SCENE V.-A Room in Gloster's Castle.

Enter CORNWALL and EDMUND.

Corn. I will have my revenge, ere I depart his house.

Edm. How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think of.

Corn. I now perceive, it was not altogether your brother's evil disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reproveable badness in himself.

Edm. How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to be just! This is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an intelligent party to the advantages of France. O heavens! that this treason were not, or not I the detector!

Corn. Go with me to the duchess.

Edm. If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business in hand.

Corn. True, or false, it hath made thee earl of Gloster. Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension.

Edm. [Aside.] If I find him comforting the king, it will stuff his suspicion more fully.-I will persevere in my course of loyalty, though the conlict be sore between that and my blood.

Corn. I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a dearer father in my love. [Exeunt.

SCENE VI-A Chamber in a Farm-House,
adjoining the Castle.

Enter GLOSTER, LEAR, KENT, Fool, and EDGAR. Glo. Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully; I will piece out the comfort with what addition I can: I will not be long from you.

ness!

Kent. All the power of his wits has given way to his impatience:-The gods reward your kind[Exit GLOSTER. Edg. Frateretto calls me; and tells me, Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent,2 and beware the foul fiend.

Fool. Pr'ythee, nuncle, tell me, whether a madman be a gentleman, or a yeoman?

Lear. A king, a king!

Fool. No; he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son: for he's a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman before him.

Lear. To have a thousand with red burning spits Come hissing in upon them:

Edg. The foul fiend bites my back.

Fool. He's mad, that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath.

Lear. It shall be done, I will arraign them straight:

Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer;[To EDGAR. Thou, sapient sir, sit here. [To the Fool.]-Now, you she-foxes!

Edg. Look, where he stands and glares!Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?

Come o'er the bourn,3 Bessy, to me :Fool. Her boat hath a leak,

And she must not speak Why she dare not come over to thee. Eg. The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale. Hoptance cries in Tom's belly for two white herrings. Croak not, black angel; I have no food for thee.

Kent. How do you, sir? Stand you not so amaz'd:

Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions? Lear. I'll see their trial first:-Bring in the evidence.

Thou robed man of justice, take thy place; [To EDGAR. And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity, [To the Fool.

1 Child is an old name for knight.

* Addressed to the Fool, who were anciently called In Brook, or rivulet.

Docents.

Lear. Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my oath before this honorable assembly, she kicked the poor king her father.

Fool. Come hither, mistress; Is your name Goneril?

Lear. She cannot deny it.

Fool. Cry you mercy, I took you for a jointstool.

Lear. And here's another, whose warp'd looks

proclaim

What store her heart is made of.-Stop her there! Arms, arms, sword, fire!-Corruption in the place False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape! Edg. Bless thy five wits!

Kent. O pity!-Sir, where is the patience now, That you so oft have boasted to retain?

Edg. My tears begin to take his part so much. They'll mar my counterfeiting.

Lear. The little dogs and all.

Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me.
Edg. Tom will throw his head at them:-
Avaunt, you curs!

Be thy mouth or black or white,
Tooth that poisons if it bite;
Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim,
Hound, or spaniel, brach, or lym;1
Or bobtail tike, or trun ile-tout;
Tom will make them weep and wait:
For, with throwing thus iny head,

Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fied.

Do de, do de. Sessa. Come, march to wakes and fairs, and market towns:-Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.

Lear. Then let them anatomize Regan, see what breeds about her heart: Is there any cause in ta ture that makes these hard hearts-You, sir, 1 entertain you for one of my hundred; only, I do not like the fashion of your garments: you will say, they are Persian attire; but let them be changed. [To EDLAS

Kent. Now,good my lord, lie here,and rest awhile. Lear. Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains: So, so, so: We'll go to supper i' the moraing: So, so, so.

Fool. And I'll go to bed at noon.

Re-Enter GLOSTER.

If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life, With thine, and all that offer to defend him, Stand in assured loss: Take up, take up: And follow me, that will with some provision Give thee quick conduct.

Kent.

