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Gon. This is mere practice, Gloster: By the law of arms, thou waft not bound to anfwer An unknown oppofite; thou art not vanquifi'd, But cozen'd and beguil'd.

Alb. Shut your mouth, dame,

Or with this paper shall I stop it:-Hold, fir Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil:No tearing, lady; I perceive, you know it.

[Gives the letter to Edmund.

Gon. Say, if I do; the laws are mine, not thine: Who fhall arraign me for 't?

Alb. Monster, know'ft thou this paper?

Gon. Afk me not what I know.

[Exit Gon. Alb. Go after her; she's defperate; govern her. Edm. What you have charg'd me with, that I have done;

And more, much more: the time will bring it out;
'Tis paft, and fo am I: But what art thou,
That haft this fortune on me? If thou art noble,
I do forgive thee.

Edg. Let us exchange charity.

I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;
If more, the more thou haft wrong'd me.
My name is Edgar, and thy father's fon.
The gods are just, and of our pleafant vices
Make instruments to scourge us :

The dark and vicious place where thee he got,
Coft him his eyes.

Edm. Thou hast spoken right, "tis true;
The wheel is come full circle; I am here.
Alb. Methought, thy very gait did prophefy
A royal nobleness :-I must embrace thee:
Let forrow split my heart, if ever I

Did hate thee, or thy father!

Edg. Worthy prince, I know it.

Alb. Where have you hid yourself?

Told him my pilgrimage: But his flaw'd heart,
(Alack, too weak the conflict to fupport)
"Twixt two extremes of pathon, joy, and grief,
Burft fmilingly.

Edm. This speech of yours hath mov'd me, And shall, perchance, do good: but ípeak you on: You look as you had fomething more to tay.

Alb. If there be more, more woeful, hold ith: For I am almost ready to difiolve, Hearing of this.

Edg. This would have seem'd a period
To fuch as love not fourow; but, another;
To amplify too-much, would make much more,
And top extremity:-

Whilft I was big in clamour, came there in a man,
Who having feen me in my worft eftate,
Shunn'd my abhorr'd fociety; but then, finding
Who 'twas that so endur'd, with his strong aras
He faften'd on my neck, and bellow'd cut
As he'd burst heaven; threw him on my father;
Told the most piteous tale of Lear and bim,
That ever ear receiv'd: which in recount.g
His grief grew puiffant, and the ftrings of life
Began to crack: Twice then the trumpet founded,
And there I left him tranc'd.

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Alb. Produce the bodies, be they alive or dead[Goneril and Regan's bodie brong

How have you known the miferies of your father? This judgment of the heavens, that makes

Edg. By nurfing them, my lord. Litt a brief

tale;

And, when 'tis told, O, that my heart would burft!-
The bloody proclamation to efcape,

That follow'd me fo near, (O our lives' sweetness!
That we the pain of death would hourly bear,
Rather than die at once!) taught me to shift
Into a mad-man's rags; to affume a femblance
That very dogs difdain'd: and in this habit
Met I my father with his bleeding rings; -

Their precious stones new loft; became his guide,
Led him, begg'd for him, fav'd him from defpair;
Never (O fault!) reveal'd myself unto him,
Until fome half-hour paft, when I was arm'd,
Not fure, though hoping, of this good fuccess,
I afk'd his bleffing, and from first to last

tremble, Touches us not with pity. Edg. Here comes Kent, fir.

Alb. O! is this he? The time will not allow

The compliment which very manners urge.
Kent. I am come

To bid my king and mafter aye good night;
Is he not here?

Alb. Great thing of us forget!
Speak, Edmund, where's the king? and where

Cordelia?

See'ft thou this object, Kent?

Kent. Alack, why thus?

Edm. Yet Edmund was belov'd:

The one the other poison'd for my fake, And after flew herfelf.

The fenfe may probably be this: This would have feemed a period to fuch as leve not farrow: Fanother, i. e. but I must add another, i. e. another period, another kind of concluion to my Bam. fuch as will increase the horrors of what has been already told.

!

Alb. Even fo. Cover their faces.

Jear. He's a good fellow, I can tell you that; Fdm. I pant for life: -Some good I mean to do, He'll strike, and quickly too: He's dead and

Defpight of mine own nature. Quickly fend,
Be brief in it, to the caftle; for my writ
Is on the life of Lear, and on Cordelia :-
Nay, fend in time.

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Edg. Hafte thee for thy life. [Exit Mefferger.
Edm. He hath commiffion from thy wife and me
To hang Cordelia in the prifon, and
To lay the blame upon her own despair,
That the fordid herfelf.

Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence
awhile.
[Edmund is bone off.

Enter Lear, with Cordelia dead in bis arms. Lear. Howl, howl, howl, howl! -O, you are men of stones;

Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them fo That heaven's vault should crack:-O, the is gone

for ever!

