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Edg. Why, then your other senses grow im- | Look up a-height;-the shrill-gorg'd

perfect

By your eyes' anguish.

Glo. So may it be, indeed : Methinks thy voice is

speak'st

alter'd; and thou

In better phrase, and matter, than thou didst.
Edg. You are much deceiv'd; in nothing am
I chang'd,

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Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:
The fishermen that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice and yon' 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;
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 with-
in a foot

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

Glo. Let go my hand.

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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.

[He leaps and falls along.
Edg. Gone, Sir? farewell.-
And yet I know not how conceit may rob
The treasury of life, when life itselt
Yields to the theft: Had he been where

thought,

he

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 gossomer, feathers, air,

So many fathom down precipitating,

Thou hadst 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 fallen, or no?

far

lark so

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It was some fiend: Therefore, thou happy father,

Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours

Of men's impossibilities, have preserv'd thee.
Glo. I do remember now: henceforth I'll
bear

Affliction, till it do cry out itself,
Enough, enough, and, die. That thing you
speak of,

I took it for a man; often 'twould say,
The fiend, the fiend: he led me to that place.
Edg. Bear free and patient thoughts.-But
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 han. dles his bow like a crow-keeper: 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 flatter'd me like a dog; and told me I had white hairs in my beard, ere the black ones were there. To say aye and no to every that I said aye and no to, 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 sielt them out. Go to, they are not men o'their words: they told me I was every thing; 'tis a lie: I am not ague-proof.

Glo. The trick ++ of that voice I do well remember: Is'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

Edg. From the dread summit of this chalky Got 'tween the lawful sheets.

• Daws.

bourn:

+A vegetable gathered for pickling.
1 Her cock-boat.
Tumble.
Thus might be die in reality.
I.e. This chalky boundary of England.

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

Glo. Were all the letters suns, I could not see

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Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind

For which thou whipp'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener.

Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear ; Robes, and furr'd 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 :

It were a delicate stratagem to shoe

A troop of horse with felt: I'll put it in proof; And when I have stolen upon these sons-in-law, Then, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.

Enter a GENTLEMAN, with Attendants. Gent. O here he is, lay hand upon him,-Sir Your most dear daughter

Lear. No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am

even

The natural fool of fortune.-Use me well;
You shall have ransom. Let ine have a surgeon,
I am cut to the brains.
Gent. You shall have any thing.
Lear. No seconds? all myself?
Why, this would make a man, a man of salt, '
To use his eyes for garden water-pots,
Ay, and for laying autumn's dust.

Gent. Good Sir,

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Gent. Sir, speed you: What's your will? Edg. Do you hear aught, Sir, of a battle to ward?

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 descry Stands on the hourly thought. t

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

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

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Glo. Hearty thanks :

Take that of me, my friend, who have the power
To seal the accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes ; | To boot, and boot ! ||
And, like a scurvy politician, seem

The bounty and the benison § of heaven

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

now, now:

Pull off my boots :-harder, harder ; so.
Edg. O, matter and impertinency mix'd!
Reason in madness!

Lear. If thou wilt weep my fortunes take my eyes.

I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloster: Thou must be patient; we came crying hither. Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air, [me.

We wawl, and cry :-I will preach to thee; mark Glo. Alack, alack the day!

Lear. When we are born, we cry, that we

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Enter STEWARD.

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Edg. Ch'ill not let go, Zir, without vurther | To match thy goodness? My life will be too

'casion.

Stew. Let go, slave, or thou diest.

Edg. Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor volk pass. And ch'ud ha' been zwagger'd out of my life, 'twould not ha' been zo long as 'tis by a vortnight. Nay, come not near the old man; keep out, che vor'ye, or ise try whether your costard or my bati be the harder Ch'ill be plain with you.

Stew. Out, dunghill !

Edg. Ch'ill pick your teeth, Zir: Come; no matter vor your foins. §

[They fight; and EDGAR knocks him down.

Stew. Slave, thou hast slain me :-Villain, take my purse;

If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body;

And give the letters, which thou find'st about me,

To Edmund earl of Gloster; seek him out Upon the British party :-O untimely death!

