As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport.

Edgar.

[Aside.] How should this be?

Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow,

Angering itself and others. To him.] Bless thee, master! Gloster. Is that the naked fellow?

Old Man.

Ay, my lord.
Glos. Then, pr'ythee, get thee gone. If, for my sake,
Thou wilt o'ertake us, hence a mile or twain, 1

I' the way toward Dover, do it for ancient love;
And bring some covering for this naked soul,
Whom I'll entreat to lead me.

Old Man.

Alack, Sir! he is mad.

Glos. T is the times' plague, when madmen lead the

Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure;
Above the rest, be gone.

blind.

Old Man. I'll bring him the best 'parel2 that I have, Come on 't 3 what will!

[Exit.

[Aside.] I cannot daub it farther.4

[To him.] Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed.

Glos. Know'st thou the way to Dover?

Edg. Both stile and gate, 5 horse-way and foot-path. Poor Tom hath been scared out of his good wits: bless thee, good man's son, from the foul fiend! Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as Obidicut; Hobbididance, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; and Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing, who since pos

6

1. Twain, two. Now but seldom different fields are separated by hedges;

used.

2. i. e. apparel, clothing. 3. Come on 't, for come of it. 4 To daub signifies literally, to smear; the idea here is in this sense, as a thing smeared over with any substance is disguised: I cannot farther keep up the disguise, or support the false character which I have adopted. 5. In the country in England the

where a foot-path conducts over several fields, styles are placed in the gaps of the hedges where these are crossed by the path, and over the styles, which are convenient for the purpose, the footpassenger climbs; where carts are intended to pass to and from the fields gates are placed.

6. Mopping and mowing, making grimaces.

sesses chamber-maids and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master!

Glos. Here, take this purse, thou whom the heaven's
plagues

Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched,
Makes thee the happier: Heavens, deal so still!1
Let the superfluous, and lust - dieted man,

That slaves your ordinance, 2 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? Edgar. Ay, master.

Glos. There is a cliff, whose high and bending head

Looks fearfully in the confined deep:

Bring me but to the very brim of it,

And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear,

With something rich about me: from that place

I shall no leading need.

Edg.

Give me thy arm:

Poor Tom shall lead thee.

SCENE II.

Before the DUKE OF ALBANY's Palace.

Enter GONERIL and EDMUND; OSWALD meeting them.

[Exeunt.

Goneril. Welcome, my lord: I marvel, our mild husband Not met us on the way. Now, where 's your master? Oswald. Madam, within; but never man so chang'd.

I told him of the army that was landed;

He smil'd 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 inform'd him, then he call'd me sot,
And told me I had turn'd the wrong side out.

What most he should dislike, seems pleasant to him;
What like, offensive.
3

Gon.

1. Still, ever, always.

Then, shall you go no farther.

2. i. e. Let the man who lives in superfluity and according to his own lusts, who makes your ordinance sub

[To EDMUND.

ject to him (instead of acting in obedience to it), etc.

3. i. e. What most he should like.

It is the cowish 1 terror of his spirit,

That dares not undertake: he 'll not feel wrongs,
Which tie him to an answer. 2 Our wishes on the way
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 favour.
Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak,
Would stretch thy spirits up into the air.
Conceive, and fare thee well,

Edmund. Yours in the ranks of death.
Goneril.

O, the difference of man, and man!
To thee a woman's services are due:
My fool usurps my body."

Osw.

My most dear Gloster! [Exit EDMUND.

Madam, here comes my lord.

[Exit OSWALD.

Enter ALBANY.

Goneril. I have been worth the whistle."
Albany.

O Goneril!

You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
Blows in your face. I fear your disposition:
That nature, which contemns its origin,

Cannot be border'd certain in itself;8

She that herself will sliver and disbranch

1. Cowish, timorous, cowardly. The 5. i. e. imagine what I dare not verb only is now in use: to cow, to oppress with fear.

2. He affects not to feel wrongs which would force him to active opposition.

3. What we wish, before our march is at an end, may be brought to happen: i. e. the murder of her husband.

4. She bids him decline his head, that she might give him a kiss (the steward being present), and that it might appear to him only as a whisper.

speak.

6. By my fool she alludes to her husband Albany, who in her eyes is a weak fool.

7. There was a time when you thought me worth the calling to you, or whistling for: reproaching him for not having summoned her to consult with on the present critical occasion.

8. A child who treats her father with contempt, must be utterly without character.

From her material sap, perforce must wither,
And come to deadly use. 1

Goneril. No more: the text is foolish.

Albany. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile;
Filths savour but themselves.2 What have you done?
Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd?
A father, and a gracious aged man,

Whose reverence the head-lugg'd bear 3 would lick,
Most barbarous, most degenerate! have you madded. 4
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,
It will come,*

5

Humanity must perforce prey on itself,

Like monsters of the deep.

Gon.

Milk-liver'd man! 6

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

Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know'st,
Fools do those villains pity, who are punish'd

8

Ere they have done their mischief. 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 criest,
"Alack! why does he so?"

Alb.

See thyself, devil!
Proper deformity 9 seems not in the fiend
So horrid, as in woman.

2. i. e. Filthy things are agreeable only to their like.

3. i. e. the rugged bear.
4. i. e. you have sent mad.

5. i. e. It will happen that, &c.
6. Milk- liver'd, white-liver'd, and
lily-liver'd signify cowardly. Compare
note 3, page 34.

7. i. e. Whose eye does not discern between thy honour and thy wrongs. 8. i. e. in our land, in which no noise of armaments is heard, no preparations are made to repel the invasion.

9. i. c. deformity of mind, with a fair exterior.

Albany. Thou changed and self-cover'd thing,1 for sháme,
Be-monster not thy feature. 2 Were it my fitness
To let these hands obey my blood, 3

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!

Alb. What news?

Enter a Messenger.

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

The other eye of Gloster.

Albany.

Gloster's eyes!

Mess. A servant that he bred, thrill'd with remorse, 1 Oppos'd against the act, bending his sword

To his great master; who thereat enrag'd,

Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead, 5
But not without that harmful stroke, which since
Hath pluck'd him after.

Alb.

This shows you are above,
our nether crimes

But, O poor Gloster!

Both, both, my lord.

This letter, Madam, craves a speedy answer; 'T is 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,

The news is not so tart. [To him.] I 'll read, and answer.

[Exit.

word commonly means, pain of mind from a consciousness of guilt.

5. i. e. amongst them they felled him dead.

6. Nether, lower, i. e. our crimes here below.

7. May overturn all my castles in the air, and crush my life, so hateful to them, beneath the ruins.