jb. iJ^vt-^. ^^ c Hookiovers Ecfi 6ion V ?flllian\Sl\cil^speare ar\cf •At QtYxpcT of Study TVyQ Urvjver'si^y Society New York, Copyright, 1 90 1 By THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY COLLEG LIBRAR zKn A\ THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR/f ^/ Preface. The Early Editions. Two Quarto editions of King Lear appeared in the year 1608, with the following title- pages: — (i.) '' M. William Shak-speare: | HIS | True Chronicle Historic of the life and | death of King Lear and his three Daughters. | With the unfortunate life of Edgar, fonne \ and heire to the Earle of Gloster, and his I sullen and assumed humor of | Tom of Bedlam: | As io was played before the Kings Maieftie at Whitehall vpon \ S. Stephans night in Chriftmas Hollidayes. \ By his Maies- ties Seruants playing vsually at the Gloabe | on the Banck-fide. [Device.] London, | Printed for Nathaniel Butter, and are to be sold at his fhop in Pauls \ Church- yard at the figne of the Pide Bull neere | St. Auftins Gate, 1608." (ii.) The title of the Second Quarto is almost identical with that of (i.), but the device is different, and there is no allusion to the shop " at the signe of the Pide Bull." It is now generally accepted that the " Pide Bull " Quarto is the first edition of the play, but the question of priority depends on the minutest of bibliographical cri- teria, and the Cambridge editors were for a long time misled in their chronological order of the Quartos (vide Cambridge editors' Preface, pp. v.-ix.); the problem is complicated by the fact that no two of the extant six cop- ies of the First Quarto are exactly alike ;'^ they differ in * Capell's copy ; the Duke of Devonshire's ; the British Mu- seum's two copies ; the Bodleian two copies. Preface THE TRAGEDY OF having one, two, three, or four, uncorrected sheets. The Second Quarto was evidently printed from a copy of the First Quarto, having three uncorrected sheets. A re- print of this edition, with many additional errors, ap- peared in 1655. The Folio edition of the play was derived from an in- dependent manuscript, and the text, from a typographical point of view, is much better than that of the earlier editions; but it is noteworthy that some two hundred and twenty lines found in the Quartos are not found in the Folio, while about fifty lines in the Folio are wanting in the Quartos.* Much has been written on the discrepancies between the two versions; among modern investigations perhaps the most important are those of (i.) Delius and (ii.) Kop- pel ; according to (i), " in the Quartos we have the play as it was originally performed before King James, and before the audience of the Globe, but sadly marred by misprints, printers' sophistications, and omissions, per- haps due to an imperfect and illegible AIS. In the Folio we have a later MS. belonging to the Theatre, and more nearly identical with what Shakespeare wrote. The omissions of the Quartos are the blunders of the printers ; the omissions of the Folios are the abridge- ments of the actors; " according to (ii.), '' it was Shake- speare's own hand that cut out many of the passages both in the Quarto text and the Folio text. . . . The original form was, essentially, that of the Quarto, then followed a longer form, zuith the additions in the Folio, as substantially our modern editions have again restored * To the latter class belong I. ii. 119- 124; I. iv. 345-356; HI. i. 22-29; III. ii. 79-95; to the former, I. iii. 17-23; I. iv. 154-169, 252- 256; II. ii. 148-151; III. vi. 18-59, 109-122; III. vii. 98-107; IV. i. 60-66; IV. ii. 31-50, 53-59, 62-69; IV. vii. 88-95; V. i. 23-28; V. iii. 54-59; V. iii. 204-221. Vide Prsetorius' facsimiles of Quarto i and Quarto 2; Victor's Parallel Text of Quarto i and Folio i (Marburg, 1886), Furness' Variorum, etc. KING LEAR . Preface thein; then the shortest form, as it is preserved for us in the FoHo."^ It seems probable that the quarto represents a badly printed revised version of the orginal form of the play, specially prepared by the poet for performance at Court, vv^hereas the folio is the actors' abridged version. It seems hardly possible to determine the question more definitely. Tate's Version. For more than a century and a half, from the year 1680 until the restoration of Shakespeare's tragedy at Covent Garden in 1838, Tate's per-version of Lear held the stage, f delighting audiences with " the Cir- cumstances of Lear's Restoration, and the virtuous Ed- gar's Alliance with the amiable Cordelia." It was to this acting-edition that Lamb referred in his famous criticism, " Tate has put his hook into the nostrils of this leviathan for Garrick and his followers," etc. Garrick, Kemble, Kean, and other great actors were quite con- tent with this travesty, but " the Lear of Shakespeare cannot be acted." The Date of Composition. The play of King Lear may safely be assigned to the year 1605: — (i.) According to an entry in the Stationers' Register, dated 26th No- vember, 1607, it was " played before the King's Majesty at Whitehall upon S. Stephens' night at Christmas last," i.e. on the twenty-sixth of December 1606 ; (ii.) the names of Edgar's devils, and many of the allusions in Act III. Sc. iv. were evidently derived from Harsnett's Declaration * Delius' Essay appeared originally in the German Shakespeare Society Year-Book X. ; and was subsequently translated into English (Nezu. SJiak. Soc. Trans. 1875-6). Dr. Koppel's investigations are to be found in his Text-Krit- ische Studien uhcr Richard IIL u. King Lear (Dresden, 1877). A resume of the various theories is given in Furness' edition, pp. 359-373- t Vide Furness, pp. 467-478. Preface THE TRAGEDY OF of Egregious Popish Impostures, which was first pubHshed in 1603; (iii.) the substitution of ''British man'' for '* Englishman " in the famous nursery-rhyme (Act III. Sc. iv. 189) seems to point to a time subsequent to the Union of England and Scotland under James I.; the poet Daniel in a congratulatory address to the King (printed in 1603) wrote thus : — " O thou mightie state, Now thou art all Great Britain, and no more, No Scot, no English now, nor no debate ; " * (iv.) the allusions to the ''late eclipses" (I. ii. 112, 148, 153) have been most plausibly referred to the great eclipse of the sun, which took place in October, 1605, and this supposition is borne out by the fact that John Harvey's Discoursive Problems concerning Prophesies, printed in 1588, actually contains a striking prediction thereof (hence the point of Edmund's comment, " / am thinking of a prediction I read this other day,'' etc.) ; per- haps, too, there is a reference to the Gunpowder Plot in Gloucester's words, " machinations, hollowness, treach- ery, and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves." The Sources of the Plot. The story of " Leir, the son of Balderd, ruler over the Britaynes, in the year of the world 3105, at what time Joas reigned as yet in Juda," was among the best-known stories of British history. Its origin must be sought for in the dim world of Celtic legend, or in the more remote realm of simple nature- myths, f but its place in literature dates from Geoffrey of * It is noteworthy that in IV. vi. 256 the Folio reads "English," where the Quartos have "British." t According to some Celtic folk-lorists, " Lir " = Neptune ; the two cruel daughters = the rough Winds ; Cordelia = the gentle Zephyr. I know no better commentary on the tempestuous char- acter of the play; Shakespeare has unconsciously divined the germ of the myth. KING LEAR Preface Monmouth's Latin history of the Britons, Historia Brit- oniim, composed about 1130, based in all probabiHty on an earlier work connected with the famous name of Nennius, though Geoffrey aheges his chief authority was " an ancient British book." To the Historia Britonum we owe the stories of Leir, Gorboduc, Locrine; there, too, we find rich treasures of ^^^thurian romance. • Welsh, French, and English histories of Britain were derived, directly or indirectly, from this Latin history. The first to tell these tales in English verse was Lay- amon, son of Leovenath, priest of Arley Regis, in Wor- cestershire, on the right bank of the Severn, who flour- ished at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and whose English Brut was based on Wace's French Gcstes des Bretons — a versified translation of Geoffrey's history. At the end of the century the story figures again in Rob- ert of Gloucester's Metrical Chronicle; in the fourteenth century Robert of Brunne, in the fifteenth John Har- dyng, re-told in verse these ancient British stories. In the sixteenth century we have Warner's Albion s England — the popular metrical history of the period; we have also the prose chronicles of Fabyan, Rastell, Grafton, and over and above all, HoHnshed's famous Historic of England)"^ the story of Lcir is to be found in all these books. Three versions of the tale at the end o^f the six- teenth century show that the poetical possibilities of the subject were recognised before Shakespeare set thereon the stamp of his genius f : — (i.) in the Mir our for Magis- trates " Queene Cordila " tells her life's " tragedy," how '' in dispaire " she slew herself '' the year before Christ, 800"; (ii.) Spenser, in Canto X. of the Second Book of the Faery Queene, summarises, in half a dozen stanzas, * In Camden's Remains the " Lear " story is told of the West- Saxon King Ina; in the Gesta Romanorum Theodosius takes the place of King Lear. fThe ballad of King Lcir, and his three Daughters {vide Percy's Reliques) is, in all probability, later than Shakespeare's play. 5 Preface THE TRAGEDY OF the story of '' Cordelia " — this form of the name, used as a variant of " Cordeill " for metrical purposes, occur- ring here for the first time; the last stanza may be quoted to illustrate the closing of the story in the pre-Shake- spearian versions: — "So to his crown she him restord again In which he died, made ripe for death by eld. And after will'd it should to her remain; Who peacefully the same long time did weld. And all men's hearts in due obedience held; Till that her sister's children woxen strong Through proud ambition, against her rebell'd. And ovcrcommen kept in prison long. Till weary of that wretched life herself she hong" ; (iii.) of special interest, however, is the pre-Shakespearian drama, which was entered in the books of the Stationers' Company as early as 1594 under the title of " The mostc famous Chronicle historyc of Leire, Kinge of England, and his Three Daughters," but evidently not printed till the year 1605, when perhaps its publication was due to the popularity of the newer Chronicle History on the same subject; " The | True Chronicle Hi | story of King Leir I and his three | daughters, Gonorill, Ragan, and Cordelia. | As it hath bene divers and sundry | times lately acted. | London | printed | by Simon Stafford for John I Wright, and are to bee sold at his shop at | Christes Church dore, next Newgate- | Market, 1605."* It is noteworthy that the play was entered in the Reg- isters on the 8th of May as " the tragicall historic of Kinge Leir," though the play is anything but a '' trag- edy " — its ending is a happy one. It looks, indeed, as though the original intention of the pubHshers was to palm off their " Leir " as identical with the great tragedy of the day. * Vide " Six Old Plays on which Shakespeare founded his Measure for Measure," etc.; Hazlitt's Shakespeare's Library, etc.; an abstract of the play is given by Furness, pp. 393-401.- 6 KING LEAR Preface But however worthless it may seem when placed in juxtaposition with " the most perfect specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world,"* yet this less am- bitious and humble production is. not wholly worthless, if only for '^ a certain childlike sweetness " in the por- traiture of " faire Cordelia," " Myrrour of vertue, Phoenix of our age! Too kind a daughter for an unkind father! " It may be pronounced a very favourable specimen of the popular ' comedies ' of the period to which it belonged (circa 1592), with its conventional classicism, its charac- teristic attempts at humour, its rhyming couplets; like so many of its class, it has caught something of the tender- ness of the Greenish drama, and something — rather less — of the aspiration of the Marlowan.f " With all its de- fects," says Dr. Ward, " the play seems only to await the touch of a powerful hand to be converted into a tragedy of supreme effectiveness; and while Shakespeare's genius nowhere exerted itself with more transcendent * Shelley, Defence of Poetry, Essays, etc., 1840, p. 20. t Here are a few lines — perhaps ' the salt of the old play ' — by way of specimen: — [the Gallian king is wooing Cordelia dis- guised as a Palmer]. ''King. Your birth 's too high for any but a king. Cordelia. My mind is low enough to love a palmer, Rather than any king upon the earth. King. O, but you never can endure their life. Which is so straight and full of penury. Cordelia. O yes, I can, and happy if I might : I '11 hold thy palmer's stafif within my hand, And think it is the sceptre of a queen. Sometime I '11 set thy bonnet on my head And think I wear a rich imperial crown. Sometime I '11 help thee in thy holy prayers, And think I am with thee in Paradise. Thus I '11 mock fortune, as she mocketh me. And never will my lovely choice repent ; For having thee, I shall have all content," Preface THE TRAGEDY OF force and marvellous versatility, it nowhere found more promising materials ready to its command."* Yet Shakespeare's debt to the old play was of the slightest, and some have held that he may not even have read it, but in all probability he derived therefrom at least a valuable hint for the character of Kent, whose prototype Perillus is by no means unskillfully drawn; perhaps_, too, the original of the steward Oswald is to be found in the courtier Scaliger; again it is noteworthy that messengers with incriminating letters play an im- portant part in the earHer as in the later drama; and pos- sibly the first rumblings of the wild storm-scene of ' Lear ' may be heard in the mimic thunder which in ' Lcir ' strikes terror in the heart of the assassin hired to murder king and comrade — " the parlosest old men that ere he heard." There is in the '' Chronicle History " no hint of the underplot of Lear, the almost parallel story of Gloster and Edmund, whereby Shakespeare subtly emphasies the leading motif of the play; the vague original thereof is to be found in Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia (Book II. pp. 133-158, ed. 1598), {"the pitifu'll state and story of the Paphlagonian vnkinde king, and his kind Sonne, first related by the son, then by the blind father "). Duration of Action. The time of the play, accord- ing to Mr. Daniel {vide Transactions of New Shakespere Svc, 1877-79), covers ten days, distributed as follows: — Day I, Act I. Sc. i. Day 2, Act I. Sc. ii. An interval of something less than a fortnight. Day 3, Act I. Sc. iii., iv. Day 4, Act XL Sc. i., ii. Day 5, Act II. Sc. iii., iv.; Act III. Sc. i-vi. Day 6, Act III. Sc. vii. ; Act IV. Sc. i. Day 7, Act IV. Sc. ii. Perhaps an interval of a day or two. Day 8, Act IV. Sc. iii. Day 9, Act IV. Sc. iv., v., vi. Day 10, Act IV. Sc. vii. ; Act V. Sc. i.-iil. " The longest period, including intervals, that can be allowed for this play is one month; though perhaps little more than three weeks is sufficient." * History of English Dramatic Literature, Vol. I., p. 126. 8 KING LEAR Critical Comments. I. Argument. I. Lear, King of Britain, being desirous of escaping the cares of state on account of advancing years, deter- mines to portion out his kingdom among his three daughters, Goneril, Regan, and CordeHa. In his old age he craves expressions of his daughters' affection. Both Goneril and Regan make most eloquent protestations of their love; and the delighted monarch forthwith bestows on each a third of his kingdom. But Cordeha, disgusted with such lip-service, will not please her father by like avowals, but promises only to love him according to her duty. Lear, enrag^ed, takes away her moiety of the realm and divide? it between Goneril and Regan. The Earl of Kent interposes on behalf of Cordelia, and is himself banished. Though dowerless, Cordelia's hand is sought and obtained by the King of France. It is not long before Lear discovers that he has been disappointed in his estimate of the two elder daughters. By agreement, he had reserved nothing more than the title of king, and a retinue of one hundred knights. He was to spend alternately a month at the courts of Goneril and Regan. IL They, however, reduce the size of his train and drive him into open rupture with them. IIL Finally, after a passionate scene, the old king betakes himself to the desolate heath on a stormy night, where he braves the fury of the elements. He is ac- companied by the two remaining retainers of his Court — Comments THE TRAGEDY OF his jester and the Earl of Kent, who has returned from banishment to serve him in disguise. The three take refuge in a hovel, where they encounter a supposed mad- man — Edgar, the disguised son of the Earl of Gloucester, who has been supplanted in his father's affections by his natural half-brother, Edmund. Lear's mind becomes unbalanced. In his extremity the Earl of Gloucester ministers to him. The treacherotis Edmund informs Regan and Goneril of the kindness, and Cornwall, Re- gan's husband, tears out Gloucester's eyes. IV, Shortly after, while being led in his blindness on the heath, Gloucester is met and recognized by his dis- owned son Edgar, who, unknown to his father, takes him under his protection and cures Gloucester of his suicidal mania. Meanwhile, Cordelia, learning through Kent of her sisters' treachery and the ensuing plight of her father, comes to his relief with a French army. She nurses him, and endeavors to restore him to sanity. V. A battle is fought between Cordelia's French troops, and the English forces under the command of Edmund, who holds equivocal relations towards both Goneril and Regan. Cordelia's army is defeated and herself and Lear taken prisoners. Goneril — for Ed- mund's sake — poisons her sister Regan; and afterwards when her husband discovers her perfidy, stabs herself. Edmund is killed in a combat with his wronged brother, Edgar. By an order of Edmund, too late counter- manded, Cordelia is hanged in prison, and Lear dies broken-hearted at this last calamity. McSpadden: Shakespearian Synopses. H. Not a Play for the Stage. The Lear of Shakespeare cannot be acted. The con- temptible machinery by which they mimic the storm 10 KING LEAR Comments which he goes out m, is not more inadequate to represent the horrors of the real elements, than any actor can be to represent Lear: they might more easily propose to personate the Satan of Milton upon a stage, or one of Michael Angelo's terrible figures. The greatness of Lear is not in corporal dimension, but in intellectual: the explosions of his passion are terrible as a volcano: they are storms turning up and disclosing to the bottom that sea his mind, with all its vast riches. It is his mind which is laid bare. This case of flesh and blood seems too insignificant to be thought on; even as he himself neglects it. On the stage we see nothing but corporal infirmities and weakness, the impotence of rage; while we read it, we see not Lear, but we are Lear, — we are in his mind, we are sustained by a grandeur which baffles the malice of daughters and storms; in the aberrations of his reason we discover a mighty irregular power of rea- soning, immethodised from the ordinary purposes of life, but exerting its powers, as the wind blows where it Hst- eth, at will upon the corruptions and abuses of mankind. What have looks, or tones, to do with that sublime iden- tification of his age with that of the heavens themselves, when in his reproaches to them for conniving at the in- justice of his children, he reminds them that " they them- selves are old "? What gestures shall .we appropriate to this? What has the voice or the eye to do with such things? But the play is beyond all art, as the tamperings with it show: it is too hard and stony; it must have love scenes, and a happy ending. It is not enough that Cor- delia is a daughter, she must shine as a lover too. Tate has put his hook in the nostrils of this Leviathan, for Garrick and his followers, the showmen of scene, to draw the mighty beast about more easily. A happy ending! — as if the living martyrdom that Lear had gone through, — the flaying of his feelings alive, did not make a fair dismissal from the stage of life the only decorous thing for him. If he is to live and be happy after, if he could sustain this world's burden after, why all this pudder and Comments THE TRAGEDY OF preparation, — why torment us with all this unnecessary sympathy? As if the childish pleasure of getting his gilt robes and sceptre again could tempt him to act over again his misused station, — as if at his years, and with his experience, anything was left but to die. Lamb: On the Tragedies of Shakespeare. III. Lear. Lear, as first presented to us, is so self-indulgent and unrestrained, has been so fooled to the top of his bent, is so terribly unjust, not only to Cordeha, but to Kent, that one feels hardly any punishment can be too great for him. The motive that he puts to draw forth the desired expression of affection from Cordelia, '' Do profess love to get a big reward," is such that no girl with true love for a father could leave unrepudiated; and when his pro- posal gets the answer it deserves, he meets his daugh- ter's nobleness by curses and revenge. Stripped by his own act of his own authority, his Fool with bitter sar- casms teaches him what a fool he 's been. And few can regret that he was made to feel a bite even sharper than a serpent's tooth. Still one is glad to see that he was early struggling against his own first wild passion, and that he would blame his own jealous curiosity before seeing Goneril's purpose of unkindness. One sympa- thizes with his prayer to heaven to keep him in temper — " he would not be mad " — with his acquirement of some self-control, when excusing the hot duke's insolence by his illness. One sees, though, how he still measures love by the allowances of knights it will give him; and it is not till driven out to the mercy of the winds and storm, till he knows that he is but a " poor, infirm, weak and despised old man," till he can think of the poor naked wretches of whom he has before taken too little care, KING LEAR Comments that one pities the sufferer for the consequences of his own folly. When he recovers from his madness and has come to the knowledge of himself, has found, smelled out those flatterers who 'd destroy him, then is he more truly " every inch a king," though cut to the brains, than ever he was before. The pathos of his recogni- tion of Cordelia, his submission to her and seeking her blessing, his lamentation over her corpse, are exceeded by nothing in Shakspere. Professor Spalding dwells on the last scene as an instance of how Shakspere got his most intense effects by no grand situation, as Massinger did, as Shakspere himself did in earlier time, but out of the simplest materials. Spalding says, " The horrors which have gathered so thickly throughout the last act are carefully removed to the background, but free room is left for the sorrowful group on which every eye is turned. The situation is simple in the extreme; but how tragically moving are the internal convulsions, for the representation of which the poet has worthily husbanded his force! Lear enters with frantic cries, bearing the body of his dead daughter in his arms; he alternates be- tween agitating doubts and wishful unbelief of her death, and piteously experiments on the lifeless corpse; he bends over her with the dotage of an old man's af- fection, and calls to mind the soft lowness of her voice, till he fancies he can hear its murmurs. Then succeeds the dreadful torpor of despairing insanity, during which he receives the most cruel tidings with apathy, or replies to them with wild incoherence; and the heart flows forth at the close with its last burst of love only to break in the vehemence of its emotion, commencing with the ten- derness of regret, swelling into choking grief, and at last, when the eye catches the tokens of mortality in the dead, snapping the chords of life in an agonized horror." Cordelia is as the sun above the deeps of hell shown in Goneril and Regan. One can hardly help wishing that Shakspere had followed the old story told by Lay- amon and other repeaters of Geoffrey of ^lonmouth, and 13 Comments THE TRAGEDY OF made Cordelia set her father on the throne again, and reign after him for a while in peace. But the tragedian, the preacher of Shakspere's Third-Period Lesson, did wisely for his art and meaning in letting the daughter and father lie in one grave. FuRNiVALL : Tlie Leopold Shakspere. IV. Cordelia. There is in the beauty of Cordelia's character an ef- fect too sacred for words, and almost too deep for tears; within her heart is a fathomless well of purest affection, but its waters sleep in silence and obscurity — never fail- ing in their depth and never overflowing in their fulness. Every thing in her seems to lie beyond our view, and affects us in a manner which we feel rather than per- ceive. The character appears to have no surface, no salient points upon which the fancy can readily seize: there is little external development of intellect, less of passion, and still less of imagination. It is completely made out in the course of a few scenes, and we are sur- prised to find that in those few scenes there is matter for a life of reflection, and materials enough for twenty her- oines. If Lear be the grandest of Shakspeare's trage- dies, Cordelia in herself, as a human being, governed by the purest and holiest impulses and motives, the most re- fined from all dross of selfishness and passion, ap- proaches near to perfection; and in her adaptation, as a dramatic personage, to a determinate plan of action, may be pronounced altogether perfect. The character, to speak of it critically as a poetical conception, is not, however, to be comprehended at once, or easily; and in the same manner Cordelia, as a woman, is one whom we must have loved before we could have known her, and known her long before we could have known her 14 KING LEAR Comments truly. ... It appears to me that the whole charac- ter rests upon the two subHmest principles of human ac- tion — the love of truth and the sense of duty; but these, when they stand alone (as in the Antigone), are apt to strike us as severe and cold. Shakspeare has, therefore, wreathed them round with the dearest attributes of our feminine nature, the power of feeling and inspiring af- fection. The first part of the play shows us how Cor- delia is loved, the second part how she can love. . What is it which lends to Cordelia that pe- cuHar and individual truth of character which distin- guishes her from every other human being? It is a natural reserve, a tardiness of disposition, '' which often leaves the history unspoke that it intends to do "; a sub- dued quietness of deportment and expression, a veiled shyness thrown over all her emotions, her language, and her manner; making the outward demonstration invaria-- bly fall short of what we know to be the feeling within. Not only is the portrait singularly beautiful and inter- esting in itself, but the conduct of Cordelia, and the part which she bears in the beginning of the story, is ren- dered consistent and natural by the wonderful truth and delicacy with which this peculiar disposition is sustained throughout the play. Mrs. Jameson: Characteristics of Women. Goneril and Regan. There is no accounting for the conduct of Goneril and Regan but by supposing them possessed with a very in- stinct and original impulse of malignity. The main points of their action, as we have seen, were taken from the old story. Character, in the proper sense of the term, they have none in the legend; and the Poet but in- 15 Comments THE TRAGEDY OF vested them with characters suitable to the part they were beheved to have acted. Whatever of soul these beings possess, is all in the head: they have no heart to guide or inspire their under- standing; and but enough of understanding to seize oc- casions and frame excuses for their heartlessness. Without affection, they are also without shame; there being barely so much of human blood in their veins, as may serve to quicken the brain, without sending a blush to the cheek. Their hypocrisy acts as the instinctive cunning of selfishness; with a sort of hell-inspired tact they feel their way for a fit occasion, but drop the mask as soon as their ends are reached. There is a smooth, glib rhetoric in their professions of love, unwarmed with the least grace of real feeling, and a certain wiry viru- lence and intrepidity of thought in their after-speaking, that is almost terrific. No touch of nature finds a re- sponse in their bosoms; no atmosphere of comfort can abide their presence: we feel that they have somewhat within that turns the milk of humanity into venom, which all the wounds they can inflict are but opportu- nities for casting. The subordinate plot of the drama serves the purpose of relieving the improbability of their conduct towards their father. Some, indeed, have censured this plot as an embarrassment to the main one; forgetting, perhaps, that to raise and sustain the feelings at any great height, there must be some breadth of basis. A degree of evil, which, if seen altogether alone, would strike us as superhuman, makes a very different impression, when it has the support of proper sympathies and associations. This effect is in a good measure secured by Edmund's independent concurrence with Goneril and Regan in wickedness. It looks as if some malignant planet had set the elements of evil astir in several hearts at the same time; so that " unnaturalness between the child and the parent " were become, sure enough, the order of the day. i6 KING LEAR Comments Besides, the agreement of the sister-fiends in fihal ingratitude might seem, of itself, to argue some sisterly attachment between them. So that, to bring out their character truly, it had to be shown, that the same prin- ciple which united them against their father would, on the turning of occasion, divide them against each other. Hence the necessity of bringing them forward in rela- tions adapted to set them at strife. In Edmund, ac- cordingly, they find a character wicked enough, and en- ergetic enough in his wickedness, to interest their feel- ings; and because they are both aHke interested in him, therefore they will cut their way to him through each other's life. Hudson : The Works of Shakespeare, VI. The Fool. The Fool, the best of Shakespeare's Fools, made more conspicuous by coming after the insignificant Clown in Othello^ is such an echo — mordantly witty, mar- vellously ingenious. He is the protest of sound com- mon-sense against the foolishness of which Lear has been guilty, but a protest that is pure humour; he never complains, least of all on his own account. Yet all his foolery produces a tragic effect. And the words spoken by one of the knights, " Since my young lady's going into France, sir, the fool hath much pined away," atone for all his sharp speeches in Lear. Amongst Shake- speare's other master-strokes in this play must be reck- oned that of exalting the traditional clown, the buffoon, into so high a sphere that he becomes a tragic element of the first order. In no other play of Shakespeare's has the Fool so many proverbial words of wisdom. Indeed, the whole piece teems with such words: Lear's ** ' Ay ' and 'no' 17 Comments THE TRAGEDY OF too was no good divinity "; Edgar's " Ripeness is all"; Kent's ** To be acknowledged, madam, is o'erpaid." Brandes : William Shakespeare. . That exquisite scherzo to Cordelia's andante — the Fool. This characteristic type of the Comedies appears nowhere else in tragedy; but in the close of the comic period we find the Fool shaping towards the func- tions he performs in Lear. Frankness was his official prerogative; fidelity his added grace. The calamities of As You Like It are as the passing of a summer cloud compared with those of Lear; but such as they are, Touchstone shares in them, throwing in his lot with his banished mistresses, and pricking their romantic extrav- agances with the rough-hewn bolts of his dry brain. The overwhelming pathos of Lear is evolved from a sit- uation in itself quite as capable of yielding farce; and as the tragedy deepens, humour melts into pathos in the chorus-like comments of the more exquisite and finely- tempered Touchstone who follows the king into the night and storm, and vanishes from our ken, Hke a wild dream- fancy, when the troubled morning breaks. Herford: The Works of Shakespeare. VII. Edmund. Our eyes have been questioning him. Gifted as he is with high advantages of person, and further endowed by nature with a powerful intellect and a strong energetic will, even without any concurrence of circumstances and accident, pride will necessarily be the sin that most easily besets him. But Edmund is also the known and ac- knowledged son of the princely Gloster; he, therefore, has both the germ of pride and the conditions best fitted i8 KING LEAR Comments to evolve and ripen it into a predominant feeling. Yet hitherto no reason appears w^hy it should be other than the not unusual pride of person, talent, and birth — a pride auxiHary, if not akin, to many virtues, and the nat- ural ally of honourable impulses. But, alas! in his own presence his own father takes shame to himself for the frank avowal that he is his father — he has " blushed so often to acknowledge him that he is now brazed to it." This, and the consciousness of its notoriety; the gnawing conviction that every show of respect is an effort of courtesy which recalls, while it represses, a contrary feeling — this is the ever trickling flow of worm- wood and gall into the wounds of pride; the corrosive vims which inoculates pride with a venom not its own, with envy, hatred, and a lust for that power which, in its blaze of radiance, would hide the dark spots on his disk; with pangs of shame personally undeserved, and there- fore felt as wrongs; and with a blind ferment of vin- dictive working towards the occasions and causes, espe- cially towards a brother, whose stainless birth and law- ful honours were the constant remembrancers of his own debasement, and were ever in the way to prevent all chance of its being unknown or overlooked and for- gotton. Add to this that, with excellent judgement, and provident for the claims of the moral sense; for that which, relatively to the drama, is called poetic justice, and as the fittest means for reconciling the feelings of the spectators to the horrors of Gloster's after-sufferings — at least, of rendering them somewhat less unendurable (for I will not disguise my conviction that in this one point the tragic in this play has been urged beyond the outermost mark and ne plus ultra of the dramatic), Shakespeare has precluded all excuse and palliation of the guilt incurred by both the parents of the base-born Edmund, by Gloster's confession that he was at the time a married man, and already blest with a lawful heir of his fortunes. Coleridge: Notes and Lectures upon Shakespeare, 19 Comments THE TRAGEDY OF VIII. Kent and Edgar. If the best grace and happiness of Hfe consist in a forgetting of self and a Hving for others, Kent and Edgar are those of Shakespeare's men whom one should most wish to resemble. Strikingly similar in virtues and situation, these two persons are, notwithstanding, widely different in character. Brothers in magnanimity and in misfortune; equally invincible in fidelity, the one to his King, the other to his father; both driven to dis- guise themselves, and in their disguise both serving where they stand condemned; — Kent, too generous to control himself, is always quick, fiery, and impetuous; Edgar, controlling himself even because of his generos- ity, is always calm, collected, and deliberate. Yet it is difficult which of them to prefer. For, if Edgar be the more judicious and prudent, Kent is the more unselfish, of the two: the former disguising himself for his own safety, and then turning his disguise into an opportunity of service; the latter disguising himself merely in order to serve, and then perilling his life in the same course whereby the other seeks to preserve it. Nor is Edgar so lost to himself and absorbed in others but that he can and does survive them; whereas Kent's life is so bound up with others, that their death plucks him after. Hudson : The Works of Shakespeare, IX. Leading Features of the Tragedy. Four things have struck us in reading Lear: I. That poetry is an interesting study, for this reason, that it relates to whatever is most interesting in human 20 KING LEAR Comments life. Whoever, therefore, has a contempt for poetry has a contempt for himself and humanity. 2. That the language of poetry is superior to the lan- guage of painting, because the strongest of our recol- lections relate to feelings, not to faces. 