Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

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: thou art a boil, A plague-sore, an embossed' carbuncle, In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee; 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 soBut 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, of so many? sith' that both charge and danger.
Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one
house,

Should many people, under two commands,
Hold amity? "Tis hard; almost impossible.

Gon. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance

From those that she calls servants, or from mine? Reg. Why not, my lord? If then they chanc'd

to slack you,

We could control them: If you will come to me
(For now I spy a danger,) l'entreat you
To bring but five and twenty; to no more
Will I give place or notice.
Lear. I gave you all-
Reg.
And in good time you gave it.
Lear. Made you my guardians, my depositaries;
But kept a reservation to he follow'd
With such a number: What, must I come to you
With five and twenty, Regan? said you so?
Reg. And speak it again, my lord; no more
with me.

Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look wellfavour'd,

When others are more wicked; not being the worst, Stands in some rank of praise:-I'll go with thee; [To Goneril.

Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,
And thou art twice her love.

Gon.

Here me, my lord; What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,

[blocks in formation]

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!
0, let not women's weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man's cheeks!-No, you unnatural hags,
I will have such revenges on you both,
That all the world shall-I will do such things,-
What they are, yet I know not; but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You thing, I'll weep;
No, I'll not weep:-

I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
Or ere I'll weep:-0, 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. Is little; the old man and his people cannot Be well bestow'd. Gon. 'Tis his own blame; he hath put Himself from rest, and must needs taste his folly. Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly, But not one follower. Gon.

So am I purpos'd.

[blocks in formation]

Corn. 'Tis best to give him way; he leads him self.

Gon. My lord, entreat him by no means to stay. Glo. Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds

Do sorely ruffle; for many miles about
There's scarce a bush.

Reg.
O, sir, to wilful men,
Must be their schoolmasters: Shut up your doors;
The injuries that they themselves procure,
He is attended with a desperate train;

And what they may incense him to, being apt
To have his ear abus'd, wisdom bids fear.

Corn. Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night;

My Regan counsels well: come out o'the storm. [Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE 1-A heath. A storm is heard, with thunder and lightning. Enter Kent and a Gentleman, meeting.

(1) War. (2) Swelling. (3) Since. (4) Instigate.

Kent. Who's here, beside foul weather?

Gent. One minded like the weather, most

quietly.

un-You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout

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 'bove 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.

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

This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear' would nuncle, in and ask thy daughters' blessing: here's couch,

The lion and the belly-pinched wolf

Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,

And bids what will take all.
Kent.
But who is with him?
Gent. None but the fool; who labours to out-jest
His heart-struck injuries.

Kent.

Sir, I do know you;
And bare upon the warrant of my art,2
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;4
[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

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. Fie on this storm!
I will go seek the king.

Gent. Give me your hand: Have you no more
to say?

Kent. Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet; That, when we have found the king (in which your pain

That way; I'll this ;) he that first lights on him,
Holla the other.
[Exeunt severally.
SCENE II.-Another part of the heath. Storm
continues. Enter Lear and Fool.
Lear. Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! rage!
blow!

a night pities neither wise men nor fools.
Lear. Rumble thy bellyfull! 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 despis'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 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 wo,

And turn his sleep to wake.

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

[blocks in formation]

night,

Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies
Gallow 10 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 grcans 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;
That art incestuous: Caitiff, to pieces shake,
Thou perjur'd, and thou simular1? man of virtue,
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. -I am a man,

(1) Whose dugs are drawn dry by its young.
(2) Which teaches us to find the mind's con-[(6) Quick as thought. (7) Avant couriers, Frenck

struction in the face.'

(8) A proverbial phrase for fair words. (3) Snuffs are dislikes, and packings, underhand (9) Obedience. (10) Scare or frighten.

contrivances.

[blocks in formation]

(11) Blustering noise. (12) Counterfeit. (13) Appearance. (14) Favour.

870

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 'gains the tempest;
Repose you there: while 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. Come, your
hovel,

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

Fool. He that has a little ting weit,

With high, bo, the wind and the rain,-
Must make content with his fortienes fit;
For the rain it raineth every day,
Lear. True, my good boy.-Come, bring us to
this vel,
[Exeunt Lear and Kent.
Fool. This is a brave night to cool a courteran.
I'll speak a prophecy ere I go:

When priests are more in word than matter;
When brewers mar their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors' tutors;
No heretics bemid, but winebes' suitors:
When every case in law is right:

> squire in debt, nor no noor knight;
Whenk slanders do not live in tongues ;
Noren purses come pa ta chrongs:
When rers tell their mold the field;

[blocks in formation]

enter.

Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much, that this conten-
tious storm

Invades us to the skin: so 'tis 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 raging sea.
Thou'dst meet the bear the mouth. When the
mind's free,

The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all fecling else,
Save what beats there.-Filial ingratitude t
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hind,
For lifting food tot?-But I will punish home.
No, I will weep no more.-In such a night
To shut me cat-Pair on; I will endure:-
In such a right as this! O Rezina, Goneri} !-
Your old kind father, whose frank heart
0, that way madness lies; let me shan that;
No more of that, —

ve all,

Kmt.
Good my lord, enter here.
Lear. Pythee, go in thyself; seek thine o

[blocks in formation]

And bawchs and whores da ebarches build 5-10
Then shall the realm of Albion

Come to great exclusion,

Then copies the fine, who Eves to see't,
That going shall be us with Ret.