[Dies. Edg. I know thee well: A serviceable villain;

As duteous to the vices of thy mistress,

As badness would desire.

Glo. What, is he dead?

Edg. Sit you down, father; rest you.Let's see his pockets: these letters; that he speaks of, [sorry May be my friends.-He's dead; I am only He had no other death's-man.-Let us see:Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not:

To know our enemies' minds, we'd rip their hearts;

Their papers, is more lawful. [

[Reads.] 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 1 the prisoner, and his bed my jail; from the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and ply the place for your labour.

sup

short,

And every measure fail me.

Kent. To be acknowledg'd, madam, is o'er paid.

All my reports go with the modest truth;
Nor more, nor clipp'd, but so.
Cor. Be better-suited:

These weeds are memories of those worser hours;

I pr'ythee, put them off.

Kent. Pardon me, dear madam ;

Yet to be known, shortens my made intent : ‡
My boon I make it, that you know me not,
Till time and I think ineet.

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 abused nature!
The untun'd and jarring senses, O wind up
Of this child-changed father!

Phys. So please your majesty,

That we may wake the king? he hath siept long. Cor. Be govern'd by your knowledge, and proceed

I'the sway of your own will. Is he array'd? 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 challeng'd pity of them. Was this a face
To be expos'd against the warring winds?
To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?
Your wife, (so I would say,) and your In the most terrible and nimble stroke
affectionate servant,

GONERIL.

O undistinguish'd 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-practis'd duke: For him 'tis well,
That of thy death and business I can tell.

[Exit EDGAR, dragging out the Body. Glo. The king is mad: How stiff is my vile

sense,

That I stand up, and have ingenious feeling
Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract:
So should my thoughts be sever'd from my

griefs;

And woes, by wrong imaginations, lose The knowledge of themselves.

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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: 'tis fittest.

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

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

Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound
Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears
Do scald like molten lead.

Cor. Sir, do you know me ?

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 day-light ?

SCENE VII-A Tent in the French Camp.-
LEAR on a Bed, asleep: PHYSICIAN, GEN-I am mightily abus'd.-I should even die with
TLEMAN, and others, attending.

Enter CORDELIA and KENT.

Cor. O thou good Kent, how shall I live and

work,

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not

Where I did lodge last night: Do not laugh at me;

For as I am a man, I think this lady

To be my child Cordelia.

Cor. And so I am, I am.

Lear. Be your tears wet? Yes, 'faith. I pray, weep not:

If you have poison for me, I will drink it.
I know, you do not love me; for your sisters
Have, as I do remember, done me wrong,
You have some cause, they have not.

Cor. No cause, no cause.
Lear. Am I in France?

Kent. In your own kingdom, Sir.

Lear. Do not abuse me.

Phys. Be comforted, good madam: the great

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Tell me,-but truly,-but then speak the truth,
Do you not love my sister?

Edm. In honour'd love.

Reg. But have you never found my brother's

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Most just and heavy causes make oppose. §
Edm. Sir, you speak nobly.

Reg. Why is this reason'd?

Gon. Combine together 'gainst the enemy:
For these domestic and particular broils
Art not to question here.

Alb. Let us then determine

With the ancient of war on our proceedings. Edm. I shall attend you presently at your

tent.

Reg. Sister, you'll go with us?

Gon. No.

Reg. 'Tis most convenient; pray you, go

with us.

Gon. O, ho, I know the riddle: [Aside.] I will go.

As they are going out, enter EDGAR disguised. Edg. If e'er your grace had speech with man

so poor,

Hear me one word.

Alb. I'll overtake you.-Speak.

[Exeunt EDMUND, REGAN, GONERIL, Officers, Soldiers, and Attendants. Edg. Before you fight the battle, ope this If you have victory, let the trumpet sound For him that brought it: wretched though I seem,

letter.

I can produce a champion, that will prove
What is avouched there: If you miscarry,
Your business of the world hath so an end,
And machination ceases. Fortune love you!
Alb. Stay till I have read the letter.
Edg. I was forbid it.

When time shall serve, let but the herald cry,
[Exit.
And I'll appear again.

Alb. Why, fare thee well; I will o'erlook thy paper.

Re-enter EDMUND.

