powers,

He may enguard his dotage with their
And hold our lives in mercy. Oswald, I say!
Alb. Well, you may fear too far.
Gon.
Let me still take away the harms I fear,
Not fear still to be taken: I know his heart.
What he hath utter'd I have writ my sister:
If she sustain him and his hundred knights,
When I have show'd th' unfitness,

Safer than trust too far:

Enter Oswald.

How now, Oswald,

What, have you writ that letter to my sister?

Osw. Ay, madam.

Gon. Take you some company, and away to horse: Inform her full of my particular fear;

And thereto add such reasons of your own

As may compact it more. Go, get you gone,

And hasten your return. [Exit OSWALD.] - No, no, my

lord;

This milky gentleness and course of yours,

Though I condemn it not, yet, under pardon,

You are much more attask'd 32 for want of wisdom

Than prais'd for harmful mildness.

Alb. How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell:

Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.

Gon. Nay, then,

Alb. Well, well; the event.33

SCENE V. Court before the Same.

Enter LEAR, KENT, and the Fool.

[Exeunt.

Lear. Go you before to Gloster with these letters: Acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you know than comes from her demand out of the letter. If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there afore you.2

82 The word task is frequently used by Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the sense of tax. So, in the common phrase of our time, “Taken to task."

33 As before implied, Albany shrinks from a word-storm with his helpmate, and so tells her, in effect, "Well, let us not quarrel about it, but wait and see how your course works."

1 This instruction to Kent is very well-judged. The old King feels mortified at what has happened, and does not want Kent to volunteer any information about it to his other daughter.

2 The word there in this speech shows that when the King says, "Go you before to Gloster," he means the town of Gloster, which Shakespeare chose to make the residence of the Duke of Cornwall, to increase the probability

Kent. I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered

your letter.

[Exit.

Fool. If a man's brain were in's heels, were't not in danger of kibes ? 3

Lear. Ay, boy.

Fool. Then, I pr'ythee, be merry; thy wit shall not go slip-shod.

Lear. Ha, ha, ha!

Fool. Shalt see, thy other daughter will use thee kindly; for though she's as like this as a crab is like an apple,5 yet I can tell what I can tell.

Lear. What canst tell, boy?

Fool. She will taste as like this as a crab does to a crab. Thou canst tell why one's nose stands i' the middle on's face?

Lear. No.

Fool. Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose; that what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into. Lear. I did her wrong,.

Fool. Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?
Lear. No.

Fool. Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.

Lear. Why?

Fool. Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his daughters, and leave his horns without a case.

Lear. I will forget my nature. - So kind a father!.

Be my horses ready?

Fool. Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the seven stars are no more than seven is a pretty reason. Lear. Because they are not eight?

Fool. Yes, indeed: thou would'st make a good Fool. Lear. To take't again perforce! Monster ingrati tude!

Fool. If thou wert my Fool, nuncle, I'd have thee beaten for being old before thy time.

of their setting out late from thence on a visit to the Earl of Gloster. The old English earls usually resided in the counties from whence they took their titles. Lear, not finding his son-in-law and his wife at home, follows them to the Earl of Gloster's castle.

8 Kibe is an old name for a common heel-sore. See page 37, note 31. 4 The Fool quibbles, using kindly in two senses; as it means affectionately, and like the rest of her kind, or according to her nature. See vol. i. page 80, note 4.

5 Crab refers to the fruit of that name, not the fish.

6 Lear now begins to be stung with remorse for his treatment of Cordelia. 7. He is meditating on what he has before threatened, namely, to "resume the shape which he has cast off."

Lear. How's that?

Fool. Thou should'st not have been old before thou hadst been wise.

Lear. O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet Heaven! Keep me in temper: I would not be mad! 8.

Enter a Gentleman.

How now! Are the horses ready?

Gent. Ready, my lord.

Lear. Come, boy.

Exeunt

ACT II. SCENE I. A Court in GLOSTER'S Castle.

Enter EDMUND and CURAN, meeting.

Edm. Save thee, Curan.

Cur. And you, sir. I have been with your father, and given him notice that the Duke of Cornwall and Regan his Duchess will be here with him this night.

Edm. How comes that?

Cur. Nay, I know not. You have heard of the news abroad? I mean the whisper'd ones, for they are yet but ear-kissing arguments.1

Edm. Not I: pray you, what are they?

Cur. Have you heard of no likely wars toward 'twixt the Dukes of Cornwall and Albany?

Edm. Not a word.

Cur. You may do, then, in time. Fare you well, sir.

