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service:

Are they inform'd of this? — My breath and blood!

Fiery? the fiery duke? - Tell the hot duke that
No, but not yet: may be he is not well:
Infirmity doth still neglect all office,
Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves,
When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind
To suffer with the body: I'll forbear;
And am fallen out with my more headier will,
To take the indispos'd and sickly fit
For the sound man.-Death on my state! wherefore
[Looking on KENT.
Should he sit here? This act persuades me,
That this remotion 6 of the duke and her
Is practice only. Give me my servant forth:
Go, tell the duke and his wife, I'd speak with them,
Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,
Or at their chamber door I'll beat the drum,
Till it cry-Sleep to death.

Glo. I'd have all well betwixt you.
Lear.

[Exit. O me, my heart, my rising heart!—but,

down.

pure

Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels, when she put them i' the paste alive; she rapp'd 'em o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cry'd, Down, wantons, down: 'Twas her brother, that in kindness to his horse, buttered his hay. Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOSTER, and Servants. Lear. Good morrow to you both. Corn.

Hail to your grace! [KENT is set at liberty. Reg. I am glad to see your highness. Lear. Regan, I think you are; I know what

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Lear.

Say, how is that?

Reg. I cannot think, my sister in the least Would fail her obligation: If, sir, perchance, She have restrain'd the riots of your followers, 'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end, As clears her from all blame.

Lear. My curses on her! Reg. O, sir, you are old; Nature in you stands on the very verge Of her confine: you should be rul'd, and led By some discretion, that discerns your state Better than you yourself: Therefore, I pray you, That to our sister you do make return; Say, you have wrong'd her, sir.

Lear. Ask her forgiveness? Do but mark how this becomes the house 8: you Dear daughter, I confess that I am old; Age is unnecessary: on my knees I beg, [Kneeling. That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food. Reg. Good sir, no more; these are unsightly tricks: Return you to my sister. Lear.

Never, Regan: She hath abated me of half my train; Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue, Most serpent-like, upon the very heart: All the stor❜d vengeances of heaven fall On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones, You taking airs, with lameness!

Corn.

Fye, fye, fye! Lear. You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames

Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,
You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun,
To fall and blast her pride!

Reg.
O the blest gods!
So will you wish on me, when the rash mood's on.
Lear. No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse;
Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give
Thee o'er to harshness; her eyes are fierce, but thine
Do comfort, and not burn: 'Tis not in thee
To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes 9,
And, in conclusion, to oppose the bolt
Against my coming in: thou better know'st
The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude;
Thy half o' the kingdom hast thou not forgot,
Wherein I thee endow'd.

Reg.

Good sir, to the purpose. [Trumpets wilkin. Lear. Who put my man i' the stocks? Corn. What trumpet's that?

Enter Steward.

Reg. I know 't, my sister's: this approves her

letter,

That she would soon be here.-Is your lady come? Lear. This is a slave, whose easy borrow'd pride Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows:Out, varlet, from my sight!

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If you do love old men, if your sweet sway
Allow obedience, if yourselves are old,
Make it your cause; send down, and take my part! -
Art not asham'd to look upon this beard?

[To GONERIL. O, Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand? Gon. Why not by the hand, sir? How have I offended?

All's not offence, that indiscretion finds,
And dotage terms so.
Lear.
O, sides, you are too tough!
Will you yet hold?-How came my man i'the stocks?
Corn. I set him there, sir: but his own disorders

Deserv'd much less advancement.

Lear.

You! did you? Reg. I pray you, father, being weak, seem so. If, till the expiration of your month, You will return and sojourn with my sister, Dismissing half your train, come then to me; I am now from home, and out of that provision Which shall be needful for your entertainment. Lear. Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd? No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose To wage against the enmity o' the air; To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,Necessity's sharp pinch!- Return with her? Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took Our youngest born, I could as well be brought To knee his throne, and, squire-like, pension beg To keep base life afoot: Return with her? Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter? To this detested groom. [Looking on the Steward. Gon. At your choice, sir. Lear. I pr'ythee, daughter, do not make me mad; I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell: We'll no more meet, no more see one another:

But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;
Or, rather, a disease that's in my flesh,
Which I must needs call mine: but I'll not chide;
Let shame come when it will, I do not call it :
I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,
Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove:
Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure :
I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,
I, and my hundred knights.

Reg.

Not altogether so, sir; I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided For your fit welcome: Give ear, sir, to my sister; For those that mingle reason with your passion, Must be content to think you old, and so But she knows what she does.

