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, horseway 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 chambermaids and waiting women. So, bless thee, master!

Glo. Here, take this purse, thou whom the heavens plagues

Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched,
Makes thee the happier.—Heavens, deal so still!
Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man,
That slaves your ordinance, that will not see
Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly:
So distribution should undo excess,

And each man have enough.-Dost thou know
Dover?

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!

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 bordered certain in itself:
She that herself will sliver 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 performed? A father, and a gracious agéd man,

Whose reverence the head-lugged 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,
It will come,

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

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 required 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

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 returned?
Gent. No; since.

Kent. Well, sir; the poor distresséd 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 stripped her from his benediction, turned 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.

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 vexéd sea: singing aloud; Crowned 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 bereavéd sense?

He that helps him, take all my outward worth.
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.

Transport her purposes by word? Belike, Something I know not what.-I'll love thee much,

Let me unseal the letter.
Stew.

Madam, I had rather-
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 talked;
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,

I pray, desire her call her wisdom to her.
So fare you well.

If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,
Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.
Stew. 'Would I could meet him, madam! I
would shew

Glo. Methinks you are better spoken. Edg. Come on, sir; here's the place :-stand still. How fearful

And dizzy 't is to cast one's eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air,
Shew 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
Diminished to her cock: her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge,
That on the unnumbered 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.
Edg. Give me your hand :-You are now

Set me where you stand.

within a foot

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

O you mighty gods!

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 loathéd 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?
Ho, you sir! friend!-Hear you, sir? speak!—
Thus might he pass indeed.-Yet he revives:
What are you, sir?

Edg. Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,

So many fathom down precipitating, Thou hadst shivered like an egg: but thou dost breathe;

Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound!

Ten masts at each make not the altitude
Which thou hast perpendicularly fell:
Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again.

Glo. But have I fallen, or no?

Edg. From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.
Look up a-height: the shrill-gorged lark so far
Cannot be seen or heard. Do but look up.
Glo. Alack, I have no eyes.-

Is wretchedness deprived that benefit
To end itself by death? "T was yet some comfort
When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage,
And frustrate his proud will.

Edg. Give me your arm: Up-so.-How is 't? Feel you your legs? You stand.

I took it for a man: often 't would 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 crowkeeper: 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.