service: Are they inform'd of this? — My breath and blood! Fiery? the fiery duke? - Tell the hot duke that Glo. I'd have all well betwixt you. [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 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, Reg. 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! If you do love old men, if your sweet sway [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, 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; 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 Lear. O, reason not the need: our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous: Allow not nature more than nature needs, 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! - 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. 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 Than my out wall, open this purse, and take A Storm is heard, with Thunder and Lightning. quietly. Kent. I know you; Where's the king? Gent. Contending with the fretful element : Or swell the curled waters 'bore the main, hair: Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage, 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; Gent. I will talk further with you. 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! Lear. Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, 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: The man that makes his toe What he his heart should make, And turn his sleep to wake. - for there was never yet fair woman, but she made mouths in a glass. 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? 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, 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; Then comes the time, who lives to see't, This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before [Exit. his time. 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. mind's free, Doth from my senses take all feeling else, 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. - Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, 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.— Edg. Pillicock sat on pillicock's hill; 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. 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; 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. 5 A tything is a division of a county. The chief devil |