alack! why does he so? ALB. See thyself, devil! Proper deformity 2 seems not in the fiend So horrid, as in woman. GON. O vain fool! ALB. Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame, * Quarto C, shewes not. I do not perceive to what the word-fiend, in the fourth line of the foregoing note, refers. STEEVENS. It refers, as I am confident every reader will at once understand, to the detestable fiend-like Goneril. MALOne. 2 Proper deformity-] i. e. Diabolick qualities appear not so horrid in the devil, to whom they belong, as in woman, who unnaturally assumes them. WARBURTON. 3 Thou changed and SELF-COVER'D thing,] This, and the next speech, are wanting in the folio. STEEVENS. Of these lines there is but one copy, and the editors are forced upon conjecture. They have published this line thus : "Thou chang'd, and self-converted thing," But I cannot but think that by self-cover'd the author meant, thou that hast disguised nature by wickedness; thou that hast hid the woman under the fiend. JOHNSON. The following words, "be-monster not thy nature," seem rather to support the reading of the former editors, which was self-converted; and a thought somewhat similar occurs in Fletcher's play of The Captain, where the father says to Lelia 66 Oh, good God! "To what an impudence, thou wretched woman, By thou " self-cover'd thing," the poet, I think, means, thou who hast put a covering on thyself, which nature did not give thee. The covering which Albany means, is, the semblance and appearance of a fiend. MALONE. Self-cover'd, perhaps, was said in allusion to the envelope which the maggots of some insects furnish to themselves. Or the poet might have referred to the operation of the silk-worm, that 66 ·labours till it clouds itself all o'er." STEEVENS. Were it my fitness Be-monster not thy feature *. Were it They are apt enough to dislocate and tear Thy flesh and bones :-Howe'er thou art a fiend, A woman's shape doth shield thee. GON. Marry, your manhood now! Enter a Messenger. ALB. What news? MESS. O, my good lord, the duke of Cornwall's dead; Slain by his servant, going to put out The other eye of Gloster. ALB. Gloster's eyes! MESS. A servant that he bred, thrill'd with re morse, Oppos'd against the act, bending his sword To his great master; who, thereat enrag'd, ALB. * Be-monster not thy FEATURE.] Feature, in Shakspeare's age, meant the general cast of countenance, and often beauty. Bullokar, in his Expositor, 1616, explains it by the words, "handsomeness, comeliness, beautie." MALONE. 5 To let these hands obey my blood,] As this line wants a foot, perhaps our author wrote "To let these hands of mine obey my blood-." So, in King John: 66 This hand of mine "Is yet a maiden and an innocent hand." STEEVENS. Theobald proposes to read, boiling blood. Boswell. 6 and amongst them FELL'D him dead :] i. e. they (Cornwall and his other servants) amongst them fell'd him dead. MALONE. 7 You JUSTICERS,] Most of the old copies have justices; but it was certainly a misprint. The word justicer is used in two other places in this play; and though printed rightly in the folio, So speedily can venge!-But, O poor Gloster! MESS. GON. [Aside.] One way I like this well; 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 of purpose, that their punish ment 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; Tell me what more thou knowest. * Quartos, tooke. [Exeunt. is corrupted in the quarto in the same manner as here. Quarto C reads rightly-justicers, in the line before us. MALONE. 8 One way I like this well ;] Goneril's plan was to poison her sister to marry Edmund-to murder Albany-and to get possession of the whole kingdom. As the death of Cornwall facilitated the last part of her scheme, she was pleased at it; but disliked it, as it put it in the power of her sister to marry Edmund. M. MASON. 9 — all the building in my fancy-] So, in Coriolanus, Act II. Sc. I.: "the buildings in my fancy." STEEVENS. |