The goujeers shall devour them, flesh and fell,' Ere they shall make us weep; we'll see them starve first. Come. [Exeunt LEAR and CORDELIA, guarded. Edm. Come hither, captain; hark. Take thou this note; 2 [Giving a paper.] go, follow them to prison. One step I have advanced thee; if thou dost 3 Does not become a sword.-Thy great employment Off. I'll 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. Off. I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats; If it be man's work, I will do it. [Exit Officer. Flourish. Enter ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, Officers, and Attendants. Alb. Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain, And fortune led you well. You have the captives, Who 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; 1 "The goujeers shall devour them, flesh and fell.” The goujeers, i. e. morbus Gallicus. The quartos have good yeares, the common corruption in Shakspeare's time. Flesh and fell is flesh and skin. 2 This was a warrant signed by the bastard and Goneril, for the execution of Lear and Cordelia, referred to in a subsequent scene by Edmund. 3 i. e. admit of debate. queen; Whose age has charms in it, whose title more, The question of Cordelia, and her father, Alb. Sir, by your patience, I hold you but a subject of this war, Reg. That's as we list to grace him. Gon. 3 Not so hot: In his own grace 5 he doth exalt himself, my rights, By me invested, he compeers the best. Gon. That were the most, if he should husband you.6 Reg. Jesters do oft prove prophets. Gon. Holla, holla! That eye that told you so looked but asquint.7 1 That is, the lancemen we have hired by giving them press-money. 2 i. e. the determination of what shall be done with Cordelia and her father should be reserved for greater privacy. This is not in the folio. 3 Commission for authority. 4 Immediacy, says Malone, is close and immediate connection with me, and direct authority from me. Immediate is the reading of the quartos. 5 Grace here means noble deportment. The folio has addition, instead of advancement, in the next line. 6 "If he were married to you, you could not say more than this, nor could he enjoy greater power." In the folio this line is given to Albany. 7 Alluding to the proverb, "Love, being jealous, makes a good eye look asquint." Reg. Lady, I am not well; else I should answer From a full-flowing stomach.-General, Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony; Gon. Half-blooded fellow, yes. Reg. Let the drum strike, and prove my title thine.3 [To EDMUND. Alb. Stay yet; hear reason. Edmund, I arrest thee On capital treason; and, in thine, attaint1 This gilded serpent. [Pointing to GoN.]-For your claim, fair sister, I bar it in the interest of my wife; 'Tis she is subcontracted to this lord, And I, her husband, contradict your bans. If will marry, make you My lady is bespoke. Gon. your love to me, An interlude! Alb. Thou art armed, Gloster.-Let the trumpet sound; If none appear to prove upon thy person, Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons, There is my pledge; [Throwing down a glove;] I'll prove it on thy heart, Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less Then I have here proclaimed thee. Reg. Gon. If not, I'll ne'er trust poison. Sick, O, sick! [Aside. Edm. There's my exchange. [Throwing down a glove.] What in the world he is 1 A metaphor taken from the camp, and signifying to surrender at discretion. This line is not in the quartos. 2 To obstruct their union lies not in your good pleasure." 3 It appears, from this speech, that Regan did not know that Albany had discharged her forces. This line is given to Edmund in the quartos 4 The folio reads "thy arrest." That names me traitor, villain-like he lies. Alb. A herald, ho! Edm. A herald, ho, a herald! Alb. Trust to thy single virtue;1 for thy soldiers, All levied in my name, have in my name Took their discharge. Reg. This sickness grows upon me Enter a Herald. Alb. She is not well; convey her to my tent. Come hither, herald.-Let the trumpet sound,— And read out this. Off. Sound, trumpet. Herald reads. [Exit REGAN, led [A trumpet sounds. If any man of quality, or degree, within the lists of the army, will maintain upon Edmund, supposed earl of Gloster, that he is a manifold traitor, le. him appear at the third sound of the trumpet. He is bold in his defence. Edm. Sound. Her. Again. [1 trumpet. Enter EDGAR, armed, preceded by a trumpet. 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 1 i. e. valor; a Roman sense of the word. Edg. Know, my name is lost; By treason's tooth bare-gnawn, and canker-bit. Yet am I noble as the adversary I come to cope withal. Alb. Which is that adversary? Edg. What's he that speaks for Edmund, earl of Gloster? Edm. Himself;—what say'st thou to him? Draw thy sword; That if my speech offend a noble heart, Thou liest. Edm. In wisdom, I should ask thy name;1 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, Where they shall rest forever.-Trumpets, speak. [Alarums. They fight; EDMUND falls. 1 Because, if his adversary was not of equal rank, Edmund might have declined the combat. 2 Say, or assay, is a sample, a taste. 3 This seems to mean "What I might safely well delay, if I acted punctiliously." This line is omitted in the quartos. 4 To that place where they shall rest forever, i. e. thy heart. |