KING LEAR.] The ftory of this tragedy had found its way into many ballads and other metrical pieces; yet Shakspeare feems to have been more indebted to The True Chronicle Hiftory of King Leir and his Three Daughters, Gonorill, Ragan, and Cordella, 1605, (which I have already published at the end of a collection of the quarto copies) than to all the other performances together. It appears from the books at Stationers' Hall, that fome play on this fubject was entered by Edward White, May 14, 1594. "A booke entituled, The mofte famous Chronicle Huftorie of Leire King of England, and his three Daughters." "A piece with the fame title is entered again, May 8, 1605; and again Nov. 26, 1607. See the extracts from thefe Entries at the end of the Prefaces, &c. Vol. II. From The Mirror of Magifirates, 1587, Shakspeare has, however, taken the hint for the behaviour of the Steward, and the reply of Cordelia to her father concerning her future marriage. The epifode of Glofter and his fons must have been borrowed from Sidney's Arcadia, as I have not found the leaft trace of it in any other work. I have referred to these pieces, wherever our author feems more immediately to have followed them, in the courfe of my notes on the play. For the first King Lear, fee likewife Six old Plays on which ShakSpeare founded, &c. publifhed for S. Leacroft, Charing-Cross. The reader will alfo find the ftory of K. Lear, in the second book and 10th canto, of Spenfer's Fairy Queen, and in the 15th chapter of the third book of Warner's Albion's England, 1602. The whole of this play, however, could not have been written till after 1603. Harfnet's pamphlet to which it contains fo many references, (as will appear in the notes,) was not published till that year. STEEVENS. Camden, in his Remains, (p. 306. ed. 1674,) tells a fimilar ftory to this of Leir or Lear, of Ina king of the Weft Saxons; which, if the thing ever happened, probably was the real origin of the fable. See under the head of Wife Speeches. PERCY. The story told by Camden in his Remaines, 4to. 1605, is this: "Ina, king of Weft Saxons, had three daughters, of whom upon a time he demanded whether they did love him, and fo would do during their lives, above all others: the two elder fware deeply they would; the youngeft, but the wifeft, told her father flatly, without flattery, that albeit the did love, honour, and reverence him, and fo would whilft fhe lived, as much as nature and daughterly dutie at the uttermoft could expect, yet he did think that one day it would come to paffe that he should affect another more fervently, meaning her husband, when he were married; who being made one flesh with her, as God by commandement had told, and nature had taught her, fhe was to cleave faft to, forfaking father and mother, kiffe and kinne. [Anonymous.] One referreth this to the daughters of King Leir." It is, I think, more probable that Shakspeare had this paffage in his thoughts, when he wrote Cordelia's reply concerning her future marriage, than The Mirrour for Magiftrates, as Camden's book was published recently before he appears to have compofed this play, and that portion of it which is entitled Wife Speeches, where the foregoing paffage is found, furnished him with a hint in Coriolanus. The ftory of King Leir and his three daughters was originally told by Geoffrey of Monmouth, from whom Holinshed transcribed it; and in his Chronicle Shakspeare had certainly read it, as it occurs not far from that of Cymbeline; though the old play on the fame fubject probably first fuggefted to him the idea of making it the ground-work of a tragedy. Geoffrey of Monmouth fays, that Leir, who was the eldest fon of Bladud, "nobly governed his country for fixty years." According to that hiftorian, he died about 800 years before the birth of Chrift. The name of Leir's youngest daughter, which in Geoffrey's history, in Holinfhed, The Mirrour for Magiftrates, and the old anonymous play, is Cordeilla, Cordila, or Cordella, Shakspeare found foftened into Cordelia by Spenfer in his Second Book, Canto X. The names of Edgar and Edmund were probably fuggefted by Holinfhed. See his Chronicle, Vol. I. p. 122: “ Edgar, the fon of Edmund, brother of Athelftane," &c. This tragedy, I believe, was written in 1605. See An Attempt to afcertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, Vol. II. As the episode of Glofter and his fons is undoubtedly formed on the ftory of the blind king of Paphlagonia in Sidney's Arcadia, I fhall fubjoin it, at the end of the play. MALONE. Lear, King of Britain. King of France. Duke of Burgundy. Duke of Cornwall. Duke of Albany. Earl of Glofter. Edgar, Son to Glofter. Edmund, Baftard Son to Glofter. Old Man, Tenant to Glofter. Fool. Ofwald, Steward to Goneril. An Officer, employed by Edmund. Servants to Cornwall. Knights attending on the King, Officers, Messengers, Soldiers, and Attendants. SCENE, Britain. KING LEAR. ACT I. SCENE 1. A Room of State in King Lear's Palace. Enter KENT, GLOSTER, and EDMUND. KENT. I thought, the king had more affected the duke of Albany, than Cornwall. 2 GLO. It did always feem fo to us: but now, in the divifion of the kingdom,' it appears not which of the dukes he values moft; for equalities are fo weighed, that curiofity in neither 3 can make choice of either's moiety.4 I in the divifion of the kingdom,] There is something of obfcurity or inaccuracy in this preparatory fcene. The king has already divided his kingdom, and yet when he enters he examines his daughters, to discover in what proportions he should divide it. Perhaps Kent and Glofter only were privy to his design, which he ftill kept in his own hands, to be changed or performed as subsequent reafons fhould determine him. JOHNSON. 2 -equalities-] So, the firft quartos; the folio readsqualities. JOHNSON. Either may ferve; but of the former I find an inftance in the Flower of Friendship, 1568: "After this match made, and equalities confidered," &c. STEEVENS. 3 that curiofity in neither-] Curiofity, for exactest scrutiny. The fenfe of the whole fentence is, The qualities and properties of the feveral divifions are so weighed and balanced against one another, that the exacteft fcrutiny could not determine in preferring one fhare to the other. WARBURTON. KENT. Is not this your fon, my lord? GLO. His breeding, fir, hath been at my charge: I have so often blufhed to acknowledge him, that now I am brazed to it. KENT. I cannot conceive you. GLO. Sir, this young fellow's mother could: whereupon the grew round-wombed; and had, indeed, fir, a fon for her cradle, ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault? KENT. I cannot with the fault undone, the iffue of it being fo proper.5 GLO. But I have, fir, a fon by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my Curiofity is fcrupuloufnefs, or captioufnefs. So, in The Taming of the Shrew, A&t IV. fc. iv: "For curious I cannot be with you." STEEVENS. See Timon of Athens, A& IV. fc. iii; and the present tragedy, p. 333, n. 1. MALONE. of either's moiety.] The ftrict sense of the word moiety is half, one of two equal parts; but Shakspeare commonly uses it for any part or divifion: "Methinks my moiety north from Burton here, "In quantity equals not one of yours:" and here the divifion was into three parts. STEEVENS. Heywood likewife ufes the word moiety as fynonymous to any part or portion. "I would unwillingly part with the greatest moiety of my own means and fortunes." Hiftory of Women, 1624. See Vol. XI. p. 322, n. 1. MALONE. 5-being fo proper.] i. e. handfome. See Vol. VII. p. 248, n. 1. MALONE. 6 fome year elder than this,] Some year, is an expreffion ufed when we fpeak indefinitely. STEEVENS. I do not agree with Mr. Steevens that fome year is an expreffion ufed when we fpeak indefinitely. I believe it means about a year; and accordingly Edmund fays, in the 333d page"For that I am fome twelve or fourteen moonshines 'Lag of a brother." M. MASON. |