Makes thee the happier.-Heavens, deal so still!
Let the superfluous, and lust-dieted man,

That slaves your ordinance,1 that will not see
Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly;

So distribution should undo excess,

And each man have enough.-Dost thou know Dover? Edg. Ay, master.

Glo. There is a cliff, whose high and bending head Looks fearfully in the confined deep.

Bring me but to the very brim of it,

From that place

And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear,
With something rich about me.
I shall no leading need.

Edg.

Poor Tom shall lead thee.

Give me thy arm;

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. Before the Duke of Albany's Palace. Enter GONERIL and EDMUND; Steward meeting them.

Gon. Welcome, my lord; I marvel, our mild husband Not met us on the way.-Now, where's your master? Stew. Madam, within; but never man so changed. I told him of the army that was landed;

He smiled at it. I told him you were coming;
His answer was, The worse: of Gloster's treachery,
And of the loyal service of his son,

When I informed him, then he called me sot,
And told me I had turned the wrong side out.-
What most he should dislike, seems pleasant to him;
What like, offensive.

Gon.

Then shall you go no further.
[To EDMUND.

It is the cowish terror of his spirit,
That dares not undertake; he'll not feel wrongs,
Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes, on the way,

1 To slave an ordinance is to treat it as a slave, to make it subject to us, instead of acting in obedience to it. The quartos read, “That stands your ordinance," which may be right, says Malone, and means withstands or abides.

2 In is here put for on, as in other places of these plays.

May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother; Hasten his musters, and conduct his powers;

I must change arms at home, and give the distaff
Into my husband's hands. This trusty servant
Shall pass between us: ere long you are like to hear,
If you dare venture in your own behalf,

A mistress's command. Wear this; spare speech;

[Giving a favor. Decline your head: head this kiss, if it durst speak, Would stretch thy spirits up into the air;— Conceive, and fare thee well.

Edm. Yours in the ranks of death.
Gon.

My most dear Gloster!

O, the difference of man, and man!
To thee a woman's services are due;
My fool usurps my bed.1

Stew.

[Exit EDMUND.

Madam, here comes my lord. [Exit Steward.

Enter ALBANY.

Gon. I have been worth the whistle.2

Alb.

O Goneril!

You are not worth the dust which the rude wind

Blows in your face-I fear your disposition.3
That nature, which contemns its origin,
Cannot be bordered certain in itself;

She that herself will sliver and disbranch

From her material sap, perforce must wither,
And come to deadly use.5

1 Quarto A. reads "my foot usurp my body;" Quarto B., "my foot usurps my head; " Quarto C., "a fool usurps my bed." The folio reads, 'my fool usurps my body."

66

2 Goneril's meaning seems to be, "There was a time when you would have thought me worth the calling to you."

3 These words, and the lines following, to monsters of the deep, are not in the folio. They are necessary to explain the reasons of the detestation which Albany here expresses to his wife.

4 "She who breaks the bonds of filial duty, and becomes wholly alienated from her father, must wither and perish, like a branch separated from that trunk or body which "supplied it with sap." There is a peculiar propriety in the use of the word material; materia (Lat.) signifying the trunk or body of the trec.

5 Alluding to the use that witches and enchanters are said to make of withered branches in their charms.

Gon. No more; the text is foolish.

Alb. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile;
Filths savor but themselves. What have
What have you done?
Tigers, not daughters, what have you performed?.
A father, and a gracious aged man,

Whose reverence the head-lugged bear would lick,1
Most barbarous, most degenerate! have you madded.
Could my good brother suffer you to do it!
A man, a prince, by him so benefited?

If that the Heavens do not their visible spirits
Send quickly down to tame these vile offences,
"Twill come,

Humanity must perforce prey on itself,
Like monsters of the deep.

Gon.

Milk-livered man!

That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;
Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning

Thine honor from thy suffering; that not know'st,2
Fools do those villains pity, who are punished
Ere they have done their mischief.3 Where's thy drum?
France spreads his banners in our noiseless land;
With plumed helm thy slayer begins threats;
Whilst thou, a moral fool, sitt'st still, and cry'st,
Alack! why does he so?

Alb.
See thyself, devil!
Proper deformity seems not in the fiend
So horrid, as in woman.

Gon.

O vain fool!

4

Alb. Thou changed and self-covered 1 thing, for shame, Be-monster not thy feature.5 Were it my fitness

1 This line is not in the folio.

2 The rest of this speech is also omitted in the folio.

3 "Goneril means to say that none but fools would be excited to commiserate those who are prevented from executing their malicious designs, and punished for their evil intention." Malone doubts whether Goneril alludes to her father; but surely there cannot be a doubt that she does, and to the pity for his sufferings expressed by Albany, whom she means indirectly to call a fool for expressing it.

4 The meaning appears to be," thou that hast hid the woman under the fiend; thou that hast disguised nature, by wickedness."

5 It has been already observed that feature was often used for form or person in general.

To let these hands obey my blood,'
They are apt enough to dislocate and tear

Thy flesh and bones.-Howe'er thou art a fiend,
A woman's shape doth shield thee.

Gon. Marry, your manhood now!

Enter a Messenger.

Alb. What news?

Mess. O my good lord, the duke of Cornwall's dead; Slain by his servant, going to put out

The other eye of Gloster.

Alb.

Gloster's eyes?

Mess. A servant that he bred, thrilled with remorse,
Opposed against the act, bending his sword
To his great master; who, thereat enraged,

Flew on him, and amongst them felled him dead;
But not without that harmful stroke, which since
Hath plucked him after.

Alb.

This shows you are above,
You justicers, that these our nether crimes
So speedily can venge!-But, O poor Gloster!
Lost he his other eye?

Mess.
Both, both, my lord.-
This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer;
'Tis from your sister.

Gon. [Aside.] One way I like this well; *
But being widow, and my Gloster with her,
May all the building in my fancy pluck
Upon my hateful life. Another way,

2

The news is not so tart.-I'll read and answer. [Exit. Alb. Where was his son when they did take his eyes? Mess. Come with my lady hither.

Alb.

He is not here. Mess. No, my good lord; I met him back again.

1 My blood is my passion, my inclination.

2 Goneril's plan was to poison her sister, to marry Edmund, to murder Albany, and to get possession of the whole kingdom. As the death of Cornwall facilitated the last part of her scheme, she was pleased at it; but disliked it, as it put it in the power of her sister to marry Edmund.

Alb. Knows he the wickedness?

Mess. Ay, my good lord; 'twas he informed against

him;

And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment Might have the freer course.

Alb.

Gloster, I live

To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king,
And to revenge thine eyes.-Come hither, friend;
Tell me what more thou knowest.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.1 The French Camp near Dover.

Enter KENT and a Gentleman.

Kent. Why the king of France is so suddenly gone back, know you the reason?

Gent. Something he left imperfect in the state, Which since his coming forth is thought of; which Imports to the kingdom so much fear and danger, That his personal return was most required,

And necessary.

Kent. Who hath he left behind him general? Gent. The mareschal of France, monsieur le Fer. Kent. Did your letters pierce the queen to any demonstration of grief?

Gent. Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence;

And now and then an ample tear trilled down
Her delicate cheek. It seemed, she was a queen
Over her passion; who, most rebel-like,

Sought to be king o'er her.

O, then it moved her.

Kent. Gent. Not to a rage; patience and sorrow strove Who should express her goodliest. You have seen Sunshine and rain at once; her smiles and tears

1 This scene is left out in the folio copy.