i

What will, hap more to night; safe scape the King!
Lurk, lurk,-

[Exit Edgar.

SCENE changes to Glofter's Castle.

Enter Cornwall, Regan, Gonerill, Edmund and
Servants.

Corn.

P

Oft fpeedily to my Lord your husband, fhew him this letter; the army of France is landed; feek out the traitor Glo'fter.

Reg. Hang him inftantly.

Gon. Pluck out his eyes.

Corn. Leave him to my difpleafure. Edmund, keep you our fifter company; the revenges, we are bound to take upon your traiterous father, are not fit for your beholding. Advife the Duke, where you are going, to a molt feftinate preparation; we are bound to the like. Our Posts fhall be fwift, and intelligent betwixt us. Farewel, dear fifter; farewel, my lord of Gl'fler.

Enter Steward.

How now? where's the King?

Stew. My Lord of Glo'fter hath convey'd him hence. Some five or fix and thirty of his knights,

Hot Queftrifts after him, met him at gate;

Who with fome other of the Lords dependants,
Are gone with him tow'rd Dover; where they boaft
To have well armed friends.

Corn. Get horfes for your mistress.

Gon. Farewel, fweet Lord, and fifter.

[Exeunt Gon. and Edm.

Corn. Edmund, farewel :-go feek the traitor Glofter;

Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us:
Though well we may not pafs upon his life
Without the form of justice; yet our power
Shall do a court'fy to our wrath, which men
May blame, but not control.

VOL. VI.

D

Enter

Enter Glo'fter, brought in by Servants.

Who's there? the traitor?
Reg. Ungrateful fox! 'tis he.
Corn. Bind faft his corky arms.
Glo. What mean your Graces?

[confider.

Good my Friends,

You are my Guests: Do me no foul play, friends.

Corn. Bind him, I fay.

Reg. Hard, hard: O filthy traitor!

[They bind him.

Glo. Unmerciful Lady as you are! I'm none.

Corn. To this chair bind him. Villain, thou fhalt findGlo. By the kind gods, 'tis moft ignobly done

To pluck me by the beard.

Reg. So white, and fuch a traitor?

Glo. Naughty lady,

Thefe hairs, which thou doft ravish from my chin,
Will quicken and accufe thee; I'm your Hoft;
With robber's hands, my hofpitable favours

You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?
Corn. Come, Sir, what letters had you late from
France?

Reg. Be fimple anfwerer, for we know the truth.
Corn. And what confed'racy have you with the traitors,
Late footed in the kingdom?

Reg. To whofe hands

Have you fent the lunatick King i fpeak.

Glo. I have a letter gueffingly fet down,

Which came from one that's of a neutral heart,

And not from one oppos'd.

Corn. Cunning

Reg. And falfe.

Corn. Where haft thou fent the King?

Glo. To Dover.

Reg. Wherefore to Dover?

Waft thou not charg'd, at peril

Corn. Wherefore to Dover let him firft answer that. Glo. I am ty'd to th' ftake, and I must fland the course. Reg. Wherefore to Dover?

Glo. Because I would not fee thy cruel nails Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce fifter

In his anointed flesh ftick boarifh phangs.
The fea, with fuch a ftorm as his bare head

In hell-black night indur'd, would have buoy'd up,
And quench'd the ftelled fires: (34)

Yet poor old heart, he help'd the heav'ns to rain.
If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that ftern time,
Thou should'st have faid, "good porter, turn the key;"
All cruels elfe subscrib'd; but I fhall fee

The winged vengeance overtake fuch children.

Corn. See't halt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair. Upon thefe eyes of thine, I'll fet my foot.

[Glo'fter is held down, while Cornwall treads out one of his eyes.

Glo. He that will think to live 'till he be old,

Give me fome help.

O cruel! O you gods!

Reg. One fide will mock another; th' other too.
Corn. If you fee vengeance-

Serv. Hold your hand, my Lord:

I've ferv'd you, ever fince I was a child;

But better fervice have I never done you,
Than now to bid you hold.

Reg. How now, you dog?

Serv. If you did wear a beard upon your chin, I'd shake it on this quarrel. What do you mean?

