I have given this passage according to the old folio, from which the modern editions have silently departed, for the sake of better numbers, with a degree of insincerity, which, if not sometimes detected and censured, must impair the credit of ancient books. One of the editors, and perhaps only one, knew how much mischief may be done by such clandestine alterations. The quarto agrees with the folio, except that for _reserve thy state_, it gives, _reverse thy doom_, and has _stoops_ instead of _falls to folly_. The meaning of _answer my life my judgment_, is, _Let my life be answerable for my judgment_, or, _I will stake my life on my opinion_.--The reading which, without any right, has possessed all the modern copies is this; --to plainness honour Is bound, when majesty to folly falls. Reserve thy state; with better judgment check This hideous rashness; with my life I answer, Thy youngest daughter, &c. I am inclined to think that _reverse thy doom_ was Shakespeare's first reading, as more apposite to the present occasion, and that he changed it afterwards to _reserve thy state_, which conduces more to the progress of the action. I.i.161 (320,9) The true blank of thine eye] The _blank_ is the _white_ or exact mark at which the arrow is shot. _See better_, says Kent, _and keep me always in your view_. I.i.172 (320,1) strain'd pride] The oldest copy reads _strayed pride_; that is, _pride exorbitant_; pride passing due bounds. I.i.174 (320,3) Which nor our nature, nor our place, can bear;/ Our potency made good] [T: (Which ... bear) ... made good] [Warburton defended "make"] Theobald only inserted the parenthesis; he found _made good_ in the best copy of 1623. Dr. Warburton has very acutely explained and defended the reading that he has chosen, but I am not certain that he has chosen right. If we take the reading of the folio, _our potency_ made _good_, the sense will be less profound indeed, but less intricate, and equally commodious. _As thou hast come with unreasonable pride between the_ sentence _which I had passed, and the_ power _by which I shall execute it_, take thy reward _in another sentence which shall_ make good, _shall establish, shall maintain_, that power. If Dr. Warburton's explanation be chosen, and every reader will wish to choose it, we may better read, Which nor our nature, nor our state can bear, _Or_ potency make good.-- Mr. Davies thinks, that _our potency made good_ relates only to _our place_.--Which our nature cannot bear, nor our _place_, without departure from the _potency_ of that place. This is easy and clear.--Lear, who is characterized as hot, heady, and violent, is, with very just observation of life, made to entangle himself with vows, upon any sudden provocation to vow revenge, and then to plead the obligation of a vow in defence of implacability. I.i.181 (322,4) By Jupiter] Shakespeare makes his Lear too much a mythologist: he had Hecate and Apollo before.