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Gloster.

So may it be, indeed.

Methinks, thy voice is alter'd; and thou speak'st
In better phrase, and matter, than thou didst.

1

Edgar. Y' are much deceiv'd: in nothing am I chang'd, But in my garments. Glos!

Methinks, you are better spoken.2
Edg. Come on, Sir; here's the place: stand still.
How fearful,

And dizzy 't is 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 samphire3; dreadful trade!
Methinks, he seems no bigger than his head.
The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yond' tall anchoring bark,
Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge,
That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high.

I'll look no more;

Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight5
Topple down headlong.

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.
Let go my hand.
Here, friend, is another purse; in it, a jewel
Well worth a poor man's taking: fairies and gods
Prosper it with thee! Go thou farther off;

Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.
Edg. Now fare you well, good Sir.
Glos.
With all my heart.
Edg. Why I do trifle thus with his despair,
Is done to cure it.

Glos.
O, you mighty gods!
This world I do renounce, and in your sights

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;
If I could bear it longer, and not falli
To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
My snuff, and loathed part of nature,2 should
Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!
Now, fellow, fare thee well.

Edgar.

Gone, Sir: farewell.

[GLOSTER leaps, and falls along.

And yet I know not how conceit may rob
The treasury of life, when life itself

Alive, or dead?"

Hear you, Sir?

speak!

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Yelds to the theft:3 had he been where he thought,
By this had thought been past.
Ho, you Sir! friend!
Thus might he pass indeed ;*
What are you, Sir?
Gloster.

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;
Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound.
Ten masts at each 5 make not the altitude,

Which thou hast perpendicularly fell:
Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again.

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
Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.

Glos. Alack! I have no eyes.

Is wretchedness depriv'd that benefit,

To end itself by death? T was yet some comfort,
When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage,
And frustrate his proud will.

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.

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Upon the crown o' the cliff, what thing was that
Which parted from you?

Gloster.

A poor unfortunate beggar.
Edgar. As I stood here below, methought, his eyes
Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses,
Horns whelk'd, and wav'd like the enridged sea:
It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father,
Think that the clearest 2 gods, who make them honours
Of men's impossibilities,3 have preserv'd thee.

Glos. I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear
Affliction, till it do cry out itself

"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
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.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

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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.

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Gloster. I know that voice.

Lear. Ha! Goneril! with a white beard!

1

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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:
When I do stare, see, how the subject quakes.
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 Gloster'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,

Whose face between her forks presageth snow; 3
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,

"such a

forks, legs: See page 61,
poor, bare, fork'd animal as thou art."

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!

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