My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talked;
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,

I pray, desire her call her wisdom to her.
So fare you well.

If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,
Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.
Stew. 'Would I could meet him, madam! I
would shew

But in my garments.

Glo.

Methinks you are better spoken.

Edg. Come on, sir; here's the place :-stand
still.-How fearful

And dizzy 't is to cast one's eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air,
Shew 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 yon' tall anchoring bark
Diminished to her cock: her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge,
That on the unnumbered idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high.—I'll look no more!
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
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.

Let go my hand.

SCENE VI

Glo. Here, friend, is 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. [Seems to go. Glo. With all my heart.

Edg. Why I do trifle thus with his despair, Is done to cure it.

[He leaps and falls along. Gone, sir: farewell.-

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, feathers, air,

So many fathom down precipitating, Thou hadst shivered 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 fallen, or no?
Edg.From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.
Look up a-height: the shrill-gorged lark so far
Cannot be seen or heard. Do but look up.
Glo. Alack, I have no eyes.—

Is wretchedness deprived that benefit
To end itself by death? 'T was 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 stand.

Got 'tween the lawful sheets.
To 't, luxury, pell-mell, for I lack soldiers.—
Behold yon' simpering dame,

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

The fitchew, nor the soiléd 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,

who comes here?

Enter LEAR, fantastically dressed up with

flowers.

The safer sense will ne'er accommodate
His master thus.

Lear. No, they cannot touch me for coining: I am the King himself.

Edg. O thou side-piercing sight!

Lear. Nature 's above art in that respect.There's your press-money.-That fellow handles his bow like a crowkeeper: draw me a clothier's yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace: this piece of toasted cheese will do 't.-There's my gauntlet: I'll prove it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills.-O, well flown, bird! i' the clout, i' the clout: hewgh!-Give the word. Edg. Sweet marjoram.

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 everything 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 them, there I smelt them out. Go they are not men o' their words: they told me I was everything: 't is a lie; I am not ague-proof. Glo. The trick of that voice I do well remember:

Is 't not the King?

to,

Lear. Ay, every inch a king:
When I do stare, see how the subject quakes!
I pardon the 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

Through tattered clothes small vices do ap

pear:

Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,

And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks: Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it. None does offend; none, I say, none: I'll able 'em:

Take that of me, my friend, who have the power

To seal the accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes; And, like a scurvy politician, seem

To see the things thou dost not.-Now, now, now, now:

Pull off my boots :-harder, harder: so.

Edg. O, matter and impertinency mixed! Reason in madness!

Lear. If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my

But, by your favour,

How near 's the other army?

Gent. Near, and on speedy foot: the main descry

Stands on the hourly thought,

Edg. I thank you, sir: that's all.

Gent. Though that the queen on special cause is here,

The bounty and the benizen of heaven To boot, and boot!

"Let our reciprocal vows be remembered. You have many opportunities to cut him off: if your will want not, time and place will be fruitfully offered. There is nothing done if he return the conqueror: then am I the prisoner, and his bed my gaol; from the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply the place for your labour.

"Your wife (so I would say) and your affectionate
servant,
"GONERIL."

O undistinguished space of woman's will!
A plot upon her virtuous husband's life;
And the exchange, my brother!-Here, in the

sands,

Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified

Of murderous lechers: and in the mature time,
With this ungracious paper strike the sight
Of the death-practised duke. For him 't is
well,

That of thy death and business I can tell.

[Exit EDGAR, dragging out the body.

Kent.

Pardon me, dear madam : Yet to be known shortens my made intents. My boon I make it that you know me not Till time and I think meet.

Cor. Then be it so, my good lord.-How does
the King?
[To the Physician.
Phys. Madam, sleeps still,
Cor. O you kind gods,

Cure this great breach in his abuséd nature!
The untuned and jarring senses O wind up
Of this child-changéd father!

Phys. So please your majesty
That we may wake the king? he hath slept long.
Cor. Be governed by your knowledge, and
proceed

I' the sway of your own will. Is he arrayed? Gent. Ay, madam; in the heaviness of his sleep We put fresh garments on him.

Phys. Be by, good madam, when we do awake him :

I doubt not of his temperance.
Cor. Very well.

Phys. Please you draw near.-Louder the music there.

Cor. O my dear father! Restoration hang Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss

Repair those violent harms that my two sisters Have in thy reverence made!

Kent.

Kind and dear princess!

Cor. Had you not been their father, these
white flakes

Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face
To be exposed against the warring winds?
To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?
In the most terrible and nimble stroke
Of quick cross-lightning? to watch (poor perdu!)
With this thin helm?-Mine enemy's dog,
Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
Against my fire: and wast thou fain, poor father,
To hovel thee with swine and rogues forlorn,
In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!
'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once
Had not concluded all.-He wakes: speak to him.
Phys. Madam, do you; 't is fittest.

Cor. How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty?

Lear. You do me wrong to take me out o' the

Lear. You are a spirit, I know. When did you die?

Cor. Still, still, far wide!

Phys. He's scarce awake: let him alone awhile. Lear. Where have I been? Where am I?Fair daylight?—

I am mightily abused.—I should e'en die with pity

To see another thus.-I know not what to say: I will not swear these are my hands. Let's see: I feel this pin prick. 'Would I were assured Of my condition.

O, look upon me, sir,

Cor. And hold your hands in benediction o'er me :No, sir, you must not kneel.

His banished son, is with the Earl of Kent
In Germany.

Kent. Report is changeable.

"Tis time to look about: the powers o' the kingdom Approach apace.

Gent. The arbitrement is like to be bloody. Fare you well, sir.

[Exit.

Kent. My point and period will be throughly

wrought,

Or well, or ill, as this day's battle's fought? [Exit.