Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

20

Kent. All the power of his wits has given way 25 to his impatience:-The gods reward your kind

[blocks in formation]

Fool. No; he's a yeoman, that has a gentleman to a son for he's a mad yeoman, that sees 35 his son a gentleman before him.

Lear. To have a thousand with red burning spits Come hizzing in upon them:

Edg. The foul fiend bites my back.

Fool. He's mad, that trusts in the tameness of a 40 wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's ath.

Lear. It shall be done, I will arraign them

straight:

Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer;- 45 [To Edgar.

Thou, sapient sir, sit here. [To the Fool.]—Now,

you she-foxes!

Edg. Look, where he stands and glares!-
Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?
"Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me:-
Her boat hath a leak,

Fool. ""

"And she must not speak

"Why she dares not come over to thee.” Edg. The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two white herrings. Croak not, black angel; I have no food for thee.

50

Kent. How do you, sir? Stand you not so amaz'd:

Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?
Lear. I'll see their trial first:-Bring in the
evidence.--

Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;-
To Edgar.

And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity, [To the Fool.
Bench by his side:-You are of the commission,
Sit you too.
[To Kent.
Edg. Let us deal justly.

"Sleepest, or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?
"Thy sheep be in the corn;

"And for one blast of thy minikin' mouth, "Thy sheep shall take no harm.”

Purre! the cat is grey.

Lear. Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my oath before this honourable assembly, she kick'd the poor king her father.

Fool. Come hither, mistress; Is your name
Goneril?

Lear. She cannot deny it.

[stool'. Fool. Cry you mercy, I took you for a jointLear. And here's another, whose warpt looks

proclaim

What store her heart is made on.---Stop her there!
Arms,arms,sword, fire!---Corruption in the place!
False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape?
Edg. Bless thy five wits!

Kent. Opity-Sir, where is the patience now,
That you so oft have boasted to retain?

Edg. My tears begin to take his part so much, They'll mar my counterfeiting. [Aside.

Lear. The little dogs and all,

Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, see, they bark

at me.

Edg. Tom will throw his head at them:-
Avaunt, you curs!

Be the mouth or black or white,
Tooth that poisons if it bite;
Mastiff, grey-hound, mungril grim,
Hound, or spaniel, brache, or lym*;
Or bobtail tike, or trundle-tail;
Tom will make him weep and wail:
For, with throwing thus my head,
Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.

Do de, de de. Sessy, come, march to wakes and
fairs,
[dry.
And market towns:-Poor Tom, thy horn is
Lear. Then let them anatomize Regan, see what
breeds about her heart: Is there any cause in na-
ture, that makes these hard hearts?--You, sir, I en-
55tertain you for one of my hundred; only, I do not
like the fashion of your garment: you will say,
they are Persian attire; but let them be chang'd.
[To Edgar.

i. e. supporting, helping. 2A bourn in the North signifies a rivulet or brook. Hence the names of many of our villages terminate in burn, as Milburn, Sherburn, &c. › White herrings are pickled herrings. ↑ Minikin was anciently a term of endearment. This is a proverbial expression. To have the roof of the mouth black is in some dogs a proof that their breed is genuine. A racke

is a dog that hunts by scent wild beasts, birds, and even fishes; and the female of it is called a brache.

8

A limmer or leamer, a dog of the chace, was so called from the leam or leash in which he was held till he was let slip.

9

Tijk is the Runic word for a little, or worthless dog.

Kent.

Kent. Now, good my lord, lie here, and rest [curtains: a while. Lear. Make no noise, make no noise; draw the 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.

5

Glo. Come hither, friend: Where is the
[are gone.
king my master?
Kent. Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits 10
Glo. Good friend, I pr'ythee take him in thy
I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him:[arms;
[meet
There is a litter ready; lay him in 't,
And drive toward Dover, friend, where thou shalt
Both welcome and protection. Take up thy 15
master;

If thou should'st dally half an hour, his life,
With thine, and all that offer to defend him,
Stand in assured loss: Take up, take up;
And follow ine, that will to some provision
Give thee quick conduct.

[senses,

Kent. Oppressed nature sleeps:-
This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken
Which if convenience will not allow,

[ter;

when you are going, to a most festinate prepara-
tion; we are bound to the like. Our posts shall
be swift, and intelligent betwixt us. Farewell,
dear sister;-farewell, my lord of Gloster.
Enter Steward.
How now? Where's the king?

