to France the spies and speculations
     Intelligent of our state.

(b) The words ‘and shall find time,’ etc., have been much discussed.  Some have thought that they are detached phrases from the letter which Kent is reading:  but Kent has just implied by his address to the sun that he has no light to read the letter by.[278] It has also been suggested that the anacoluthon is meant to represent Kent’s sleepiness, which prevents him from finishing the sentence, and induces him to dismiss his thoughts and yield to his drowsiness.  But I remember nothing like this elsewhere in Shakespeare, and it seems much more probable that the passage is corrupt, perhaps from the loss of a line containing words like ‘to rescue us’ before ‘From this enormous state’ (with ‘state’ cf. ‘our state’ in the lines quoted above).

When we reach III. i. we find that Kent has now read the letter; he knows that a force is coming from France and indeed has already ’secret feet’ in some of the harbours.  So he sends the Gentleman to Dover.

2. The Fool’s Song in II. iv.

At II. iv. 62 Kent asks why the King comes with so small a train.  The Fool answers, in effect, that most of his followers have deserted him because they see that his fortunes are sinking.  He proceeds to advise Kent ironically to follow their example, though he confesses he does not intend to follow it himself.  ’Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it:  but the great one that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after.  When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again:  I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.

     That sir which serves and seeks for gain,
       And follows but for form,
     Will pack when it begins to rain,
       And leave thee in the storm. 
     But I will tarry; the fool will stay,
       And let the wise man fly: 
     The knave turns fool that runs away;
       The fool no knave, perdy.

The last two lines have caused difficulty.  Johnson wanted to read,

     The fool turns knave that runs away,
       The knave no fool, perdy;

i.e. if I ran away, I should prove myself to be a knave and a wise man, but, being a fool, I stay, as no knave or wise man would.  Those who rightly defend the existing reading misunderstand it, I think.  Shakespeare is not pointing out, in ’The knave turns fool that runs away,’ that the wise knave who runs away is really a ’fool with a circumbendibus,’ ‘moral miscalculator as well as moral coward.’  The Fool is referring to his own words, ’I would have none but knaves follow [my advice to desert the King], since a fool gives it’; and the last two lines of his song mean, ’The knave who runs away follows the advice given by a fool; but I, the fool, shall not follow my own advice by turning knave.’