Page images
PDF
EPUB

Leading his eyeless father. O, my liege,

His wond'rous story well deserves your leisure;
What he has done and suffer'd for your sake,
What for the fair Cordelia's.

Glost. Where's my liege? Conduct me to his knees, to hail

His second birth of empire: My dear Edgar

Has, with himself, reveal'd the king's blest restoration. Lear. My poor dark Gloster!

Glost. O, let me kiss once more that scepter'd hand! Lear. Hold, thou mistak'st the majesty; kneel here;

Cordelia has our pow'r, Cordelia's queen.
Speak, is not that the noble, suff'ring, Edgar?

Glost. My pious son, more dear than my lost eyes.
Lear, I wrong'd him too; but here's the fair amends.
Edg. Your leave, my liege, for an unwelcome mes-

sage:

Edmund, but that's a trifle, is expired.

What more will touch you, your imperious daughters,
Goneril and haughty Regan, both are dead,
Each by the other poison'd at a banquet:
This, dying, they confess'd.

A

Cord. O, fatal period of ill-govern'd' life!

Lear. Ingrateful as they were, my heart feels yet pang of nature for their wretched fall.

But, Edgar, I defer thy joys too long:

Thou servedst distress'd Cordelia; take her crown'd,
Th' imperial grace fresh blooming on her brow:
Nay, Gloster, thou hast here a father's right;
Thy helping hand to heap blessings on their heads.
Kent. Old Kent throws in his hearty wishes too.
Edg. The gods and you too largely recompense
What I have done; the gift strikes merit dumb.
Cord. Nor do I blush to own myself o'erpaid
For all my sufferings past.

Edg. Divine Cordelia, all the gods can witness
How much thy love to empire I prefer.

Thy bright example shall convince the world,
Whatever storms of fortune are decreed,
That truth and virtue shall at last succeed.

Glost. Now, gentle gods, give Gloster his discharge! Lear. No, Gloster, thou hast business yet for life; Thou, Kent, and I, retired to some close cell, Will gently pass our short reserves of time In calm reflections on our fortunes past, Cheer'd with relation of the prosperous reign Of this celestial pair; thus our remains Shall in an even course of thought be past, Enjoy the present hour, nor fear the last.

[Exeunt omnes.

THE END.

EDINBURGH:

Printed by James Ballantyne & Co.

A HISTORICAL PLAY,

IN FIVE ACTS;

BY WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

AS PERFORMED AT THE THEATRES ROYAL,

DRURY LANE AND COVENT GARDEN.

PRINTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MANAGERS,

FROM THE FROMPT BOOK.

WITH REMARKS

BY MRS INCHBALD:

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

EDINBURGH:

Printed by James Ballantyne & Co.

REMARKS.

Mr Malone informs the public, that the king from whom this play takes its title, began his reign, according to Holinshed, in the nineteenth year of the reign of Augustus Cæsar; and the play commences in, or about, the twenty-fourth of Cymbeline's reign, which was the forty-second year of Augustus, and the sixteenth of the Christian era.-Cymbeline is said to have reigned thirty-five years, leaving at his death two sons, Guiderius and Arviragus.

Notwithstanding an English king and his children furnish some names in this tragedy, it is supposed that its fable is taken from an Italian novel, which the dramatist has blended with many incidents, the produce of his own fancy..

Variety of events form the peculiar character of this play; attention is kept awake by sudden changes of time, place, and circumstances; but the mind obtains little reward for its watchfulness. Among the many amusing things, both seen and heard, at the representation of "Cymbeline," that part in which the great author is concerned, generally makes so

« PreviousContinue »