No blown ambition? doth our arms incite,

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

SCENE V.

A Room in Gloster's Castle.

Enter REGAN and Steward.

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

[Exeunt.

Your sister is the better soldier.

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

Stew. No, madam.

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

His nighted life; moreover, to descry

The strength o'the enemy.

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

Stew.

I may not, madam;

My lady charg'd 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.

Stew.

Madam, I had rather

Reg. I know, your lady does not love her husband;

No blown ambition-] No inflated, no swelling pride.-JOHNSON.

I am sure of that: and, at her late being here,

She gave strange œiliads," and most speaking looks
To noble Edmund: I know, you are of her bosom.
Stew. I, madam?

Reg. I speak in understanding; you are, I know it:
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.
If you do find him, pray you, give him this;

And when your mistress hears thus much from you,
I pray, desire her call her wisdom to her.

So, fare you well.

If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,

Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.

Stew. 'Would I could meet him, madam! I would show

Enter GLOSTER, and EDGAR, dressed like a Peasant.

Glo. When shall we come to the top of that same hill? Edg. You do climb up it now: look, how we labour. Glo. Methinks, the ground is even.

Edg.

Hark, do you hear the sea?

Glo.

Horrible steep:

No, truly.

Edg. Why, then your other senses grow imperfect By your eyes' anguish.

So may it be, indeed:

Glo.
Methinks, thy voice is alter'd; and thou speak'st
In better phrase, and matter than thou didst.

— œiliads,] i. e. A cast, or significant glance of the eye, from aillade, Fr. -STEEVENS.

- I do advise you, take this note:] Note means in this place not a letter, but a remark. Therefore observe what I am saying.-JOHNSON.

Scene VI.] This scene, and the stratagem by which Gloster is cured of his desperation, is wholly borrowed from Sidney's Arcadia, book 2.-JOHNSON.

Edg. You are much deceiv'd; in nothing am I chang'd, But in my garments.

Glo.

Methinks, you are 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; dreadful trade!
Methinks, he seems no bigger than his head:
The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yon' tall anchoring bark,
Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight: The murmuring surge,
That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high :-I'll look no more;
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple" down headlong.

Glo.

Set me where you stand.

Edg. Give me your hand: You are now within a foot Of the extreme verge: for all beneath the moon

Would I not leap upright."

Glo.

Let go my hand.

Here, friend, is 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.
Glo.

[Seems to go.

With all my heart.

Edg. Why I do trifle thus with his despair,

Is done to cure it.

Glo.

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,

t

her cock;] Her cock-boat.

u Topple-] i. e. Fall.

Would I not leap upright.] i. e. From the ground upright: is barely expleti ve. -FARMER.

My snuff, and loathed part of nature, should
Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!-
Now, fellow, fare thee well. [He leaps, and falls along.
Edg.

Gone, sir? farewell.

And yet I know not how conceit may rob

The treasury of life, when life itself

Yields to the theft: Had he been where he thought,
By this, had thought been past.—Alive, or dead?
Ho, you sir! friend!—Hear you, sir?-speak!
Thus might he pass indeed :-Yet he revives :
What are you, sir?

Glo.

Away, and let me die.

Edg. Had'st thou been aught but gossomer,a feathers, So many fathom down precipitating,

[air, Thou had'st shiver'd like an egg: but thou dost breathe; Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound. Ten masts at each make not the altitude,

Which thou hast perpendicularly fell;

Thy life's a miracle: Speak yet again.

Glo. But have I fallen, or no?

Edg. From the dread summit of this chalky bourn : . Look up a-height; the shrill-gorg❜d lark so far

Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.

Glo. Alack, I have no eyes.

Is wretchedness depriv'd that benefit,

To end itself by death? "Twas yet some comfort,
When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage,
And frustrate his proud will.

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

Which parted from you?

Y ·when life itself

Yields to the theft:] When life is willing to be destroyed.-JOHNSON. Thus might he pass indeed:] Thus might he die in reality. We still use the word passing bell.-JOHNSON.

a

gossomer,] Gossomore, the white and cobweb-like exhalations that fly about in hot sunny weather.-GREY.

b

c

at each-] i. e. Each at, or near the other.-MALONE.
bourn:] i. e. Boundary.

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 up with Flowers.

The safer sense will ne'er accommodate

His master thus.

Lear. No, they cannot touch me for coining; 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, a mouse! Peace, peace; this piece of toasted cheese will do't.There's my gauntlet; I'll prove it on a giant.-Bring up the brown bills.'-O, well-flown, bird!-i'the clout, i'the clout: hewgh!-Give the word.

d - whelk'd,] i. e. Twisted, convolved; from a welk or whilk, a small shellfish.-MALONE.

e—

the clearest gods,] The purest; the most free from evil.-JOHNSON. 1 Of men's impossibilities,] i. e. Of things which appear impossibilities to mere mortal beings.-STEEVENS.

8- -free thoughts.-] i. e. Not having the mind chained down to one painful idea.-JOHNSON.

h · press-money.] i. e. Money which was paid to soldiers when they were retained in the king's service. It was felony to withdraw yourself from the king's service after the receipt of this money, without special leave.-DOUCE. crow-keeper:] i. e. A person employed to drive the crows from the

field.-NARES.

k

a clothier's yard.-] i. e. "An arrow of a cloth-yard long," such as we read of in Chevy Chase.

1

the brown bills.-] A bill was a kind of battle-axe, affixed to a long staff. STEEVENS.

· O, well-flown, bird!-i'the clout, &c.] Lear is here raving of archery, and shooting at buts, as is plain by the words 'the clout, that is, the white mark they set up and aim at; hence the phrase, to hit the white.-WARBURTON.