I know when one is dead, and when one lives; She's dead as earth :-Lend me a looking-glats; If that her breath will mitt or Rain the ftone, Why, then the lives.

Kent. Is this the promis'd end?

Edg. Or image of that horror?

Alb. Fall, and ceafe2!

Lear. This feather ftirs; the lives! if it be fo,

It is a chance that does redeem all forrows
That ever I have felt.

Kent. O my good master!

Lear. Pr'ythee, away.

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Alb. He knows not what he says; and vain it is

That we present us to him.
Edg. Very bootlefs.

Enter a Messenger.

Mof. Edmund is dead, my lord.

Alb. That 's but a trifle here.

You lords, and noble friends, know our intent.
What comfort to this great decay 5 may come,
Shall be apply'd: For us, we will refign,
During the life of this old majesty,
To him our absolute power:-You, to your rights;
[To Edgar.
With boot 6, and fuch addition as your honours
Have more than merited. All friends shall tafte
The wages of their virtue, and all foes

The cup of their defervings.-O, fee, see!

[life.

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[Kneeling. Look there, look there!

Edg. He faints; -My lord, my lord, Kent. Break, heart; I pr'ythee, break! Edg. Look up, my lord.

[hates him,

Kent. Vex not his ghoft: O, let him pass! he

Edz. 'Tis noble Kent, your friend.

Lear. A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!

I might have fav'd her; now the's gone for ever!

Cordelia, Cordelia, stay a little. Ha!

That would upon the rack of this tough 9 world

What is't thou fay'st-Her voice was ever foft, Stretch him out longer.

Gentle, and low; an excellent thing in woman:

I kill'd the flave that was a hanging thee.

Gent. 'Tis true, my lords, he did.
Lear. Did I not, fellow ?

[chion

I have feen the day, with my good biting faulI would have made them skip: I am old now, And these fame croffes fpoil me.-Who are you? Mine eyes are none o' the best :-I'll tell you ftraight.

Kent. If fortune brag of two the lov'd and hated, One of them we behold.

Lear. This is a dull fight: Are you not Kent?
Kent. The fame; your fervant Kent:

Where is your fervant Caius?

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Alb. Bear them from hence.--Our present business Is general woe. Friends of my foul, you twain [To Kent, and Edgar.

Rule in this realm, and the gor'd ftate fustain.
Kent. I have a journey, fir, shortly to go;
My mafter calls, and 1 muft not fay, no.

Alb. The weight of this fad time we must obey; Speak what we feel, not what we ought to fay. The oldest hath borne moit: we that are young, Shall never fee fo much, nor live fo long.

[Exeunt, with a dead march.

To fordo fignifies to destroy, 2 Mr. Steevens affixes the following meaning to this exclamation of Albany: "He is looking with attention on the pains employed by Lear to recover his child, and knows to what miferies he mutt furvive, when he finds them to be ineffectual. Having these images present to his eyes and imagination, he cries out, Rather fall, and coafe to be, at once, than continue in existence only to be wretched." 3 Decay for misfortunes. 4 That is, have anticipated their own

doom.

5 i. e, to this piece of decay'd royalty, this ruin'd majesty. 6 With advantage, with increase. 7 Mr. Steevens remarks, that this is an expreffion of tenderness for his dead Cordelia, (not his fool, as forme have thought) on whose lips he is still intent, and dies away while he is searching for life there. 8 The Rev. Dr. J. Warton judicioufly obferves, that the fwelling and heaving of the heart is defcribed by this most expressive circumftance, 9 i. e. this obdurate, rigid world,

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CHORUS, Page, Boy to Paris, an Officer, an Apothecary.

Citizens of Verona, feveral Men and Women, Relations to both Houses; Maskers, Guards, Watch and

other Attendants.

The SCENE, in the beginning of the fifth Act, is in Mantua; during all the rest of the Play, at Verona.

PROL

TWO boybo'ds, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new matiny,
Where civil blood makes civil bands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-croft lovers take their life;
Woofe mijidventur'd piteous overthrotus

Da, with their death, bury their parents' ftrife.

GUE.

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuarce of their parents' rage,
Which, but their childrens' end, nought could remove,

Is now the two hours' traffick of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall ftrive to mend.

SCENE

I.

A STREET.

ACT

Enter Sampson and Gregory, two fervants of Capulet. REGORY, o' my word, we'll not carry coals 2.

Sam.

G

Greg. No, for then we should be colliers.
Sam. I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw.
Greg. Ay, while you live, draw your neck out
of the collar.

Sam. I strike quickly, being mov'd.

Greg. But thou art not quickly mov'd to strike.

I.

