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From the fix'd place; drew from my heart all love,

And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear!
Beat at this gate, that let thy folly in,

[Striking his head.
And thy dear judgment out!-Go, go, my people.
ALB. My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant
Of what hath mov'd
you.
LEAR.
It may be so, my lord.—
Hear, Nature, hear; dear goddess, hear!
Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend
To make this creature fruitful!
Into her womb convey sterility!
Dry up in her the organs of increase;
And from her derogate body never spring
A babe to honour her! If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen; that it may live,
And be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her!
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth;
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks;

(*) First folio omits, O sir, are you come?

- an engine,-] By an engine is meant the instrument of torture called the rack.

buntented woundings-] "Untented wounds," Steevens says, may possibly signify here, such as will not admit of having a tent put into them." The expression, there can be no doubt, means unsearchable wounds-wounds too deep to be probed, c1 loose,-] That is, discharge.

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perforce,

Should make thee worth them.-Blasts and fogs upon thee!

The untented woundings of a father's curse
Pierce every sense about thee!-Old fond eyes,
Beweep this cause again, I'll pluck ye out,
And cast you, with the waters that you loose,
To temper clay.-Ha! is it come to this?
Let it be so; yet have I left a daughter,a
Who, I am sure, is kind and comfortable;
When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails
She'll flay thy wolfish visage. Thou shalt find
That I'll resume the shape which thou dost 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.

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What, Oswald,

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'Tis politic and safe to let him keep
At point a hundred knights: yes, that on every
dream,

Each buz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike,
He may enguard his dotage with their powers,
And hold our lives in mercy.-Oswald, I say!—
ALB. Well, you may fear too far.
GON.
Safer than trust too far:
Let me still take away the harms I fear,
Not fear still to be taken: I know his heart.
What he hath utter'd I have writ my sister;
If she sustain him and his hundred knights,
When I have show'd the unfitness,-

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Inform her full of my particular fear;

And thereto add such reasons of your own

As may compact it more. Get you gone;

And hasten your return.-[Exit Osw.] No, no, my lord,

This milky gentleness and course of yours
Though I condemn not, yet, under pardon,

You are much more attask'd* for want of wisdom,
Than prais'd for harmful mildness.

ALB. How far your eyes may pierce, I cannot tell;

Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.

GON. Nay, then

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FOOL. Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly for though she's as like this as a crab's like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell. LEAR. What canst tell, 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 on's face?

LEAR. NO.

FOOL. Why, to keep one's eyes of 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 reason why the seven stars are no more than seven, is a pretty reason.

LEAR. Because they are not eight?

FOOL. Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool.

LEAR. To take 't again perforce !-Monster ingratitude!

FOOL. If thou 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!

Enter Gentleman.

How now! Are the horses ready?` GENT. Ready, my lord.

LEAR. Come, boy.

FOOL. She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure,

Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter. [Exeunt.

(*) First folio, till.

bthy other daughter will use thee kindly:] Kindly is here used, as Malone pointed out, with the double meaning of affectionately, and after her nature, or kind.

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CUR. Nay, I know not. You have heard of the news abroad,-I mean the whispered ones, for they are yet but ear-kissing arguments?

EDM. Not I; pray you, what are they? CUR. Have you heard of no likely wars toward, 'twixt the dukes of Cornwall and Albany? EDM. Not a word.

CUR. You may do, then, in time. Fare you well, sir. [Exit. EDM. The duke be here to-night? The better! best!

This weaves itself perforce into my business.
My father hath set guard to take my brother;
And I have one thing, of a queasy question,
Which I must act :-briefness and fortune,
work!-

Brother, a word;-descend :-brother, I say!

(*) First folio, your.

Enter EDGAR.

My father watches:-O, sir, fly this place;
Intelligence is given where you are hid;
You have now the good advantage of the
night :-

Have you not spoken 'gainst the duke of Cornwall? He's coming hither; now, i' the night, i' the haste,

And Regan with him; have you nothing said
Upon his party 'gainst the duke of Albany?
Advise yourself.

