shall please you to suspend your indignation |tions of ancient amities; divisions in state, against my brother, till you can derive from him menaces and maledictions against king and better testimony of his intent, you shall run a nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of certain course where, if you violently pro- friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, ceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it and I know not what. would make a great gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him, that he bath writ this to feel iny affection to your honour and to no other pretence of danger. Glo. Think you so? Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and that without any further delay than this very evening. Glo. He cannot be such a monster. Edg. How long have you been a sectary astronomical ? Edm. Come, come, when saw you my father last? Edg. Why, the night gone by. Edm. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him, by word or countenance? Edg. None at all. Edm. Bethink yourself, wherein you may have offended him; and my entreaty, forbear his presence, till some little time hath qualified the Glo. To his father, that so tenderly and en-heat of his displeasure; which at this instant so tirely loves him. Heaven and earth!-Ed-rageth in him, that with the mischief of your mund, seek him out wind me into him, I pray person it would scarcely allay. you frame the business after your own wis- Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong. dom: I would unstate myself, to be in a due Edm. That's my fear. I pray you, have a resolution. § continent forbearance, till the speed of his Edm. I will seek him, Sir, presently; convey |||rage goes slower; and, as I say, retire with me the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal. Glo. These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us: Though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent ¶ effects: love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked between son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's son against father: the king falls from bias of nature; there's father against child. We have seen the best of our time: Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves!-Find out this villain, Edmund, it shall lose thee nothing; do it carefully :-And the noble and true hearted Kent banished! his offence, honesty !-Strange! strange ! [Exit. Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world! that, when we are sick in fortane, (often the surfeit of our own behaviour,) we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains by necessity fools, by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence: and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star! My father compounded with my mother under the dragon's tail; and my nativity was under ursa major; tt so that it follows, I am rough and lecherous.-Tut, I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar Enter EDGAR. in to my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my lord speak: Pray you, go; there's my key-If you do stir abroad, go armed. Edg. Armed, brother? Edm. Brother, I advise you to the best: go armed; I am no honest man, if there be any good meaning towards you: I have told you what I have seen and heard, but faintly; nothing like the image and horror of it: Pray you, away. Edg. Shall I hear from you anon? [Exit SCENE III-A Room in the Duke of Enter GONERIL and STEWARD. Stew. Ay, madam. us Gon. By day and night! he wrongs me; He flashes into one gross crime or other, every hour That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it: His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids [ing On every trifle :-When he returns from huntI will not speak with him; say, I am sick :If you come slack of former services, You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer. Stew. He's coming, madam; I hear him. [Horns within. Gon. Put on what weary negligence you You and your fellows; I'd have it come to please, [question: Edg. How now, brother Edmund? What se-Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one, If he dislike it, let him to my sister, rious contemplation are you in? I read this other day, what should follow these Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction eclipses. and pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy: My cue is villanous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o'Bedlam.-O these eclipses do portend these divisions! Fa, sol, la, mi. t Edg. Do you busy yourself with that? Edm. I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolu That he hath given away !-Now, by my life, Stew. Very well, madam. • Whereas. The usual address to a lord. * Design. Descend from my dignity by privately listening, to What grows of it, no matter; advise your felbe sure of the truth. Manage Following. • Traitors. + The constellation so named. lows so: These sounds are unnatural and offensive in music. • For cohorts some editors read courts. t + Temperate. I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall, | kindness appears, as well in the general depen That I may speak :-I'll write straight to my dants, as in the duke himself also, and your sister, To hold my very course :-Prepare for dinner. [Exeunt. daughter. Lear. Ha! say'st thou so? Knight. I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken; for my duty cannot be silent, when I think your highness is wrong'd. Lear. Thou but remember'st me of mine own conception; I have perceived a most faint neglect of late; which I have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity, than as a very pretence and purpose of unkindness: I will look further into't.