Search every acre in the high-grown field,

And bring him to our eye. [Exit an Officer.] — What can

man's wisdom

In the restoring his bereavèd sense?

He that helps him take all my outward worth.
Doct. There is means, madam :

Our foster-nurse of nature is repose,

The which he lacks; that to provoke in him
Are many simples 2 operative, whose power
Will close the eye of anguish.

Cord.

All bless'd secrets,

All you unpublish'd virtues of the Earth,

Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate
In the good man's distress!-Seek, seek for him;
Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life

That wants the means to lead it.

Mess.

Enter a Messenger.

News, madam;

The British powers are marching hitherward.

Cord. 'Tis known before; our preparation stands In expectation of them. - *O dear father,

*It is thy business that I go about;

*Therefore great France

*My mourning and important3 tears hath pitied.

makes an apt antithesis to idle weeds, — idle as being useless.— A century is, properly, a troop of a hundred men. Hence the commander of such a troop was called a centurion.

2 Simples properly meant medicinal herbs, but was used for medicines in general. Upon this remarkable passage Dr. A. O. Kellogg comments as follows: "This reply is significant, and worthy of careful attention, as embracing a brief summary of almost the only true principles recognized by modern science, and now carried out by the most eminent physicians in the treatment of the insane."

3 Important for importunate. See vol. iv. page 173, note 4.

*No blown ambition doth our arms incite,

*But love, dear love, and our aged father's right : *Soon may I hear and see him!

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. A Room in GLOSTER'S Castle.

Enter REGAN and OSWALD.

Reg. But are my brother's powers set forth?
Osw.

Reg. Himself in person there?
Osw.

Your sister is the better soldier.

Ay, madam.

Madam, with much ado.

Reg. Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home?

Osw. No, madam.

Reg. What might import my sister's letter to him?

Osw. I know not, lady.

Reg. Faith, he is posted hence on serious matter.

It was great ignorance, Gloster's eyes being out,
To let him live: where he arrives he moves

All hearts against us. Edmund, I think, is gone,
In pity of his misery, to dispatch

His nighted life; moreover, to descry

The strength o' the enemy.

Osw. I must needs after him, madam, with my letter. Reg. Our troops set forth to-morrow: stay with us; The ways are dangerous.

Osw.

I may not, madam :

My lady charged my duty in this business.

Reg. Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you Transport her purposes by word? Belike,

Something I know not what: I'll love thee much;

-

Let me unseal the letter.

4 Blown, here, is swollen, inflated, puffed. See vol. v. page 181, note 8.

Osw.

Madam, I had rather

Reg. I know your lady does not love her husband;
I'm sure of that: and at her late being here
She gave strange œilliads1 and most speaking looks
To noble Edmnnd. I know you're of her bosom.2
Osw. I, madam?

3

Reg. I speak in understanding; you are, I know't:
Therefore I do advise you, take this note :
My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd;
And more convenient is he for my hand
Than for your lady's: you may gather more.4

5

If you do find him, pray you, give him this;
And, when your mistress hears thus much from you,
desire her call her wisdom to her.6

I

pray,

If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,

Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.

Osw. Would I could meet him, madam! I would show What party I do follow.

Reg.

Fare thee well.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.- The Country near Dover.

Enter GLOSTER, and EDGAR dressed like a Peasant. Glos. When shall I come to th' top of that same hill? Edg. You do climb up it now: look, how we labour.

1 Eye-glances. Cotgrave's French Dictionary: "Oeillade: An amorous looke, affectionate wink, wanton aspect, or passionate cast of the eye." 2 In her confidence; or, as we should say, her bosom confidant. 3" Take note, or knowledge, of this." See page 78, note 3.

4" You may infer more than I have told you.'

5 Probably handing him a ring or some token for Edmund.

6 Regan's cold, penetrating virulence is well shown in this. The plain English of it is, "Tell her to do her worst, and help herself, if she can." 7 Preferment for promotion or advancement. Repeatedly so.

Edg. Why, then your other senses grow imperfect

By your eyes' anguish.

Glos.

So may't be, indeed:

Methinks thy voice is alter'd, and thou speak'st

In better phrase and matter than thou didst.

Edg. You're much deceived; in nothing am I changed But in my garments.

Glos.

Methinks you're 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
Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire,1 dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head :
The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,
Diminish'd to her cock; 2 her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge,
That on th' unnumber'd 3 idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more;
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight

1 In Shakespeare's time the cliffs of Dover were noted for the production of this plant. It is thus spoken of in Smith's History of Waterford, 1774: 'Samphire grows in great plenty on most of the sea-cliffs in this country. It is terrible to see how people gather it, hanging by a rope several fathom from the top of the impending rocks, as it were in the air." It was made into a pickle and eaten as a relish.

2 That is, her cock-boat. Hence the term cock-swain.

3 Unnumber'd for innumerable; a frequent usage in old writers, and not without examples now. See page 43, note 34.

Topple down headlong.

Glos.

Set me where you stand.

Edg. Give me your hand. You're now within a foot
Of th' extreme verge for all beneath the Moon
Would I not leap upright.4

Glos.

Let go my hand.

Here, friend, 's another purse; in it a jewel

Well worth a poor man's taking fairies and gods

:

Prosper it with thee! Go thou further off;

Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.
Edg. Now fare you well, good sir.

Glos.

With all my heart.

Edg. [Aside.] Why I do trifle thus with his despair

Is done to cure it.

Glos. [Kneeling.] O you mighty gods!

This world I do renounce, and, in your sights,
Shake patiently my great affliction off:

If I could bear it longer, and not fall

To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
My snuff and loathed part of nature should

Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him! -
Now, fellow, fare thee well.

Edg.

Gone, sir: farewell.

[GLOSTER throws himself forward, and falls. may rob

[Aside.] And yet I know not how conceit The treasury of life,5 when life itself

4 Heath's explanation is probably right: "This expression was purposely intended to heighten the horror of the description, and to affect the reader's imagination the more strongly. The spot is therefore represented as so extremely near the edge of the precipice, that there was the utmost hazard in leaping even upright upon it."

5 Conceit in its old sense of conception or imagination.- How must here be taken as equivalent to whether or but that. So that the meaning comes something thus: "When one is thus longing to die, I do not know but that the mere imagination of such a leap, or such a fall, might be the death of