i

What will, hap more to night; safe scape the King!
Lurk, lurk,-

[Exit Edgar.

SCENE changes to Glofter's Castle.

Enter Cornwall, Regan, Gonerill, Edmund and
Servants.

Corn.

P

Oft fpeedily to my Lord your husband, fhew him this letter; the army of France is landed; feek out the traitor Glo'fter.

Reg. Hang him inftantly.

Gon. Pluck out his eyes.

Corn. Leave him to my difpleafure. Edmund, keep you our fifter company; the revenges, we are bound to take upon your traiterous father, are not fit for your beholding. Advife the Duke, where you are going, to a molt feftinate preparation; we are bound to the like. Our Posts fhall be fwift, and intelligent betwixt us. Farewel, dear fifter; farewel, my lord of Gl'fler.

Enter Steward.

How now? where's the King?

Stew. My Lord of Glo'fter hath convey'd him hence. Some five or fix and thirty of his knights,

Hot Queftrifts after him, met him at gate;

Who with fome other of the Lords dependants,
Are gone with him tow'rd Dover; where they boaft
To have well armed friends.

Corn. Get horfes for your mistress.

Gon. Farewel, fweet Lord, and fifter.

[Exeunt Gon. and Edm.

Corn. Edmund, farewel :-go feek the traitor Glofter;

Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us:
Though well we may not pafs upon his life
Without the form of justice; yet our power
Shall do a court'fy to our wrath, which men
May blame, but not control.

VOL. VI.

D

Enter

Enter Glo'ster, brought in by Servants.

Who's there? the traitor?

Reg. Ungrateful fox! 'tis he.

Corn. Bind faft his corky arms.

[confider.

Glo. What mean your Graces? Good my Friends,

You are my Guests: Do me no foul play, friends.

Corn. Bind him, I say.

[They bind him.

Reg. Hard, hard: O filthy traitor !

Glo. Unmerciful Lady as you are! I'm none.

Corn. To this chair bind him. Villain, thou shalt find

Glo. By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done

To pluck me by the beard.

Reg. So white, and such a traitor?

Glo. Naughty lady,

These hairs, which thou doft ravish from my chin,
Will quicken and accuse thee; I'm your Host;
With robber's hands, my hospitable favours

You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?

Corn. Come, Sir, what letters had you late from

France?

Reg. Be fimple answerer, for we know the truth.

Corn. And what confed'racy have you with the traitors,

Late footed in the kingdom?

Reg. To whose hands

Have you fent the lunatick Kingi fpeak.

Glo. I have a letter guessingly set down,

Which came from one that's of a neutral heart,

And not from one oppos'd.

Corn. Cunning

Reg. And false.

Corn. Where haft thou sent the King?

Glo. To Dover.

Reg. Wherefore to Dover?

Waft thou not charg'd, at peril

Corn. Wherefore to Dover? let him first answer that. Glo. I am ty'd to th' stake, and I must stand the course.

Reg. Wherefore to Dover?

Glo. Because I would not fee thy cruel nails

Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce fifter

In his anointed flesh stick boarish phangs.
The sea, with such a storm as his bare head
In hell-black night indur'd, would have buoy'd up,

And quench'd the stelled fires: (34)

Yet poor old heart, he help'd the heav'ns to rain.
If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time,
Thou should'st have said, "good porter, turn the key;"
All cruels else subscrib'd; but I shall fee
The winged vengeance overtake such children.

Corn. See't shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair. Upon these eyes of thine, I'll fet my foot.

[Glo'fter is held down, while Cornwall treads out one

of his eyes.

Glo. He that will think to live 'till he be old,
Give me some help. - O cruel! O you gods!
Reg. One fide will mock another; th' other too.
Corn. If you see vengeance

Serv. Hold your hand, my Lord:
I've ferv'd you, ever fince I was a child;
But better service have I never done you,
Than now to bid you hold.

Reg. How now, you dog?

Serv. If you did wear a beard upon your chin, I'd shake it on this quarrel. What do you mean?

