Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more,
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight 24
Topple down headlong.
Glo. Set me where you stand.
Edg. Give me your hand; you are now within a foot
Of the extreme verge: for all beneath the moon
Would I not leap upright.
Glo. Let go my hand. 28
Here, friend, 's another purse; in it a jewel
Well worth a poor man's taking: fairies and gods
Prosper it with thee! Go thou further off;
Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going. 32
Edg. Now fare you well, good sir.
Glo. With all my heart.
Edg. Why I do trifle thus with his despair
Is done to cure it.
Glo. O you mighty gods!
This world I do renounce, and, in your sights, 36
Shake patiently my great affliction off;
If I could bear it longer, and not fall
To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
My snuff and loathed part of nature should 40
Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!
Now, fellow, fare thee well. [He falls forward.]
Edg. Gone, sir: farewell.
[Aside.] And yet I know not how conceit may rob
The treasury of life when life itself 44
Yields to the theft; had he been where he thought
By this had thought been past. Alive or dead?
[To Gloucester.] Ho, you sir! friend! Hear you, sir? speak!
Thus might he pass indeed; yet he revives. 48
24 deficient sight: sight failing
39 opposeless: invincible
40 snuff; cf. n.
43 conceit: imagination