Lear. Is this well spoken now? Reg. I dare avouch it, sir: What, fifty followers? Is it not well? What should you need of more? Yea, or so many? sith 3 that both charge and danger Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one

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Lear. O, reason not the need: our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous:

Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life is cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;
If only to go warm were gorgeous,

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st, Which scarcely keeps thee warm. — - But, for true need,

You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!
You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger!
O, let not women's weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,
That all the world shall I will do such things, —
I will have such revenges on you both,
What they are yet, I know not; but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You think, I'll weep;
No, I'll not weep:

-

I have full caue of weeping; but this heart Shall break into a hundred thousands flaws, Or ere I'll weep:· - O, fool, I shall go mad! [Exeunt LEAR, GLOSTER, KENT, and Fool. Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a storm. [Storm heard at a distance. This house

Reg.

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Re-enter GLOSTER.

Corn. Follow'd the old man forth; he is re

turn'd.

Glo. The king is in high rage. Corn.

Glo. He calls to horse; whither.

Whither is he going? but will I know not

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Than my out wall, open this purse, and take
What it contains: If you shall see Cordelia,
(As fear not but you shall, show her this ring;
And she will tell you who your fellow is
That yet you do not know.

A Storm is heard, with Thunder and Lightning.
Enter KENT, and a Gentleman, meeting.
Kent. Who's here, beside foul weather?
Gent. One minded like the weather, most un- I will go seek the king.

quietly.

Kent. I know you; Where's the king?

Gent. Contending with the fretful element :
Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea,

Or swell the curled waters 'bore the main,
That things might change, or cease: tears his white

hair:

Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,
Catch in their fury, and make nothing of:
Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn

The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.

This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would

couch,

The lion and the belly-pinched wolf Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs, And bids what will take all.

Kent.

Gent. None but the fool; His heart-struck injuries.

Kent.

But who is with him? who labours to out-jest

Sir, I do know you; And dare, upon the warrant of my heart, Commend a dear thing to you. There is division, Although as yet the face of it be cover'd With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall; Who have (as who have not, that their great stars Thron'd and set high?) servants, who seem no less; Which are to France the spies and speculations Intelligent of our state; what hath been seen, Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes; Or the hard rein which both of them have borne Against the old kind king: or something deeper, Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings 6: — But, true it is, from France there comes a power Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already, Wise in our negligence, have secret feet In some of our best ports, and are at point To show their open banner. Now to you: If on my credit you dare build so far To make your speed to Dover, you shall find Some that will thank you, making just report Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow The king hath cause to 'plain.

I am a gentleman of blood and breeding;
And from some knowledge and assurance, offer
This office to you.

Gent. I will talk further with you.
Kent.

No, do not.

For confirmation that I am much more 4 Whose dugs are drawn dry by its young. Snuffs are dislikes, and packings underhand contrivances. • Samples.

Fie on this storm!

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Lear. Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!

You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the
cocks!

You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt couriers to oak-cleaving thunder-bolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o'the world!
Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!

Fool. O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry house is better than this rain-water out o' door. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters' blessing; here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools.

Lear. Rumble thy belly-full! Spit, fire! spout, rain!

Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness,
I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children,
You owe me no subscription; why then let fall
Your horrible pleasure; here I stand your slave,
A poor infirm, weak, and depis'd old man: -
But yet I call you servile ministers,
That have with two pernicious daughters join'd
Your high engender'd battles 'gainst a head
So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul!
Fool. He that has a house to put his head in, has
a good head-piece.

The man that makes his toe

What he his heart should make,
Shall of a corn cry woe,

And turn his sleep to wake.

- for there was never yet fair woman, but she made mouths in a glass.

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Enter KENT.

Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience, I will say nothing.

Kent. Alas, sir, are you here? things that love night,

Love not such nights as these: the wrathful skies Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,

And make them keep their caves. Since I was man, Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder, Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot carry The affliction, nor the fear.

Lear. Let the great gods, That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads, Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch, That hast within thee undivulged crimes, Unwhipp'd of justice: Hide thee, thou bloody hand; Thou perjur'd, and thou simular man of virtue Thou art incestuous: Caitiff, to pieces shake, That under covert and convenient seeming Hast practis'd on man's life: - Close pent-up guilts, Rive your concealing continents, and cry These dreadful summoners grace. 5— I am a man, More sinn'd against, than sinning. Kent. Alack, bare-headed! Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel; Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest; Repose you there: while I to this hard house, (More hard than is the stone whereof 'tis rais'd; Which even but now, demanding after you, Denied me to come in,) return, and force Their scanted courtesy.

Lear.

My wits begin to turn,

Come on, my boy: How dost, my boy? Art cold?
I am cold myself.-Where is this straw, my fellow?
The art of our necessities is strange,
That can make vile things precious.

hovel,

Come, your

Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart That's sorry yet for thee.

Fool. He that has a little tiny wit,—

With heigh, ho, the wind and the rain,
Must make content with his fortunes fit;
For the rain it raineth every day.

Lear. True, my good boy. - Come, bring us to this hovel. [Exeunt LEAR and KENT. Fool. I'll speak a prophecy ere I go:

When priests are more in word than matter;
When brewers mar their malt with water;
When every case in law is right;
No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
When slanders do not live in tongues;
Nor cutpurses come not to throngs ;
Then shall the realm of Albion
Come to great confusion.