-But where's my fool? I have not seen him these two days. Knight. Since my young lady's going into France, Sir, the fool hath much pined away. Lear. No more of that; I have noted it well. -Go you, and tell my daughter I would speak with her.-Go you, call hither my fool. Re-enter STEWARD. O you Sir, you Sir, come you hither: Who am Stew. My lady's father. Lear. My lady's father? my lord's knave: you whoresom dog! you slave! you cur ! Stew. I am none of this, my lord; I beseech you, pardon me. Lear. Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal? [Striking him. Stew. I'll not be struck, my lord. Kent. Nor tripped neither; you base football player. [Tripping up his Heels. Lear. I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and I'll love thee. Kent. Come, Sir, arise, away; I'll teach you differences; away, away: If you will measure your lubber's length again, tarry: but away: go to; Have you wisdom? so. [Pushes the STEWARD out. Lear. Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee: there's earnest of thy service. [Giving KENT Money. Lear. Why, my boy? Fool. If I gave them all my living, I'd keep my coxcombs myself: There's mine; beg another of thy daughters. Lear. Take heed, Sirrah; the whip. Fool. Truth's a dog that must to kennel? be must be whipp'd out, when Lady, the brach, may stand by the fire and stink, Lear. A pestilent gall to me! Fool. Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech. Fool. Mark it, nuncle: Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, • Punctilious jealousy. + Design. Believest. Fool. Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a bitter fool and a sweet fool! Lear. No, lad; teach me. Fool. That lord, that counsel'd thee Come place him here by me, Or do thou for him stand: The sweet and bitter fool Will presently appear; The other found out there. Kent. This is not altogether fool, my lord. Fool. No, 'faith, lords and great men will not let me; if I had a monopoly out, they Mould have part on't and ladies too, they will not let me have all fool to myself; they'll be snatching. Give me an egg, nuncle, and I'll give thee two crowns. Lear. What two crowns shall they be? Fool. Why, after I have cut the egg i'the middle, and eat up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou clovest thy crown i'the middle, and gavest away both parts, thou bor-¦ est thine ass on thy back over the dirt: Thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown, when thou gavest thy golden one away. If I speak like myself in this, let him be whipp'd that first finds it so. [Singing. Fools had ne'er less grace in a year; Lear. When were you wont to be so full of songs, Sirrah? Fool. I have used it, nuncle, ever since thou madest thy daughters thy mother: for when thou gavest them the rod, and put'st down thine own breeches, Then they for sudden joy did weep, [Singing. That such a king should play bo-peep. Pr'ythee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool to lie; I would fain learn to lie. Lear. If you lie, Sirrah, we'll have you whipp'd. Fool. I marvel, what kin thou and thy daughters are: they'll have me whipp'd for speaking true, thou'lt have me whipp'd for lying; and, sometimes, I am whipp'd for holding my peace. I bad rather be any kind of thing, than a fool and yet I would not be thee, nuucle; thou hast pared thy wit o'both sides, and left nothing in the middle: Here comes one o'the parings. Enter GONERIL. Lear. How now, daughter! what makes that frontlet + on? Methinks, you are too much of late i'the frown. Fool. Thou wast a pretty fellow, when thou hadst no need to care for her frowning; now thou art an Ot without a figure: I am better than thou art now; I am a fool, thou art noth• Favour. t Part of a woman's head-dress, to which Lear compaces her frowning brow. A cypher. ing.-Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue; só your face [To GON.] bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum, He that keeps nor crust nor crum, That's a sheal'd peascod. [Pointing to LEAR. Gon. Not only, Sir, this your all-licens'd fool, But other of your insolent retinue Do hourly carp aud quarrel; breaking forth I had thought, by making this well known unto you, To have found a safe redress; but now grow fearful, By what yourself too late have spoke and done, That you protect this course, and put it on By your allowance; † which if you should, the fault Would not 'scape censure, nor the redresses sleep; Which, in the tender of a wholesome weal, ‡ Fool. For you trow, nuncle, So, The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long, Lear. Are you our daughter? Gon. Come, Sir, I would you would make use of that good wisdom whereof I know you are fraught; and put away these dispositions, which of late transform you from what you rightly are. Fool. May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse?-Whoop, Jug! I love thee. Lear. Does any here know me ?-Why this is not Lear: does Lear walk thus? speak thus ? Where are his eyes? Either his notion weakens, or his discernings are lethargied.