Enter EDGAR.

Enter GLOUCESTER, 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.

OLD MAN. O my good lord, I have been your tenant, and your 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. You cannot see your way.
and therefore want no eyes;
GLO. I have no way,
Full oft 't is seen,
95

I stumbled when I saw.

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

Is it a beggar-man?

GLO.
OLD MAN. Madman and beggar too.
GLO. He has some reason, else he could not beg.
I' 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 then scarce 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. [Aside.] How should this be?-
Bad is the trade that must play Fool to sorrow,
Ang'ring itself and others.-Bless thee, master!
GLO. Is that the naked fellow ?
OLD MAN.

Ay, my lord.

GLO. Then, pr'ythee, get thee gone : if, for sake,

my

This was an old stumbling-block to the critics Some have altered it to,-"Our mean secures us," &c., that is, our middle state keeps us in safety: others would read,-"Our meanness secures us: Johnson proposed,- - Our means seduce us; or "Our maims secure us: and Mr. Collier's annotator reads,-" Our wants secure us." All this controversy arose apparently from misapprehension of the sense in which the word "secure" is to be understood. To secure now means only to protect, to keep safely; but in old language it very commonly signified also, to render us

EDG. [Aside.] And yet I must.-Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed.

GLO. Know'st thou the way to Dover?

EDG. Both stile and gate, horse-way and footpath. Poor Tom hath been scared out of his good wits bless thee, good man's son, from the foul fiend!-five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as Obidicut; Hobbididance, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; and Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing,-who since possesses chamber - maids and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master!

GLO. Here, take this purse, thou whom the heavens' 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
Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly;
So distribution should undo excess, [Dover?

And each man have enough.-Dost thou know
EDG. Ay, master.

[head

GLO. There is a cliff, whose high and bending Looks fearfully in the confined deep :

Bring me but to the very brim of it,

And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear,

With something rich about me: from that place
I shall no leading need.

EDG.
Give me thy arm;
Poor Tom shall lead thee.

[Exeunt.

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,

(*) First folio omits, and.

careless, over-confident, unguarded, and this appears to be its meaning here. Thus, in Sir T. More's "Life of Edward V.":"Oh the uncertain confidence and shortsighted knowledge of man! When this lord was most afraid, he was most secure; and when he was secure, danger was over his head." Again, in Judges viii. 11:-" And Gideon went up by the way of them that dwelt in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and smote the host, for the host was secure."

b Then, pr'ythee, get thee gone:] So the quartos; the folio reads, "Get thee away," &c.

c-five fiends, &c.] The remainder of the speech is not given in the folio.

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

him;

What like, offensive.

GON. [To EDMUND.] Then shall you go no further.

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

May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother;
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
hear,

If you dare venture in your own behalf,
A mistress's command. Wear this; spare speech;
[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.

EDM. Yours in the ranks of death.
GON.

My most dear Gloster! [Exit EDMUND.

O, the difference of man and man! To thee a woman's services are due; My fool usurps my body."

Osw. Madam, here comes my lord.

[Exit.

Most barbarous, most degenerate!-have you madded.

Could my good brother suffer you to do it?
A man, a prince, by him so benefited!

If that the heavens do not their visible spirits
Send quickly down to tame these vile offences,
"Twill come, humanity must perforce prey on
'tself,

Like monsters of the deep.

GON. Milk-liver'd man! That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs; Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know'st,

Fools do those villains pity who are punish'd Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum?

France spreads his banners in our noiseless land; With plumed helm thy state begins to threat; Whiles thou, a moral fool, sitt'st still, and criest, Alack! why does he so?

ALB.

See thyself, devil! Proper deformity seems not in the fiend So horrid as in woman. GON. ALB. Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for

shame,

O vain fool!

GENT. Not to a rage: patience and sorrow strove*

Who should express her goodliest. You have

seen

Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears
Were like a better day: those happy smilets,
That play'd on her ripe lip, seem'd not to know
What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence,
As pearls from diamonds dropp'd.-In brief,
Sorrow would be a rarity most belov'd,
If all could so become it.

KENT.
Made she no verbal question?
GENT. Faith, once or twice she heav'd the name
of father

Pantingly forth, as if it press'd her heart;
Cried, Sisters! sisters !-Shame of ladies! sisters!
Kent! father! sisters! What, the storm ?
the night?

Let pity not be believ'd! There she shook
The holy water from her heavenly eyes,
And clamour moisten'd: then away she started
To deal with grief alone.

KENT.

It is the stars,

-burdocks,-] The folio has "Hardokes," the quartos "hordocks." Farmer suggested harlocks, citing the following lines from Drayton,-

Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn.-A century send forth;
Search every acre in the high-grown field,
And bring him to our eye. [Exit an Officer.]-
What can man's wisdom

In the restoring his bereaved sense?
He that helps him take all my outward worth.
PHY. There is means, madam :

"The honey-suckle, the harlocke, The lilly, and the lady-smocke," &c.