Were like a better way.' Those happy smiles,2 That played on her ripe lip, seemed not to know What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence, As pearls from diamonds dropped.3-In brief, sorrow Would be a rarity most beloved, if all

Could so become it.

Kent.

Made she no verbal question ?4 Gent. 'Faith, once, or twice, she heaved the name

of father

Pantingly forth, as if it pressed her heart;
Cried, Sisters! sisters!—Shame of ladies! sisters!
Kent! father! sisters! What! the storm? the night?
Let pity not be believed!5-There she shook
The holy water from her heavenly eyes,
And clamor moistened; then away she started
To deal with grief alone.

Kent.

6

It is the stars,

The stars above us, govern our conditions ;"
Else one self mate and mate, could not beget

8

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, distressed 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.

1 Both the quartos read, "Were like a better way." Steevens reads, upon the suggestion of Theobald, "a better day." Warburton reads, "a wetter May." Malone adopts a part of his emendation, and reads, “a better May." Mr. Boaden proposes to read,

2 The quartos read smilets, which may be a diminutive of the Poet's coining.

3 Steevens would read dropping; but as must be understood to signify as if.

4 i. e. discourse, conversation.

5 i. e. let not pity be supposed to exist.

6 That is, "her outcries were accompanied with tears."

7 Conditions are dispositions.

8 i. e. the self-same husband and wife.

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.

Gent.

Alack, poor gentleman!

Kent. Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard

not?

Gent. 'Tis so; they are afoot.

Kent. Well, sir, I'll bring you to our master Lear, And leave you to attend him. Some dear cause' Will in concealment wrap me up awhile; When I am known aright, you shall not grieve. Lending me this acquaintance. I pray you, go Along with me.

SCENE IV. The same. A Tent.

[Exeunt.

Enter CORDELIA, Physician, and Soldiers.

Cor. Alack, 'tis he; why, he was met even now As mad as the vexed sea; singing aloud;

3

Crowned with rank fumiter,2 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,5

1 Important business.

2 i. e. fumitory, written by the old herbalists fumittery.

3 The quartos read hardocks, the folio hardokes. Drayton mentions harlocks in one of his Eclogues. Perhaps the charlock (sinapis arvensis), or wild-mustard, may be meant.

4 Darnel, according to Gerard, is the most hurtful of weeds among corn. 5 Steevens says that do should be omitted as needless and injurious to the metre. Do is found in none of the old copies but quarto B.

In the restoring his bereaved 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.

Cor.

All blessed secrets,

All you unpublished virtues of the earth,

Spring with my tears! be aidant, and remediate,
In the good man's distress!-Seek, seek for him;
Lest his ungoverned rage dissolve the life

That wants the means to lead it.1

Mess.

Enter a Messenger.

Madam, news;

The British powers are marching hitherward.
Cor. 'Tis known before; our preparation stands
In expectation of them.-O dear father,

It is thy business that I

go about; Therefore great France

My mourning, and important tears hath pitied.
No blown ambition doth our arms incite,

But love, dear love, and our aged father's right.
Soon may I hear and see him.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. A Room in Gloster's Castle.

Enter REGAN and Steward.

Reg. But are my brother's powers set forth?

Ay, madam.
Himself

Madam, with much ado;

Your sister is the better soldier.

1 i. e. the reason which should guide it.

2 Important for importunate.

3 No inflated, no swelling pride.

Reg. Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at

home?

Stew. No, madam.

Reg. What might import my sister's letter to him? Stew. I know not, lady.

Reg. 'Faith, he is posted hence on serious matter. It was great ignorance, Gloster's eyes being out, To let him live; where he arrives, he moves All hearts against us. Edmund, I think, is gone, In pity of his misery, to despatch

His nighted life; moreover, to descry

The strength o'the enemy.

Stew. I must needs after him, madam, with my letter.

Reg. Our troops set forth to-morrow; stay with us; The ways are dangerous.

Stew.

I may not, madam ; My lady charged my duty in this business.

Reg. Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you

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.2

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;

1 Eillade (Fr.), a cast or significant glance of the eye.

2 That is, observe what I am saying.

3 You may infer more than I have directly told you.

4 Perhaps a ring, or some token, is given to the steward by Regan to be conveyed to Edmund.

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

Enter GLOSTER and EDGAR, dressed like a Peasant.

Glo. When shall we come to the top of that same

hill?

Edg. You do climb up it now; look, how we labor. Glo. Methinks the ground is even.

Edg.

Hark, do you hear the sea?

Glo.

No, truly.

Horrible steep.

Edg. Why, then your other senses grow imperfect By your eyes' anguish.

3

Glo.
So may it be, indeed.
Methinks thy voice is altered; and thou speak'st
In better phrase, and matter, than thou didst.

Edg. You are much deceived; in nothing am I changed

But in my garments.

Glo.

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

1 This scene, and the stratagem by which Gloster is cured of his desperation, are wholly borrowed from Sidney's Arcadia, book ii.

2 Something to complete the measure seems wanting in this or the foregoing hemistich. The quartos read, as one line:

"Horrible steep: hark, do you hear the sea?"

3 Edgar alters his voice in order to pass afterwards for a malignant spirit.