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Her. If any man of quality or degree within the

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Ask me not what I know. 19) Alb. Go after her: she's desperate; govern her. Exit an Oficer. Edm. What you have charg'd me with, that have I done,

lists of the army will maintain upon Edmund, sup- And more, much more; the time will bring it out:

posed Earl of Gloucester, that he is a manifold traitor, let him appear by the third sound of the trumpet. He is bold in his defence.

Edm Sound!

Her. Again! Her. Again!

114

First trumpet.
Second trumpet.
Third trumpet.

Trumpet answers within.

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Which is that adversary?

'Tis past, and so am I. But what art thou
That hast this fortune on me? If thou 'rt noble,
I do forgive thee.
Edg.

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

Edg. What's he that speaks for Edmund Earl How have you known the miseries of your of Gloucester?

Edm. Himself: what say'st thou to him?

Edg.

Draw thy sword,

130

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 'gainst this high illustrious prince,
And, from the extremest upward of thy head
To the descent and dust below thy foot,

Thou liest. Edm.

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, 140 In wisdom I should ask thy name; But since thy outside looks so fair and war-like, 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,

Thhich, for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise,
sword mine shall give them instant way,
Where they shall rest for ever. Trumpets, speak.
Alarums. They fight. EDMUND falls.

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

And when 'tis told, O! that my heart wonid burst, The bloody proclamation to escape

That follow'd me so near, -0! 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;
Not sure, though hoping, of this good success,
I ask'd his blessing, and from first to last
Told him my pilgrimage: but his flaw'd beart,

Alack! too weak the conflict to support;
Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,
Burst smilingly.
Edm.
This speech of yours hath mov'd me.
You look prou had something more to say.
shall perchance do good; but speak you on ;
For I am almost ready to dissolve,
Alb. If there be more, more woeful, hold it in;
Hearing of this.

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Enter an Officer.

Of Edmund is dead, my lord.

Alb. That's but a trifle here. You lords and noble friends, know our intent; What comfort to this great decay may come Shall be applied for us, we will resign, During the life of this old majesty,

:

To him our absolute power: To EDGAR and KENT. You, to your rights,

300 With boot and such addition as your honours Have more than merited. All friends shall taste The wages of their virtue, and all foes The cup of their deservings. O! see, see!

Lear. And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou 'lt come no

more,

Never, never, never, never, never!

Pray you, undo this button: thank you, sir. Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips, Look there, look there!

309 Dies.

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Look up, my lord.

Kent. Vex not his ghost: O! let him pass; he hates him

That would upon the rack of this tough world Stretch him out longer.

Edg. He is gone, indeed. Kent. The wonder is he hath endur'd so long: He but usurp'd his life.

Alb. Bear them from hence. Our present business

Is general woe. To KENT and EDGAR Friends of my soul, you twain

Rule in this realm, and the gor'd state sustain. Kent. I have a journey, sir, shortly to go; s My master calls me, I must not say no.

Edg. The weight of this sad time we must obey;

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. The oldest hath borne most: we that are young Shall never see so much, nor live so long. Exeunt, with a dead march.

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Sailor, Messengers, Herald, Officers, Gentlemen, Musicians, and Attendants.

SCENE. For the first Act, in Venice; during the rest of the Play, at a Sea-port in Cyprus.

Christian and heathen, must be be-lee'd and

ACT I.

SCENE I. Venice. A Street.

Enter RODERIGO and IAGO,

Rod. Tush! never tell me, I take it much unkindly

That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
As if the strings were thine, should'st know of

this.

Iago. 'Sblood, but you will not hear me: If ever I did dream of such a matter, Abhor me.

Rod. Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate.

Iago. Despise me if I do not. Three great ones of the city,

In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Off-capp'd to him; and, by the faith of man, 10
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place;
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them, with a bombast circumstance
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;

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Nonsuits my mediators; for, 'Certes,' says he, For nought but provender, and when he's old,

Jago. O! sir, content you;

And, in conclusion,

I follow him to serve my turn upon him;
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,

'I have already chose my officer.'

cashier'd;

And what was he?

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;

Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty, 50 20 Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves, And, throwing but shows of service on their

That never set a squadron in the field, Nor the division of a battle knows

lords,

Do well thrive by them, and when they have

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What is the matter there?

Rod. Signior, is all your family within?
lago. Are your doors lock'd ?
Bra.

Why? wherefore ask you this? lago. 'Zounds! sir, you're robb'd; for shame, put on your gown;

Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise!
Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you.

Arise, I say.

Bra.

90

What! have you lost your wits? Rod. Most reverend signior, do you know my

voice?

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114

Bra. What profane wretch art thou ? lago. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.

Bra. Thou art a villain.
Iago,
You are a senator.
Bra. This thou shalt answer; I know thee,
Roderigo.

129

Rod. Sir, I will answer any thing. But I be seech you,

If 't be your pleasure and most wise consent,
As partly I find it is, that your fair daughter,
At this odd-even and dull watch o' the night,
Transported with no worse nor better guard
But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor, -
If this be known to you, and your allowance,
We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs:
But if you know not this, my manners tell me
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
That, from the sense of all civility,
I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes
In an extravagant and wheeling stranger
Of here and every where. Straight satisfy

yourself:

If she be in her chamber or your house, Let loose on me the justice of the state For thus deluding you.

Bra.

10

Strike on the tinder, ho!

Give me a taper! call up all my people!
This accident is not unlike my dream;
Belief of it oppresses me already.
Light, I say! light!

Iago.

Exit from above. Farewell; for I must leave you:

It seems not meet nor wholesome to my place To be produc'd, as if I stay I shall, Against the Moor; for I do know the state, However this may gall him with some check, Cannot with safety cast him; for he's embark'd With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars, 18 Which even now stand in act, that, for their souls, Another of his fathom they have none, To lead their business; in which regard, Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains, Yet, for necessity of present life, I must show out a flag and sign of love, Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely find him,

Lead to the Sagittary the raised search; And there will I be with him. So, farewell. 10

Exit

Enter BRABANTIO and Servants with torches. Bra. It is too true an evil; gone she is, And what's to come of my despised time Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo, Where didst thou see her? O unhappy girl! With the Moor, say'st thou? Who would be a How didst thou know 'twas she? O! she de ceives me

father?

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