2475Shake patiently my great affliction off:

2476If I could beare it longer, and not fall

2477To quarrell with your great opposelesse willes,

2478My snuffe, and loathed part of Nature should

2479Burne it selfe out. If Edgar liue, O blesse him:

2480Now Fellow, fare thee well.

2481Edg. Gone Sir, farewell:

2482And yet I know not how conceit may rob

2483The Treasury of life, when life it selfe

2484Yeelds to the Theft. Had he bin where he thought,

2485By this had thought bin past. Aliue, or dead?

2486Hoa, you Sir: Friend, heare you Sir, speake:

2487Thus might he passe indeed: yet he reuiues.

2488What are you Sir?

2489Glou. Away, and let me dye.

2490Edg. Had'st thou beene ought

2491But Gozemore, Feathers, Ayre,

2492(So many fathome downe precipitating)

2493Thou'dst shiuer'd like an Egge: but thou do'st breath:

2494Hast heauy substance, bleed'st not, speak'st, art sound,

2495Ten Masts at each, make not the altitude

2496Which thou hast perpendicularly fell,

2497Thy life's a Myracle. Speake yet againe.

2498Glou. But haue I falne, or no?

2499Edg. From the dread Somnet of this Chalkie Bourne

2500Looke vp a height, the shrill-gorg'd Larke so farre

2501Cannot be seene, or heard: Do but looke vp.

2502Glou. Alacke, I haue no eyes:

2503Is wretchednesse depriu'd that benefit

2504To end it selfe by death? 'Twas yet some comfort,

2505When misery could beguile the Tyranrs rage,

2506And frustrate his proud will.

2507Edg. Giue me your arme.

2508Vp, so: How is't? Feele you your Legges? You stand.

2509Glou. Too well, too well.

2510Edg. This is aboue all strangenesse,

2511Vpon the crowne o'th'Cliffe. What thing was that

2512Which parted from you?

2513Glou. A poore vnfortunate Beggar.

2514Edg. As I stood heere below, me thought his eyes

2515Were two full Moones: he had a thousand Noses,

2516Hornes wealk'd, and waued like the enraged Sea:

2517It was some Fiend: Therefore thou happy Father,

2518Thinke that the cleerest Gods, who make them Honors

2519Of mens Impossibilities, haue preserued thee.

2520Glou. I do remember now: henceforth Ile beare

2521Affliction, till it do cry out it selfe

2522Enough, enough, and dye. That thing you speake of,

2523I tooke it for a man: often 'twould say

2524The Fiend, the Fiend, he led me to that place.

2525Edgar. Beare free and patient thoughts.

2527But who comes heere?

2528The safer sense will ne're accommodate

2529His Master thus.

2530Lear. No, they cannot touch me for crying. I am the

2531King himselfe.

2532Edg. O thou side-piercing sight!

2533Lear. Nature's aboue Art, in that respect. Ther's your

2534Presse-money. That fellow handles his bow, like a Crow-

2535keeper: draw mee a Cloathiers yard. Looke, looke, a

2536Mouse: peace, peace, this peece of toasted Cheese will

2537doo't. There's my Gauntlet, Ile proue it on a Gyant.

2538Bring vp the browne Billes. O well flowne Bird: i'th'

2539clout, i'th'clout: Hewgh. Giue the word.

2540Edg. Sweet Mariorum.

2541Lear. Passe.

2542Glou. I know that voice.

2543Lear. Ha! Gonerill with a white beard? They flatter'd

2544me like a Dogge, and told mee I had the white hayres in

2545my Beard, ere the blacke ones were there. To say I, and

2546no, to euery thing that I said: I, and no too, was no good

2547Diuinity. When the raine came to wet me once, and the

2548winde to make me chatter: when the Thunder would not

2549peace at my bidding, there I found 'em, there I smelt 'em

2550out. Go too, they are not men o'their words; they told

2551me, I was euery thing: 'Tis a Lye, I am not Agu-proofe.

2552Glou. The tricke of that voyce, I do well remember:

2553Is't not the King?

2554Lear. I, euery inch a King.

2555When I do stare, see how the Subiect quakes.

2556I pardon that mans life. What was thy cause?

2557Adultery? thou shalt not dye: dye for Adultery?

2558No, the Wren goes too't, and the small gilded Fly

2559Do's letcher in my sight. Let Copulation thriue:

2560For Glousters bastard Son was kinder to his Father,

2561Then my Daughters got 'tweene the lawfull sheets.

2562Too't Luxury pell-mell, for I lacke Souldiers.

2563Behold yond simpring Dame, whose face betweene her

2564Forkes presages Snow; that minces Vertue, & do's shake

2565the head to heare of pleasures name. The Fitchew, nor

2566the soyled Horse goes too't with a more riotous appe-

2567tite: Downe from the waste they are Centaures, though

2568Women all aboue: but to the Girdle do the Gods inhe-

2569rit, beneath is all the Fiends. There's hell, there's darke-

2570nes, there is the sulphurous pit; burning, scalding, stench,

2571consumption: Fye, fie, fie; pah, pah: Giue me an Ounce

2572of Ciuet; good Apothecary sweeten my immagination:

2573There's money for thee.

2574Glou. O let me kisse that hand.

2575Lear. Let me wipe it first,

2576It smelles of Mortality.

2577Glou. O ruin'd peece of Nature, this great world

2578Shall so weare out to naught.

2579Do'st thou know me?

2580Lear. I remember thine eyes well enough: dost thou

2581squiny at me? No, doe thy worst blinde Cupid, Ile not

2582loue. Reade thou this challenge, marke but the penning

2583of it.

2584Glou. Were all thy Letters Sunnes, I could not see.

2585Edg. I would not take this from report,

2586It is, and my heart breakes at it.

2587Lear. Read.

2588Glou. What with the Case of eyes?

2589Lear. Oh ho, are you there with me? No eies in your

2590head, nor no mony in your purse? Your eyes are in a hea-

2591uy case, your purse in a light, yet you see how this world

2592goes.

2593Glou. I see it feelingly.

2594Lear. What, art mad? A man may see how this world

2595goes, with no eyes. Looke with thine eares: See how

2596yond Iustice railes vpon yond simple theefe. Hearke in

2597thine eare: Change places, and handy-dandy, which is

2598the Iustice, which is the theefe: Thou hast seene a Far-

2599mers dogge barke at a Beggar?

2600Glou. I Sir.

2601Lear. And the Creature run from the Cur: there thou

2602might'st behold the great image of Authoritie, a Dogg's

2603obey'd in Office. Thou, Rascall Beadle, hold thy bloody

2604hand: why dost thou lash that Whore? Strip thy owne

2605backe, thou hotly lusts to vse her in that kind, for which

2606thou whip'st her. The Vsurer hangs the Cozener. Tho-