EDG.
I am sure on 't, not a word.
EDM. I hear my father coming,-pardon me;
In cunning I must draw my sword upon you:-
Draw seem to defend yourself: now quit you

Yield:

:

well.

come before my father.-Light, ho, here!

Fly, brother.-Torches! torches!-So, farewell.[Exit EDGAR.

Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion

[Wounds his arm. Of my more fierce endeavour: I have seen drunkards

Do more than this in sport.-Father! father!
Stop, stop! No help?

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GLO. Pursue him, ho!-Go after.-[Exeunt some Servants.] 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
With his prepared sword, he charges home
My unprovided body, lanc'd† mine arm :

But when he saw my best alarum'd spirits,
Bold in the quarrel's right, rous'd to the encounter,
Or whether gasted by the noise I made,
Full suddenly he fled.

GLO.

Let him fly far: Not in this land shall he remain uncaught; And found-despatch!-The noble duke my

master,

My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night:
By his authority I will proclaim it,
That he which finds him shall deserve our thanks,
Bringing the murderous coward to the stake;
He that conceals him, death.

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,
Thou unpossessing bastard! dost thou think,
If I would stand against thee, would the reposal
Of any trust, virtue, or worth, in thee

[deny,

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He whom my father nam'd? your Edgar?
GLO. O, lady, lady, shame would have it hid!
REG. Was he not companion with the riotous
knights

That tend upon my father?

[bad.GLO. I know not, madam: 't is too bad, too EDM. Yes, madam, he was of that consort. REG. No marvel then, though he were ill affected;

'Tis they have put him on the old man's death,
To have the waste and spoil" of his revenues.
I have this present evening from my sister
Been well inform'd of them; and with such cautions
That if they come to sojourn at my house,
I'll not be there.

CORN.
Nor I, assure thee, Regan.--
Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father
A child-like office.

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g I never got him.-] The folio reads,

"Would he deny his Letter, said he?"

h the waste and spoil-] So the first quarto; the second reads, "-these-and waste;" all the other ancient copies, "- tn' expence and wast."

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a from our home;] Away from home. b-hundred-pound,-] This epithet is found in Middleton's play of The Phoenix," Act IV. Sc. 3,

"am I used like a hundred-pound gentleman."

And in Sir Walter Raleigh's speech against Foreign Retailers (Oldys's "Life of Raleigh," p. 68), he says,-"Nay at Milan, where there are three hundred-pound Englishmen, they cannot so much as have a barber among them."

eyet the moon shines,-] That is, now the moon shines, &c. d -you neat slave,-] The sting in this epithet, "neat," has been quite misunderstood by the commentators who suppose it

trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamourous* whining, if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition.

Osw. Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail on one that is neither known of thee nor knows thee!

KENT. What a brazen-faced varlet art thou, to deny thou knowest me! Is it two days ago,† since I tripped up thy heels, and beat thee, before the king? Draw, you rogue: for, though it be night, yet the moon shines, I'll make a sop o'the moonshine of you draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw. [Drawing his sword.

Osw. Away! I have nothing to do with thee. KENT. Draw, you rascal! you come with letters against the king; and take Vanity the puppet's part, against the royalty of her father: draw, you rogue, or I'll so carbonado your shanks!-draw, you rascal! come your ways.

Osw. Help, ho! murder! help!

KENT. Strike, you slave! stand, rogue, stand! you neat slave, strike ! [Beating him. Osw. Help, ho! murder! murder!

Enter EDMUND.

EDM. How now? what's the matter? Part. KENT. With you, goodman boy, an § you please; come, I'll flesh you; come on, young master.

Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOUCESTER, and Servants.

GLO. Weapons! arms! what's the matter here? CORN. Keep peace, upon your lives!

He dies, that strikes again! what is the matter? REG. The messengers from our sister and the king!

CORN. What is your difference? speak.
Osw. I am scarce in breath, my lord.

KENT. No marvel, you have so bestirred your valour. You cowardly rascal, nature disclaims in thee; a tailor made thee.

CORN. Thou art a strange fellow: a tailor make a man?

KENT. Ay, a tailor, sir: a stone-cutter, or a

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