gar! had he a hand to write this! a heart and a brain to breed it in! When came this to you? who brought it? Edm. It was not brought me, my Lord; there's the cunning of it. I found it thrown in at the cafement of my closet.

Glo. You know the character to be your brother's? Edm. If the matter were good, my Lord, I durst fwear it were his; but, in respect of that, I would fain think it were not.

Glo. It is his.

Edm. It is his hand, my Lord; I hope his heart is not in the contents.

Gla. Has he never before founded you in this bufinefs?

Edm. Never, my Lord. But I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit, that fons at perfect age, and fathers declining, the father thould be as a ward to the fon, and the fon manage his revenue.

ter.

Gle. O villain, villain! his very opinion in the letAbhorred villain! unnatural, detefted, brutish villain worse than brutish! Go, firrah, feek him; I'll apprehend him. Abominable villain, where is he?

Edm. I do not well know, my Lord. If it fhall pleate you to fufpend your indignation against my brother, till you can derive from him better teftimony of his intent, you fhould run a certain courfe; where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour, and fhake in pieces the heart of his obedience I dare pawn down my -life for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your honour, and to no other pretence of danger* Glo. Think you so?

fence of

Edm. If your Honour judge it meet, I will place you where you fhall hear us confer of this, and by an au̟ricular affurance have your fatisfaction; and that without any further delay than this very evening.

Gio. He cannot be fuch a monster.

Edm. Nor is not, fure.

Glo. To his father, that fo tenderly and entirely loves him. Heav'n and earth! Edmund, feek him out; wind me into him, I pray you; frame the bufinefs afFretence, for purpose ; danger, for sui.kedness.

ter

ter your own wifdom. I would unftate myself, to be in a due resolution.

*

Edm. I will feek him, Sir, prefently, convey the bu finefs as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal.

Glo. Thefe late eclipfes in the fun and moon portend no good to us; though the wisdom of nature can reafon it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself fcourge'd by the fequent effects. Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide. In cities, mutinies; in countries, "difcord; in palaces, treason; and the bond crack'd "'twixt fon and father." This villain of mine comes under the prediction, There's fon against father; the King falls from bias of nature, there's father againft child. We have feen the best of our time. Machi"nations, hollownefs, treachery, and all ruinous dif

orders, follow us difquietly to our graves Find out this villain, Edmund; it thall lofe thee nothing do it carefully. And the noble and true-hearted Kent banifh'd! his offence, honefty. 'Tis ftrange. [Exii.

Di

SCENE VIII. Manet Edmund. Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are fick in fortune, (often the furfeits of our own behaviour), we make guilty of our dif afters, the fun, the moon, and ftars, as if we were villains on neceffity; fools by heavenly compulfion; knaves, thieves, and treacherous, by fpherical predominance, drunkards, lyars, and adulterers, by **an inforce'd obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on. Aa ¿ admirable evafion of whoremafter man, to lay his goatifh difpofition one change of a star! My father compounded with my mother under the Dragon's tail, and my nativity was under Urfa major; fo that it follows I am rough and lecherous. I fhould have been what I am, had the maidenlieft ftar in. "the firmament twinkled on my baftardizing.

*

* Convey, for introduce: but convey is a Ene word, as alluding to the practice of clandeftine conveying goods, fo as nut to be found upon the felun.

SCENE IX. To him, enter Edgar, Pat!" He comes like the catastrophe of the old co"medy;" my cue is villanous melancholy, with a figh like Tom o' Bedlam,-O, these eclipfes portend thefe divifions! fa, fol, la, me[Humming. Edg. How now, brother Edmund, what ferious contemplation are you in?

Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what fhould follow thefe eclipfes. Edg. Do you bufy yourself with that?

Edm. I promife you, the effects he writes of fucceed unhappily. When faw you my father laft? Edg. The night gone by.

Edm. Spake you with him?

Edg. Ay, two hours together.

Edm. Parted you in good terms, found you no difpleafure in him, by word or countenance? Edg. None at all.

