Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.

OSWALD

Would I could meet him, madam. I would show

What lady I do follow.

REGAN Fare thee well. Exeunt severally

Sc. 20 Enter Edgar disguised as a peasant, with a staff, guiding the blind Duke of Gloucester

GLOUCESTER

When shall we come to th’ top of that same hill?

EDGAR

You do climb up it now. Look how we labour.

GLOUCESTER

Methinks the ground is even.

EDGAR Horrible steep.

Hark, do you hear the sea?

GLOUCESTER No, truly.

EDGAR

Why, then your other senses grow imperfect

By your eyes’ anguish.

GLOUCESTER So may it be indeed.

Methinks thy voice is altered, and thou speak’st

With better phrase and matter than thou didst.

EDGAR

You’re much deceived. In nothing am I changed

But in my garments.

GLOUCESTER Methinks you’re better spoken.

EDGAR

Come on, sir, here’s the place. Stand still. How fearful

And dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes so low!

The crows and choughs that wing the midway air

Show scarce so gross as beetles. Halfway down

Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!

Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.

The fishermen that walk upon the beach

Appear like mice, and yon tall anchoring barque

Diminished to her cock, her cock a buoy

Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge

That on the unnumbered idle pebble chafes

Cannot be heard, it’s so high. I’ll look no more,

Lest my brain turn and the deficient sight

Topple down headlong.

GLOUCESTER Set me where you stand.

EDGAR

Give me your hand. You are now within a foot

Of th’extreme verge. For all beneath the moon

Would I not leap upright.

GLOUCESTER Let go my hand.

Here, friend, ’s another purse; in it a jewel

Well worth a poor man’s taking. Fairies and gods

Prosper it with thee! Go thou farther off.

Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.

EDGAR

Now fare you well, good sir.

He stands aside

GLOUCESTER With all my heart.

EDGAR (aside)

Why I do trifle thus with his despair

Is done to cure it.

GLOUCESTER O you mighty gods,

He kneels

This world I do renounce, and in your sights

Shake patiently my great affliction off!

If I could bear it longer, and not fall

To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,

My snuff and loathed part of nature should

Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O bless him!—

Now, fellow, fare thee well.

EDGAR Gone, sir. Farewell.

Gloucester falls forward

(Aside) And yet I know not how conceit may rob

The treasury of life, when life itself

Yields to the theft. Had he been where he thought,

By this had thought been past.—Ative or dead?

(To Gloucester) Ho you, sir; hear you, sir? Speak.

(Aside) Thus might he pass indeed. Yet he revives.

(To Gloucester) What are you, sir?

GLOUCESTER Away, and let me die.

EDGAR

Hadst thou been aught but goss‘mer, feathers, air,

So many fathom down precipitating

Thou hadst shivered like an egg. But thou dost breathe,

Hast heavy substance, bleed’st not, speak’st, art sound.

Ten masts a-length make not the altitude

Which thou hast perpendicularly fell.

Thy life’s a miracle. Speak yet again.

GLOUCESTER But have I fallen, or no?

EDGAR

From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.

Look up a-height. The shrill-gorged lark so far

Cannot be seen or heard. Do but look up.

GLOUCESTER Alack, I have no eyes.

Is wretchedness deprived that benefit

To end itself by death? ’Twas yet some comfort

When misery could beguile the tyrant’s rage

And frustrate his proud will.

EDGAR Give me your arm.

Up. So, how now? Feel you your legs? You stand.

GLOUCESTER

Too well, too well.

EDGAR This is above all strangeness.

Upon the crown of the cliff what thing was that

Which parted from you?

GLOUCESTER A poor unfortunate beggar.

EDGAR

As I stood here below, methoughts his eyes

Were two full moons. A had a thousand noses,

Horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea.

It was some fiend. Therefore, thou happy father,

Think that the clearest gods, who made their honours

Of men’s impossibilities, have preserved thee.

GLOUCESTER

I do remember now. Henceforth I’ll bear

Affliction till it do cry out itself

‘Enough, enough,’ and die. That thing you speak of,

I took it for a man. Often would it say

‘The fiend, the fiend!’ He led me to that place.

EDGAR

Bear free and patient thoughts.

Enter King Lear mad, ⌈crowned with weeds and flowers⌉

But who comes here?

The safer sense will ne’er accommodate

His master thus.

LEAR No, they cannot touch me for coining. I am the King himself.

EDGAR O thou side-piercing sight!

LEAR Nature is above art in that respect. There’s your press-money. That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper. Draw me a clothier’s yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace, this toasted cheese will do it. There’s my gauntlet. I’ll prove it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O, well flown, bird, in the air. Hal Give the word.

EDGAR Sweet marjoram.

LEAR Pass.

GLOUCESTER I know that voice.

LEAR Ha, Gonorill Ha, Regan! They flattered me like a dog, and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there. To say ‘ay’ and ‘no’ to everything I said ‘ay’ and ‘no’ to was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter, when the thunder would not peace at my bidding, there I found them, there I smelt them out. Go to, they are not men of their words. They told me I was everything; ’tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.