COR. We're not the first Who, with best meaning, have incurr'd the worst. For thee, oppressed king, am I* cast down; Myself could else out-frown false fortune's frown.— Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters? LEAR. No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to

prison:

We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues

Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,

Who loses, and who wins; who's in, who's out;And take upon 's the mystery of things,

As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out, In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones, That ebb and flow by the moon.

EDM. Take them away. LEAR. Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee?

them to prison:

One step I have advanc'd thee; if thou dost
As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way
To noble fortunes. Know thou this, that men
Are as the time is: to be tender-minded
Does not become a sword:-thy great employment
Will not bear question; either say thou❜lt do't,
Or thrive by other means.

OFF.
I'll do't, my lord.
EDM. About it; and write happy when thou
hast done.

Mark, I say, instantly; and carry it so,
As I have set it down.

[oats;

And fortune led you well: you have the captives
Who were the opposites of this day's strife:
We do require them of you, so to use them,
As we shall find their merits and our safety
May equally determine.

EDM.

Sir, I thought it fit
To send the old and miserable king
To some retention and appointed guard; +
Whose age has‡ charms in it, whose title more,
To pluck the common bosom on his side,
And turn our impress'd lances in our eyes
Which do command them. With him I sent the
queen;

My reason all the same; and they are ready
To-morrow, or at further space, to appear
Where you shall hold your session. At this time,
We sweat, and bleed: the friend hath lost his
friend;

And the best quarrels, in the heat, are curs'd
By those that feel their sharpness ;-
The question of Cordelia, and her father,
Requires a fitter place.

ALB.

Sir, by your patience,
I hold you but a subject of this war,
Not as a brother.

REG.
That's as we list to grace him.
Methinks our pleasure might have been demanded,
Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers;
Bore the commission of my place and person;
The which immediacy may well stand up,
And call itself your brother.

GON.

Not so hot:

From a full-flowing stomach.-General,
Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony;
Dispose of them, of me; the walls are thine:*
Witness the world, that I create thee here
My lord and master.

GON.

Mean you to enjoy him? ALB. The let-alone lies not in your good will. EDM. Nor in thine, lord. ALB.

(*) First folio, I.

Half-blooded fellow, yes.

(†) First folio omits, and appointed guard. (1) First folio, had.

b I cannot draw a cart,-] The folio omits this speech. Where you shall hold your session.] In the folio the speech terminates here.

d That were the most, &c.] In the folio this is assigned to Albany. the walls are thine :] So the folio; the phrase, Warburton says, signifying, to surrender at discretion.

ALB. Thou art arm'd, Gloster: let the
trumpet sound :

If none appear to prove upon thy person
Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,
There is my pledge; [Throwing down a glove.] I'll
make it on thy heart,

Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less
Than I have here proclaim'd thee!

HER. Again.

[After a pause a trumpet answers without. Enter EDGAR, armed, and preceded by a Trumpet.

appears

ALB. Ask him his purposes, why he Upon this call o'the trumpet. HER. What are you? Your name, your quality? and why you answer This present summons?

EDG.

Know, my name is lost; By treason's tooth bare- gnawn and canker-bit: Yet am I noble as the adversary

I come to cope. ALB.

Which is that adversary?

EDG. What's he that speaks for Edmund earl of Gloster?

EDM. Himself:-what say'st thou to him?
EDG.
Draw thy sword,

That, if my speech offend a noble heart,
Thy arm may do thee justice: here is mine.
Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours,
My oath, and my profession. I protest,-
Maugre thy strength, youth, place,† and eminence,
Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,
Thy valour and thy heart,-thou art a traitor!
False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father;
Conspirant against this high illustrious prince;
And, from the extremest upward of thy head,
To the descent and dust below thy foot,
A most toad-spotted traitor ! Say thou, No!
This sword, this arm, and my best spirits, are bent
To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,

Thou liest.

EDM. In wisdom, I should ask thy name; But, since thy outside looks so fair and warlike, And that thy tongue some 'say of breeding breathes,

What safe and nicely I might well delay
By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn:
Back do I toss these treasons to thy head;
With the hell-hated lie o'erwhelm thy heart;
Which, for they yet glance by, and scarcely

bruise,

This sword of mine shall give them instant way, Where they shall rest for ever.-Trumpets, speak! [Alarums. They fight. EDMUND falls. ALB. Save him, save him!

GON.

This is practice, Gloster;' By the law of arms, thou wast not bound to answer

(1) First folio, Despise.

(*) First folio omits, Edm. Sound! (+) First folio, place, youth. And the folio,

f

Let's exchange charity.

I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;
If more, the more thou hast wrong'd me.
My name is Edgar, and thy father's son.
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us :

The dark and vicious place where thee he got,
Cost him his eyes.

EDM.

Thou hast spoken right, 'tis true; The wheel is come full circle, I am here. ALB. Methought thy very gait did prophesy A royal nobleness :-I must embrace thee; Let sorrow split my heart, if ever I

Did hate thee or thy father!

EDG. Worthy prince, I know 't. ALB. Where have you hid yourself? How have you known the miseries of your father?

EDG. By nursing them, my lord.—List a brief tale ;

And, when 'tis told, O, that my heart would

burst!

The bloody proclamation to escape,

That follow'd me so near, (O, our lives' sweetness!
That we the pain of death would hourly die,
Rather than die at once!) taught me to shift
Into a madman's rags; to assume a semblance
That very dogs disdain'd: and in this habit
Met I my father with his bleeding rings,
Their precious stones new lost; became his guide,
Led him, begg'd for him, sav'd him from despair;
Never (O fault!) reveal'd myself unto him,
Until some half-hour past, when I was arm'd;

This speech of yours hath mov'd me, And shall perchance do good: but speak you on ; You look as you had something more to say.

ALB. If there be more, more woeful, hold it in; For I am almost ready to dissolve, Hearing of this."

EDG.

This would have seem'd a period

To such as love not sorrow; but another,
To amplify too much, would make much, more,
And top extremity.

Whilst I was big in clamour, came there in a man,
Who, having seen me in my worst estate,
Shunn'd my abhorr'd society; but then, finding
Who 't was that so endur'd, with his strong arms
He fasten'd on my neck, and bellow'd out
As he'd burst heaven; threw him on my
father;

Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him,
That ever ear receiv'd: which in recounting,
His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life
Began to crack: twice then the trumpets sounded,
And there I left him tranc'd.
ALB.
But who was this?
EDG. Kent, sir, the banish'd Kent; who in
disguise

Follow'd his enemy king, and did him service
Improper for a slave.