Stew. My lord of Gloster hath convey'd him

hence:

Some five or six and thirty of his knights,

2

Hot questrists after him, met him at gate;
Who, with some other of the lord's dependents,
Are gone with him towards Dover; where they

boast

To have well-armed friends.

Corn. Get horses for your mistress.
Gon. Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.

[Exeunt Gonerit, an l Edmund. Corn. Edmund, farewell. Go, seek the traitor Gloster,

.0 Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us :--
Though well we may not pass upon his life
Without the form of justice; yet our power
Shall do a courtesy to our wrath 3, which men
Who's there?
May blame, but not control.

Stand in hard cure.-Come,help to bear thy mas-25
Thou must not stay behind.

Glo. Come, come, away.

[To the Fool.

[Exeunt, bearing off the King.
Manet Edgar.

Edg. When we our betters see bearing our woes, 30
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 father'd!-Tom, away:
Mark the high noises; and thyself bewray,
When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles

thee,

35|

40

In thy just proof, repeals and reconciles thee.
What will hap more to-night, safe 'scape the king!
[Exit. 45
Lurk, lurk.-

[blocks in formation]

The traitor?

Enter Gloster, brought in by sercants.
Reg. Ingrateful fox! 'tis he.

4

Corn. Bind fast his corky arms.

Glo. What mean your graces?-Good my
friends, consider

You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends.
Corn. Bind him, I say. [They bind him.
Reg. Hard, hard :-O filthy traitor!

I am none.
Glo. Unmerciful lady as you are,
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 favours
You should not rule thus. What will you do?
Corn. Come, sir, what letters had you late
from France?

[truth.
Reg. Be simple-answer'd, for we know the
Coru. And what confederacy have you with
the traitors
50 Late footed in the kingdom?

[king? Reg. To whose hands have you sent the lunatic Speak.

Glo. I have a letter guessingly set down, Which came from one that's of a neutral heart, 55 And not from one oppos'd.

Reg. Hang him instantly. Gon. Pluck out his eyes. Corn. Leave him to my displeasure.-Edmund, keep you our sister company; the revenges we are bound to take upon your traiterous father, are not fit for your beholding. Advise the duke, 60

1 i. e. States clear from distress.

2

[blocks in formation]

A questrist is one who goes in search or quest of another. +i. e. dry, To do a courtesy is to gratify, to comply with.-To pass, is to pass a judicial sentence. Favours here means the same as features, i, e. the different parts of • Simple means plain. 3 P4

wither'd, husky arms.

which a face is composed.

Wast

Wast thou not charg'd at peril

Corn. Wherefore to Dover? Let him first an-
swer that.
[the course'.
Glo. I'm ty'd to the stake, and I must stand
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.

The sea, with such a storm as his bare head [up,

[blocks in formation]

jelly!

Where is thy lustre now? [Treads the other out. Glo. All dark and comfortless.-Where's my son Edmund?

Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature,

In hell-black night endur'd, would have buoy'd 10 To quit this horrible act.

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 should'st have said, Good porter,turn the key;
All cruels else subscrib'd':-But I shall see
The winged vengeance overtake such children.
Corn. See it shalt thou never :-Fellows, hold
the chair:-

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

(15

[Gloster is held down, while Cornwall treads 20
out one of his eyes.

Glo. He, that will think to live 'till he be old,
Give me some help:-O cruel! O ye gods!
Reg. One side will mock another; the other too.
Corn. If you see vengeance,-
Serv. Hold your hand, my lord:
I have serv'd 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'! [Draws, and runs at him. Serv. Nay, then come on, and take the chance

25

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.

Glo. O my follies!

Then Edgar was abus'd.

Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!"
Reg.Go,thrust him out at gates,and let himsmelF
His way to Dover.-How is 't, my lord? How
look you?

Corn.I have receiv'da 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;-Servants lead
Gloster out.

1st Serv. I'll never care what wickedness I do, If this man come to good.

2d Serv. If she live long,

30 And, in the end, meet the old course of death,
Women will all turn monsters.
[Bedlam

of anger. [Fight; Cornwall is wounded. 35 Reg. [Toanother servant.]Give me thy sword.A peasant stand up thus!

[Comes behind, and kills him.

1st Serv. Let's follow the old earl, and get the To lead him where he would; his roguish madness Allows itself to any thing.

