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REG. Why should she write to Edmund ? Might not you

Transport her purposes by word? Belike, Something*-I know not what:-I'll love thee much,

Let me unseal the letter.

Osw.

Madam, I had ratherREG. I know your lady does not love her husband;

I'm sure of that: and at her late being here
She gave strange ciliads and most speaking looks
To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom.—
Osw. I, madam?

REG. I speak in understanding; you are, I know 't;

Therefore I do advise you, take this note:
My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd ;
And more convenient is he for my hand
Than for your lady's :-you may gather more.
If you do find him, pray you, give him this;
And when your mistress hears thus much from you,
pray, desire her call her wisdom to her.
So, fare you well.

I

If

you do chance to hear of that blind traitor, Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.

Osw. Would I could meet him,† madam! I would show

What party I do follow.
REG.

Fare thee well. [Exeunt.

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(*) First folio, desires.

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A— important tears-] Important for importunate; the folio has importun'd.

b

(1) First folio, should. œiliads,-] See note (a), p. 646, Vol. I.

GLO.
Methinks you're better spoken.
EDG. Come on, sir; here's the place:-stand
still.-How fearful

*

And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low!
The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air,
Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire,-dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head :
The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,
Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge,
That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles † chafes,
Cannot be heard so high.-I'll look no more,
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong.

GLO.

EDG. Give me your a foot

Set me where you stand. hand::-you are now within

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Thou 'd'st 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.
GLO. But have I fall'n, or no?

EDG. From the dread summit of this chalky bourn! a

Look up a-height; the shrill-gorg'd lark so far Cannot be scen or heard: do but look up.

GLO. Alack, I have no eyes.

Is wretchedness depriv'd 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.

Give me your arm :

Up-so.--How is 't? Feel you your legs? You

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LEAR. Pass.

GLO. 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 that 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. [ber:

GLO. The trick of that voice I do well rememIs '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?-

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The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly
Does lecher in my sight.

Let copulation thrive, for Gloster's bastard son
Was kinder to his father than my daughters
Got 'tween the lawful sheets.

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

Whose face between her forks presages snow;
That mincesa 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 fiends'; there's hell, there's darkness, there is the sulphurous pit, burning, scalding, stench, consumption !-fie, fie, fie! pah, pah! Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, tot sweeten my imagination: there's money for thee.

GLO. O, let me kiss that hand!

LEAR. Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.

GLO. 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.

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GLO. Ay, sir.

LEAR. And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst 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:

Pull off my boots :--harder, harder ;-so.

EDG. O, matter and impertinency mix'd! Reason in madness!

d

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(*) First folio, thy.

of Gloucester.

(†) First folio, great.

c Plate sin with gold,-] A correction by Pope and Theobald; the old text having, "Place sinnes." This passage down to, "To seal the accuser's lips," inclusive, is only in the folio.

dable 'em.] Qualify them.

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LEAR. I will die bravely, like a † bridegroom: what!

I will be jovial; come, come; I am a king,
My masters, know you that!

GENT. You are a royal one, and we obey you. LEAR. Then there's life in 't. Nay §an you get it, you shall get it by running. Sa, sa, sa, sa! [Exit, running; Attendants follow. GENT. A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch,

Past speaking of in a king!-Thou hast one|| daughter,

Who redeems nature from the general curse
Which twain have brought her to.

EDG. Hail, gentle sir.

GENT. Sir, speed you: what's your will?
EDG. Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward?
GENT. Most sure and vulgar, every one hears
that,

Which can distinguish sound.
EDG.

But, by your favour,

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a This a good block :-) Upon the king's saying, I will preach to thee, the poet seems to have meant him to pull off his hat, and keep turning it and feeling it, in the attitude of one of the preachers of those times (whom I have seen so represented in ancient prints), till the idea of felt, which the good hat or block was made of, raises the stratagem in his brain of shoring a troop of horse with a substance soft as that which he held and moulded between his hands. This makes him start from his preachment." -STEEVENS.

bkill, kill! &c.] This was the ancient cry of assault in the English army. Shakespeare introduces it again in "Coriolanus," Act V. Sc. 5; when the conspirators attack Coriolanus.

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Osw.

Enter OSWALD.

A proclaim'd prize! Most happy! That eyeless head of thine was first fram'd flesh To raise my fortunes.-Thou old unhappy traitor, Briefly thyself remember :-the sword is out That must destroy thee. GLO. Put strength enough to Osw.

Now let thy friendly hand
it. [EDGAR interposes.
Wherefore, bold peasant,

Dar'st thou support a publish'd traitor? Hence?
Lest that the infection of his fortune take
Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.

EDG. Chill not let go, zir, without vurther 'casion.

Osw. Let go, slave, or thou diest !

EDG. Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor volk pass. An chud ha' been zwagger'd out of my life, 'twould not ha' been zo long as 'tis by a vortnight.-Nay, come not near th' old man; keep out, che vor ye, or ise try whether your costard or my ballow be the harder: chill be plain with you.

Ösw. Out, dunghill!

f

EDG. Chill pick your teeth, zir: come; no matter vor your foins."

[They fight; and EDGAR fells him.

Ay, and laying autumn's dust. GENT.

Omitted in the folio.

d

Good sir,-]

the main descry Stands on the hourly thought.]

The meaning appears to be, the sight of the main body is expected hourly; but the expression is as harsh and disagreeable as the speaker's "Most sure and vulgar" just before.

e't would not ha' been zo long as 't is by a vortnight.-] Steevens has remarked, but the reason is unexplained, that when our ancient writers have occasion to introduce a rustic, they commonly allot him this Somersetshire dialect.

fballow-] In some of the provincial dialects, ballow means a pole or staff.

8- foins.] Thrusts.

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