Sam. A dog of the house of Montague moves me. Greg. To move, is-to stir; and to be valiant, is to stand to it; therefore, if thou art mov'd, thou runn'st away.

Sam. A dog of that house shall move, me to stand: I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's.

Greg. That shews thee a weak flave; for the weakest goes to the wall.

Sam. True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall:therefore I will push Montague's men from the wall, and thruft his maids to the wall.

The fstory on which this play is founded, is related as a true one in Girolamo de la Corte's History

of Verona, and was well known to the English poets before the time of Shakspeare. burton observes, that this was a phrafe formerly in use to fignify the bearing injuries.

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2 Dr. War

Brig

:

Greg. The quarrel is between our masters, and Down with the Capulets! down with the Montagues!

us their mев.

Sam. 'Tis all one, I will shew myself a tyrant. when I have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the maids; I will cut off their heads.

Greg. The heads of the maids ?

Sam. Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it in what sense thou wilt.

Greg. They must take it in sense, that feel it. Sam. Me they shall feel, while I am able to ftand: and, 'tis known, I am a pretty piece of flesh.

Greg. 'Tis well, thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been Poor John. Draw thy tool; here comes of the house of the Montagues.

Enter Abram and Balthafar.

Sam. My naked weapon is out; quarrel, I will back thee.

Greg. How? turn thy back, and run?

Sam. Fear me not.

Greg. No, marry; I fear thee !

Sam. Let us take the law of our fides; let them begin.

Greg. I will frown, as I pass by; and let them take it as they lift.

Sam. Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it. Alr. Do you bite your thumb at us, fir?

Sam. I do bite my thumb, fir.

Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, fir?
Sam. Is the law on our fide, if I fay-ay?
Greg. No.

Sam. No, fir, I do not bite my thumb at you, fir; but I bite my thumb, fir.

Greg. Do you quarrel, fir?

Abr. Quarrel, fir? no, fir.

Enter old Capulet, in bis gown; and Lady Capult Cap. What noise is this?--Give me my Ling fwora 2, ho!

La. Cap. A crutch, a crutch!-Why call you for a fword?

Cap. My fword, I fay!-old Montague is come, And flourishes his blade in spight of me.

Enter old Montague, and Lady Montague. Mon. Thou villain, Capulet, Hold me out, let me go.

La. Mon. Thou shalt not ftir one foot to feck a foe.

Enter Prince, with Attendants.

Prin. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbour-ftained steel,-
Will they not hear?-what ho! you men, yoz

beafts,

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains iffuing from your vesas,
On pain of torture, from those bloody haras
Throw your mif-temper'd3 weapons to the ground,
And hear the fentence of your moved prince-
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,

Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our ftreets;
And made Verona's ancient citizens

Caft by their grave beseeming ornaments,
To wield old partizans, in hands as old,
Cankred with peace, to part your cankred hate:
If ever you disturb our streets again,

Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace,
For this time, all the rest depart away :
You, Capulet, shall go along with me;

Sam. If you do, fir, I am for you; I serve as And, Montague, come you this afternoon,

good a man as you.

Abr. No better.

Sam. Well, fir.

Enter Benvolio.

Greg. Say-better; here comes one of my maf

ter's kinsmen.

Sam. Yes, better, fir.

Abr. You lye.

To know our further pleasure in this cafe,
To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.
Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.
[Exeunt Prince, Cupulet, St.

Mon. Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach:
Speak, nephew, were you by, when it began
Ben. Here were the fervants of your adverfary,
And yours, close fighting ere I did approach:
I drew to part them; in the inftant came
The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepar'd;
Which, as he breath'd defiance to my ears,
He fwung about his head, and cut the winds,
Who nothing hurt withal, hiss'd him in scorn:
Tyb. What, art thou drawn among these heart- While we were interchanging thrufts and blows,
lefs hinds?

ber thy swashing blow.

Sam. Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remem-
[They fight.
Ben. Part, fools; put up your swords;
You know not what you do.
Enter Tybalt.

Turn thee, Benyolio, look upon thy death.

Ben. I do but keep the peace; put up thy sword, Or manage it to part these men with me.

Tyb. What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate
the word,

As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:
Have at thee, coward.

Came more and more, and fought on part and par 'Till the prince came, who parted either part

La. Mon. O, where is Romeo !-law you him
to-day?

Right glad I am, he was not at this fray.
Ben. Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd fun
Peer'd forth the golden window of the eart,
A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;
Where-underneath the grove of fycamour,

Enter three or four Citizens, with clubs.
Cir. Clubs, bills, and partizans! strike! beat That westward rooteth from the city' fide-
them down!
So early walking did I see your fon :

To fwafa Teems to have meant to be a bully, to be noisily valiant. fword ufed in war, which was fometimes wielded with both hands. angry weapons.

2 The long fuord was the 3 Mis-temper'd weapons are

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