Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks! Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunder-bolts, Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, Crack nature's moulds, all germins 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 daughter's blessing: here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools. Lear. Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters: I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness; That will with two pernicious daughters join Fool. He that has a house to put 's head in has a good headpiece. The cod-piece that will house, Before the head has any, The head and he shall louse; So beggars marry many. 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. Enter KENT. Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing. Kent. Who's there? Fool. Marry, here's grace, and a cod-piece; that 's a wise man, and a fool. Kent. Alas, Sir! are you here? things that love night, And make them keep their caves. Since I was man, Lear. Let the great gods, Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch, Unwhipp'd of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand; These dreadful summoners grace. - I am a man, 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 't is rais'd, Which even but now, demanding after you, Denied me to come in) return, and force Their scanted courtesy. The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel. Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart Fool. He that has a little tiny wit, With heigh, ho, the wind and the rain, [Sings. Lear. True, my good boy. - Come, bring us to this hovel. [Exeunt LEAR and KENT. Fool. This is a brave night to cool a courtezan. a prophecy ere I go : When priests are more in word than matter; No squire in debt, nor no poor knight; Come to great confusion: Then comes the time, who lives to see 't, That going shall be us'd with feet. I'll speak This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time. SCENE III. A Room in GLOSTER'S Castle. Enter GLOSTER and Edmund. [Exit. Glo. Alack, alack! Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing. When I desired their leave that I 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; 't is dangerous to be spoken; I have locked the letter in my closet. These injuries the king now bears will be revenged home; there is part of a power already footed: we must incline to the king. I will seek 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. Edm. This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me SCENE IV. A Part of the Heath, with a Hovel. Enter LEAR, KENT, and Fool. Kent. Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, The tyranny of the open night's too rough For nature to endure. [Exit. [Exit. enter: [Storm still Wilt break my heart? Good my lord, enter. Lear. Thou think'st 't is much, that this contentious storm Invades us to the skin: so't is to thee; But where the greater malady is fix'd, The lesser is scarce felt. Thou 'dst shun a bear; But if thy flight lay toward the roaring sea, Thou 'dst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the mind 's free, The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind Doth from my senses take all feeling else, Save what beats there. - Filial ingratitude! Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand, 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!- Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyself; seek thine own ease: This tempest will not give me leave to ponder On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in : In, boy; go first. - [To the Fool.] You houseless poverty, Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, [Fool goes in. Edg. [Within.] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom! [The Fool runs out from the Hovel. Fool. Come not in here, nuncle; here's a spirit. Help me! help me! Fool. A spirit, a spirit: he says his name 's poor Tom. Kent. What art thou that dost grumble there i' the straw? Come forth. Enter EDGAR, disguised as a Madman. |