GLO.

What, is he dead? EDG. Sit you down, father; rest you.Let's see his pockets: these § letters, that he speaks of,

May be my friends.-He's dead; I am only sorry He had no other death's-man.-Let us see :Leave, gentle wax: and, manners, blame us not: To know our enemies' minds, we rip their hearts;

Their papers, is more lawful.

[Reads.] Let our reciprocal vows be remembered. You have many opportunities to cut him off: if your will want not, time and place will be fruitfully offered. There is nothing done, if he return the conqueror: then am I the prisoner, and his bed my gaol; from the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply the place for your

labour.

Your (wife, so I would say,) affectionate servant,

GONERIL.

O, undistinguish'd space of woman's will!"
A plot upon her virtuous husband's life; [sands,
And the exchange, my brother!-Here, in the
Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified

Of murderous lechers: and, in the mature time,
With this ungracious paper strike the sight
Of the death-practis'd duke: for him 'tis well,
That of thy death and business I can tell.

[Exit, dragging out the body. GLO. The king is mad: how stiff is my vile

a O, undistinguish'd space of woman's will!] In the quartos we read, "O undistinguisht space of womans wit"; in the folio, "Oh indinguish'd space of Womans will; and Mr. Collier's annotator suggests, "O, unextinguish'd blaze of woman's will!" Whatever may have been the original lection, it was plainly an exclamation against the indiscriminate caprice of woman as exhibited by Goneril in plotting against a virtuous husband's life merely to gain a villain like Edmund, and not, as Mr. Collier asserts, against the "unextinguishable appetite" of the sex: his annotator's emendation is therefore indefensible. We should, perhaps read “O, undistinguishable sense of woman's will."

paid.

All my reports go with the modest truth;
Nor more nor clipp'd, but so.
CORD.
Be better suited:
These weeds are memories of those worser hours;
I pr'y thee, put them off.

KENT.
Pardon, dear madam ;
Yet to be known, shortens my made intent :
My boon I make it, that you know me not,
Till time and I think meet.

CORD. Then be't so, my good lord.-How does
the king?
[To the Physician.
PHYS. Madam, sleeps still.4
CORD. O you kind gods,

Cure this great breach in his abused nature!
The untun'd and jarring senses, O, wind up
Of this child-changed father!

PHYS.
So please your majesty
That we may wake the king? he hath slept long.
CORD. Be govern'd by your knowledge, and
proceed

I' the sway of your own will. Is he array'd? GENT. Ay, madam; in the heaviness of sleep, We put fresh garments on him.

PHYS. Be by, good madam, when we do awake him;

I doubt not* of his temperance.
CORD.

(*) First folio omits, not.

Very well..

bsoft music playing.] This part of the stage direction was judiciously interpolated by Mr. Dyce.

e-made intent:] This may import purposed intent; but Mr. Collier's annotator proposes a very plausible change-" My main intent."

d Madam, sleeps still.] In the folio, the Physician and Gentleman form one character; the parts were combined probably, as Mr. Collier surmises, to suit the economy of performers. e CORD. Very well.

PHYS. Please you, draw near.-Louder the music there.] These two speeches are not in the folio.

CORD. O my dear father! Restoration, hang Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss Repair those violent harms that my two sisters Have in thy reverence made!

KENT.
Kind and dear princess!
CORD. Had you not been their father, these
white flakes

Had challeng'd pity of them. Was this a face
To be oppos'd against the warring + winds?
To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder ?"
In the most terrible and nimble stroke

Of quick, cross-lightning? to watch (poor perdu!)
With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog,
Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father,
To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn,

In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!
'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once
Had not concluded all. He wakes; speak to him.
PHYS. Madam, do you; 'tis fittest.

CORD. How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty?

LEAR. You do me wrong to take me out o' the

I'm mightily abus'd.-I should e'en die with pity,
To see another thus.-I know not what to say.-
I will not swear these are my hands :-let's see,
I feel this pin prick. Would I were assur'd
Of my condition!

CORD.

O, look upon me, sir, And hold your hands in benediction o'er me:No, sir,† you must not kneel.

LEAR.

Pray, do not mock me:
I am a very foolish fond old man,
Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;
And, to deal plainly,

I fear I am not in my perfect mind.
Methinks I should know you, and know this man;
Yet I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant
What place this is; and all the skill I have
Remembers not these garments; nor I know not
Where I did lodge last night.-Do not laugh at me,
For, as I am a man, I think this lady

To be my child Cordelia.

If

CORD.

And so I am, I am.

LEAR. Be your tears wet? yes, faith. I pray, weep not:

you have poison for me, I will drink it.

I know you do not love me; for your sisters
Have, as I do remember, done me wrong:
You have some cause, they have not.

LEAR. Am I in France? ΚΕΝΤ.

In your own kingdom, sir. LEAR. Do not abuse me. [rage, PHYS. Be comforted, good madam; the great You see, is kill'd in him and yet it is danger To make him even o'er the time he has lost. Desire him to go in; trouble him no more, Till further settling.

COR. Will't please your highness walk? LEAR. You must bear with me: Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old, and foolish.

[Exeunt LEAR, CORDELIA, Physician, and Attendants.b

GENT. Holds it true, sir, that the duke of Cornwall was so slain?

a That thought abuses you.] The folio omits both this and the following speech.

b I had rather lose the battle, &c.] This speech is omitted in the folio.

c Where 1 could not be honest, &c.] The remainder of the speech and Edmund's answer are omitted in the folio.

d I shall attend you presently at your tent.] Omitted in the folio.

e-carry out my side,-] A metaphor from the card-table, where to carry out a side meant to carry out the game with your partner successfully. So to set up a side, was to become partners

Hear me one word. ALB.

I'll overtake you.-Speak. [Exeunt EDM. REG. GON. Officers, Soldiers, and Attendants.

EDG. Before you fight the battle, ope this letter.
If you have victory, let the trumpet sound
For him that brought it: wretched though I seem,
I can produce a champion that will prove
What is avouched there. If you miscarry,
Your business of the world hath so an end,
And machination ceases. Fortune love you!
ALB. Stay till I've read the letter.
EDG.
I was forbid it.
When time shall serve, let but the herald cry,
And I'll appear again.

ALB. Why, fare thee well; I will o'erlook thy
paper.
[Exit EDGAR.

Re-enter EDMUND.

EDM. The enemy's in view, draw up your

powers.

Here is the guess of their true strength and forces
By diligent discovery ;—but your haste
Is now urg'd on you.

ALB.
We will greet the time. [Exit.
EDM. To both these sisters have I sworn my
love;

Each jealous of the other, as the stung

Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take?
Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd,
If both remain alive: to take the widow,
Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril;
And hardly shall I carry out my side,
Her husband being alive. Now then, we'll use
His countenance for the battle; which being done,
Let her who would be rid of him devise
His speedy taking off. As for the mercy
Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia,-
The battle done, and they within our power,
Shall never see his pardon; for my state
Stands on me to defend, not to debate.

(*) First folio, loves.

[Exit.

in the game; to pull or pluck down a side, was to lose it. Thus in Ben Jonson's "Silent Woman," Act III. Sc. 2,

"Mavis and she will set up a side."

Thus also in Massinger's "Great Duke of Florence," Act IV. Sc. 1, where Cozimo, declining to do Petronella right in a bowl of wine, says,

"Pray you pause a little;

If I hold your cards, I shall pull down the side: I am not good at the game."