For, with throwing thus my head, Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled. Do de, de de. Sessa.1 Come, march to wakes and fairs, and market towns.-Poor Tom, thy horn is dry. Lear. Then let them anatomize Regan, see what breeds about her heart. Is there any cause in nature, that makes these hard hearts?-You, sir, I entertain you for one of my hundred; only I do not like the fashion of your garments. You will say they are Persian attire; but let them be changed. [TO EDGAR. Kent. Now, good my lord, lie here, and rest awhile.3 Lear. Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains. So, so, so. We'll go to supper i' the morning. So, so, so. Fool. And I'll go to bed at noon. Re-enter GLOster. Glo. Come hither, friend; where is the king my master? Kent. Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits are gone. Glo. Good friend, I pr'ythee take him in thy arms; I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him. There is a litter ready; lay him in't, And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet With thine, and all that offer to defend him, 4 mentioned in The Booke of Huntyng, &c., blk. let., no date; and in the old comedy of A Woman Killed with Kindness. 1 Sessa; this word occurs before in the fourth scene of this act. It is spelled sessey in both places in the old copy. The same word occurs in the Induction to the Taming of the Shrew, where it is spelled sessa; it appears to have been a corruption of cessez, stop or hold, be quiet, have done. 2 A horn was usually carried about by every Tom of Bedlam, to receive such drink as the charitable might afford him, with whatever scraps of food they might give him. 3 i. e. on the cushions to which he points. 4 One of the quartos reads, "Take up the king;" the other, "Take up to keep," &c. And follow me, that will to some provision [Kent. Oppressed nature sleeps.1This rest might yet have balmed thy broken senses, Which, if convenience will not allow, Stand in hard cure.-Come, help to bear thy master; Thou must not stay behind. Glo. [To the Fool. Come, come, away. [Exeunt KENT, GLOSTER, and the Fool, bearing off the King. Edg. When we our betters see bearing our woes, We scarcely think our miseries our foes. Who alone suffers, suffers most i' the mind; Leaving free things, and happy shows, behind: But then the mind much sufferance doth o'erskip, When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship. How light and portable my pain seems now, When that which makes me bend, makes the king bow; He childed, as I fathered!-Tom, away! Mark the high noises, and thyself bewray,3 When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee, [Exit. SCENE VII. A Room in Gloster's Castle. • Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GONERIL, EDMUND, and Servants. Corn. Post speedily to my lord your husband; show him this letter;-the army of France is landed.-Seek out the villain Gloster. [Exeunt some of the Servants. 1 These two concluding speeches, by Kent and Edgar, are restored from the quarto. 2 The great events that are approaching, the loud tumult of approaching war. Betray, discover. Reg. Hang him instantly. Corn. Leave him to my displeasure.-Edmund, keep you our sister company; the revenges we are bound to take upon your traitorous father, are not fit for your beholding. Advise the duke, where you are going, to a most festinate preparation; we are bound to the like. Our post shall be swift, and intelligent betwixt us. Farewell, dear sister;-farewell, my lord of Gloster.1 Enter Steward. How now? Where's the king? Stew. My lord of Gloster hath conveyed him hence. Some five or six and thirty of his knights, Hot questrists after him, met him at gate; Are gone with him towards Dover; where they boast Corn. Get horses for your mistress. Gon. Farewell, sweet lord, and sister. [Exeunt GONERIL and EDMUND. Corn. Edmund, farewell.-Go, seek the traitor Gloster, Pinion him like a thief; bring him before us. 3 [Exeunt other Servants. Though well we may not pass upon his life Re-enter Servants, with GLOSTER. Reg. Ingrateful fox! 'tis he. Corn. Bind fast his corky arms. 1 Meaning Edmund, invested with his father's titles. 3" Do a courtesy to our wrath," simply means bend to our wrath, as a courtesy is made by bending the body. 4 i. e. dry, withered, husky arms. This epithet was, perhaps, borrowed from Harsnet:-"It would pose all the cunning exorcists that are this Glo. What mean your graces?-Good my friends, consider You are my guests; do me no foul play, friends. [Servants bind him. Hard, hard.-O filthy traitor! Glo. Unmerciful lady as you are, I am none. Reg. Corn. To this chair bind him.-Villain, thou shalt find [REGAN plucks his beard. Glo. By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done, To pluck me by the beard. Reg. So white, and such a traitor! Glo. Naughty lady, These hairs, which thou dost ravish from my chin, Will quicken, and accuse thee. I am your host; With robbers' hands, my hospitable favors 1 You should not ruffle thus. What will you do? 1 Corn. Come, sir, what letters had you late from France? Reg. Be simple answered, for we know the truth. Corn. And what confederacy have you with the traitors Late footed in the kingdom? Reg. To whose hands have you sent the lunatic king? Speak. Glo. I have a letter guessingly set down, Which came from one that's of a neutral heart, And not from one opposed. Corn. Reg. Cunning. Corn. Where hast thou sent the king? Glo. Reg. And false. To Dover. Wherefore To Dover? Wast thou not charged at peril- that. Glo. I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course. day to be found, to teach an old corkie woman to writhe, tumble, curvet, and fetch her morice gambols as Martha Bressier did.” 1 Favors mean the same as features. Reg. Wherefore to Dover? Glo. Because I would not see thy cruel nails Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.1 The sea, with such a storm as his bare head In hell-black night endured, would have buoyed up, And quenched the stelled fires; yet, poor old heart, He holp the heavens to rain. 3 If wolves had at thy gate howled that stern time, Corn. See it shalt thou never.-Fellows, hold the chair; Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot. [GLOSTER is held down in his chair, while CORNWALL plucks out one of his eyes, and sets his foot on it. Glo. He that will think to live till he be old, Give me some help.-O cruel! O ye gods! One side will mock another; the other too. Corn. If you see vengeance, Reg. Serv. Hold your hand, my lord I have served you ever since I was a child; But better service have I never done you, Than now to bid you hold. Reg. How now, you dog? Serv. If you did wear a beard upon your chin, I'd shake it on this quarrel; what do you mean? Corn. My villain ! 5 [Draws, and runs at him. 1 The quarto reads, "rash, boarish fangs." To rash is the old hunting term for the stroke made by a wild-boar with his fangs. 2 Starred. 3 Thus the folio. The quartos read, "that dearn time." Dearn is dreary. The reading in the text is countenanced by Chapman's version of the 24th Iliad : ↑ i. e. yielded, submitted to the necessity of the occasion. 5 Villain is perhaps here used in its original sense, of one in servitude |