From the fix'd place;
love,
And added to the gall.
Beat at this gate, that let thy folly in,

drew from my heart all

O Lear, Lear, Lear!

[Striking his head. And thy dear judgment out!-Go, go, my people. ALB. My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant Of what hath mov'd you. LEAR. It may be so, my lord.Hear, Nature, hear; dear goddess, hear! Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend To make this creature fruitful! Into her womb convey sterility! Dry up in her the organs of increase ; And from her derogate body never spring A babe to honour her! If she must teem, Create her child of spleen; that it may live, And be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her! Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth; With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks;

perforce,

Should make thee worth them.-Blasts and fogs upon thee!

The untented woundings of a father's curse
Pierce every sense about thee !-Old fond eyes,
Beweep this cause again, I'll pluck ye out,
And cast you, with the waters that you loose,
To temper clay.-Ha! is it come to this?
Let it be so; yet have I left a daughter,d
Who, I am sure, is kind and comfortable;
When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails
She'll flay thy wolfish visage. Thou shalt find
That I'll resume the shape which thou dost think
I have cast off for ever; thou shalt, I warrant
thee.

[Exeunt LEAR, KENT, and Attendants. GON. Do you mark that, my lord? § ALB. I cannot be so partial, Goneril,

To the great love I bear you,-
GON. Pray you, content.

ho!

What, Oswald,

You, sir, more knave than fool, after your master. [To the Fool. FOOL. Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry, and || take the fool with thee.

A fox, when one has caught her,
And such a daughter,

Should sure to the slaughter,

If my cap would buy a halter:

So the fool follows after.

(*) First folio, to know more of it.

[Exit.

(+) First folio, As. (I) First folio omits, and.

(1) First folio omits, thou shalt, I warrant thee. (§) First folio omits, my lord.

d

Ha! is it come to this? Let it be so; yet have I left a daughter,-) This passage is formed from the two old texts; the quartos read, "Yea is it come to this? yet have I left a daughter:" the folio,"Ha? Let it be so,

I have another daughter."

GON. This man hath had good counsel :*-a hundred knights!

'Tis politic and safe to let him keep

At point a hundred knights: yes, that on every dream,

Each buz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike,
He may enguard his dotage with their powers,
And hold our lives in mercy.-Oswald, I say!—
ALB. Well, you may fear too far.
GON.
Safer than trust too far:
Let me still take away the harms I fear,
Not fear still to be taken: I know his heart.
What he hath utter'd I have writ my sister;
If she sustain him and his hundred knights,
When I have show'd the unfitness,—

LEAR. I will forget my nature.-So kind a father!-Be my horses ready?

FOOL. Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the seven stars are no more than seven, is a pretty reason.

LEAR. Because they are not eight?

FOOL. Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool.

LEAR. To take 't again perforce !-Monster ingratitude!

FOOL. If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'd have thee beaten for being old before thy time.

(*) First folio, your.

Enter EDGAR.

My father watches:-O, sir, fly this place;
Intelligence is given where you are hid;
You have now the good advantage of the
night :-

Have you not spoken 'gainst the duke of Cornwall? He's coming hither; now, i' the night, i' the haste,

And Regan with him; have you nothing said
Upon his party 'gainst the duke of Albany?
Advise yourself.

EDG.
I am sure on 't, not a word.
EDM. I hear my father coming,-pardon me;
In cunning I must draw my sword upon you:-
Draw seem to defend yourself: now quit you
well.-

ship;

your

lord

But that I told him, the revenging gods
Gainst parricides did all their thunders* bend;
Spoke, with how manifold and strong a bond
The child was bound to the father;-sir, in fine,
Seeing how loathly opposite I stood

To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion
With his prepared sword, he charges home
My unprovided body, lanc'd † mine arm :
But when he saw my best alarum'd spirits,
Bold in the quarrel's right, rous'd to the encounter,
Or whether gasted" by the noise I made,
Full suddenly he fled.

GLO.

Let him fly far: Not in this land shall he remain uncaught; And found-despatch!-The noble duke my

master,

My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night :
By his authority I will proclaim it,

That he which finds him shall deserve our thanks,
Bringing the murderous coward to the stake;
He that conceals him, death.

EDM. When I dissuaded him from his intent,
And found him pight to do it, with curst speech
I threaten'd to discover him: he replied,
Thou unpossessing bastard! dost thou think,
If I would stand against thee, would the reposal
Of any trust, virtue, or worth, in thee
Make thy words faith'd? No: what I should§
(As this I would; ay, though thou didst produce
My very character) I'd turn it all

[deny,

To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practice: And thou must make a dullard of the world, If they not thought the profits of my death

(*) First folio, the thunder. (1) First folio, And.

(+) First folio, latch'd. (§) First folio, should I. () First folio omits, ay.

* But when, &c.] "When," is very probably a misprint for wher, or whether.

b-gasted-] Gasted, or ghasted, means affrighted, dismayed. And found-despatch!-] Warburton reads, "And found, dispatch'd;" as also does Mr. Collier's annotator; but the old text is right. Thus, in "Blurt, Master Constable," Act V. Sc. 1,"There to find Fontinelle: found, to kill him." d-pight to do it,-] Pight is fixed, settled.

