Re-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 borse: Inform her full of my particular fear;

And thereto add such reasons of your own

As may compact it more.

And hasten your return.

Get you gone;'

(40)

[Exit Oswald.] No, no, my lord,

This milky gentleness and course of yours,
Though I condemn it (41) not, yet, under pardon,
You are much more attask'd 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.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. Court before the same.

Enter LEAR, KENT, and Fool.

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.

Kent. I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered your letter. [Exit. Fool. If a man's brains (2) were in's heels, were't not in danger of kibes ?

Lear. Ay, boy.

(40) As may compact it more. Get you gone;] "Qu. Go, get you gone. "Walker's Crit. Exam., &c., vol. ii. p. 258.-Most probably a word has dropt out from this line, though our old poets seem occasionally to have used "more" as a dissyllable.

(41) it] Not in any of the old copies, as far as I know.

(42) brains] "Brain' surely; and so Pope and some others." Walker's Crit. Exam., &c., vol. i. p. 256.

Fool. Then, I prithee, be merry; thy wit shall not go slipshod.

Lear. Ha, ha, ha!

Fool. Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly; for though she's as like this as a crab's like an apple, yet I can 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 wouldst make a good fool. Lear. To take't again perforce !-Monster ingratitude! Fool. If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'd have thee beaten for being old before thy time.

Lear. How's that?

Fool. Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.

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

Enter Gentlenian.

How now! are the horses ready?

Gent. Ready, my lord.

Lear. Come, boy.

Fool. She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure, Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter.

[Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE I. A court within the castle of the Earl of GLOSTER.

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 whispered ones, for they are yet but ear-kissing arguments?

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,

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;
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' tn' haste,

And Regan with him: have you nothing said

Upon his party 'gainst the Duke of Albany?
Advise yourself.

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

[Wound's 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.

Glo. 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,

Glo.

Edm. Look, sir, I bleed.
Glo.

But where is he?

Where is the villain, Edmund ?

Edm. Fled this way, sir. When by no means he couldGlo. Pursue him, ho!-Go after. [Exeunt some Servants.] -By no means what?

Edm. Persuade me to the murder of your lordship; But that I told him the revenging gods

'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend;

;(43)

Spoke with how manifold and strong a bond
The child was bound to the father;-sir, in fine,
Seeing how loathly opposite I stood

To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion,
With his prepared sword he charges home
My unprovided body, lanc'd mine arm :

(43)

the revenging gods

'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend ;] So the quartos.-The folio has ". did all the thunder bend,”-a vile reading; which, however, Mr. Knight, Delius, and Mr. Grant White prefer.

But when he saw my best alarum'd spiries,

Bold in the quarrel's right, rous'd to th' encounter,
Or whether gasted by the noise I made.

Full suddenly he fled.

Glo.

Let him fly far:

Not in this land shall he remain uncaught:

And found-dispatch.("The noble duke my master,

My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night:

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,-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 (46)
To make thee seek it."

Glo.

Strong and fasten'd villain! Would he deny his letter?-I never got him.

[Tucket within.

(4) And found-dispatch.] "Warburton reads And found, dispatch'd;' as also does Mr. Collier's annotator. But the old text is right: thus in Middleton's] 'Blurt, Master Constable,' Act v. Sc. 1,-"There to find Fontinelle: found to kill him."" STAUNTON.-I cannot see that Mr. Staunton's quotation supports the old reading.

poten

(45) potential spurs] In this passage "spurs," which is the reading of the quartos, means, of course, incitements.--The folio has ". tiall spirits;" which Delius adopts, and defends by what he considers to be a parallelism,-"As he is very potent with such spirits," Hamlet, act ii. sc. 2. But here the lection of the folio, "spirits," is as evidently wrong as is its reading "strange," in the commencement of the next speech; "O strange [instead of "Strong," i.e. determined] and fastend villaine," which, however, Mr. Knight and Delius prefer.