3. That the greatest strength of genius is shown in de- scribing the strongest passions; for the power of the imagination, in works of invention, must be in propor- tion to the force of the natural impressions which are the subject of them. 4. That the circumstance which balances the pleasure against the pain in tragedy is, that in proportion to the greatness of the evil is our sense and* desire of the oppo- site good excited; and that our sympathy with actual suffering is lost in the strong impulse given to our nat- ural affections, and carried away with the swelling tide of passion that gushes from and reHeves the heart. Hazlitt: Characters of Shakespear's Plays, King Lear is, indeed, the greatest single achieve- ment in poetry of the Teutonic, or Northern, genius. By its largeness of conception and the variety of its de- tails, by its revelation of a harmony existing between the forces of nature and the passions of man, by its gro- tesqueness and its sublimity, its own kinship with the great cathedrals of Gothic architecture. To conceive, to compass, to comprehend, at once in its stupendous unity and in its almost endless variety, a building Hke the cathedral of Rheims, or that of Cologne, is a feat which might seem to defy the most athletic imagination. But the impression which Shakspere's tragedy produces, while equally large — almost monstrous — and equally intricate, lacks the material fixity and determinateness of that produced by these great works in stone. Every- thing in the tragedy is in motion, and the motion is that of a tempest. Do WD en: Shakspere. Comments The loss of a Cordelia — that is the great catastrophe. We all lose, or live under the dread of losing, our Cor- delia. The loss of the dearest and the best, of that which alone makes life worth living — that is the tragedy of life. Hence the question: Is this the end of the world? Yes, it is. Each of us has only his world, and lives with the threat of its destruction hanging over him. And in the year 1606 Shakespeare w^as in no mood to write other than dramas on the doom of worlds. For the end of all things seems to have come when we see the ruin of the moral world — when he who is noble and trustful like Lear is rewarded with ingrati- tude and hate; when he who is honest and brave Hke Kent is punished with dishonour; when he who is mer- ciful like Gloucester, taking the suffering and injured under his roof, has the loss of his eyes for his reward; when he w^ho is noble and faithful like Edgar must wan- der about in the semblance of a maniac, with a rag round his loins; when, finally, she who is the living emblem of womanly dignity and of filial tenderness towards an old father who has become as it were her child — when she meets her death before his eyes at the hands of assassins! What avails it that the guilty slaughter and poison each other afterwards? None the less is this the titanic tragedy of human life; there rings forth from it a chorus of passionate, jeering, wildly yearning, and des- perately wailing voices. Brandes: William Shakespeare. 22 The Tragedy of King Lear. DRAMATIS PERSONAE. Lear^ king of Britain. King of France. Duke of Burgundy. Duke of Cornwall. Duke of Albany. Earl of Kent. Earl of Gloucester. Edgar, son to Gloucester. Edmund, bastard son to Gloucester, CuRAN, a courtier. Old Man, tenant to Gloucester. Doctor. • Fool. Oswald, steward to Goneril. A captain employed by Edmund. Gentleman attendant on Cordelia. Herald. Servants to Cornwall. Goneril, ^ Regan, > daughters to Lear. Cordelia, ) Knights of Lear's train, Captains, Messengers, Soldiers, and Attendants. Scene : Britain. The Tragedy of King Lear. ACT FIRST. Scene I. King Lear's palace. Enter Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund. Kent. I thought the king had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall. Glou. It did always seem so to us: but now, in the division of the kingdom, it appears not which of the dukes he values most; for equalities are so weighed that curiosity in neither can make choice of cither's moiety. Kent. Is not this your son, my lord? Glon. His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge : I have so often blushed to acknowledge him that lo now I am brazed to it. Kent. I cannot conceive you. Glou. Sir, this young fellow's mother could: where- upon she grew round-wombed, and had indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault? Kent. I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper. Glou. But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in 20 my account : though this knave came something 25 Act I. Sc. i. THE TRAGEDY OF saucily into the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair; there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be ac- knowledged. Do you know this noble gentle- man, Edmund? Edm. No, my lord. Glou. My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my honourable friend. Edm. My services to your lordship. 30 Kent. I must love you, and sue to know you better. Edm. Sir, I shall study deserving. Glou. He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again. The king is coming. Sennet. Enter one bearing a coronet, King Lear, Cornwall, Albany, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia, and Attendants. Lear. Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Glou- cester. Glou. I shall, my liege. [Exeunt Gloucester and Edmund. Lear. Meantime we shall express our darker purpose. Give me the map there, ^^iiow we haye^divided In thjree our kingdom : and 'tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age, 40 Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburthen'd crawl toward death. Our son of Corn- wall, And you, our no less loving son of Albany, We have this hour a constant will to publish Our daughters' several dowers, thatjutiire__stnfe May be prevented joow. The princes, France and Burgundy, Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love, 26 r KING LEAR Act I. Sc. i. Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn, ^*^~^^ ^ And here are to be answered. Tell me, my daughters, uyi~u^ Since now we will divest us both of rule, 50 Hulxji, Interest of territory, cares of state, / n Which of you shall we say doth love us most? ; That we our largest boimty may extend r" "^ Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril, '^''^ Our eldest-born, speak first. Gon. Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter, Dearer than eye-sight, space and liberty. Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare, No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour. As much as child e'er loved or father found; 60 A love that makes breath poor and speech unable; Beyond all manner of so much I love you. Cor. \Asidc\ What shall Cordelia do? Love, and be silent. Lear. Of all these bounds, even from this line to this. With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd, With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads. We make thee lady. To thine and Albany's issue Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter. Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak. Reg. I am made of that self metal as my sister, 70 And prize me at her worth. In my true heart I find she names my very deed of love; Only she comes too short : that I profess Myself an enemy to all other joys Which the most precious square of sense pos- sesses, And find I am alone felicitate In your dear highness' love. 27 Act I. Sc. i. THE TRAGEDY OF Cor. [Aside] Then poor Cordelia! And yet not so, since I am sure my love 's ]VIore ponderous than my tongue. 80 Lear, To thee and thine hereditary ever Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom, No less in space, validity and pleasure. Than that conferr'd on Goneril. Now, our joy, Although the last, not least, to whose young love The vines of France and milk of Burgundy Strive to be interess'd, what can you say to draw A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak. Cor. Nothing, my lord. Lear. Nothing! 90 Cor. Nothing. Lear. Nothing will come of notliing: speak again. Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty According to my bond ; nor more nor less. Lear, How, how, CordeHa! mend your speech a little. Lest it may mar your fortunes. Cor. Good, my lord. You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I Return those duties back as are right fit, Obey you, love you, and most honour you. 100 Why have my sisters husbands, if they say They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed, That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry Half my love with him, half my care and duty: Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters. To love my father all. Lear. But goes thy heart with this? 28 KING LEAR Act I. Sc. i. Cor. Ay, good my lord. Lear. So young, and so untender? Cor. So young, my lord, and true. Lear. Let it be so; thy truth then be thy dower; no For, by the sacred radiance of the sun. The mysteries of Hecate, and the night; By all the operation of the orbs From whom we do exist and cease to be; Here I disclaim all my paternal care, Propinquity and property of blood. And as a stranger to my heart and me Hold thee from this for ever. The barbarous Scythian, Or he that makes his generation messes To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom 120 Be as well neighbour'd, pitied and reheved. As thou my sometime daughter. Kent. Good my liege, — Lear. Peace, Kent! Come not between the dragon and his wrath. I loved her most, and thought to set my rest On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight! So be my grave my peace, as here I give Her father's heart from her! Call France. Who stirs? Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany, With my two daughters' dowers digest this third: Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her. 131 I do invest you jointly with my power, Pre-eminence and all the large effects That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course. With reservation of an hundred knights 29 Act I. Sc. i. THE TRAGEDY OF By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain The name and all the additions to a king; The sway, revenue, execution of the rest, Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm, 140 This coronet part betwixt you. Kent. Royal Lear, Whom I have ever honour'd as my king, Loved as my father, as my master follow'd, As my great patron thought on in my prayers, — Lear. The bow is bent and drawn ; make from the shaft. Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly, When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man? Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak, When power to flattery bows? To plainness hon- our 's bound, 150 When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom. And in thy best consideration check This hideous rashness: answer my life my judge- ment, Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least; Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound Reverbs no hollowness. Lear. Kent, on thy life, no more. Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn To wage against thy enemies, nor fear to lose it, Thy safety being the motive. Lear. Out of my sight! Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain 160 The true blank of thine eye. Lear. Now, by Apollo, — Kent. Now, by Apollo, king, 30 KING LEAR Act I. Sc. i. Thou swear'st thy gods in vain. Lear. O, vassal! miscreant! [Laying his hand on his sword. ^ ' \ Dear sir, forbear. } Kent. Do; Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy doom; Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat, I '11 tell thee thou dost evil. Lear. Hear me, recreant! On thy allegiance, hear me ! 17° Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow, Which we durst never yet, and with strain'd pride To come between our sentence and our power. Which nor our nature nor our place can bear, Our potency made good, take thy reward. Five days we do allot thee, for provision To shield thee from diseases of the world, And on the sixth to turn thy hated back Upon our kingdom: if on the tenth day following Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions, i8o The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter, This shall not be revoked. Kent. Fare thee well, king: sith thus thou wih appear. Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here. \To Cordelia] The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid. That justly think'st and hast most rightly said! {To Regan and Goncril] And your large speeches may your deeds approve. That good effects may spring from words of love. 31 Actl. Sc. i. THE TRAGEDY OF Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu; He '11 shape his old course in a country new. [Exit. Flourish. Re-enter Gloucester, with France, Burgundy, and Attendants. Glou. Here 's France and Burgundy, my noble lord. 191 Lear. My lord of Burgundy, We first address towards you, who with this king Hath rivall'd for our daughter: what, in the least, Will you require in present dower with her, Or cease your quest of love? Bur. Most royal majesty, I crave no more than what your highness offer'd, Nor will you tender less. Lear. Right noble Burgundy, When she was dear to us, we did hold her so; But now her price is fall'n. Sir, there she stands: If aught within that little seeming substance, 201 Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced. And nothing more, may fitly like your grace, She 's there, and she is yours. Bur. I know no answer. Lear. Will you, with those infirmities she owes, Unfriended, new adopted to our hate, Dower'd with our curse and stranger'd with our oath, Take her, or leave her? Bur. Pardon me, royal sir; Election makes not up on such conditions. Lear. Then leave her, sir; for, by the power that made me, I tell you all her wealth. [To France] For you, great king, 211 I would not from your love make such a stray, 32 KING LEAR Act I. Sc. i. To match you where I hate ; therefore beseech you To avert your liking a more worthier way Than on a wretch whom nature is ashamed Almost to acknowledge hers. France. This is most strange, That she, that even but now was your best object, The argument of your praise, balm of your age. Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle 220 So many folds of favour. Sure, her offence Must be of such unnatural degree That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection Fall'n into taint: which to believe of her, ' Must be a faith that reason without miracle Could never plant in me. Cor. I yet beseech your majesty, — If for I want that glib and oily art. To speak and purpose not, since what I well intend, I '11 do 't before I speak, — that you make known It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness, 230 No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step. That hath deprived me of your grace and favour; But even for want of that for which I am richer, A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue As I am glad I have not, though not to have it Hath lost me in your liking. Lear. Better thou Hadst not been born than not to have pleased me better. France. Is it but this? a tardiness in nature Which often leaves the history unspoke That it intends to do? My lord of Burgundy, 240 What say you to the lady? Love 's not love 33 Actl. Sc. i. THE TRAGEDY OF When it is mingled with regards that stand Aloof from the entire point. Will you have her? She is herself a dowry. Bur. Royal Lear, Give but that portion which yourself proposed, And here I take Cordeha by the hand, Duchess of Burgundy. Lear. Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm. Bur. I am sorry then you have so lost a father That you must lose a husband. Cor. Peace be with Burgundy! Since that respects of fortune are his love, 251 I shall not be his wife. France. Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich being poor. Most choice forsaken, and most loved despised. Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon: Be it lawful I take up what 's cast away. Gods, gods! 'tis strange that from their cold'st neg- lect My love should kindle to inflamed respect. Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my chance, Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France: 260 Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy Can buy this unprized precious maid of me. Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind : Thou losest here, a better where to find. Lear. Thou hast her, France: let her be thine, for we Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see That face of hers again. Therefore be gone Without our grace, our love, our benison. Come, noble Burgundy. [Flourish. Exeunt all but France, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. 34 KING LEAR Act I. Sc. i. France. Bid farewell to your sisters. 270 Cor. The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are; And, like a sister, am most loath to call Your faults as they are named. Us^ well our father: To your professed bosoms I commit him: But yet, alas, stood I within his grace, I would prefer him to a better place. So farewell to you both. Reg. Prescribe not us our duties. Gon. Let your study Be to content your lord, who hath received you 280 At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted, And well are worth the want that you have wanted. Cor. Time shall unfold w^hat plaited cunning hides: Who cover faults, at last shame them derides. Well may you prosper! France. Come, my fair Cordelia. [Exeunt France and Cordelia. Gon. Sister, it is not a little I have to say of what most nearly appertains to us both. I think our father will hence to-night. Reg. That 's most certain, and with you; next month ^^ with us. 290 "*- /^ Gon. You see how full of changes his age is ; the \^>^-^^ observation we have made of it hath not been little : he alw^ays loved our sister most ; and with what poor judgement he hath now cast her off appears too grossly. Reg. Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself. Gon. The best and soundest of his time hath been 35 Act I. Sc. ii. THE TRAGEDY OF but rash; then must we look to receive from his age, not alone the imperfections of long in- 300 grafted condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with them. Reg. Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him as this of Kent's banishment. Gon. There is further compliment of leave-taking between France and him. Pray you, let 's hit together : if our father carry authority with such dispositions as he bears, this last surrender of his will but offend us. 310 Reg. We shall further think on 't. v Gvn. We must do something, and i' the heat. [Exeunt. Scene II. TJie Earl of Gloucester's castle. Enter Edmund, with a letter. Edm. Thou, nature, art my goddess ; to thy law My services are bound. Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom, and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me, For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base? When my dimensions are as well compact, My mind as generous and my shape as true, As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base? Who in the lusty stealth of nature take ii More composition and fierce quality 36 KING LEAR Act I. Sc. ii. Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed, Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops. Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well then, Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land: Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund As to the legitimate: fine word, ' legitimate ' ! Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed And my invention thrive, Edmund the base 20 Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper: Now, gods, stand up for bastards! Enter Gloucester. Glou. Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted! And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power! Confined to exhibition! All this done Upon the gad! Edmund, how now! what news? Edm. So please your lordship, none. [Putting up the letter. Glou. Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter? Edm. I know no news, my lord. Glou. What paper were you reading? 30 Edm. Nothing, my lord. Glou. No? What needed then that terrible dispatch of it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath not such need to hide itself. Let's see: come, if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles. Edm,. I beseech you, sir, pardon me: it is a letter from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read; and for so much as I have perused, I find it not fit for your o'er-looking. 40 Glou. Give me the letter, sir. 37 Actl.Sc. ii. THE TRAGEDY OF Edm. I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame. Glou. Let 's see, let 's see. Edm. I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as an essay or taste of my virtue. Glou. [Reads] ' This policy and reverence of age makes the w^orld bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us till our oldness 50 cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny; who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and Hve the beloved of your brother, ' Edgar.' Hum! Conspiracy! — 'Sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue!' — My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? a heart 60 and brain to breed it in? When came this to you? who brought it? Edm. It was not brought me, my lord; there 's the cunning of it; I found it thrown in at the case- ment of my closet. Glou. You know the character to be your brother's? Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his; but, in respect of that, I would fain think it were not. Glou. It is his. 70 Edm. It is his hand, my lord ; but I hope his heart is not in the contents. 38 KING LEAR Act I. Sc. ii. Gloii. Hath he never heretofore sounded you in this business? Edm. Never, my lord: but I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit, that, sons at perfect age, and fathers declining, the father should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue. Glou. O villain, villain! His very opinion in the letter! Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested, 80 brutish villain ! worse than brutish ! Go, sirrah, seek him; ay, apprehend him: abominable villain! Where is he? Edm. I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please you to suspend your indignation against my brother till you can derive from him better testimony of his intent, you should run a certain course; where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour and shake in 90 pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him that he hath wrote this to feel my affection to your honour and to no further pretence of danger. Glou. Think you so? Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular assurance have your satisfaction, and that without any further delay than this very evening. Glou. He cannot be such a monster — Edm. Nor is not, sure. Glou. To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him. Heaven and earth! Edmund, seek 39 100 Actl. Sc. ii. THE TRAGEDY OF him out; wind me into him, I pray you: frame the business after your own wisdom. I would unstate myself, to be in a due resolution. Edni. I will seek him,' sir, presently, convey the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal. no Gloii. These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us: though the wisdom of nature >■ can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds .<-^ itself scourged by the sequent effects: love ^y' cools, friendship falls ofif, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies ; in countries, discord ; in pal- aces, treason ; and the bond cracked 'twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's son against father: the king falls from bias of nature; there's father 120 against child. We have seen the best of our time: machinations, hollowness, treachery and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves. Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it carefully. And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his offence, honesty! 'Tis strange. [Exit. Edm, This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune — often the surfeit )^ of our own behaviour — we make guilty of our 130 ^ ' / disasters the sun, the moon and the stars : as if ^ -C we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly ^* compulsion ; knaves, thieves and treachers, by ^ spherical predominance; drunkards, liars and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a 40 KING LEAR ^^^ ^- ^^- "• divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star ! My father compounded with my mother under the dragon's tail, and my 140 nativity was under Ursa major; so that it fol- lows I am rough and lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am, had the maidenhest star m the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar — Enter Edgar. And pat he comes like the catastrophe of the old comedy: my cue is viUanous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o' Bedlam O, these eclipses do portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi. Edg. How now, brother Edmund! what serious contemplation are you in? _ ^5° Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what should follow these eclipses. Edz Do you busy yourself about that? Edm. I promise you, the effects he writ of succeed unhappily ; as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent ; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and. nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not 160 what. . 1 -, Edg How long have you been a sectary astronomical? Edm. Come, come; when saw you my father last. Edg. Why, the night gone by. Edm. Spake you with him? Edg. Ay, two hours together. 41 Act I. Sc. ii. THE TRAGEDY OF Edm. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him by word or countenance? Edg. None at all. Edm. Bethink yourself wherein you may have of- 170 fended him: and at my entreaty forbear his presence till some little time hath qualified the heat of his displeasure, which at this instant so rageth in him that with the mischief of your person it would scarcely allay. Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong. Edm. That 's my fear. I pray you, have a continent forbearance till the speed of his rage goes slower, and, as I say, retire with me to my lodg- ing, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear 180 my lord speak: pray ye, go; there 's my key: if you do stir abroad, go armed. Edg. Armed, brother! Edm. Brother, I advise you to the best: go armed: I am no honest man if there be any good mean- ing towards you: I have told you what I have seen and heard; but faintly, nothing like the image and horror of it: pray you, away. Edg. Shall I hear from you anon? 189 Edm. I do serve you in this business. [Exit Edgar. A credulous father, and a brother noble, Whose nature is so far from doing harms I That he suspects none> on whose foolish honesty My practices ride easy. I see the business. Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit: All with me 's meet that I can fashion fit. ^Exit. 42 ^^■ KING LEAR Act I.Sc. iii. Scene III. The Duke of Albany's palace. Enter Goneril and Oswald, her steward. Gon. Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool? Oszv. Yes, madam. Gon. By day and night he wrongs me; every hour He flashes into one gross crime or other, That sets us all at odds: I '11 not endure it: His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us On every trifle. When he returns from hunting, I will not speak with him; say I am sick: If you come slack of former services. You shall do well ; the fault of it I '11 answer. lo Osw. He 's coming, madam ; I hear him. [Horjis within. Gon. Put on what weary negligence you please. You and your fellows; I 'Id have it come to ques- tion : If he distaste it, let him to our sister, Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one, Not to be over-ruled. Idle old man, That still would manage those authorities That he hath given away! Now, by my life, Old fools are babes again, and must be used With checks as flatteries, when they are seen abused. Remember what I tell you. Osw. Very well, madam. 21 Gon. And let his knights have colder looks among you; What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows so : I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall, That I may speak: I '11 write straight to my sister. To hold my very course. Prepare for dinner. [Exeunt. 43 Actl. Sc. iv. THE TRAGEDY OF Scene IV. A hall in the same. Enter Kent, disguised. Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow, That can my speech defuse, my good intent May carry through itself to that full issue For which I razed my likeness. Now, banish'd Kent, If thou canst serve where thou dost stand con- demn'd, So may it come, thy master whom thou lovest Shall find thee full of labours. Horns zuithin. Enter Lear, Knights, and Attendants. Lear. Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go get it ready. {Exit an Attendant.'] How now! what art thou? lo Kent. A man^ sir. Lear. What dost thou profess? What wouldst thou with us? Kent. I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve him truly that will put me in trust; to love him that is honest; to converse with him that is wise and says little; to fear judgement; to fight when I cannot choose, and to eat no fish. Lear. What art thou? Kent. A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as 20 the king. Lear. If thou be as poor for a subject as he is for a king, thou art poor enough. What wouldst thou? Kent. Service. Lear. Who wouldst thou serve? 44 KING LEAR Act I. Sc. iv. Kent. You. Lear. Dost thou know me, fellow? Kent. No, sir; but you have that in your counte- nance which I would fain call master. Lear. What 's that ? 30 Kent. Authority. Lear. What services canst thou do? Kent. I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious tale in telling it, and deliver a plain mes- sage bluntly: that which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in, and the best of me is dili- gence. Lear. How old art thou? Kent. Not so young, sir, to love a woman for sing- ing, nor so old to dote on her for any thing: I have years on my back forty eight. 40 Lear. Follow me; thou shalt serve me: if I Hke thee no worse after dinner, I will not part from thee yet. Dinner, ho, dinner! Where 's my knave? my fool? Go you, and call my fool hither. \_Exit an Attendant. Enter Oswald. You, you, sirrah, where 's my daughter? Osw. So please you, — [Exit. Lear. What says the fellow there? Call the clot- poll back. [Exit a Knight. \ Where 's my fool, ho? I think the world 's asleep. Re-enter Knight. How now! where 's that mongrel? 50 Knight. He says, my lord, your daughter is not well. Lear. Why came not the slave back to me when I called him? 45 Act I. Sc. iv. THE TRAGEDY OF Knight. Sir, he answered me in the roundest man- ner, he would not. Lear. He would not! Knight. My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my judgement, your highness is not en- tertained with that ceremonious affection as you were wont; there 's a great abatement of kind- 60 ness appears as w^ell in the general dependants as in the duke himself also and your daughter. Lear. Ha! sayst thou so? Knight. I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken; for my duty cannot be silent when I think your highness wronged. Lear. Thou but rememberest me of mine own con- ception: I have perceived a most faint neglect of late; which I have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity than as a very pretence 70 and purpose of unkindness: I will look further into 't. But where 's my fool? I have not seen him this two days. Knight. Since my young lady's going into France, sir, the fool hath much pined away. Lear. No more of that; I have noted it well. Go you, and tell my daughter I would speak with her. [Exit an Attendant.] Go you, call hither my fool. [Exit an Attendant. Re-enter Oszvald. 0, you sir, you, come you hither, sir: who am 80 1, sir? Osw. My lady's father. Lear. My lady's father! my lord's knave: you whoreson dog! you slave! you cur! 46 KING LEAR Act I. Sc. iv. Osw. I am none of these, my lord; I beseech your pardon. Lear. Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal? [Striking him. Osw. I '11 not be struck, my lord. Kent. Nor tripped neither, you base foot-ball player. [ Tripping tip his heels. Lear. I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and 90 I '11 love thee. Kent. Come, sir, arise, away! I 11 teach you differ- ences: away, away! If you will measure your lubber's length again, tarry: but away! go to; have you wisdom? so. {Pushes Oswald out. Lear. Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee: there 's earnest of thy service. [Givifig Kent money. Enter Fool. Fool. Let me hire him too : here 's my coxcomb. [Offering Kent his cap. Lear. How now, my pretty knave! how dost thou? Fool. Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb. 100 Kent. Why, fool? Fool. Why, for taking one's part that 's out of fa- vour: nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits, thou 'It catch cold shortly: there, take my coxcomb: why, this fellow hath banished two on 's daughters, and done the third a blessing against his will; if thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb. How now, nuncle! Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters! Lear. Why, my boy? no Fool. If I gave them all my living, I 'Id keep my cox- 47 Act I. Sc. iv. THE TRAGEDY OF combs myself. There's mine; beg another of thy daughters. Lear. Take heed, sirrah; the whip. Pool. Truth's a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped out, when Lady the brach may stand by the fire and stink. Lear. A pestilent gall to me! Fool. Sirrah, I '11 teach thee a speech. Lear. Do. 120 Fool. Mark it, nuncle : Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest, Ride more than thou goest, Learn more than thou trowest, Set less than thou throwest; Leave thy drink and thy whore, And keep in-a-door. And thou shalt have more 130 Than two tens to a score. Kent. This is nothing, fool. Fool. Then 'tis like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer, you gave me nothing for 't. Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle? Lear. Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing. Fool. [To Kent] Prithee, tell him, so much the rent of his land comes to: he will not believe a fool. Lear. A bitter fool! 140 "Fool. Dost thou know the difference, my boy, be- tween a bitter fool and a sweet fool? Lear. No, lad; teach me. 48 KING LEAR Act I. Sc. iv. Fool. That lord that counsell'd thee To give away thy land, Come place him here by me; Do thou for him stand: The sweet and bitter fool Will presently appear; The one in motley here, 150 The other found out there. Lear. Dost thou call me fool, boy? Fool. All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born with. Kent. This is not altogether fool, my lord. Fool. No, faith, lords and great men will not let me; if I had a monopoly out, they would have part on 't: and ladies too, they will not let me have all the fool to myself ; they '11 be snatching. Give me an tgg, nuncle, and I '11 give thee two crowns. Lear. What two crowns shall they be? Fool. Why, after I have cut the ^gg in the middle and eat up the meat, the two crowns of the Qgg. When thou clovest thy crown i' the middle and gavest away both parts, thou borest thine ass on thy back o'er the dirt: thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown when thou gavest thy golden one away. If I speak like myself in this, let him be whipped that first finds it so. [Singing'] Fools had ne'er less wit in a year; 170 For wise men are grown foppish. And know not how their wits to wear, Their manners are so apish. Lear. When were you wont to be so full of songs, sirrah? 49 160 Act I. Sc. iv. THE TRAGEDY OF Fool. I have used it, nuncle, ever since thou madest thy daughters thy mother : for when thou gavest them the rod and .puttest down thine own breeches, [Singing'] Then they for sudden joy did weep, And I for sorrow sung, i8o That such a king should play bo-peep, And go the fools among. Prithee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool to lie: I would fain learn to lie. Lear. An you lie, sirrah, we '11 have you whipped. Fool. I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are : they '11 have me whipped for speaking true, thou 'It have me whipped for lying, and some- times I am whipped for holding my peace. I had rather be any kind o' thing than a fool: and 190 yet I would not be thee, nuncle; thou hast pared thy wit o' both sides and left nothing i' the middle. Here comes one o' the parings. Enter Goneril. Lear. How now, daughter! what makes that frontlet on? Methinks you are too much of late i' the frown. Fool. Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to care for her frowning; now thou art an O without a figure: I am better than thou art now; I am a fool, thou art nothing. [To Gon.] 200 Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue; so your face bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum: He that keeps nor crust nor crumb, Weary of all, shall want some. 50 KING LEAR Act I. Sc. iv. [Pointing to Lear] That 's a shealed peascod. Gon. Not only, sir, this your all-hcensed fool, But other of your insolent retinue Do hourly carp and quarrel, breaking forth In rank and not to be endured riots. Sir, 210 I had thought, by making this well known unto you, To have found a safe redress; but now grow fearful, By what yourself too late have spoke and done, That you protect this course and put it on By your allowance; which if you should, the fault Would not 'scape censure, nor the redresses sleep, Which, in the tender of a wholesome weal, Might in their working do you that ofifence Which else were shame, that then necessity Will call discreet proceeding. 220 Fool. For, you know, nuncle. The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long, That it had it head bit off by it young. So out went the candle, and we were left darkling. Lear. Are you our daughter? Gon, Come, sir, I would you would make use of that good wisdom Whereof I know you are fraught, and put away These dispositions that of late transform you From what you rightly are. 230 Fool. May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse? Whoop, Jug! I love thee. Lear. Doth any here know me? This is not Lear: Doth Lear walk thus? speak thus? where are his eyes? Either his notion weakens, his discernings Are lethargied — Ha ! waking ? 'tis not so. Who is it that can tell me who I am? 51 Act I. Sc. iv. THE TRAGEDY OF Fool. Lear's shadow. Lear. I would learn that; for, by the marks of sov- ereignty, knowledge and reason, I should be 240 false persuaded I had daughters. Fool. Which they will make an obedient father. Lear. Your name, fair gentlewoman? Gon. This admiration, sir, is much o' the savour Of other your new pranks. I do beseech you To understand my purposes aright: As you are old and reverend, you should be wise. Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires; Men so disorder'd, so debosh'd and bold. That this our court, infected with their manners, 250 Shows like a riotous inn; epicurism and lust Make it more like a tavern or a brothel Than a graced palace. The shame itself doth speak For instant remedy: be then desired By her that else will take the thing she begs A little to disquantity your train, And the remainder that shall still depend, To be such men as may besort your age, Which know themselves and you. Lear. Darkness and devils! Saddle my horses; call my train together. 260 Degenerate bastard! I '11 not trouble thee: Yet have I left a daughter. Gon. You strike my people, and your disorder'd rabble Make servants of their betters. Enter Albany. Lear. Woe, that too late repents, — [To Alb.] O, sir, are you come? 52 KING LEAR . Act I. Sc. iv. Is it your will? Speak, sir. Prepare my horses. Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend, More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child Than the sea-monster! Alb. Pray, sir, be patient. Lcaj'. [To Gon.] Detested kite! thou liest. 270 My train are men of choice and rarest parts, That all particulars of duty know. And in the most exact regard support The worships of their name. O most small fault, How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show! That, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature 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 judgement out! Go, go, my people. Alb. My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant 281 Of what hath moved 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 290 And be a thwart disnatured torment to her. Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth; With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks ; Turn all her mother's pains and benefits 53 Actl. Sc. IV. THE TRAGEDY OF To laughter and contempt; that she may feel How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child! Away, away! [Exit. Alb. Now, gods that we adore, whereof comes this? Gon. Never afflict yourself to know the cause, But let his disposition have that scope 300 That dotage gives it. Re-enter Lear. Lear. What, fifty of my followers at a clap! Within a fortnight! Alb. What 's the matter, sir? Lear. I'll tell thee, [To Gon.'] Life and Death! I am ashamed That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus ; That these hot tears, which break from me 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 '11 pluck ye out 310 And cast you with the waters that you lose To temper clay. Yea, is it come to this? Let it be so : yet have I left a daughter, Who, I am sure, is kind and comfortable: When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails She '11 flay thy wolvish visage. Thou shalt find That I '11 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, 320 To the great love I bear you, — 54 KING LEAR Act I. Sc. iv. Gon. Pray you, content. What, Oswald, ho! [To the Fool] You, sir, more knave than fool, after your master. Fool. Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry; take the fool with thee. A fox, when one has caught her, And such a daughter, Should sure to the slaughter, If my cap would buy a halter: So the fool follows after. [Exit. 330 Goi. This man hath had good counsel : a hundred" knights ! 'Tis politic and safe to let him keep At point a hundred knights: yes, that on every dream, Each buzz, 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: 340 If she sustain him and his hundred knights, When I have show'd the unfitness, — Re-enter Oswald. How now, Oswald! What, have you writ that letter to my sister? Oszv. Yes, madam. Gon. Take you some company, and away to horse: Inform her full of my particular fear. And thereto add such reasons of your own As may compact it more. Get you gone; 55 Actl. Sc. V. THE TRAGEDY OF And hasten your return. [Exit Oszvald.] No, no, my lord, This milky gentleness and course of yours 350 Though I condemn not, yet, under pardon, You are much more attask'd for want of wisdom Than praised 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 — Alb. Well, well; the event. [Exeunt Scene V. Court before the same. Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool. Lear. Go you before to Gloucester with these letters. Acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you know that comes from her demand out of the letter. If your diUgence be not speedy, I shall be there afore you. Kent. I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered your letter. [Exit. -7 Fool. If a man's brains were in 's heels, were 't not in danger of kibes ?^ Lear. Ay, boy. 10 Fool. Then, I prithee, be merry; thy wit shall ne'er go slip-shod. Lear. Ha, ha, ha! 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. Why, what canst thou tell, my boy? s6 KING LEAR Act I. Sc. v. 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? 20 Lear. No. Fool Why, to keep one's eyes of either side 's 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 's head in; not to give it away to 30 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 'Id have thee 40 beaten for being old before thy time. Lear. How 's that? Fool. Thou shouldst not have been old till 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? 57 Act II. Sc. i. THE TRAGEDY OF | Gent. Ready, my lord. Lear. Come, boy. 49 Fool. She that 's a maid now and laughs at my departure Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter. [Exeunt. ACT SECOND. Scene I. The Earl of Gloucester's castle. Enter Edmund and Cur an, meeting. Edm. Save thee, Curan. Cur. And you, sir. I have been with your father, and given him notice that the Duke of Corn- wall and Regan his duchess will be here with him this night. Edm. How comes that? 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? 10 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! 20 Brother, a word; descend: brother, I say! 58 KING LEAR Act II. Sc. i. 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: 30 In cunning I must draw my sword upon you: Draw: seem to defend yourself: now quit you well. Yield: 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? Enter Gloucester, and Servants with torches. Glou. Now, Edmund, where 's the villain? Edm. Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out, 40 Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon To stand 's auspicious mistress. Glou. But where is he? Edm. Look, sir, I bleed. Glou. Where is the villain, Edmund? Edm. Fled this way, sir. When by no means he could — 59 h Actll. Sc. i. THE TRAGEDY OF Glou. 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, 50 Seeing how loathly opposite I stood To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion With his prepared sword he charges home My unprovided body, lanced mine arm: But when he saw my best alarum'd spirits Bold in the quarrel's right, roused to the encounter, Or whether gasted by the noise I made. Full suddenly he fled. Glou. Let him fly far: Not in this land shall he remain uncaught; And found — dispatch. The noble duke my master, My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night: 61 By his authority I will proclaim it, That he which finds him shall deserve our thanks. Bringing the murderous caitiff 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, could the reposure 70 Of any trust, virtue, or worth, in thee Make thy words faith'd? No: what I should deny — As this I would; ay, though thou didst produce My very character — I 'Id turn it all 60 U KING LEAR Act II. Sc. i. To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practice: And thou must make a dullard of the world, If they not thought the profits of my death Were very pregnant and potential spurs To make thee seek it.' GIou. Strong and fasten'd villain! Would he deny his letter? I never got him. 80 [Tucket within. Hark, the duke's trumpets! I know not why he comes. All ports I '11 bar; the villain shall not 'scape; The duke must grant me that: besides, his picture I will send far and near, that all the kingdom May have due note of him; and of my land, Loyal and natural boy, I '11 work the means To make thee capable. Enter Cornwall, Regan, and Attendants. Corn. How now, my noble friend ! since I came hither, Which I can call but now, I have heard strange news. Reg. If it be true, all vengeance comes too short 90 Which can pursue the offender. How dost, my lord? Gloii. O, madam, my old heart is crack'd, is crack'd! Reg. What, did my father's godson seek your Hfe? He whom my father named? your Edgar? Clou. O, lady, lady, shame would have it hid! Reg. Was he not companion with the riotous knights That tend upon my father? Clou. I know not, madam: 'tis too bad, too bad. Edm. Yes, madam, he was of that consort. Reg. No marvel then, though he were ill affected: 100 'Tis they have put him on the old man's death. To have the waste and spoil of his revenues. 61 Act II. Sc. i. THE TRAGEDY OF 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 '11 not be there. Corn. Nor I, assure thee, Regan. Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father A child-like office. Edm. 'Twas my duty, sir. Glou. He did bewray his practice, and received This hurt you see, striving to apprehend him. no Corn. Is he pursued? Glou. Ay, my good lord. Corn. If he be taken, he shall never more Be fear'd of doing harm: make your own purpose, How in my strength you please. For you, Edmund, Whose virtue and obedience doth this instant So much commend itself, you shall be ours: Natures of such deep trust we shall much need: You we first seize on. Edm. I shall serve you, sir, Truly, however else. Glou. For him I thank your grace. Corn. You know not why we came to visit you, — 120 Reg. Thus out of season, threading dark-eyed night: Occasions, noble Gloucester, of some poise. Wherein we must have use of your advice: Our father he hath writ, so hath our sister, Of differences, which I least thought it fit To answer from our home; the several messengers From hence attend dispatch. Our good old friend. Lay comforts to your bosom, and bestow Your needful counsel to our business, 62 KING LEAR Act II. Sc. ii. Which craves the instant use. Glou. I serve you, madam: 130 Your graces are right welcome. [Flourish. Exeunt. Scene II. Before Gloucester s castle. Enter Kent and Oswald, severally. Osw. Good dawning to thee, friend: art of this house? Kent. Ay. Osw. Where may we set our horses? Kent, r the mire. Osw. Prithee, if thou lovest me, tell me. Kent. I love thee not. Osw. Why then I care not for thee. Kent. If I had thee in Lipsbury pinfold, I would make thee care for me. Osw. Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not. 10 Kent. Fellow, I know thee. Osw. What dost thou know me for? Kent. A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave; a whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art noth- ing but the composition of a knave, beggar, 20 coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mon- grel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamor- ous whining, if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition. 63 Act II. Sc. ii. THE TRAGEDY OF 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 30 night, yet the moon shines ; I '11 make a sop o' the moonshine of you: draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw. [Drawing his sivord. 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! 40 Kent. Strike, you slave; stand, rogue; stand, you neat slave, strike. [Beating him. Osw. Help, ho! murder! murder! Enter Edmund, zvith his rapier drawn, Cornwall, Regan, Gloucester, and Servants. Edm. How now! What 's the matter? [Parting them. Kent. With you, goodman boy, an you please: come, I '11 flesh you; come on, young master. Glou. 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. 50 Corn. What is your difference? speak. Osw. 1 am scarce in breath, my lord. 64 KING LEAR Act II. Sc. ii. 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 painter could not have made him so ill, though he had been but two hours at the trade. Corn. Speak yet, how grew your quarrel? 60 Osw. This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spared at suit of his gray beard, — Kent. Thou whoreson zed ! thou unnecessary letter ! My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the wall of a Jakes with him. Spare my gray beard, you wagtail? Corn. Peace, sirrah! You beastly knave, know you no reverence. Kent. Yes, sir, but anger hath a privilege. 70 Corn. Why art thou angry? Kent. That such a slave as this should wear a sword, Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these, Like rats, oft bite the holy cords a-twain Which are too intrinse to unloose; smooth every passion That in the natures of their lords rebel; Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods; Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks With every gale and vary of their masters, Knowing nought, like dogs, but following. 80 A plague upon your epileptic visage! Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool? Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain, T 'Id drive ye cackling home to Camelot. 65 Actll. Sc. ii. THE TRAGEDY OF Corn. What, art thou mad, old fellow? Glou. How fell you out? say that. Kent. No contraries hold more antipathy Than I and such a knave. Corn. Why dost thou call him knave? What is his fault? Kent. His countenance likes me not. 90 Corn. No more perchance does mine, nor his, nor hers. Kent. Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain: I have seen better faces in my time Than stands on any shoulder that I see Before me at this instant. Corn. This is some fellow, Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb Quite from his nature : he cannot flatter, he, — An honest mind and plain, — he must speak truth! An they will take it, so; if not, he 's plain. 100 These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends Than twenty silly ducking observants That stretch their duties nicely. Kent. Sir, in good faith, in sincere verity, Under the allowance of your great aspect, Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire On flickering Phoebus' front, — Corn, What mean'st by this? Kent. To go out of my dialect, which you discom- mend so much. I know, sir, I am no flatterer: no he that beguiled you in a plain accent was a plain knave; which, for my part, I will not be, though I should win your displeasure to entreat me to 't. 66 KING LEAR Act II. Sc. ii. Corn. What was the offence you gave him? Osw. I never give him any: It pleased the king his master very late To strike at me, upon his misconstruction; When he, conjunct, and flattering his displeasure, Tripp'd me behind; being down, insulted, rail'd, 120 And put upon him such a deal of man, That worthied him, got praises of the king For him attempting who was self-subdued, And in the fleshment o^ this dread exploit ' Drew on me here again. Kent. None of these rogues and cowards But Ajax is their fool. Cam. Fetch forth the stocks ! You stubborn ancient knave, you reverend braggart, We '11 teach you — Kent. Sir, I am too old to learn: Call not your stocks for me: I serve the king, On whose employment I was sent to you: 130 You shall do small respect, show too bold malice Against the grace and person of my master, Stocking his messenger. Corn. Fetch forth the stocks! As I have life and hon- our, There shall he sit till noon. Reg. Till noon! till night, my lord, and all night too. Kent. Why, madam, if I were your father's dog, You should not use me so. Reg. Sir, being his knave, I will. Corn. This is a fellow of the self-same colour 139 Our sister speaks of. Come, bring away the stocks! [Stocks brought out. Clou. Let me beseech your grace not to do so: 67 Act II. Sc. ii. THE TRAGEDY OF His fault is much, and the good king his master Will check him for 't : your purposed low correction Is such as basest and contemned'st wretches For pilferings and most common trespasses Are punish'd with: the king must take it ill, That he, so slightly valued in his rhessenger, Should have him thus restrain'd. Cam. I '11 answer that. Reg. My sister may receive it much more worse, To have her gentleman abused, assaulted, 150 For following her affairs. Put in his legs. [Ke7it is put in the stocks. Come, my good lord, away. [Exeunt all but Gloucester and Kent. Glou. I am sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure. Whose disposition, all the world well knows. Will not be rubb'd nor stopp'd: I '11 entreat for thee. Kent. Pray, do not, sir: I have watch'd and travell'd hard; Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I '11 whistle. A good man's fortune may grow out at heels : Give you good morrow! Clou. The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill taken. 160 {Exit. Kent. Good king, that must approve the common saw, Thou out of heaven's benediction comest To the warm sun! Approach, thou beacon to this under globe. That by thy comfortable beams I may Peruse this letter! Nothing almost sees miracles But misery: I know 'tis from Cordelia, Who hath most fortunately been inform'd Of my obscured course; and shall find time 68 KING LEAR Act II. Sc. iii. From this enormous state, seeking to give 170 Losses their remedies. All weary and o'er-watch'd, Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold This shameful lodging. Fortune, good night: smile once more; turn thy wheel! i^^^'P'- Scene III. A wood. Enter Edgar. Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd; And by the happy hollow of a tree Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place. That guard and most unusual vigilance Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may 'scape I will preserve myself: and am bethought To take the basest and most poorest shape That every penury in contempt of man Brought near to beast: my face I '11 grime with filth, Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots, 10 And with presented nakedness out-face The winds and persecutions of the sky. The country gives me proof and precedent Of Bedlam beggars, who with roaring voices Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary; And with this horrible object, from low farms, Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes and mills, 18 Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod! poor Tom! That 's something yet: Edgar I nothmg am. [Exit. 69 Act II. Sc. iv. THE TRAGEDY OF Scene IV. Before Gloucester' s castle. Kent in the stocks. Enter Lear, Fool, and Gentleman. Lear. Tis strange that they should so depart from home, And not send back my messenger. Gent. As I learn'd, The night before there was no purpose in them Of this remove. Kent. Hail to thee, noble master! Lear. Ha! Makest thou this shame thy pastime? Kent. No, my lord. Fool. Ha, ha! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied by the heads, dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys by the loins, and men by the legs: when a man 's over-lusty at legs, then he wears lo wooden nether-stocks. Lear. What 's he that hath so much thy place mistook To set thee here? Kent. It is both he and she; Your son and daughter. Lear. No. Kent. Yes. Lear. No, I say. Kent. I say, yea. Lear. No, no, they would not. Kent. Yes, they have. 20 Lear. By Jupiter, I swear, no. Kent. By Juno, I swear, ay, Lear. They durst not do 't ; 70 KING LEAR Act II. Sc. iv. They could not, would not do't; 'tis worse than murder, To do upon respect such violent outrage: Resolve me with all modest haste which way Thou mightst deserve, or they impose, this usage, Coming from us. l(;^j^t^ My lord, when at their home I did commend your highness' letters to them. Ere I was risen from the place that show'd My duty kneeUng, came there a reeking post, 30 Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth From Goneril his mistress salutations ; Deliver'd letters, spite of intermission. Which presently they read: on whose contents They summon'd up their meiny, straight took horse; Commanded me to follow and attend The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks: And meeting here the other messenger, ^ Whose welcome, I perceived, had poison d mine- Being the very fellow that of late 40 Display'd so saucily against your highness- Having more man than wit about me, drew: ^ He raised the house with loud and coward cries. Your son and daughter found this trespass worth The shame which here it suffers. Fool Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way. Fathers that wear rags Do make their children blind; But fathers that bear bags \ 5° Shall see their children kind. Fortune, that arrant whore, Ne'er turns the key to the poor. 71 Act II. Sc. iv. THE TRAGEDY OF But, for all this, thou shalt have as many do- lours for thy daughter as thou canst tell in a ., year. Lear. O, how this mother swells up toward my heart ! Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow, Thy element's below! Where is this daughter? Kent. With the earl, sir, here within. Lear. Follow me not ; stay here. [Exit. 60 Gent. Made you no more offence but what you speak of? Kent. None. How chance the king comes with so small a train? Fool. An thou hadst been set i' the stocks for that question, thou hadst well deserved it. Kent. Why, fool? Fool. We '11 set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring i' the winter. All that follow their noses are led by their eyes but blind men; and there's not a nose among 70 twenty but can smell him that 's stinking. / Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it; but the great one that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after./ When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it. That sir which serves and seeks for gain, And follows but for form, 80 Will pack when it begins to rain, And leave thee in the storm. But I will tarry; the fool will stay, And let the wise man fly: The knave turns fool that runs away; The fool no knave, perdy. 72 KING LEAR Act. II. Sc. iv. Kent. Where learned you this, fool? Fool. Not i' the stocks, fool. Re-enter Lear, with Gloucester. Lear. Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary? They have travell'd all the night? Mere fetches; The images of revolt and flying off. 91 Fetch me a better answer. Glou. My dear lord, You know the fiery quality of the duke; How unremoveable and fix'd he is In his own course. Lear. Vengeance! plague! death! confusion! Fiery? what quality? Why, Gloucester, Gloucester, I 'Id speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife. Glou. Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so. Lear. Inform'd them! Dost thou understand me, man? Glou. Ay, my good lord. loi Lear. The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father Would with his daughter speak, commands her service: Are they inform'd of this? My breath and blood! * Fiery '? 'the fiery duke '? Tell the hot duke that— No, but not yet : may be he is not well : Infirmity doth still neglect all office Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves When nature being oppress'd commands the mind To suffer with the body: I '11 forbear; no And am fall'n out with my more headier will, To take the indisposed and sickly fit 73 Act II. Sc. iv. THE TRAGEDY OF For the sound man. [Looking on Kent] Death on my state! wherefore Should he sit here? This act persuades me That this remotion of the duke and her Is practice only. Give me my servant forth. Go tell the duke and 's wife I 'Id speak with them, Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me. Or at their chamber-door I '11 beat the drum Till it cry sleep to death. 120 Glou. I would have all well betwixt you. [Exit. Lear. O me, my heart, my rising heart! But down! Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels when she put 'em i' the paste alive; she knapped 'em o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cried 'Down, wantons, down!' 'Twas her brother that, in pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay. Re-enter Gloucester, with Cornwall, Regan, and Servants. Lear. Good morrow to you both. Cam. Hail to your grace! [Kent is set at liberty. Reg. I am glad to see your highness. 130 Lear. Regan, I think you are; I know what reason I have to think so: If thou shouldst not be glad, I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb. Sepulchring an adultress. [To Kent] O, are you free? Some other time for that. Beloved Regan, Thy sister's naught : O Regan, she hath tied Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here: [Points to his heart. I can scarce speak to thee; thou 'It not believe 74 KING LEAR ^ Act II. Sc. iv. With how depraved a quality— O Regan! Re,. I pray you, sir, take patience: I have hope 140 .You less know how to vahie her desert Than she to scant her duty. Lear. ^^^^ ^"'"^ '' ^^^^^ Re^ I cannot think my sister in the least Would lail her obUgation: if, sir, perchance She have restraint the riots of your followers 'Tis on such ground and to such wholesome end As clears her from all blame. Lear. My curses on her I j^ O, sir, you are old; ' Nature in you stands on the very verge Of her confine : you should be ruled and led 150 Bv some discretion that discerns your state Better than you yourself. Therefore I pray you That to our sister you do make return ; Say you have wrong'd her, sir. Ask her forgiveness? '''''do you but mark how this becomes the house: [Kfieeling] ' Dear daughter, I confess that I am old, Aee is unnecessary: on my knees I beg That you '11 vouchsafe me raiment, bed and food. Reg, Good sir, no more; these are unsightly tricks: "^Return you to my sister. l^^^ [Rising] Never, Regan: 160 She hath abated me of half my train ;^ Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue, Most serpent-like, upon the very heart: All the stored vengeances of heaven fall On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones. You taking airs, with lameness. 75 Actll.Sc. iv. THE TRAGEDY OF Cam. Fie, sir, fie! Lear. You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames Into her scornful eyes. Infect her beauty, You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun To fall and blast her pride. 170 Reg. O the blest gods! so will you wish on me, When the rash mood is on. Lear. No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse: Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give Thee o'er to harshness: her eyes are fierce, but thine Do comfort and not burn. 'Tis not in thee To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train, To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes. And in conclusion to oppose the bolt Against my coming in: thou better know'st 180 The offices of nature, bond of childhood. Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude; Thy half o' the kingdom hast thou not forgot. Wherein I thee endow'd. Reg. Good sir, to the purpose. Lear. Who put my man i' the stocks? [Tticket within. Cam. What trumpet's that? Reg. I know't; my sister's: this approves her letter. That she would soon be here. Enter Oswald. Is your lady come? Lear. This is a slave whose easy-borrow'd pride Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows. 189 Out, varlet, from my sight! Cam. What means your grace? 76 KING LEAR Act II. Sc. iv. Lear. Who stock'd my servant ? Regan, I have good hope Thou didst not know on 't. Who comes here ? Enter Goneril. O heavens, If you do love old men, if your sweet sway Allow obedience, if yourselves are old. Make it your cause ; send down, and take my part ! [To Gon.] Art not ashamed to look upon this beard? Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand ? Gon. Why not by the hand, sir ? How have I offended ? All 's not offence that indiscretion finds And dotage terms so. Lear. O sides, you are too tough ; 200 Will you yet hold? How came my man i' the stocks ? Corn. I set him there, sir; but his own disorders Deserved much less advancement. Lear. You ! did you ? Reg. I pray you, father, being weak, seem so. If, till the expiration of your month. You will return and sojourn with my sister, Dismissing half your train, come then to me : 1 am now from home and out of that provision Which shall be needful for your entertainment. Lear. Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd? 210 No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose To wage against the enmity o' the air. To be a comrade with the wolf and owl, — Necessity's sharp pinch! Return with her? Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took Our youngest born, I could as well be brought To knee his throne, and, squire-like, pension beg 77 Actll. Sc. iv. THE TRAGEDY OF To keep base life afoot. Return with her? Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter To this detested groom. [Pointing at Oswald. Gon. At your choice, sir. 220 Lear. I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad: I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell: We '11 no more meet, no more see one another: But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter; Or rather a disease that 's in my flesh, Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil, A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle. In my corrupted blood. But I '11 not chide thee; Let shame come when it will, I do not call it: I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot, 230 Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove: Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure: I can be patient; I can stay with Regan, I and my hundred knights, Reg. Not altogether so: I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister; For those that mingle reason with your passion Must be content to think you old, and so — But she knows what she does. Lear. Is this well spoken ? Reg. I dare avouch it, sir: what, fifty followers? 240 Is it not well? What should you need of more? Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger Speak 'gainst so great a number? How in one house Should many people under two commands Hold amity ? 'Tis hard, almost impossible. Gon. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance 78 KING LEAR Act II. Sc. iv. From those that she calls servants or from mine? Reg. Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack you, We could control them. If you will come to me. For now I spy a danger, I entreat you 250 To bring but five and twenty: to no more Will I give place or notice. Lear. I gave you all — ^eg. And in good time you gave it. Lear. Made you my guardians, my depositaries, But kept a reservation to be followed With such a number. What, must I come to you With five and twenty, Regan? said you so? Reg. And speak 't again, my lord ; no more with me. Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd, When others are more wicked; not being the worst Stands in some rank of praise. [To Gon.] I'll go with thee: ^^^ Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty. And thou art twice her love. QQyi^ Hear me, my lord: What need you five and twenty, ten, or five. To follow in a house where twice so many Have a command to tend you? j^(,a What need one? Lear. O, reason not the need: our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous: Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man's life 's as cheap as beast's: thou art a lady; If only to go warm were gorgeous, 271 Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st, Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But for true need, — 79 Actll. Sc. iv. THE TRAGEDY OF You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need! You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, As full of grief as age; wretched in both: / If it be you that stirs these daughters' hearts Against their father, fool me not so much To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger, And let not women's weapons, water-drops, 280 Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both That all the world shall — I will do such things, — What they are, yet I know not, but they shall be The terrors of the earth. You think I '11 weep; No, I '11 not weep: I have full cause of weeping; but this heart Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws. Or ere I '11 weep. O fool, I shall go mad! [Exeunt Lear, Gloiieester, Kent, and Fool. Corn. Let us withdraw; 'twill be a storm. 290 [Storm and tempest. Reg. This house is little: the old man and his people Cannot be well bestow'd. Gon. 'Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest, And must needs taste his folly. Reg. For his particular, I '11 receive him gladly, But not one follower. Gon. So am I purposed. Where is my lord of Gloucester? Cam. Follow'd the old man forth: he Is return'd. Re-enter Gloucester. Glou. The king is in high rage. Corn. Whither is he going? 80 KING LEAR Act III. Sc. i. Glou. He calls to horse; but will I know not whither. 300 Cam. 'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself. Gon. My lord, entreat him by no means to stay. Glou. Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds Do sorely ruffle; for many miles about There 's scarce a bush. Reg. O, sir, to wilful men The injuries that they themselves procure Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors : He is attended with a desperate train; And what they may incense him to, being apt To have his ear abused, wisdom bids fear. 310 Corn. Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night: My Regan counsels well: come out o' the storm. [Exeunt. ACT THIRD. Scene I. A heath. Storm still. Enter Kent and a Gentleman, meeting. Kent. Who 's there, besides foul weather? Gent. One minded like the weather, most unquietly. Kent. I know you. Where 's the king? Gent. Contending with the fretful elements; Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea. Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main. That things might change or cease; tears his white hair, Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage. Catch in their fury, and make nothing of; 81 Act III. Sc. i. THE TRAGEDY OF Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn lo The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain. This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch, The lion and the belly-pinched wolf Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs. And bids what will take all. Kent. But who is with him? Gent. None but the fool; who labours to out-jest His heart-struck injuries. Kent. Sir, I do know you; And dare, upon the warrant of my note, Commend a dear thing; to you. There is division. Although as yet the face of it be cover'd 20 With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall; Who have — as who have not, that their great stars Throned and set high? — servants, who seem no less, Which are to France the spies and speculations Intelligent of our state; what hath been seen, Either in snufts and packings of the dukes, Or the hard rein which both of them have borne Against the old kind king, or something deeper. Whereof perchance these are but furnishings, — But true it is, from France there comes a power 30 Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already, Wise in our negligence, have secret feet In some of our best ports, and are at point To show their open banner. Now to you: If on my credit you dare build so far To make your speed to Dover, you shall find Some that will thank you, making just r^eport Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow The king hath cause to plain. 82 KING LEAR Act III. Sc. ii. I am a gentleman of blood and breeding, 40 And from some knowledge and assurance offer This ofTfice to you. Gent. I will talk further with you. Kent. No, do not. For confirmation that I am much more Than my out-wall, open this purse and take What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia, — As fear not but you shall, — show her this ring. And she will tell you who your fellow is That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm! I will go seek the king. Gent. Give me your hand: 50 Have you no more to say? Kent. Few words, but, to efifect, more than all yet; That when we have found the king, — in which your pain That way, I '11 this, — he that first lights on him Holla the other. [Exeunt severally. Scene II. Another part of the heath. Storm still. Enter Lear and Fool. Lear. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks! You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thun- der, Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world! 83 Act III. Sc. ii. THE TRAGEDY OF Crack nature's moulds, all germins spill at once That make ingrateful man! Fool. O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry house is lo better than this rain-water out o' door. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters' blessing: here 's a night pities neither wise man nor fool. Lear. Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters: \I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness; I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children, You owe me no subscription : then let fall Your horrible pleasure; here I stand, your slave, A poor, infirm, weak and despised old man: 20 But yet I call you servile ministers. That have with two pernicious daughters join'd Your high-engender'd battles 'gainst a head Sooldandjkvhiteasthis. O! O! 'tis foul! Fool. He that has a house to put 's head in has a good head-piece. The cod-piece that will house Before the head has any, The head and he shall louse So beggars marry many. 30 The man that makes his toe What he his heart should make Shall of a corn cry woe, And turn his sleep to wake. For there was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass. Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience ; I will say nothing. 84 KING LEAR Act III. Sc. ii. Enter Kent. Kent. Who's there? Fool. Marry, here 's grace and a cod-piece; that 's a 40 wise man and a fool. Kent. Alas, sir, are you here? things that love night Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies Gallow the very wanderers of the dark, And make them keep their caves : since I was man, Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder, Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot carry The affliction nor the fear, Lear. Let the great gods. That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads, 50 Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch. That hast within thee undivulged crimes, Unwhipp'd of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand; Thou perjured, and thou simular man of virtue That art incestuous: caitiff, to pieces shake. That under covert and convenient seeming Hast practised on man's life: close pent-up guilts. Rive your concealing continents and cry These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man 59 More sinn'd against than sinmng. Kent. Alack, bare-headed! Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel; Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest: Repose you there; while I to this hard house — More harder than the stones whereof 'tis raised; Which even but now, demanding after you, Denied me to come in — return, and force Their scanty courtesy. 85 1 Actlll. Sc. ii. THE TRAGEDY OF Lear. My wits begin to turn. Come on, my boy: how dost, my boy? art cold? I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow? The art of our necessities is strange, 70 That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel. Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart That 's sorry yet for thee. Fool. [Singing] He that has and a little tiny wit, — With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, — Must make content with his fortunes fit. For the rain it raineth every day. Lear. True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this hovel. [Exeunt Lear and Kent. Fool. This is a brave night to cool a courtezan. I '11 speak a prophecy ere I go : 80 When priests are more in word than matter; When brewers mar their malt with water; When nobles are their tailors' tutors; No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors; When every case in law is right; No squire in debt, nor no poor knight; When slanders do not live in tongues, Nor cutpurses come not to throngs; When usurers tell their gold i' the field, And bawds and whores do churches build; 90 Then shall the realm of Albion Come to great confusion: Then comes the time, who Hves to see 't, That going shall be used with feet. This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time. [Exit. 86 KING LEAR Act III. Sc. Hi. Scene III. Gloucester's castle. Enter Gloucester and Edmund. Glou. Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnat- ural dealing. When I desired their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the use of mine own house; charged me, on pain of their perpetual displeasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him. Edm. Most savage and unnatural! Glou. Go to ; say you nothing. There *s a division betwixt the dukes, and a worse matter than that: I have received a letter this night; 'tis dangerous to be spoken; I have locked the let- lo ter in my closet: these injuries the king now bears will be revenged home; there is part of a power already footed: we must incline to the king. I will seek him and privily relieve him: go you, and maintain talk with the duke, that my charity be not of him perceived: if he ask for me, I am ill and gone to bed. Though I die for it, as no less is threatened me, the king my old master must be relieved. There is some strange thing toward, Edmund; pray you, be 20 careful. [Exit. Edm. This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke Instantly know, and of that letter too: This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me That which my father loses; no less than all: The younger rises when the old doth fall. [Exit. 87 Act III. Sc. iv. THE TRAGEDY OF Scene IV. The heath. Before a hovel. Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool. Kent. Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter: The tyranny of the open night 's too rough For nature to endure. [Storm still. Lear. Let me alone. Kent. Good my lord, enter here. Lear. Wilt break my heart? Kent. I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter. Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee; But where the greater malady is fix'd The lesser is scarce felt. Thou 'Idst shun a bear, But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea lo Thou 'Idst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the mind 's free The body 's delicate : the tempest in my mind Doth from my senses take all feeling else Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude! Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand For lifting food to 't? But I will punish home. No, I will weep no more. In such a night To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure. In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril! Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave you all, — 20 I O, that way madness Jiesj^ let me shun that; Nolntrr6~-ol±haiv^ Kent. Good my lord, enter here. Lear. Prithee, go in thyself ; seek thine own ease : 88 KING LEAR Act III. Sc. iv; This tempest will not give me leave to ponder On things would hurt me more. But I '11 go in. [To the Fool] In, boy; go first. You houseless pov- / erty— ^ Nay, get thee in. I '11 pray, and then I '11 sleep. /^ [Fool goes in.' Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, 30 . Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you / L From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en 1 /^ Too Httle care of this! Take physic, pomp; I Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel. That thou mayst shake the superflux to them / And show the heavens more just. ^ Edg. [Within] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom ! [ The Fool runs out from the hovel. Fool. Come not in here, nuncle, here 's a spirit. Help me, help me! 40 Kent. Give me thy hand. Who 's there? Fool. A spirit, a spirit: he says his name 's poor Tom. Kent. What art thou that dost grumble there i' the straw? Come forth. Enter Edgar disguised as a madman. Edg. Away! the foul fiend follows me! ' Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind/ Hum! go to thy cold bed and warm thee. Lear. Hast thou given all to thy two daughters? and art thou come to this? Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the 50 foul fiend hath led through fire and through 89 Act III. Sc. iv. THE TRAGEDY OF flame, through ford and whirlpool, o'er bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pil- low and halters in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor. Bless thy five wits! Tom 's a-cold. O, do de, do de, do de. Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blast- ing, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, 60 whom the foul fiend vexes. There could I have him now, and there, and there again, and there. [Storm still. Lear. What, have his daughters brought him to this pass? Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all? Fool. Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed. Lear. Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters? Kent. He hath no daughters, sir. Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have subdued nature To such a lowness but his unkind daughters. 71 Is it the fashion that discarded fathers Should have thus little mercy on their flesh? Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot Those pelican daughters. Edg. Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill: Haljoo, halloo, loo, loo! Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen. Edg. Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy pa- 80 rents; keep thy word justly; swear not; com- mit not with man's sworn spouse; set not thy 3weet heart on proud array. Tom 's a-cold, 90 KING LEAR Act III. Sc. iv. Lear. What hast thou been? Edg. A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of my mistress' heart and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words and broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one that slept in the contriving of 90 lust and waked to do it : wine loved I deeply, dice dearly, and in woman out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greedi- ness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray thy poor heart to woman: keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend. ' Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind.' 100 Says suum, mun, ha, no, nonny. Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let him trot by. [Storm still. Lear. Why thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than this? Con- sider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three on 's are sophisti- no cated. Thou art the thing itself: unaccom- modated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. Of¥, ofif, you lend- ings! come, unbutton here. [Tearing ofF his clothes. Fool. Prithee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis a naughty night to swim in. Now a little fire in a wild 91 Act III. Sc. iv. THE TRAGEDY OF field were like an old lecher's heart, a small spark, all the rest on 's body cold. Look, here comes a walking fire. Enter Gloucester, zvith a torch. Edg. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin, squints the eye 120 and makes the hare-lip; mildews the white wheat and hurts the poor creature of earth. Saint Withold footed thrice the 'old ; He met the night-mare and her nine-fold; Bid her alight. And her troth plight. And aroint thee, witch, aroint thee! Kent. How fares your grace ? Lear. What 's he? Kent. Who 's there? What is 't you seek? 130 Glou. What are you there? Your names? Edg. Poor Tom, that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the tadpole, the wall-newt and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow'-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; who is whipped from tithing to tithing, and stock-punished, and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his body, horse to ride and weapon to wear; 140 But mice and rats and such small deer Have been Tom's food for seven long year. Beware my follower. Peace, Smulkin; peace, thou fiend! 92 KING LEAR Act III. Sc. iv. Glou. What, hath your grace no better company? Edg. The prince of darkness is a gentleman : Modo he 's call'd, and Mahu. Glou. Our flesh and blood is grown so vile, my lord, That it doth hate what gets it. Edg. Poor Tom 's a-cold. Glou. Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer 150 To obey in all your daughters' hard commands: Though their injunction be to bar my doors And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you, Yet have I ventured to come seek you out And bring you where both fire and food is ready. Lear. First let me talk with this philosopher./ ^ What is the cause of thunder? ^^ Kent. Good my lord, take his offer; go into the house. Lear. I '11 talk a word with this same learned Theban. What is your study? 160 Edg. How to prevent the fiend and to kill vermin. Lear. Let me ask you one word in private. Kent. Importune him once more to go, my lord; His wits begin to unsettle. Glou. Canst thou blame him? [Storm still. His daughters seek his death: ah, that good Kent! He said it would be thus, poor banish'd man! Thou say'st the king grows mad: I'll tell thee, friend, I am almost mad myself: I had a son, Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my Hfe, But lately, very late: I loved him, friend, 170 No father his son dearer: truth to tell thee. The grief hath crazed my wits. What a night 's this ! I do beseech your grace, — 93 Actlll.Scv. THE TRAGEDY OF Lear. O, cry you mercy, sir. Noble philosopher, your company. Edg. Tom 's a-cold. Glou. In, fellow, there, into the hovel : keep thee warm. Lear. Come, let 's in all. Kent. This way, my lord. Lear. With him; I will keep still with my philosopher. Kent. Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow. Glou. Take him you on. i8o Kent. Sirrah, come on; go along with us. Lear. Come, good Athenian. Glou. No words, no words : hush. Edg. Child Rowland to the dark tower came: His word was still ' Fie, foh, and fum, I smell the blood of a British man.' [Exeunt. Scene V. Gloucester's castle. Enter Cornwall and Edmund. Corn. I will have my revenge ere I depart his house. Edm. How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think of. Corn. I now perceive, it was not altogether your brother's evil disposition made him seek his death, but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reproveable badness in himself. Edm. How malicious is my fortune, that I must re- pent to be just! This is the letter he spoke of, lo which approves him an intelligent party to the 94 KING LEAR Act III. Sc. vi. advantages of France. O heavens! that this treason were not, or not I the detector! Corn, Go with me to the duchess. Edm. If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business in hand. Corn. True or false, it hath made thee earl of Glou- cester. Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension. Edm. [Aside] If I find him comforting the king, it 20 will stuff his suspicion more fully. — I will per- sever in my course of loyalty, though the con- flict be sore between that and my blood. Corn. I will lay trust upon thee, and thou shalt find a dearer father in my love. [Exeunt. Scene VI. A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle. Enter Gloucester, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar. Clou. Here is better than the open air ; take it thank- fully, I will piece out the comfort with what addition I can: I will not be long from you. Kent. All the power of his wits have given way to his impatience: the gods reward your kindness! [Exit Gloucester. Edg. Frateretto calls me, and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend. Fool. Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a gentleman or a yeoman. 10 Lear. A king, a king! Fool. No, he 's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his 95 Act III. Sc. vi. THE TRAGEDY OF son, for he 's a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman before him. Lear. To have a thousand with red burning spits Come hissing in upon 'em, — Edg. The foul fiend bites my back. Fool. He 's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath. 20 Lear. It shall be done; I will arraign them straight. [To Edgar] Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer; [To the Fool] Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she foxes! Edg. Look, where he stands and glares! Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam? Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, tO' me. Fool. Her boat hath a leak. And she must not speak Why she dares not come over to thee. Edg. The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of 30 a nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two white herring. Croak not, black angel; I have no food for thee. Kent. How do you, sir? Stand you not so amazed: Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions? Lear. I '11 see their trial first. Bring in the evidence. [To Edgar] Thou robed man of justice, take thy place; [To the Fool] And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity. Bench by his side. [To Kent] You are o' the com- mission; Sit you too. 40 Edg. Let us deal justly. 96 KING LEAR Act III. Sc. vi Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd? Thy sheep be in the corn ; And for one blast of thy minikin mouth, Thy sheep shall take no harm. Pur! the cat is gray. Lear. Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my oath before this honourable assembly, she kicked the poor king her father. Fool. Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril? 50 Lear. She cannot deny it. Fool. Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool, r::^^-^ Lear. And here 's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim What store her heart is made on. Stop her there! Arms, arms, sword, fire! Corruption in the place! False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape? Fdg. Bless thy five wits! Kent. O pity! Sir, w^here is the patience now, That you so oft have boasted to retain? Fd^. \^Asidc\ My tears begin to take his part so much, 60 They '11 mar my counterfeiting. Lear. The little dogs and all. Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me. Fdg. Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs! Be thy mouth or black or white, Tooth that poisons if it bite; Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim. Hound or spaniel, brach or lym. Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail, 7^ Tom will make them weep and wail: For, with throwing thus my head, Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled. 97 Act III. Sc. vi. THE TRAGEDY OF Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and fairs and market-towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry. Lear, Then let them anatomize Regan; see what 80 breeds about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard hearts? [To Ed- gar] You, sir, I entertain for one of my hun- dred; only I do not like the fashion of your garments. You will say they are Persian at- tire; but let them be changed. Kent. Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile. Lear. Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains: so, so, so. We '11 go to supper i' the morning. So, so, so. Fool. And I '11 go to bed at noon. Re-enter Gloucester. Glou. Come hither, friend: where is the king my master? Kent. Here, sir; but trouble him not: his wits are gone. Glou. Good friend, I prithee, take him in thy arms; 91 I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him: There is a litter ready; lay him in 't. And drive toward Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master: If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life, With thine and all that of¥er to defend him, Stand in assured loss. Take up, take up, And follow me, that will to some provision Give thee quick conduct. Kent. Oppressed nature sleeps. 100 This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken sinews, 98 KING LEAR Act III. Sc. vii. Which, if convenience will not allow, Stand in hard cure. [To the Fool] Come, help to bear thy master; Thou must not stay behind. Glou. Come, come, away. [Exeunt all but Edgar. Edg. When we our betters see bearing our woes, We scarcely think our miseries our foes. Who alone sufifers suffers most i' the mind, Leaving free things and happy shows behind: But then the mind much sufferance doth o'erskip. When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship, no How light and portable my pain seems now. When that which makes me bend makes the king bow. He childed as I father'd! Tom, away! Mark the high noises, and thyself bewray When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee. In thy just proof repeals and reconciles thee. What will hap more to-night, safe 'scape the king! Lurk, lurk. [Exit. Scene VII. Gloucester's castle. Enter Cornwall, Regan, Goneril, Edmund, and Servants. Corn. Post speedily to my lord your husband ; show him this letter: the army of France is landed. Seek out the traitor Gloucester. [Exeunt some of the Servants. Reg. Hang him instantly. Gon. Pluck out his eyes. Corn. Leave him to my displeasure. Edmund, keep 99 Act III. Sc. vii. THE TRAGEDY OF you our sister company: the revenges we are bound to take upon your traitorous father are not fit for your beholding. Advise the duke, where you are going, to a most festinate prepa- lo ration: we are bound to the Hke. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent betwixt us. Fare- well, dear sister: farewell, my lord of Glou- cester. Enter Oswald. How now! where 's the king? Osw. My lord of Gloucester hath convey'd him hence: Some five or six and thirty of his knights, Hot questrists after him, met him at gate; Who, with some other of the lords dependants, Are gone with him toward Dover; where they boast To have well-armed friends. Cam. Get horses for your mistress. 20 Gon. Farewell, sweet lord, and sister. Corn. Edmund, farewell. [Exeunt Goneril, Edmund, and Oswald. Go seek the traitor Gloucester. Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us. {Exeunt other Servants. Though well we may not pass upon his Hfe Without the form of justice, yet our power Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men May blame but not control. Who's there? the traitor? Enter Gloucester, brought in by two or three. Reg. Ingrateful fox! 'tis he. Corn. Bind fast his corky arms. Glou. What mean your graces? Good my friends, consider 100 KING LEAR Act III. Sc. vii. You are my guests : do me no foul play, friends. 31 Corn. Bind him, I say. [Servants bind him. Reg. Hard, hard. O filthy traitor! Giou. Unmerciful lady as you are, I 'm none. Cam. To this chair bind him. Villain, thou shalt find — [Regan plucks his beard. Clou. By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done To pluck me by the beard. Reg. So white, and such a traitor! Clou. Naughty lady, These hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin Will quicken and accuse thee: I am your host: With robbers' hands my hospitable favours 40 You should not ruffle thus. What will you do? Corn. Come, sir, what letters had you late from France? Reg. Be simple answerer, for we know the truth. Corn. And what confederacy have you with the traitors Late footed in the kingdom? Reg. To whose hands have you sent the lunatic king? Speak. Clou. I have a letter guessingly set down. Which came from one that 's of a neutral heart, And not from one opposed. Corn. Cunning. Reg. ' And false. 50 Corn. Where hast thou sent the king? Clou. To Dover. Reg. Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not charged at peril — Corn. Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that. Clou. I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course. Reg. Wherefore to Dover, sir? lOI Act III. Sc. vii. THE TRAGEDY OF Glou. Because I would not see thy cruel nails Pluck out his poor old eyes, nor thy fierce sister In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs. The sea, with such a storm as his bare head In hell-black night endured, would have buoy'd up. And quench'd the stelled fires : 6i Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain. If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time, Thou should'st have said, ' Good porter, turn the key,^ All cruels else subscribed: but I shall see The winged vengeance overtake such children. Cam. See 't shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair. Upon these eyes of thine I '11 set my foot. Glou. He that will think to live till he be old. Give me some help! O cruel! O you gods! 70 Reg. One side will mock another; the other too. Cam. If you see vengeance — First Serv. Hold your hand, my lord: I have served you ever since I was a child; But better service have I never done you Than now to bid you hold. Reg. How now, you dog! First Serv. If you did wear a beard upon your chin, I 'Id shake it on this quarrel. What do you mean? Cam. My villain! [They draw and fight. First Serv. Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of anger. Reg. Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus! 80 [ Takes a sword and runs at him behind. First Serv. O, I am slain ! Mv lord, you have one eye left To see some mischief on him. O! [Dies. Com. Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly! Where is thy lustre now? 102 KING LEAR Act III. Sc. vii. Glou. All dark and comfortless. Where 's my son Ed- mund? Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature, To quit this horrid act. Reg. Out, treacherous villain! Thou call'st on him that hates thee: it was he That made the overture of thy treasons to us; Who is too good to pity thee. 90 Glou. O my follies! Then Edgar was abused. Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him! Reg. Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell His way to Dover. [Exit one with Gloucester .1 How is 't, my lord? how look you? Corn. I have received a hurt: follow me, lady. Turn out that eyeless villain: throw this slave Upon the dunghill. Regan, I bleed apace : Untimely comes this hurt: give me your arm. [Exit Cornwall, led by Regan. Sec. Serv. I '11 never care what wickedness I do, If this man come to good. Third Serv. If she live long, 100 And in the end meet the old course of death, Women will all turn monsters. Sec. Serv. Let 's follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam To lead him where he would: his roguish madness Allows itself to any thing. Third Serv. Go thou : I '11 fetch some flax and whites of eggs To apply to his bleeding face. Now, heaven help him! [Exeunt severally. 103 IV.Sc. i. THE TRAGEDY OF ACT FOURTH. Scene I. The heath. Enter Edgar. Edg. Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd, Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst, The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune, Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear: The lamentable change is from the best; The worst returns to laughter. Welcome then, Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace! The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst Owes nothing to thy blasts. But who comes here? Enter Gloucester, led by an Old Man. My father, poorly led? World, world, O world! But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee, 1 1 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. Glou. Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone: Thy comforts can do no good at all; Thee they may hurt. Old Man. Alack, sir, you cannot see your way. Glou. I have no way and therefore want no eyes ; I stumbled when I saw : full oft 'tis seen, 20 Our means secure us, and our mere defects Prove our commodities. Ah, dear son Edgar, The food of thy abused father's wrath! Might I but live to see thee in my touch, i;o4 KING LEAR Act IV. Sc. i. I 'Id say I had eyes again! Old Man. How now! Who's there? Edg. [Aside] O gods ! Who is 't can say ' I am at the worst'? I am worse than e'er I was. Old Man. 'Tis poor mad Tom. Edg. [Aside] And worse I may be yet: the worst is not ' So long as we can say ' This is the worst.' Old Man. Fellow, where goest? Gloii. Is it a beggar-man? 30 Old Man. Madman and beggar too. Glou. He has some reason, else he could not beg. r 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. Angering itself and others. Bless thee, master! 40 Glou. Is that the naked fellow? Old Man. Ay, my lord. Glou. Then, prithee, get thee gone: if for my sake Thou wilt o'ertake us hence a mile or twain r the way toward Dover, do it for ancient love; And bring some covering for this naked soul. Who I '11 entreat to lead me. Old Man. Alack, sir, he is mad. Glou. 'Tis the times' plague, when madmen lead the blind. Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure ; 105 Act IV. Sc. i. THE TRAGEDY OF Above the rest, be gone. Old Man. I '11 bring him the best 'parel that I have, 50 Come on 't what will. [Exit. Glou. Sirrah, naked fellow, — Edg. Poor Tom 's a-cold. [Aside]^ I cannot daub it further. Glou. Come hither, fellow. Edg. [Aside^ And yet I must. — Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed. Glou. Know'st thou the way to Dover? Edg. Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path. 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 60 once; of lust, as Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing; who since possesses chambermaids and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master! Glou. Here, take this purse, thou whom the heavens' plagues Have humbled to all strokes: that 1 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 70 Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly; So distribution should undo excess And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover? Edg. Ay, master. Glou. There is a clifif whose high and bending head Looks fearfully in the confined deep: Bring me but to the very brim of it. And I '11 repair the misery thou dost bear 106 KING LEAR Act IV. Sc. ii. With something rich about me: from that place I shall no leading need. ^j^_ Give me thy arm: 80 Poor Tom shall lead thee. [Exeunt. Scene II. Before the Ditke of Albany's palace. Enter Goneril and Edmund. Gon. Welcome, my lord: I marvel our mild husband Not met us on the way. Enter Oswald. Now, Where's your master? Osw. Madam, within; but never man so changed. I told him of the army that was landed; He smiled at it: I told him you were coming; His answer was, 'The worse': of Gloucester's treachery And of the loyal service of his son 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 disHke seems pleasant to him; What like, offensive. ^ ^ Gon. [To Edm.] Then shall you go no further. It is the cowish terror of his spirit, That dares not undertake: he '11 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 107 Act IV. Sc. ii. THE TRAGEDY OF Shall pass between us: ere long you are like to hear, If you dare venture in your own behalf, 20 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 Gloucester! [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. Enter Albany. Gon. I have been worth the whistle. Alb. O Goneril! You are not worth the dust which the rude wind 30 Blows in your face. I fear your disposition: That nature which contemns it origin Cannot be border'd certain in itself; She that herself will sliver and disbranch From her material sap, perforce must wither And come to deadly use. Gon. No more ; the text is fooHsh. Alb. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile: Filths savour but themselves. What have you done? Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd? 40 A father, and a gracious aged man. Whose reverence even the head-lugg'd bear would lick. Most barbarous, most degenerate! have you madded. 108 KING LEAR Act IV. Sc. ii. 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, It will come, Humanity must perforce prey on itself, Like monsters of the deep. Gon. Milk-liver'd man ! 50 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, sit'st still and criest 'Alack, why does he so?' Alb. See thyself, devil! Proper deformity seems not in the fiend 60 So horrid as in woman. Gon. O vain fool! Alb. Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame, Be-monster not thy feature. Were 't my fitness To let these hands obey my blood. They are apt enough to dislocate and tear Thy flesh and bones: howe'er thou art a fiend, A woman's shape doth shield thee. Gon. Marry, your manhood! mew! Enter a Messenger. Alb. What news? Mess. O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall 's dead, 109 Act IV. Sc. ii. THE TRAGEDY OF Slain by his servant, going to put out 71 The other eye of Gloucester. Alb. Gloucester's eyes! Mess. A servant that he bred, thrill'd with remorse. Opposed against the act, bending his sword To his great master; who thereat enraged Flew on him and amongst them fell'd him dead. But not without that harmful stroke which since Hath pluck'd him after. Alb. This shows you are above, You justicers, that these our nether crimes So speedily can venge. But, O poor Gloucester! Lost he his other eye? Mess. Both, both, my lord. 81 This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer; 'Tis from your sister. Gon. [Aside] One way I like this well; But being widow, and my Gloucester with her, May all the building in my fancy pluck Upon my hateful life: another way, The news is not so tart. — I '11 read, and answer. [Exit. Alb. Where was his son when they did take his eyes? Mess. Come with my lady hither. Alb. He is not here. Mess. No, my good lord; I met him back again. 90 Alb. Knows he the wickedness? Mess. Ay, my good lord; 'twas he inform'd against him. And quit the house on purpose, that their punish- ment Might have the freer course. Alb. Gloucester, I live To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king, no KING LEAR Act IV. Sc. iii. And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend: Tell me what more thou know'st. [Exeunt. Scene III. The French camp near Dover, Enter Kent and a Gentleman. Kent. Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back know you the reason? Gent. Something he left imperfect in the state which since his coming forth is thought of, which im- ports to the kingdom so much fear and danger that his personal return was most required and necessary. Kent. Who hath he left behind him general? Gent. The Marshal of France, Monsieur La Far. Kent. Did your letters pierce the queen to any dem- lo onstration of grief? Gent. Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence, And now and then an ample tear trill'd down Her delicate cheek: it seem'd she was a queen Over her passion, who most rebel-like Sought to be king o'er her. Kent. O, then it moved her. 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 way : those happy smilets 20 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. Act IV. Sc. iii. THE TRAGEDY OF Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved, If all could so become it. Kent. Made she no verbal question? Gent. Faith, once or twice she heaved the name of ' father ' Pantingly forth, as if it press'd her heart; Cried ' Sisters! sisters! Shame of ladies! sisters! Kent ! father ! sisters ! What, i' the storm ? i' the night? Let pity not be believed ! ' There she shook 30 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. The stars above us, govern our conditions; Else one self mate and mate could not beget Such different issues. You spoke not with her since? Gent. No. Kent. Was this before the king return'd? Gent. No, since. Ke7tt. Well, sir, the poor distress'd Lear's i' the town; Who sometime in his better tune remembers 40 What we are come about, and by no means Will yield to see his daughter. Gmt. Why, good sir? Kent. A sovereign shame so elbows him : his own un- kindness That stripp'd her from his benediction, turn'd her To foreign casualties, gave her dear rights To his dog-hearted daughters : these things sting His mind so venomously that burning shame Detains him from Cordelia. Ge}it. Alack, poor gentleman! Kent. Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard not? 112 KING LEAR Act IV. Sc. iv. Gent. 'Tis so ; they are afoot. 50 Kent. Well, sir, I '11 bring you to our master Lear, And leave you to attend him: some dear cause Will in concealment wrap me up awhile; When I am known aright, you shall not grieve Lending me this acquaintance. I pray you, go Along with me. [ExeurU. Scene IV. The same. A tent. Enter, with drum and colours, Cordelia, Doctor, and Soldiers. Cor. Alack, 'tis he: why, he was met even now As mad as the vex'd sea; singing aloud; Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds, With bur-docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, 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. 10 Doct. There is means, madam: Our foster-nurse of nature is repose. The which he lacks: that to provoke in him, Are many simples operative, whose power Will close the eye of anguish. (^^y^ All blest secrets. All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth, Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate 113 Act IV. Sc. V. THE TRAGEDY OF In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him; Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the hfe That wants the means to lead it. Enter a Messenger. Mess. News, madam; 20 The British powers are marching hitherward. Cor. 'Tis known before; our preparation stands In expectation of them. O dear father, It is thy business that I go about; Therefore great France My mourning and important tears hath pitied. No blown ambition doth our arms incite, But love, dear love, and our aged father's right: Soon may I hear and see him! [Exeunt. Scene V. Gloucester's castle. Enter Regan and Oswald. Reg. But are my brother's powers set forth? Osw. Ay, madam. Reg. Himself in person there? Osw. Madam, with much ado: Your sister is the better soldier. Reg. Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home? Osw. No, madam. Reg. What might import my sister's letter to him? Osw. I know not, lady. Reg. Faith, he is posted hence on serious matter. It was great ignorance, Gloucester's eyes being out. To let him live: where he arrives he moves 10 All hearts against us: Edmund, I think, is gone, 114 KING LEAR Act IV. Sc. v. In pity of his misery, to dispatch His nighted Hfe; moreover, to descry The strength o' the enemy. Osw. I must needs after him, madam, with my letter. Reg. Our troops set forth to-morrow: stay with us; The ways are dangerous. Osw. I may not, madam: My lady charged my duty in this business. Reg. Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you Transport her purposes by word? Belike, 20 Something — I know not what: I '11 love thee much, Let me unseal the letter. Osw. Madam, I had rather — Reg. I know your lady does not love her husband; I am sure of that: and at her late being here She gave strange oeillades and most speaking looks To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom. Osw. 1, madam? Reg. I speak in understanding: you are; I know't: Therefore I do advise you, take this note: My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd; 30 And more convenient is he for my hand Than for your lady's : you may gather more. If you do find him, pray you, give him this; And when your mistress hears thus much from you, I pray, desire her call her wisdom to her. So, fare you well. If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor, Preferment falls on him that cuts him ofif. Osw. Would I could meet him, madam! I should show What party I do follow. Reg, Fare thee well. [Exeunt. 