Edmund is a good deal taller
than Goneril, and must stoop to be kissed.
4. _Self-cover'd_.
At IV. ii. 59 Albany, horrified at the passions of anger, hate, and
contempt expressed in his wife's face, breaks out:
See thyself, devil!
Proper deformity seems not in the fiend
So horrid as in woman.
_Gon._ O vain fool!
_Alb._ Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame,
Be-monster not thy feature. Were't my fitness
To let these hands obey my blood,
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.
The passage has been much discussed, mainly because of the strange
expression 'self-cover'd,' for which of course emendations have been
proposed. The general meaning is clear. Albany tells his wife that she
is a devil in a woman's shape, and warns her not to cast off that shape
by be-monstering her feature (appearance), since it is this shape alone
that protects her from his wrath. Almost all commentators go astray
because they imagine that, in the words 'thou changed and self-cover'd
thing,' Albany is speaking to Goneril as a _woman_ who has been changed
into a fiend.
Pages:
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670