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These hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin
Will quicken and accuse thee: I am your host:
With robbers' hands my hospitable favors
You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?
Corn. Come, sir, what letters had you late from
France?

Sealed

Reg. Be simple answerer, 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.

Glou. 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.

And false. 51

To Dover.

Corn. Where hast thou sent the king?
Glou.

Reg. Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not
charged at peril-

Corn. Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer

that.

Glou. I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the

course.

Reg. Wherefore to Dover, sir?

Glou. 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.

59. "stick," the reading of Ff.; Qq., "rash."—I. G.

In what follows, the quartos have "lov'd head" for "bare head,"

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The sea, with such a storm as his bare head

60

In hell-black night endured, would have buoy'd up,

And quench'd the stelled fires:

Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain.
If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time,
Thou shouldst have said, 'Good porter, turn the
key,'

All cruels else subscribed: but I shall see

The winged vengeance overtake such children. Corn. See 't shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair.

Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot.

Glou. He that will think to live till he be old, 70
Give me some help! O cruel! O you gods!
Reg. One side will mock another; the other too.
Corn. If you see vengeance—

'lay'd up" for "buoy'd up," "steeled fires" for "stelled fires," rage
for rain, and dearn for stern.-H. N. H.

64. "howl'd that stern"; Qq., “heard that dearne"; Capell, "howl'd that dearn"; ("dearn"= obscure, dark, gloomy).—I. G. 65. "shouldst"; wouldst.-C. H. H.

66. “All cruels else subscribed"; so Qq.; Ff. “subscribe." The passage has been variously interpreted; the weight of authority favoring the Folio reading, Schmidt's explanation being perhaps the most plausible: "Everything which is at other times cruel, shows feeling or regard; you alone have not done so." Furness makes the words part of the speech addressed to the porter, "acknowledge the claims of all creatures, however cruel they may be at other times," or "give up all cruel things else; i. e., forget that they are cruel." This approximates to the interpretation given by Mr. Wright to the reading in the text, "all their other cruelties being yielded or forgiven."-I. G.

But this makes Gloster shift his ground rather awkwardly. He has just urged that even Cornwall would pity wolves (though not men); he would now argue: Cornwall alone among cruel men has no pity.-C. H. H.

First 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!

First Serv. If you did wear a beard upon your chin,

I'ld shake it on this quarrel. What do you

mean?

Corn. My villain!

[They draw and fight. First Serv. Nay, then, come on, and take the

chance of anger.

80

Reg. Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus!

[Takes a sword and runs at him behind. First Serv. O, I am slain! My lord, you have one eye left

To see some mischief on him. O!

[Dies.

Corn. Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile

jelly!

Where is thy luster now?

Glou. All dark and comfortless. Where's my son
Edmund?

Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature,
To quit this horrid act.

84. This scene, horrid enough at the best, is rendered much more so in modern editions until Knight's by the stage-directions which are unwarrantably thrust into it, representing everything to be done in the full view of the audience. Coleridge says, "I will not disguise my conviction that, in this one point, the tragic in this play has been urged beyond the outermost mark and ne plus ultra of the dramatic," And again: "What shall I say to this scene? There is my reluctance to think Shakespeare wrong, and yet-" Tieck argues that the tearing out of Gloster's eyes did not take place on the stage proper.-H. N. H:

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Reg.

Out, treacherous villain!

Thou call'st on him that hates thee: it was he
That made the overture of thy treasons to us;
Who is too good to pity thee.
Glou. O my follies! Then Edgar was abused.

91

Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him! Reg. Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell His way to Dover. [Exit one with Gloucester.

How is 't, my lord? how look you? Corn. I have received a hurt: follow me, lady. Turn out that eyeless villain: throw this slave Upon the dunghill. Regan, I bleed apace: Untimely comes this hurt: give me your arm. ☆ [Exit Cornwall, led by Regan. Sec. Serv. I 'll never care what wickedness I do, 100 If this man come to good.

Third Serv.

If she live long,

And in the end meet the old course of death,

Women will all turn monsters.

Sec. Serv. Let's follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam

To lead him where he would: his roguish mad

ness

Allows itself to any thing.

Third Serv. Go thou: I'll fetch some flax and whites of eggs

To apply to his bleeding face. Now, heaven

help him!

100-107. Omitted in the Folios.-I. G.

[Exeunt severally.

ACT FOURTH

SCENE I

The heath.

Enter Edgar.

Edg. Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd, Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be

worst,

The lowest and most dejected thing of for-
tune,

Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear:
The lamentable change is from the best;

The worst returns to laughter. Welcome then,
Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace!

The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst
Owes nothing to thy blasts. But who comes
here?

Enter Gloucester, led by an Old Man.

My father, poorly led? World, world, O world!

10

But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,

Life would not yield to age.

6-9. "Welcome

blasts"; vi. 169-174 ("Plate

lips"); vii. 61; omitted in the Quartos.-I. G.

12. "Life would not yield to age," i. e. life would not gladly lapse into old age and death.-I. G.

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