40 IIS ActlV. Sc. vi. THE TRAGEDY OF Scene VI. Fields near Dover. Enter Gloucester, and Edgar dressed like a peasant. Glou. When shall we come to the top of that same hill? Edg. You do climb up it now: look, how we labour. Glou. Methinks the ground is even. Edg. Horrible steep. Hark, do you hear the sea? Glou. No, truly. Edg. Why then your other senses grow imperfect By your eyes' anguish. Glou. So may it be indeed : Methinks thy voice is alter'd, and thou speak'st In better phrase and matter than thou didst. Edg. You 're much deceived: in nothing am I changed But in my garments. Glou. Methinks you 're better spoken. Edg. Come on, sir ; here 's the place : stand still. How fearful 1 1 And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low! The crows and choughs that wing the midway air Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade! Methinks he seems no bigger than his head: The fishermen that walk upon the beach Appear Hke mice; and yond tall anchoring bark Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy Almost too small for sight : the murmuring surge 20 That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes Cannot be heard so high. I '11 look no more, 116 KING LEAR Act IV. Sc. vi. Lest my brain turn and the deficient sight Topple down headlong. Glou. Set me where you stand. Edg. Give me your hand: you are now within a foot Of the extreme verge: for all beneath the moon Would I not leap upright. Glou. Let go my hand. Here, friend, 's another purse; in it a jewel Well worth a poor man's taking: fairies and gods Prosper it with thee! Go thou further off; 30 Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going. Edg. Now fare you well, good sir. Glou. With all my heart. Edg. Why I do trifle thus with his despair Is done to cure it. Glou. [Kneeling'] O you mighty gods! This world I do renounce, and in your sights Shake patiently my great affliction ofi: If I could bear it longer and not fall To quarrel with your great opposeless wills, My snuff and loathed part of nature should Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O bless him! 40 Now, fellow, fare thee well. [He falls forward. Edg. Gone, sir: farewell. And yet I know not how conceit may rob The treasury of hfe, when hfe itself Yields to the theft: had he been where he thought, By this had thought been past. Alive or dead? Ho, you sir ! friend ! Hear you, sir ! speak I Thus might he pass indeed: yet he revives. What are you, sir? Glou. Away, and let me die. 117 Act IV. Sc. vi. THE TRAGEDY OF Edg. Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air. So many fathom down precipitating, 50 Thou 'dst shiver'd Hke an tgg\ but thou dost breathe; Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound. Ten masts at each make not the altitude Which thou hast perpendicularly fell: Thy life 's a miracle. Speak yet again. GlovL But have I fall'n, or no? Edg. From the dread summit of this chalky bourn. Look up a-height; the shrill-gorged lark so far Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up. Glou. Alack, I have no eyes, 60 Is wretchedness deprived that benefit, To end itself by death ? 'Twas yet some comfort, When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage And frustrate his proud will. Edg. Give me your arm : Up : so. How is 't ? Feel you your legs ? You stand. Gloii. Too well, too well. Edg. This is above all strangeness. Upon the crown o' the cliff, what thing was that Which parted from you? Glou. A poor unfortunate beggar. Edg. As I stood here below, methought his eyes Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses, 70 Horns whelk'd and waved like the enridged sea: It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father. Think that the clearest gods, who make them hon- ours Of men's impossibilities, have preserved thee. Glou. I do remember now: henceforth I '11 bear Affliction till it do cry out itself 118 KING LEAR Act IV. Sc. vi. ' Enougl^ enough,' and die. That thing you speak of I took it for a man; often 'twould say * The fiend, the fiend ': he led me to that place. Edg. Bear free and patient thoughts. But who comes here? 80 Enter Lear, fantastically dressed zvith wild flowers. The safer sense will ne'er accommodate His master thus. Lear. No, they cannot touch me for coining; I am the king himself. Edg. ^O thou side-piercing sight! Lear. Nature 's above art in that respect. There 's your press-money. That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper; draw me a clothier's yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace; this piece of toasted cheese will do 't. There 's my gaunt- 90 let; I'll prove it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O, well flown, bird! i' the clout, i' the clout : hewgh ! Give the word. Edg. Sweet marjoram. Lear. Pass. Glou. I know that voice. Lear. Ha! Goneril, with a white beard! They flattered me like a dog, and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there. To say ' ay ' and ' no ' to everything that I said! 100 * Ay ' and ' no ' too was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me once and the wind to make me chatter; when the thunder would not peace at my bidding; there I found 'em, there I smelt 'em out. Go to, they are not men o' their 119 ActlV. Sc. vi. THE TRAGEDY OF words: they told me I was every thing; 'tis a lie, I am not ague-proof. Glou. The trick of that voice I do well remember: Is 't not the king? Lear. Ay, every inch a king: When I do stare, see how the subject quakes. no I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause? Adultery? Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No: The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly Does lecher in my sight. Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son Was kinder to his father than my daughters Got 'tween the lawful sheets. To 't, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers. Behold yond simpering dame, 120 Whose face between her forks presages snow. That minces virtue and does shake the head To hear of pleasure's name; The fitchew, nor the soiled horse, goes to 't With a more riotous appetite. Down from the waist they are Centaurs, Though women all above: But to the girdle do the gods inherit. Beneath is all the fiends'; There 's hell, there 's darkness, there 's the sulphur- ous pit, 130 Burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie, fie, fie! pah, pah! Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination : there 's money for thee. Glou. O, let me kiss that hand ! 120 KING LEAR Act IV. Sc. vi. Lear. Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality. Gioii. O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world Shall so wear out to nought. Dost thou know me? Lear. I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny at me? No, do thy worst, blind 140 Cupid ; I '11 not love. Read thou this challenge ; mark but the penning on 't. Gloii. Were all the letters suns, I could not see one. Edg. I would not take this from report: it is, And my heart breaks at it. Lear. Read. Gloti. What, with the case of eyes? Lear. O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your head, nor no money in your purse? Your eyes are in a heavy case, your purse in a light: 150 yet you see how this world goes. Clou. I see it feelingly. Lear. What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places, and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? Glou. Ay, sir. 160 Lear. And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst behold the great image of author- ity: a dog's obeyed in office. Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand! Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back; Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind 121 Act IV. Sc. vi. THE TRAGEDY OF For which thou whip'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener. Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear; Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; 170 Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it. None does offend, none, I say, none ; I '11 able 'em : Take that of me, my friend, who have the power To seal the accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes, And, Hke a scurvy politician, seem To see the things thou dost not. Now, now, now, now: pull off my boots: harder harder, so. Edg. O, matter and impertinency mix'd! Reason in madness ! Lear. If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes. 180 I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester: 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. Gloii. Alack, alack the day! Lear, When we are born, we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools. This 's a good block. It were a delicate stratagem, to shoe A troop of horse with felt: I '11 put 't in proof ; And when I have stol'n upon these sons-in-law, 190 » Then, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill! 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 122 KING LEAR Act IV. Sc. vi. The natural fool of fortune. Use me well; You shall have ransom. Let me have a surgeon; I am cut to the brains. Gent. You shall have any thing. Lear. No seconds? all myself? Why, this would make a man a man of salt, To use his eyes for garden water-pots, 200 Aye, and laying autumn's dust. Gent. Good sir, — Lear. I will die bravely, like a smug 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. [Exit running; Attendants follow. 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 210 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. Edg. But, by your favour. How near 's the other army? 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 here. Her army is moved on. 123 Act IV. Sc. vi. THE TRAGEDY OF Edg. I thank you, sir. [Exit Gent. 220 Glou. You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me ; Let not my worser spirit tempt me again To die before you please! Edg. Well pray you, father. Glou. Now, good sir, what are you? Edg. A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows; Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows, Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand, I '11 lead you to some biding. Glou. Hearty thanks; The bounty and the benison of heaven To boot, and boot ! Enter Oswald. Osw. A proclaim'd prize! Most happy! That eyeless head of thine was first framed flesh 231 To raise my fortunes. Thou old unhappy traitor. Briefly thyself remember : the sword is out That must destroy thee. Glou. Now let thy friendly hand Put strength enough to 't. [Edgar interposes. Wherefore, bold peasant. Barest thou support a publish'd traitor? Hence! Lest that the infection of his fortune take Like hold on thee. Let go his arm. Edg. Chill not let go, zir, without vurther 'casion. Osw. Let go, slave, or thou diest! * 240 Edg. Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor folk pass. An chud ha' been zwaggered out of my life, 'twould not ha' been zo long as 'tis by a fortnight. Nay, come not near th' old man; 124 KING LEAR Act IV. Sc. vi. keep out, che vor ye, or I 'se try whether your costard or my hallow be the harder: chill be plain with you. Osw. Out, dunghill! [They fight Edg. Chill pick your teeth, zir: come; no matter vor your foins. [Oszvald falls. Osw, Slave, thou hast slain me. Villain take my purse : If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body ; 251 And give the letters which thou find'st about me To Edmund earl of Gloucester; seek him out Upon the British party. O, untimely death! Death ! [Dies, Edg. I know thee well : a serviceable villain, As duteous to the vices of thy mistress As badness would desire. Glou. What, is he dead? Edg. Sit you down, father; rest you. Let 's see these pockets : the letters that he speaks of May be my friends. He's dead; I am only sorry 261 He had no other deathsman. Let us see: Leave, gentle wax ; and, manners, blame us not : To know our enemies' minds, we 'Id rip their hearts; Their papers, is more lawful. [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 fruit- fully offered. There is nothing done, if he re- turn the conqueror: then am I the prisoner, and 270 his bed my gaol ; from the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply the place for your labour. ' Your — wife, so I would say — ' affectionate servant, * GONERIL.' 125 Act. IV. Sc. vii. THE TRAGEDY OF undistingiiish'd space of woman's will! A plot upon her virtuous husband's life; And the exchange my brother! Here, in the sands, Thee I '11 rake up, the post unsanctified Of murderous lechers ; and in the mature time 280 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. Glou. The king is mad : how stiff is my vile sense. That I stand up, and have ingenious feeUng Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract: So should my thoughts be sever'd from my griefs. And woes by wrong imaginations lose The knowledge of themselves. [Drum afar off. Edg. Give me your hand: Far off, methinks, I hear the beaten drum: 290 Come, father, I '11 bestow you with a friend. [Exeunt. Scene VII. A tent in the French camp. Lear on a bed asleep, soft music playing; Gentlemen, and others attending. Enter Cordelia, Kent, and Doctor. Cor. O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work. To match thy goodness? My Hfe 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 clipp'd, but so. Cor. Be better suited: These weeds are memories of those worser hours: 1 prithee, put them off. 126 KING LEAR Act IV. Sc. vii. Kent. Pardon me, dear madam; Yet to be known shortens my made intent: My boon I make it, that you know me not lo Till time and I think meet. Cor. Then be 't so, my good lord. [To the Doctor] How does the king? Doct. Madam, sleeps still. Cor. O you kind gods, Cure this great breach in his abused nature! The untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up Of this child-changed father! Doct. So please your majesty That we may wake the king: he hath slept long. Cor. Be govern'd by your knowledge, and proceed r the sway of your own will. Is he array'd? 20 Gent. Ay, madam; in the heaviness of his sleep We put fresh garments on him. Doct. Be by, good madam, when we do awake him; I doubt not of his temperance. Cor. Very well. Doct. Please you, draw near. Louder the music there! Cor. O my dear father! Restoration hang Thy medicine on my lips, and let this kiss Repair those violent harms that my two sisters Have in thy reverence made! Kent. Kind and dear princess ! Cor. Had you not been their father, these white flakes 30 Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face To be opposed against the warring winds? To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder? In the most terrible and nimble stroke Of quick, cross lightning? to watch — poor perdu! — 127 Act IV. Sc. vii. THE TRAGEDY OF With this thine helm? Mine enemy's dog, Though he had bit me, should have stood that night Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father, To hovel thee with swine and rogues forlorn. In short and musty straw? Alack, alack! 40 'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once Had not concluded all. He wakes; speak to him. Doct. Madam, do you; 'tis fittest. Cor. How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty? Lear. You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave: Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears Do scald like molten lead. Cor. Sir, do you know me ? Lear. You are a spirit, I know: when did you die? Cor. Still, still, far wide! 5° Doct. He 's scarce awake: let him alone awhile. Lear. Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight? I am mightily abused. I should e'en die with pity. To see another thus. I know not what to say. I will not swear these are my hands: let 's see ; I feel this pin prick. Would I were assured Of my condition! Cor. O, look upon me, sir, And hold your hands in benediction o'er me. No, sir, you must not kneel. Lear. Pray, do not mock me: I am a very foolish fond old man, 60 Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less; And, to deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind. Methinks I should know you and know this man; 128 KING LEAR Act IV. Sc. vii. Yet I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant What place this is, and all the skill I have Remembers not these garments, nor I know not Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me; For, as I am a man, I think this lady To be my child Cordelia. Cor. And so I am, I am. 70 Lear. Be your tears wet? yes, faith. I pray, weep not: If you have poison for me, I will drink it. I know you do not love me; for your sisters Have, as I do remember, done me wrong: You have some cause, they have not. Cor. No cause, no cause. Lear. Am I in France? Kent. In your own kingdom, sir. Lear. Do not abuse me. Doct. Be comforted, good madam: the great rage, You see, is kill'd in him: and yet it is danger To make him even o'er the time he has lost. 80 Desire him to go in; trouble him no more Till further settling. Cor. Will 't please your highness walk? Lear. You must bear with me. Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old and foolish. [Exeunt all but Kent and Gentleman. Gent. Holds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so slain ? Kent. Most certain, sir. Gent. Who is conductor of his people? Kent. As 'tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester. Gent. They say Edgar, his banished son, is with the 90 Earl of Kent in Germany. 129 ActV. Sc. i. THE TRAGEDY OF Kent Report is changeable. 'Tis time to look about; the powers of the kingdom ap- proach apace. Gent. The arbitrement is like to be bloody. Fare you well, sir. [Exit. Kent. My point and period will be thoroughly wrought, Or well or ill, as this day's battle 's fought. [Exit, ACT FIFTH. Scene I. The British camp near Dover. Enter, with drum and colours, Edmund, RegaUy Gentlemen, and Soldiers. Edm. Know of the duke if his last purpose hold, Or whether since he is advised by aught To change the course: he 's full of alteration And self-reproving: bring his constant pleasure. [To a Gentleman, who goes out. Reg. Our sister's man is certainly miscarried. Edm. Tis to be doubted, madam. Reg. Now, sweet lord, You know the goodness I intend upon you: Tell me, but truly, but then speak the truth, Do you not love my sister? Edm. In honour'd love. Reg. But have you never found my brother's way lo To the forf ended place? Edm. That thought abuses you. Reg. I am doubtful that you have been conjunct And bosom'd with her, as far as we call hers. Edm. No, by mine honour, madam. 130 KING LEAR Act V. Sc. i. Reg. I never shall endure her: dear my lord, Be not familiar with her. Edm. Fear me not. — She and the duke her husband! Enter, with drum and colours, Albany, Goneril, and Soldiers. Gon. l^Aside] I had rather lose the battle than that sister Should loosen him and me. Alh. Our very loving sister, well be-met. 20 Sir, this I hear; the king is come to his daughter, With others whom the rigour of our state Forced to cry out. Where I could not be honest, I never yet was valiant: for this business, It toucheth us, as France invades our land, Not holds the king, with others, whom, I fear. Most just and heavy causes make oppose. Edm. Sir, you speak nobly. Reg. Why is this reasoned? Gon. Combine together 'gainst the enemy; For these domestic and particular broils 30 Are not the question here. Alh. Let 's then determine With the ancient of war on our proceedings. Edm. I shall attend you presently at your tent. Reg. Sister, you '11 go with us? Gon. No. Reg. 'Tis most convenient; pray you, go with us. Gon. \_Aside'\ O, ho, I know the riddle. — I will go. As they arc going out, enter Edgar disguised. Edg. If e'er your grace had speech with man so poor, Hear me one word. 131 ActV. Sc. i. THE TRAGEDY OF Alb. I '11 overtake you. Speak. [Exeunt all but Albany and Edgar. Edg. Before you fight the battle, ope this letter. 40 If you have victory, let the trumpet sound For him that brought it: wretched though I seem, I can produce a champion that will prove What is avouched there. If you miscarry, Your business of the world hath so an end, And machination ceases. Fortune love you! Alb. Stay till I have read the letter. Edg. I was forbid it. When time shall serve, let but the herald cry, And I '11 appear again. Alb. Why, fare thee well: I will o'erlook thy paper. 50 [Exit Edgar. Re-enter Edmund. Edm. The enemy 's in view: draw up your powers. Here is the guess of their true strength and forces By dihgent discovery; but your haste Is now urged on you. Alb. We will greet the time. [Exit. Edm. To both these sisters have I sworn my love; Each jealous of the other, as the stung Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take? Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd. If both remain alive: to take the widow Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril; 60 And hardly shall I carry out my side. Her husband being alive. Now then we '11 use His countenance for the battle; which being done. Let her who would be rid of him devise His speedy taking off. As for the mercy 132 KING LEAR Act V. Sc. ii. Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia, The battle done, and they within our power, Shall never see his pardon; for my state Stands on me to defend, not to debate. [Exit. Scene IL A Held between the two camps. Alarum within. Enter , with drum and colours, Lear, Cordelia, and Soldiers, over the stage; and exeunt. Enter Edgar and Gloucester. Edg. Here, father, take the shadow of this tree For your good host; pray that the right may thrive: If ever I return to you again, I '11 bring you comfort. Glou. Grace go with you, sir! [Exit Edgar. Alarum and retreat within. Re-enter Edgar. Edg. Away, old man; give me thy hand; away! . King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en: Give me thy hand; come on. Glou. No further, sir; a man may rot even here. Edg. What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither: lo Ripeness is all: come on. Glou. And that 's true too. [Exeunt. 133 ActV. Sc. iii. THE TRAGEDY OF Scene III. The British camp near Dover. Enter, in cmiquest, with drum and colours, Edmund; Lear and Cordelia, as prisoners; Captain, Soldiers, &c. Edm. Some officers take them away: good guard, Until their greater pleasures first be known That are to censure them. Cor. We are 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 '11 kneel down And ask of thee forgiveness: so we '11 live, ii And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues Talk of court news; and we '11 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 '11 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 CordeHa, 20 The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee? He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven. And fire us hence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes; 134 KING LEAR Act V. Sc. iii. The good-years shall devour them, flesh and fell, Ere they shall make us weep; we'll see 'em starve first. Come. [Exeunt Lear and Cordelia, guarded. Edm. Come hither, captain; hark. Take thou this note: go follow them to prison : One step I have advanced thee; if thou dost As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way To noble fortunes: know thou this, that men 30 Are as the time is: to be tender-minded Does not become a sword: thy great employment Will not bear question; either say thou 'It do 't, Or thrive by other means. Capt. I '11 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. Capt. I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats ; If it be man's work, I '11 do 't. [Exit. Flourish. Enter Albany, Goneril, Regan, another Captain, and Soldiers. Alb. Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain, 40 And fortune led you well: you have the captives That 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, 135 Act V. Sc. iii. THE TRAGEDY OF To pluck the common bosom on his side, And turn our impress'd lances in our eyes 50 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 cursed 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, 60 Not as a brother. Reg. That 's as we hst 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. , Gan. Not so hot : In his own grace he doth exalt himself More than in your addition. Reg.. In my rights. By me invested, he compeers the best. Gon. That were the most, if he should husband you. 70 Reg. Jesters do oft prove prophets. Gon. Holla, holla! That eye that told you so look'd but a-squint. Reg. Lady, I am not well; else I should answer P'rom a full-flowing stomach. General, Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony; 136 KING LEAR Act V. Sc. iii. 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. Half-blooded fellow, yes. 80 Reg. [To Edmund] Let the drum strike, and prove my title thine. Alb. Stay yet; hear reason. Edmund, I arrest thee On capital treason; and in thine attaint This gilded serpent [pointing to Gon.]. For your claim, fair sister, I bar it in the interest of my wife; 'Tis she is sub-contracted to this lord. And I, her husband, contradict your bans. If you will marry, make your loves to me; My lady is bespoke. Gon. An interlude! Alb. Thou art arm'd Gloucester: let the trumpet sound: If none appear to prove upon thy person 91 Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons. There is my pledge [throwing down a glove^ : I '11 prove it on thy heart. Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less Than I have here proclaim'd thee. Reg. Sick, O, sick! Gon. [Aside] If not, I '11 ne'er trust medicine. Edm. [ Throwing down a glove] There 's my exchange ; what in the world he is That names me traitor, villain-like he lies: Call by thy trumpet: he that dares approach, 137 ActV. Sc. iii. THE TRAGEDY OF On him, on you, — who not? — I will maintain loo My truth and honour firmly. Alb. A herald, ho! Edm. A herald, ho, a herald! Alb. Trust to thy single virtue; for thy soldiers, All levied in my name, have in my name Took their discharge. Reg. My sickness grows upon me. Alb. She is not well; convey her to my tent. [Exit Regan, led. Enter a Herald. Come hither, herald, — Let the trumpet sound, — And read out this. Capt. Sound, trumpet! [A trumpet sounds. Her. [Reads'] 'If any man of quaUty or degree no within the Hsts of the army will maintain upon Edmund, supposed 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! [First trumpet. Her. Again! [Second trumpet. Her. Again! [Third trumpet. [Trumpet answers within. Enter Edgar, at the third sound, armed, zmth a trumpet before him. Alb. Ask him his purposes, why he appears Upon this call o' the trumpet. Her. What are you? Your name, your quality? and why you answer 120 This present summons? Edg. Know, my name is lost; 138 KING LEAR Act V. Sc. iii. 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 Glou- cester? EdjH. Himself: what say'st thou to him? Edg. Draw thy sword, That if my speech ofifend a noble heart. Thy arm may do tfiee justice: here is mine. Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours. My oath, and my profession: I protest, 130 Maugre thy strength, youth, place and eminence, Despite thy victor sw^ord 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, 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 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, 139 AclV. Sc. iii. THE TRAGEDY OF Where they shall rest for ever. Trumpets, speak! [Alarums. They fight. Edmund falls. Alb. Save him, save him ! Gon. This is practice, Gloucester: 151 By the law of arms thou wast not bound to answer An unknown opposite; thou art not vanquish'd, But cozen'd and beguiled. Alh. Shut your mouth, dame, Or with this paper shall I stop it. Hold, sir; Thou worse than any name,* read thine own evil. No tearing, lady; I perceive you know it. Gon. Say, if I do, the laws are mine, not thine : Who can arraign me for 't? Alb. Most monstrous! Know'st thou this paper? Gon. Ask me not what I know. 160 [Exit. Alb. Go after her: she 's desperate; govern her. Edm. What you have charged me with, that have I done; And more, much more; the time will bring it out: '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 170 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 ; 140 KING LEAR Act V. Sc. iii. 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. i8i 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, 189 Their precious stones new lost; became his guide, Led him, begg'd for him, saved 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 heart, — Alack, too weak the conflict to support! — Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief. Burst smilingly. Edm. This speech of yours hath moved me. And shall perchance do good; but speak you on; You look as you had something more to say. 201 Alb. If there be more, more woful, hold it in; For I am almost ready to dissolve, 141 ActV. Sc. iii. THE TRAGEDY OF 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 210 Who 'twas that so endured, with his strong arms He fasten'd on my neck, and bellow'd out As he 'Id burst heaven; threw him on my father; Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him That ever ear received: which in recounting His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life Began to crack: twice then the trumpet sounded, And there I left him tranced. Alb. But who was this? Edg. Kent, sir, the banish'd Kent; who in disguise Follow'd his enemy king, and did him service 220 Improper for a slave. Enter a Gentleman, with a bloody knife, Gent. Help, help, O, help! Edg. What kind of help? Alb. Speak, man. Edg. What means this bloody knife? Gent. 'Tis hot, it smokes; It came even from the heart of — O, she 's dead! Alb. Who dead? speak, man. Gent. Your lady, sir, your lady: and her sister By her is poisoned; she hath confess'd it. Edm. I was contracted to them both : all three 142 KING LEAR Act V. Sc. iii. Now marry in an instant. Edg. Here comes Kent. Alh. Produce the bodies, be they alive or dead. 230 [Exit Gentleman. This judgement of the heavens, that makes us tremble, Touches us not with pity. Enter Kent. O, is this he? The time will not allow the compliment Which very manners urges. Kent. I am come To bid my king and master aye good night: Is he not here? Alb. Great thing of us forgot! Speak, Edmund, where 's the king? and where 's CordeHa? See'st -thou this object, Kent? [The bodies of Goneril and Regan are brought in. Kent. Alack, why thus? Edm. Yet Edmund was beloved: The one the other poison'd for my sake, 240 And after slew herself. Alb. Even so. Cover their faces. Edm. I pant for life: some good I mean to do. Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send, Be brief in it, to the castle; for my writ Is on the life of Lear and on CordeHa: Nay, send in time. Alb. Run, run, O, run! Edg. To who, my lord? Who hath the ofihce? send Thy token of reprieve. 143 Act V. Sc. iii. THE TRAGEDY OF Edm. Well thought on: take my sword, 250 Give it the captain. Alb. Haste thee, for thy life. [Exit Edgar. Edm. He hath commission from thy wife and me To hang Cordelia in the prison, and To lay the blame upon her own despair. That she fordid herself. Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile. {Edmund is borne off. Re-enter Lear, with Cordelia dead in his arms; Edgar, Captain, and others follozuing. Lear. Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones: Had I your tongues and eyes, I 'Id use them so That heaven's vault should crack. She 's gone for ever! I know when one is dead and when one lives; 260 She 's dead as earth. Lend me a looking-glass; If that her breath will mist or stain the stone. Why, then she lives. Kent. Is this the promised end? Edg. Or image of that horror? Alb. Fall and cease. Lear. This feather stirs; she lives. If it be so, It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows That ever I have felt. Kent. [Kneeling] O my good master! Lear. Prithee, away. Edg. 'Tis noble Kent, your friend. Lear. A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all! I might have saved her; now she 's gone for ever! 144 i KING LEAR Act V. Sc. Hi. Cordelia, Cordelia! stay a little! Ha! 271 What is 't thou say'st? Her voice was ever soft, Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman. I kill'd the slave that was a-hanging thee. Capt. 'Tis true, my lords, he did. Lear. Did I not, fellow? I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion I would have made them skip: I am old now. And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you? Mine eyes are not o' the best: I '11 tell you straight. Kent. If fortune brag of two she loved and hated, 280 One of them we behold. Lear. This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent? Kent. The same, Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius? Lear. He 's a good fellow, I can tell you that; He '11 strike, and quickly too: he 's dead and rotten. Kent. No, my good lord; I am the very man — Lear. I '11 see that straight. Kent. That from your first of difference and decay Have follow'd your sad steps. Lear. You are welcome hither. Kent. Nor no man else; all 's cheerless, dark and deadly. Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves, 291 And desperately are dead. Lear. Ay, so I think. Alh. He knows not what he says, and vain is it That we present us to him. Edg. Very bootless. Enter a Captain. Capt. Edmund is dead, my lord. 145 Act V. Sc. iii. THE TRAGEDY OF 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 'It 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, 310 Look there, look there! [Dies. Edg. He faints. My lord, my lord! Kent. Break, heart; I prithee, break! Edg. 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 endured 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 gored state sustain. 320 Kent. I have a journey, sir, shortly to go; 146 KING LEAR Act V. Sc. iii. My master calls me, I must not say no. Alb. 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. 147 THE TRAGEDY OF Glossary. Abated, diminished, deprived; II. iv. i6o. Able, uphold, answer for; IV. vi. 172. Abused, deceived; IV. i. 23. Action-taking; " resenting an injury by a law-suit, instead of fighting it out like a man of honour" (Schmidt); II. ii. 16. Addition, distinction, title; II. ii. 26; V. iii. 301. " Your a.," the title you have given him ; V. iii. .68. Additions, outward honour, titles; I. i. 137. Address, address ourselves; I. i. 192. Admiration, amazement, as- tonishment ; I. iv. 244. Advise yourself, consider; II. i. 28. Affected; "had more a.," had better liked, been more par- tial to; I. i. I. After, afterwards; V. iii. 241. A-height, aloft, to the height; IV. vi. 58. Aidant, helpful; IV. iv. 17. Ajax, taken as a typical boaster (according to some, a plain, blunt, brave fellow) ; II. ii. 126. Alarum' d; "best a. spirits," spirits thoroughly aroused to the combat ; II. i. 54. All, altogether; I. i. 105. Allay, be allayed; I. ii. 175. Allozv, approve of; II. iv. 193. Allozvance, countenance, per- mission; I. iv, 214. Alms; "at fortune's a.," as an alms of fortune ; I. i. 280. Amity, friendship; II. iv. 244. An, if; I. iv. 185. Ancient of war, experienced officers; V. i. 2>^. Answer; " a. my life," let my life answer for; I. i. 152. Apollo; "by Apollo," an oath; I. i. 161. Appear; " wilt a.," dost wish to seem; I. i. 182. Approve, prove; II. ii. 161. Approves, confirms; II. iv. 185. , proves; III. v. 11. Arbitrement, contest, decision; IV. vii. 94. Arch, chief; II. i. 60. Argument, subject; I. i. 217. Aroint thee, make room, away with thee (Quartos, " arint thee ") ; III. iv. 129. As, as if; III. iv. 15. Assured loss, certainty of loss ; III. vi. 98. Attaint, impeachment; V. iii. 83. 148 KING LEAR Glossary Attask'd for, blamed for (Fo- lios I, 2, 3, "at task for"; some copies of Quarto i, " attaskt for"; Quartos 2, 3, " alapt") ; I. iv. 366. Attend, await; II. i. 126. , watch, wait ; II. iii. 5. Auricular, got by hearing (Quartos, " aurigular") ; I. ii. 98. Avert, turn ; I. i. 213. Avouch, own, acknowledge ; II. iv. 239. Avouched, asserted; V. i. 44. Back, on his way back ; IV. ii. 90. Ballow, cudgel (Quarto 2, "hat") ; IV. vi. 246. Balm'd, cured, healed ; III. vi. lOI. Bandy, beat to and fro (a term in tennis) ; I. iv. 87. Bans, curses ; II. iii. 19. Bar, shut; II. i. Si. , debar, exclude ; V. iii. 85. Barber-monger, frequenter of barbers' shops, fop ; II. ii. 33. Bearing, suffering; III. vi. no. Becomes, suits, agrees with ; II. iv. 154. Bedlam, lunatic; III. vii. 103. Bedlam .beggars, mad beggars; II. iii. 14. (Cp. illustration.) Beguiled, deceived; II. ii. in. Belike, it may be, perhaps; IV. V. 20. Bemadding, maddening ; III. i. 38. Be-met, met; V. i. 20. Bench, sit on the judgement- seat; III. vi. 39. Bending, directing, raising; IV. ii. 74- Benison, blessing ; I. i. 267. Besort, become; I. iv. 259. Best; "were b.," had better; I. iv. 100. Bethought; " am b.," have de- cided; II. iii. 6. Bestow, place, lodge ; IV. vi. 293- Bestoii/d, housed, lodged; II. iv. 291. Betwixt, between ; I. i. 139. Bewray, betray, reveal (Quar- tos, "betray") ; II. i. 108. Bias of nature, natural direc- tion, tendency; I. ii. 120. Bide, bear; III. iv. 29. Biding, abiding place ; IV. vi. 228. Big, loud ; V. iii. 208. Blame, fault ; II. iv, 292. From a sketch by Inigo Jones of the Palmer's dress worn by Romeo in the Masquerade Scene. 149 Glossary THE TRAGEDY OF Blank, the white mark in the centre of the butt at which the arrow is aimed; I. i. i6i. Block, fashion of a hat; IV. vi. 187. Blood, nature; III. v. 23. , impulse, passion (Theo- bald, "boiling blood''); IV, ii. 64. Blown, ambitious, inflated; IV. iv. 27. Boil, inflamed tumour (Quar- tos, Folios, "bile/' "byle") ; II. iv. 225. Bolds, encourages; V. i. 26. Bond, duty, obligation; I. i. 94. Bones; "young b.," i.e. un- born infant; II. iv. 164. Boot; " to b., and b.," for your reward ( ? " over and above my thanks ") ; IV. vi. 230. Bootless, useless ; V. iii. 294. Border' d, limited, confined; IV. ii. 33. Bosom; "of her b.," in her confidence; IV. v. 26. , " common b.," affection of the people ; V. iii. 49. BoSm'd, in her confidence ; V. i. 13. Bound, ready; III. vii. 11. Bourn, brook; III. vi. 27. , limit, boundary ; IV. vi. 57. Brack, a female hound (Folios, "the Lady Brack"; Quar- tos, "Lady otk'e brack"; A. Smith, "Lye the brack"); I. iv. 116. Brazed, brazened, hardened; I. i. II. Brief; "be b. in it," be quick about it ; V. iii. 245. British (Folios, "Englisk"); IV. vi. 254. Brow of youtk, youthful brow ; I. iv. 292. Brown bills, browned halberds used by foot-soldiers ; IV. vi. 91. (Cp. illustration.) From original specimens (a) XVItii century, (3) later. Buoy'd, lifted itself (Quarto i, Mus. per. and Bodl. 2, " bod " ; Quarto i, Cap. Dev. Mus. imp. and Bodl. i, " layd " ; Quartos 2, 3, "laid") ; III. vii. 60. Bur-docks, the plant Arctrum Lappa (Hanmer's emenda- tion ; Quartos, " hordocks " ; Folios I, 2, " Hardokes " ; Folios 3, 4, " Hardocks " ; Farmer conj. 1778, " har- locks " ; Collier, Steevens conj. "hoar-docks" ; IV. iv. 4. 