Glo. What, with the case of eyes?

Lear. O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your head, nor no money in your purse? Your eyes are in a heavy case, your purse in a light; yet you see how this world goes.

Glo. I see it feelingly.

Lear. What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears; see how yon' justice rails upon yon' simple thief. Hark, in thine ear. Change places; and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?-Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar?

Glo. Ay, sir.

Lear. And the creature run from the cur? There thou might'st behold the great image of authority; a dog's obeyed in office.

Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand;

Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back; Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind

For which thou whipp'st her. The usurer hangs the

cozener.

Through tattered clothes small vices do appear;
Robes, and furred gowns, hide all.' Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;
Arm it in rags, a pygmy's straw doth pierce it.
None does offend, none, I say none; I'll able 'em.o
Take that of me, my friend, who have the power
To seal the accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes;
And, like a scurvy politician, seem

To see the things thou dost not.-Now, now, now,

now.

Pull off my boots;-harder, harder; so.

3

Edg. Ó, matter and impertinency 3 mixed!

Reason in madness!

Lear. If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes. I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloster.

1 From "hide all" to "accuser's lips" is wanting in the quartos.

2 i. e. support or uphold them.

3 Impertinency here is used in its old legitimate sense of something not belonging to the subject.

Thou must be patient; we came crying hither.

Thou know'st the first time that we smell the air,
We wawl, and cry.-I will preach to thee; mark me.
Glo. Alack, alack the day!

Lear. When we are born, we cry, that we are come To this great stage of fools.This a good block?1 It were a delicate stratagem to shoe

A troop of horse with felt. I'll put it in proof;
And when I have stolen upon these sons-in-law,
Then, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.2

Enter a Gentleman, with Attendants.

Gent. O, here he is; lay hand upon him.-Sir, Your most dear daughter

Lear. No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even The natural fool of fortune.-Use me well;

You shall have ransom.

I am cut to the brains.

Gent.

Let me have a surgeon;

You shall have any thing.

Lear. No seconds? All myself?

Why, this would make a man, a man of salt,3
To use his eyes for garden water-pots,

Ay, and for laying autumn's dust.

Gent.

Good sir,

Lear. I will die bravely, like a bridegroom. What? I will be jovial; come, come; I am a king,

My masters, know you that!

Gent. You are a royal one, and we obey you. Lear. Then there's life in it. Nay, an you get it, you shall get it by running. Sa, sa, sa, sa.5

[Exit, running; Attendants follow.

1 Upon the king's saying "I will preach to thee," the Poet seems to have meant him to pull off his hat, and keep turning it, and feeling it, till the idea of felt which the good hat or block was made of, raises the stratagem in his brain of shoeing a troop of horse with the [same substance] which he held and moulded between his hands.

2 This was the cry formerly in the English army when an onset was made on the enemy.

3 "A man of salt" is a man of tears.

4 The case is not yet desperate.

5 Mr. Boswell thinks that this passage seems to prove that sessa means the very reverse of cessez.

Gent. A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch; Past speaking of in a king!-Thou hast one daughter, Who redeems nature from the general curse

Which twain have brought her to.

Edg. Hail, gentle sir.

Gent.

Sir, speed you; what's your will? Edg. Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward? Gent. Most sure and vulgar; every one hears that, Which can distinguish sound.

Edg.

How near's the other army?

But, by your favor,

Gent. Near, and on speedy foot; the main descry Stands on the hourly thought.'

Edg.

I thank you, sir; that's all.

Gent. Though that the queen on special cause is

here,

Her army is moved on.

Edg.

I thank you, sir. [Exit Gent. Glo. You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me ; Let not my worser spirit tempt me again

To die before you please!

Edg.

Well pray you,

father.

Glo. Now, good sir, what are you?

Edg. A most poor man, made lame by fortune's

blows: 3

Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows,
Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand,
I'll lead you to some biding.

Glo.

Hearty thanks.

The bounty and the benison of Heaven
To boot, and boot!

1 The main body is expected to be descried every hour.

2 By this expression may be meant "my evil genius.”

3 The folio reads, "made tame by fortune's blows." The original is probably the true reading. So in Shakspeare's thirty-seventh Sonnet :"So 1, made tame by fortune's dearest spight."

4 Feeling is probably used here for felt.

Stew.

Enter Steward.

A proclaimed prize! Most happy! That eyeless head of thine was first framed flesh To raise my fortunes.--Thou old unhappy traitor, Briefly thyself remember.1-The sword is out That must destroy thee.

Glo.

Put strength enough to it.
Stew.

Now let thy friendly hand

[EDGAR opposes.

Wherefore, bold peasant,

Dar'st thou support a published traitor? Hence;
Lest that the infection of his fortune take

Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.

Edg. Ch'ill not let go, zir, without vurther 'casion. Stew. Let go, slave, or thou diest.

Edg. Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor volk pass. And ch'ud ha' been zwaggered out of my life, 'twould not ha' been zo long as 'tis by a vortnight. Nay, come not near the old man; keep out, che vor’ye,3 or ise try whether your costard or my bat be the harder. Ch'ill be plain with you.

Stew. Out, dunghill!

4

Edg. Ch'ill pick your teeth, zir; come; no matter vor your foins.5

[They fight; and EDGAR knocks him down. Stew. Slave, thou hast slain me.-Villain, take my

purse;

If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body;

And give the letters, which thou find'st about me,
To Edmund earl of Gloster; seek him out

Upon the British party.-O, untimely death.
Edg. I know thee well; a serviceable villain;

As duteous to the vices of thy mistress,

As badness would desire.

[Dies.

1 i. e. "quickly recollect the past offences of thy life, and recommend thyself to Heaven."

2 Gang your gait is a common expression in the north.

3 i. e. I warn you.

4 i. e. head. A bat is a staff. It is the proper name of a walking-stick, in Sussex, even at this day.

5 i. e. thrusts.

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 friends. He's dead; I am only sorry

He had no other deathsman.-Let us see:

Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not;
To know our enemies' minds, we'd rip their hearts;
Their papers, is more lawful.1

[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 jail'; from the loathed warmth whereof, deliver me, and supply the place for your labor.

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

O undistinguished space of woman's will!2-
A plot upon her virtuous husband's life;

GONERIL.

And the exchange, my brother!-Here, in the sands,
Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified3

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

[Exit EDGAR, dragging out the body. Glo. The king is mad. How stiff is my vile sense, That I stand up, and have ingenious feeling5

Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract;

1 i. e. to rip their papers is more lawful.

2 This seems to mean, "O, how inordinate, how unbounded, is the licentious inclination of women!"

3 "Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified," &c.

i. e. I'll cover thee. Unsanctified refers to his want of burial in consecrated ground.

4 That is, the duke of Albany, whose death is machinated by practice

or treason.

5 "Ingenious feeling." Bullokar, in his Expositor, interprets ingenious by quick-conceited, i. e. acute.