2d Serv. Go thou; I'll fetch some flax, and whites of eggs,

[him! To apply to his bleeding face. Now, heaven help [Exeunt severally.

ACT

SCENE L

An open Country.

Enter Edgar.

IV..

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,

Edg. YET better thus, and known to be con-50 Owes nothing tothy blasts.---But who comes here?

temn'd,

'Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst, The lowest, and most dejected thing of fortune, Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear :

Enter Gloster, led by an old man.

My father, poorly led?-World, world, O world !
But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,
Life would not yield to age *.

1i. e. the running of the dogs upon me. e. yielded, submitted to the necessity of the occasion. Villain is here perhaps used in its original sense of one in servitude. 4 The sense of this obscure passage is, O world! so much are human minds captivated with thy pleasures, that were it not for those successive miseries,cach worse than the other, which overload the scenes of life, we should never be willing to submit to death, though the infirmities of old age would teach us to choose it as a proper asylum. Besides, by uninterrupted prosperity, which leaves the mind at ease, the body would generally preserve such a state of vigour as to bear up long against the decays of time. These are the two reasons, it is supposed, why he said,. "Life would not yield to age." And how much the plea sures of the body pervert the mind's judgement, and the perturbations of the mind disorder the body's frame, is known to all.

Old Man. O my good lord, I have been your te-
mant,andyour father's tenant, these fourscore years.
Glo. Away get thee away; good friend, be gone
Thy comforts can do me no good at all,
Thee they may hurt.

Old Man. Alack, sir, you cannot see your way.
Glo. I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;
I stumbled when I saw : Full oft 'tis seen,
Our mean 'secures us; and our meer defects
Prove our commodities. O, dear son Edgar,
The food of thy abused father's wrath!
Might I but live to see thee in my touch,
I'd say, I had eyes again!

Old Man. How now? Who's there?

[blocks in formation]

-Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed.

Glo. Know'st thou the way to Dover?

[Aside

Edg. [Aside.] O Gods! Who is 't can say, I am 15 Edg. Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot

at the worst?

I am worse than e'er I was.

Old Man. 'Tis poor mad Tom.

Edg. [Aside.] And worse I may be yet: The
worst is not,

So long as we can say, This is the worst.
Old Man. Fellow, where goest?

Glo. Is it a beggar-man?

Old Man. Madman and beggar too.

path.-Poor Tom hath been scar'd out of his good wits: Bless thee, good man's son, from the foul iend! Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once;of lust, as Obidicut; Hobbididance, prince 20of dumbness: Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of mur der; and Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowng; who since possesses chamber-maids and waiting-women'. So, bless thee, master!

Glo. He has some reason, else he could not beg.25
the last night's storm I such a fellow saw;
Which made me think a man a worm: My son
Came then into my mind; and yet my mind
Was scarce then friends with him: I have heard

more since:

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport.

Edg. How should this be?-

Glo. Here, take this purse, thou whom the hea-
ven's plagues

Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched,
Makes thee the happier:--Heavens, deal so still!
Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man,
That slaves your ordinance', that will not see
30 Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly;
So distribution should undo excess,

Bad is the trade, that must play the fool to sorrow,
Ang'ring itselfand others. [Aside.]—Bless thee, 35

master!

[blocks in formation]

And each man have enough.-Dost thou know
Dover?

[blocks in formation]

3

[Exeunt.

1i.e. moderate, mediocre condition. 2 i. e. disguise. Shakspeare has made Edgar, in his feigned distraction, frequently allude to a vile imposture of some English jesuits, at that time much the subject of conversation; the history of it having been just then composed with great art and vigour of style and composition by Dr. S. Harsenet, afterwards archbishop of York, by order of the privy-council, in a work intitled, A Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures to withdraw her Majesty's Subjects from their Allegiance, &c. practised by Edmunds, aliàs Weston, a Jesuit, and divers Romish priests his wicked Associates : printed 1693.-The imposture was in substance this: While the Spaniards were preparing their armado against England, the jesuits were here busy at work to promote it, by making converts: one method they employed was to dispossess pretended demoniacs; by which artifice they made several hundred converts amongst the common people. The principal scene of this farce was laid in the family of one Mr. Edmund Peckham, a Roman-catholic, where Marwood, a servant of Anthony Babington's (who was afterwards executed for treason), Trayford, an attendant upon Mr. Peckham, and Sarah and Friswood Williams, and Anne Smith, three chamber-maids in that family, came into the priest's hands for cure. But the discipline of the patients was so long and severe, and the priests so elate and careless with their success, that the plot was discovered on the confession of the parties concerned, and the contrivers of it deservedly punished.-The five devils here mentioned, are the names of five of those who were made to act in this farce upon the chamber-maids and waiting-women; and they were generally so ridiculously nick-named, that Harsenet has one chapter on the strange names of their devils; lest, says he, meeting them otherwise by chance, you mistake them for the names of tapsters or jugglers. Superfluous is here used for one living in abundance. To slave an ordinance, is to treat it as a slave, to make it subject to us, instead of acting in obedience to it.