150 KING LEAR Glossary But, only; IV. vi. 128. Bus2, whisper; I. iv. 334. By, from (Folios, " on") ; I. ii. 132. Cadent, falling (Quartos i, 2, " accent " ; Quarto 3, '' ac- cient") ; I. iv. 293. Caitiff, wretch (Folios, " cozv- ard") ; II. i. 62,. Canielot; "I'd drive ye cackling home to C." ; probably a proverb not yet satisfactorily explained; it is said that near Cadbury in Somerset- shire, the supposed site of Camelot, there are large pools, upon which many geese are bred; II. ii. 84. Can, can do; IV. iv. 8. Canker-bit, canker-bitten ; V. iii. 122. Capable, capable of inheriting; II. i. 85. Carbonado, cut across like a piece of meat for broiling or grilling; II. ii. 38. Carry, bear; III. ii. 49. , carry out, contrive ; V. iii. 36. Carry out my side; "be a win- ner in the game " (Schmidt) ; V. i. 61. Case, empty socket ; IV. vi. 126. Cat, civet cat; III. iv. 109. Cataracts, water-spouts (Quar- to I, " caterickes") ; III. ii. 2. Censure, judge, pass sentence upon ; V. iii. 3. Centaurs, fabulous monsters, half man, half horse; IV. vi. 126. Century, troop of a hundred men ; IV. iv. 6. Challenge, claim as due ; I. i. 54- Challenged, claimed; IV. vii. 31- Champains, plains, open coun- try; I. i. 65. Chance, chances it ; II. iv. 6z. Character, handwriting; I. ii. 66. Charge, expense, cost ; II. iv. 242. Check, censure, rebuke ; II. ii. 149- Che vor ye, I warn you ; IV. vi. 244. Child-changed, changed by children's conduct ; IV, vii. 17. Child Rowland {v. Note) ; III. iv. 184. Chill, I will (Somerset or south-country dialect) ; IV. vi. 239. Child, I should, or I would {cp. "chill"); IV. vi. 242. Clearest, most pure, most glo- rious; IV. vi. yz- Clipp'd, curtailed; IV. vii. 6. Closet, room, chamber; I. ii.65. Clothier's yard, cloth-yard- shaft, arrow; IV. vi. 88. Clot poll, blockhead (Folios, " Clot-pole " ; Quartos " clat- pole") ; I. iv. 50. Clout, the white mark in the centre of the target ; IV. vi. 92. Cock, cockcrow; III. iv. 121. , cockboat; IV. vi. 19. 151 Glossary THE TRAGEDY OF Cockney, a cook's assistant (originally a person con- nected with the kitchen; later, a pampered child) ; II. iv. 123. Cocks, weathercocks; III. ii. 3. Cod-piece, a part of the male attire; III. ii. 27. Cold; " catch c," be turned out of doors ; I. iv. 113. Colour, kind (Quartos^ "na- ture") ; II. ii. 145. Comfortable, able to comfort ; I. iv. 328. , comforting; II. ii. 171. Comforting; " giving aid and comfort to" (used in a tech- nical legal sense) ; III. v. 21. Commend, deliver ; II. iv. 28. Commission, warrant to act as representative ; V. iii. 64. Commodities, advantages ; IV. i. 23. Compact, put together ; I. ii. 7. , give consistency to; I. iv. 362. Compeers, is equal with ; V. iii. 69. Conceit, imagination ; IV. vi. 42. Conceive, understand ; IV. ii. 24. Concluded; " had not c. all," had not come to an end alto- gether; IV. vii. 42. Condition, character, habit ; I. i. 301. Conditions, character, temper ; IV. iii. 35. Confine, limit, boundary; II. iv. 150. Confined, restricted, limited; I. ii. 25. Conjunct, in concert with (Fo- lios, "compact") ; II. ii. 125^ , closely united; V. i. 12. Conjuring, employing incanta- tions; II. i. 41. Consort, company ; II. i. 99. Conspirant, conspirator; V. iii. 135. Constant pleasure, fixed re- solve ; V. i. 4. Constrains, forces ; II. ii. 103. Contemned'st, most despised (Quartos, '' temnest " ; Pope, " the meanest") ; II. ii. 150. Continent, restraining; I. ii. 181. Continents, that which contains or encloses; III. ii. 58. Convenient, proper; V. i. 36. Converse, associate, have inter- course ; I. iv. 16. Convey, manage with secrecy; I. ii. 109. Cope, cope with ; V. iii. 124. Corky, withered, dry; III. vii. 29. Coronet, crown ; I. i. 141. Costard, head ; IV. vi. 247. Couch, lie close and hidden; III. i. 12. Course, way of life ; II. ii. 175. , " my very c," the same course^ as I do (Folios, "my course ") ; I. iii. 26. , " gentleness and c. of yours," gentleness of your course; I. iv. 364. , " the old c. of jleath," a natural death; III. vii. lOi. 152 KING LEAR Glossary Court holy-water, flattery (" Ray, among his proverbial phrases, mentions court holy- water meaning fair words. The French have the same phrase: Eau benite de Cour," Steevens) ; III. ii. lo. Courtesy; " do a c. to," yield, give way to; III. vii. 26. Cover, hide; I. i. 284. Cowish; " cowish terror," cow- ardly terror [Quarto i (some copies), " cowish curre " ; Wright conj. "currish ter- ror"] ; IV. ii. 12. Coxcomb, fool's cap; I. iv. 105. {Cp, illustration.) From the Troyes Dance of Death, 1499. Coxcombs, heads; II. iv. 125. Cozen' d, cheated, deceived; V. iii. 154- Cozener, cheater ; IV. vi. 167. Crab, crab-apple ; I. v. 15. Craves, demands ; II. i. 130. Crow-keeper, one who scares crows away from a field ; IV. vi. 88. Cruel, a play upon crewel, i.e. worsted, of which garters were made (Quartos i, 2, " crewell" ; Quarto 3, " crewill " ; Folios 3, 4, "crewel"); II. iv. 7. (Q. illustration.) ' Cruel garters.^ Cruels; " all c. else, " all their other cruelties " {v. Note) ; III. vii. 65. Cry; " till it c. sleep to death," till its clamour murders sleep ; II. iv. 120. Cry grace, cry for pardon; III. ii. 58. Cub-drawn, sucked dry by cubs, famished ; III. i. 12. Cuckoo-flowers, cowslips ; IV. iv. 4. Cue, catch-word ; I. ii. 147. Cullionly, wretched ; II. ii. 36. Cunning, dissimulation; II. i. 31 • Curiosity, minute scrutiny ; I. i. 6. , suspicious watchfulness, scrupulousness; I. iv. 75. 153 Glossary THE TRAGEDY OF Curiosity, over-nice scrupulous- ness (Theobald, Warburton conj., " curtesie") ; I. ii. 4. Curious, nice, elegant; I. iv. 35. Curst, shrewish; II. i. 67. Darkling, in the dark; I. iv. 22,7- Daub it, keep up my disguise (Quartos, "dance it"); IV. i. 54. Dawning, morning (Quartos, '' euen " ; Pope, " evening ") ; II. ii. I. Day and night, an oath ; I. iii. 4. Dear, precious, valued; I. iv. 294. , important ; III. i. 19. Death-practised; "the d. duke," i.e. whose death is plotted ; IV. vi. 284. Deathsman, executioner ; IV. vi. 263. Dehosh'd, debauched (Quar- tos, " dehoyst") ; I. iv. 26^. Decline, bend; IV. ii. 22. Declining, becoming feeble (Folios, "declin'd"); I. ii. 78. Deed; " my very d. of love," my love in very deed ; I. i. 72. Deer, game; III. iv. 144. Deficient, defective; IV. vi. 23. Defuse, disorder, disguise; I. iv. 2. Dejected; " d. thing of for- tune," thing dejected by for- tune; IV. i. 3. Demanding, asking, enquiring; III. ii. 65. Deny, refuse ; II. iv. 88. Depart, depart from; III. v. i. Depend, be dependent, remain; I. iv. 271. Deprive; "disinherit"; I. ii. 4. Derogate, degraded; I. iv. 302. Descry; " main d.," full view of the main body; IV. vi. 217. , spy out, discover; IV. v. 13- Deserving, desert ; III. iii. 24. Desperately, in despair; V. iii. 292. Detested, detestable; I. ii. 81. Difference; "your first of d.," the first reverse of your for- tune ; V. iii: 288. Differences, dissensions; II. i. 125. Diffidences, suspicions ; I. ii. 161. Digest, dispose of, use, enjoy; I. i. 130. Dimensions, parts of the body; I. ii.7. Disasters (used perhaps in its original astrological sense) ; I. ii. 131. Disbranch, slip, tear off from the tree; IV. ii. 34. Disclaims in, disowns ; II. ii. 59- Discommend, disapprove ; II. ii. 115- Discovery, reconnoitring; V. i. 53. Discretion, common sense, wis- dom = discreet person; II. iv. 151. Diseases, discomforts (Folios, ''disasters") ; I. i. i77- Disnatured, unnatural; I. iv. 305. 154 KING LEAR Glossary Display' d so saucily, made so saucy a display; II. iv. 41. Dispositions, moods, humours; I. iv. 242. Disquantity, diminish ; I. iv. 270. Disquietly, causing disquiet ; I. ii. 124. Distaff, spinning wheel ; IV. ii. 17. Distaste, dislike (Quartos, "dislike") ; I. iii. 15. Distract, distracted ; IV. vi. 288. Dolours, used with a play upon "dollars" (Folios i, 2, 3, ''Dolors"); II. iv. 54- DolpJiin my boy, probably a fragment of an old song; III. iv. 104. Doom, sentence (Folio i, " guift " ; Folios 2, 3, 4, "gift") ; I. i. 167. Doubted, feared ; V. i. 6. Doubtful, fearful ; V. i. 12. Drew, I drew my sword ; II. iv. 42. Ducking, bowing, fawning ; II. ii. 109. Dullard, idiot; II. i. 76. Each; "at e.," fastened each to each ; IV. vi. 53. Ear-kissing, whispered in the ear (Quartos, " eare-buss- ing") ; II. i. 9. Earnest, earnest money, money paid beforehand as a pledge; I. iv. 104. Effects, outward show; I. i, 133. Effects, actions, manifesta- tions ; II. iv. 182. , "prove e.," be realized; IV. ii. 15. Elbows, stands at his elbow ; IV. iii. 44. Elements, air and sky (Quar- tos, "element") ; III. i. 4. Elf all my hair, tangle, mat my hair (supposed to be the work of elves or fairies) ; II. iii. 10. Embossed, protuberant, swol- len ; II. iv. 227. End, end of the world; V. iii. 263. Engine, rack; I. iv. 290. Enguard, guard; I. iv. 349. Enormous, abnormal ; II. ii. Enridged, formed into ridges; IV. vi. 71. Entertain, engage ; III. vi. 83. Entire, main; I. i. 243. Epileptic ; " distorted by grin- ning " ; II. ii. 87. Equalities, equal conditions (Folios, "qualities") ; I. i. 5. Espcrance, hope; IV. i. 4. Essay, assay, trial ; I. ii. 47. Estate, condition ; V. iii. 209. Even; "even o'er," pass over in his memory; IV. vii. 80. Event; "the e.," i.e. the result will prove ; I. iv. 371. Evidence, witnesses; III. vi. 37. Exhibition, allowance; I. ii. 25. Eyeless, blind; III. i. 8. Fain, gladly; I. iv. 196. Faint, slight; I. iv. 73. Faith' d, believed; II. i. 72. 155 Glossary THE TRAGEDY OF Fall, cause to fall ; II. iv. 170. Fast, firm, fixed (Quartos, ''first'') ; I. i. 39- Fault, mistake ; V. iii. 192. Favours; " my hospitable f./' the features of me your host; III. vii. 40. Fear, am afraid of; IV. ii. 31. Fears, frightens ; III. v. 4. Feature, outward form ; IV. li. 63. Feeling, heartfelt ; IV. vi. 226. Felicitate, made happy ; 1. i. 76. Fellow, companion ; III. i. 48. Fellows, comrades ; I, iii. 14. Fetch, bring (Folios 3, 4, "fet"; Pope, "bring"); II. iv. 92. Fetches, pretexts, excuses ; II. iv. 90. Fire; " f. us like foxes," al- luding to the practice of smoking foxes out of their holes ; V. iii. 23. Fire-new, brand new, fresh from the mint ; V. iii. 132. Fish; " eat no f.," i.e. be a Prot- estant (alluding to the Pa- pist custom of eating fish on Fridays) ; I. iv. 18. Fitchew, polecat ; IV. vi. 124. Fitness; " my f.," a thing be- coming me ; IV. ii. 63. Flaw'd, shattered, broken ; V. iii. 196. Flaws, shivers, particles; II. iv. 288. Flesh; "feed with flesh for the first time, initiate " (Schmidt); (Quartos, **Aeash") ; II. ii. 49. Flesh and fell, flesh and skin; V. iii. 24. Fleshment; "in the f. of," be- ing fleshed with (Quartos i, 2, " Hcchuent " ; Quarto 3, " Uechvent") ; II. ii. 130. Flibbertigibbet, the name of a fiend; III. iv. 120. Flying off, desertion ; II. iv. 91. Foins, thrusts in fencing; IV. vi. 251. Fond, foolish; I. ii. 52; I. iv. 323 ; IV. vii. 60. Fool; "poor fool," used as a term of endearment (ad- dressed to Cordelia) ; V. iii. 305. , "their f.," a fool to them; II. ii. 132. Foot-ball, I. iv. 89. (Cp. the annexed illustration, copied from a French etching dated 1647.) o Footed, landed; III. iii. 14. Foppish, foolish ; I. iv. 182. For, because ; I. i. 227. , as for; II. i. 114; V. i. 24. Forbid, forbidden ; III. iii. 22. Fordid, destroyed; V. iii. 255. Fordone, destroyed ; V. iii. 291. F ore-vouch' d, affirmed before; I. i. 223. For fended, forbidden; V. i. il. 156 KING LEAR Glossary Forgot, forgotten; V. iii. 236. Fork, barbed arrow head; I. i. 146. (Cp. illustration.) U) {a) From a specimen found in a tumulus. id) From the Cotton MS., Tib. C. 6 (Xth century). Forked; " man is ... a poor, bare, forked animal " ; III. iv. 112. (Cp. the Chinese character for man.) For that, because ; I. ii. v. Fortune, success ; V. iii. 165. Frame, manage ; I. ii. 107. France, King of France; II. iv. 215- Frateretto, the name of one of Harsnet's fiends; III. vi. 7. Fraught, filled; I. iv. 241. Free, sound, not diseased; IV. , vi. 80. Fret, wear ; 1. iv. 307. From, away from ; II. i. 126. Frontlet, frown ; I. iv. 207. Fruitfully, fully; IV. vi. 270. Full, fully; I. iv. 360. Full-U owing; " freely venting its passion " ; V. iii. 74. Fumiter, fumitory ; IV. iv. 3. Furnishings, pretences, out- ward shows ; III. i. 29. Furrow-weeds, weeds growing on ploughed land; IV. iv. 3. Gad; " upon the g.," on the spur of the moment, sud- denly; I. ii. 26. Gait, way ; IV. vi. 242. , bearing; V. iii. 175. Gallow, frighten, terrify; III. ii. 44- Garh, manner of speech ; II. ii. 103. Garden water-pots; IV. vi. 200. {Cp. illustration.) Gardett water-^ot. From a specimen exhumed in Good- man's Fields, Whitechapel. T^^7 Glossary THE TRAGEDY OF Gasted, frightened; II. i. 57. Gate; " at g.," at the gate ; III. vii. 17. Generation, offspring; I. i. 119. Germins, germs, seeds (Theo- bald's emendation ; Quartos, "^Germains" ', Folios i, 2, " germaines " ; Folios 3, 4, " germanes " ; Capell, " ger- mens"); III. ii. 8. Give you good morrow, God give you good morning; II. ii. 165. Glass-gazing, contemplating himself in a mirror, vain, foppish; II. ii. 19. Gloves; " wore g. in my cap," i.e. as favours of my mis- tress; III. iv. 88. Good; " made g.," maintained, asserted; I. i. 175. Goodman boy, a contemptuous mode of address ; II. ii. 48. Good-years, supposed to be cor- rupted from goujere, the French disease (Quartos, "good''; Theobald, " good- jers " ; Hanmer, '' gou- jeres") ; V. iii. 24. Got, begot ; II. i. 80. Go /o, an exclamation ; III. iii. 8. Govern, restrain; V. iii. 161, Graced, dignified (Quartos, "' great") ; I. iv. 267. Greet the time, "be ready to greet the occasion ; V. i. 54. Gross, large; IV. vi. 14. Grossly; " palpably, evidently " ; I. i. 295. Grow out of heels, reduced to poor condition {cp. ''out at elbows ") ; II. ii. 164. Guardians; "my g.," the guar- dians under me of my realm ; II. iv. 254. Habit, dress, garb; V. iii. 188. Halcyon, kingfisher ("a lytle byrde called the King's Fysher, being hanged up in the ayre by the neck, his nebbe or byll wyll be alwayes dyrect or strayght against ye winde " — Thomas Lupton, Notable Things, B. x.) ; II. ii. 84. Half-blooded, partly of noble, partly of mean birth; V. iii. 80. Handy-dandy, the children's game ; " which hand will you have?"; IV. vi. 157. Hap; "what will h.," let what will happen; III. vi. 121. Haply, perhaps; I. i. 102. Happy, fortunate; II. iii. 2. Hatch, half-door; III. vi. 76. Headier; " more h.," more headstrong, impetuous ; II. iv. III. Head-lugg'd, led by the head; IV. ii. 42. Heat; " 1 the heat," a reference probably to the proverb, " Strike the iron while it is hot"; I. i. 312. Hecate (dissyllabic) ; (Quartos and Folio i, "Heccat"; Fo- lio 2, " Hecat") ; I. i. 112. Hell-hated, " abhorred like hell " ; V. iii. 147. Helps, heals, cures; IV. iv. 10. Here (used substantively) ; I. i. 264. iS8 KING LEAR Glossary High-engender' d, engendered on high, in the heavens ; III. ii. 2Z. Him, himself; V. iii. 213. Hit, agree, be of one mind (Folios, "sit") ; I. i. 307. Hold, keep, maintain ; II. iv. 245. Holp, helped; III. vii. 62. Home, thoroughly, vitally; III. iii. 13. Honour d, honourable ; V. i. 9. Hopdance, the name of a fiend (probably " Hoherdidance") ; (Quartos, " Hoppedance" ', Capell, "Hopdance"); III. vi. 32. Horn; " Poor Tom, thy horn is dry"; III. vi. 79.' {Cp. illus- tration and see Notes.) From the portrait of the knave, Mull'd Sack. Horse's health, alluding to the belief that " a horse is above all other animals subject to disease" (Johnson); III. vi. 20. Hot-blooded, passionate; II. iv. 215- House; " the h.," i.e. " the or- der of families, the duties of relation " ; (Theobald " the user"; Collier MS., "the mouth? ") ; II. iv. 155. Howe'er, although ; IV. ii. 66. Hundred-pound, used as a term of reproach for a person who had saved just enough to pose as a gentleman ; II. ii. 17- Hurricanoes, water-spouts (Fo- lios 2, 3, 4, " Hurricano's" ; Folio I, " Hyrricano's" ; Quartos i, 2, '' Hircanios " ; Quarto 3. " Hercantos") ; III. ii. 2. Hysterica passio, hysteria (Quartos, Folios i, 2, " His- torica passio " ; Folio 3, '' Hystorica passio ") ; II. iv. 56. Idle, foolish, silly ; I. iii. 17. , worthless ; IV. iv. 5. /// affected, evilly disposed ; II. i. 100. Images, signs ; II. iv. 91. Immediacy, being immediately next in authority; V. iii. 65. Impertinency, that which is not to the point ; IV. vi. 179. Important, importunate; IV. iv. 26. Impossibilities; "men's i.," things impossible to man; IV. vi. 74. 159 Glossary THE TRAGEDY OF Impress'd, pressed into our service ; V. iii. 50. In, at, I. iv. 350 ; into, IV. i. 77. Incense, incite, instigate; 11. iv. 309. Incite, impel ; IV. iv. 27. Infect, pollute, poison ; II. iv. 168. Influence (used as astrological term) ; I. ii. 136. Ingenious, intelligent, con- scious; IV. vi. 287. Ingrateful, ungrateful ; II. iv. 165. Innocent, idiot (addressed to the fool); III. vi. 8. Intelligent, bearing intelli- gence; (Quartos, "intelli- gence") ; III. vii. 12. Intend upon, i.e. intend to con- fer upon ; V. i. 7. Intent, intention ; I. i. 39. Intent; " made i.," intention, plan I had formed (Collier MS., "main i.") ; IV. vii. 9. Interess'd, interested (Folios, "interest") ; I. i. 87. Interlude; properly, a short play performed during a banquet ; used loosely for a comedy or farce; V. iii. 89. Intrinse, tightly drawn; II. ii. 81. Invade, pierce, penetrate into ; I. i. 146. Invades, penetrates ; III. iv. 7. It, its ; I. iv. 236. It is, it is true ; IV. vi. 144. Jakes, privy; II. ii. 72. Jealous, suspicious ; V. i. 56. Joint-stool, a folding-chair (used in proverbial expres- sion, " I took you for a joint- stool ") ; III. vi. 54. Judicious, judicial; III. iv. y6. Justicer, justice (Theobald's emendation ; Quartos, " ius- tice") ; III. vi. 23. Knapped, cracked, tapped (Quartos, "rapt"); II. iv. ^125. Knee, kneel down before; II. iv. 217. Lag of, later than ; I. ii. 6. Lanced, cut (Theobald's emen- dation; Quartos, " launcht" and " lancht " ; Folios, " latch' d") ; II. i. 54. Lances, i.e. soldiers carrying lances, lancers ; V. iii. 50. Late, lately; I. iv. 226; III. iv. 173. , " of 1.," lately ; II. iv. 40. Least, " in the 1.," at the least ; I. i. 194; Leave, with your permission ; IV. vi. 264. Light of ear, foolishly credu- lous ; III. iv. 95. Lights on, comes across his path; III. i. 54. Like, please ; I. i. 203. , likely ; I. i. 304. Likes, pleases ; II. ii. 96. Lily-livered, white-livered, cow- ardly; II. ii. 18. Lipsbury pinfold; perhaps a coined name = the teeth, as being the pinfold, or pound, within the lips (Nares) ; II. ii. 9.. 160 KING LEAR Glossary List, please; V. iii. 6i. , listen to; V. iii. i8i. Litter, couch for carrying sick persons and ladies when travelling; III. vi. 97. Living, possessions; I. iv. 120. Loathly, with abhorrence ; II. i. 51-^ Look'd for, expected; II. iv. 235. Loop'd, full of holes (loop- holes) ; III. iv. 31. Luxury, lust; IV. vi. 119. Lym, bloodhound led in a line of leash (Hanmer's correc- tion ; Quartos i, 3, " Uim " ; Quarto 2, " Him " ; Folios, " Hym " ; Collier MS., "Trim"); III. vi. -72. Madded, maddened; IV. ii. 43. Mahu, a name in Harsnet's category of devils; III. iv. 149. Main, sea, ocean ( ? mainland) ; III. i. 6. Mainly, mightily; IV. vii. 65. Make from, get out of the way of; I. i. 145. Makes up, decides ; I. i. 209. Mate; " one self m, and m.," the same husband and wife, one and the same pair ; IV. iii. 36. Material, forming the substance (Theobald, ''maternal" ; Col- lier conj. "natural") ; IV. ii. 35- Matter, cause of quarrel ; II. ii. 47. , meaning, good sense; IV. vi. 179. Matter; " no m.," does not mat- ter; I. iii, 23. Maugre, in spite of; V. iii. 131. Means, resources ; IV. i. 22. Meet, good, fit ; I. ii. 97. Meiny, household, retinue (Fo- lios I, 2, " meiney " ; Quar- tos, "men") ; II. iv. 35. Memories, memorials ; IV. vii. 7- Merit, = desert, in a bad sense ; III. v. 8. Merlin, the ancient magician of the Arthurian romance; III. ii. 95. Mew, (v. note) ; IV. ii. 68. Milk-livered, faint-hearted ; IV. ii. 50. Minikin; " m. mouth," i.e. pretty little mouth; III. vi. 45. Miscarried, lost ; V. i. 5. Miscarry, lose ; V. i. 44. Mischief; " with the m. of your person," with harm to your life (Hanmer, "without"; Johnson conj. "but with") ; I. ii. 178. Misconstruction; "upon his m.," through his misunder- standing me; II, ii. 124. Miscreant, vile wretch, (?) misbeliever (Quartos, "recre- ant") ; I. i. 163. Modest, becoming; II. iv. 25. , moderate ; IV. vii. 5. Modo, a name from Harsnet's category of devils ; III. iv. 148. Moiety, share, portion ; I. i. 7, Monsters, makes monstrous ; I. i. 223. 161 Glossary THE TRAGEDY OF Moonshines, months; I. ii. 5. Mopping and mowing, i.e. ma- king grimaces (Theobald's emendation ; Quartos, " Mo- bing, and mohing") ; IV. i. 64. Moral, moraHzing; IV. ii. 58. MortiHed, insensible; II. iii. 15. Mother, i.e. Hysterica passio, hysteria ; II. iv. 56. Motion, thrust, impulse; II. i. 52. Motley, the parti-coloured dress of the fool or jester; I. iv. 160. Mouths; " made m.," made grimaces; III. ii. z^. Much, great; II. ii. 148. Mumbling of, mumbling (Quartos, "warbling") ; II. i. 41. Natural, used in the two senses of the word; II. i. 86. Naught, naughty, wicked ; II. iv. 136. « Naughty, bad; III. iv. 115. Neat, finical, foppish, spruce; II. ii. 45. Need of, have need of, need; II. iv. 241. Nero (Upton conj. '' Trajan," because, according to Rabe- lais, Nero is a fiddler in hell, and Trajan a fisher of frogs) ; III. vi. 7. Nether, committed on earth ; IV. ii. 79. Nether-stocks, short stockings (Quarto 2, " ncather- stockes") ; II. iv. 11. Nicely, with the greatest exact- ness ; II. ii. no. Nighted, darkened; IV. v. 13. Nine-fold, " nine imps " ( ? ^ nine foals) ; III. iv. 126. Noiseless, devoid of noise be- tokening preparations for war; IV. ii. 56. Nor, neither; III. ii. 15. Note; " take this n.," take note of this, observe this; IV. v. 29. , notice ; II. i. 85. Noted, noticed; I. iv. 81, Nothing; "In. am," I cease to be; II. iii. 21. "Nothing will come of noth- ing," an allusion to the old proverb, " ex nihilo nihil at" ; I. i. 92. Notice, attention, countenance; II. iv. 252. Notion, intellectual power, mind ; I. iv. 248. Nuncle, " the customary ad- dress of a licensed fool to his superiors " ; I. iv. 117. Nursery, nursing; I. i. 126. Object; "your best o.," the delight of your eye " ; I. i. 217. Obscured, disguised ; II. ii. 175. Observants, obsequious cour- tiers ; II. ii. 109. Occasions, causes; II. i. 122. OEillades, glances of the eye (Quartos, " aliads"; Folio i, " Eliads " ; Folios 2, 3, 4, "Iliads"); IV. V. 25. O'crlook, read over; V. i. 50. 162 KING LEAR Glossary O'er-looking, looking over ; I. ii. 40. O'erpaid, to be overpaid ; IV. vii. 4. O'er-read, read over; I. ii. 38. O'er-watch'd, worn out, ex- hausted with watching; II. ii. 177. Of, from; IV. vii. 31. Offend, injure; I. i. 310. Office, duty, service; II. iv. 107. 'Old, wold; III. iv. 125. Oldness, old age; I. ii. 50. On, of, 1. i. 144; III. vi. 57; V. iii. 250. , at ; II. ii. 28. , " our wishes on the way," i.e. expressed to each other on the way hither ; IV. ii. 14. On't, of it; II. i. 29. Ope, open ; V. i. 40. Operative, effective ; IV. iv. 14. Oppose; "make c," compel to fight against us; V. i. 2y. Opposeless, not to be opposed, irresistible; IV. vi. 38. Opposite, adverse, hostile; II. i. 51- Opposites, opponents ; V. iii. 42. Ordinance, divine law; IV. i. 71- Or ere, before; II. iv. 289. Other, others; I. iv. 221. Out, abroad; I. i. 33. Out-wall, outward appearance ; III. i. 45. Overture, opening, disclosure; III. vii. 89. O, well flown bird! a phrase taken from falconry, here used figuratively for an ar- row ; IV. vi. 92. Owes, possesses ; I. i. 205, Owest, dost own ; I. iv. 133. Pack, make off; II. iv. 81. Packings, plottings ; III. i. 26. Packs, confederacies ; V. iii. 18. Pain, pains, labour, lies; III. i. 53. 'Parel, apparel ; IV. i. 51. Particular; " for his p.," as re- gards himself personally; II. iv. 295. , personal ; V. i. 30. Party, side (Quartos ""Lo^y '') ; IV. V. 40. Party; " intelligent p.," party intelligent to ; III. v. 12. , " upon his p.," on his side; II. i. 28. Pass, pass away, die ; IV. vi. 47. Pass upon, pass sentence upon ; III. vii. 24. Pat, just to the purpose, in the nick of time; I. ii. 146. Pazvn, a stake hazarded in a wager; I. i. 157. Pawn down, pledge; I. ii. 92. Peace, hold its peace; IV. vi. 104. Pelican; the pelican is supposed to feed her young with her own blood ; III. iv. yy. Pelting, paltry; II. iii. 18. Pendulous, hanging, impend- ing; III. iv. 69. Perdu, lost one ; IV. vii. 35. Perdy, a corruption of Fr. par Dieu ; II. iv. 85. Perfect, mature ; I. ii. yy. Perforce, of necessity ; IV. ii. 49. 163 Glossary THE TRAGEDY OF Period, end, termination ; V. iii. 204. Persever, the older pronuncia- tion of the word persevere ; III. V. 21. Persian attire, alluding to the gorgeous robes of the East (used ironically) ; (Folios, "Persian") ; III. vi. 85. Piece, master-piece, model ; IV. vi. 137. Pieced, added; I. i. 202. Pight, firmly resolved ; II. i. 67. Plate, " clothe in plate armour " (Folios, " place " ; corrected by Theobald) ; IV. vi. 169. Plight, troth-plight; I. i. 103. Plumed helm; IV. ii. 57. Cp. the annexed cut from a print depicting the triumph of the Emperor Maximilian I., c. 15 19. The second illustration shows the socket (a) in which the plume was held, and is from a specimen in the Londesborough collection. Pillicock, properly a term of Point; "at p.," ready for any endearment used in old nur- sery rhymes ; suggested by "pelican"; III. iv. 78. Plackets, part of a woman's at- tire; III. iv. 100. Plague; " stand in the p. of," perhaps, be plagued by (Warburton, "plage" — place; Simpson conj. "place," etc.) ; I. ii. 3. Plain, complain ; III. i. 39. Plaited, folded (Quartos i, 2, . "pleated"; Folios, "plight- ed")', I. i. 283. emergency ; I. iv. 347. , " at p.," on the point of, prepared; III. i. 2)3- Poise, moment (Quartos 2, 3, Folios, " prise " ; Hanmer, "piese"); II. i. 122. Policy and reverence; " policy of holding in reverence " (Schmidt) ; I. ii. 48. Port, harbour; II. iii. 3. Portable, bearable; III. vi. 115. Ports, gates, ( ?) harbours ; II. i. 82. Potency, power; I. i. 175. 164 KING LEAR Glossary Potential, powerful; 11. i. 78. Pother, turmoil ; III. ii. 50. Power, armed force; III. i. 30. Practice, plotting, stratagem ; II. i. 75. , stratagem, artifice; II. iv. 116. Practices, plots ; I. ii. 198. Practised on, plotted against ; III. ii. 57- Predominance, influence; I. ii. 134. Prefer, recommend ; I. i. 277. Pregnant, ready, easily moved; II. i. 78; IV. vi. 227. Presently, immediately; I. ii. 109. Press-money, money given to a soldier when pressed into service; IV. vi. 87. Pretence, intention, purpose ; I. ii. 95. , " very p.," deliberate in- tion ; I. iv. 75. Prevent, to anticipate and checkmate; III. iv. 164. Proceedings, course of action ; V. i. 2,2. Profess, pretend; (?) with play upon " profess " = " to set up for " ; I. iv. 14. ; *' what dost thou p.," what is thy trade, profession ; I. iv. 12. Professed, full of professions ; I. i. 275. Proper, handsome ; I. i. 18. , " p. deformity," moral de- pravity which is natural to him {i.e. the fiend) ; IV. ii. 60. Puissant, powerful, masterful; V. iii. 216. Puppet, used perhaps contemp- tuously for a wanton ; II. ii. 39. Pur, imitation of the noise made by a cat (but " Purre " also the name of a devil in Harsnet) ; III. vi. 47. Put on, encourage; I. iv. 227. , incited to; II. i. loi. Quality, nature, disposition ; II. iv. 93 ; II. iv. 139. Quality, rank; V. iii. no, 120. Queasy, ticklish ; II. i. 19. Question, matter, cause; V. iii. 58. , " bear q.," bear to be ar- gued about; V. iii. 2>2>- Questrists, searchers ; III. vii. 17. Quicken, come to life; III. vii. 39. Quit, requite, revenge ; III. vii. 87. Quit you, acquit yourself; II. i. 32. Raging, angry, furious (Folios, "roaring"); III. iv. 10. Rake up, cover with earth ; IV. vi. 281. Rank, gross, flagrant; I. iv. 223. Rased, erased ; I. iv. 4. Reason, argue ; II. iv. 267. Reason' d, argued, talked about; V. i. 28. Regards, considerations (Quar- tos, "respects") ; I. i. 242. Remediate, healing; IV. iv. 17. Remember ; " r. thyself," con- fess thy sins ; IV. vi. 233. Rememberest, remindest; I. iv. 72. 165 Glossary THE TRAGEDY OF Remorse, compassion, pity ; IV. ii. 73- Remotion, removal; II. iv. 115. Remove, removal ; II. iv. 4. Renege, deny (Folio i, " Re- uenge " ; Schmidt, " Re- negue") ; II. ii. 84. Repeals, recalls ; III. vi. 120. Reposure, attributing; the act of reposing (Quartos, " could the reposure " ; Folios, "would the reposal") ; II. i. 70. Reproveable, blameable ; III. v. 9. Resolution; " due r.," freedom from doubt ; I. ii. 108. Resolve me, tell me, satisfy me ; II. iv. 25. Respect; " do r.," show respect, reverence (Folios, "re- spects") ; II. ii. 137. , " upon r.," deliberately ; II. iv. 24. Respects, consideration, mo- tive; I. i. 251, Rest; " set my r.," repose my- self (derived probably from the game of cards = to stand upon the cards in one's hand) ; I. i. 125. Retention, custody; V. iii. 47. Return; "make r.," return; II. iv. 153- Revenging, avenging, taking vengeance (Quartos, '' re- uengiue") ; II. i. 47. Reverhs, reverberates, re- echoes; I. i. 156. Reverend, old (Quarto 2, "vn- reuerent") ; II. ii. 133. Rich'd, enriched; I. i. 65. Rings, sockets ; V. iii. 189. Ripeness, readiness; V. ii. 11. Rivall'd; " hath r.," hath been a rival ; I. i. 194. Roundest, most direct, plain- est; I. iv. 58. Rubb'd, hindered (a term in the game of bowls) ; II. ii. 161. RufHe; " do r.," are boisterous (Quartos, " russel, " rus- sell"; Capell, "rustle"); II. iv. 304- Safer, sounder, more sober ; IV. vi. 81. Saint Wit ho Id, a corruption of Saint Vitalis, who was sup- posed to protect from night- mare (Quartos, "swithald"; Folios, " swithold") ; III. iv. 125. Sallets, sallads ; III. iv. 137. Salt; " a man of s.," a man of tears ; IV. vi. 199. Satnphire, sea-fennel ; IV. vi. 15. Save thee, God save thee ; II. i. I. Savour hut, have only a relish for; IV. ii. 39. Saw, saying, proverb; II. ii. 167. Say, assay, proof (Pope, '"say") ; V. iii. 143. Scant, fall short in ; II. iv. 142. , diminish ; II. iv. 178. Scanted, grudged ; I. i. 281. Scatter'd, disunited ; III. i. 31. Scythian, considered as a type of cruelty; I. i. 118. 166 KING LEAR Glossary Sea-monster, perhaps an allu- sion to the hippopotamus or the whale ; I. iv. 283. Sectary, disciple ; I. ii. 164. Secure, make careless ; IV. i. 22. Seeming, hypocrisy; III. Ii. 56. , " little seeming," seem- ingly small, little in appear- ance; I. i. 201. Self, self-same; I. i. 70. Self -cover' d; " thou s. thing," thou who a woman hast dis- guised thyself in this diabol- ical shape (Theobald, " self- converted " ; Crosby, " sex- cover' d"^ ; IV. ii. 62. Sennet, a set of notes on the cornet or trumpet; I. i. 34- 35, Stage Direc. Sequent, consequent, following; I. ii. lis. Servant, lover; IV. vi. 275. Sessa, onward ! (probably a hunting term) ; III. vi. 77. Set, stake, wager; I. iv. 136. Settling; "till further s.," till his mind is more composed; IV. vii. 82. Seven stars, the Pleiades ; I. v. 38. Shadowy, shady (Quartos, "shady") ; I. i. 65. Shealed peascod, shelled pea- pod; I. iv. 219. Shows, seems, appears; I. iv. 265. Shrill-gorged, shrill-throated ; IV. vi. 58. Simple ; " simple answerer," simply answerer (Folios, "simple answer' d ") ; III. vii. 43. Simples, medicinal herbs ; IV. iv. 14. Simular; " s. man of virtue," man who counterfeitest vir- tue; III. ii. 54. Sir, man ("that sir which," Folio 4, " that, sir, which ") ; II. iv. 78. Sith, since (Quartos, "since"); I. i. 183. Sises, allowance ; II. iv, 178. Slack you, neglect their duty to you; II. iv. 248. Slaves, treats as a slave ("by making it subservient to his views of pleasure or inter- est ") ; IV. i. 71. Sleep out, sleep away (Quarto I, "sleep ont") ; II. ii. 163. Sliver, tear off like a branch from a tree; IV. ii. 34. Smile, smile at, laugh to scorn (Folios and Quartos, " smoile" or " snioyle ") ; II. ii. 88. Smilets, smiles; IV. iii. 21. Smooth, flatter, humour; II, ii, 81. Smug, trim, spruce ; IV. vi. 202. Smulking, a fiend's name, bor- rowed from Harsnet's cate- gory of devils (Quartos, " snulhug"', Theobald, " Smolkin") ; III. iv. 146. Snuff, flickering old age ; IV. vi. 39- Snuffs, quarrels, "huffs"; III. i. 26. So, so be it ; II. ii. 106. Soiled; " s. horse," said of " a horse turned out in the spring to take the first flush of grass " ; IV. vi. 124. 167 Glossary THE TRAGEDY OF Something, somewhat; I. i. 21. Some, someone ; III. i. 37. Sometime, once, former; I. i. 122. , sometimes ( Folios, "sometimes") ; II. iii. 19. Soothe, humour ; III. iv. 182. Sophisticated, adulterated, not genuine; III. iv. no. Sop o' the Moonshine; prob- ably alluding to the dish called eggs in moonshine, i.e. " eggs broken and boiled in salad-oil till the yolks became hard; they were eaten with slices of onion fried in oil, butter, verjuice, nutmeg, and salt " ; II. ii. 34. Sot, blockhead; IV. ii. 8. Space, i.e. " space in general, the world " ; I. i. 57. Speak for, call for ; I. iv. 267. Speculations, scouts (Johnson, "speculators" ; Collier MS., "spectators") ; III. i. 24. Speed you, God speed you ; IV. vi. 212. Spherical, planetary (Quartos, "spiritual") ; I. ii. 134. Spill, destroy; III. ii. 8. Spite of intermission, in spite of interruption ; II. iv. 2i3- Spoil, wasting, ruining ; II. i. 102. Spurs, incentives, incitements (Folios, "spirits") ; II. i. 78. Square; "the most precious s. of sense," i.e. " the most deli- cately sensitive part " (Wright) ; I. i. 75. Squints, makes to squint; III. iv. 122. Squiny, squint ; IV. vi. 140. Squire-like, like a squire, at- tendant; II. iv. 217. Stands; " s. on the hourly thought," is hourly expected ; IV. vi. 218. Stand's, stands his (Quartos 2, 3, "stand his"; Folios, " stand "} ; II. i. 42. Stands on, it becomes, is in- cumbers on ; V. i. 69. Star-blasting, blighting by the influence of the stars; III. iv. 60. Stelled, starry; III. vii. 61. Still, continually, always ; III. iv. 181. Still-soliciting, ever begging; I. i. 234. Stirs; "who s.?" does no one stir?; I. i. 128. Stock' d, put in the stocks (Fo- lios, "stockt"; Quarto i, "struck"; Quartos 2, 3, " strucke") ; II. iv. 191. Stocking, putting in the stocks (Quartos "Stopping"); II. ii. 139. Stock-punished, punished by being set in the stocks (Fo- lios, "stockt, punish'd") ; III. iv. 140. Stomach, anger, resentment ; V. iii. 74. Stone, crystal ; V. iii. 262. Straight, straightway, immedi- ately ; II. iv. 35. Strain, descent, race ; V. iii. 40. Strain'd, excessive (Quartos, " straied") ; I. i. 172. Stranger' d, estranged; I. i. 207. 168 KING LEAR Glossary Stray; " make such a s.," go so far astray; I. i. 212. Strength; "in my s.," with power from me, with my au- thority; II. i. 114. Strings of life, heart-strings ; V. iii. 216. Strong and fasten'd, deter- mined and hardened (so Quartos ; Folios, " O strange and fast'ned") ; II. i. 79. Subscribed, surrendered (Fo- lios, " Prescrib'd") ; I. ii. 24. , forgiven; III. vii. 65. Subscription, submission; III. ii. 18. Succeed, come true, follow ; I. ii. 156. Success; " good s.," favourable result, issue ; V. iii. 194. Sufferance, suffering; III. vi. 113- Suggestion, prompting, tempt- ing; II. i. 75. Suited, clad, dressed ; IV. vii. 6. Sumpter, pack-horse, hence a drudge; II. iv. 219. Superfluous, having too much ; IV. i. 70. Superilux, superfluity; III. iv. 35. Superserviceable, one who is above his work (Folios, " superserviceable, finical " ; Quartos, " superiinicall") ; II. ii. 19. Supposed, ■prtt&nded; V. iii. 113. Sustain, support ; V. iii. 320. Sustaining, nourishing ; IV. iv. 6. Swear'st, swearest by; I. i. 163. Taint, disgrace ; I. i. 224. Taken, overtaken ; I. iv. 353. Taking, infection; III. iv, 61. , " my t.," to capture me ; II. iii. 5. , bewitching, blasting; II. iv. 166. Taking off, slaughter, death ; V. i. 65. Taste, test, trial ; I. ii. 47. Tell, count, recount; II. iv. 55. Temperance, self-restraint, calmness ; IV. vii. 24. Tend, wait on ; II. iv. 266. Tend upon, wait upon; II. i. 97. Tender, regard, care for ; I. iv. 230. Tender-hefted, tenderly framed; II. iv. 174. Terrible, terrified, affrighted ; I. ii. 32. That, in that ; I. i. 73. There; "are you there with me?" is that what you mean?; IV. vi. 148. This, this time forth; I. i. 118. This 's =: this is (Quartos, Fo- lios, ''this") ; IV. vi. 187. Thought-executing ; "doing ex- ecution with rapidity equal to thought"; III. ii. 4. Threading, passing through (like a thread through the eye of a needle) ; (Folios, " thredding " ', Quartos, " threatning " ; Theobald conj. " treading") ; II. i. 121. Three-suited, used contemp- tuously for a beggarly per- son ; probably, having three suits of apparel a year ; or the allowance from a master to his servant ; II. ii. 16. 169 Glossary THE TRAGEDY OF Throughly, thoroughly; IV. vii. 97- Thwart, perverse (Quartos, " thourt") ; I. iv. 305. Tike, a small dog ; III. vi. JZ- Time, life ; I. i. 298. Times; " best of our t.," best part of our lives; I. ii. 49. Tithing, district, ward; III. iv. 140. To, as to; III. i. 52. , against ; IV. ii. 75. , into; II. iv. 120. Toad-spotted; "tainted and polluted with venom like the toad"; V. iii. 138. Tom o' Bedlam, "the common name of vagabond beggars, either mad or feigning to be so " ; I. ii. 148. Took, taken ; V. iii. 105, Top, head; II. iv. 165. , overtop, surpass; V, iii. 207. Toward, at hand ; IV. vi. 213. Towards, to; I. i. 193. Train, retinue (Folios " num- ber") ; II. iv. 62,. Tranced, entranced ; V. iii. 218. Treachers, traitors (Quartos, " Trecherers") ; I. ii. 133. Trick, peculiarity, characteris- tic; IV. vi. 108. TriUe; " on every tr.," on every trifling opportunity ; I. iii. 8. Trill' d, trickled; IV. iii. 14. Troop with, accompany, follow in the train of; I. i. 134. Trowest, knowest ; I. iv. 135. Trumpet, trumpeter (Folio i, " Trumper") ; V. iii. 107. Trundle-tail, a curly-tailed dog; III. vi. 7:^. Trust, reliance; II. i. 117. Tucket, a set of notes played on the trumpet or cornet ; II. i. 80-81. Tune, humour; IV. iii. 41. Turlygod, a name given to mad beggars ; possibly a corrup- tion of " Turlupin," the name of a fraternity of naked beg- gars in the 14th century (Quarto i, " Tuelygod" ; Theobald, " Turlygood " ; Warburton conj. " Turlu- pin ") ; II. iii. 20. Turns; " by due t.," in turn ; I. i. 137. Unaccommodated, un supplied with necessaries; III. iv. iii. Unbolted, unsifted, coarse; II. ii. 71. Unbonneted, with uncovered head; III. i. 14. Unconstant, inconstant, fickle; I. i. 304. Undistinguish'd, indistinguish- able, boundless ; IV. vi. 278. Unkind, unnatural, I. i. 263 ; III. iv. 73. Unnumber'd, innumerable; IV. vi. 21. Unpossessing, landless ; II, i. 69. Unprized, not appreciated, or, perhaps, priceless ; I. i. 262. Unremoveable, immovable ; II. iv. 94- Unsanctiiied, wicked; IV. vi. 281. Unspoke, unspoken; I. i. 239. 