EDM. Look, sir, I bleed.
GLO.
Where is the villain, Edmund ?
EDM. Fled this way, sir. When by no means
he could-

GLO. Pursue him, ho!-Go after.-[Exeunt some Servants.] By no means, what? EDM. Persuade me to the murder of your lordship;

But that I told him, the revenging gods
'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend;
Spoke, with how manifold and strong a bond
The child was bound to the father;-sir, in fine,
Seeing how loathly opposite I stood
To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion
With his prepared sword, he charges home
My unprovided body, lanc'd† mine arm:
But when he saw my best alarum'd spirits,
Bold in the quarrel's right, rous'd to the encounter,
Or whether gasted by the noise I made,
Full suddenly he fled.

GLO.

Let him fly far:
Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;
And found-despatch!-The noble duke my
master,

My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night :
By his authority I will proclaim it,

That he which finds him shall deserve our thanks,
Bringing the murderous coward to the stake;
He that conceals him, death.

EDM. When I dissuaded him from his intent,
And found him pight to do it, with curst speech
I threaten'd to discover him: he replied,
Thou unpossessing bastard! dost thou think,
If I would stand against thee, would the reposal
Of any trust, virtue, or worth, in thee
Make thy words faith'd? No: what I should §
(As this I would; ay, though thou didst produce
My very character') I'd turn it all

[deny,

To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practice: And thou must make a dullard of the world, If they not thought the profits of my death

a But when, &c.] "When" is very probably a misprint for wher, or whether.

b- -gasted-] Gasted, or ghasted, means affrighted, dismayed. And found-despatch!-] Warburton reads, "And found, dispatch'd;" as also does Mr. Collier's annotator; but the old text is right. Thus, in "Blurt, Master Constable," Act V. Sc. 1,"There to find Fontinelle: found, to kill him." - pight to do it,-] Pight is fixed, settled.

Were very pregnant and potential spurs*
To make thee seek it.
GLO.
Strong and fasten'd villain!
Would he deny his letter?-I never got him.—8
[Trumpets without.
Hark, the duke's trumpets! I know not why he

comes.

All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not 'scape;
The duke must grant me that: besides, his picture
I will send far and near, that all the kingdom
May have due note of him; and of my land,
Loyal and natural boy, I'll work the means
To make thee capable.

Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, and Attendants.

CORN. How now, my noble friend! since I came hither,

[news.§ (Which I can call but now) I have heard strange REG. If it be true, all vengeance comes too short, Which can pursue the offender. How dost, my lord? [crack'd!

GLO. O, madam, my old heart is crack'd,—it's REG. What, did my father's godson seek your life?

He whom my father nam'd? your Edgar?

GLO. O, lady, lady, shame would have it hid! REG. Was he not companion with the riotous knights

That tend upon my father?

[bad.

GLO. I know not, madam: 't is too bad, too
EDM. Yes, madam, he was of that consort.
REG. No marvel then, though he were ill
affected;

"Tis they have put him on the old man's death,
To have the waste and spoil" of his revenues.
I have this present evening from my sister
Been well inform'd of them; and with such cautions,
That if they come to sojourn at my house,
I'll not be there.
CORN.

Nor I, assure thee, Regan.Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father A child-like office.

Be fear'd of doing harm: make your own purpose, How in my strength you please. For you, Edmund.

Whose virtue and obedience doth this instant So much commend itself, you shall be ours; Natures of such deep trust we shall much need; You we first seize on.

EDM. However else.

I shall serve you, sir, truly,

GLO. CORN. You know not why we came to visit you,[night.

For him I thank your grace.

REG. Thus out of season; threading dark-eyed Occasions, noble Gloster, of some poise,* Wherein we must have use of your advice:Our father he hath writ, so hath our sister, Of differences, which I best thought it fit To answer from our home; the several messengers From hence attend despatch. Our good old friend, Lay comforts to your bosom; and bestow Your needful counsel to our business,† Which craves the instant use.

GLO. I serve you, madam : Your graces are right welcome. [Exeunt.

b

(+) First folio, businesses.

from our home;] Away from home. hundred-pound,-] This epithet is found in Middleton's play of "The Phoenix," Act IV. Sc. 3,

"am I used like a hundred-pound gentleman."

And in Sir Walter Raleigh's speech against Foreign Retailers (Oldys's "Life of Raleigh," p. 68), he says,-"Nay at Milan, where there are three hundred-pound Englishmen, they cannot so much as have a barber among them."

e-yet the moon shines,-] That is, now the moon shines, &c. dyou neat slave,-] The sting in this epithet, "neat," has been quite misunderstood by the commentators, who suppose it

trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamourous* whining, if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition.