Were very pregnant and potential spurs*
To make thee seek it.
GLO.
Strong and fasten'd villain!
Would he deny his letter?-I never got him.-s
Trumpets without.
Hark, the duke's trumpets! I know not why he

comes.

All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not 'scape;
The duke must grant me that: besides, his picture
I will send far and near, that all the kingdom
May have due note of him; and of my land,
Loyal and natural boy, I'll work the means
To make thee capable.

Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, and Attendants. CORN. How now, my noble friend! since I came hither, [news.§ (Which I can call but now) I have heard strange REG. If it be true, all vengeance comes too short, Which can pursue the offender. How dost, my lord? [crack'd! GLO. O, madam, my old heart is crack'd,—it's REG. What, did my father's godson seek your life?

He whom my father nam'd? your Edgar?

GLO. O, lady, lady, shame would have it hid! REG. Was he not companion with the riotous knights

That tend upon my father?

[bad.

GLO. I know not, madam: 't is too bad, too
EDM. Yes, madam, he was of that consort.
REG. No marvel then, though he were ill
affected;

'Tis they have put him on the old man's death,
To have the waste and spoil" of his revenues.
I have this present evening from my sister
Been well inform'd of them; and with such cautions,
That if they come to sojourn at my house,
I'll not be there.
CORN.
Nor I, assure thee, Regan.—
Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father
A child-like office.

Be fear'd of doing harm: make your own purpose, How in my strength you please.-For you, Edmund,

Whose virtue and obedience doth this instant So much commend itself, you shall be ours; Natures of such deep trust we shall much need; You we first seize on.

EDM. However else.

GLO.

I shall serve you, sir, truly,

For him I thank your grace. CORN. You know not why we came to visit [night.

you,

REG. Thus out of season; threading dark-eyed Occasions, noble Gloster, of some poise,* Wherein we must have use of your advice :Our father he hath writ, so hath our sister, Of differences, which I best thought it fit To answer from our home; the several messengers From hence attend despatch. Our good old friend, Lay comforts to your bosom; and bestow Your needful counsel to our business,† Which craves the instant use.

GLO. I serve you, madam : Your graces are right welcome. [Exeunt.

a

from our home;] Away from home. b- hundred-pound,-] This epithet is found in Middleton's play of "The Phoenix," Act IV. Sc. 3,

"am I used like a hundred-pound gentleman."

And in Sir Walter Raleigh's speech against Foreign Retailers (Oldys's "Life of Raleigh," p. 68), he says,-"Nay at Milan, where there are three hundred-pound Englishmen, they cannot so much as have a barber among them."

eyet the moon shines,-] That is, now the moon shines, &c. d -you neat slave,-] The sting in this epithet, "neat," has been quite misunderstood by the commentators, who suppose it

trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: whom I will beat into clamourous* whining, if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition.

one

Osw. Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail on one that is neither known of thee nor knows thee!

KENT. What a brazen-faced varlet art thou, to deny thou knowest me! Is it two days ago,† since I tripped up thy heels, and beat thee, before the king? Draw, you rogue: for, though it be night, yete the moon shines, I'll make a sop o'the moonshine of you: draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw. [Drawing his sword.

Osw. Away! I have nothing to do with thee. KENT. Draw, you rascal! you come with letters against the king; and take Vanity the puppet's part, against the royalty of her father: draw, you rogue, or I'll so carbonado your shanks!—draw, you rascal! come your ways.

Osw. Help, ho! murder! help!

KENT. Strike, you slave! stand, rogue, stand! you neat slave, strike!

d

[Beating him.

Osw. Help, ho! murder! murder!

Enter EDMUND.

EDM. How now? what's the matter? Part. KENT. With you, goodman boy, an § you please; come, I'll flesh you; come on, young master.

Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOUCESTER, and Servants.

GLO. Weapons! arms! what's the matter here? CORN. Keep peace, upon your lives!

He dies, that strikes again! what is the matter? REG. The messengers from our sister and the king!

CORN. What is your difference? speak.
Osw. I am scarce in breath, my lord.

KENT. No marvel, you have so bestirred your valour. You cowardly rascal, nature disclaims in thee; a tailor made thee.

CORN. Thou art a strange fellow: a tailor make a man?

KENT. Ay, a tailor, sir: a stone-cutter, or a (+) First folio omits, ago. (§) First folio, if. omits, Ay.

(*) First folio, clamours. (1) First folio omits, draw. (I) First folio

to mean simply mere or finical. For the real allusion, see a passage in the "Winter's Tale," Act I. Sc. 2,

"Come, captain,

We must be neat; not neat, but cleanly, captain; And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf,

Are all call'd neat."

See also Taylor the Water Poet's Epigram on the husband of
Mrs. Parnell,-

"Neate can he talke, and feede, and neatly tread,
. Neate are his feete, but most neate is his head."