Gloster. So may it be, indeed. Methinks, thy voice is alter'd; and thou speak'st 1 Edgar. Y' are much deceiv'd: in nothing am I chang'd, But in my garments. Glos! Methinks, you are better spoken.2 And dizzy 't is to cast one's eyes so low! I'll look no more; Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight5 Glos. Set me where you stand. Edg. Give me your hand; you are now within a foot Of th' extreme verge: for all beneath the moon Would I not leap upright." Glos. Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going. Glos. 1. Matter, contents, i. e. in better form, and with more sense. 2. i. e. you are better of speech, or, you speak in better terms. 3. Samphire is a herb growing on the seashore and on cliffs, of which in old times a pickle was made in England. 4. i. e. to the size of her cock-boat. 5. i. e. and I, being deficient in sight, &c. 6. i. e. upwards. Shake patiently my great affliction off; Edgar. Gone, Sir: farewell. [GLOSTER leaps, and falls along. And yet I know not how conceit may rob Alive, or dead?" Hear you, Sir? speak! Yelds to the theft:3 had he been where he thought, yet he revives. Away, and let me die. Edgar. Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air, So many fathom down precipitating, Thou 'dst shiver'd like an egg: but thou dost breathe; Which thou hast perpendicularly fell: Glos. But have I fallen, or no? Edg. From the dread summit of this chalky bourn. Look up a-height; the shrill-gorg'd lark so far Glos. Alack! I have no eyes. Is wretchedness depriv'd that benefit, To end itself by death? T was yet some comfort, Edg. Up: so; Give me your arm: how is 't? Feel you your legs? You stand. Glos. Too well, too well. Edg. 1. To fall to, to apply oneself to. 2. i. e. the snuff, or wick, of the loathed remainder of my life. 3. And yet I know not how imagination can be said to rob, in destroying life, when life itself is willing to be destroyed. This is above all strangeness. Upon the crown o' the cliff, what thing was that Gloster. A poor unfortunate beggar. Glos. I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear "Enough, enough!" and die. That thing you speak of, I took it for a man; often 't would say, "The fiend, the fiend:" he led me to that place. Edg. Bear free and patient thoughts. But who comes here? Enter LEAR, fantastically dressed with wild Flowers. The safer 4 sense will ne'er accommodate 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.5 That fellow handles his bow like a crowkeeper: draw me a clothier's yard. Look, look! a mouse. Peace, peace! this piece of toasted cheese will do 't. There's my gauntlet; I'll prove it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills.8 Ó, well flown, bird! i' the clout, i' the clout: hewgh!9 Give the word. 10 8. A bill, the old weapon of the English infantry, was a sort of battleaxe with a long handle; and brown bills are occasionally mentioned by writers of Shakspeare's age, perhaps meaning the bearers. 9. Lear is here raving of archery; by bird he means arrow; the clout is the white mark in the centre of the target, which we now call the bull'seye, possibly so called from the clout, or pin, by which the target was suspended. 10. i. e. the pass-word, as demanded by a sentinel on duty. Gloster. I know that voice. Lear. Ha! Goneril! with a white beard! 1 They flatter'd 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 every thing I said! "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, cey are not men o' their words: they told me I was every thing; 't is a lie, I am not ague-proof. Glos. The trick 2 of that voice I do well remember: Is 't not the king? Lear. Ay, every inch a king: Thou shalt not die: die for adultery? No: Let copulation thrive; for Gloster's bastard son To 't, luxury, pell-mell, for I lack soldiers. Whose face between her forks presageth snow; 3 The fitchew, nor the soiled horse," goes to 't With a more riotous appetite. Down from the waist they are centaurs, "such a forks, legs: See page 61, 1. To say "ay" and "no" together looks she must be of a cold nature; was not according to Scripture: referring to Matthew v. ver. 37: "But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." 2. Trick signifies any peculiarity in voice, gesture, or feature, which distinguishes one person from another. 3. Whose face presageth snow between her forks; meaning, that by her 4. i. e. That affects the coy timidity of virtue. To mince, is usually applied to the speech or the gait, signifying affected modesty. 5. Fitchew, an animal of the weasel kind. 6. To soil a horse is to put him to grass in the spring. Though women all above: But to the girdle do the gods inherit, Beneath is all the fiends': there 's hell, there 's darkness, there is the sulphurous pit, burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie, fie, fie! pah; pah! Give me an ounce of civet,2 good apothecary, 'to sweeten my imagination: there's money for thee. Gloster. O, let me kiss that hand! Lear. Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality. Glos. O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world Shall so wear out to nought. Dost thou know me? 3 Lear. I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid; I 'll not love. Read thou this challenge: mark but the penning of it. Glos. Were all the letters suns, I could not see one. Edgar. I would not take this from report; it is, And my heart breaks at it. Lear. Read, Glos. What! with the case of eyes?4 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: yet you see how this world goes. 5 Glos. 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? Glos. Ay, Sir. 6 Lear. And the creature 7 run from the cur? There thou might'st behold the great image of authority: a dog's obey'd in office. Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand! |