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 crow-keeper:5 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 !6 i'the clout, i'the clout: hewgh!-Give the word.7 Edg. Sweet marjoram.

Lear. Pass.

Glo. I know that voice.

Lear. Ha! Goneril!-with a white beard!-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 ;9 when the thunder would not peace at my bidding; there I found them, there I smelt them out. Go to, they are not men o' their words: they told me, I was every thing; 'tis a lie; I am not ague-proof.

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

Lear. Ay, every inch a king:

idea; there is therefore great propriety in exhorting Gloster to free thoughts, to an emancipation of his soul from grief and despair.

JOHNSON.

[5] In several counties to this day, they call a stuffed figure, representing a man, and armed with a bow and arrow, set up to fright the crows from the fruit and corn, a crow-keeper as well as a scare-crow. THEOBALD.

This crow-keeper was so common in the author's time that it is one of the few peculiarities mentioned by Ortelius in his account of our island. JOн. [6] Lear is here raving of archery, and shooting at buts, as is plain by the words i' the clout, that is, the white mark they set up and aim at: hence the phrase, to hit the white. WARBURTON.

[7] Lear supposes himself in a garrison, and before he lets Edgar pass, requires the watch-word. JOHNSON.

[8] They played the spaniel to me. JOHNSON.

[9] This seems to be an allusion to king Canute's behaviour when his cour. tiers flattered him as lord of the sea.

STEEVENS.

[1] Trick, says Mr. Hanmer, is a word frequently used for the air, or that peculiarity in a face, voice, or gesture, which distinguishes it from others:

STEEVENS.

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 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,3 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 ;-Fye, fye, fye! 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 ruin'd 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? Your eyes are in a heavy case, your purse in a light yet you see how this world goes.

[3] Soiled horse-is a term for a horse that has been fed with hay and corn in the stable during the winter, and is turned out in the spring to take the first flush of grass, or has it cut and carried in to him. This at once cleanses the animal, and fills him with blood. STEEVENS.

Glo. I see it feelingly.

see how

Lear. What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes, with no eyes. Look with thine ears; yon' justice rails upon yon' 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 ?

Glo. Ay, sir.

Lear. And the creature run from the cur? There thou might'st 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 tatter'd clothes small vices do appear ;
Robes, and furr'd 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 :4-
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 mix'd!

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?5.

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.

[4] An old phrase signifying to qualify, or uphold them. WARBURTON: [5] Perhaps we should read,

8*

'Tis a good block.

VOL. VIII.

RITSON.

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 ransome.

I am cut to the brains.

Let me have a surgeon,

Gent. You shall have any thing.

Lear. No seconds? All myself?

Why, this would make a man, a man of salt,
To use his eyes for garden water-pots,

Ay, and for laying autumn's dust.

Gent. Good sir,

Lear. I will die bravely, like a bridegroom: What? 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.

Edg. Hail, gentle sir.

Gent. Sir, speed you: What's your will?

Edg. Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward ?. Gent. Most sure, and vulgar: every one hears that, Which can distinguish sound.

Edg. But, by your favour,

How near's the other army

?

Gent. Near, and on speedy foot; the main descry Stands on the hourly thought."

Edg. I thank you, sir: that's all.

Gent.Though that the queen on special cause is here,

Her army is mov'd on.

Edg. I thank you, sir.

[Exit Gent.

Glo. You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me ;

Let not my worser spirit tempt me again

To die before you please!

Edg. Well pray you, father.

Glo. Now, good sir, what are you?

[6] A man of salt is a man of tears.

STEEVENS.

[7] The main body is expected to be descried every hour. The expression

is harsh.

JOHNSON.

Edg. A most poor man, made tame by fortune's blows; Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows, Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand, I'll lead you to some biding.

Glo. Hearty thanks :

The bounty and the benizon of heaven

To boot, and boot!

Enter Steward.

Stew. A proclaim'd prize! Most happy!
That eyeless head of thine was first fram'd flesh
To raise my fortunes.-Thou old unhappy traitor,
Briefly thyself remember :-The sword is out
That must destroy thee.

Glo. Now let thy friendly hand

Put strength enough to it.

Stew. Wherefore, bold peasant,

[EDGAR opposes.

Dar'st thou support a publish'd traitor? Hence ;
Lest that the infection of his fortune take

Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.

Edg. Chill 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. And ch'ud ha' been zwagger'd out of my life, 'twould not ha' been zo long as 'tis by a vortnight. Nay, come not near the old man; keep out, che vor'ye, or ise try whether your costard 2 or my bat be the harder: Chi'll be plain with you.

I

Stew. Out, dunghill!

Edg. Ch'ill pick your teeth, zir: Come; no matter vor your foins. 3

[They fight; and EDGAR knocks him down. Ste.Slave, thou hast slain me:-Villain, take my purse; If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body;

And give the letters, which thou find'st about me,
To Edmund earl of Gloster; seek him out
Upon the British party :-O, untimely death!
Edg. I know thee well: A serviceable villajn ;

[Dies.

[8] Quickly recollect the past offences of thy life, and recommend thyself to heaven. WARBURTON.

In the last re

[9] Gang your gait is a common expression in the North. bellion, when the Scotch soldiers had finished their exercise, instead of our term of dismission, their phrase was gang your gaits. STEEVENS.

[1] Che vor ye-I warn you. Edgar counterfeits the western dialect. JOHNSON. [2] Costard is head. STEEVENS.

[3] To foin is to make what we call a thrust in fencing. STEEVENS.