way,

May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother;
Hasten his musters and conduct his powers:
I must change arms at home, and give the distaff
Into my husband's hands. This trusty servant
Shall pass between us: ere long you are like to hear,
If you dare venture in your own behalf,
A mistress's command. Wear this; spare speech;
[Giving a favour.
Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak,
Would stretch thy spirits up into the air;-
Conceive, and fare thee well.

Edm. Yours in the ranks of death.
Gon.

My most dear Gloster!

O Goneril!

Gon. I have been worth the whistle.
Alb.
You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
Blows in your face. I fear your disposition :
That nature, which contemns its origin,
Cannot be border'd certain in itself;
She that herself will silver and disbranch
From her material sap, perforce must wither,
And come to deadly use.

Gon. No more; the text is foolish.

Alb. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile :
Filths savour but themselves. What have you done?
Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd?
A father, and a gracious aged man,

Whose reverence the head-lugg'd bear would lick,
Most barbarous, most degenerate! have you madded.
Could my good brother suffer you to do it?
A man, a prince, by him so benefited?

If that the heavens do not their visible spirits
Send quickly down to tame these vile offences,
'Twill come,

Humanity must perforce prey on itself,
Like monsters of the deep.

Gon.

Milk-liver'd man!

Thy flesh and bones: Howe'er thou art a fiend,
A woman's shape doth shield thee.
Gon. Marry, your manhood now! -

Enter a Messenger.

Alb. What news?

This shows you are above, You justicers, that these our nether crimes So speedily can venge! But, O, poor Gloster! Lost he his other eye!

Mess. Both, both, my lord. This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer; 'Tis from your sister.

Gon. [Aside.] One way I like this well; But being widow, and my Gloster with her, May all the building in my fancy pluck Upon my hateful life: Another way, The news is not so tart. - I'll read, and answer.

[Exit. Alb. Where was his son, when they did take his eyes?

Mess. Come with my lady hither.

Alb.

He is not here. Mess. No, my good lord; I met him back again. Alb. Knows he the wickedness?

Mess. Ay, my good lord; 'twas he inform'd

SCENE III. - The French Camp, near Dover.

Enter KENT and a Gentleman.

Kent. Why the king of France is so suddenly gone back know you the reason?

Gent. Something he left imperfect in the state, Which since his coming forth is thought of; which Imports to the kingdom so much fear and danger, That his personal return was most requir'd, And necessary.

Kent. Who hath he left behind him general?

Gent. The Mareschal of France, Monsieur le Fer. Kent. Did your letters pierce the queen to any demonstration of grief?

Gent. Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my

presence;

Kent.

Made she no verbal question?

Gent. 'Faith, once, or twice, she heav'd the name
of father

Pantingly forth, as if it press'd her heart;
Cried, Sisters! sisters!-Shame of ladies! sisters!
Kent! father! sisters! What? i'the storm? i'the
night?

Let pity not be believ'd!— There she shook
The holy water from her heavenly eyes,
And clamour moisten'd: — then away she started
To deal with grief alone.

Kent.
It is the stars,
The stars above us, govern our conditions;
Else one self mate and mate could not beget
Such different issues. You spoke not with her since?
Gent. No.

Kent. Was this before the king return'd?
Gent.

No, since.

[Exeunt.

A Tent.

SCENE IV. The same.
Enter CORDELIA, Physician, and Soldiers.
Cor. Alack, 'tis he; why, he was met even now
As mad as the vex'd sea : singing aloud;
Crown'd with rank fumiter, and furrow weeds,
With harlocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,
Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn. — A century send forth;
Search every acre in the high-grown field,
And bring him to our eye. [Exit an Officer.]-
What can man's wisdom do,

In the restoring his bereaved sense?
He, that helps him, take all my outward worth.

All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth,
Spring with my tears! be aidant, and remediate,
In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him;
Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life
That wants the means to lead it.

Mess.

Enter a Messenger.

Madam, news;

The British powers are marching hitherward.
Cor. 'Tis known before; our preparation stands
In expectation of them. O dear father,

It is thy business that I go about;
Therefore great France

My mourning, and important tears, hath pitied.
No blown ambition doth our arms incite,
But love, dear love, and our ag'd father's right:
Soon may I hear, and see him!
[Exeunt.

Your sister is the better soldier.

Reg. Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at

home?

Stew. No, madam.

Reg. What might import my sister's letter to him? Stew. I know not, lady.

Reg. 'Faith, he is posted hence on serious matter. It was great ignorance, Gloster's eyes being out, To let him live; where he arrives, he moves All hearts against us; Edmund, I think, is gone, In pity of his misery, to despatch

His nighted life; moreover, to descry

The strength o'the enemy.

Stew. I must needs after him, madam, with my letter.

Reg. Our troops set forth to-morrow; stay with us; The ways are dangerous.

Stew.

I may not, madam; My lady charg'd my duty in this business. Reg. Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you

Transport her purposes by words? Belike, Something-I know not what :-I'll love thee mucn, Let me unseal the letter.

Madam, I had rather Stew. Reg. I know, your lady does not love her husband; I am sure of that: and, at her late being here, She gave strange œiliads, and most speaking looks To noble Edmund: I know, you are of her bosom. Stew. I, madam?

Reg. I speak in understanding; you are, I know it; 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, desire her call her wisdom to her

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 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 within a foot

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

Glo.
Let go my hand.
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.

O you mighty gods!

Glo. 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 itself Yields to the theft: Had he been where he thought, By this, had thought been past. - Alive, or dead?

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 handles 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 ay, and no, to every thing 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 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
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 near 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; Fye, fye, fye! 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. What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes, with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yon' justice rails upon yon' simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: Change places; and, handydandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar ? Glo. Ay, sir.

Lear. And the creature run from the cur? There thou might'st behold the great image of authority: a dog's obeyed in office.

Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand :
Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back;
Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind

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

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,
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 it. 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.
How near's the other army?

But, by your favour,

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,
Her army is mov'd on.

Edg.
I thank you, sir. [Exit Gent.
Glo. You ever gentle gods, take my breath from

me;

Let not my worser spirit tempt me again
To die before you please!

Edg.
Well pray you, father
Glo. Now, good sir, what are you?