This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I Sve

poverty. —

Nay, get the in. I pray, and then I slern. —
Foul goes in

before. Poor naked wretches, wheresyller 131 are,
(Ek That bide the pelting stais maless storm.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Came ür

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

and halters in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; wild field were like an old lecher's heart: a small made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-spark, all the rest of his body cold.-Look, here horse over four-inched bridges, to course his own comes a walking fire. shadow for a traitor:-Bless thy five wits! Tom's Edg. This is the foul fiend Fibbertigibbet: he a-cold.-0, do de, do de, do de.—Bless thee from begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking! Do poor gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes; makes the hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and There could I have him now,-and there,-and hurts the poor creature of earth. there, and there again, and there. [Storm continues.

[blocks in formation]

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 subdu'd nature

To such a lowness, but his unkind daughters.-
Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers

Should have this little mercy on their flesh?
Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot
Those pelican daughters.

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

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

Edg. Take heed of 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 cap, served the lust of my mistress's heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one, that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it: Wine loved I deeply; dice dearly; and in woman, out-paramoured the Turk: False of heart, light of ear, bloody of 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 foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, 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.

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

And her troth plight,

And, aroint thee, 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, eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat, and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; who is whipped from tything to tything, 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;10 peace, thou fiend!

Glo. What, hath your grace no better company? Edg. The prince of darkness is a gentleman; Modo he's called, and Mahu.11

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 daughters' 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. Lear. First let me talk with this philosopher :What is the cause of thunder?

Kent. Good my lord, take his offer; Go into the house.

Lear. I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban:

What is your study?

Edg. How to prevent the fiend, and to kill vermin. Lear. Let me ask you one word in private. Kent. Impórtune him once more to go, my lord, His wits begin to unsettle. Glo.

[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 hin well: Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume:Canst thou blame him? Ha! here's three of us are unsophisticated!--Thou His daughters seek his death:-Ah, that good art the thing it-elf: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou He said it would be thus:-Poor banish'd man! art-Off, off, you lendings:-Come; unbutton Thou say'st, the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, here.' [Tearing off his clothes.

Kent!

friend,

Fool. Privthee, nuncle, be contented; this is a I am almost mad myself: I had a son, naughty night to swim in.-Now a little fire in a Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life,

(1) To take is to blast, or strike with malignant influence.

(2) It was the custom to wear gloves in the hat, as the favour of a mistress.

(3) The words unbutton here, are probably only a marginal direction crept into the matter. (4) Diseases of the eye.

VOL. II.

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

(6) Wild downs, so called in various parts of England.

(7) Avaunt.

(8) i. e. The water-newt. (9) A tything is a division of a county. (10) Name of a spirit. (11) The chief devil.. 30

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

Hush.
Edg, Child Reland to the dark tower came,
His word was still,-Fie, foh, and fun,
I smell the blood of a British man.

[Exeunt SCENE V. A room in Gloster's castle. Enter Cornwall and Edmund.

Corn. I will have my revenge, ere I depart his house.

Edm. How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature this gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think of.

Corn. I now perceive, it was not altogether your brother's evil disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reproveable bailness in himself.

En. How milicious is my fortune, that I must repent to be just! This is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an intelligent party to the advantages of France. O heavens! that this treason were not, or not I the detector!

Corn. Go with me to the duchess.

E4 If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business in hand.

Corn. True, or false, it hath made thee earl of Gloster. Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension.

Edra. [-‡side.] Il I find him comforting the king, it will staff his suspicion more fully.—I will persevere in my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore between that and my blood.

Corn. I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a dearer father in my love. (Ezerast. SCENE VI-A chamber in a farm-house, adjoining the castle. Enter Gloster, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar.

Gle. Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully: I will piece out the comfort with what addition I can: I will not be long from you. Kent. All the power of his wits has given way to his impatience:-The gods reward your kind[Erit Gloster, Edg. Frateretto calls me; and tells me, Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.

ness!

Fool. Priythee, nuncle, tell me, whether a madman be a gentleman, or a yeoman! Lear. A king, a king!

(1) Child is an old term for knight.

Lear. It shall be done, I will arraign them

straight :—

Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer:—

(To Edrar. Thou, sapient sir, sit here. [To the Fool j—Now, you she foxes!—

Elg. Look, where he stands and glares!Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam !

Come over the born, Berry, to me Fool. Her bost bath a leak,

And she must not speak

Why she dares not come over to thee.

Edg. The fool fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale. Hupace cries in Tom's bedt, for two white herrings Croak not, black angel, İ

have no food for thee.

[blocks in formation]

Edg. Let us deal justly.

Sleepest, or weakest thom, jully shepherd?

Thy sheen be in the corn; And for one blast of thy minikin memik, Thy sheep shali take no harm.

Pur! the cat is grey.

my oath before this bonourable assembly, she kickLear. Arraign ber first; "tis Goneril. I here take ed the poor king her father.

Fool. Come hither, mistress; Is your name Goneril?

Lear. She cannot deny it.

Fool. Cry you meres, I took you for a joint-stock.
Lear. And here's another, whose warp'd looks
proclaim

What store her heart is made of.-Stop her there!
Arms, arms, sword, Ere!-Corruption in the place!
False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape?"

Elg. Bless thy five wits!

Kent. O pity-Sir, where is the patience now, That you so oft have boasted to retain? Edg. My tears begin to take his part so much, They'll mar ray counterfeiting.

[Iside.
Lear. The little dogs and all,
Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me.
Elg. Tom will throw his head at them:-
Avaunt, you curs!

Be the mouth or black or white,
Tooth that poisons if it bite;
Mastiff, grey-hound, mongrel grim,
Hound, or spaniel, brach, or lym ;*
Or bobtail tike, or trundle-tail;
Tom will make them weep and wail:

(3) Edgar is speaking in the character of a mad

(2) Addressed to the fool, who was anciently man, who thinks be sees the fiend. talled an innocent.

↑ (4) Brook or rivulet. (3) A blood-bound.

« AnteriorContinuar »