Edg. Give me your arm : Up-so-how is't? Feel you your legs? You stand. Glo. Too well, too well. Edg. This is above all strangeness. Upon the crown o' the cliff, what thing was that Glo. A poor unfortunate beggar. Edg. As I stood here below, methought, his eyes Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses, Horns whelk'd, and wav'd like the enridged sea: It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father, Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours Of men's impossibilities, have preserv'd thee. Glo. I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear Affliction, till it do cry out itself "Enough, enough!" and die. That thing you speak of, I took it for a man; often 'twould say, "The fiend, the fiend:" he led me to that place. Edg. Bear free and patient thoughts.-But who comes here? Enter LEAR, fantastically dressed with wild Flowers. The safer sense will ne'er accommodate His master thus. Lear. No, they cannot touch me for coining1; I am the king himself. Edg. O, thou side-piercing sight! Lear. Nature's above art in that respect.-There's your press-money. That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper: draw me a clothier's yard.-Look, look! Peace, peace!-this piece of toasted cheese will do't. There's my gauntlet; I'll prove it on a a mouse. for coining ;] So the quartos: the folio misprints it crying. The meaning is, that Lear, being king, it is his prerogative to coin. like a crow-keeper:] i. e. a person employed to keep crows from corn. See Vol. vi. p. 392. giant. Bring up the brown bills.-O, well flown, bird!' the clout, i' the clout': hewgh!-Give the word. Edg. Sweet marjoram. Glo. I know that voice. Lear. Ha! Goneril!-with a white beard!—They flatter'd me like a dog; and told me, I had white hairs in my beard, ere the black ones were there. To say "ay," and "no," to every thing I said!"Ay” and “no” too was no good divinity. me once, and the wind to thunder would not peace at 'em, there I smelt 'em out. o' their words: they told me I was every thing; 'tis a lie, I am not ague-proof. When the rain came to wet make me chatter, when the my bidding, there I found Go to, they are not men Glo. The trick of that voice I do well remember: Is't not the king? Lear. Ay, every inch a king: When I do stare, see, how the subject quakes. I pardon that man's life: what was thy cause?- Thou shalt not die: die for adultery? No: The wren goes to't, and the small gilded fly Does lecher in my sight. Let copulation thrive; for Gloster's bastard son To't, luxury, pell-mell, for I lack soldiers.— Whose face between her forks presageth snow; 6 the BROWN BILLS.] A bill was a kind of battle-axe, affixed to a long staff; and "brown bills" are often mentioned by old writers. i' the clout :] Lear fancies himself present at a trial of skill in archery: the "clout" was the white mark at which aim was taken. See Vol. vi. p. 418. 8 Ha! Goneril!-with a white beard!] So the folio: the quarto has, "Ha! Goneril, ha! Regan! they flattered me," &c. To hear of pleasure's name; The fitchew, nor the soiled horse, goes to't With a more riotous appetite. Down from the waist they are centaurs, Though women all above: But to the girdle do the gods inherit, Beneath is all the fiends: there's hell, there's darkness, there is the sulphurous pit, burning, scalding, stench, consumption'; -fie, fie, fie! pah; pah! Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination: there's money for thee. Glo. O, let me kiss that hand! Lear. Let me wipe it first'; it smells of mortality. Glo. O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world Shall so wear out to nought.-Dost thou know me? Lear. I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid; I'll not love. Read thou this challenge: mark but the penning of it. Glo. Were all the letters suns, I could not see one. Edg. I would not take this from report; it is, And my heart breaks at it. Lear. Read. Glo. What! with the case of eyes? Lear. O, ho! are you there with me? No eyes in your head, nor no money in your purse? Your eyes are in a heavy case, your purse in a light: yet you see how this world goes. Glo. I see it feelingly. Lear. What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes, with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond' justice rails upon yond' simple thief. Hark, in thine ear change places; and', handy-dandy, which 9 consumption;] The quartos have consummation for "consumption," of the folio. In the preceding line they read sulphury for "sulphurous." 1 Let me wipe it first ;] "Here, wipe it first," in the quartos. There are several minor variations in this part of the scene, not requiring separate notice. 2 change places; and,] These explanatory words are only in the folio. is the justice, which is the thief?-Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? Glo. Ay, sir. Lear. And the creature run from the cur? There thou might'st behold the great image of authority: a dog's obey'd in office. Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand! Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back; Thou hotly lust'st' to use her in that kind For which thou whipp'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener. Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear1; To see the things thou dost not.-Now, now, now, now: Pull off my boots: harder, harder; so. Edg. O, matter and impertinency mix'd! Reason in madness! Lear. If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes. I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloster: Thou must be patient. We came crying hither: Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air Thou hotly lust'st] In the quartos "Thy blood hotly lusts.” Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear ;] The quartos read "Through tatter'd rags," which is pleonastic, as rags are necessarily tattered ;" and when Shakespeare, three lines lower, uses "rags," he accompanies it by no epithet; but the quartos are clearly right in having "small vices," which the folio changes to "great vices." 5 Plate sin with gold,] This passage, down to "To seal th' accuser's lips," is not in the quartos. The folio, 1623, and the other folios printed from it, have "Place sins with gold;" but Place was a very easy misprint for "Plate," and Pope corrected the two errors. Southern, in his copy of the folio, 1685, altered Place to "Plate." We wawl, and cry. I will preach to thee: mark me. Glo. Alack! alack the day! Lear. When we are born, we cry that we are come A troop of horse with felt: I'll put it in proof; Enter a Gentleman with Attendants. Gent. O! here he is: lay hand upon him.—Sir, Your most dear daughter Lear. No rescue? What! a prisoner? I am even The natural fool of fortune.-Use me well; You shall have ransom. I am cut to the brains. Let me have a surgeon, You shall have any thing. Lear. No seconds? All myself? Why, this would make a man, a man of salt, Ay, and for laying autumn's dust'. Gent. Lear. I will die bravely, Good sir, Like a smug bridegroom3. What! I will be jovial. Come, come; I am a king, my masters, know you that? Gent. You are a royal one, and we obey you. Lear. Then there's life in it. Nay, an you get it, you shall get it by running. Sa, sa, sa, ga. [Exit: Attendants follow. A troop of horse with felt :] The quartos corruptly read "to shoot a troop of horse with fell." 7 Ay, and for laying autumn's dust.] This passage is in all the quartos, but not in the folio. "Good sir," by which it is followed, is only in the quarto without the stationer's address. 8 Like a smug bridegroom.] We adopt the wording and regulation of the folio here: the quartos omit "smug," and print this speech, with many others, as prose. |