(34) And quench'd the steeled fires.] The fagacious editors have all blunder'd in this word without the leaft variation: It is indifputable, that the author must have wrote,

And quench'd the felled fires.

i. e. the ftarry fires; an adjective coin'd from Stella. The Romans formed both a participle active, and adjective paffive from this word.

-extemplo, cælo ftellante, ferena

Sidera refpondent in aqua radiantia mundi.

Hinc illum Corythi Tyrrhenâ ab sede profectum

Aurea nunc folio ftellantis regia cæli

Accipit;

-atque illi ftellatus Fafpide fulva

Enfis erat.

Lucret. 1. 4.

Virg. Æn. 7.

Idem, Æn. 4.

I am aware, that neither ftellans nor fellatus are entirely adequate in fenfe, or ufage, to ftelled in our author. As the word, however, is aptly deriv'd, I hope, Shakespeare will ftand protected by Horace's precept;

Dixeris egregie, notum fi callida verbum
Reddiderit junctura novum.

D 2

Corn.

Corn. My villain!

Serv. Nay then come on, and take the chance of anger. [Fight; in the Scuffle Cornwall is wounded. Reg. Give me thy fword. A peasant stand up thus ?

[Kills him. Serv. Oh, I am flain-my Lord, you have one eye left To fee fome mifchief on him. Oh [Dies. Corn. Left it fee more, prevent it; out, vile gelly; Where is thy luftre now? [Treads out the other eye. Glo. All dark and comfortless-where's my fon Edmund? Edmund, enkindle all the fparks of nature

To quit this horrid act.

Reg. Out, treacherous villain,

Thou call'ft on him that hates thee: It was he,

That made the overture of thy treasons to us:

Who is too good to pity thee.

Glo. O my follies!

Then Edgar was abus'd. Kind gods, forgive
Me that, and profper him!

Reg. Go thruft him out

At gates, and let him fmell his way to Dover.

How is't, my lord? how look you?

[Ex. with Glo'fter.

Corn. I have receiv'd a hurt; follow me, Lady.— Turn out that eyelefs villain; throw this flave

Upon the dunghil-Regan, I bleed apace.

Untimely comes this hurt.

Give me your arm.

[Exit Corn. led by Regan.

1ft. Serv. I'll never care what wickedness I do, (35)

If this man come to good.

2d. Serv. If the live long,

And, in the end, meet the old courfe of death,

Women will all turn monfters.

ft. Serv. Let's follow the old Earl, and

This fhort dialogue I

(35) I'll never care what wickedness I do,] have inferted from the old quarto, because I think it full of nature. Servants, in any houfe, could hardly fee fuch a barbarity committed on their mafter, without reflections of pity; and the vengeance that they prefume muft overtake the actors of it, is a fentiment and doctrine well worthy of the ftage.

To

To lead him where he would; his roguifh madness
Allows itself to any thing.

2d.Serv. Go thou; l'li fetch fome flax and whites of eggs T' apply to's bleeding face. Now, heaven help him! [Exeunt feverally.

Y

ACT IV.

SCENE, An open Country.

Enter Edgar.

ET better thus, and known to be contemn'd,
Than fill contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst (36)

The lowest, moft dejected thing of fortune,

Stands ftill in efperance; lives not in fear.
The lamentable change is from the best;

The worst returns to laughter. Welcome then,
Thou unfubftantial air, that I embrace!

The wretch, that thou haft blown unto the worst,
Owes nothing to thy blasts.

Enter Glo'fter, led by an old man.

But who comes here?

My father poorly led? World, world, O world! (37)

(36)

To be worst,

But

The lowest, moft dejected thing of fortune,] This fentiment is fo much a-kin to a paffage in Ovid, that it feems to be copied directly from it, -Fortuna miferrima tuta eft.;

Nam timor events deterioris abeft.

Epift. 2. lib. 2. ex Ponto.

(37) -World, world, O world! But that thy ftrange mutations make us hate thee,] The reading of this paffage, as it has thus food in all the editions, has been endeavour'd to be explain'd feverally into a meaning; but not fatisfactorily. Mr. Pope's mock-reasoning upon it has alre dy een rallied in print, so I forbear to revive it: and the gentleman, who then advanced a comment of his own upon the paffage, has fince come over to my emendation.

D 3