Summary

Scene One

Back on the heath, Edgar delivers a soliloquy that once again states that his circumstances are not as bad as they could be. His thoughts are interrupted by the horrifying sight of his blinded father being led into the fields by one of his longtime tenants. As he walks, Gloucester laments the way he treated his beloved son Edgar, and claims that he would rather touch his son one last time than restore his eyesight: “Ah, dear son Edgar, / The food of thy abused father’s wrath! / Might I but live to see thee in my touch, / I’ld say I had eyes again” (4.1.22-25). Even though Edgar is moved by his father’s words, he remains disguised as Poor Tom when he approaches him. Gloucester, who remembers Poor Tom from the previous night on the heath, asks his tenant to...