Edg. Let's exchange charity.[4731]
I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;
If more, the more thou hast wrong'd me.[4732]
My name is Edgar, and thy father's son. 170
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices[4733]
Make instruments to plague us:[4734][4735]
The dark and vicious place where thee he got[4734][4736]
Cost him his eyes.[4734]
Edm. Thou hast spoken right, 'tis true;[4737][4738]
The wheel is come full circle; I am here.[4737][4739] 175
Alb. Methought thy very gait did prophesy[4740]
A royal nobleness: I must embrace thee:
Let sorrow split my heart, if ever I[4741]
Did hate thee or thy father![4741]
Edg. Worthy prince, I know't.[4742]
Alb. Where have you hid yourself?[4743] 180
How have you known the miseries of your father?[4743][4744]
Edg. By nursing them, my lord. List a brief tale;[4745]
And when 'tis told, O, that my heart would burst![4745][4746]
The bloody proclamation to escape[4745][4746]
That follow'd me so near,—O, our lives' sweetness![4745][4747] 185
That we the pain of death would hourly die[4745][4748]
Rather than die at once!—taught me to shift[4745]
Into a madman's rags, to assume a semblance[4745]
That very dogs disdain'd: and in this habit[4745][4749]
Met I my father with his bleeding rings,[4745] 190
Their precious stones new lost; became his guide,[4750]
Led him, begg'd for him, saved him from despair;
Never—O fault!—reveal'd myself unto him,[4751]
Until some half-hour past, when I was arm'd;[4752]
Not sure, though hoping, of this good success, 195
I ask'd his blessing, and from first to last
Told him my pilgrimage: but his flaw'd heart,—[4753][4754]
Alack, too weak the conflict to support!—[4754]
'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,[4754][4755]
Burst smilingly.[4756]
Edm. This speech of yours hath moved me, 200
And shall perchance do good: but speak you on;
You look as you had something more to say.
Alb. If there be more, more woful, hold it in;[4757]
For I am almost ready to dissolve,
Hearing of this.[4758]
Edg. This would have seem'd a period[4759][4760][4761][4762] 205
To such as love not sorrow; but another,[4759][4760][4762][4763][4764]
To amplify too much, would make much more,[4759][4760][4762][4764][4765]
And top extremity.[4759][4760]
Whilst I was big in clamour, came there in a man,[4759][4766]
Who, having seen me in my worst estate,[4759][4767] 210
Shunn'd my abhorr'd society; but then, finding[4759][4768]
Who 'twas that so endured, with his strong arms[4759][4769]
He fasten'd on my neck, and bellow'd out[4759][4770]
As he'ld burst heaven; threw him on my father;[4759][4771]
Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him[4759][4772] 215
That ever ear received: which in recounting[4759]
His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life[4759][4773]
Began to crack: twice then the trumpets sounded,[4759][4774]
And there I left him tranced.[4759]
Alb. But who was this?[4759]