Page 1916 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

OFFICER

I’ll do’t, my Lord. [35]

EDMUND
About it; and write happy when th’ hast done.
Mark,-I say, instantly, and carry it so
As I have set it down.

OFFICER

I cannot draw a cart nor eat dried oats;
If it be man’s work I’ll do’t. [40]
(Exit.)

Flourish. Enter Albany, Goneril, Regan, Officers, and Soldiers.

ALBANY
Sir, you have show’d to-day your valiant strain,

And Fortune led you well; you have the captives
Who were the opposites of this day’s strife;
I do require them of you, so to use them
As we shall find their merits and our safety [45]
May equally determine.

EDMUND

Sir, I thought it fit
To send the old and miserable King
To some retention and appointed guard;
Whose age had charms in it, whose title more,

To pluck the common bosom on his side, [50]
And turn our impress’d lances in our eyes
Which do command them. With him I sent the Queen;
My reason all the same; and they are ready

To-morrow, or at further space, t’appear
Where you shall hold your session. At this time [55]
We sweat and bleed; the friend hath lost his friend,
And the best quarrels, in the heat, are curs’d

By those that feel their sharpness;
The question of Cordelia and her father