[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 Holinfhed 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." Ac-cording 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 story of the blind king of Paphlagonia in Sidney's Arcadia, I fhall fubjoin it, at the end of the play. MALONE.

KING LEAR.

ACT 1. SCENE I.

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.

I

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 fomething 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 difcover in what proportions he should divide it. Perhaps Kent and Glofter only were privy to his defign, which he ftill kept in his own hands, to be changed or performed as subsequent reafons fhould determine him. JOHNSON.

2

equalities] So, the first 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 scru→ tiny. The fenfe of the whole fentence is, The qualities and properties of the several divifions are fo weighed and balanced against one another, that the exacteft fcrutiny could not determine in preferring one share 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 blushed 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 fhe had a husband for her bed. Do you fmell a fault?

KENT. I cannot wish the fault undone, the iffue of it being fo proper.5

GLO. But I have, fir, a fon by order of law, fome year elder than this," who yet is no dearer in my

Curiofity is fcrupulousness, or captiousness. 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.

4 of either's moiety.] The ftrict fenfe 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, MALONE.

n. 1.

6

fome year elder than this,] Some year, is an expreffion used when we speak indefinitely. STEEVENS.

I do not agree with Mr. Steevens that fome year is an expreffion ufed when we speak 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.

account though this knave came fomewhat faucily into the world before he was fent for, yet was his mother fair; there was good fport at his making, and the whorefon must be acknowledged.Do you know this noble gentleman, Edmund ? EDM. No, my lord.

GLO. My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my honourable friend.

EDM. My fervices to your lordship.

KENT. I muft love you, and fue to know you

better.

EDM. Sir, I fhall ftudy deferving.

GLO. He hath been out nine years, and away he fhall again:-The king is coming.

[Trumpets found within.

Enter LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA, and Attendants.

LEAR. Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Glofter.

GLO. I fhall, my liege.

[Exeunt GLOSTER and EDMUND. LEAR. Mean-time we fhall exprefs our darker purpose."

express our darker purpose.] Darker, for more fecret; not for indirect, oblique. WARBURTON.

This word may admit a further explication. We shall exprefs our darker purpose: that is, we have already made known in fome measure our defire of parting the kingdom; we will now discover what has not been told before, the reasons by which we fhall regulate the partition. This interpretation will justify or palliate the exordial dialogue. JOHNSON,