I’ll make it on thy heart,

Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less

Than I have here proclaimed thee.

REGAN Sick, O sick!

GONERIL (aside) If not, I’ll ne’er trust medicine.

EDMOND (to Albany, ⌈throwing down a glovel⌉

There’s my exchange. What in the world he is

That names me traitor, villain-like he lies.

Call by the trumpet. He that dares, approach;

On him, on you,—who not?—I will maintain

My truth and honour firmly.

ALBANY

A herald, ho!

Enter a Herald

(To Edmond) Trust to thy single virtue, for thy soldiers,

All levied in my name, have in my name

Took their discharge.

REGAN

My sickness grows upon me.

ALBANY

She is not well. Convey her to my tent.

Exit one or more with Regan

Come hither, herald. Let the trumpet sound,

And read out this.

A trumpet sounds

HERALD (reads) ‘If any man of quality or degree within the lists of the army will maintain upon Edmond, supposed Earl of Gloucester, that he is a manifold traitor, let him appear by the third sound of the trumpet. He is bold in his defence.’

First trumpet

Again.

Second trumpet

Again.

Third trumpet.

Trumpet answers within. Enter Edgar, armed

ALBANY (to the Herald)

Ask him his purposes, why he appears

Upon this call o’th’ trumpet.

HERALD (to Edgar)

What are you?

Your name, your quality, and why you answer

This present summons?

EDGAR

Know, my name is lost,

By treason’s tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit.

Yet am I noble as the adversary

I come to cope.

ALBANY

Which is that adversary?

EDGAR

What’s he that speaks for Edmond, Earl of Gloucester?

EDMOND

Himself. What sayst thou to him?

EDGAR

Draw thy sword,

That if my speech offend a noble heart

Thy arm may do thee justice. Here is mine.

He draws his sword

Behold, it is the privilege of mine honour,

My oath, and my profession. I protest,

Maugre thy strength, place, youth, and eminence,

Despite thy victor-sword and fire-new fortune,

Thy valour and thy heart, thou art a traitor,

False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father,

Conspirant ‘gainst this high illustrious prince,

And from th’extremest upward of thy head

To the descent and dust below thy foot

A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou no,

This sword, this arm, and my best spirits are bent

To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,

Thou liest.

EDMOND

In wisdom I should ask thy name,

But since thy outside looks so fair and warlike,

And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes,

What safe and nicely I might well demand

By rule of knighthood I disdain and spurn.

Back do I toss those treasons to thy head,

With the hell-hated lie o’erwhelm thy heart,

Which, for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise,

This sword of mine shall give them instant way

Where they shall rest for ever. Trumpets, speak!

Alarums. They fight. Edmond is vanquished

⌈ALL⌉

Save him, save him!

GONERIL

This is practice, Gloucester.

By th’ law of arms thou wast not bound to answer

An unknown opposite. Thou art not vanquished,

But cozened and beguiled.

ALBANY

Shut your mouth, dame,

Or with this paper shall I stopple it.

⌈To Edmond⌉ Hold, sir, thou worse than any name:

read thine own evil.

(To Goneril) No tearing, lady. I perceive you know it.

GONERIL

Say if I do, the laws are mine, not thine.

Who can arraign me for’t?

Exit

ALBANY Most monstrous!—

O, know’st thou this paper?

EDMOND

Ask me not what I know.

ALBANY

Go after her. She’s desperate. Govern her.

Exit one or more

EDMOND

What you have charged me with, that have I done,

And more, much more. The time will bring it out.

‘Tis past, and so am I. (To Edgar) But what art thou,

That hast this fortune on me? If thou’rt noble,

I do forgive thee.

EDGAR

Let’s exchange charity.

I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmond.

If more, the more thou’st wronged me.

⌈He takes off his helmet⌉

My name is Edgar, and thy father’s son.

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices

Make instruments to plague us.

The dark and vicious place where thee he got

Cost him his eyes.

EDMOND

Thou‘st spoken right. ’Tis true.

The wheel is come full circle. I am here.

ALBANY (to Edgar)

Methought thy very gait did prophesy

A royal nobleness. I must embrace thee.

Let sorrow split my heart if ever I

Did hate thee or thy father.

EDGAR Worthy prince, I know’t.

ALBANY Where have you hid yourself?

How have you known the miseries of your father?

EDGAR

By nursing them, my lord. List a brief tale,

And when ‘tis told, O that my heart would burst!

The bloody proclamation to escape

That followed me so near—O, our lives’ sweetness,

That we the pain of death would hourly die

Rather than die at once!—taught me to shift

Into a madman’s rags, t’assume a semblance

That very dogs disdained; and in this habit

Met I my father with his bleeding rings,

Their precious stones new-lost; became his guide,

Led him, begged for him, saved him from despair;

Never—O fault!—revealed myself unto him

Until some half hour past, when I was armed.