his daughter Regan, and her husband, at Gloster's castle. In concert with Goneril they have left their own house on purpose to avoid him. His apprehensions are first alarmed by this circumstance, and when Gloster, whose guests they are, urges the fiery temper of the Duke of Cornwall as an excuse for not importuning him a second time, Lear breaks out—

"Vengeance! Plague! Death! Confusion!Fiery? What quality? Why, Gloster, Gloster, I'd speak with the Duke of Cornwall, and his wife.”

Afterwards, feeling perhaps not well himself, he is inclined to admit their excuse from illness, but then recollecting that they have set his messenger (Kent) in the stocks, all his suspicions are aroused again, and he insists on seeing them.

"Enter CORNWALL, Regan, GLOSTER, and Servants.

Lear. Good-morrow to you both.
Cornwall. Hail to your grace!

[Kent is set at liberty. Regan. I am glad to see your highness.

Lear. Regan, I think you are; I know what reason
I have to think so: if thou should'st not be glad,
I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb,
Sepulch'ring an adultress.—O, are you free?

Some other time for that.- -Beloved Regan,
Thy sister's naught: O Regan, she hath tied
Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here-

[To Kent.

[Points to his heart.

I can scarce speak to thee; thou'lt not believe,
Of how deprav'd a quality— -O Regan!

Regan. I pray you, sir, take patience; I have hope
You less know how to value her desert,

Than she to scant her duty.

Lear. Say, how is that?

Regan. I cannot think my sister in the least
Would fail her obligation; if, sir, perchance,
She have restrain'd the riots of your followers,
'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end,
As clears her from all blame.

Lear. My curses on her!
Regan. O, sir, you are old;

Nature in you stands on the very verge
Of her confine: you should be rul'd, and led
By some discretion, that discerns your state
Better than you yourself: therefore, I pray you,
That to our sister you do make return;
Say, you have wrong'd her, sir,

Lear. Ask her forgiveness?

Do you but mark how this becomes the house?
Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;

Age is unnecessary; on my knees I beg,

That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.

Regan. Good sir, no more; these are unsightly tricks : Return you to my sister.

Lear. Never, Regan:

She hath abated me of half my train;

Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue,

Most serpent-like, upon the very heart :

All the stor❜d vengeances of heaven fall

On her ungrateful top! Strike her young bones,
You taking airs, with lameness!

Cornwall. Fie, sir, fie!

Lear. You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,

You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun,

To fall, and blast her pride!

Regan. O the blest gods!

So will you wish on me, when the rash mood is on.
Lear. No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse;

Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give

Thee o'er to harshness; her eyes are fierce, but thine
Do comfort, and not burn: 'Tis not in thee

To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,
And, in conclusion, to oppose the bolt
Against my coming in: thou better know'st
The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude;

Thy half o' the kingdom thou hast not forgot,
Wherein I thee endow'd.

Regan. Good sir, to the purpose.
Lear. Who put my man i' the stocks?

Cornwall. What trumpet's that?

Enter Steward.

[Trumpets within.

Regan. I know't, my sister's: this approves her letter,

That she would soon be here.--Is your lady come?
Lear. This is a slave, whose easy-borrow'd pride
Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows:-
Out, Varlet, from my sight!

Cornwall. What means your grace?

Lear. Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good hope

Thou did'st not know on't.- -Who comes here? O heavens,

Enter GONERIL.

If you do love old men, if your sweet sway
Allow obedience, if yourselves are old,

[To Goneril.

Make it your cause; send down, and take my part!-
Art not asham'd to look upon this beard?-
O, Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand?
Goneril. Why not by the hand, sir?
offended?

All's not offence, that indiscretion finds,
And dotage terms so.

Lear. O, sides, you are too tough!

How have I

Will you yet hold ?-How came my man i' the stocks? Cornwall. I set him there, sir: but his own disorders Deserv'd much less advancement.

Lear. You! did you?

Regan. I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.
If, till the expiration of your month,

You will return and sojourn with my sister,
Dismissing half your train, come then to me;
I am now from home, and out of that provision
Which shall be needful for your entertainment.
Lear. Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd?
No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
To wage against the enmity o' the air,
To be a comrade with the wolf and owl-
Necessity's sharp pinch !-Return with her!
Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took
Our youngest born, I could as well be brought
To knee his throne, and squire-like pension beg
To keep base life afoot.- -Return with her!

Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter

To this detested groom.

Goneril. At your choice, sir.

[Looking on the Steward.

Lear. I pr'ythee, daughter, do not make me mad ;

I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell:

We'll no more meet, no more see one another :-
But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;
Or, rather, a disease that's in my flesh,

Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,
A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,

In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee;
Let shame come when it will, I do not call it :
I did not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,
Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove:
Mend when thou canst; be better, at thy leisure :
I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,

I, and my hundred knights.

Regan. Not altogether so, sir;

I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided

For your fit welcome: Give ear, sir, to my sister;
For those that mingle reason with your passion
Must be content to think you old, and so-
But she knows what she does.

Lear. Is this well spoken now?

Regan. I dare avouch it, sir: What, fifty followers? Is it not well? What should you need of more? Yea, or so many? Sith that both charge and danger Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house, Should many people, under two commands, Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.

Goneril. Why might not you, my lord, receive attend

ance

From those that she calls servants, or from mine?

Regan. Why not, my lord? If then they chanc'd to slack you,

We would control them: if you will come to me

(For now I spy a danger) I entreat you

To bring but five-and-twenty; to no more

Will I give place, or notice.

Lear. I gave you all

Regan. And in good time you gave it.

Lear. Made you my guardians, my depositaries;

But kept a reservation to be follow'd

With such a number: what, must I come to you

With five-and-twenty, Regan! said you so?

Regan. And speak it again, my lord: no more with me. Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd, When others are more wicked; not being the worst, Stands in some rank of praise :

-I'll go with thee;

[To Goneril.

Thy fifty yet doth double five-and-twenty,
And thou art twice her love.
Goneril. Hear me, my lord;

What need you five-and-twenty, ten, or five,
To follow in a house, where twice so many
Have a command to tend you?

Regan. What need one?

Lear. O, reason not the need: our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous :

Allow not nature more than nature needs,

Man's life is cheap as beast's thou art a lady;

:

If only to go warm were gorgeous,

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,
Which scarcely keeps thee warm.-

need

-But, for true

You heavens, give me that patience which I need!
You see me here, you gods; a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger!
O, let no woman's weapons, water-drops,

Stain my man's cheeks!- -No, you unnatural hags,
I will have such revenges on you both,

That all the world shall—I will do such things-
What they are, yet I know not; but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You think, I'll weep:
No, I'll not weep:-

I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
Or e'er I'll weep :- -O, fool, I shall go mad!-

[Exeunt Lear, Gloster, Kent, and Fool."

If there is any thing in any author like this yearning of the heart, these throes of tenderness, this profound expression of all that can be thought and felt in the most heart-rending situations, we are glad of it; but it is in some author that we have not read.

The scene in the storm, where he is exposed to all the fury of the elements, though grand and terrible, is not so fine, but the moralising scenes with Mad Tom, Kent, and Gloster, are upon a par with the former. His exclamation in the supposed trial-scene of his daughters, "See the little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch,