Lear. I will forget my nature. So kind a father! - Be my horses ready?

Fool. Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the seven stars 10 are no more than seven is a pretty reason.

Lear. Because they are not eight?

Fool. Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good Fool. Lear. To take't again perforce !11 Monster Ingratitude! Fool. If thou wert my Fool, nuncle, I'd have thee beaten for being old before thy time.

Lear. How's that?

Fool. Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.

Lear. O, let me not be mad,12 not mad, sweet Heaven! Keep me in temper: I would not be mad!

Enter a Gentleman.

How now! are the horses ready?

Gent. Ready, my lord.

Lear. Come, boy.

dispair

*Fool. She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure, *Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter.

[Exeunt.

Forget in the sense of put off, disown, or forsake. Lear means that he wil renounce the kindness which is naturally his.

10 This is commonly thought to mean the constellation Pleiades. But I am apt to think that Mr. Furness is right: "May it not refer to the Great Bear, whose seven stars are the most conspicuous group in the circle of perpetual apparition in the Northern Hemisphere? -so conspicuous, inded, that the Latin word for North was derived from them. We call this constellation The Dipper,' from its fancied resemblance to the utensil of that name; a name, I believe, scarcely known in England.

11 He is meditating on what he has before threatened, namely, to "resume the shape which he has cast off."

12 The mind's own anticipation of madness! The deepest tragic notes are often struck by a half-sense of the impending blow.

COLERIDGE.

ACT II.

SCENE I. - A Court within GLOSTER'S Casile.

Enter EDMUND and CURAN, meeting.

Edm. Save thee, Curan. (

Cur. And you, sir. I have been with your father, and given him notice that the Duke of Cornwall and Regan his duchess will be here with him this night.

Edm. How comes that?

Cur. Nay, I know not. You have heard of the news abroad? I mean the whisper'd ones, for they are yet but earkissing arguments. N

Edm. Not I: pray you, what are they?

Cur. Her you heard of no likely wars toward 2 'twixt the Dukes of Cornwall and Albany?

Edm. Not a word.

Cur. You may do, then, in time. Fare you well, sir.

[Exit.

Edm. The duke be here to-night? The better! best!

This weaves itself perforce into my business.

My father hath set guard to take my brother;
And I have one thing, of a queasy question,3

Which I must act: briefness and forture, work!-
ner, a word; descend: brother, I say!

Enter EDGAR.

My father watches: O sir, fly this place!

1"Ear-kissing arguments" are words spoken with the speaker's lips close to the hearer's ear, as if kissing him; whispers.

2 Toward is forthcoming or at hand. See vol. xiv. page 316, note 63. 3 "A queasy question" is a matter delicate, ticklish, or difficult to manage; as a queasy stomach is impatient of motion.

Intelligence is given where you are hid;

You've now the good advantage of the night.

Have you not spoken 'gainst the Duke of Cornwall?
He's coming hither; now, i' the night, i' the haste,
And Regan with him have you nothing said.
Upon his party 'gainst the Duke of Albany?

Advise yourself.4'.

Edg.

K

I'm sure on't, not a word.
Edm. I hear my father coming: pardon me;
In cunning I must draw my sword upon you.
Draw; seem to defend yourself: now quit you 5 well.
Yield! come before my father! — Light, ho, here!
Fly, brother!-Torches, torches ! So, farewell.-——

Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion
Of my more fierce endeavour :

[Exit EDGAR.

[Wounds his arm.

I've seen drunkards

Do more than this in sport.6- Father, father! —-
Stop, stop!

No help?

Enter GLOSTER, and Servants with Torches.

4 That is, bethink yourself; question your memory; recollect. See vol. xii. page 69, note 17.- The preceding line is commonly explained," Have you said nothing in censure of the party he has formed against the Duke of Albany?" This supposes Edmund to be merely repeating the question he has asked before. But the proper sense of "upon his party" is "upon his side," or in his favour. So that Delius probably gives the right explanation. I quote from Furness's Variorum: "In order to confuse his brother, a urge him to a more speedy flight, by giving him the idea that he is surrounded by perils, Edmund asks Edgar, first, whether he has not spoken 'gainst the Duke of Cornwall, and then, reversing the question, asks whether he has not said something on the side of Cornwall 'gainst the Duke of Albany."

5 Quit you is acquit yourself. The Poet has quit repeatedly so.

6 These drunken feats are mentioned in Marston's Dutch Courtezan: "Have I not been drunk for your health, eat glasses, drunk wine, stabbed arms, and done all offices of protested gallantry for your sake?"

That he which finds him shall deserve our thanks,
Bringing the murderous coward to the stake;
He that conceals him, death.

Edm. When I dissuaded him from his intent,
And found him pight to do it,

I threaten'd to discover him.

with curst 10

He replied,

speech

Thou unpossessing bastard! dost thou think,
If I would stand against thee, would the reposure
Of any trust, virtue, or worth, in thee

Make thy words faith'd? No: what I should deny,
As this I would; ay, though thou didst produce
My very character,11 — I'd turn it all

To thy suggestion, plot, and damnèd practice:
And thou must make a dullard of the world,
If they not thought the profits of my death
Were very pregnant and potential spurs
To make thee seek it.

Glos.

Strong and fasten'd 12 villain! Would he deny his letter? I never got him.

[Tucket within. Hark, the duke's trumpets! I know not why he comes. All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not 'scape;

The duke must grant me that: besides, his picture
I will send far and near, that all the kingdom
May have due note of him; and of my land,
Loyal and natural boy, I'll work the means
To make thee capable.13

10 Pight is pitched, fixed; curst is an epithet applied to any bad quality in excess; as a malignant, quarrelsome, or scolding temper. So in The Taming of the Shrew, Catharine is called "a curst shrew."

11 Character here means hand-writing or signature.

12 Strong and fasten'd is resolute and confirmed. Strong was often used in a bad sense, as strong thief, strong traitor.

13 That is, capable of succeeding to his estate. By law, Edmund was incapable of the inheritance. The word natural is here used with great art in