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 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, To bring but five and twenty; to no more Lear. I gave you all- Reg. And in good time you gave it. Lear. Made you my guardians, my depositaries; With such a number: What, must I come to you Reg. And speak it again, my lord; no more with me. Gon. Hear me, my lord; What need you five and twenty, ten, or five, To follow in a house, where twice so many Have a command to tend you? Reg. What need one? [To GON. 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, O, let not women's weapons, water-drops, That all the world shall-I will do such things,- I have full cause of weeping; but this heart [Exeunt LEAR, GLOSTER, KENT, and Fool. Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a storm. Reg. This house [Storm heard at a distance. Is little; the old man and his people cannot Gon. 'Tis his own blame; he hath put Himself from rest, and must needs taste his folly. Gon. So am I purpos'd. Where is my lord of Gloster? Re-enter GLOSTER. Corn. Follow'd the old man forth :-he is return'd. Glo. The king is in high rage. Corn. Whither is he going? Glo. He calls to horse; but will I know not whither. Corn. 'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself. 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, The injuries, that they themselves procure, Must be their schoolmasters: Shut up your doors; 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 I-A Heath. A storm is heard, with thunder and lightning. Enter KENT, and a Gentleman, meeting. Kent. Who's here, beside foul weather? Gent. One minded like the weather, most unquietly. That things might change,or cease: tears his white hair; Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain. This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,4 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 dare, upon the warrant of my art,5 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; [4] Cub drawn has been explained to signify drawn by nature to its young; whereas it means whose dugs are drawn dry by its young. For no animals leave their dens by night but for prey. So that the meaning is, "that even hunger, and the support of its young, would not force the bear to leave her den in such a night." WARBURTON. [5] On the strength of that art or skill, which teaches us "to find the mind's construction in the face." MALONE. [6] Snuffs are dislikes, and packings underhand contrivances. STEEVENS. [7] Furnishings are what we now call colours, external pretences. JOHN. Wise in our negligence, have secret feet To make your speed to Dover, you shall find I am a gentleman of blood and breeding; 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 That yet you do not know. Fye on this storm ! 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! You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks! Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, Crack nature's moulds, all germins spill at once, Fool. O nuncle, court holy-water9 in a dry house is better than this rain-water out o'door. Good nuncle, [8] Doing execution with rapidity equal to thought. JOHNSON. [9] Ray, among his proverbial phrases, mentions court holy-water to mean fair words. The french have the same phrase Eau benite de cour; fair empty words-Chambaud's Dict. STEEVENS. in, and ask thy daughters blessing; here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools. Lear. Rumble thy bellyfull! spit, fire! spout, rain! That have with two pernicious daughters join'd Fool. He that has a house to put his head in, has a good head-piece. The cod-piece that will house, The man that makes his toe What he his heart would 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, Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,3 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, [1] Subscription-for obedience. WARBURTON. [2] A beggar marries a wife and lice. [3] Gallow-a west country word, signifies to scare or frighten. WARB. So theSomersetshire proverb, "The dunder do gally the beans." Beans are vulgarly supposed to shoot up faster after thunder-storms, STEEVENS |