Osw. Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail on one that is neither known of thee nor knows thee!

KENT. What a brazen-faced varlet art thou, to deny thou knowest me! Is it two days ago,† since I tripped up thy heels, and beat thee, before the king? Draw, you rogue: for, though it be night, yet the moon shines, I'll make a sop o'the moonshine of you: draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw. [Drawing his sword.

Osw. Away! I have nothing to do with thee. KENT. Draw, you rascal! you come with letters against the king; and take Vanity the puppet's part, against the royalty of her father: draw, you rogue, or I'll so carbonado your shanks!—draw, you rascal! come your ways.

Osw. Help, ho! murder! help!

d

KENT. Strike, you slave! stand, rogue, stand! you neat slave, strike! [Beating him. Osw. Help, ho! murder! murder!

Enter EDMUND.

EDM. How now? what's the matter? Part. KENT. With you, goodman boy, an § you please; come, I'll flesh you; come on, young master.

Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOUCESTER, and Servants.

GLO. Weapons! arms! what's the matter here? CORN. Keep peace, upon your lives!

He dies, that strikes again! what is the matter? REG. The messengers from our sister and the king!

CORN. What is your difference? speak.
Osw. I am scarce in breath, my lord.

KENT. No marvel, you have so bestirred your valour. You cowardly rascal, nature disclaims in thee; a tailor made thee.

CORN. Thou art a strange fellow: a tailor make a man?

KENT. Ay, a tailor, sir: a stone-cutter, or a (+) First folio omits, ago. (§) First folio, if.

(*) First folio, clamours. (1) First folio omits, draw. () First folio

omits, Ay.

painter, could not have made him so ill, though they had been but two hours at the trade.* CORN. Speak yet, how grew your quarrel? Osw. This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spar'd,

At suit of his grey beard,-

KENT. Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter!--My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the wall of a jakes with him.-Spare my grey beard, you wagtail ?^ Peace, sirrah!

CORN.
You beastly knave, know you no reverence?
KENT. Yes, sir, but anger hath a privilege.
CORN. Why art thou angry?

KENT. That such a slave as this should wear a sword,

[these,

Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as
Like rats, oft bite the holy cords a-twain
Which are too intrinse t'unloose: smooth every
passion

That in the natures of their lords rebels;
Bring oil to fire, snow to the colder moods;
Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks
With every gale§ and vary of their masters,
Knowing nought, like dogs, but following,-
A plague upon your epileptic visage!
Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool?
Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain,
I'd drive ye cackling home to Camelot.(1)
CORN. What, art thou mad, old fellow ?
GLO. How fell you out? say that.
KENT. No contraries hold more antipathy,
Than I and such a knave.

CORN. Why dost thou call him knave? What's

Than twenty silly ducking 6bservants, That stretch their duties nicely.

KENT. Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity, Under the allowance of your grand † aspéct, Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire On flickering Phoebus' front,

CORN.

What mean'st by this? KENT. To go out of my dialect, which you discommend so much. I know, sir, I am no flatterer: he that beguiled you in a plain accent, was a plain knave; which, for my part, I will not be, though I should win your displeasure to entreat me to 't.

CORN. What was the offence you gave him?
Osw.
I never gave
him any:

It pleas'd the king his master very late,
To strike at me, upon his misconstruction;
When he, conjunct,§ and flattering his displeasure,
Tripp'd me behind; being down, insulted, rail'd,
And put upon him such a deal of man,
That worthied him, got praises of the king
For him attempting who was self-subdu'd ;
And, in the fleshment of this dread || exploit,
Drew on me here again.

KENT. None of these rogues and cowards,
But Ajax is their fool.
CORN.

Fetch forth the stocks, ho! You stubborn ancient knave, you reverend braggart,

We'll teach you—

KENT. Sir, I am too old to learn: Call not your stocks for me: I serve the king; On whose employment I was sent to you: You shall do small respect,¶ show too bold malice Against the grace and person of my master, Stocking his messenger.

CORN.

noon !

Fetch forth the stocks!

As I have life and honour, there shall he sit till [night too. REG. Till noon till night, my lord; and all KENT. Why, madam, if I were your father's dog, You should not use me so.

REG. Sir, being his knave, I will. CORN. This is a fellow of the self-same colour Our sister speaks of.-Come, bring away the stocks. [Stocks brought in.

GLO. Let me beseech your grace not to do so: His fault is much, and the good king his master Will check him for't: your purpos'd low correction Is such, as basest and contemned'st** wretches, For pilferings and most common trespasses

REG. My sister may receive it much more worse, To have her gentleman abus'd, assaulted, For following her affairs.-Put in his legs.-" [KENT is put in the stocks.

Come, my good lord; away.

[Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER and KENT. GLO. I am sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure,

Whose disposition, all the world well knows,
Will not be rubb'd nor stopp'd: I'll entreat for thee.
KENT. Pray do not, sir: I have watch'd and
travell'd hard;

Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle.

(*) First folio omits, good.

a For following her affairs,-Put in his legs.-] A line not found in the folio. b Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st To the warm sun!]

This "common saw" we meet with in Heywood's "Dialogues on Proverbs,"

"In your running from him to me, ye runne

Out of God's blessing into the warme sunne."

It is found also in Howell's collection of English Proverbs in his Dictionary, 1660, and there explained,-"He goes out of God's blessing to the warm sun, viz. from good to worse." The application, we must suppose, is to Lear's quitting one daughter only to meet more inhospitable treatment from another.

A good man's fortune may grow out at heels:
Give you good morrow!

GLO. [Aside.] The duke's to blame in this;
't will be ill taken.
[Exit.
KENT. Good king, that must approve the com-

mon saw,

Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st
To the warm sun !b

Approach, thou beacon to this under globe,
That by thy comfortable beams I may
Peruse this letter!-Nothing almost sees miracles,
But misery ;-I know 'tis from Cordelia ;
Who hath most fortunately been inform'd
Of my obscured course, and she'll find time
From this enormous state-seeking, to give
Losses their remedies. All weary and o'er-
watch'd,

C

I know 'tis from Cordelia;

Who hath most fortunately been inform'd
Of my obscured course, and she'll find time
From this enormous state-seeking, to give
Losses their remedies.]

Some editors have gone so far as to degrade this passage altogether from the text: Steevens and others conjecture it to be made up from fragments of Cordelia's letter. We agree with Malone that it forms no part of that letter, but are opposed to his notion that "two half lines have been lost between the words state and seeking." The slight change of "she'll" for shall,-the ordinary reading being, "and shall find time," &c.-appears to remove much of the difficulty; that occasioned by the corrupt words, "enormous state-seeking," will some day probably find an equally facile remedy.

EDG. I heard myself proclaim'd;
And, by the happy hollow of a tree,
Escap'd the hunt. No port is free; no place,
That guard, and most unusual vigilance,

Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may scape,
I will preserve myself: and am bethought
To take the basest and most poorest shape,
That ever penury, in contempt of man,
Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with
filth;

Blanket my loins; elf all my hair in knots ;a
And with presented nakedness out-face
The winds and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars, (2) who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
And with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills,
Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
Enforce their charity.-Poor Turlygood (3) poor
Tom!

That's something yet;-Edgar I nothing am. [Exit.

Your son and daughter.

LEAR. No!

KENT. Yes.
LEAR. No, I say!
KENT. I say, yea.

LEAR. No, no; they would not.'
KENT. Yes, they have.

LEAR. By Jupiter, I swear, no!
KENT. By Juno, I swear, ay.
LEAR. They durst not do 't;

They could not, would not do 't; 'tis worse than murder,

To do upon respect such violent outrage:
Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way
Thou mightst deserve, or they impose, this usage,
Coming from us.

KENT.

My lord, when at their home
I did commend your highness' letters to them,
Ere I was risen from the place that show'd
My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,
Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting t
forth

From Goneril, his mistress, salutations;
Deliver❜d letters, spite of intermission,

Which presently they read: on whose contents, They summon'd up their meiny," straight took horse;

Commanded me to follow, and attend
The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks:
And meeting here the other messenger,
Whose welcome I perceiv'd had poison'd mine,
(Being the very fellow which of late
Display'd so saucily against your highness)
Having more man than wit about me, drew;
He rais'd the house with loud and coward cries:

(*) First folio, haires,

(†) First folio, Messengers.

(*) First folio omits, is.

(+) First folio, painting. (1) First folio, those.

a - elf all my hair in knots;] "Hair thus knotted was vulgarly supposed to be the work of elves and fairies in the night. So in Romeo and Juliet,' Act I. Sc. 4,

plats the manes of horses in the night; And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs, Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes.""

-STEEVENS.

b-pelting villages,-] That is, paltry, pedling villages.

e Poor Turlygood! poor Tom!] So Dekker, in his "Bell-man of London," says of an "Abraham-man,"- -"He calls himselfe by

the name of poore Tom, and comming neere any body cries out, Poore Tom is a-cold."

dcruel garters!] The same quibble on cruel and crewel, i.e. worsted of which stockings, garters, &c., were made, is found in many of our old plays.

e-nether-stocks.] Stockings were formerly called netherstocks, and breeches over-stocks or upper-stocks.

f No, no; they would not.] This and the next speech are not in the folio.

g They summon'd up their meiny, -] Meiny here signifies train or retinue.