Page 1874 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

ACT IV IT

Scene I IT

(The Heath.)

Enter Edgar.

EDGAR
Yet better thus, and known to be contemn’d,
Than, still contemn’d and flatter’d, to be worst.
The lowest and most dejected thing of Fortune

Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear:
The lamentable change is from the best; [5]
The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then,
Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace:

The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst
Owes nothing to thy blasts. But who comes here?
Enter Gloucester, led by an old Man.
My father, poorly led? World, world, O world! [10]

But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,
Life would not yield to age.

OLD MAN
O my good Lord!
I have been your tenant, and your father’s tenant,

These fourscore years.

GLOUCESTER

Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone: [15]
Thy comforts can do me no good at all;
Thee they may hurt.