Shake patiently my great affliction off;
If I could bear it longer, and not fall

To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
My snuff and loathed part of nature should
Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!
Now, fellow, fare thee well.

Edg.

[He falls forward. Gone, sir: farewell.

And yet I know not how conceit may rob

The treasury of life when life itself

Yields to the theft; had he been where he thought
By this had thought been past. Alive or dead?
Ho, you sir! friend! Hear you, sir? speak!
Thus might he pass indeed; yet he revives.
What are you, sir?

Glou.

Away and let me die. Edg. Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,

So many fathom down precipitating,

Thou 'dst shiver'd like an egg; but thou dost breathe,

Hast heavy substance, bleed'st not, speak'st, art sound.

Ten masts at each make not the altitude
Which thou hast perpendicularly fell:
Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again.
Glou. But have I fallen or no?

Edg. From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.

Look up a-height; the shrill-gorged lark so far
Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.
Glou. Alack! I have no eyes.
Is wretchedness deprived that benefit

To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort,
When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage,
And frustrate his proud will.

Edg.

Up: so; how is 't? stand.

Give me your arm :

Feel you your legs? You

This is above all strangeness.

Glou. Too well, too well.

Edg.

Upon the crown o' the cliff what thing was that Which parted from you?

Glou.

A poor unfortunate beggar. Edg. As I stood here below methought his eyes Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses, Horns whelk'd and waved like the enridged sea: It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father, Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours

Of men's impossibilities, have preserved thee.

Glou. I do remember now; henceforth I'll bear Affliction till it do cry out itself

'Enough, enough,' and die. That thing you speak of

I took it for a man; often 't would say

"The fiend, the fiend': he led me to that place. Edg. Bear free and patient thoughts.

comes here?

But who

Enter LEAR, fantastically dressed with wild flowers.

The safer sense will ne'er accommodate

His master thus.

Lear. No, they cannot touch me for coining; I am the king himself.

Edg. O thou side-piercing sight!

Lear. Nature's above art in that respect. There's your press-money. That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper: draw me a clothier's yard. Look, look! a mouse. Peace, peace! this piece of toasted cheese will do't. There's my gauntlet; I'll prove it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O! well flown, bird; i' the clout, i' the clout: hewgh! Give the word.

Edg. Sweet marjoram.

Lear. Pass.

Glou. 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 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.

Glou. The trick of that voice I do well remember: Is'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 Gloucester's bastard son
Was kinder to his father than my daughters

Got 't ween the lawful sheets.

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

Whose face between her forks presageth snow;
That minces 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 fiend's:

There's hell, there's darkness, there's the sulphurous pit,

Burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie, fie, fie! pah, pah! Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination: there's money for thee.

Glou. O let me kiss that hand.

Lear. Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality. Glou. 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.

Glou. Were all thy letters suns, I could not see. Edg. [Aside.] I would not take this from report; it is,

And my heart breaks at it.

Lear. Read.

Glou. What! with the case of eyes?

Lear. O, ho are you there with me? No eyes in your head, nor no money in your purse? Your eyes are in a heavy case, your purse in a light yet you see how this world goes.

Glou. I see it feelingly.

Lear. What! art mad? A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar?

Glou. Ay, sir.

Lear. And the creature run from the cur? There thou might'st 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;