Glo. Here, take this purse, thou whom the heaven's plagues Have humbled to all strokes that I am wretched, That slaves your ordinance, 9 that will not see And each man have enough.—Dost thou know Dover? Glo. There is a cliff, whose high and bending head Looks fearfully in the confined deep : Bring me but to the very brim of it, And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear, With something rich about me: from that place I shall no leading need. Edg. Give me thy arm; Poor Tom shall lead thee.. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Enter GONERIL and Before the Duke of ALBANY's Palace. EDMUND; Steward meeting them. Gon. Welcome, my lord: I marvel, our mild husband' Not met us on the way :-Now, where's your master? Stew. Madam, within ; but never man so chang'd: I told him of the army that was landed; He smild at it: I told him, you were coming; When I inform'd him, then he call'd me sot;: Gon. Then shall you go no further. [TO EDMUND. ed on the confession of the parties concerned, and the contrivers of it deser. vedly punished. The five devils here mentioned, are the names of five of those who were made to act in this farce upon the chamber-maids and waiting-women; and they were generally so ridiculously nick named, that Harsnet has one chapter on the strange names of their devils lest," said he, "meeting them otherwise by chance, you mistake them for the names of "tapsters or jugglers." WARBURTON. [9] To slave an ordinance-is to treat it as a slave, to make it subject to us, instead of acting in obedience to it. STEEVENS. [1] It must be remembered that Albany, the husband of Goneril, disliked in the end of the first act, the scheme of oppression and ingratitude. JOHNS That dares not undertake: he'll not feel wrongs, A mistress's command. Wear this; spare speech; Edm. Yours in the ranks of death. Gon. My most dear Gloster! [Exit EDMUND. O, the difference of man, and man! To thee A woman's services are due ; my fool Usurps my bed. Stew. Madam, here comes my lord. [Exit Steward. Enter ALBANY. Gon. I have been worth the whistle. Alb. O Goneril ! You are not worth the dust which the rude wind Blows in your face.-I fear your disposition: That nature, which contemns its origin, Cannot be border'd certain in itself; She that herself will sliver and disbranch 4 Gon. No more; the text is foolish. Alb. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile : Filths savour but themselves. What have you done? Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd ? A father, and a gracious aged man, Whose reverence the head-lugg'd bear would lick, Most barbarous, most degenerate! have you madded. Could my good brother suffer you to do it? A man, a prince, by him so benefited? [2] The wishes,which we expressed to each other on our way hither may be completed, and prove effectual to the destruction of my husband. MAL. [3] She bids him decline his head, that she might give him a kiss (the steward being present) and that it might appear only to him as a whisper. STEE. [4] All ding to the use that witches and inchanters are said to make of withered branches in their charms. A fine insinuation in the speaker, that she was ready for the most unnatural mischief and a preparative of the poet to her plotting with the bastard against her husband's life. WARBURTON. If that the heavens do not their visible spirits Humanity must perforce prey on itself, Gon. Milk-liver'd man! That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs; Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum ? Alb. See thyself, devil! Proper deformity seems not in the fiend Gon. O vain fool! Alb. Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame, Be-monster not thy feature. Were it my fitness To let these hands obey my blood, They are apt enough to dislocate and tear Thy flesh and bones :-Howe'er thou art a fiend, Gon. Marry, your manhood now! Enter a Messenger. Alb. What news? Mes. O, my good lord, the duke of Cornwall's dead; Slain by his servant, going to put out The other eye of Gloster. Alb. Gloster's eyes! Mes. A servant that he bred, thrill'd with remorse, Oppos'd against the act, bending his sword To his great master; who, thereat enrag'd, Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead : Alb. This shows you are above, You justicers, that these our nether crimes So speedily can venge!-But, O poor Gloster! [5] Fishes are the only animals that are known to prey upon their own species. JOHNSON. [6] Diabolic qualities appear not so horrid in the devil to whom they be long, as in woman who unnaturally assumes them. WARBURTON. Lost he his other eye! Mes. Both, both, my lord. This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer; 'Tis from your sister. Gon. [Aside.] One way I like this well ;7 But being widow, and my Gloster with her, May all the building in my fancy pluck Upon my hateful life :-Another way, The news is not so tart.-I'll read, and answer. [Exit. Alb. Where was his son, when they did take his eyes? Mes. Come with my lady hither. Alb. He is not here. Mes. No, my good lord; I met him back again. Alb. Knows he the wickedness? Mes. Ay, my good lord ; 'twas he inform'd against him; And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment Might have the freer course. Alb. Gloster, I live To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king, SCENE III. [Exeunt. The French Camp near Dover. Enter KENT, and a Gentleman.® Kent. Why the king of France is so suddenly gone back know you the reason? Gent. Something he left imperfect in the state, Kent. Who hath he left behind him general? Gent. Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my pres ence; And now and then an ample tear trill'd down [7] Goneril's plan was to poison her sister-to marry Edmund-to murder Albany-and to get possession of the whole kingdom. As the death of Cornwall facilitated the last part of her scheme, she was pleased at it; but disliked it, as it put it in the power of her sister to marry Edmund. MASON. [8] The gentleman whom he sent in the foregoing act with letters to Cor. delia. JÖHNSON. Over her passion; who, most rebel-like, Kent. O, then it mov'd her. Gent. Not to a rage: patience and sorrow strove Who should express her goodliest. You have seen Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears Were like a better day: Those happy smiles, That play'd on her ripe lip, seem'd not to know What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence, As pearls from diamonds dropp'd.-In brief, sorrow Would be a rarity most belov'd, if all Could so become it. Kent. Made she no verbal question? Gent. Faith, once, or twice, she heav'd the name of father Pantingly forth, as if it press'd her heart; 1 Cried, Sisters! sisters!—Shame of ladies! sisters! And clamour moisten'd: then away she started Kent. It is the stars, The stars above us, govern our conditions ; Else one self mate and mate' could not beget Such different issues. You spoke not with her since? Gent. No. Kent. Was this before the king return'd? Gent. No, since. Kent.Well, sir; The poor distress'd Lear is i'the town: Who sometime, in his better tune, remembers What we are come about, and by no means Will yield to see his daughter. Gent. What, good sir? Kent. A sovereign shame so elbows him his own unkindness, That stripp'd her from his benediction, turn'd her To his dog-hearted daughters, these things sting [9] Let not such a thing as pity be supposed to exist! [1] The same husband and the same wife. JOHNSON. STEEVENS. [2] The metaphor is here preservd with great knowledge of nature. The venom of poisonous animals being a high caustic sait, that has all the effect fire upon the part, WARBURTON. |