170 KING LEAR Glossary Unstate, deprive of estate; I. ii. io8. Untented, incurable; I. iv. 322. Untimely, inopportunely ; III. vii. 98. Upon, against; III. vi. 96. Upward, top ; V. iii. 136. Usage, treatment; II. iv. 26. Validity, value; I. i. 83. Vanity the Puppet's Part; " al- luding to the old moralities or allegorical plays, in which Vanity, Iniquity, and other vices were personified " (Johnson) ; II. ii. 39. Varlet, rascal ; II. ii. 30- Vary, change; II. ii. 85. Vaunt-couriers, forerunners (Quartos, " vaunt-currers " Folios, " Vaunt-curriors" Capell, " V ant-couriers") III. ii. 5. Venge, avenge; IV. ii. 80. Villain, serf, servant ; III. vii. 78. Virtue, valour ; V. iii. 103. Vulgar, commonly known ; IV. vi. 214. Wage, wage war, struggle, II. iv. 212; stake, I. i. 158. Wagtail, the name of a bird ; II. ii. 72>- Wake, waking; III. ii. 34- Wall-newt, lizard; III. iv. 135. Wash'd; " w. eyes." eyes washed with tears; I. i. 271. Waste, wasting, squandering ; II. i. 102. Water, water-newt; III. iv. 135. Waterish, abounding with rivers (used contemptuous- ly) ; I, i. 261. Wawl, cry, wail ; IV. vi. 184. Ways; " come your w.," come on ; II. ii. 42. Weal; "wholesome w.," healthy commonwealth ; I. iv. 230. Web and the Pin, a disease of the eye, cataract; III. iv. 122. Weeds, garments, dress; IV. vii. 7. Well-favour'd, handsome, good- looking; II. iv. 259. What, who; V. iii. 119. Wheel, the wheel of fortune; V. iii. 174. Whelk' d, swollen, protruding like whelks; IV. vi. 71. Where (used substantively) ; I. i. 264. , whereas; I. ii. 89. Which, who; IV. vi. 215. White Herring, fresh herrings ( ? pickled herring, as in Northern dialects) ; III. vi. Who, which ; I. ii. 53. Whoop, Jug! I love thee, prob- ably a line from an old song ; I. iv. 232. Wield, manage, express; I. i. 56. Wind; " w. me into him," i.e. worm yourself into his con- fidence {"me," used redun- dantly) ; I. ii. 106. Window' d, holes forming win- dows ; III. iv. 31. Wisdom of nature, natural philosophy; I. ii. 113. 171 Glossary THE TRAGEDY OF With, by ; II. iv. 256. Wits; " five w.," the five intel- lectual powers (common wit, imagination, fantasy, estima- tion, and memory) ; III. iv. 59. Wont, accustomed to be ; I. iv. 64. Wooden pricks, skewers; II. iii. 16. Word, pass-word ; IV. vi. 93. , word of mouth ; IV. v. 20. Worships, dignity; I. iv. 288. Worsted-stocking, worn by the lower classes and serving- men in distinction to silk ones which were worn by the gentry; II. ii. 15. Worth; "are w.," deserve; I. i. 282. Wort hied him, won him repu- tation; II. ii. 128. Would, should; II. i. 70. Writ, warrant ; V. iii. 245. Write happy, consider yourself fortunate; V. ii. 35. Wrote, written ; I. ii. 93. Yeoman, a freeholder not ad- vanced to the rank of a gen- tleman; III. vi. II. Yoke-fellow, companion ; III. vi. 39. Unwhipp'd of Justice (III. ii. 53). From an engraving by H. Cock, c. 1550, 172 I KING LEAR Critical Notes. BY ISRAEL GOLLANCZ. I. i. 40. 'from our age' ; so Folios; Quartos, 'of our state.' I. i. 41-46. {'while we . . . now'); 50-5i» 164; I- ii- 18 {'■fine word, legitimate') ', 48 {'and reverence') ; 118-124; I. iv, 6 {'so may it come') ; 282; 331-342; omitted in Quartos. I. i. 54. 'Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril'; so Folios. Quartos read, ' Where merit doth most challenge it.' I. i. 63. ' do' ; so Quartos ; Folios read ' speak.' I. i. 79. ' Ponderous ' ; so Folios ; Quartos, ' richer.' I. i. 85. 'the last, not least'; so Quartos; Folios read, 'our last and least.' I. i. 106; I. ii. 102-104; ii- 155-163 {'as of unnaturalness . . . come'); 182 {'go armed'); I. iii. 17-21; 24-25; I. iv. 154-169; 239 ; 252-256 ; omitted in Folios. I. i. 112. 'mysteries,' the reading of Folios 2, 3, 4; Quartos, ' mistress e ' ; Folio i, ' miseries.' I. i. 148. ' What wouldst thou do, old man?' ; "This is spoken on seeing his master put his hand to his sword " (Capell) ; Folios I, 2, 3, ' wouldest ' ; Quartos, ' wilt.' I. i. 151. 'stoops to folly'; so Quartos; Folios, 'falls to folly' (Folio 3, 'fall to folly') : 'Reverse thy doom'; so Quartos; Fo- lios read, ' reserue thy state' I. i. 169. 'recreant' ; omitted in Quartos. I. i. 176. ' live ' ; so Folios ; Quartos, ' Foure.' I. i. 178. 'sixth'; so Folios; Quartos, ' Hft.' I. i. 191. This line is given to Cordelia in Folios. I. i. 236. ' Better ' ; so Folios ; Quartos, ' go to, go to, better.' I. i. 251. 'respects of fortune'; so Quartos; Folios, 'respect and fortunes' I. i. 2^2. 'want'; Quartos, 'worth.' Theobald explains the Folio reading, " You well deserve to meet with that want of love froiii your husband, which you have professed to want for our Father." 173 Notes THE TRAGEDY OF I, i. 284. 'shame them derides'; so Quartos; Folios, 'with shame derides ' ; Warburton, ' with shame abides' etc. I. i. 292. ' hath not been ' ; so Quartos ; Folios, ' hath been! I. ii. 10. So Folios ; Quartos read, ' zvith base, base bastardie.' I. ii. 21. 'top the'; Edward's conj. of Quartos i, 2, 'tooth''; Quarto 3, 'tooth'; Folios i, 2, ' to'th' ; Folios 3, 4, 'to th',' etc. I. ii. 68. ' that,' i.e. the matter, contents. I. ii. III. "^ These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good ' ; V. Preface. I. ii. 129. '' surfeit ' ; so Quarto i ; Quartos 2, 3, ' siirfet ' ; Folios I, 2, 3, ' surfets' ; Folio 4, 'surfeits' ; Collier conj. 'forfeit.' I. ii. 177-183. 'That's my fear . . . Brother' so Folios; Quartos read, 'That's my feare brother' omitting rest of speech. I. iii. 21. ' With checks as flatteries, when they are seen abused'; Tyrwhitt's explanation seems the most plausible, "with checks, as well as flatterers, when they {i.e. flatterers) are seen to be abused." The emendators have been busy with the line without much success. I. iv. loi. 'Kent. Why, fool?'; the reading of Quartos; Folios read ' Lear. Why my Boy? ' I. iv. 158. * Ladies ' ; Capell's emendation ; Quartos, ' lodes ' ; Collier, ' loads.' I. iv. 165. ' Thou borest thine ass on thy back.' Cp. the annexed cut from Hans Sachs's rhy- ming paraphrase of the well-known iEsopian fable, c. 1550. I. iv. 236. 'Ha! waking?' Quartos read 'sleeping or waking; ha! sure.' II. i. 11-13. Omitted in Quartos 2, 3. II. i. 48. 'their thunders'; so the Quartos ; Folios, ' the thunder'; Johnson, 'their thunder.' II. i. 60. ' dispatch ' ; i.e. ' dispatch him ' ; or perhaps, ' dispatch is the word.' II. i. ^2. ' what I should deny ' ; so Quartos ; Folios, *" What should I deny'; Rowe, 'by what I should deny'; Hanmer, 'what I'd deny'; Warburton, 'when I should deny'; Schmidt, 'what, should I deny.' 174 KING LEAR Notes II. i. 80. 'I never got him'; so Quartos; Folios, ^ said he?' II. i. 99. 'of that consort' ; so Folios; omitted in Quartos. II. i. 102. ' the waste and spoil of his' ; Quarto i, ' the wast and spoyle of his'; Quartos 2, 3, 'these — and waste of this his'; Quarto i (Dev. and Cap.) 'these — and waste of this his'; Folio I, ' th' expense and wast of his'; Folios 2, 3, 4, ' th' expence and wast off 11. ii. 59. 'hours'; Folios, 'years.' 11. ii. 75. 'Which are too intrinse to unloose'; Folio i, 'are f intrince'; Folios 2, 3, 4, 'art t'intrince' ; Quartos, 'are to in- trench'; Pope, 'Too intricate'; Theobald, 'Too 'intrinsecate' ; Hanmer, 'too intrinsick ' : 'to unloose'; Folios, ' t' unloose ' \ Quartos, 'to inloose'; Seymour conj. 'to enloose.' II. ii. 142-146. 'His fault . . . punish'd with'; omitted in Folios. II. ii. 146. 'the king must take it ill'; Folios read, 'the King his Master, vrcds must take it ill.' II. ii. 151. Omitted in Folios. II. ii. 162-163. ' out of heaven's benediction comest To the warm sun'; cp. Heywood's Dialogues on Proverbs; 'In your rennyng from hym to me, ye runne out of God's blessing into the warm sunne ' ; i.e. from good to worse. Professor Skeat suggests to me that the proverb refers to the haste of the congregation to leave the shelter of the church, immediately after the priest's benedic- tion, running from God's blessing into the warm sun. This ex- planation seems by far the best that has been suggested. II. ii. 166. 'miracles'; so Folios; Quartos i, 2, 3, 'my wracke*; Quarto i (Bodl.), 'my rackles.' II. ii. 169-171. 'and shall . . . remedies'; many emenda- tions have been proposed to remove the obscurity of the lines, but none can be considered satisfactory. Kent, it must be remem- bered, is 'all weary and o'erwatched.' Jennens suggested that Kent is reading disjointed fragments of Cordelia's letter. 'From this enormous state ' seems to mean ' in this abnormal state of affairs.' II. iv. 19-20. Omitted in Folios. II. iv. 99-100; 142-147. Omitted in Quartos. II. iv. 103. 'commands her service'; so Quartos; Folios, 'com- mands, tends, service.' II. iv. 170. 'and blast her pride'; so Quartos; Folios, 'and blister'; Collier MS. and S. Walker conj. 'and blast her'; Schmidt conj. 'and blister pride.' 175 Notes THE TRAGEDY OF 11. iv. 174. ' tender-hefted ' ; so Folios ; Quarto 2, ' tender hested'; Quarto i, ' teder hested'; Quarto 3, 'tender hasted'; Rowe (Ed. 2) and Pope, 'tender-hearted' ; etc. II. iv. 303. ' bleak ' ; so Quartos ; Folios, ' high.' III. i. 7-15; vi. 18-59; 104-108 ('oppressed . . . behind'); 109-122; vii. 99-107; omitted in the Folios. III. i. 22-29; ii. 79-96; iv. 17-18; 26-27; 37-38; vi. 13-16; 92; omitted in the Quartos. III. ii. 7. 'smite'; so Quartos; Folios, 'strike.' III. ii. 9. 'make'; Folios, 'makes.' III. ii. 22. ' have . . . join'd ' ; the reading of Quartos ; Fo- lios read ' Tfi// . . . join.' III. ii. 37. 'No, I will be the pattern of all patience'; cp. the description of Leir by Perillus in the old play: — 'But he, the myr- rour of mild patience. Puts up all wrongs, and never gives reply.' III. ii. 64. 'More harder than the stones'; so Folios; Quartos, 'More hard than is the stone.' III. ii, y^)- ' That 's sorry ' ; so Folios ; Quartos, ' That sorrowes.' III. ii. 7^-77. Cp. Clown's song in Twelfth Night, V. vi. 398. III. ii. 95. *" / live before his time'; according to the legend, Lear was contemporary with Joash, King of Judah. The whole prophecy, which does not occur in the Quartos, was probably an interpolation, tacked on by the actor who played the fool. The passage is an imitation of some lines formerly attributed to Chau- cer, called ' Chaucer's Prophecy.' III. iv. 6. 'contentious' ; so Folios; Quarto i (some copies), ' tempestious' ; Quartos 2, 3, and Quarto i (some copies), ' cru- lentious.' III. iv. 29. 'storm'; so Quartos; Folios, 'night.' III. iv. 47. ' Through the sharp hazvtJiorn blows the cold wind,' probably the burden of an old song. III. iv. 54-55. 'knives under his pillow and halters in his pew' (to tempt him to suicide). Theobald pointed out that the allu- sion is to an incident mentioned in Harsnet's Declaration. III. iv. 81. 'thy word justly'; Pope's emendation; Quartos read, * thy words justly ' ; Folio i, ' thy 7vords Justice.' III. iv. 102. ' sessa ' ; Malone's emendation ; Folio i, ' Sesey ' ; Quarto i, ' caese ' ; Quarto 2, ' cease ' ; Capell, ' sesse ' ; etc. III. iv. 141-142. Cp. ' The Romance of Sir Bevis of Hamp- toun ' : — " Rattes and myce and suche small dere, Was his meate that seuen yere." 176 KING LEAR Notes III. iv. 184-186. ' Child Rowland to the dark tozver came,' etc. Jamieson, in his Illustrations of Northern Antiquities (1814), has preserved the story as told him by a tailor in his youth ; this Scottish Version has since been reprinted and studied {Cp. Childs' English and Scottish Ballads, and Jacob's English Fairy Tales). III. iv. 185. 'His zvord was still' refers, of course, to the giant, and not to Childe Rowland. The same story (with the refrain Fee fo fum. Here is the Englishman) is alluded to in Peele's Old Wives Tale, and it is just possible that it may be the ultimate original of the plot of Milton's Comus {v. Preface, on British for English ) . III. vi. 27. 'Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me.' Mr. Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time. p. 305, note) says, " The allu- sion is to an English ballad by William Birch, entitled, * A Songe betwene the Quene's Majestic and England,' a copy of which is in the library of the Society of Antiquaries. England commences the dialogue, inviting Queen Elizabeth in the following words : — " Come over the horn, Bessy, come over the horn, Bessy, Swete Bessy, come over to me." The date of Birch's song is 1558, and it is printed in full in the Harleian Miscellany, X. 260. III. vi. 43-46. Put into verse by Theobald. Steevens quotes a line from an old song, " Sleepeyst thou, wakyst thou, Jeffery Coke," found in ' The Interlude of the Four Elements' (1519). III. vi. 79. 'Thy horn is dry.' "A horn was usually carried about by every Tom of Bedlam, to receive such drink as the charitable might afford him, with whatever scraps of food they might give him" (Malone), etc. III. vi. 97-110. "Every editor from Theobald downwards," as the Cambridge editors observe, " except Hanmer, has reprinted this speech from the Quartos. In deference to this concensus of authority we have retained it, though, as it seems to us, internal evidence is conclusive against the supposition that the lines were written by Shakespeare." III. vii. 58. 'stick,' the reading of Folios; Quartos, 'rash.' III. vii. 63. ' howl'd that stern'; Quartos, 'heard that dearne'; Capell, ' howl'd that dearn ' (' dearn ' = obscure, dark, gloomy). 177 Notes THE TRAGEDY OF III. vii. 65. * All cruels else subscribed' ; so Quartos; Folios, * suhscrihe.' The passage has been variously interpreted ; the weight of authority favouring the Folio reading. Schmidt's ex- planation being perhaps the most plausible : — " Everything which is at other times cruel, shows feeling of regard ; you alone have not done so." Furness makes the words part of the speech ad- dressed to the porter, " acknowledge the claims of all creatures, however cruel they may be at other times " ; or " give up all cruel things else ; i.e. forget that they are cruel." This approximates to the interpretation given by Mr. Wright to the reading in the text, " all their other cruelties being yielded or forgiven." IV. i. 6-0. ' zvclconie . . . blasts'; vi. 169-174 {'Plate . . . lips') ; vii. 61 ; omitted in the Quartos. IV. i. 12. 'Life zvoiild not yield to age,' i.e. life would not gladly lapse into old age and death. IV. i. 38. ' Kill ' ; Quarto i, ' bitt ' ; Quartos 2, 3, ' bit ' (prob- ably an error for 'hit'). IV. i. 60-65; ii. 31-50, 53-59, 62-68, 69; iii. (the whole scene); vii. 24-25, 33-36, 79-80, 85-98, omitted in^the Folios. IV. ii. 28. 'My fool usurps my body'; so Folios; Quarto i, 'A foole usurps my bed'; Quarto 2, 'My foote usurps my head'; Malone, ' My fool usurps my bed.' ly. ii. 47. 'tame these vile offences'; Schmidt conj. 'take the vild offenders' ; Heath conj. 'these vile'; Quarto i, 'this vild'; Pope, ' the vile.' IV. ii. 57. 'thy state begins to threat'; Jennens conj.; Quarto I, ' thy state begins thereat ' ; Quartos 2, 3, ' thy slaier begins threats'; Theobald, 'thy slayer begins his threats/ etc. IV. ii. 68. 'your manhood! mew!'; some copies of Quarto i read ' manhood mezv ' ; others ' manhood now ' ; so the later Quar- tos ; according to the present reading *" mew ' is evidently a cat- like interjection of contempt. IV. iii. 20. ' like a better zvay ' ; so Quartos ; the passage seems to mean that her smiles and tears resembled sunshine and rain, but in a more beautiful manner ; many emendations have been proposed — ' like a wetter May ' (Warburton) ; ' like a better May ' (Malone) ; 'like; — a belter way' (Boaden), etc. IV. iii. 30. ' Let pity not be believed ' ; Pope, ' Let pity ne'er believe it'; Capell, 'Let it not be believed' (but ' believed' ^ht- lieved to exist '). IV. iii. 32. ' clamour moisten' d ' ; Capell's reading ; Quartos, 178 KING LEAR Notes 'And clamour moistened her'; Theobald, 'And, clamour-mo- tion' d' ; Grant White, 'And, clamour-moisten' d,' etc. IV. V. 4. '' lord ' ; so Folios ; Quartos read, ' lady' IV. vi. 98-99. '/ had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there ' ; i.e. " I had the wisdom of age before I had attained to that of youth" (Capell). IV. vi. 225. ' tame to' ] so Folios ; Quartos, '' lame by.' IV. vii. 32. ' opposed against the warring winds ' ; Quartos, ' Exposd'] Folios, 'jarring.' IV. vii. 2>^. 'Mine enemy's'', Folios, 'Mine Enemies'; Quartos I, 2, ' Mine iniurious ' ; Quarto 2, ' Mine injurious ' ; Theobald, ' My very enemy's,' etc. IV. vii. 79. ' kill'd'; so Folios; Quartos, 'cured'; Collier conj. ' quell'd.' V. i. 11-13, 18-19, 23-28, 33; iii. 38-39, 47, 54-59, 102, 109, 204- 221, omitted in the Folios. V. i. 46. ' and . . . ceases ' ; iii. 76, 90, 144, 282, omitted in the Quartos. V. i. 25-26. Mason's conj. 'Not the old king' for 'not bolds the king' is worthy of mention. Albany's point is that the invading enemy is France and not the wronged king, together with others whom heavy causes compel to fight against them ; otherwise ' not bolds the king' =^' not as it emboldens the king,' an awkward and harsh construction. V. ii. 5. Mr. Spedding (Nezf Shak. Soc. Trans., Part I.) plausi- bly suggested that the Fifth Act really begins here, and that the battle takes place between Edgar's exit and re-entrance, the imagination having leisure to fill with anxiety for the issue. V. iii. 76. 'the walls are thine'; Theobald conj. 'they all are thine ' (but perhaps the castle-walls are referred to). V. iii. 93. 'prove it'; so Quartos; Folios, 'make it'; Anon, conj. 'mark it'; Collier MS., 'make good.' V. iii. 96. 'medicine,' Folios; Quartos, ' poyson.' V. iii. 129-130. * the privilege of mine honours' ; Pope's reading; Quartos read 'the priuiledge of my tongue'; Folios. ' 7ny prim- ledge, The priuiledge of mine Honours.' Edgar refers to ' the right of bringing the charge' as the privilege of his profession as knight. V. iii. 146. Omitted in Quarto 2; Quarto i reads ' Heere do I tosse those treasons to thy head.' V. iii. 156. 'name'; Quartos read 'thing.' V. iii. 159. 'Most monstrous! know'st'; Steevens' emendation; 179 Notes THE TRAGEDY OF Quarto i reads 'Most monstrous knowst' ; Quartos 2, 3, 'Monster, knowst'; Folios, 'Most monstrous! O know'st'; Capell, 'most monsterous! knozv'st ; Edd. Globe Ed., 'Most monstrous! O! know'st.' V. iii. 160. 'Ask me not what I know'; the Folios give this line to Edmund ; the Quartos to Goneril. V. iii. 170-171. 'vices . . . plague us'; so Folios; Quartos Ttad'vertucs . . . scourge us' ; Hanmer, ' vices . . . plague and punish us'; Keightley, 'vices . . . plague us in their time' ; Anon. conj. 'vices . . . scourge us and to plague us'; cp. ' Wherewith a man sinneth, by the same also shall he be pun- ished,* Wisdom, xi. 16. V. iii. 205. 'but another,' etc., i.e. ''one more such circumstance only, by amplifying what is already too much, would add to it, and so exceed what seemed to be the limit of sorrow " (Wright). V. iii. 281. ' One of them zve behold,' i.e. each beholding the other sees one of fortune's two notable objects of love and hate (? for 'we' read 'ye,' as has been suggested). V. iii. 310. 'Look on her, look, her lips'; Johnson's emenda- tion; Folio I reads ' Looke her lips' ;¥o\\os, 'looke (or look) on her lips' V. iii. 323. This speech is given in the Folios to Edgar, and probably it was so intended by the poet. It has been suggested that the first two lines should be given to Edgar, the last two to Albany. 180 KING LEAR Explanatory Notes. The Explanatory Notes in this edition have been specially selected and adapted, with emendations after the latest and best authorities, from the most eminent Shakespearian scholars and commentators, includmg Johnson, Malone, Steevens, Singer, Dyce, Hudson, White, Furness, Dowden, and others. This method, here introduced for the first time, provides the best annotation of Shakespeare ever embraced in a single edition. ACT FIRST. Scene I. I et seq. Johnson thinks " there is something of obscurity or inaccuracy " in the opening of the play. Coleridge remarks upon it as follows : " It was not without forethought, nor is it without its due significance, that the division of Lear's kingdom is in the first six lines of the play stated as a thing already determined in all its particulars, previously to the trial of professions, as the relative rewards of which the daughters were to be made to con- sider their several portions. The strange, yet by no means un- natural, mixture of selfishness, sensibility, and habit of feeling derived from, and fostered by, the particular rank and usages of the individual ; the intense desire of being intensely beloved — selfish, and yet characteristic of the selfishness of a loving and kindly nature alone; the self-supportless leaning for all pleasure on another's breast ; the craving after sympathy with a prodigal disinterestedness, frustrated by its own ostentation, and the mode and nature of its claims; the anxiety, the distrust, the jealousy, which more or less accompany all selfish affections, and are amongst the surest contradistinctions of mere fondness from true love, and which originate Lear's eager wish to enjoy his daugh- ters' violent professions, whilst the inveterate habits of sov- ereignty convert the wish into claim and positive right, and an incompliance with it into crime and treason ; — these facts, these passions, these moral verities, on which the whole tragedy is i8i Notes THE TRAGEDY OF founded, are all prepared for, and will to. the retrospect be found implied, in these first four or five lines of the play. They let us know that the trial is but a trick; and that the grossness of the old king's rage is in part the natural result of a silly trick sud- denly and most unexpectedly baffled and disappointed." yj et seq. " We have already," according to Johnson, " made known in some measure our desire of parting the kingdom ; we will now discover what has not been told before, the reasons by which we shall regulate the partition." 44. Constant zvill means a firm, determined will; the certa voluntas of Virgil. 62. Beyond all assignable quantity. I love you beyond limits and cannot say it is so much. y2)' That is, she comes short of me in this, that I profess, etc. 75. square of sense : — Singer proposed to read, " most spacious sphere." Spacious, without sphere, is a very plausible change, but not so necessary or so helpful to the sense as to warrant its adoption. " Whatever meaning or no-meaning we may attach to square of sense, it seems clear to me," says Furness, "that Regan refers to the joys which that square professes to bestow." 89. Nothing, my lord: — Coleridge remarks upon Cordelia's answer thus : "' There is something of disgust at the ruthless hypocrisy of her sisters, and some little faulty admixture of pride and sullenness in Cordelia's ' Nothing ' ; and her tone is well contrived, indeed, to lessen the glaring absurdity of Lear's conduct, but yet answers the yet more important purpose of forcing away the attention from the nursery-tale, the moment it has served its end, that of supplying the canvas for the picture. This is also materially furthered by Kent's opposition, which dis- plays Lear's moral incapability of resigning the sovereign power in the very act of disposing of it." 153. The meaning of answer my life my judgement is, let my life be answerable for my judgement, or, / will stake my life on my opinion. 157-159- ^^y lif^> etc.: — I never regarded my life as my own, but merely entrusted to me as a pawn or pledge, to be employed against your enemies. 196. A quest is a seeking or pursuit: the expedition in which a knight was engaged is often so named in The Faerie Queene. 275. We have here professed for professing. Shakespeare often uses one participle for another. 182 KING LEAR Notes Scene II. I, 2. " In this speech of Edmund," declares Coleridge, " you see, as soon as a man cannot reconcile himself to reason, how his conscience flies off by way of appeal to Nature, who is sure upon such occasions never to find fault; and also how shame sharpens a predisposition in the heart to evil. ... In the anguish of undeserved ignominy the delusion secretly springs up, of getting over the moral quality of an action by fixing the mind on the mere physical act alone. 26. Upon the gad I — In haste, equivalent to upon the spur. A gad was a sharp-pointed piece of steel used in driving oxen ; hence goaded. 107. unstate myself, etc. : — I would give up my estate, all that J am possessed of, to be satisfied of the truth. Shakespeare fre- quently uses resolved for satisfied. 137-139- on admirable evasion, etc. : — Warburton thinks that the dotages of judicial astrology were meant to be satirized in this speech. Coleridge remarks upon Edmund's philosophizing as fol- lows : " Thus scorn and misanthropy are often the anticipations and mouthpieces of wisdom in the detection of superstitions. Both individuals and nations may be free from such prejudices by being below them, as well as by rising above them." 145, 146. And pat, etc. : — Perhaps this was intended to ridicule the awkward* conclusions of the old comedies, wherein the per- sons of the scene made their entry inartificially, and just when the poets want them on the stage. 148. fa, sol, la, mi: — "Shakespeare," says Dr. Burney, "shows by the context that he was well acquainted with the property of these syllables in solmization, which imply a series of sounds so unnatural that ancient musicians prohibited their use. . . . Edmund, speaking of eclipses as portents, compares the disloca- tion of events, the times being out of joint, to the unnatural and offensive sounds fa sol la mi." But later authorities do not in- variably accept this view. Scene III. [Enter . . . steward.] "The Steward," says Coleridge, " should be placed in exact antithesis to Kent, as the only char- acter of utter irredeemable baseness in Shakespeare. Even in 183 Notes THE TRAGEDY OF this the judgement and invention of the Poet are very observable: for what else could the willing tool of a Goneril be? Not a vice but this of baseness was left open to him." Scene IV. I et seq. We must suppose that Kent advances looking on his disguise. This circumstance very naturally leads to his speech, which otherwise would have no apparent introduction. 16,17. to converse . . . little: — His meaning is, that he chooses for his companions men who are not tattlers or tale- bearers. 18. It is not clear how Kent means to make the eating no fish a recommendatory quality, unless we suppose that it arose from the odium then cast upon the papists, who were the most strict observers of periodical fasts, which, though enjoined to the people under the government of Elizabeth, were not very strictly observed by them. So in Marston's Dutch Courtesan : " I trust I am none of the wicked that eat Ush a Fridays." 70. By jealous curiosity Lear appears to mean a punctilious jealousy resulting from a scrupulous watchfulness of his own dignity. 75. the fool hath much pined away : — " The Fool," as Cole- ridge observes, " is no comic buffoon to make the groundlings laugh ; no forced condescension of Shakespeare's genius to the taste of his audience. Accordingly the Poet prepares for his introduction, which he never does with any of his common clowns and fools, by bringing him into living connection with the pathos of the play. He is as wonderful a creation as Caliban : his wild babblings and inspired idiocy articulate and gauge the horrors of the scene." 108. nuncle! — A familiar contraction of mine uncle. It seems that the common appellation of the old licensed fool to his superiors was uncle. In Beaumont and Fletcher's Pilgrim, when Alinda assumes the character of a fool, she uses the same lan- guage. She meets Alfonso, and calls him nuncle; to which he replies by calling her naunt. 124. Lend less, etc. : — That is, do not lend all that thou hast : owe for own. 194. frontlet: — This word is here used for frown. A frontlet was a forehead cloth worn by ladies to prevent wrinkles. So in 184 KING LEAR Notes Zepheria, 1594: "And vayle thy face with frozvnes as with a frontlet." 242. It must be understood, that in the speech beginning " I would learn that," Lear is continuing his former speech, and an- swering his own question, without heeding the Fool's interrup- tion. So, again, in this speech the Fool continues his former one, which referring to shadow. 337' you may fear too far: — "The monster Goneril," remarks Coleridge, " prepares what is necessary, while the character of Albany renders a still more maddening grievance possible, namely, Regan and Cornwall in perfect sympathy of monstrosity. Not a sentiment, not an image which can give pleasure on its own account, is admitted: whenever these creatures are introduced, and they are brought forward as little as possible, pure horror reigns throughout. In this scene and in all the early speeches of Lear, the one general sentiment of filial ingratitude prevails as the mainspring of the feelings ; in this early stage the out- ward object causing the pressure on the mind, which is not yet sufficientl}'- familiarized with the anguish for the imagination to work upon it." Scene V. 5. The word tJiere in this speech shows that when the King says, " Go you before to Gloucester/' he means the town of Gloucester, which Shakespeare chose to make the residence of the Duke of Cornwall, to increase the probability of their setting out late from thence on a visit to the Earl of Gloucester. The old English earls usually resided in the counties from whence they took their titles. Lear, not finding his son-in-law and his wife at home, follows them to the Earl of Gloucester's castle. 15. kindly: — The Fool quibbles, using kindly in two senses; as it means affectionately, and like the rest of her kind. 24. / did her wrong : — Lear has Cordelia in mind now. 35. seven stars: — Furness asks if the Fool may not refer to the Great Bear's seven stars. 39. Lear is meditating on what he has before threatened, namely, to " resume the shape which he has cast off." 45. O, let me not be mad: — "The mind's own anticipation of madness ! " exclaims Coleridge. " The deepest tragic notes are often struck by a half-sense of an impending blow. The Fool's conclusion of this Act by a grotesque prattling seems to indicate the dislocation of feeling that has begun and is to be continued." 185 Notes THE TRAGEDY OF ACT SECOND. Scene I. 25-28. " In order to confuse his brother and urge him to flight," says DeHus, " Edmund asks him first whether he has not spoken against Cornwall, and then, reversing the question, whether he has not said something on the side of Cornwall against Albany." Z^-37' i /JCf^'^ seen drunkards, etc: — These drunken feats are mentioned in Marston's Dutch Courtezan : " Have I not been drunk for your health, eat glasses, drunk wine, stabbed arms, and done all offices of protested gallantry for your sake? " 42. Gloucester has already shown himself a believer in such astrological superstitions; so that Edmund here takes hold of him by just the right handle. 86. natural: — The word natural is here used with much art in the double sense of illegitimate and as opposed to unnatural, which latter epithet is implied upon Edgar. 90. There is a peculiar subtlety and intensity of virulent malice in these speeches of Regan. Coleridge justly observes that she makes " no reference to the guilt, but only to the accident, which she uses as an occasion for sneering at her father." And he adds, " Regan is not, in fact, a greater monster than Goneril, but she has the power of casting more venom." Scene II. 63. Zed is here used as a term of contempt, because Z is the last letter in the English alphabet : it is said to be an unnecessary letter because its place may be supplied by S. 95-104. This is some fellozv, etc.: — Coleridge has a just remark upon this speech : " In thus placing these profound general truths in the mouths of such men as Cornwall, Edmund, lago, etc., Shakespeare at once gives them utterance, and yet shows how indefinite their application is." It may be added, that an inferior dramatist, instead of making his villains use any such vein of original and profound remark, would probably fill their mouths with something either shocking or absurd; which is just what real villains, if they have any wit, never do. 97, 98. and constrains, etc.: — Forces his outside, or his appear- ance, to something totally different from his natural disposition. 186 KING LEAR Notes 126. Ajax is a fool to them. "These rogues and cowards talk in such a boasting strain that, if we were to credit their account of themselves, Ajax would appear a person of no prowess when compared to them." 136. "Ver}'- artfully," says Clarke, "is this speech thrown in. Not only does it serve to paint the vindictive disposition of Regan, it also serves to regulate dramatic time by making the sub- sequent scene where Lear arrives before Gloucester's castle and finds his faithful messenger in the stocks appear sufficiently ad- vanced in the morning to allow of that same scene closing with the actual approach of ' night,' without disturbing the sense of probability. Shakespeare makes a whole day pass before our eyes during a single scene and dialogue, yet all seems consistent and natural in the course of progression." 166. " That Cordelia should have thought of him, or that her letter should have reached him, seems to him such a miracle," says Delius, " as only those in misery experience." 171. Kent, according to Hudson's original view, addresses the sun, for whose rising he is impatient, that he may read Cordelia's letter. " I know," says he, " this letter which I hold in my hand is from Cordelia; who hath most fortunately been informed of my disgrace and wandering in disguise; and zvho, seeking it, shall find time out of this disordered, unnatural state of things, to give losses their remedies ; to restore her father to his kingdom, her- self to his love, and me to his favour." Hudson, however, sub- sequently adopted Mr. J. Crosby's paraphrase of lines 169-171, as follows : " From this anomalous state of mine, I shall gain time to communicate and co-operate with Cordelia in her endeavour to restore the kingdom to its former condition ; to give losses their remedies, that is, to reinstate Lear on the throne, Cordelia in his favour, and myself in his confidence, and in my own rights and titles." Scene III. 10. Hair thus knotted was supposed to be the work of elves and fairies in the night. 14. Bedlam beggars: — In The Bell-Man of London, by Dekker, 1640, is an account of one of these characters, under the title of Abraham Man : " He sweares he hath been in Bedlam, and will talke frantickely of purpose : you see pinnes stuck in sundry places of his naked flesh, especially in his armes, which paine he 187 Notes THE TRAGEDY OF gladly puts himselfe to, only to make you believe he is out of his wits. He calls himselfe by the name of Poore Tom, and, coming near any body, cries out. Poor Tom is a-cold. Of these Abraham- men some be exceeding merry, and doe nothing but sing songs fashioned out of their own braines ; some will dance, others will doe nothing but either laugh or weepe ; others are dogged, and so sullen both in looke and speech, that spying but a small com- pany in a house they boldly and bluntly enter, compelling the servants through feare to give them what they demand." Scene IV. 42. The / which is found in line 39, is understood before the vt^ord having, or before drew. The same license is taken by Shakespeare in other places. 46. If this be their behaviour, the King's troubles are not yet at an end. 56. Lear affects to pass off the swelling of his heart, ready to burst with grief and indignation, for the disease called the mother, or hysterica passio, which, in the Poet's time, was not thought peculiar to women. It is probable that Shakespeare had this sug- gested to him by a passage in Harsnet's Declaration of Popish Impostures, which he may have consulted in order to furnish out his character of Tom of Bedlam with demoniacal gibberish. " Ma. Maynie had a spice of the hysterica passio, as seems, from his youth ; he himself termes it the moother." It seems the priests persuaded him it was from the possession of the devil. "The disease I spake of was a spice of the mother, wherewith I had been troubled before my going into Fraunce : whether I doe rightly term it the mother or no, I knowe not." 6y. "Go to the ant, thou sluggard," says Solomon (Proverbs vi. 6-8), " consider her ways, and be wise; which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gather- eth her food in harvest." If, says the Fool (according to Ma- lone), you had been schooled by the ant, you would have known that the King's train, like that sagacious insect, prefer the sum- mer of prosperity to the colder season of adversity, from which no profit can be derived. 68-70. All men but blind men, though they follow their noses, are led by their eyes ; and this class, seeing the King ruined, have all deserted him : with respect to the blind, who have nothing but 188 KING LEAR Notes their noses to guide them, they also fly equally from a king whose fortunes are declining; for of the noses of blind men there is not one in twenty but can smell him who, being " muddy in Fortune's mood, smells somewhat strong of her displeasure." 85, 86. It is not easy to make any sense out of these two lines, and perhaps it was not intended that any should be made out of them. Hudson suggests (Harvard ed.) that "the Fool may be using the trick of suggesting a thing by saying its opposite." 123. cockney: — Of this word, says Nares, the etymology seems most probable which derives it from cookery. Le pays de cocagne, or coquaine, in old French, means a country of good cheer. This famous country, if it could be found, is described as a region " where the hills were made of sugar-candy, and the loaves ran down the hills, crying, Come eat me." This Lubberland, as Florio calls it, seems to have been proverbial for the simplicity or gul- libility of its inhabitants. Dekker, in his Newes from Hell, says, " 'Tis not our fault ; but our mothers', our cockering mothers, who for their labour made us to be called cockneys." 