Oppress'd nature sleeps:This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses, Which, if convenience will not allow, Stand in hard cure.-Come, help to bear thy master, Thou must not stay behind. [To the Fool. Glo. Come, come. away. [Exeunt KENT, GLOSTER, and the Fool, bearing off the King. Edg. When we our betters see bearing our woes, We scarcely think our miseries our foes. Who alone suffers, suffers most i' the mind; Leaving free things, and happy shows, behind: But then the mind much sufferance doth o'erskip, When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship How light and portable my pain seems now,

• A bloodhound

Re-enter Servants, with GLOSTER.

Reg. Ingrateful fox! 'tis he.

Corn. Bind fast his corky9 arms.

Glo. What mean your graces friends, consider

-Good my

You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends.
Corn. Bind him, I say. [Servants bind him.
Reg.
Hård, hard:-O filthy traitor!
Glo. Unmerciful lady as you are, I am none.
Corn. To this chair bind him:-Villain, thou
shalt find- [REGAN plucks his Beard.
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 dost ravish from my chin,
Will quicken and accuse thee: I am your host;
With robber's hands, my hospitable favors2
You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?
Corn. Come, sir, what letters had you late from
France?

Reg. Be simple-answer'd, for we know the truth. Corn. And what confederacy have you with the

traitors

Late footed in the kingdom?

Reg. To whose hands have you sent the lunatic king?

Speak.

Glo. I have a letter guessingly set down, Which came from one that's of a neutral heart, And not from one oppos'd.

Cor. Reg.

Cunning.

Corn. Where hast thou sent the king?

Glo.

course.

Reg. Wherefore to Dover?

Gio. Because I would not see thy cruel nails
Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister
In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.
The sea, with such a storm as his bare head
In hell-black night endur'd, would have buoy'd up,
And quench'd the stelled3 fires; yet, poor old
heart,

I wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time,
He holp the heavens to rain.
Thou shouldst have said, Good porter, turn the key;
All cruels else subscribed:-But I shall see
The winged vengeance overtake such children.
Corn. See it shalt thou never:-Fellows, hold
the chair:

Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot.

[GLOSTER is held down in his Chair, while CORNWALL plucks out one of his Eyes, and sets his Foot on it.

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

Serv.

Hold your hand, my lord:

I have serv'd you ever since 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? Corn. My villain! [Draws and runs at him. Serv. Nay, then come on, and take the chance

O my follies!

Then Edgar was abused.-
Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!
Reg. Go, thrust him out at gates, and let him smell
His way to Dover.-How is't, my lord? How look
you?

Corn. I have received a hurt:-Follow me, lady.

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

[Exit CORNWALL, led by REGAN ;-Servants unbind GLOSTER, and lead him out. 1 Serv. I'll never care what wickedness I do, If this man comes to good.

2 Serv.

If she live long,

And, in the end, meet the old course of death,

Women will all turn monsters.

1 Serv. Let's follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam7

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

2 Serv. Go thou; I'll fetch some flax, and whites

of eggs,

To apply to his bleeding face. Now, heaven help him!

And false.

To Dover.

[Exeunt severally

Yielded, submitted to the necessity of the occasion. Bedlamite, madman.

Laid open.

SCENE I.-The Heath.

Enter EDGAR.

Edg. Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd, Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst, The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune, Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear: The lamentable change is from the best; The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then, Thou unsubstantial air, that I embrace! The wretch, that thou hast blown unto the worst, Owes nothing to thy blasts.-But who comes here? Enter GLOSTER, led by an Old Man. My father, poorly led?-World, world, O world! But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee, Life would not yield to age.

Old Man. O my good lord, I have been your tenant and vour father's tenant, these fourscore years. Glo. Away, get thee away; good friend, begone: Thy comforts can do me no good at all, Thee they may hurt.

Old Man. Alack, sir, you cannot see your way.
Glo. I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;
I stumbled when I saw: Full oft 'tis seen,
Our mean secures us; and our mere defects
Prove our commodities.-Ah, dear son Edgar,
The food of thy abused father's wrath!
Might I but live to see thee in my touch,
I'd say, I had my eyes again!
Old Man.
How now? Who's there?
Edg. [Aside.] O gods! Who is't can say, I am at
the worst?

I am worse than e'er I was.
Old Man..

