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That eye, that told you fo, look'd but a-squint.

Reg. Lady, I am not well; else I should answer

From a full-flowing ftomach.-General,

Take thou my foldiers, prifoners, patrimony;
Dispose of them, of me; the walls are thine 4:
Witness the world, that I create thee here
My lord and mafter.

Gon. Mean you to enjoy him?

Alb. The let alone lies not in your good will 5.
Edm. Nor in thine, lord.

Alb. Half-blooded fellow, yes.

Reg. Let the drum strike, and prove my title
thine.

[thee

Alb. Stay yet; hear reafon: -Edmund, I arrest

On capital treafon; and, in thy arreft,

[Pointing to Goneril.

This gilded ferpent :-for your claim, fair sister,

I bar it in the interest of my wife;

'Tis she is fub-contracted to this lord,

And I, her husband, contradict your banes.
If you will marry, make your love to me,

My lady is befpoke.

Gon. An interlude!

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Edg. What's he, that speaks for Edmund earl
Edm. Himfelf;-What say'st thou to him?

Edg. Draw thy fword;

That, if my fpeech offend a noble heart,

Thy arm may do thee juftice: here is mine.

Alb. Thou art arm'd, Glofter:-Let the trum- Behold, it is the privilege 6 of mine honours,
pet found:

If none appear to prove upon thy perfon
Thy heinous, manifeft, and many treasons,
There is my pledge; I'll prove it on thy heart,
Ere I tafte bread, thou art in nothing lefs

Than I have here proclaim'd thee.

Reg. Sick, O, fick !

Gon. If not, I'll ne'er truft poifon..

[Afide.

Edm. There's my exchange: what in the world
he is

That names me traitor, villain-like he lies:
Call by thy trumpet: he that dares approach,
On him, on you, (who not?) I will maintain
My truth and honour firmly.

Alb. A herald, ho!

Edm. A herald, ho, a herald !

My oath, and my profeffion:-I protest,-
Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence,
Defpight thy victor fword, and fire-new fortune,
Thy valour, arid thy heart, -thou art a traitor :
False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father;
Confpirant 'gainst this high illuftrious prince;
And, from the extremest upward of thy head,
To the defcent and duft beneath thy feet,
A most toad-fpotted traitor. Say thou, No,
This fword, this arm, and my best spirits, are bent
To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,
Thou lieft.

Edm. In wisdom, I should ask thy name;
But, fince thy out-inde looks fo fair and warlike,
And that thy tongue some say 7 of breeding breathes,
What fafe and nicely I might well delay

■ Commiffion, for authority. 2 Immediacy implies fupremacy, in opposition to fubordination. 3 Grace here means accomplishments, or honours. 4 A metaphorical phrase taken from the camp, and fignifying, to furrender at difcretion. 5 Whether he shall not or shall, depends not on your choice. The charge he is here going to bring against the Bastard, he calls the privilege, &c. to understand which phrateology, we must confider that the old rites of knighthood are here alluded to; whose oath and profeffion required him to discover all treafons, and whose privilege it was to have his challenge accepted, or otherwise to have his charge taken pro confeffo. For if one who was no knight accufed another who was, that other was under no obligation to accept the challenge. On this account it was neceffary, as Edgar came difguised, to tell the Bastard he was a knight. for effay, fome shew or probability.

1 'Say,

By

By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn:
Back do I tofs these treasons to thy head;
With the hell-hated lie o'erwhelm thy heart ;
Which, (for they yet glance by, and scarcely bruife)
This fword of mine shall give them inftant way,

Where they shall reft for ever.-Trumpets, speak.
[Alarum. Fight. Edmund falls.

Alb. Save him, fave him!

Gon. This is mere practice, Glofter:
By the law of arms, thou wast not bound to anfwer
An unknown oppofite; thou art not vanquish'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. Monfter, know'st 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 charged me with, that 1
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 lefs 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 juft, and of our pleafant vices
Make inftruments 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?