140-142. This innocent passage has been tortured with a great deal of comment. The meaning of it seems to be, " You less know how to value Goneril's merit, than she knows how to do her duty." Hudson (Harvard ed.) observes: "The difficulty grows from putting a positive and a negative clause together in a comparison." And Furness inquires: "Is the levity ill-timed that suggests that perhaps Regan's speech puzzles poor old Lear himself quite as much as his commentators, and he has to ask her to explain : ' Say, how is that? ' " 155. tlie house: — That is, according to Warburton, the order of families, duties of relation. 157. Age is unnecessary : — Johnson's explanation is, " Old age has few wants," but, according to Wright, the words convey Lear's " ironical apology for his useless existence." 204. being weak, seem so : — Since you are weak, be content to think yourself so. 253. And in good time you gave it: — Observe what a compact wolfishness of heart is expressed in these few cold and steady words. It is chiefly in this readiness of envenomed sarcasm that Regan is discriminated from Goneril : otherwise they seem almost too much like mere repetitions of each other to come fairly within the circle of nature, who never repeats herself. Yet their very agreement in temper and spirit only makes them the fitter for the work they do. On the whole, it is not easy to imagine how 189 Notes THE TRAGEDY OF creatures could be framed more apt to drive mad any one who had set his heart on receiving any comfort or kindness from them. To quote Dowden : " The two terrible creatures are, however, distinguishable. Goneril is the calm wielder of a pitiless force, the resolute initiator of cruelty. Regan is a smaller, shriller, fiercer, more eager piece of malice. The tyranny of the elder sister is a cold, persistent pressure, as little affected by tenderness or scruple as the action of some crushing hammer; Regan's ferocity is more unmeasured, and less abnormal or monstrous." ACT THIRD. Scene I. 6. Lear wishes for the destruction of the world, either by the winds blowing the land into the water, or raising the waters so as to overwhelm the land. 23. whu seem no less: — That is, who seem the servants of Albany and Cornwall, but are really engaged in the service of France as spies, having knowledge of our state ; of what hath been seen here. 29. Whereof these things are but the trimmings or appendages ; not the thing itself, but only the circumstances, outward shows, or furniture of the thing. 22. feet: — Footing. The meaning is, they have secretly landed. Scene II. [Lear.] These speeches of Lear amid the tempest contain the grandest exhibition of creative power to be met with. They seem spun out of the very nerves and sinews of the storm. It is the instinct of strong passion to lay hold of whatever objects and occurrences lie nearest at hand, and twist itself a language out of them, incorporating itself with their substance, and reproducing them charged with its own life. To Lear, accordingly, and to us in his presence, the storm becomes all expressive of filial ingrati- tude; seems spitting its fire, and spouting its water, and hurl- ing its blasts against him. Thus the terrific energies and hostil- ities of external nature take all their meaning from his mind; and we think of them only as the willing agents or instruments 190 KING LEAR Notes of his daughters' malice, leagued in sympathy with them, and so taking their part in the controversy. In this power of imagina- tion, thus seizing and crushing the embattled elements into its service, there is a sublimity almost too vast for the thoughts. 31-34. The man that makes his toe, etc. : — " Unless,'' says White, " the Fool means that the man who keeps his toe as close as he should keep his counsel or the thoughts of his heart, I do not know what he means. No explanation hitherto given of the last quatrain of this proverbial jingle seems worthy of mention. The first refers, as Johnson remarked, to a coarse old saying, ' a beggar marries a wife and lice.' " Hudson sees in line ^2) " a- covert allusion to the King." Furness says lines 31-34 mean : "A man who prefers or cherishes a mean member in place of a vital one shall suffer enduring pain where others would suffer merely a twinge. Lear had preferred Regan and Goneril to Cordelia." 35, 36. For there ivas never yet, etc. : — " This," says Furness, " is the Fool's way of diverting attention after he has said something a little too pointed; the idea of a very pretty woman making faces in a looking-glass raises a smile." 40. Meaning the King and himself. Grace was a title of royalty. Cod-piece as a name for the Fool contains whimsical allusion to his wearing this article of dress. 59. Summoners are officers that summon offenders before a proper tribunal. 6y-72,' My wits, etc : — " The import of this," says Bucknill, "must be weighed with IV. vi. 101-107, when Lear is incoherent and full of delusion. Insanity arising from mental and moral causes often continues in a certain state of imperfect develop- ment ; . . . a state of exaggerated and perverted emotion, accompanied by violent and irregular conduct, but unconnected with intellectual aberration. . . , Shakespeare contemplated this exposure*and physical suffering as the cause of the first crisis in the malady. Our wonder at his profound knowledge of mental disease increases, the more carefully we study his works ; here and elsewhere he displays with prolific carelessness a knowledge of principles, half of which would make the reputation of a modern ps3^chologist." 79 et scq. This is a brave night, etc.: — Most of the recent ed- itors regard this whole speech as an interpolation. White and Clarke are followed in this belief by Hudson, who (Harvard ed.) quotes approvingly White's comment : " This loving, faithful creature v/ould not let his old master go off half-crazed in that 191 Notes THE TRAGEDY OF storm that he might stop and utter such pointless and uncalled- for imitation of Chaucer." Scene IV, [Enter Lear, etc.] On this scene Coleridge remarks: " O, what a world's convention of agonies is here ! All external na- ture in a storm, all moral nature convulsed — the real madness of Lear, the feigned madness of Edgar, the babbling of the Fool, the desperate fidelity of Kent — surely such a scene was never conceived before or since ! Take it but as a picture for the eye only, it is more terrific than any which a Michael Angelo, inspired by a Dante, could have conceived, and which none but a Michael Angelo could have executed. Or let it have been uttered to the blind, the bowlings of nature would seem converted into the voice of conscious humanity." 31. The allusion here is to loopholes, such as are found in ancient castles, and designed for the admission of light. 45. Away! the foul iiend, etc.: — "Edgar's assumed madness," says Coleridge, " serves the great purpose of taking off part of the shock which would otherwise be caused by the true madness of Lear, and further displays the profound difference between the two. In every attempt at representing madness throughout the whole range of dramatic literature, with the single exception of Lear, it is mere light-headedness, especially in Otway. In Edgar's ravings Shakespeare all the while lets you see a fixed purpose, a practical end in view ; — in Lear's, there is only the brooding of the one anguish, an eddy without progression." 51-53. Alluding to the ignis fatims, supposed to be lights kin- dled by mischievous beings to lead travellers into destruction. 53 et seq. knives under his pillow, etc.: — So in Harsnet : "This examinant further saith, that one Alexander, an apothecary, having brought with him from London to Denham on a time a new halter, and two blades of knives, did leave the same upon the gallery floor in her master's house." Fiends were commonly represented as thus tempting the wretched to suicide. So in Dr. Faustus, 1604: — " Swords, poisons, halters, and envenom'd steel Are laid before me, to dispatch myself." 58. The five senses were sometimes called the five wits. 192 KING LEAR Notes 58, 59. 0, do de, etc. : — These syllables are probably meant to represent the chattering of one who shivers with cold. 76. 77. PilUcock sat, etc.: — In illustration of this, Halliwell has pointed out the following couplet in Ritson's Gammer Gurton's Garland : — " Pillycock, Pillycock sat on a hill ; If he 's not gone, he sits there still." 86. gloves in my cap : — Gloves were anciently worn in the cap, either as the favour of a mistress, or as the memorial of a friend, or as a badge to be challenged. 118. Flibbertigibbet: — The names of this fiend and most of the fiends mentioned by Edgar were found in Harsnet, who says : " Frateretto, Fliberdigibet, Hoberdidance, Tocobatto, were four devils of the round or morrice." It was an old tradition that spirits were relieved from confinement at the time of curfew, that is, at the close of the day, and were permitted to wander at large cill the first cock-crowing. Hence, in The Tempest, they are said to " rejoice to hear the solemn curfew." 123. 'old (for wold) : — Wold is a plain open country, whether hilly or not; formerly spelt old, ould, and wold, indifferently. '^Z7y 138. from tithing to tithing: — That is, from parish to parish. The severities inflicted on the wretched beings, one of whom Edgar is here personating, are set forth in Harrison's De- scription of England: " The rogue being apprehended, committed to prison, and tried at the next assizes, if he be convicted for a vagabond, he is then adjudged to be grievously whipped, and burned through the gristle of the right ear with a hot iron, as a manifestation of his wicked life, and due punishment received for the same. If he be taken the second time, he shall then be whipped again," etc. 146, 147. The prince of darkness, etc.: — So in Harsnet's Dec- laration: " Maho was the chief devil that had possession of Sarah Williams ; but another of the possessed, named Richard Mainy, was molested by a still more considerable fiend, called Modu." Again the said Richard Mainy deposes : " Furthermore it is pretended, that there remaineth still in mee the prince of devils, whose name should be Modu." 147 et seq. Our iiesh and blood, etc. : — " One of Shakespeare's subtle touches," observes Clarke. " Some tone or inflection in Edgar's voice has reached the father's heart, and bitterly recalls the supposed unfilial conduct of his elder son, and he links it with 193 Notes THE TRAGEDY OF that of Lear's daughters. Edgar, instinctively feeling this, perse- veres with his Bedlam cry, to drown the betrayed sound of his own voice, and maintain the impression of his assumed char- acter." 164. His zi'its begin to unsettle : — " When Belvidera," says Hor- ace Walpole, in the postscript to his Mysterious Mother, " talks of ' Lutes, laurels, seas of milk, and ships of amber,' she is not mad, but light-headed. When madness has taken possession of a person, such character ceases to be fit for the stage, or, at least, should appear there but for a short time; it being the business of the theatre to exhibit passions, not distempers. The finest picture ever drawn of a head discomposed by misfortune is that of King Lear. His thoughts dwell on the ingratitude of his daughters, and every sentence that falls from his wildness excites reflection and pity. Had frenzy entirely seized him, our com- passion would abate ; we should conclude that he no longer felt unhappiness. Shakespeare wrote as a philosopher, Otway as a poet." 173. / do beseech your grace: — "Here," says Clarke, "Glouces- ter attempts to lead Lear towards the shelter he has provided in the farm-house adjoining the castle; but the king will not hear of quitting his ' philosopher.' Gloucester then induces the Bed- lam-fellow to go into the hovel, that he may be out of Lear'ss sight ; but Lear proposes to follow him thither, saying, ' Let 's in all.' Kent endeavours to draw Lear away, but, finding him resolved to ' keep still with ' his * philosopher,' begs Gloucester to humour the King, and ' let him take the fellow ' with him. Gloucester accedes, and bids Kent himself take the fellow with them in the direction they desire to go; and this is done. We point out these details, because, if it be not specially observed, the distinction between the ' hovel ' and the ' farm-house ' would hardly be understood." 184-186. Child Rowland, Knight Orlando, was reputed to be King Arthur's youngest son. In the second part of Jack and the Giants, which, if not older than the play, may have been com- piled from something that was so, are the following lines, spoken by a giant : — " Fee, faw, f um, I smell the blood of an Englishman : Be he alive, or be he dead, I '11 grind his bones to make my bread." 194 KING LEAR Notes Scene V. 7. a provoking merit : — " A merit he felt in himself which irri- tated him against a father that had none," according to Mason. " A consciousness of his own worth which urged him on," says Wright. Hudson (Harvard ed.) cites Crosby: "It was not alto- gether your brother Edgar's evil disposition that made him seek his father's death : it was the old man's desert that provoked him to it ; that is, the old man deserved it." Scene VI. 6, 7. Frateretto, etc : — Rabelais says that Nero was a fiddler in hell, and Trajan an angler. The history of Garagantua had ap- peared in English before 1575, being mentioned in Laneham's Letter from Killingworth, printed in that year. Fools were an- ciently termed innocents. 14. he 's a mad yeoman, etc. : — " A rather curious commentary," says Hudson, " on some of the Poet's own doings ; who obtained from the Heralds' College a coat-of-arms in his father's name ; thus getting his yeoman father dubbed a gentleman, in order, no doubt, that himself might inherit the rank." 24, 25. Wantest thou eyes, etc. : — When Edgar says, " Look, where he stands and glares ! " he seems to be speaking in the character of a madman, who thinks he sees the fiend. " Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?" is a question addressed to some visionary person, and may mean, as Clarke says, " Do you want eyes to gaze at and admire you during trial, madam? The fiends are there to serve your purpose." 87. so, so, so : — " Lear," says Bucknill, " is comparatively tran- quil in conduct and language during the whole period of Edgar's mad companionship. It is only after the Fool has disappeared, and Edgar has left to be the guide of his blind father, that the King becomes absolutely wild and incoherent. The singular and undoubted fact is, that few things tranquillize the insane more than the companionship of the insane. It is a fact not easily ex- plicable, but it is one of which, either by the intuition of genius, or by the information of experience, Shakespeare appears to be aware.'' 88. And I'll go to bed at noon: — These words, found only in the Folio, are the last we have from the Fool. They are probably 19s Notes THE TRAGEDY OF meant as a characteristic notice that the poor dear fellow's heart is breaking. His beloved master's wits are shattered, so that he has no longer anything to live for. White remarks : " About the middle of the play the Fool suddenly disappears, making in reply to Lear's remark, ' We '11 go to supper in the morning,' the fitting rejoinder, 'And I '11 go to bed at noon.' Why does he not return ? Clearly for this reason : he remains with Lear during his insanity, to answer in antiphonic commentary the mad King's lofty ravings with his simple wit and homespun wisdom ; but after thai time, when Lear sinks from frenzy into forlorn imbe- cility, the Fool's utterances would have jarred upon our ears. The situation becomes too grandly pathetic to admit the presence of a jester, who, unless he is professional, is nothing. Even Shakespeare could not make sport with the great primal ele- ments of woe. And so the poor Fool sought the little corner where he slept, turned his face to t|ie wall, and went to bed in the noon of his life for the last time — functus officio." 114. Mark the high noises: — The great events that are ap- proaching. Scene VIL 13. my lord of Gloucester: — Meaning Edmund, newly invested with his father's titles. Oswald, speaking immediately after, men- tions the old earl by the same title. 83, 84. Out, vile jelly! etc.: — This horrid scene moves Cole- ridge to say : " I will not disguise my conviction that, in this one point, the tragic in this play has been urged beyond the outermost mark and ne plus ultra of the dramatic." And again : " What shall I say of this scene? There is my reluctance to think Shake- speare wrong, and yet — " Tieck argues that the tearing out of Gloucester's eyes did not take place on the stage proper. ACT FOURTH. Scene I. 64. who since possesses, etc.: — "If," says Harsnet, "she have a little helpe of the mother, epilepsie, or cramp, to teach her roll her eyes, wrie her mouth, gnash her teeth, starte with her body, hold her armes and handes stiffe, make antike faces, grinne, 196 KING LEAR Notes Diozv and mop like an ape, then no doubt the young girle is owlc- blasted, and possessed." Scene II. 22. She bids him decHne his head, that she may give him a kiss and appear only to be whispering to him. 29. / have been worth the zvhistle: — Alluding to the proverb, " It is a poor dog that is not worth the whistling" S2, ss. That nature, etc. : — The meaning, as Heath thinks, is, that that nature, which has reached such a pitch of unnaturalness as to contemn its origin, cannot be restrained within any certain bounds. Albany's reasoning is : If she will take her father's life, whose life will she spare? 36. Alluding to the use that witches and enchanters are said to make of withered branehes in their charms. A fine insinuation in the speaker, that she was ready for the most unnatural mischief, and a preparative of the Poet to her plotting with Edmund against her husband's life. 83 et seq. One way, etc. : — Goneril's plan was to poison her sister, to marry Edmund, to murder Albany, and to get possession of the whole kingdom. As the death of Cornwall facilitated the last part of her scheme, she was pleased at it ; but disliked it, as it put it in the power of her sister to marry Edmund. Scene III. [Enter . . . Gentleman.] The same gentleman whom he sent in the foregoing Act with letters to Cordelia at Dover. 25. no verbal question f — That is, discourse, conversation, talk. 32. That is, her outcries were accompanied or drenched with tears. Scene IV. 11-15. Dr. Kellogg says: "This reply is significant, and worthy of careful attention, as embracing a brief summary of almost the only true principles recognized by modern science, and now car- ried out by the most eminent physicians in the treatment of the insane." Scene V. 33- give him this : — Perhaps a ri)ig, or some token. 197 Notes THE TRAGEDY OF Scene VI. 15. samphire : — In Shakespeare's time the cliffs of Dover were celebrated for the production of this herb. It is thus spoken of in Smith's History of Waterford, 1774: "Samphire grows in great plenty on most of the seacliffs in this country. It is terrible to see how people gather it, hanging by a rope several fathom from the top of the impending rocks, as it were in the air." It was made into a pickle and eaten as a relish. This use of it is mentioned in Drayton's Polyolbion. 49. The substance called gossamer is formed of the collected webs of spiders. Some think it the down of plants ; others the vapour arising from boggy or marshy ground in warm weather. The etymon of this word, which has puzzled lexicographers, is said to be summer goose or summer gauze, hence " gauze o' the summer." 74. men's impossibilities: — Things that seem to men impossible. The incident of Gloucester being made to believe himself ascend- ing, and leaping from, the chalky cliff appears to be a very notable case of inherent improbability overcome in effect by opulence of description. 82. His master: — His for its here evidently refers to sense. Edgar is speaking of Lear's fantastical dress, and judges from this that he is not in his safer sense ; that is, in his senses. 122. That minces virtue, etc. : — Puts on an outward affected seeming of virtue. Cotgrave explains mineux-se, " Outzvard seem- ing, also squeamish, quaint, coy, that minces it exceedingly." 184. zvaivl and cry : — This may have been taken from Pliny, as translated by Holland : " Man alone, poor wretch, nature hath laid all naked upon the bare earth, even on his birthday to cry and zvrazvlc presently from the very first houre that he is borne into this world." 188, 189. to shoe . . . felt : — We learn from Lord Herbert's Life of King Henry VHI. that such a thing was actually done at the tournament held at Lisle in 15 13: the horses, to prevent their slipping on a black stone pavement, zvere shod with felt or Hocks. So, too, in Fenton's Tragical Discourses, 1567: "He attyreth himself for the purpose in a nightgowne girt to hym, with a payre of shoes of felte, leaste the noyse of his feete might discover his golnge." We should understand that when Lear goes to preaching he takes off his hat and holds it in his hand, as preach- ers were wont to do in the Poet's time. 198 KING LEAR Notes 191. This was the cry formerly in the English army when an onset was made on the enemy. 206. there 's life in 't : — The case is not yet desperate. 217, 218. the main descry, etc : — The main body is expected to be descried every hour. Scene VII. 25. Louder the music : — Shakespeare considered soft music as favourable to sleep. Lear, we may suppose, had been thus com- posed to rest ; and now the Doctor desires louder music for the purpose of waking him. 36-38. Mine enemy's dog, etc : — Verplanck tells us that Jarvis, the American painter-artist, used often to quote this passage as accumulating in the shortest compass the greatest causes of dis- like, to be overcome by good-natured pity. " It is not merely the personal enemy, for whom there might be human sympathy, that is admitted to the family fireside, but his dog, and that a dog that had inflicted his own share of personal injury, and that, too, upon a gentle being from whom it was not possible that he could have received any provocation." ACT FIFTH. Scene I. 45,46. Your business, etc.: — All designs against your life will have an end. Scene III. 27. this note: — This is a warrant signed by Edmund and Goneril, for the execution of Lear and Cordelia, referred to later. 65. immediacy : — This apt and forcible word is probably of the Poet's own coinage. Nares says that " the word, so far as is known, is peculiar to this passage." Of course the meaning is, that Edmund has his commission directly from her, and not through any one else ; that is, he is her lieutenant, not Albany's. So in Hamlet we have "the most immediate to the throne." 72. look'd but asquint : — Alluding to the proverb, " Love being jealous makes a good eye look a-squint." So in Milton's Comus: *' And gladly banish squint suspicion." 79. To obstruct their union lies not in your power. 118, 119. Ask him, etc.: — This is according to the old cere- 199 Notes THE TRAGEDY OF monial of the trial by combat in cases criminal. Thus in Selden's Duello : " The appellant and his procurator first come to the gate. The constable and marshal demand by voice of herald, what he is, and why he comes so arrayed." 141. In wisdom, etc. : — Because, if his adversary were not of equal rank, Edmund might decline the combat. 150. Where they, etc. : — To that place where they shall rest for- ever ; that is, in Edgar's heart. 185. That we, etc. : — " To die hourly the pains of death," is a periphrasis for to suffer hourly the pains of death. 264. Fall and cease : — To cease is to die. Albany is looking with attention on the pains employed by Lear to recover his child, and knows to what miseries he must survive, when he finds them to be ineffectual. Having these images present to his eyes and imagination, he cries out, " Rather fall, and cease to be at once, than continue in existence only to be wretched." 297. this great decay: — That is Lear. Shakespeare means the same as if he had said, " this piece of decayed royalty." Glouces- ter calls him in a preceding Scene " ruin'd piece of nature." 305. my poor fool: — This is not a reference to the Fool, but an expression of tenderness for Cordelia, on whose lips Lear is still intent, and dies while he is searching there for indications of life. 309. Pray you, undo this button : — " Scarcely," says The Quar- terly Review, April 1833, " have the spectators of this anguish had time to mark and express to each other their conviction of the extinction of his mind, when some physical alteration, made dreadfully visible, urges Albany to cry out, ' O, see, see ! ' The intense excitement which Lear had undergone, and which lent for a time a supposititious life to his enfeebled frame, gives place to the exhaustion of despair. But even here, where any other mind would have confined itself to the single passion of parental despair, Shakespeare contrives to indicate by a gesture the very train of internal physical changes which are causing death. The blood gathering about the heart can no longer be propelled by its enfeebled impulse. Lear, too weak to relieve the impediments of his dress, which he imagines cause the sense of suffocation, asks a bystander to ' undo this button.' " 322. My master, etc. : — His beloved Lear. " Kent is, perhaps," says Coleridge, " the nearest to perfect goodness in all Shake- speare's characters. . . . His passionate affection for, and fidelity to, Lear act on our feelings in Lear's own favour : virtue itself seems to be in company with him." 200 KING LEAR Questions on King Lear. I. Give the date of composition. Mention some of the pre- Shakespearian forms of the story and show wherein they differ from Shakespeare. What is the duration of the action of the play? Is the underplot, that concerning Edgar and Gloucester, to be found in the old plays ? ACT FIRST. 2. What two things in the dialogue between Kent and Glouces- ter (Sc. i.) indicate the problems that the play will work out? 3. In the division of the kingdom was the share of each daugh- ter to be equal? What distinction did Lear make, if any, in terms expressive of his personal regard for the three sisters? 4. How did each sister answer him? 5. How do you judge Cordelia's attitude towards her father? What trait does she share in common with her father that doubt- less accounts for her attitude? 6. What part in the situation does Kent play? 7. Do the exigencies of the moment alone account for the sum- mary way Lear disposes of the Earl of Kent ? 8. What poetic justice do you feel in Cordelia's marriage? 9. How early in the play do the consequences of Lear's rash- ness begin to overtake him? 10. Of Edmund's soliloquy in Sc. ii. Coleridge says, " As soon as a man cannot reconcile himself to reason, his conscience flies off by way of appeal to Nature." Do you adopt the adverse crit- icism implied or have you something to say for Edmund? 11. How does the intrigue of Edmund, which may be said to be an underplot, resemble the main plot? Where is this intrigue summarized in a sentence? 12. What state of mind is indicated in Goneril by her charging her father (line 4) with gross crime? 13. What indications do you see in Sc. iii., aside from the ex- pressed apprehension of Lear, of his approaching madness? 201 Questions THE TRAGEDY OF 14. What dramatic uses do the sallies of the Fool serve? Why, do you understand, does Kent return disguised? 15. What impression do you get of Albany in Sc. iv. ? What is his attitude towards Lear? Towards his wife? 16. What allusion in Sc. v. does Lear make to Cordelia? 17. Describe the underplay of Lear's thought while he banters with the Fool. ACT SECOND. 18. What complications of the action are prophesied in the dialogue between Edmund and Curan? Why do Cornwall and Regan come to Gloucester's castle? How does this journey ad- vance the fortunes of Edmund? 19. Does it seem that Edgar plays too easily into the hands of Edmund? How does Cornwall hear the strange news mentioned in line 89? How does Regan comment to Gloucester on Edgar's supposed perfidy? 20. Of what arrayal of opposing forces are we made aware, by hints as well as by facts ? 21. Indicate the ironic quality of Kent's speech, line 9, Sc. ii. 22. Tn what character does Kent display himself in the second Scene? 23. In Cornwall's speech" on bluntness (102 et seq.) does Shake- speare suit the speech to the occasion ; to the speaker ; or does he merely take occasion for the statement of a general truth? 24. To what disaster does Kent come? 25. What does Edgar determine upon doing, as disclosed in the third Scene? 26. What account of a preceding action do you get from Kent (Sc. iv.) that helps to explain the animus of Kent in his scene with Oswald? 27. Explain the transitions of feeling in Lear in his talk (Sc. iv.) with Regan. Where is the climax of this interview? What example of supreme dramatic intuition is here exhibited? 28. In actual fact, is Regan any more cruel towards Lear than is Goneril? Which has the greater power of arousing abhorrence? 29. Wherein resides the cruelty of the daughters' act in de- priving Lear of his train, since the motives they allege may be said to conform to reason? How does Lear suggest the answer? Would his emotional state permit him to stop and reason at this point ? .».. 202 KING LEAR Questions 30. What are the passions with which his nature is stirred? 31. What preparation for the following Act does this Scene provide ? ACT THIRD. 32. What emotional purpose is served in the first Scene? What mechanical purpose which concerns the plot? SS. Does the madness of Lear reach its climax of sublimity in the second Scene? Is the pitch so high that the two preceding Scenes are necessary to prepare for it? What proof have you that Lear has not yet wholly lost his reason? 34. What fitness to the time is seen in the Fool's song? 35. Why is Sc. iii. set in prose? Does this Scene mark the climax of the subplot ; if so, where do you find the climax of the main plot? What is the most intimate connecting link between the two plots ? 36. In contrasting the madness of Lear and Edgar, what evi- dences do you find showing it to be real in one case and assumed in the other? • Sy. At what point does Lear's reason really desert him? 38. In Sc. v, what turn do Edmund's machinations take? What reward is he promised? 39. What form does Lear's madness take in the sixth Scene? What do Edgar and the Fool attempt in relation to it? 40. What is the significance of the Fool's last words, / '// go to bed at rwon? Why does he/ disappear from the play at this point? . 41. What action does Gloucester take to circumvent the daugh- ters in their further purposes against Lear? 42. How are Gloucester's secret efforts in the King's behalf discovered? 43. Who suggests the punishment that is visited upon Glouces- ter? 44. Aside from the personal violence that is offered to Glouces- ter, from what spiritual offense does he try to dissuade his per- secutors? 45. Contrast the poetry of Gloucester's speech (vi. 56) with the speeches put into the mouths of Regan, Goneril, and Corn- wall. Why does imagery seem unfit to the expression of their thoughts and purposes? 46. How does Gloucester learn of the treachery of Edmund? 47. Is this Scene too brutal for representation on the stage? 203 Questions THE TRAGEDY OF What alleviating element turns the spectator's feeling from horror to pity? ACT FOURTH. 48. What foreshadowing of Edgar's future fortune does his soliloquy, with which the Act opens, contain? 49. Describe the philosophical nature of Edgar's reflections in Sc. i. How does the sight of Gloucester modify Edgar's earlier optimism? 50. Comment on this example of Shakespeare's use of contrast as an effective dramatic element. 51. Comment on the irony of Gloucester's words to Edgar. What is its peculiar character? 52. What request does Gloucester make of Edgar? 53. Why has Albany taken no part in the action up to this point? What opinion of his character do you get from the ac- counts of Oswald and of Goneril? 54. What is the effect on the spectator of the amorous passage between Edmund and Goneril? Explain (ii. 14, 15) Our wishes on the way may prove effects. 55. What profound general truth (ii. 46) is expressed by Al- bany? Where is a similar thought uttered in reflection upon the nature of Regan? 56. What effect upon the complexion of events do we look to find resulting from the death of Cornwall ? In what respects will Albany supply his place? 57. What is foreshadowed in Goneril's May all the building in my fancy pluck Upon my hateful life? How has Goneril been instrumental in defeating her own dearest purposes? 58. What is the dramatic character of the third Scene? What portends from the enforced return to his own country of the King of France? 59. What similarity to and what difference from our previous impression of Cordelia does the account of her in this Scene furnish? 60. Where else (besides line 35) in the play is there allusion to the stars as governing the courses of men? 204 KING LEAR Questions 6i. From Kent's report of Lear do we judge that he still retains some powers of reason? 62. What preparation does Sc. iv. make for the crowning scene of Lear's madness? 63. How does Sc. v. advance the plot in regard to the relations of Edmund and Gloucester ; of Regan and Goneril ; of Edmund and Regan ? What is one made to feel here about the impending mutual disaster of the conspirators? Is there any passion in Re- gan's regard for Edmund? 64. What means does Edgar employ for curing Gloucester of his suicidal purposes? What parallelism is there between this and the way the Fool tries to check the growing madness of Lear? 65. What is Shakespeare's descriptive method in the passage in Sc. vi. beginning line 11? How does he secure largeness of view? 66. Is there sublimity in this final exhibition of Lear's mania? What thoughts are most frequently recurrent in his mind? 67. What profit did Oswald intend to make out of Gloucester? What types similar to Oswald do you recall in other plays of Shakespeare ? 68. How is Edgar put in possession of facts that give to him the controlling hand in the game that is to follow? 69. What reward does Kent desire for his services? What further development of the action is prepared for by him? 70. How are the events connected with Lear leading up to the present briefly summarized? What are the remedies proposed by the Doctor for the cure of Lear's derangement? What is the emotional effect of Lear's return to sanity? 71. How does the end of Act IV. prepare for catastrophe? How are the events not intimately concerning Lear summarized? ACT FIFTH. 72. What purposes are becoming paramount in the minds of the sisters ? 73. What does Edgar's speech to Albany foreshadow? 74. How does Edmund, at the close of Sc. i. complete the state- ment of the problem with which the Scene opened? 75. What law of tragedy demands the defeat of Cordelia's 205 Questions THE TRAGEDY OF army? Why does no Scene represent the conflict, as in so many of Shakespeare's plays? 76. What delicacy of art does Shakespeare show in not bringing the three sisters face to face again? Is it comparable to a similar delicacy in the case of Octavia and Cleopatra? Does one feel that the tiger is rising in Cordelia as shown by the line, Shall zve not see these daughters and these sisters f 77. What comment (Sc. iii. 8 et seq.) on Shakespeare's era does Lear furnish? 78. What do you understand to be the instructions contained in the note Edmund gives to the officer? 79. Has Edmund met any check in his career before his dif- ference with Albany in the third Scene? What is the last as- sumption of this interloper? How has he all along played a part of impostor consistent with his birth? 80. "What caused the sudden illness of Regan? What is its dramatic effect? 81. What double action is taking place in this Scene. How does Goneril quit it? 82. Mention the order of fatalities as they occur in the Scene. What dramatic effect is produced? 83. In the last act of Edmund's life what palliating touch does the Poet allow? 84. Hamlet closes with a note of optimism. Can the same be said of King Lear? 85. What is the reply of Kent to Albany's expressed will that he share in the rule of the realm? 86. Dramatic art requires that all catastrophe be led up to by gradual stages, that events be foreshadowed. Does Shakespeare in King Lear present especially notable examples of this law? Mention some instance where the law is observed. 87. What difference do you see between the two sisters in force of character? Which took the initiative part? 88. Is there any hint in this play of Christian religion or ethics? 89. As an example of Shakespeare's resourcefulness, collect to- gether the various expressions used in reference to the blinded eyes of Gloucester. 206 k KING LEAR Questions 90. Even with the modern development of stage effects, do you think King Lear a play fit for stage representation ? 91. Would you prefer that Shakespeare had followed the lines of the old story, and made Cordelia set her father again upon the throne, and rule after him a while? Or does the high pitch of passion demand death as the only adequate end? 92. What was there in the character of Regan whereby she deceived Lear longer than Goneril had done? 93. When does Edgar learn for the first time that his father has been deceived? 94. What point in the development of the underplot does this mark ? 95. What was the function of the Fool in developing the idea of the plot? 96. Is any play of Shakespeare's so complex in plot? Is there anything in this complexity that seems to interfere with simplicity of action? 97. Your estimate of the character of Edmund, as compared with lago, for instance? 98. In this play are not the characters that might be called minor more forceful in individuality than in other plays — say Macbeth, Hamlet? 99. Coleridge has called Kent the nearest approach to pure goodness of any character conceived by Shakespeare. Comment upon this. 100. Mention some specimens of literature written since King Lear and evidently inspired by it. a?7 - \«an. ei-ASi,^ <^aix4,^Jfe,o^ »=t^^ (uULS^qG.. TGtAJH ^CTS* 5LcxL^ Qt^^CSti^ «>■ Crc^SWi?^ WoeoG^ ' 'j^i.G^wj^i-i o ii*ja-s32«uix, <^^o.^, ^^c^ Q^^cs^s^a 1>M^^ c«_«-t<&.^ txJLai) lui-*-*' GUioe Saji.«9 . tJLr€sQjut>n*S ^ICK-tyx^ - ^'^«3»*-«i<2. ^0^^^^ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES L 009 978 307 8