'Tis poor mad Tom. Edg. [Aside.] And worse I may be yet: The

worst is not,

So long as we can say, This is the worst.
Old Man. Fellow, where goest?
Glo.
Is it a beggar-man?
Old Man. Madman and beggar too.
Glo. He has some reason, else he could not beg.
I' the last night's storm I such a fellow saw;
Which made me think a man a worm: My son
Came then into my mind; and yet my mind
Was then scarce friends with him: I have heard
more since:

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport.
Edg.
How should this be?-
Bad is the trade must play the fool to sorrow,
Ang'ring itself and others. [Aside.]-Bless thee,

master!

[Aside.

Glo. Come hither, fellow. Edg Aside.] And yet I must.-Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed.

Glo. Know'st thou the way to Dover? Edg. Both stile and gate, horse-way and footpath. Poor Tom hath been scared out of his good wits: Bless the good man from the foul fiend! Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as, Obidicut; Hobbididance, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; and Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing; who since possesses chamber-maids and waiting-women. bless thee, master! • In hope.

• Disguise.

So

SCENE II.-Before the Duke of Albany's Palace. Enter GONERIL and EDMUND; Steward meeting them.

Gon. Welcome, my lord: I marvel, our mild husband

Not met us on the way :-Now, where's your master?

Stew. Madam, within; but never man so changed: I told him of the army that was landed; He smil'd at it: I told him you were coming; His answer was, The worse: of Gloster's treachery, And of the loyal service of his son, When I inform'd him, then he call'd me sot; What most he should dislike, seems pleasant to him; And told me, I had turn'd the wrong side out:What like, offensive.

Gon.

Then shall you go no further. It is the cowish terror of his spirit, To EDMUND Which tie him to an answer: Our wishes, on the way, That dares not undertake: he'll not feel wrongs, 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 Favor. Would stretch thy spirits up into the air;Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak, Conceive, and fare thee well. Edm. Yours in the ranks of death. Gon.

My most dear Gloster!
[Exit EDMUND.
O, the difference of man, and man! To thee
A woman's services are due; my fool
Usurps my bed.
Stew.

Madam, here comes my lord.
[Exit Steward.

Enter ALBANY.

Gon. I have been worth the whistle.
Alb.

O Goneril,
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 slivers 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 savor 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 1i. e. Our wishes on the road may be completed. • Worth calling for. Tear off.

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;

And now and then an ample tear trill'd down
Her delicate cheek: it seem'd, she was a queen
Over her passion; who, most rebel-like,
Sought to be king o'er her.

Kent.
O, then it mov'd her
Gent. Not to a rage: patience and sorrow strove
Who should express her goodliest. You have seen
Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears
Were like a better day: Those happy smiles,
That play'd on her ripe lip, seem'd not to know
What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence,
As pearls from diamonds dropp'd.-In brief, sorrow
Would be a rarity most belov❜d, if all
Could so become it.

Kent.
Made she no verbal question ?4
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? & the storm? i the night?

Let pity not be believed!5-There she shook
The holy water from her heavenly eyes,
And clamor 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. Kent. Well, sir; the poor distress'd Lear is i' the

town:

Who sometime, in his better tune, remembers
What we are come about, and by no means
Will yield to see his daughter.
Gent.
Why, good sir?
Kent. A sovereign shame so elbows him: his
own unkindness,

That stripp'd her from his benediction, turn'd her
To foreign casualties, gave her dear rights
To his dog-hearted daughters, these things sting
His mind so venomously, that burning shame
Detains him from Cordelia.

Gent.

Alack, poor gentleman! Kent. Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard not?

Gent. "Tis so; they are afoot.

Kent. Well, sir, I'll bring you to our master Lear, And leave you to attend him: some dear cause, Will in concealment wrap me up awhile; When I am known aright, you shall not grieve Lending me this acquaintance. I pray you, go Along with me. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV. The same. A Tent.
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,7 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 werth
Phy. There is means, madam:
Our foster-nurse of nature is repose,
The which he lacks; that to provoke in him,
Are many simples operative, whose power
Will close the eye of anguish.

Cor.

All bless'd secrets, 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. Enter a Messenger.

Mess. Madam, news; The British powers are marching hitherwar 1. 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,