Edm. The enemy's in view; draw up your

powers

Here is the guess of their true streng' and forces

By diligent discovery;—but your ́aste
Is now urg'd on you.

Alb. We will greet the time. ¶

Exit..

Edm. To both these sisters have I sworn my love;

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Each jealous of the other, as the stung
Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take?
Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd,
If both remain alive: To take the widow,
Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril;
And hardly shall I carry out my side,

Her husband being alive. Now then, we'll use
His countenance for the battle; which being
done,

Let her, who would be rid of him, devise
His speedy taking off. As for the mercy
Which he intends to Lear, and to Cordelia,-
The battle done, and they within our power,
Shall never see his pardon: for my state
Stauds on me to defend, not to debate.

[Exit.

SCENE II.-A Field between the Two
Camps.

Alarum within.-Enter, with Drum and Co-
lours, LEAR, CORDELIA, and their Forces;
and Exeunt.

Enter EDGAR and GLOSTER.

Edg. Here, father, take the shadow of this

tree

For your good host; pray that the right may
thrive :

If ever I return to you again,
I'll bring you comfort.

Glo. Grace go with you, Sir! [Exit EDGAR.

Alarums; afterwards a

Retreat.-Re-enter

EDGAR.
Edg. Away, old man, give me thy hand,

away;

King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en:
Give me thy hand, come on.

Glo. No further, Sir; a man may rot even here.
Edg. What, in ill thoughts again? Men must
endure

Their going hence, even as their coming hither:
Ripeness is all: Come on.

[Exeunt.

Glo. And that's true too.
SCENE III.-The British Camp near Dover.
Enter, in Conquest, with Drum and Colours,
EDMUND; LEAR and CORDELIA, as Pri-
soners; Officers, Soldiers, &c.

Edm. Some officers take them away: good
guard;

Until their greater pleasures first be known
That are to censure them.

Cor. We are not the first,

Who, with best meaning, have incurr'd

worst.

Edm. Take them away.
Lear. Upon such sacritices, my Cordelia,
The gods themselves throw incense. Have I
caught thee?

He that parts us shall bring a brand from
heaven,

And fire us hence, like foxes. Wipe thine eyes; The goujeers shall devour them, flesh, and fell, t

Ere they shall make us weep: we'll see them starve first.

Come.

[Exeunt LEAR, and CORDELIA guarded.
Edm. Come hither, captain; hark.
Take thou this note; [Giving a Paper.] go,
follow them to prison:

One step I have advanc'd thee; if thou dost
As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way
To noble fortunes: Know thou this,-that men
Are as the time is: to be tender-minded
Does not become a sword :-Thy great employ.

ment

Will not bear question; either say, thou'lt do't,

Or thrive by other means.

Off. I'll do't, my lord.

Edm. About it; and write happy, when thou
bast done.

Mark, I say, instantly; and carry it so,
As I bave set it down.

Off. I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats;
If it be man's work, I will do it.

[Exit OFFICER. Flourish. Enter ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, OFFICERS, and Attendants.

Alb. Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain,

And fortune led you well: You have the cap-
tives

Who were the opposites of this day's strife:
We do require them of you; so to use them,
As we shall find their merits and our safety
May equally determine.

Edm. Sir, I thought it fit

To send the old and miserable king
To some retention, and appointed guard;
To pluck the common bosom on his side,
Whose age has charms in it, whose title more,
And turn our impress'd lances in our eyes

Which do command them. With him I sent the
queen;

My reason all the same; and they are ready
To-morrow, or at further space to appear
Where you shall hold your session. At this
time,

the We sweat, and bleed the friend hath lost his
friend;

For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down;
Myself could else out-frown false fortune's

frown.

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too,

And the best quarrels, in the heat, are curs'd
By those that feel their sharpness:-
The question of Cordelia, and her father,
Requires a fitter place. §

Alb. Sir, by your patience,

I hold you but a subject of this war,
Not as a brother.

Reg. That's as we list to grace him.
Methinks our pleasure might have been de-

manded,

Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers;
Bore the commission of my place and person;
The which immediacy | may well stand up,
And call itself your brother.

Gon. Not so hot :

In his own grace he doth exalt himself,

Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's More than in your advancement.

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