an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.

Lear. Right, ha ha!—was it not pleasant to have a thousand with red-hot spits come hissing in upon them?. Edg. My tears begin to take his part so much, They mar my counterfeiting.

(Aside.) Lear. The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me.

Edg. Tom will throw his head at 'em: 'vaunt, ye curs! Be thy mouth or black, or white, (1)

Tooth that poisons, if it bite :

Mastiff, grey-hound, mongrel grim,

Hound, or spaniel, brache, (2) or lym, (3)

Bob-tail tike, (4) or trundle-tail;

Tom will make 'em weep and wail;

For with throwing thus my head,

Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.—See, see, see. (Throws his straw head dress at them.) Come, march to wakes, and fairs, and market towns.― Poor Tom, thy horn is dry. (Crosses to l.h.)

Lear. You, sir, I entertain you for one of my hundred ; only I do not like the fashion of your garments; you'll say they're Persian; but no matter, let 'em be changed.

Edg. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet; he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock; (5) he gives the web and the pin; knits the airlock; squints the eye, and makes the hair-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creatures of the earth.

Saint Withold footed thrice the wold;

He met the night-mare and her nine fold,

was a fiddler in hell, and Trajan an angler. Nero is introduced in the present play above eight hundred years before he was born.

(1) To have the roof of the mouth black is in some dogs a proof that their breed is genuine.

(2) Brache, properly speaking is the female of the Rache, but is generally applied to bitches of every description. Vide.—New Way to Pay Old Debts, A. 1, S. 1.

(3) A lym, or lyme, was a blood-hound.

(4) A Tijk, is a Runic word for a little, or worthless dog.

(5) It is an old tradition that spirits were relieved from the con finement in which they were held during the day; at the time of curfew, that is, at the close of day, and were permitted to wander at large till the first cock crowing.

Enter Gloster, and two Servants, with Torches, l.h.

Glost. What, hast your grace no better company?

Edg. The prince of darkness is a gentleman; Modo he is call'd, and Mahu. (2)

Glost. Go (To Lear.) with me, sir,; hard by I have a tenant. My duty cannot suffer me to obey in all your daughters' hard commands; though their injunctions be to bar my doors, and let this tyrannous night take hold upon you, yet I have ventur'd to come seek you out, and bring you where both fire and food are ready.

Kent. Good, my lord, take this offer.

Lear. First, let me talk with this philosopher.

(Lear and Edgar sit on the ground.)

Say, Stagyrite, (3) what is the cause of thunder?

Glost. Beseech you, sir, go with me.

Lear. I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.

What is your study?

Edg. How to prevent the fiend, and to kill vermin.
Lear. Let me ask you a word in private

(Whispers Edgar.) Kent. His wits are quite unsettled; good sir, let's force him hence. (To Gloster.) Glost. Can'st blame him? His daughters seek his death.

(To Kent.)

This bedlam but disturbs him the more; fellow, be gone. (Edgar rises.)

Edg. Child (4) Rowland to the dark tower came, His word was still fie, foh, and fum, (Crosses to r.h. I smell the blood of a British man.- O, torture! (Aside.) [Exit, r.h.u.e., into the hovel.

(1) Aroint, or avoid, begone.

(2) Maho was the chief devil that had possession of Sarah Williams; but another of the possessed, named Richard Mainy, was molested by a still more considerable fiend, called Modu. Harsnet's Declaration. (3) Aristotle so called from Stagira, a town in Macedonia, where he was born.

(4) The word child is often applied to knights.

Glost. Now, I pr'ythee, friend, let's take him in our

arms;

There's a litter ready; lay him in't,

And drive toward Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet
Both welcome and protection.

Good sir, along with us.

Lear. You say right; let 'em anatomize Regan, see what breeds about her heart. Is there any cause in nature for these hard hearts?

Kent. I beseech your grace,—

(They raise him.) Lear. Hist!—make no noise, make no noise ;—draw the curtains; closer, closer; so, so, so,—we'll go to supper i'the morning,—so, so, so.

(King Lear falls asleep, and is carried off by Gloster and Kent, r.h. Thunder and lightning.)

When Lear is carried off Edgar enters, and speaks this speech from the original text.

When we our betters see bearing our woes,
We scarcely think our miseries our foes
Who alone suffers, suffers most i'the mind,
Leaving free things and happy shows behind.
But then the mind much sufferance doth o'erskip,
When grief hath mates and bearing fellowship
How light and portable my pain seems now,

When that which makes me bend, makes the king bow.
He childed as I fathered; Torn away!

Mark the high noises, and thyself bewray.

When false opinion, whose wrong thoughts defile thee.
In thy just proof repeats and reconciles thee.
What will hap more to-night? safe 'scape the king.
Lurk! lurk !
[Exit r.h.u.e.

SCENE IV.—An Apartment in the Earl of Gloster's.

Enter Cornwall, Goneril, Edmund, Page, and Two

Ladies, r.h.

Corn. I will have my revenge, ere I depart this house. (To Edmund) This letter proves your father traitor to us. Gives letter to Goneril.)

(Crosses to c.

Edm. How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent

the being just.

Would to heaven this treachery were not, or I not the discoverer!

Corn. Good sister, post speedily to my lord, your husband Show him this letter.

Advise the duke to a most speedy preparation.
We are bound to the like!

Edmund, keep you our sister company.

The revenges we are bound to take upon your
Trait'rous father, are not fit for your beholding.

Enter Captain of the Guard.

Now! where's the king?

Capt. My Lord of Gloster hath conveyed him.
Hence. Some five or six and thirty of his
Knights, hot questrists after him, met him
At gate ;—who with some other of the lords
Dependants, are gone towards Dover,

Where they boast to have well armed friends.
Corn. (To Page.) Get horses for your mistress.
[Page exits, l.H.

Gon. Farewell dear lord and brother.

[Exit Goneril and Ladies. Edmund is following

Corn. Edmund, farewell!

[Exit Edmund, l.h

Go seek the traitor Gloster! Pinion the
Villain Bring him straight before us.

[Exit Captain, l.h

Though well we may not pass upon his life
Without the form of justice; yet our power
Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men
May blame, but shall not dare control !

END OF ACT III

[Exit, R.H

ACT IV.

SCENE I-Apartment in Albany's Castle.

Enter Albany, r.h., Captain of the Guard, l.h.
Alb. Now, sir! what means this haste? What news?
Capt. Oh, my good lord! the Duke of Cornwall's dead.
Slain by a servant; as with cruel hand

He did destroy the sight of aged Gloster.
Alb. What say you?

Capt. A servant that he bred, thrill'd with
Remorse, opposed against the act, bending
His sword to his great master, who thereat
Enraged, flew on him; and amongst

Them fell'd him dead!—but not without

That harmful stroke which since hath pluck'd him after ! Alb. This shows you are above, ye justices!

That these our nether crimes so speedily can

'Venge. Alas! poor Gloster!

Where was his son

When they did take his eyes? Knew he the wickedness? Capt. Ay, my good lord! 'twas he informed

Against him, and quit the house on purpose that

Their punishment might have freer course.

The

poor old man is now assured!

Of this

Alb. Gloster, I live but to avenge thy wrongs!

Come hither, friend; tell me what more thou knowest.

SCENE II.—The open country.

Enter Edgar, in disguise, r.h.

Exit, L.K

Edg. The lowest and most abject thing of fortune Stands still in hope, and is secure from fear.

The lamentable change is from the best,

The worst returns to better.—Who comes here?

(Retires half way up the Stage.)

My father poorly led! deprived of sight!

The precious stones torn from their bleeding rings !
World! world! world!

But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,
Life would not yield to age.