No blown ambition doth our arms incite,

But love, dear love, and our ag'd father's right:
Soon may I hear, and see him.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. A Room in Gloster's Castle.

Enter REGAN and Steward.

Reg. But are my brother's powers set forth?

Stew.

Ay, madam.

Reg.

Himself

In person there?

Stew.

Madam, with much ado:

Your sister is the better soldier.

Reg. Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home?

Stew. No, madam.

Reg. What might import my sister's letter to him? Stew. I know not, lady.

Reg. 'Faith, he is posted hence on serious matter. It was great ignorance, Gloster's eyes being out, To let him live; where he arrives, he moves All hearts against us: Edmund, I think, is gone, In pity of his misery, to despatch

His nighted life 1; moreover, to descry

The strength o'the enemy.

Stew. I must needs after him, madam, with my letter.

Reg. Our troops set forth to-morrow; stay with us; The ways are dangerous.

7 No inflated, no swelling pride.

Quam bene te ambitio mersit vanissima, ventus,

Et tumidos tumidæ vos superastis aquæ.'

Baza on the Spanish Armada.

So in The Little French Lawyer of Beaumont and Fletcher:— 'I come with no blown spirit to abuse you.'

1 i. e. his life made dark as night, by the extinction of his

eyes.

Stew.

I may not, madam;

My lady charg'd my duty in this business.

Reg. Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you

Transport her purposes by word? Belike,

Something I know not what:-I'll love thee much, Let me unseal the letter 2.

Stew.

Madam, I had ratherReg. I know, your lady does not love her husband; I am sure of that: and, at her late being here, She gave strange œiliads 3, and most speaking looks To noble Edmund: I know, you are of her bosom. Stew. I, madam?

3

Reg. I speak in understanding; you are, I know it: Therefore, I do advise you, take this note*: My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd; And more convenient is he for my hand, Than for your lady's :-You may gather more 5 If you do find him, pray you, give him this "; And when your mistress hears thus much from I pray, desire her call her wisdom to her. So, fare

If

you well.

you do chance to hear of that blind traitor, Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.

you,

2 I know not well (says Johnson) why Shakspeare gives the Steward, who is a mere factor for wickedness, so much fidelity. He now refuses the letter; and afterwards, when he is dying, thinks only how it may be safely delivered.'-Johnson.

Surely when Dr. Johnson made this note, he did not recollect the character Edgar gives of this Steward after he is dead :"As duteous to the vices of thy mistress As badness could require."

• Fidelity in agents of wickedness is, I fear, not so uncommon as to be unfit for the general probability of dramatic manners.'

3 Eillade, Fr. a cast, or significant glance of the eye.

4 That is, observe what I am saying.

5 You may infer more than I have directly told you.

Pye.

6 Perhaps a ring, or some token, is given to the steward by Regan to be conveyed to Edmund.

Stew. 'Would, I could meet him, madam! I

would show

What party I do follow.

Reg.

Fare thee well. [Exeunt.

SCENE VI1. The Country near Dover.

Enter GLOSTER, and EDGAR, dressed like a Peasant.

Glo. When shall we come to the top of that same hill?

Edg. You do climb up it now: look,how we labour. Glo. Methinks the ground is even.

Edg.

Hark, do you hear the sea?

Glo.

Horrible steep:

No, truly2.

Edg. Why, then your other senses grow imperfect By your eyes' anguish.

Glo. So may it be, indeed : Methinks, thy voice is alter'd3; and thou speak'st In better phrase, and matter, than thou didst.

Edg. You are much deceiv'd; in nothing am I chang'd,

But in my garments.

Glo.

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

And dizzy 'tis, 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

1 This scene, and the stratagem by which Gloster is cured of his desperation, are wholly borrowed from Sidney's Arcadia, book ii.

2 Something to complete the measure seems wanting in this or the foregoing hemistich. The quartos read as one line :— 'Horrible steep: hark, do you hear the sea?'

3 Edgar alters his voice in order to pass afterwards for a malignant spirit.

Hangs one that gathers samphire*; dreadful trade!
Methinks, he seems no bigger than his head:
The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yon' tall anchoring bark,
Diminish'd to her cock 5; her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight: The murmuring surge,
That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high;-I'll look no more;
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong.

Glo.

Set me where you stand. Edg. Give me your hand: You are now within

a foot

Of the extreme verge for all beneath the moon
Would I not leap upright.

Glo.

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 further off;

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

Glo.

O you mighty gods!

4 Samphire grows in great plenty on most of the sea-cliff's in this country: it is terrible to see how people gather it, hanging by a rope several fathom from the top of the impending rocks, as it were in the air.-Smith's History of Waterford, p. 315, edit. 1774. Dover Cliff was particularly resorted to for this plant, according to Drayton, Polyolbion, b. xviii. :

'Rob Dover's neighbouring cleeves of samphire, to excite His dull and sickly taste, and stir up appetite.'

It is still eaten as a pickle in those parts of England bordering on the southern coast.

5 i. e. her cock-boat. Hence the term cock-swain.

6 To topple is to tumble: the word is again used in Macbeth. So in Nashe's Lenten Stuffe, 1599:- Fifty people toppled up their beels there.'

This world I do renounce; and, in your sights,
Shake patiently my great affliction off:
If I could bear it longer, and not fall
To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
My snuff, and loathed part of nature, should
Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O bless him!-
Now, fellow, fare thee well.

Edg.

[He leaps, and falls along.

Gone, sir? farewell.

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

Yields to the theft?: Had he been where he thought,
By this, had thought been past.-Alive, or dead?
Ho, you sir! friend!-Hear you, sir?-speak!
Thus might he pass indeed3:-Yet he revives:
What are you, sir?

Glo.

Away, and let me die.

Edg. Had'st thou been ought but gossomer?, feathers, air,

So many fathom down precipitating,

Thou had'st shiver'd like an egg: but thou dost breathe;

Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound.

Ten masts at each 10 make not the altitude,

7 That is, when life is willing to be destroyed.

8 Thus might he die in reality. We still use the word passingbell. So in King Henry VI. Part II. :

Disturb him not, let him pass peaceably.'

9 The substance called gossamer is formed of the collected webs of flying spiders, and during calm weather in autumn sometimes fall in amazing quantities.'-Holt White. Some think it the down of plants; others the vapour arising from boggy or marshy ground in warm weather. The etymon of this word, which has puzzled the lexicographers, is said to be summer goose or summer gauze, hence gauze o'the summer,' its well known name in the north. See Hora Momentæ Cravenæ, or the Craven Dialect Exemplified,' 1824, 8vo. p. 79.

10 i. e. drawn out at length, or each added to the other. Eche, exp. draw out, ab A. S. elcan, elcian, Diferre, vel à verb. to eak.'