Thou must be patient; we came crying hither.
Thou know'st the first time that we smell the air,
We wawl, and cry.—I will preach to thee; mark me.
Glo. Alack, alack the day!

Lear. When we are born, we cry, that we are come
To this great stage of fools. This a good block ? 1
It were a delicate stratagem to shoe

A troop of horse with felt. I'll put it in proof;
And when I have stolen upon these sons-in-law,
Then, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.2

Enter a Gentleman, with Attendants.

Gent. O, here he is; lay hand upon him.-Sir, Your most dear daughter

Lear. No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even The natural fool of fortune.-Use me well;

You shall have ransom.

I am cut to the brains.

Gent.

Let me have a surgeon;

You shall have any thing.

Lear. No seconds? All myself?

Why, this would make a man, a man of salt,3
To use his eyes for garden water-pots,

Ay, and for laying autumn's dust.

Gent.

Good sir,

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 it. Nay, an you get it, you shall get it by running. Sa, sa, sa, sa.5"

[Exit, running; Attendants follow.

1 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, till the idea of felt which the good hat or block was made of, raises the stratagem in his brain of shoeing a troop of horse with the [same substance] which he held and moulded between his hands.

2 This was the cry formerly in the English army when an onset was made on the enemy.

3 "A man of salt" is a man of tears.

4 The case is not yet desperate.

5 Mr. Boswell thinks that this passage seems to prove that sessa means the very reverse of cessez.

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.

But, by your favor,

Gent. Near, and on speedy foot; the main descry Stands on the hourly thought.'

Edg.

I thank you, sir; that's all.

Gent. Though that the queen on special cause is

Glo. You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me; Let not my worser spirit

To die before you please!

Edg.

I thank you, sir. [Exit Gent.

tempt me again

Well pray you, father.

Glo. Now, good sir, what are you?

Edg. A most poor man, made lame by fortune's blows; 3

Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows,
Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand,
I'll lead you to some biding.

Glo.

Hearty thanks.
The bounty and the benison of Heaven
To boot, and boot!

1 The main body is expected to be descried every hour.

2 By this expression may be meant "my evil genius."

3 The folio reads, "made tame by fortune's blows." The original is probably the true reading. So in Shakspeare's thirty-seventh Sonnet:"So 1, made tame by fortune's dearest spight.”

4 Feling is probably used here for felt.

Stew.

Enter Steward.

A proclaimed prize! Most happy! That eyeless head of thine was first framed 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 it.

Stew.

Now let thy friendly hand

[EDGAR opposes.

Wherefore, bold peasant,

Dar'st thou support a published traitor? Hence;
Lest that the infection of his fortune take

Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.

Edg. Ch'ill not let go, zir, without vurther 'casion. Stew. Let go, slave, or thou diest.

2

Edg. Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor volk pass. And ch'ud ha' been zwaggered out of my life, 'twould not ha' been zo long as 'tis by a vortnight. Nay, come not near the old man; keep out, che vor'ye,3 or ise try whether your costard or my bat be the harder. Ch'ill be plain with you.

Stew. Out, dunghill!

4

Edg. Ch'ill pick your teeth, zir; come; no matter vor your foins.5

[They fight; and EDGAR knocks him down. Stew. Slave, thou hast slain me.-Villain, take my

purse;

If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body;

[Dies.

And give the letters, which thou find'st about me,
To Edmund earl of Gloster; seek him out
Upon the British party.-O, untimely death.
Edg. I know thee well; a serviceable villain;
As duteous to the vices of thy mistress,

As badness would desire.

1 i. e. "quickly recollect the past offences of thy life, and recommend thyself to Heaven."

2 Gang your gait is a common expression in the north.

3 i. e. I warn you.

4 i. e. head. A bat is a staff. It is the proper name of a walking-stick, in Sussex, even at this day.

5 i. e. thrusts.

Glo.

What, is he dead?

Edg. Sit you down, father; rest you.—

Let's see his pockets; these letters, that he speaks of,
May be my friends.-He's dead; I am only sorry
He had no other deathsman.-Let us see:

Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not;
To know our enemies' minds, we'd rip their hearts;
Their papers, is more lawful.1

[Reads.] Let our reciprocal vows be remembered. You have many opportunities to cut him off; if your will want not, time and place will be fruitfully offered. There is nothing done, if he return the conqueror. Then am I the prisoner, and his bed my jail; from the loathed warmth whereof, deliver me, and supply the place for your labor.

Your wife, (so I would say,) and
affectionate servant,

O undistinguished space of woman's will!2-

A plot upon her virtuous husband's life;

your

GONERIL.

And the exchange, my brother!-Here, in the sands,
Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified 3

Of murderous lechers; and, in the mature time,
With this ungracious paper strike the sight
Of the death-practised duke: for him 'tis well,
That of thy death and business I can tell.

[Exit EDGAR, dragging out the body. Glo. The king is mad. How stiff is my vile sense, That I stand up, and have ingenious feeling5

Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract;

1 i. e. to rip their papers is more lawful.

2 This seems to mean, "O, how inordinate, how unbounded, is the licentious inclination of women!"

3 "Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified," &c.

i. e. I'll cover thee. Unsanctified refers to his want of burial in consecrated ground.

4 That is, the duke of Albany, whose death is machinated by practice or treason.

5 "Ingenious feeling." Bullokar, in his Expositor, interprets ingenious by quick-conceited, i. e. acute.

So should my thoughts be severed from my griefs;
And woes, by wrong imaginations, lose
The knowledge of themselves.

Edg.

Re-enter EDgar.

Give me your hand;

Far off, methinks, I hear the beaten drum.
Come, father, I'll bestow you with a friend. [Exeunt.

SCENE VII. A Tent in the French Camp. LEAR on a bed asleep: Physician, Gentleman,' and others attending.

Enter CORDELIA and KENT.

Cor. O thou good Kent, how shall I live, and work, To match thy goodness? My life will be too short, And every measure fail me.

Kent. To be acknowledged, madam, is o'erpaid. All my reports go with the modest truth;

Nor more, nor clipped, but so.

Cor.

Be better suited.2

These weeds are memories 3 of those worser hours;

I pr'ythee, put them off.

Pardon me, dear madam;

Kent.
Yet to be known, shortens my made intent."
My boon I make it, that you know me not,

Till time and I think meet.

Cor. Then be it so, my good lord.-How does the

king?

Phys. Madam, sleeps still.

Cor.

[To the Physician.

O you kind gods,

Cure this great breach in his abused nature!

1 In the folio, the gentleman and the physician are one and the same

person.

2 i. e. be better dressed, put on a better suit of clothes.

3 Memories are memorials.

4 A MADE intent is an INTENT formed.