:

Edm. Bethink yourfelf wherein you have offended him and, at my intreaty, forbear his prefence, until fome little time hath qualified the heat of his difpleafure; which at this inftant fo rageth in him, that with the mifchief of your perfon it would fcarcely allay. Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong.

Edm. That's my fear. I pray you have a continent forbearance till the fpeed of his rage goes flower; and, as I fay, retire with me to my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my Lord speak. Pray you, go; there's my key. If you do ftir abroad, go arm'd. Edg. Arm'd, brother!

Edm. Brother, I advise you to the best; I am nọ honelt man, if there be any good meaning toward you. I have told you what I have feen and heard, but faint- ́ ly; nothing like the image and horror of it. Pray you ́

away.

Edg. Shall I hear from you anon ?

SCENE

X.

Edm. I do ferve you in this bufìnefs:
A credulous father, and a brother noble,
Whofe nature is fo far from doing harms,

*』

[Exit.

That

That he fufpects none; on whofe foolish honefty
My practices ride eafy: I fee the bufinefs.
Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit;
All with me's meet, that I can fashion fit.

[Exit.

SCENE XI. The Duke of Albany's palace.
Enter Gonerill and Steward.

Con. Did my father ftrike my gentleman for chiding. of his fool?

Sterw. Ay, Madam.

Gon. By day and night he wrongs me; every hour He flashes into one grofs crime or other,

That fets us all at odds: I'll not endure it.

His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us
On ev'ry trifle. When he returns from hunting..
I will not fpeak with him; fay, I am fick.
If you come flack of former fervices, --

You fhall do well; the fault of it I'll answer.
Stew. He's coming, Madain; I hear him.

Gon, Put on what wary negligence you pleafe,
You and your fellows: I'd have it come to question.
If he diftafte it, let hun to my filler,

Whofe mind and mine I know in that are one,
Not to be over-ruld. Idle old man,

That ftill would manage thofe authorities
That he hath giv'n away ! Now, by my life,
Old folks are babes again; and must be us'd

With checks, not flatt'ries, when they're feen abus’d.
Remember what I have faid.

Stew. Very well Madam.

Gon. And let his knights have colder looks among you: What grows of it, no matter; and advise

Your fellows fo. I'll write ftrait to my sister

To hold my courfe. Go, and prepare for dinner. [Exeunt.

Changes to an open place before the palace.

Enter Kent difguis'd.

Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow,

B 3

And

And can my fpeech diffuse *, my good intention you
May carry through itself to that full iffue, no-
For which I raz'd my likeness. Now, banifh'd Kent,
If thou canst ferve where thou dost stand condemn'd,
So may it come, thy master, whom thou lov3st, on
Shall find thee full of labours. tas bus

Horns within. Enter Lear, Knights, and Attendants. Lear. Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go, get it

ready.

How now, what art thou?

Kent. A man, Sir.

[To Kent.

Lear. What doft thou profefs? what would'ft thou, with us?

Kent. I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve him truly that will put me in trust; to love him that is honeft; to converse with him that is wife; to say little; to fear judgment; to fight when I cannot chufe, and to eat no fish,

Lear What art thou?

Kent A very honeft-hearted fellow, and as poor as the King.

Lear. If thou beest as poor for a fubject as he's for a King, thou art poor enough. What would'st thou ?

Kent. Service.

Lear. Whom would't thou ferve?

Kent. You.

Lear. Doft thou know me, fellow?

Kent. No, Sir; but you have that in your countenance which I would fain call nafter.

Lear. What's that?

Kent. Authority.

Lear. What services canst thou do?

Kent. I can keep honeft counfels, ride, run, mar a curious tale in telling it, and deliver a plain message bluntly that which ordinary men are fit for, 1 am qualify'd in; and the beft of me is diligence.

Lear. How old art thou?

Kent. Not fo young, Sir, to love a woman for fing

To diffufe, here fignifies to diforder, to put out of a regular courfe. It is nfed in the fame fenfe in other places in this author; diffused attire, diffufed founds.