SCENE IV. The same. A Tent. Enter CORDELIA, Physician, and Soldiers. Cor. Alack, 'tis he! Why, he was met even now As mad as the vexéd sea: singing aloud; Crowned with rank fumiter and furrow weeds, With harlocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow In our sustaining corn.-A century send forth: Search every acre in the high-grown field, And bring him to our eye. [Exit an Officer. -What can man's wisdom do,

In the restoring his bereavéd sense?

He that helps him, take all my outward worth.
Phy. There is means, madam.
Our foster-nurse of nature is repose,
The which he lacks: that to provoke in him,
Are many simples operative, whose power
Will close the eye of anguish.

Transport her purposes by word? Belike,
Something I know not what
much,

Let me unseal the letter.
Stew. Madam, I had rather-
Reg. I know your lady does not love her husband;
I am sure of that: and, at her late being here,
She gave strange œiliads and most speaking looks
To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom.
Stew. I, madam!

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 talked;
And more convenient is he for my hand
Than for your lady's :—you may gather more.
If you do find him, pray you, give him this:
And when your mistress hears thus much from
you,

I pray, desire her call her wisdom to her.
So fare you well.

If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,
Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.
Stew. 'Would I could meet him, madam! I
would shew

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,
Shew scarce so gross as beetles. Half way down
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
Diminished to her cock: her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge,
That on the unnumbered 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.

Edg. Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,

So many fathom down precipitating, Thou hadst shivered like an egg: but thou dost breathe;

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

Ten masts at each make not the altitude
Which thou hast perpendicularly fell :
Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again.

Glo. But have I fallen, or no?

Edg. From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.
Look up a-height: the shrill-gorged lark so far
Cannot be seen or heard. Do but look up.
Glo. Alack, I have no eyes.—

Is wretchedness deprived that benefit
To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort
When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage,
And frustrate his proud will.

Edg. Give me your arm: Up-so.-How is 't? Feel you your legs? You stand.

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 up with flowers.
The safer 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.--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.-O, well flown, bird! i' the clout, i' the clout: hewgh!-Give the word. Edg. Sweet marjoram.

Lear. Pass.

Glo. I know that voice.

Lear. Ha! Goneril!-with a white beard!— They flattered 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 everything 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 them, there I smelt them out. they are not men o' their words: they told me I was everything: 't is a lie; I am not ague-proof.

Go to,

Glo. The trick of that voice I do well remember: Is 't not the King?

Ay, every inch a king:

Lear.
When I do stare, see how the subject quakes!—
I pardon the 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 yon' simpering dame,

Whose face between her forks presageth snow;
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,
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, fic, fie!
pah; pah! Give me an ounce of civet, good
apothecary, to sweeten my imagination: there's
money for thee.

Glo. O let me kiss that hand!

Lear. Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality. Glo. O ruined piece of nature! This great world Shall so wear out to nought.-Dost thou know me? 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.

Glo. Were all the letters suns, I could not

see one.

Edg. I would not take this from report :—it is, And my heart breaks at it.

Lear. Read.

Glo. What, with the case of eyes?

Lear. O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your head, nor no money in your purse?

Lear. And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst behold the great image of authority: a dog's obeyed in office.

Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand : Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back:

Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind For which thou whipp'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener.

Through tattered clothes small vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,

And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks : Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it. None does offend; none, I say, none: I'll able 'em : Take that of me, my friend, who have the power To seal the accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes; And, like a scurvy politician, seem

To see the things thou dost not.-Now, now, now, now :

Pull off my boots :-harder, harder: so.

Edg. O, matter and impertinency mixed! Reason in madness!

Lear. If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my

eyes.

I know thee well enough: thy name is Gloster. Thou must be patient: we came crying hither. Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air, We wawl and cry.-I will preach to thee: mark

me.

Glo. Alack, alack the day!

Lear. When we are born, we cry that we are

come

To this great stage of fools.-This a good block?-It were a delicate stratagem to shoe

A troop of horse with felt! I'll put it in proof; And when I have stolen upon these sons-in-law, Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.

Enter a Gentleman, with Attendants. Gent. O, here he is: lay hand upon him.—Sir, Your most dear daughter

Lear. No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even The natural fool of fortune.-Use me well: You shall have ransom. Let me have a surgeon: I am cut to the brains.

I will be jovial.-Come, come: I am a king,
My masters: know you that?

Gent. You are a royal one, and we obey you. Lear. Then there's life in it.-Nay, an you get it, you shall get it by running. Sa, sa, sa, sa! [Exit, running; Attendants follow. Gent. A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch; Past speaking of in a king!-Thou hast one daughter,

Who redeems nature from the general curse
Which twain have brought her to.

Glo.

Now let thy friendly hand

Put strength enough to it. [EDGAR opposes.
Stew. Wherefore, bold peasant,

Dar'st thou support a published traitor? Hence;
Lest that the infection of his fortune take
Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.

Edg. Ch'ill not let go, zir, without vurther

'casion.

Stew. Let go, slave, or thou diest.

Edg. Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor volk pass. An ch 'ud ha' been zwaggered out of my life, 't would not ha' been zo long as 't is by a vortnight. Nay, come not near th' old man keep out, che vor' ye, or ise try whether your costard or my bat be the harder. Ch'ill be plain with you.

Stew. Out, dunghill!

He had no other death's-man.-Let us see: Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not: To know our enemies' minds, we'd rip their hearts;

Their papers, is more lawful.

Reads.

"Let our reciprocal vows be remembered. You have many opportunities to cut him off: if your will want not, time and place will be fruitfully offered. There is nothing done if he return the conqueror: then am I the prisoner, and his bed my gaol; from the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply the place for your labour.

"Your wife (so I would say) and your affectionate "GONERIL."

servant,

O undistinguished space of woman's will!
A plot upon her virtuous husband's life ;
And the exchange, my brother!-Here, in the

sands,

Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified

Of murderous lechers: and, in the mature time,