O, look upon me, sir,
And hold your hands in benediction o'er me!
No, sir, you must not kneel,

the poor old King must be supposed either to try to get out of bed, or
actually to do so, or to kneel, or to try to kneel, on the bed.
Fourthly, consider what happens at line 81.

_Doctor._ Desire him to _go in_; trouble him no more
Till further settling.

_Cor._ Will't please your highness _walk?_

_Lear._ You must bear with me;
Pray you now, forget and forgive; I am old and
foolish. [_Exeunt all but Kent and Gentleman_.

If Lear is in a tent containing his bed, why in the world, when the
doctor thinks he can bear no more emotion, is he made to walk out of the
tent? A pretty doctor!

But turn now to the original texts. Of course they say nothing about the
place. The stage-direction at the beginning runs, in the Quartos, 'Enter
Cordelia, Kent, and Doctor;' in the Folio, 'Enter Cordelia, Kent, and
Gentleman.' They differ about the Gentleman and the Doctor, and the
Folio later wrongly gives to the Gentleman the Doctor's speeches as well
as his own. This is a minor matter. But they agree in _making no mention
of Lear_. He is not on the stage at all. Thus Cordelia, and the reader,
can give their whole attention to Kent.

Her conversation with Kent finished, she turns (line 12) to the Doctor
and asks 'How does the King?'[275] The Doctor tells her that Lear is
still asleep, and asks leave to wake him. Cordelia assents and asks if
he is 'arrayed,' which does not mean whether he has a night-gown on, but
whether they have taken away his crown of furrow-weeds, and tended him
duly after his mad wanderings in the fields. The Gentleman says that in
his sleep 'fresh garments' (not a night-gown) have been put on him. The
Doctor then asks Cordelia to be present when her father is waked. She
assents, and the Doctor says, 'Please you, draw near. Louder the music
there.' The next words are Cordelia's, 'O my dear father!'

What has happened? At the words 'is he arrayed?' according to the Folio,
'_Enter Lear in a chair carried by Servants._' The moment of this
entrance, as so often in the original editions, is doubtless too soon.
It should probably come at the words 'Please you, draw near,' which
_may_, as Koppel suggests, be addressed to the bearers. But that the
stage-direction is otherwise right there cannot be a doubt (and that the
Qua