As to the meaning of the last two lines (a poor conclusion to such a play) I should suppose that ‘the oldest’ is not Lear, but ’the oldest of us,’ viz., Kent, the one survivor of the old generation:  and this is the more probable if there is a reference to him in the preceding lines.  The last words seem to mean, ’We that are young shall never see so much and yet live so long’; i.e. if we suffer so much, we shall not bear it as he has.  If the Qq. ‘have’ is right, the reference is to Lear, Gloster and Kent.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 278:  The ‘beacon’ which he bids approach is not the moon, as Pope supposed.  The moon was up and shining some time ago (II. ii. 35), and lines 1 and 141-2 imply that not much of the night is left.]

[Footnote 279:  ‘Hold’ can mean ‘take’; but the word ‘this’ in line 160 (’Know’st thou this paper?’) favours the idea that the paper is still in Albany’s hand.]

NOTE Z.

SUSPECTED INTERPOLATIONS IN MACBETH.

I have assumed in the text that almost the whole of Macbeth is genuine; and, to avoid the repetition of arguments to be found in other books,[280] I shall leave this opinion unsupported.  But among the passages that have been questioned or rejected there are two which seem to me open to serious doubt.  They are those in which Hecate appears:  viz. the whole of III. v.; and IV. i. 39-43.

These passages have been suspected (1) because they contain stage-directions for two songs which have been found in Middleton’s Witch; (2) because they can be excised without leaving the least trace of their excision; and (3) because they contain lines incongruous with the spirit and atmosphere of the rest of the Witch-scenes:  e.g. III. v. 10 f.: 

                     all you have done
     Hath been but for a wayward son,
     Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do,
     Loves for his own ends, not for you;

and IV. i. 41, 2: 

And now about the cauldron sing,
Like elves and fairies in a ring.

The idea of sexual relation in the first passage, and the trivial daintiness of the second (with which cf.  III. v. 34,

     Hark!  I am call’d; my little spirit, see,
     Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me)

suit Middleton’s Witches quite well, but Shakespeare’s not at all; and it is difficult to believe that, if Shakespeare had meant to introduce a personage supreme over the Witches, he would have made her so unimpressive as this Hecate. (It may be added that the original stage-direction at IV. i. 39, ‘Enter Hecat and the other three Witches,’ is suspicious.)

I doubt if the second and third of these arguments, taken alone, would justify a very serious suspicion of interpolation; but the fact, mentioned under (1), that the play has here been meddled with, trebles their weight.  And it gives some weight to the further fact that these passages resemble one another, and differ from the bulk of the other Witch passages, in being iambic in rhythm. (It must, however, be remembered that, supposing Shakespeare did mean to introduce Hecate, he might naturally use a special rhythm for the parts where she appeared.)