Lear.

did you? | Have a command to tend you?
Reg.

You
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, squirelike, 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.
Lear. I pr'ythee, daughter, do not make me
mad;

Gon.

[gars

What need one 7
Lear. O, reason not the need our basest beg
Are in the poorest things superfluous :
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life is cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;
If only to go warin 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!
O, 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,-
I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell: What they are, yet I know not; but they shall be
We'll no more meet, no more see one another:-The terrors of the earth. You think, I'll weep;
But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daugh-
ter;

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,
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 so--
But she knows what she does.
Lear.
Is this well spoken now?
Reg. I dare avouch it, sir: what, fifty fol
lowers?

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,

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, Gioster, Kent, and Fool.
Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a storm.
[Storm heard at a distance.
Reg.
This house
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.
So am I purpos'd
Where is my lord of Gloster ?
Re-enter Gloster.

Gon.

Corn. Follow'd the old man forth :-he is re
turn'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 un
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,
Taat things might change, or cease: tears b
white hair;.

Who have (as who have not, that their great stars Thron'd and set high?) servants, who seem no-for there was never yet fair woman, but she made mouths in a glass.

Rive your concealing continents, and ery These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man, That, when we have found the king (in which | More sinn'd against, than sinning. your pain That way; I'll this;) he that first lights on him, Holloa the other. [Exeunt severally.

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 bless-Lear. True, my good boy.-Come, bring as to ing! Here's a night pities neither wise men nor [Exeunt Lear and Kent fools. Fool. This is a brave night to cool a courtesan

Lear. Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout-I'll speak a prophecy ere I go:

When nobles are their tailors' tutors;
No hereticks burn'd, but wenches' suitors;
When every case in law is right;
No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
When slanders do not live in tongues;
Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;
When usurers tell their gold i' the field;

And bawds and whores do churches build :-
Then shall the realm of Albion

Come to great confusion.

Then comes the time, who lives to see't,
That going shall be us'd with feet.

This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live be-
fore his time.
[Exit.

SCENE III. A Room in Gloster's Castle.

Enter Gloster and Edmund.

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!

ask for me,

From seasons, such as these? O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this! Take physick, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel;
That thou may'st shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.

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 Tom.
Kent. What art thou that dost grumble there
i' the straw?
Come forth.

Enter Edgar, disguised as a Madman. Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold Edg. Away! the foul fiend follows me :

wind.

Humph! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.
Lear. Hast thou given all to thy two daughters7
And art thou come to this?

Glo. Go to; say you nothing: There is a division between the dukes; and a worse matter than that I have received a letter this night; 'tis 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 whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? am ill, and gone to bed. If I die through flame, through ford and whirlpool, over for it, as no less is threatened me, the king my bog and quagmire, that hath laid knives under old master must be relieved. There is some his pillow, and halters in his pew; set ratsbane strange things toward, Edmund: pray you, be by his porridge; made him proud of heart, to bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor: [Erit ride on a bay trotting-horse over four-inched -Bless thy five wits! Tom's a-cold.-O, do de, do de, do de.-Bless thee from whirlwinds, starwhom the foul fiend vexes: There could I have blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, him now, and there, and there, and there again, and there. [Storm continues.

careful.

Edm. This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke
Instantly know; and of that letter too:-
This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me
That which my father loses; no less than all:
The younger rises, when the old doth fall. [Exit.
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, enter:

The tyranny of the open night's too rough
For nature to endure.
Lear.

Let me alone."
Kent. Good my lord, enter here.
Lear.

[Storm still.

Wilt break my heart? Kent. I'd rather break mine own: Good my lord, enter.

Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much, that this con-
tentious 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 i' the mouth. When the
mind's free,

Lear. What, have his daughters brought him to this pass 7Could'st thou save nothing? Did'st thou give them all?

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 daugh
ters!

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 thus little mercy on their flesh ?
Judicious punishment! 'Twas this flesh begot
Those pelican daughters.

The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling lse,
Save what beats there.-Filial ingratitude!
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand,
For lifting food to't ?-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!-thy sweetheart on prond array: Tom's a-cold.
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave

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

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

all,

O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
No more of that,-
Kent.

Edg. Take heed o' the foul fiend: Ohey thy parents; keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not

Lear. What hast thon been?

Edg. A serving-man, prond in heart and mind; that curled my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of my mistress' heart, and did the Good, my lord, enter hereact 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 Inst, and waked to do it: Wine loved I deep: ly dice dearly; and in woman, out-paramoured

Lear. 'Pr'ythee, go in thyself; seek thine own

ease.

This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
Ou things would hurt me more.-But I'll go in

Glo.

Kent!

Canst thou blame him?

He said it would be thus:-Poor banish'd man!Thou say 'st, the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend,

the Turk False of heart, light of ear, bloody of His wits begin to unsettle. hand; Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let His daughters seek his death:-Ah, that good 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. [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 him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume :-Ha! there's three of us are sophisticated!-Thou art the thing itself:-unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.-Off, off, you lendings:-Come; unbutton here.

am almost mad myself; I had a son, Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life, But lately, very late; I lov'd him, friend,No father his son dearer: true to tell thee, [Storm continues.

[Tearing off his Clothes. Fool. 'Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; this is a naughty night to swim in.-Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher's heart; a small spark, all the rest of his body cold.-Look, here comes a walking fire.

Edg. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock: he gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creatures of earth. 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 ty thing to tything, and stocked, punished, and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his body, horse to ride, and

Glo. What, hath your grace no better company 7

Edg. The prince of darkness is a gentleman; Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.

