Enter GLOUCESTER, led by an old man. My father, poorly led ?-World, world, O world! But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee, Life would not yield to age. OLD MAN. O my good lord, I have been your tenant, and your father's tenant, these fourscore years. GLO. Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone: Thy comforts can do me no good at all, OLD MAN. You cannot see your way. Our means secure us; and our mere defects OLD MAN. How now! Who's there? I am worse than e'er I was ; OLD MAN. 'Tis poor mad Tom. 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, horse-way and footpath. Poor Tom hath been scared out of his good wits bless thee, good man's son, 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 EDG. [Aside.]-And worse I may be yet: the mowing,-who since possesses chamber-maids worst is not, So long as we can say, This is the worst. OLD MAN. Fellow, where goest? As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods,— EDG. [Aside.] How should this be?— This was an old stumbling-block to the critics Some have altered and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master! GLO. Here, take this purse, thou whom the Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched, [Dover? And each man have enough.-Dost thou know [head GLO. There is a cliff, whose high and bending Looks fearfully in the confined deep: Bring me but to the very brim of it, And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear, With something rich about me: from that place [Exeunt. careless, over-confident, unguarded, and this appears to be its meaning here. Thus, in Sir T. More's "Life of Edward V." :"Oh the uncertain confidence and shortsighted knowledge of man! When this lord was most afraid, he was most secure; and when he was secure, danger was over his head." Again, in Judges viii. 11:-" And Gideon went up by the way of them that dwelt in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and smote the host, for the host was secure." b Then, pr'ythee, get thee gone:] So the quartos; the folio reads, "Get thee away," &c. c-five fiends, &c.] The remainder of the speech is not given in the folio. When I inform'd him, then he call'd me sot, him ; What like, offensive. GON. [To EDMUND.] Then shall you go no further. It is the cowish terror of his spirit, That dares not undertake: he'll not feel wrongs, Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way * May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother; If you dare venture in your own behalf, EDM. Yours in the ranks of death. My most dear Gloster! [Exit EDMUND. O, the difference of man and man! To thee a woman's services are due; My fool usurps my body." Osw. Madam, here comes my lord. Enter ALBANY. Most barbarous, most degenerate !—have madded. Could my good brother suffer you to do it? A man, a prince, by him so benefited! you If that the heavens do not their visible spirits Send quickly down to tame these* vile offences, "Twill come, humanity must perforce prey on 'tself, Like monsters of the deep. GON. Milk-liver'd man! That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs; Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know'st, Fools do those villains pity who are punish'd Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum? France spreads his banners in our noiseless land; With plumed helm thy state begins to threat; Whiles thou, a moral fool, sitt'st still, and criest, Alack! why does he so? ALB. See thyself, devil! Proper deformity seems not in the fiend So horrid as in woman. Be-monster not thy feature! Were 't my fitness They are apt enough to dislocate and tear [Exit. Thy flesh and bones:-howe'er thou art a fiend, A woman's shape doth shield thee. Gox. I have been worth the whistle. ALB. O, Goneril! 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 border'd 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 Filths savour but themselves. What have you even would lick, (*) First folio, names. - (t) First folio, threat-enrag'd. (1) First folio, Iustices. e Thine honour from thy suffering;] In the folio, Goneril's speech ends here. d thy state begins to threat.] The first quarto has,-"thy state begins thereat;" the second, "thy slaier begins threats." e O vain fool!] In the folio, the Messenger enters here, and begins immediately,-"O, my good lord," &c. H GENT. Not to a rage: patience and sorrow strove* Who should express her goodliest. You have seen Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears KENT. Pantingly forth, as if it press'd her heart; Let pity not be believ'd !-There she shook KENT. It is the stars, -burdocks,-] The folio has "Hardokes," the quartos "hordocks" Farmer suggested harlocks, citing the following lines from Drayton, Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow In the restoring his bereaved sense? "The honey-suckle, the harlocke, The lilly, and the lady-smocke," &c. |