Glo. A poor unfortunate beggar. Edg. 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 gods, who make them honours Of men's impossibilities, have preserv'd thee.

Glo. 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 'twould 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 crow keeper: 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.

d whelk'd,] i. e. Twisted, convolved; from a welk or whilk, a small shell

fish.-MALONE.

e

the clearest gods,] The purest; the most free from evil.-JOHNSON. f Of men's impossibilities,] i. e. Of things which appear impossibilities to mere mortal beings.-STEEVENS.

g- free thoughts.-] i. e. Not having the mind chained down to one painful idea.-JOHNSON.

h -press-money.] i. e. Money which was paid to soldiers when they were retained in the king's service. It was felony to withdraw yourself from the king's service after the receipt of this money, without special leave.-DOUCE. i crow-keeper:] i. e. A person employed to drive the crows from the field.-NARES.

k—a clothier's yard.—] i. e. "An arrow of a cloth-yard long," such as we read of in Chevy Chase.

11 the brown bills.-] A bill was a kind of battle-axe, affixed to a long staff. STEEVENS.

m

- O, well-flown, bird!-i'the clout, &c.] Lear is here raving of archery, and shooting at buts, as is plain by the words 'the clout, that is, the white mark they set up and aim at; hence the phrase, to hit the white.-WARBURTON.

Edg. Sweet marjoram.

Lear. Pass.

in

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 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 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 agueproof.

Glo. The trick 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 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,

P

luxury,] i. e. Incontinency.

- fitchew,] i. e. The polecat:

soiled horse,] i. e. A horse fed with hay and corn in the stable during the winter, and turned out in the spring to take the first flush of grass, or has it cut and carried to him. This at once cleanses the animal, and fills him with blood.-STEEVENS.

But-] For only.

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.

Glo. 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 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;

г

squiny-] i. e. Look asquint.

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 :"
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?— 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 ransome.

I am cut to the brains.

t

Gent.

Let me have a surgeon,

You shall have any thing.

I'll able 'em:] An old phrase signifying to qualify, or uphold them. This a good block?-] Before the king's saying, I will preach to thee, the poet seems to have meant him to pull off his hat, and keep turning it and feeling it, in the attitude of one of the preachers of those times (whom I have seen represented so in ancient prints), till the idea of felt, which the good hat or block was made of, raises the stratagem in his brain of shoeing a troop of horse with a substance the same as that which he held and moulded between his hands. STEEVENS.

kill, kill, &c.] Formerly the word given in the English army when an onset was made on the enemy.-MALONE.

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.

Sir, speed you: What's

your will?

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

Edg.

How near's the other army?

But, by your favour,

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?

Edg. A most poor man, made tame by fortune's blows;

a man of salt,] i. e. A man of tears.-MALONE.

Then there's life in it.] The case is not yet desperate.-JOHNSON.

the main descry

Stands on the hourly thought.] The main body is expected to be descry'd every hour. The expression is harsh.-JOHNSON.