fwear it were his: but, in refpect of that, I would fain think it were not.

Glo. It is his.

Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but, I hope his heart is not in the contents.

Glo. Hath he never heretofore founded you on this business?

Edm. Never, my lord: But I have often heard him maintain it to be fit, that fons, at perfect age, and fathers declining, the father should be as ward to the fon, and the fon manage his revenue.

Glo. O villain, villain!-His very opinion in the letter!--Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detefted brutish villain! worse than brutish!-Go, firrah, feek him; I'll apprehend him :-Abominable villain!-Where is he?

Edm. I do not well know, my lord. If it fhall please you to fufpend your indignation against my brother, 'till you can derive from him better teftimony of his intent, you should run a certain course; where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour, and fhake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your honour, and to no other pretence of danger.

Glo. Think you fo!

Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you fhall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular affurance have your fatisfaction; and that without any further delay than this very evening.

Gla. He cannot be fuch a monster.

Edm. Nor is not, fure.

Gle.

Glo. To his father, that fo tenderly and entirely loves him.-Heaven and earth!-Edmund, feek him out; wind me into him, I pray you: frame the business after your own wisdom: I would unftate myself, to be in a due refolution.

Edm. I will feek him, fir, prefently convey the business as I fhall find means, and acquaint you withal.

Glo. Thefe late eclipfes in the fun and moon portend no good to us: Though the wisdom of nature can reafon it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself fcourg'd by the fequent effects: love cools, friendfhip falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond crack'd 'twixt fon and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's fon against father: the king falls from bias of nature; there's father against child. We have feen the best of our time: Machinations, hollownefs, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us difquietly to to our graves!-Find out this villain, Edmund; it fhall lofe thee nothing; do it carefully :-And the noble and true-hearted Kent banish'd! his of fence, honefty!-Strange! firange! [Exit.

Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world! that, when we are fick in fortune (often the furfeit of our own behaviour), we make guilty of our dif afters, the fun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by neceffity; fools, by heavenly compulfion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by fpherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforc'd obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: An admirable evasion of whore-master

B 3

man,

man, to lay his goatifh difpofition to the charge of a ftar! My father compounded with my mother under the dragon's tail; and my nativity was under urfa major; fo that it follows, I am rough and lecherous. Tut, I fhould have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my baftardizing. Edgar

Enter EDGAR.

and pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy: My cue is villanous melancholy, with a figh like Tom o'Bedlam.-O, thefe eclipfes do portend thefe divifions! fa, fol, la, me

Edg. How now, brother Edmund? What serious contemplation are you in?

Edm. Iam thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what fhould follow thefe eclipfes ? Edg. Do you bufy yourself with that?

Edm. I promise you, the effects he writes of, fucceed unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, diffolutions of ancient amities; divifions in ftates, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needlefs diffidences, banishment of friends, diffipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what. Edg. How long have you been a fectary aftronomical?

Edm. Comè, come; when faw you my father last? Edg. Why, the night gone by.

Edm. Spake you with him?

Edg. Ay, two hours together.

Edm. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him, by word, or countenance? Edg. None at all.

Edm.

Edm. Bethink yourself, wherein you may have offended him: and at my entreaty, forbear his prefence, until fome little time hath qualified the heat of his difpleasure; which at this inftant fo rageth in him, that with the mischief of your person it would fcarce allay.

Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong.

Edm. That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent forbearance, 'till the speed of his rage goes flower: and, as I fay, retire with me to my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my lord fpeak: Pray you, go; there's my key :-If you do fir abroad, go arm'd.

Edg. Arm'd, brother?

:: go

arm'd;

Edm. Brother, I advise you to the best: I am no honeft man, if there be any good meaning towards you: I have told you what I have seen and heard, but faintly; nothing like the image and horror of it: Pray you, away.

Edg. Shall I hear from you anon?
Edm. I do ferve you in this business.

[Exit EDGAR.
A credulous father, and a brother noble,
Whofe nature is fo far from doing harms,.
That he fufpects none; on whose foolish honesty
My practices ride easy!-I fee the business-
Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit:
All with me's meet, that I can fafhion fit. [Exit.

SCENE III. The Duke of ALBANY's Palace.

Enter GONERIL, and Steward.

Gon. Did my father ftrike my gentleman for chiding of his fool?

Sterw

Stew. Ay, madam.

Gon. By day and night! he wrongs me; every He flashes into one groís crime or other, [hour That fets us all at odds: I'll not endure it:

His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us
On every trifle:-When he returns from hunting,
I will not speak with him; fay, I am fick :—
If you come flack of former fervices,

You fhall do well; the fault of it I'll anfwer.
Stew. He's coming, madam; I hear him.
[Horns within.
Gon. Put on what weary negligence you please,
You and your fellows; I'd have it come to question:
If he diflike it, let him to my fifter,

Whofe mind and mine, I know, in that are one,
Not to be over-rul'd. Idle old man,

That still would manage thofe authorities,
That he hath given away!-Now, by my life,
Old fools are babes again; and must be us❜d
With checks, as flatteries when they are seen abus'd.
Remember what I have faid.

Stew. Very well, madam.

Gon. And let his knights have colder looks among you;

What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows fo: I would breed from hence occafions, and I fhall, That I may speak :-I'll write ftraight to my sister, To hold my very courfe :-Prepare for dinner.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. An Open Place before the Palace.
Enter KENT, difguifed.

Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow,

That