and intelligent betwixt us. Farewell, dear sister;farewell, my lord of Gloster1. Enter Steward. How now? Where's the king? Stew. My lord of Gloster hath convey'd him hence: Some five or six and thirty of his knights, 2 Hot questrists after him, met him at gate; Corn. Get horses for your mistress. [Exeunt GONERIL and EDMUND. Corn. Edmund, farewell.-Go, seek the traitor Gloster, Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us. [Exeunt other Servants. Though well we may not pass upon his life Re-enter Servants, with GLOster. Reg. Ingrateful fox! 'tis he. Corn. Bind fast his corky arms. 1 Meaning Edmund invested with his father's titles. The Steward, speaking immediately after, mentions the old earl by the same title. 2 A questrist is one who goes in quest or search of another. 3 I Do a courtesy to our wrath,' simply means bend to our wrath, as a courtesy is made by bending the body. To pass on any one may be traced from Magna Charta :- Neque super eum ibimus, nisi per legale judicuum parium suorum.' It is common to most of our early writers-' A jury of devils impanneled and deeply sworne to pass on all villains in hell.'-If this be not a Good Play the Devil is in it, 1612. 4 i. e. dry, wither'd, husky arms. This epithet was perhaps Glo. What mean your graces ? Good my friends, consider You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends. Corn. Bind him, Reg. I say. [Servants bind him. 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! Glo. Reg. Be simple answer'd, for we know the truth. traitors Late footed in the kingdom? Reg. To whose hands have you sent the lunatick king? Speak. Glo. I have a letter guessingly set down, Which came from one that's of a neutral heart, And not from one 'oppos'd. Corn. Cunning. And false. borrowed from Harsenet:-It would pose all the cunning exorcists that are this day to be found, to teach an old corkie woman to writhe, tumble, curvet, and fetch her morice gambols as Martha Bressier did.' 5 i. e. quicken into life. 6 Favours mean the same as features; that is, the different parts of which a face is composed. Corn. Where hast thou sent the king? Glo. Reg. To Dover. Wherefore To Dover? Wast thou not charg'd at peril- that. Glo. I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course. 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. The sea, with such a storm as his bare head 10 If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time, Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot 12. [GLOSTER is held down in his Chair, while CORNWALL plucks out one of his Eyes, and sets his Foot on it. 7 So in Macbeth : They have chain'd me to a stake; I cannot fly, But, bear-like, I must fight the course.' 8 The quarto reads, 'rash boarish fangs.' To rash is the old hunting term for the stroke made by a wild boar with his fangs. 9 Starred. 10 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 : in this so sterne a time Of night and danger.' 11 i. e. yielded, submitted to the necessity of the occasion. 12 This horrible exhibition is not more sanguinary than that of 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. Hold your hand, my lord: I have serv'd 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? Serv. If you did wear a beard upon your chin, I'd shake it on this quarrel; What do Corn. My villain 13! you mean? [Draws, and runs at him. 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. some contemporary dramas. In Selimus, Emperor of the Turks, one of the sons of Bajazet, pulls out the eyes of an Aga on the stage, and says: 'Yes, thou shalt live, but never see that day, Wanting the tapers that should give thee light. [Pulls out his eyes.' Immediately after his hands are cut off on the stage. In Marston's Antonio's Revenge, 1602, Piero's tongue is torn out on the stage. 13 Villain is perhaps here used in its original sense, of one in servitude. Glo. All dark and comfortless.-Where's my son Edmund? Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature, To quit 14 this horrid act. Reg. Out, treacherous villain! Thou call'st on him that hates thee: it was he Who is too good to pity thee. Glo. Then Edgar was abus'd. 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 receiv'd 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. 1 Serv. I'll never care what wickedness I do 16, If this man comes to good. 2 Serv. 1 Serv. Let's follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam 14 Requite. 15 Overture here means an opening, a discovery. 'It was he who first laid thy treasons open to us.' 16 This short dialogue is only found in the quartos. It is, as Theobald observes, full of nature. Servants could hardly see such barbarity committed without pity; and the vengeance that they presume must overtake the actors of it, is a sentiment and doctrine well worthy of the stage and of the great moral poet. 17 i. e. die a natural death. |