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LEAR. Pass.

GLO. I know that voice.

LEAR. Ha! Goneril!-with a white beard!They flattered me like a dog; and told me I had * white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there. To say ay, and no, to every thing that I said!-Ay and no too was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter; when the thunder would not peace at my bidding, there I found 'em, there I smelt 'em out. Go to, they are not men o' their words: they told me I was every thing; 't is a lie ;-I am not ague-proof. [ber: GLO. The trick of that voice I do well rememIs 't not the king?

LEAR.

Ay, every inch a king!

When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.
I pardon that man's life.-What was thy cause ?-
Adultery?—

Thou shalt not die

die for adultery! No:

The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly
Does lecher in my sight.

Let copulation thrive, for Gloster's bastard son
Was kinder to his father than my daughters
Got 'tween the lawful sheets.

To't, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers.-
Behold yond simpering dame,

Whose face between her forks presages snow;
That mincesa virtue, and does shake the head
To hear of pleasure's name ;-

The fitchew, nor the soiled horse, goes to 't
With a more riotous appetite.
Down from the waist they are Centaurs,
Though women all above:

But to the girdle do the gods inherit,

Beneath is all the fiends'; there's hell, there's darkness, there is the sulphurous pit, burning, scalding, stench, consumption !-fie, fie, fie! pah, pah! Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, tot sweeten my imagination: there's money for thee.

GLO. O, let me kiss that hand!

LEAR. Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.

GLO. O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world

Shall so wear out to nought.-Dost thou know me?

LEAR. I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid, I'll not love. Read thou this challenge; mark but the penning of it.

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GLO. Ay, sir.

LEAR. And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst 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 tatter'd clothes small † vices do appear; Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,

And the strong lance. of justice hurtless breaks : Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it. None does offend, none,-I say, none; I'll able

'em :

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.

EDG. O, matter and impertinency mix'd! Reason in madness!

d

LEAR. If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my

eyes.

I know thee well enough, thy name is Gloster: 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! GLO. Alack, alack the day!

LEAR. When we are born, we cry that we are

come

(*) First folio, thy.

of Gloucester.

(†) First folio, great.

c Plate sin with gold,-] A correction by Pope and Theobald; the old text having, "Place sinnes." This passage down to, "To seal the accuser's lips," inclusive, is only in the folio.

dable 'em ] Qualify them.

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a This a good block :-] 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, in the attitude of one of the preachers of those times (whom I have seen so represented in ancient prints), till the idea of felt, which the good hat or block was made of, raises the stratagem in his brain of shoing a troop of horse with a substance soft as that which he held and moulded between his hands. This makes him start from his preachment." -STEEVENS.

bkill, kill! &c.] This was the ancient cry of assault in the English army. Shakespeare introduces it again in "Coriolanus," Act V. Sc. 5; when the conspirators attack Coriolanus.

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Osw.

Enter Oswald.

A proclaim'd prize! Most happy! That eyeless head of thine was first fram'd flesh To raise my fortunes.-Thou old unhappy traitor, Briefly thyself remember:-the sword is out That must destroy thee. GLO.

Now let thy friendly hand Put strength enough to it. [EDGAR interposes. Osw. Wherefore, bold peasant, Dar'st thou support a publish'd traitor? Hence! Lest that the infection of his fortune take Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.

EDG. Chill not let go, zir, without vurther 'casion.

Osw. Let go, slave, or thou diest!

EDG. Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor volk pass. An chud ha' been zwagger'd out of my life, 't would not ha' been zo long as 'tis by a vortnight."-Nay, come not near th' old man; keep out, che vor ye, or ise try whether your costard or my ballow be the harder: chill be plain with you.

Osw. Out, dunghill!

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Stands on the hourly thought.] The meaning appears to be, the sight of the main body is expected hourly; but the expression is as harsh and disagreeable as the speaker's "Most sure and vulgar" just before.

e't would not ha' been zo long as 't is by a vortnight.-] Steevens has remarked, but the reason is unexplained, that when our ancient writers have occasion to introduce a rustic, they commonly allot him this Somersetshire dialect.

fballow-] In some of the provincial dialects, ballow means a pole or staff.

gfoins.] Thrusts.

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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 fruitjully 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
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

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a O, undistinguish'd space of woman's will!] In the quartos we read, "O undistinguisht space of womans wit"; in the folio, “Oh indínguish'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."

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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.

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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.
CORD.
And so I am,
LEAR. Be your tears wet? yes, faith. I pray,
weep not:

I am.

If 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.
CORD.

(*) First folio, hand.

No cause, no cause.

(+) First folio omits, No, sir. "and yet it is danger To make him even o'er the time he has lost.]

LEAR. Am I in France? KENT.

In your own kingdom, sir. [rage,

:

LEAR. Do not abuse me. 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?

KENT. Most certain, sir.

GENT. Who is conductor of his people? KENT. As 'tis said, the bastard son of Gloster. GENT. They say, Edgar, his banish'd son, is with the earl of Kent in Germany.

KENT. Report is changeable. "T is time to look about; the powers of the kingdom approach apace. GENT. The arbitrement is like to be bloody. Fare you well, sir. [Exit. KENT. My point and period will be throughly wrought,

Or well or ill, as this day's battle's fought. [Exit.

Omitted in the folio.

b Exeunt LEAR, &c.] In the folio, the scene terminates here.

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