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And follow me, that will to some provision
Give thee quick conduct.

[Kent.
Oppressed nature sleeps.1
This rest might yet have balmed thy broken senses,
Which, if convenience will not allow,

Stand in hard cure.-Come, help to bear thy master*; Thou must not stay behind.

Glo.

[To the Fool. Come, come, away.

[Exeunt KENT, GLOSTER, and the Fool, bear

ing off the King.

Edg. When we our betters see bearing our woes, We scarcely think our miseries our foes.

Who alone suffers, suffers most i̇' 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.
How light and portable my pain seems now,

When that which makes me bend, makes the king bow;

He childed, as I fathered!-Tom, away!

Mark the high noises,2 and thyself bewray,"

3

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. A Room in Gloster'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 villain Gloster. [Exeunt some of the Servants.

1 These two concluding speeches, by Kent and Edgar, are restored from the quarto.

2 The great events that are approaching, the loud tumult of approaching war.

ing

3 Betray, discover.

Reg. Hang him instantly.
Gon. Pluck out his eyes.

Corn. Leave him to my displeasure.-Edmund, keep 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 preparation; we are bound to the like. Our post shall be swift, and intelligent betwixt us. Farewell, dear sister;-farewell, my lord of Gloster.'

Enter Steward.

How now? Where's the king?

Stew. My lord of Gloster hath conveyed 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 lord's dependants,

Are gone with him towards Dover; where they boast To have well-armed friends.

Corn.

Get horses for your mistress.

Gon. Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.

[Exeunt GONERIL and EDMUNd.

Corn. Edmund, farewell.-Go, seek the traitor

Gloster,

Pinion him like a thief; bring him before us.

3

[Exeunt other Servants.

Though well we may not pass upon his life
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 trai-
tor?

Re-enter Servants, with GLOSTER.

Reg. Ingrateful fox! 'tis he.

4

Corn. Bind fast his corky arms.

1 Meaning Edmund, invested with his father's titles.

2 A questrist is one who goes in quest or search of another.

3 "Do a courtesy to our wrath," simply means bend to our wrath, as a courtesy is made by bending the body.

4 i. e. dry, withered, husky arms. This epithet was, perhaps, borrowed from Harsnet:-"It would pose all the cunning exorcists that are this

Glo. What mean your graces?--Good my friends,

consider

You are my guests; do me no foul play, friends.
Corn. Bind him, I say.

[Servants bind him.

Reg.

Hard, hard.—O filthy traitor!

Glo. Unmerciful lady as you are, I am none.

Corn. To this chair bind him.---Villain, thou shalt

find

[REGAN plucks his beard. Glo. By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done,

To pluck me by the beard.

Reg. So white, and such a traitor!

1

Glo. 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 favors 1 You should not ruffle thus. What will you do? Corn. Come, sir, what letters had you late from France?

Reg. Be simple answered, 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.

Glo. I have a letter guessingly set down,

Which came from one that's of a neutral heart,
And not from one opposed.

Corn.

Reg.

Cunning.

Corn. Where hast thou sent the king?

And false.

Glo.

To Dover.

Reg.

Wherefore

To Dover? Wast thou not charged at peril-
Corn. Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer

that.

Glo. I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the

course.

day to be found, to teach an old corkie woman to writhe, tumble, curvet, and fetch her morice gambols as Martha Bressier did.”

1 Favors mean the same as features.

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Reg. Wherefore to Dover?

Glo. 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.1
The sea, with such a storm as his bare head

In hell-black night endured, would have buoyed up,
And quenched the stelled 2 fires; yet, poor old heart,
He holp the heavens to rain.

3.

If wolves had at thy gate howled that stern time,
Thou shouldst have said, Good porter, turn the key;
All cruels else subscribed.4-But I shall see
The winged vengeance overtake such children.

Corn. See it shalt thou never.-Fellows, hold the chair;

Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot.

[GLOSTER is held down in his chair, while CORNWALL plucks out one of his eyes, and sets his foot on it.

Glo. He that will think to live till he be old, Give me some help.-O cruel! O ye gods! Reg. One side will mock another; the other too. Corn. If you see vengeance,

Serv.
I have served you ever since I was a child;

Hold your hand, my lord

But better service have I never done you,
Than now to bid you hold.

Reg. How now, you dog?

Serv. If you did wear a beard upon your chin, I'd shake it on this quarrel; what do you mean? Corn. My villain!

5

[Draws, and runs at him.

1 The quarto reads, "rash, boarish fangs." To rash is the old hunting term for the stroke made by a wild-boar with his fangs.

2 Starred.

3 Thus the folio. The quartos read, "that dearn time." Dearn is dreary. The reading in the text is countenanced by Chapman's version of the 24th Iliad :

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4 i. e. yielded, submitted to the necessity of the occasion.

5 Villain is perhaps here used in its original sense, of one in servitude

Serv. Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of

anger.

[Draws. They fight. CORN. is wounded. Reg. Give me thy sword.-[To another Serv.] A peasant stand up thus!

[Snatches a sword, comes behind him, and stabs him.

Serv. O, I am slain !-My lord, you have one eye

left

To see some mischief on him.-O!

[Dies.

Corn. Lest it see more, prevent it.—Out, vile jelly! Where is thy lustre now?

[Tears out GLOSTER's other eye, and throws it on the ground.

Glo. All dark and comfortless.-Where's my son

Edmund ?

Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature,

To quit1 this horrid act.

Reg.

Out, treacherous villain!

Thou call'st on him that hates thee.

It was he

That made the overture of thy treason to us;

Who is too good to pity thee.

Glo.

Then Edgar was abused.

O my follies!

Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!

Reg. Go, thrust him out at gates, and let him smell His way to Dover.-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;-Servants unbind GLOSTER, and lead him out.2

1 Serv. I'll never care what wickedness I do,

If this man comes to good.

2 Serv.

If she live long,

1 Requite.

2 The residue of this act is not contained in the folio of 1623.

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