Page 1923 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

EDGAR

Let’s exchange charity. [165]
I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;
If more, the more th’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; [170]
The dark and vicious place where thee he got
Cost him his eyes.

EDMUND

Th’hast spoken right, ’tis true.
The wheel is come full circle; I am here.

ALBANY
Methought thy very gait did prophesy
A royal nobleness; I must embrace thee: [175]

Let sorrow split my heart, if ever I
Did hate thee or thy father.

EDGAR
Worthy prince, I know’t.

ALBANY
Where have you hid yourself?
How have you known the miseries of your father?

EDGAR
By nursing them, my Lord. List a brief tale; [180]

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 [185]
Into a madman’s rags, t’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,