Glo. Alack, I have no eyes.— Is wretchedness depriv'd that benefit, To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort, And frustrate his proud will. Edg. Give me your arm: Up;-So;-How is't? Feel you your legs? You stand. Glo. Too well, too well. This is above all strangeness. Edg. 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 Enough, enough, and, die. That thing you speak of, 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 5 Horns whelk'd,] Whelk'd, signifies varied with protuberances ; or twisted, convolved. 6 the clearest gods,] The purest; the most free from evil. 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. 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; 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 voice1 I do well remember: Is't not the king? Lear. Ay, every inch a king: When I do stare, see, how the subject quakes. Thou shalt not die: Die for adultery! No: 7 That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper :] 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. 8 the brown-bills.] A bill was a kind of battle-axe, affixed to a long staff. O, well-flown, bird! — i̇'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. 1 The trick of that voicethe air, or that peculiarity in guishes it from others. Trick is a word frequently used for a face, voice, or gesture, which distin The wren goes to't, and the small gilded fly Let copulation thrive, for Gloster's bastard son To't, luxury, pell-mell, for I lack soldiers.— Whose face between her forks presageth snow; The fitchew, nor the soiled horse, goes to't Down from the waist they are centaurs, But to the girdle2 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 2 But to the girdle, &c.] But is here used for only. 3 Dost thou squiny at me?] To squiny is to look asquint. 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. world goes, with no eyes. 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; To see the things thou dost not. Now, now, now, now: 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. 4 I'll able 'em:] An old phrase signifying to qualify, or uphold them. 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; Enter a Gentleman, with Attendants. Gent. O, here he is; lay hand upon him. - Sir, Lear. No rescue? What, Gent. a prisoner? I am even Use me well; Let me have a surgeon, You shall have any thing. Lear. No seconds? All myself? Why, this would make a man, a man of salt, 3 Ay, and for laying autumn's dust. Gent. Good sir, 5 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. 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. 5 — a man of salt,] A man of salt is a man of tears. |