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. Should many people, under two commands, 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 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, Gon. Here me, my lord; What need you five and twenty, ten, or five, 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! You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, I have full cause of weeping; but this heart [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. 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 Reg. And what they may incense him to, being apt 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? Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage, Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, Strike flat the thick rotundity o'the world! 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. Sir, I do know you; To make your speed to Dover, you shall find I am a gentleman of blood and breeding; Gent. I will talk further with you. No, do not. Than my out wall, open this purse, and take Gent. Give me your hand: Have you no more 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, a night pities neither wise men nor fools. rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters: The cod-piece that will house, So beggars marry many. And turn his sleep to wake. -for there was never yet fair woman, but she made mouths in a glass. night, Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies And make them keep their caves: Since I was man, Lear. (1) Whose dugs are drawn dry by its young. 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. (11) Blustering noise. (12) Counterfeit. (13) Appearance. (14) Favour. 870 More sinn'd against, than sinning. Lear. My wits begin to turn.- That can make vile things precious. Come, your Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart Fool. He that has a little ting weit, With high, bo, the wind and the rain,- When priests are more in word than matter; > squire in debt, nor no noor knight; enter. Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much, that this conten- Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee; The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind ve all, Kmt. And bawchs and whores da ebarches build 5-10 Come to great exclusion, Then copies the fine, who Eves to see't, This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I Sve poverty. — Nay, get the in. I pray, and then I slern. — before. Poor naked wretches, wheresyller 131 are, Came ür 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. 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.- Should have this little mercy on their flesh? Edg. Pillicock sat on pillicock's-hill ;- 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, 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? 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 Hush. [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. 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. What store her heart is made of.-Stop her there! 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. Be the mouth or black or white, (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. |