(34) And quench'd the steeled fires.] The sagacious editors have all blunder'd in this word without the least variation: It is indifputable, that the author must have wrote,

And quench'd the stelled fires.

i. e. the starry fires; an adjective coin'd from Stella. The Romans formed both a participle active, and adjective paffive from this word.

extemplo, calo stellante, ferena

Sidera refpondent in aqua radiantia mundi.

Hinc illum Corythi Tyrrhena ab sede profectum

Aurea nunc folio stellantis regia cæli

Accipit;

-atque illi stellatus Jafpide fuiva

Enfis erat.

Lucret. 1. 4.

Virg. Æn. 7.

Idem, Æn. 4.

I am aware, that neither ftellans nor ftellatus are entirely adequate in sense, or ufage, to ftelled in our author. As the word, however, is artly deriv'd, I hope, Shakespeare will stand protected by Horace's pre

cept;

Dixeris egregie, notum fi callida verbum

Reddiderit junctura novum.

D 2

Corn:

1

Corn. My villain!
Serv. Nay then come on, and take the chance of anger.
[Fight; in the Scuffle Cornwall is wounded.
Reg. Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus ?
[Kills him.

Serv. Oh, I am flain-my Lord, you have one eye left
To fee some mischief on him. Oh

[Dies.

Corn. Left it see more, prevent it; out, vile gelly;
Where is thy lustre now? [Treads out the other eye.
Glo. All dark and comfortless-where's my son Edmund?
Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature
To quit this horrid act.

Reg. Out, treacherous villain,

Thou call'it on him that hates thee: It was he,
That made the overture of thy treasons to us:
Who is too good to pity thee.

Glo. O my follies!

Then Edgar was abus'd. Kind gods, forgive
Me that, and profper him!

Reg. Go thrust him out

At gates, and let him smell his way to Dover.

How is't, my lord how look you?

[Ex. with Glo'ster.

Corn. I have receiv'd a hurt; follow me, Lady.

Turn out that eyeless villain; throw this slave
Upon the dunghil-Regan, I bleed apace.
Untimely comes this hurt. Give me your arm.

[Exit Corn. led by Regan.

1st. Serv. I'll never care what wickedness I do, (35) If this man come to good.

24. Serv. If the live long,
And, in the end, meet the old course of death,
Women will all turn monsters.

1st. Serv. Let's follow the old Earl, and get the bedlam

(35) I'll never care what wickedness I do,] This short dialogue I have inferted from the old quarto, because I think it full of nature. Servants, in any house, could hardly see such a barbarity committed on their master, without reflections of pity; and the vengeance that they prefume must overtake the actors of it, is a sentiment and doctrine well worthy of the stage.

To

To lead him where he would; his roguifh madness
Allows itself to any thing.

2d.Serv. Go thou; l'li fetch fome flax and whites of eggs T' apply to's bleeding face. Now, heaven help him! [Exeunt feverally.

Y

ACT IV.

SCENE, An open Country.

Enter Edgar.

ET better thus, and known to be contemn'd,
Than fill contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst (36)

The lowest, moft dejected thing of fortune,

Stands ftill in efperance; lives not in fear.
The lamentable change is from the best;

The worst returns to laughter. Welcome then,
Thou unfubftantial air, that I embrace!

The wretch, that thou haft blown unto the worst,
Owes nothing to thy blasts.

Enter Glo'fter, led by an old man.

But who comes here?

My father poorly led? World, world, O world! (37)

(36)

To be worst,

But

The lowest, moft dejected thing of fortune,] This fentiment is fo much a-kin to a paffage in Ovid, that it feems to be copied directly from it, -Fortuna miferrima tuta eft.;

Nam timor events deterioris abeft.

Epift. 2. lib. 2. ex Ponto.

(37) -World, world, O world! But that thy ftrange mutations make us hate thee,] The reading of this paffage, as it has thus food in all the editions, has been endeavour'd to be explain'd feverally into a meaning; but not fatisfactorily. Mr. Pope's mock-reasoning upon it has alre dy een rallied in print, so I forbear to revive it: and the gentleman, who then advanced a comment of his own upon the paffage, has fince come over to my emendation.

D 3