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 with the pain of death we'd 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,
I ask'd his blessing, and from first to last
Told him my pilgrimage: but his flaw'd heart,--
Alack, too weak the conflict to support!--