Page:King Lear (1917) Yale.djvu/140

124

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

I do forgive thee.

Edg. Let's exchange charity.

I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;

If more, the more thou hast wrong' d me.

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.

Edm. Thou hast spoken right, 'tis true;

The wheel is come full circle; I am here.

Alb. 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.

Edg. Worthy prince, I know 't.

Alb. Where have you hid yourself?

How have you known the miseries of your father?

Edg. 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 follow'd 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, to assume a semblance

That very dogs disdain'd: and in this habit

Met I my father with his bleeding rings,

Their precious stones new lost; became his guide,

Led him, begg'd for him, sav'd him from despair;

Never,—O fault!—reveal'd myself unto him,

Until some half hour past, when I was arm'd;

Not sure, though hoping, of this good success,

 176 wheel; cf. n.

191 rings: eye-sockets

