And, by the happy hollow of a tree, Enforce their charity.-Poor Turlygood! poor Tom! Lear. Tis strange, that they should so depart And not send back my messenger. Gent. As I learn'd, The night before there was no purpose in them Of this remove. murder, To do upon respect such violent outrage: Kent. (1) Hair thus knotted, was supposed to be the work of elves and fairies in the night. (3) Curses. (2) Skewers. Commanded me to follow, and attend The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks: Display'd so saucily against your highness,) Fool. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way. Fathers, that wear rags, Do make their children blind; Ne'er turns the key to the poor.- Stay here. [Exit. Gent. Made you no more offence than what you speak of? Kent. None. How chance the king comes with so small a train? Fool. An thou hadst been set i'the stocks for that question, thou hadst well deserved it. Kent. Why, fool? Fool. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring in the winter. All that follow their noses are led by their eyes, but blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty, but can smell him that's stinking. Let go thy hold, when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it; but the great one that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it. That, sir, which serves and seeks for gain, Will pack, when it begins to rain, And leave thee in the storm. But I will tarry, the fool will stay, The knave turns fool, that runs away; Re-enter Lear, with Gloster. Lear. Deny to speak with me? They are sick? They have travell'd hard to-night? Mere fetches; Glo. My dear lord, Lear. Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!- (5) The old word for stockings. (6) People, train, or retinue. (7) A quibble between dolours and dollars. KING LEAR. Lear. The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father Would with his daughter speak, commands her service: Are they inform'd of this ?-My breath and blood!- Glo. I'd have all well betwixt you. 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 pure kindness to his horse, butter'd the hay. Enter Cornwall, Regan, Gloster, and Servants. Hail to your grace! reason I have to think so: if thou should'st not be glad, I would divorce thee from thy mother's tomb, Sepúlchring an adultress.-Ő, are you free? [To Kent. Some other time for that.-Beloved Regan, Lear. 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. 367 [Kneeling. Do you but mark how this becomes the house :* Lear. She hath abated me of half my train; Lear. You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding Fie, fie, fie! flames Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty, curse; Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give Reg. Good sir, to the purpose. What trumpet's that? That she would soon be here.-Is your lady come? Corn. good hope Thou didst not know of't.-Who comes here! O heavens, 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. At your choice, sir. Gon. 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; can stay with Regan; 1, 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. To follow in a house, where twice so many Have a command to tend you? Reg. What need 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! 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. Where is my lord of Gloster? Re-enter Gloster. (1) War. (2) Swelling. (3) Since. (4) Instigate. Kent. Who's here, beside foul weather? Gent. One minded like the weather, most 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 'bove the main, un-You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks! That things might change, or cease: tears his white hair; Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage, The lion and the belly-pinched wolf Kent. Gent. None but the fool; His heart-struck injuries. Kent. 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 would nuncle, in and ask thy daughters' blessing: here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools. But who is with him? who labours to out-jest 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. For confirmation that I am much more 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! Lear. Rumble thy belly full! Spit, fire! spout, rain ! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters: Fool. He that has a house to put his head in, has a good head-piece. The cod-piece that will house, And turn his sleep to wake. -for there was never yet fair woman, but she made mouths in a glass. 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, Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies And make them keep their caves: Since I was man, 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 seeming13 Hast practis'd on man's life!-Close pent-up guilts, Rive your concealing continents, and cry These dreadful summoners grace. 14-I am a man, (6) Quick as thought. (7) Avant couriers, French. (8) A proverbial phrase for fair words. (9) Obedience. (10) Scare or frighten. (11) Blustering noise. (12) Counterfeit. (13) Appearance. (14) Favour. More sinn'd against, than sinning. Lear. 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 tiny wit, With heigh, ho, the wind and the rain,- When priests are more in word than matter; Come to great confusion. Then comes the time, who lives to see't, SCENE III-A room in Gloster's castle. 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 Kent. Good my lord, enter here. Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyself; seek thine own ease; This tempest will not give me leave to ponder Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.- This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are, his time. [Exit. That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides, Enter Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en un-Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp; Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel; That thou may'st shake the superflux to them, And show the heavens more just. I Glo. Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this natural dealing: When I desired their leave that 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 This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me 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! Kent. Give me thy hand.-Who's there? Fool. A spirit, a spirit; he says his name's poor Kent. What art thou that dost grumble there Come forth. Enter Edgar, disguised as a madman. Lear. Hast thou given all to thy two daughters? Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whem 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, (3) A force already landed. |