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Re-enter EDMUND.

Edm. The enemy's in view; draw up your powers. Here is the guess of their true strength and forces By diligent discovery; but your haste

Is now urg'd on you.

Alb.

We will greet the time. [Exit.

Edm. To both these sisters have I sworn my love; Each jealous of the other, as the stung3

Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take?
Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd,
If both remain alive: to take the widow,
Exasperates, makes mad, her sister Goneril;
And hardly shall I carry out my side',

Her husband being alive. Now then, we'll use
His countenance for the battle; which being done,
Let her who would be rid of him devise

His speedy taking off. As for the mercy
Which he intends to Lear, and to Cordelia,
The battle done, and they within our power,
Shall never see his pardon; for my state
Stands on me to defend, not to debate.

[Exit.

2 HERE is the guess of their TRUE strength] The quartos, "Hard is the guess of their great strength." According to the folio, which text we here adopt, we must suppose that Edmund hands to Albany some paper, containing a statement of "the guess" of the strength of the enemy.

3 — as the STUNG] The quarto with the stationer's address reads corruptly, 66 as the sting."

And hardly shall I CARRY OUT MY SIDE,] To carry out a side was an old idiomatic expression for success, probably derived from playing games in which different sides were taken. In one of the "Paston Letters," (Vol. iv. p. 155,) quoted by Steevens, we read "Heydon's son hath borne out his side stoutly here." In "The Maid's Tragedy," (Beaumont and Fletcher, by Dyce, vol. i. p. 343) Dula refuses the aid of Aspatia, saying, "She will pluck down a side," meaning, that if they were to be partners, Aspatia would lose the game. To pluck down a side was, therefore, the reverse of carrying out a side. Edmund observes, in effect, that he should hardly be able to win the game he was playing, while the husband of Goneril was living.

SCENE II.

A Field between the two Camps.

Alarum within. Enter, with Drum and Colours, LEAR, CORDELIA, and their Forces; and exeunt.

Enter EDGAR and GLOSTER.

Edg. Here, father, take the shadow of this tree" For your good host; pray that the right may thrive. If ever I return to you again,

I'll bring you comfort.

Glo.

Grace go with you, sir!

[Exit EDGAR.

Alarum; afterwards a Retreat. Re-enter EDGAR. Edg. Away, old man! give me thy hand: away! King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en. Give me thy hand; come on.

Glo. No farther, sir: a man may rot even here.
Edg. What! in ill thoughts again? Men must
endure

Their going hence, even as their coming hither:
Ripeness is all.
Glo.

Come on.

And that's true too'.
[Exeunt.

5- and exeunt.] So the folio: the stage direction of the quartos is more expressive of the scene: "Alarum. Enter the powers of France over the stage, Cordelia with her father in her hand." The battle between the powers of Lear and his enemies is supposed to be fought in this scene, in the interval between the exit and re-entrance of Edgar.

6

the shadow of this TREE] The quartos have bush for "tree" of the folio. A bush would hardly afford sufficient "shadow."

7 And that's true too.] These words are only in the folio.

SCENE III.

The British Camp near Dover.

Enter, in Conquest, with Drum and Colours, EDMUND; LEAR and CORDELIA, as Prisoners; Captain, Officers, Soldiers, &c.

Edm. Some officers take them away: good guard, Until their greater pleasures first be known,

That are to censure them.

We are not the first,

Cor.
Who, with best meaning, have incurr'd the worst.
For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down;
Myself could else out-frown false fortune's frown.
Shall we not see these daughters, and these sisters?
Lear. No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison:
We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,
Who loses, and who wins; who's in, who's out;
And take upon's the mystery of things,

As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out,
In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones,
That ebb and flow by the moon.

Edm.

Take them away.

Lear. Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,

The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught

thee?

He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven,
And fire us hence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes;

8 FIRST be known] The quartos "best be known."

The goujeers shall devour them3, flesh and fell,

Ere they shall make us weep: we'll see them starve

Come.

first.

[Exeunt LEAR and CORDELIA, guarded.

Edm. Come hither, captain; hark.

Take thou this note; [Giving a Paper.] go, follow them to prison.

One step I have advanc'd thee; if thou dost
As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way
To noble fortunes. Know thou this, that men
Are as the time is: to be tender-minded

Does not become a sword. Thy great employment
Will not bear question; either say, thou'lt do't,
Or thrive by other means.

Capt.

I'll do't, my lord.

Edm. About it; and write happy, when thou hast done.

Mark,—I say, instantly; and carry it so,

As I have set it down.

10

Capt. I cannot draw a cart1o, nor eat dried oats; If it be man's work, I will do it.

[Exit Captain.

Flourish. Enter ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, Officers, and Attendants.

Alb. Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain, And fortune led you well. You have the captives Who were the opposites of this day's strife:

The goujeers shall devour them,] The allusion here probably is to the morbus gallicus or goujeres, misprinted "good years" in the folio, and only expressed by the word "good" in the quartos. There was a common exclamation of the time, which occurs in "Much Ado about Nothing," Vol. ii. p. 198, "What the good year, my lord," which seems to have been sometimes mistaken by the commentators for an allusion to the "goujeers" or goujeres: thus, when Golding, in his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, renders "Perfeci quid enim toties per jurgia ?" "What a good year have I won by scolding erst?" Steevens maintains that Golding fell into an error by not printing "good year" goujeer. Farmer accuses Florio of a similar blunder, in rendering malanno a good year: the fact is, that he translates it properly an ill year, in both editions of his Italian Dictionary, in 1598, and 1611, without mentioning good year at all. 10 I cannot draw a cart,] This speech is wanting in the folio.

We do require them of you, so to use them,
As we shall find their merits, and our safety,
May equally determine.

Edm.

Sir, I thought it fit

To send the old and miserable king

To some retention, and appointed guard1;

Whose age has charms in it, whose title more,

To pluck the common bosom on his side,

And turn our impress'd lances in our eyes,

Which do command them. With him I sent the

queen:

My reason all the same; and they are ready

To-morrow, or at farther space, ť appear

Where you shall hold your session. At this time,
We sweat, and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend;
And the best quarrels, in the heat, are curs'd
By those that feel their sharpness.—

The question of Cordelia, and her father,
Requires a fitter place.

Alb.

I hold you but a subject of this war,

Not as a brother.

Reg.

Sir, by your patience,

That's as we list to grace him:

Methinks, our pleasure might have been demanded,
Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers,
Bore the commission of my place and person;
The which immediacy' may well stand up,
And call itself your brother.

Gon.

Not so hot:

1 and appointed guard ;] These words are not in the folio, nor in the quarto with the publisher's address: they are in the other quartos.

2 the common bosom] One quarto reads "the coren bosom," and the others "the common blossoms.” Our text is that of the folio, and the allusion to the disposition of the people at large is obvious.

3 - At this time,] From these words to the end of the speech is not in the folio, but in the three quartos.

4- our pleasure MIGHT] 5 The which IMMEDIACY]

"Our pleasure should" in the quartos.

Such is the word in the folio: the quartos read immediate. In Goneril's next speech, the folio has "addition" for advancement

of the quartos.

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