[Exit. Edm. The Duke be here to-night? The better! best! This weaves itself perforce into my business. My father hath set guard to take my brother; And I have one thing, of a queasy question,2 Which I must act: - briefness and fortune, work! Brother, a word; - descend:- brother, I say!

Enter EDGAR.

My father watches: O sir, fly this place;
Intelligence is given where you are hid:

8 The mind's own anticipation of madness! The deepest tragic notes are often struck by a half-sense of an impending blow.

The Fool's conclusion

of this Act by a grotesque prattling seems to indicate the dislocation of feelthat has begun and is to be continued. - Coleridge.

ing

"Ear-kissing arguments" are arguments spoken with the speaker's lips close to the hearer's ear, as if kissing him.

2 "A queasy question" is a matter delicate, ticklish, or difficult to manage; as a queasy stomach is impatient of motion.

You've now the good advantage of the night.
Have you not spoken 'gainst the Duke of Cornwall?
He's coming hither; now, i' the night, i' the haste,
And Regan with him: have you nothing said
Upon his party 'gainst the Duke of Albany?
Advise yourself.

Edg.

8

I'm sure on't, not a word.
Edm. I hear my father coming: pardon me;
In cunning I must draw my sword upon you:
Draw; seem to defend yourself: now, quit you well.
Yield; come before my father. -Light, ho, here!
Fly, brother. Torches, torches!-So, farewell.—

[Exit EDGAR

Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion

[Wounds his Arm. Of my more fierce endeavour: I've seen drunkards Do more than this in sport.*-Father, father!Stop, stop! -No help?

Enter GLOSTER, and Servants with Torches. Glos. Now, Edmund, where's the villain ?

Edm. Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out, Mumbling of wicked charms, cónjuring the Moon

To stand auspicious mistress.5

[Exeunt some Servants. By no means what? your lordship;

Edm. Persuade me to the murder of
But that I told him the revenging gods
'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend;
Spoke with how manifold and strong a bond
The child was bound to th' father; 6-sir, in fine,

3 The meaning is, have you said nothing in censure or reproof of the party he has formed against the Duke of Albany. - Advise, in the next line, is consider, reflect. See vol. i. page 103, note 25.

4 These drunken feats are mentioned in Marston's Dutch Courtezan: "Have I not been drunk for your health, eat glasses, drunk wine, stabbed arms, and done all offices of protested gallantry for your sake?"

5 Gloster has already shown himself a believer in such astrological superstitions; so that Edmund here takes hold of him by just the right handle. 6 As I have elsewhere noted, the Poet, especially in his later plays, often elides the, so as to make it coalesce with the preceding word into one syllable. So, here, to th' is one syllable. In like manner, we have for th', by th’,

Seeing how lothly opposite I stood
To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion,
With his prepared sword he charges home
My unprovided body, lanc'd mine arm:
But when he saw my best alarum'd spirits,
Bold in the quarrel's right, rous'd to th' encounter,
Or whether gasted by the noise I made,
Full suddenly he fled.

Glos.

Let him fly far:

Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;

And, found, despatch. The noble Duke my master,
My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night:

8

By his authority I will proclaim it,

That he which finds him shall deserve our thanks,
Bringing the murderous coward to the stake;
He that conceals him, death.

Edm. When I dissuaded him from his intent,
And found him pight to do it, with curst speech
I threaten'd to discover him. He replied,
Thou unpossessing bastard! dost thou think,
If I would stand against thee, would the reposal
Of any trust, virtue, or worth, in thee

Make thy words faith'd? No: what I should deny,-
As this I would; ay, though thou didst produce

My very character,10

I'd turn it all

To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practice:
And thou must make a dullard of the world,
If they not thought the profits of my death
Were very pregnant and potential spurs

To make thee seek it.

Glos.

Strong and fasten'd" villain! Would he deny his letter?

[Tucket within. Hark, the Duke's trumpets! I know not why he comes.— All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not 'scape;

The Duke must grant me that: besides, his picture
I will send far and near, that all the kingdom

May have due note of him; and of my land,

from th', and sometimes wi' th'; a double elision, to make one syllable of with and the. See page 83, note 9.

7 That is, aghasted, frighted. Thus in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit at Several Weapons: "Either the sight of the lady has gasted him, or else he's drunk."

8 Arch is chief; a word now only used in composition, as arch-angel, arch-duke, &c.

9 Pight is pitched, fixed; curst is an epithet applied to any bad quality in excess; as a malignant, quarrelsome, or scolding temper.

10 Character here means hand-writing or signature. See page 161, note 5. 11 Strong and fasten'd is resolute and confirmed. Strong was often used in a bad sense, as strong thief, strong traitor."