4

SCENE

[blocks in formation]

The Duke of Albany's Palace.

Enter Goneril, and Edmund.

Gon. Welcome, my lord: I marvel, our mild

Not

husband' [master: met,us on the way:-Now, where's your Enter Steward.

Stew. Madam, within; but never man so
chang'd:

I told him of the army that was landed;
He smil'd at it: I told him you were coming;
His answer was, The worse: of Gloster's treachery,
And of the loyal service of his son,
When I inform'd him, then he call'd me sot;
And told me, I had turn'd the wrong side out:-
What most he should dislike, seems pleasant to
What like, offensive.

[him;

Gon. Then shall you gono further. [To Edmund.
It is the cowish terror of his spirit,
That dares not undertake; he'll not feel wrongs,
Which tie him to an answer: Our wishes' on the
way,

[ther;

[blocks in formation]

25

May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my bro-
Hasten his musters, and conduct his powers;
I must change arms at home, and give the distaff
into my husband's hands. This trusty servant
Shall pass between us: ere long you are like to
If you dare venture in your own behalf, [hear,
A mistress's command. Wear this; spare speech; 30
[Giving a favour.
Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak,
Would stretch thy spirits up into the air :-
Conceive, and fare thee well.

drum?

France spreads his banners in our noiseless land;
With plumed helm thy slayer begins threats;
Whilst thou, a moral fool, sitt'st still and cry'st,
Alack! why does he so?

Alb. See thyself, devil!

Proper deformity seems not in the fiend
So horrid as in woman".

[blocks in formation]

35

The other eye of Gloster.

[Exit Edmund.

Edm. Yours in the ranks of death.
Gon. My most dear Gloster!
O, the difference of man, and man!
To thee a woman's services are due;
My fool usurps my body.

Stew. Madam, here comes my lord/
Enter Albany.

Gon. I have been worth the whistle 2.
Alb: O Goneril!

You are not worth the dust which the rude wind

Blows in your face.-I fear your disposition:

That nature, which contemns its origin,
Cannot be border'd certain' in itself;
She that herself will sliver and disbranch
From her maternal sap, perforce must wither,
And come to deadly use .

Gon. No more; the text is foolish.
Alb.Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile:
Filths savour but themselves. What haveyou done?
Tygers, not daughters, what have you perform'd
A father, and a gracious aged man,

Alb. Gloster's eyes?

[morse,

Mes. A servant that he bred, thrill'd with reOppos'd against the act, bending his sword

To his great master; who, thereat enrag'd,

40 Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead: But not without that harmful stroke, which since Hath pluck'd him after.

Alb. This shews you are above,

You justicers, that these our nether crimes

45 so speedily can venge!-But, O poor Gloster! Lost he his other eye?

50

55

Mes. Both, both, my lord.

This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer;
Tis from your sister.

Gon. [Aside.] One way I like this well;

But being widow, and my Gloster with her,
May all the building in my fancy pluck
Upon my hateful life: Another way,

The news is not so tart.-I'll read, and answer.

[Exit.

It must be remembered that Albany, the husband of Goneril, disliked, in the end of the first act, the scheme of oppression and ingratitude. 2 This expression is a proverbial one. 3 Certain, for within the bounds that nature prescribes. Alluding to the use that witches and enchanters are said to make of wither'd branches in their charms: A fine insinuation in the speaker, that she was ready for the most unnatural mischief; and a preparative of the poet to her plotting with the bastard against her husband's life. Fishes are the only animals that are known to prey upon their own species. i. e. Diabolic qualities appear not so horrid in the devil to whom they belong, as in woman who unnaturally assumes them. By self-cover'd, our author probably means, Thou that hast disguised nature by wickedness; thou that hast hid the woman under the fiend.

5

Alb.

« AnteriorContinuar »