Then comes the time, who lives to see't,
That going shall be us'd with feet.

This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before [Exit.

his time.

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might pity him, they took from me the use of mine own house; charged me on pain of their perpetual displeasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him.

Edm. Most savage, and unnatural!

--

Glo. Go to; say you nothing: There is division between the dukes; and a worse matter than that: I have received a letter this night; -'tis dangerous to be spoken; -I have locked the letter in my closet: these injuries the king now bears will be footed: we must incline to the king. I will seek revenged home; there is part of a power already him, and privily relieve him: go you, and maintain talk with the duke, that my charity be not of him perceived: If he ask for me, I am ill, and gone to bed. If I die for it, as no less is threatened me, the king my old master must be relieved. There is some strange thing toward, Edmund; pray you, be careful. [Exit.

Edm. This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me Instantly know; and of that letter too: That which my father loses; no less than all: The younger rises, when the old doth fall. SCENE IV. -A Part of the Heath, with a Hovel. Enter LEAR, KENT, and Fool.

[Exit.

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mind's free,

Doth from my senses take all feeling else,
The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
Save what beats there. - Filial ingratitude!
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand,
For lifting food to 't? But I will punish home:-
No, I will weep no more. — In such a night
To shut me out! - Pour on; I will endure:
In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!—
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all,-
O, that way madness lies; let me shun that:
No more of that.

Kent.

Good my lord, enter here. Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyself; seek thine own

ease;

On things would hurt me more. — This tempest will not give me leave to ponder But I'll go in: In, boy; go first. [To the Fool.] You houseless poverty, Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep. [Fool goes in.

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Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides,
Your loop'd, and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en

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Enter EDGAR, disguised as a Madman. Edg. Away! the foul fiend follows me!. Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind. Humph! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee. Lear. Hast thou given all to thy two daughters? And art thou come to this?

Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, over bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor : - Bless thy five wits! Tom's a-cold, — O, do de, do de, do de. - Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking!? Do poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes: There could I have him now,—and there, — and there, — and there again, and there.

[Storm continues. Lear. What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?

Could'st thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all?

Fool. Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed.

Lear. Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air

Hang fated o'er men's faults, light on thy daughters! Kent. He hath no daughters, sir.

Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have subdued nature

To such a lowness, but his unkind daughters.—
Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers
Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?
Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begct
Those pelican daughters.

Edg. Pillicock sat on pillicock's hill;
Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!

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Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.

Edg. Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array: Tom's a-cold.

Lear. What hast thou been?

Edg. A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair; wore gloves in my cap8; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven: Wine loved I deeply; dice dearly; False of heart, light of ear, bloody of

7 To take is to blast, or strike with malignant influence. 8 It was the custom to wear gloves in the hat, as the favour of a mistress.

hand: Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes, nor the rustling of silks, betray thy poor heart to women: Keep thy pen from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend. - Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind: Says suum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa; let him trot by. [Storm still continues.

Lear. Why, thou wert better in thy grave, than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than this? Consider him well: Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume: Ha! here three of us are sophisticated! -Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. - Off, off, you lendings: Come; unbutton here. [Tearing off his Clothes. Fool. Pry'thee, nuncle, be contented; this is a naughty night to swim in.-Look, here comes a walking fire.

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Edg. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin 9, squints the eye, and makes the hare-lip: mildews the white wheat, and hunts the poor creature of earth.

Saint Withold footed thrice the wold;
He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;
Bid her alight,

And her troth plight,

And, aroint thee3, witch, aroint thee Kent. How fares your grace?

Enter GLOSTER, with a Torch. Lear. What's he?

Kent. Who's there? What is't you seek? Glo. What are you there? Your names? Edg. Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the tadpole, the wall-newt, and the water *; that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages, swallows the old rat, and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing-pool; who is whipped from tything to tything 5, and stocked, punished, and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his body, horse to ride, and weapon to wear.

But mice, and rats, and such small deer, Have been Tom's food for seven long year. Beware my follower: :-Peace, Smolkin 6; peace, thou fiend!

Glo. What, hath your grace no better company? Edg. The prince of darkness is a gentleman; Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.7

Glo. Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile, That it doth hate what gets it.

Edg. Poor Tom's a-cold.

Glo. Go in with me; my duty cannot suffer To obey in all your daughter's hard commands: Though their injunction be to bar my doors, And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you; Yet have I ventur'd to come seek you out, And bring you where both fire and food is ready. 9 Diseases of the eye.

A saint said to protect his devotees from the disease called the night-mare.

2 Wild downs, so called in various parts of England.
3 Avaunt.
4 i. e. The water-newt

5 A tything is a division of a county.
6 Name of a spirit.

The chief devil

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