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; Gon. Mean you to enjoy him? Alb. The let alone lies not in your good will 5. Alb. Half-blooded fellow, yes. Reg. Let the drum strike, and prove my title [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. My lady is befpoke. Gon. An interlude! Edg. What's he, that speaks for Edmund earl 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, If none appear to prove upon thy perfon 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 That names me traitor, villain-like he lies: Alb. A herald, ho! Edm. A herald, ho, a herald ! My oath, and my profeffion:-I protest,- Edm. In wisdom, I should ask thy name; ■ 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: Where they shall reft for ever.-Trumpets, speak. Alb. Save him, fave him! Gon. This is mere practice, Glofter: Alb. Shut your mouth, dame, [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. And more, much more: the time will bring it out; Edg. Let us exchange charity. I am no lefs in blood than thou art, Edmund; The dark and vicious place where thee he got, Edm. Thou hast spoken right, 'tis true; Alb. Methought, thy very gait did prophefy Edg. Worthy prince, I know it. Alb. Where have you hid yourself? How have you known the miferies of your father? And, when 'tis told, O, that my heart would burft!- That follow'd me so near, (O our lives' fweetness! Told him my pilgrimage: But his flaw'd heart, Edm. This fpeech of yours hath mov'd me, Alb. If there be more, more woeful, hold it in; Edg. This would have feem'd a period Whilft I was big in clamour, came there in a man, ■ 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. 1 Alb. Even so. -Cover their faces. Edm. I pant for life: -Some good I mean to do, Defpight of mine own nature. Quickly fend,- [fend Alb. Run, run, O, run- Edg. Well thought on; take my fword, Edg. Hafte thee for thy life. [Exit Meffenger. To hang Cordelia in the prifon, and To lay the blame upon her own despair, Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence 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 for ever! I know when one is dead, and when one 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 Alb. He knows not what he fays; and vain it is That we present us to him." Enter a Messenger. Mef. Edmund is dead, my lord. Alb. That 's but a trifle here. You lords, and noble friends, know our intent. [life, Cordelia, Cordelia, stay a little. Ha! Kent. O my good master! [Kneeling. Look there, look there! Edg. He faints; -My lord, 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 Kent. If fortune brag of two she lov'd and hated, Lear. This is a dull fight: Are you not Kent? Where is your fervant Caius ? Rule in this realm, and the gor'd state fustain. Alb. The weight of this fad time we must obey; [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. 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. 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 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. |