-Sleeping or waking ?-Ha! sure, 'tis not so.-Who is it that can tell me who I am ?-Lear's shadow ? I would learn that; for by the marks of sove reignty, knowledge, and reason, I should be false persuaded I had daughters.- Fool. Which they will make an obedient father. Lear. Your name, fair gentlewoman? This admiration is much o'the favour ¶ As you are old and reverend, you should be wise : Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires; Men so disordered, so debauch'd, and bold, Lear. Darkness and devils !- Gon. You strike my people; and your disorder'd rabble Make servants of their betters. My train are men of choice and rarest parts, And in the most exact regard support Gon. This man hath had good counsel :--A hundred knights! 'Tis politic and safe to let him keep At point, a hundred knights! Yes, that on Each buz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike, The worships of their name.-O most small And hold our lives in mercy.-Oswald, I say! fault, nature How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show! [Striking his Head. And thy dear judgment out!-Go, go, my people. Alb. My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignoOf what hath mov'd you : [rant Lear. It may be so, my lord.-Hear, nature, Dear goddess, hear! Suspend thy purpose, if Dry up in her the organs of increase; [Exit. Alb. Now, gods that we adore, whereof comes this? Gon. Never afflict yourself to know the cause; But let his disposition have that scope That dotage gives it. Re-enter LEAR. Alb. Well, you may fear too far. Let me still take away the harms I fear, Enter STEWARD. What, have you writ that letter to my sister? Gon. Take you some company, and away to Inform her full of my particular fear; | And thereto add such reasons of your own, This milky gentleness, and course of your's, Striving to better, oft we mar what's well. Alb. Well, wel!; the event. [Exeunt SCENE V.-Court before the same. Enter LEAR, KENT, and FOOL. Lear. Go you before to Gloster with these letters: acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you know, than comes from her demand out of the letter: If your diligence be not speedy, Lear. What, fifty of my followers, at a clap! I shall be there before you. Within a fortnight? Alb. What's the matter, Sir? Lear. I'll tell thee;-Life and death! I am That thou hast power to shake my manhood Should make thee worth them.-Blasts and fogs The untented woundings of a father's curse think I have cast off for ever; thou shalt, I warrant thee. [Exeunt LEAR, KENT, and Attendants. Gon. Do you mark that, my lord? Alb. I cannot be so partial, Goneril, To the great love I bear you,Gon. Pray you, content.-What, Oswald, bo! You, Sir, more knave than fool, after your master. [To the FOOL. Fool. Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry, and take the fool with thee. Kent. I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered your letter. [Exit. Fool. If a man's brains were in his heels, wer't not in danger of kibes ? Lear. Ay, boy. Fool. Then I pr'ythee, be merry; thy wit shall not go slip-shod. Lear. Ha, ha, ha! Fool. Shalt see, thy other daughter will use thee kindly for though she's as like this as a crab is like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell. Lear. Why, what canst thou tell, my boy? Fool. She will taste as like this, as a crab does to a crab. Thou canst tell, why one's nose stands i'the middle of his face? Lear. No. Fool. Why, to keep his eyes on either side his nose; that what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into. Lear. I did her wrong: Fool. Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell? Lear. No. Fool. Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house. Lear. Why? Fool. Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his daughters, and leave his horns without a case. Lear. I will forget my nature. So kind a father -Be my horses ready? Fool. Thy asses are gone about 'em. The ↑ Liable to reprehension. • Armed. reason why the seven stars are no seven, is a pretty reason. more than | Of my more fierce endeavour: I have seen drunkards Lear. Because they are not eight? Fool. Yes, indeed: Thou wouldst make a good fool. Lear. To take it again perforce !-Monster ingratitude! Fool. If thon wert my fool, nuncle, I'd have thee beaten for being old before thy time. Lear. How's that? Fool. Thou shouldst not have been old, before thou hadst been wise. Lear. O let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! Keep me in temper; I would not be mad !— Do more than this in sport.-Father! father! Enter GLOSTER, and Servants with Torches. Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon To stand his auspicious mistress :- 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.-[Exit Servant.] 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, SCENE L-A Court within the Castle of the My unprovided body, lanc'd mine arm: Earl of GLOSTER. My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night: Bringing the murd'rous coward to the stake; 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, Of any trust, virtue, or worth, in thee (As this I would; ay, though thou didst produce My very character ) I'd turn it all To thy suggestion, plot, and damned prac landwriting. 1.e. Capable of succeeding to my land. |