b

I'm sure of that: and at her late being here
She gave strange ciliads and most speaking looks
To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom.—
Osw. I, madam ?

REG. I speak in understanding; you are, I know 't;

Therefore I do advise you, take this note:
My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd;
And more convenient is he for my hand
Than for your lady's :-you may gather more.
If you do find him, pray you, give him this;
And when your mistress hears thus much from you,
pray, desire her call her wisdom to her.
So, fare you well.

I

GLO.
Methinks you're better spoken.
EDG. Come on, sir; here's the place:-stand
still.--How fearful

And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low !
The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air,
Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire,-dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:
The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,
Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge,
That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles† chafes,
Cannot be heard so high.-I'll look no more,
brain turn, and the deficient sight

Lest my
Topple down headlong.

GLO.
Set me where you stand.
EDG. Give me your hand:-you are now within
a foot

Of the extreme verge: for all beneath the moon
Would I not leap upright.

GLO.

Let

go my hand.

Here, friend, 's another purse; in it a jewel

Well worth a poor man's taking fairies and gods,

Prosper it with thee! Go thou further off;

Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.
EDG. Now fare you well, good sir.

GLO.

[Seems to go. With all my heart. EDG. Why I do trifle thus with his despair Is done to cure it.

GLO.

O, you mighty gods!

This world I do renounce; and, in your sights, Shake patiently my great affliction off:

If I could bear it longer, and not fall

To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
My snuff and loathed part of nature should

Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!—
Now, fellow, fare thee well.

EDG.

Gone, sir :-farewell.[GLOUCESTER leaps, and falls along. And yet I know not how conceit may rob The treasury of life, when life itself

Yields to the theft: had he been where he thought, By this, had thought been past.-Alive or dead? Ho, you sir! friend!-Hear you, sir?-speak !— Thus might he pass indeed :-yet he revives.What are you, sir?

GLO.

Away, and let me die.

EDG. Hadst thou been aught but gossamer,

Thou 'd'st shiver'd like an egg: but thou dost breathe;

Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound!

Ten masts at each make not the altitude,
Which thou hast perpendicularly fell!
Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again.
GLO. But have I fall'n, or no?

EDG. From the dread summit of this chalky bourn! a

Look up a-height;-the shrill-gorg'd lark so far Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.

GLO. Alack, I have no eyes.

Is wretchedness depriv'd that benefit,

To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort,
When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage,
And frustrate his proud will.

EDG.

Give me your arm :

Up-so.-How is 't? Feel you your legs? You

LEAR. Pass.

GLO. I know that voice.

LEAR. Ha! Goneril!-with a white beard!They flattered me like a dog; and told me I had * white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there. To say ay, and no, to every thing that I said!-Ay and no too was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter; when the thunder would not peace at my bidding, there I found 'em, there I smelt 'em out. Go to, they are not men o' their words: they told me I was every thing; 't is a lie ;-I am not ague-proof. [ber:

GLO. The trick of that voice I do well rememIs 't not the king?

LEAR.

Ay, every inch a king!

When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.
I pardon that man's life.—What was thy cause?—
Adultery?—

Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No:
The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly
Does lecher in my sight.

Let copulation thrive, for Gloster's bastard son
Was kinder to his father than my daughters
Got 'tween the lawful sheets.

To 't, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers.-
Behold yond simpering dame,

Whose face between her forks presages snow;
That minces virtue, and does shake the head
To hear of pleasure's name ;—

The fitchew, nor the soiled horse, goes to 't
With a more riotous appetite.
Down from the waist they are Centaurs,
Though women all above:

But to the girdle do the gods inherit,

Beneath is all the fiends'; there's hell, there's darkness, there is the sulphurous pit, burning, scalding, stench, consumption !-fie, fie, fie! pah, pah! Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, tot sweeten my imagination: there's money for thee.

GLO. O, let me kiss that hand!

LEAR. Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.

GLO. O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world

Shall so wear out to nought.-Dost thou know me?

LEAR. I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid, I'll not love.-Read thou this challenge; mark but the penning of it.

(*) First folio, thy.

of Gloucester.

(t) First folio, great.

e Plate sin with gold,-] A correction by Pope and Theobald; the old text having, "Place sinnes." This passage down to, "To seal the accuser's lips," inclusive, is only in the folio. dable 'em Qualify them.

LEAR. I will die bravely, like a † bridegroom: what!

I will be jovial; come, come; I am a king,
My masters, know you that!

GENT. You are a royal one, and we obey you. LEAR. Then there's life in 't. Nay § an you get it, you shall get it by running. Sa, sa, sa, sa! [Exit, running; Attendants follow. GENT. A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch,

Past speaking of in a king!-Thou hast one|| daughter,

Who redeems nature from the general curse
Which twain have brought her to.

EDG. Hail, gentle sir.

GENT. Sir, speed you: what's your will?
EDG. Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward?
GENT. Most sure and vulgar, every one hears
that,

Which can distinguish sound.
EDG.

But, by your favour, How near's the other army?

GENT. Near and on speedy foot; the main

A proclaim'd prize! Most happy! That eyeless head of thine was first fram'd flesh To raise my fortunes.-Thou old unhappy traitor, Briefly thyself remember :-the sword is out That must destroy thee.

GLO.

Now let thy friendly hand Put strength enough to it. [EDGAR interposes. Osw. Wherefore, bold peasant, Dar'st thou support a publish'd traitor? Hence! Lest that the infection of his fortune take Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.

EDG. Chill not let go, zir, without vurther 'casion.

Osw. Let go, slave, or thou diest !

EDG. Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor volk pass. An chud ha' been zwagger'd out of my life, 't would not ha' been zo long as 'tis by a vortnight.-Nay, come not near th' old man; keep out, che vor ye, or ise try whether your costard or my ballow be the harder: chill be plain with you.

Osw. Out, dunghill!

f

EDG. Chill pick your teeth, zir: come; no matter vor your foins.g

(+) First folio inserts, smugge. (§) First folio, Come.

C

(1) First folio, a.

a This a good block :-] Upon the king's saying, I will preach to thee, the poet seems to have meant him to pull off his hat, and keep turning it and feeling it, in the attitude of one of the preachers of those times (whom I have seen so represented in ancient prints), till the idea of felt, which the good hat or block was made of, raises the stratagem in his brain of sho ing a troop of horse with a subst ince soft as that which he held and moulded between his hands. This makes him start from his preachment.' -STREVENS.

bkill, kill! &c.] This was the ancient cry of assault in the English army. Shakespeare introduces it again in "Coriolanus," Act V. Sc. 5; when the conspirators attack Coriolanus.

[They fight; and EDGAR fells him.

Ay, and laying autumn's dust. GENT. Omitted in the folio.

d

Good sir,-]

the main descry Stands on the hourly thought.]

The meaning appears to be, the sight of the main body is expected hourly; but the expression is as harsh and disagreeable as the speaker's "Most sure and vulgar" just before.

et would not ha' been zo long as 't is by a vortnight.-] Steevens has remarked, but the reason is unexplained, that when our ancient writers have occasion to introduce a rustic, they commonly allot him this Somersetshire dialect.

fballow-] In some of the provincial dialects, ballow means a pole or staff.

foins.] Thrusts.