How have you known the miferies of your father?
Edg. By nurfing them, my lord. Lift a brief
tale; -

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

That follow'd me so near, (O our lives' fweetness!
That we the pain of death would hourly bear,
Rather than die at once!) taught me to fhift
Into a mad-man's rags; to afsume a semblance
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 fuccefs,
I afk'd his bleffing, and from first to laft

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

Edm. This fpeech of yours hath mov'd me,
And shall, perchance, do good: but speak you on;
You look as you had fomething more to fay.

Alb. If there be more, more woeful, hold it in;
For I am almoft ready to diffolve,
Hearing of this.

Edg. This would have feem'd a period
To fuch as love not forrow; but, another 1;-
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 worst eftate,
Shunn'd my abhorr'd fociety; but then, finding
Who 'twas that fo endur'd, with his strong arms
He fasten'd on my neck, and bellow'd out
As he'd burft heaven; threw him on my father;
Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him,
That ever ear receiv'd: which in recounting,
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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■ The fenfe may probably be this: This would have feemed a period to fuch as love not for. ow; but,another, i. e. but I must add another, i. e. another period, another kind of conclufion to my ftory, fuch as will increase the horrors of what has been already told.

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Alb. Even so. -Cover their faces.

Edm. I pant for life: -Some good I mean to do,

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

[fend

Alb. Run, run, O, run-
Edg. To whom, my lord? Who has the office?
Thy token of reprieve.

Edg. Well thought on; take my fword,
Give it the captain.

Edg. Hafte thee for thy life. [Exit Meffenger.
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 herself.

Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence
awhile.
[Edmund is borne 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: -0, she is gone

for ever!

I know when one is dead, and when one lives;
She's dead as earth: -Lend me a looking-glais;
If that her breath will mift or ftain 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 stirs; the lives! if it be fo,

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

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

That we present us to him."
Edg. Very bootless.

Enter a Messenger.

Mef. 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 majefty,
To him our abfolute power:-You, to your rights
[To Ede
With boot 6, and fuch addition as your honours
Have more than merited. - All friends shall tafter
The wages of their virtue, and all foes
The cup of their defervings.-O, fee, fee!

[life,

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Cordelia, Cordelia, stay a little. Ha!

Kent. O my good master!

[Kneeling. Look there, look there!

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

[hates him,

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

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

That would upon the rack of this tough 9 world

Edg. O, he is gone, indeed.

Kent. The wonder is, he hath endur'd fo long:

Gent. 'Tis true, my lords, he did.

Lear. Did I not, fellow ?

He but ufurp'd his life.

[chion

Alb. Bear them from hence.--Our present business

[To Kent, and Edgar.

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.

I have feen the day, with my good biting faul- Is general woe. Friends of my foul, you twain
I would have made them skip: I am old now,
And these fame crosses spoil me.-Who are you?
Mine eyes are none o' the best:-I'll tell you
ftraight.

Kent. If fortune brag of two she 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 ?

Rule in this realm, and the gor'd state fustain.
Kent. I have a journey, fir, shortly to go;
My master calls, and I must 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 most: we that are young,
Shall never fee fo much, nor live fo long.

[Exeunt, with a dead march,

I 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 must furvive, when he finds them to be ineffectual. Having these images present to his eyes and imagination, he cries out, Rather fall, and cease 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 tendeincis for his dead Cordelia, (not his fool, as fome have thought) on whose lips he is still intent, and dies away while he is fearching for life there. $ The Rev. Dr. J. Warton judiciously oblerves, that the fwelling and heaving of the heart is described by this moft expressive circumftance. 9 1. 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 Attendunts.

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

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SCENE

I.

A STREET.

ACT

Enter Sampson and Gregory, two fervants of Capulet.

Sam.

GREGORY my word, we'll not carry

coals 2.

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'ft 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 slave; for the weakest goes to the wall.

Sam. True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thruft to the wall: therefore 1 will push Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.

The story 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 obferves, that this was a phrafe formerly in use to signify the bearing injuries,

2 Dr. War

Greg.

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