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 daughter's hard commands:
Though their injunction be to bar my doors
And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,
Yet have I ventured 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.

The grief hath craz'd my wits. What a night's
this!
I do beseech your grace,-
Lear.

O, cry you mercy,
Noble philosopher, your company.
Edg. Tom's a-cold.

I

Glo. In, fellow, there, to the hovel; keep thee

warm.

Lear. Come, let's in all.

Kent.
Lear.

With him;

This way, my lord.
will keep still with my philosopher.
Kent. Good my lord, south him: let him take
the fellow.
Glo. Take Im you on.

Kent. Sirrah, come on; go along with us.
Lear. Come, good Athenian.
Glo.
Hush.

No words, no words:

house.

Edm. How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus 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 reprovable badness in himself. Edm. How malicious 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.

Edm. 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.

Edm. [Aside.] If I find him comforting the king, it will stuf his suspicion more fully-i will persevere in my course of loyalty,though the conflict be sore between that and my blood.

Corn. I wil lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt fiud a dearer father in my love. [Exeunt. SCENE VI.

A Champer in a Furm-House, adjoining the
Castle.

Enter Gloster, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar. Glo 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

Lear. I'll talk a word with this same learned to his impatience ;-The gods reward your kindTheban:

What is your study?

Edg. How to prevent the fiend, and to kill
vermin.

Lear. Let me ask you one word in private.
Kent. Importune him once more to go,my lord,

ness!
[Exit Gloster.
Edg. Frateretto calls me; and tells me Nero
is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, in-
nocent, and beware the foul fiend

Fool. 'Pr'ythee, nuncle, tell me, whether a madman be a gentleman, or a yeoman 7

Lear. A king, a king! Fool. No; he's a yeoman, that has a gentleman to his son: for he's a mad yeoman, that sees his son a gentleman before him. Lear. To have a thousand with red burning Come hissing in upon them :[spits

Edg. The foul fiend bites my back. Fool. He's mad, that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's heels, a boy's love, or a whore's oath.

Lear. It shall be done, I will arraign them
straight:-

Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer:-
To Edgar.
Thou, sapient sir, sit here. [To the Fool]-Now,
you she foxes!-

Edg. Look, where he stands and glares!-
Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam ?

Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me:Fool. Her boat hath a leak,

And she must not speak.

Why she dares not come over to thee. Edg. The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two white herrings. Croak not, black angel; I have no food for thee.

Kent. How do you, sir? Stand you not so amaz'd:

Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?
Lear. I'll see their trial first :-Bring in the
evidence-

Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;
[To Edgar.
And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity,
To the Fool.
Bench by his side :-You are of the commission,
Sit you too.
[To Kent.

Edg. Let us deal justly.
Sleepest, or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?
Thy sheep be in the corn;

And for one blast of thy minikin mouth,
Thy sheep shall take no harm.
Pur! the cat is gray.

Lear. Arraigu her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my oath before this honourable assembly, she kicked the poor king her father.

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

Lear. She cannot deny it.

Fool. Cry you mercy, I took you for a jointstool.

Lear. And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim

What store her heart is made of.-Stop her there!
Arms, arms, sword, fire!-Corruption in the
place!

False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape?
Edg. Bless thy five wits!

Kent. O pity-Sir, where is the patience now,
That you so oft have boasted to retain ?

[Aside.

Edg. My tears begin to take his part so much,
They'll mar my counterfeiting.
Lear. The little dogs and all,
Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, see, they bark.

at me.

Edg. Tom will throw his head at them:-
Avaunt, you curs!

Be thy mouth or black or white,
Tooth that poisons if it bite;
Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim,
Hound, or spaniel, brach, or lym;
Or bobtail tyke, or trundle-tail;
Tom will make them weep and wail:
For, with throwing thus my head,
Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.
Do de, de de. Sessa. Come, march to wakes
and fairs, and market towns:-Poor Tom, thy
horn is dry

I do not like the fashion of your garments: you
will say, they are Persian attire ! but let them be
changed.
[To Edgar.

Kent. Now, good my lord, lie here, and rest awhile.

Lear. Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains: So, so, so: We'll go to supper i' the morning: So, so, so.

Fool. And I'll go to bed at noon.
Re-enter Gloster.

Glo. Come hither, friend: Where is the king
my master?

Kent. Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits

are gone.

Glo. Good friend, I pr'ythee take him in thy

arms;

I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him:
There is a litter ready; lay him in't,
And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou
shalt meet

Both welcome and protection. Take up thy

master:

If thou should'st dally half an hour, his life,
With thine, and all that offer to defend him,
Stand in assured loss: Take up, take up ;
And follow me, that will to soine provision
Give thee quick conduct.

Kent.

Oppress'd nature sleeps:-
This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses,
Which, if convenience will not allow,
Stand in hard cure.-Come, help to bear thy

master;

Thou must not stay behind.
Glo.

[To the Fool. Come, come, away. [Exeunt Kent, Gloster, and the Fool, bearing off the King.

Edg. When we our betters see bearing our woes,
We scarcely think our miseries our foes.
Who alone suffers, suffers most i' the mind;
Leaving free things, and happy shows, behind:
But then the mind much sufferance doth o'erskip,
When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.
How light and portable my pain seems now,
When that, which makes me bend, makes the
king bow;

He childed, as I father'd !-Tom, away:
Mark the high noises: and thyself bewray,
When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles
thee,

In thy just proof, repeals, and reconciles thee.
What will hap more to-night, safe scape the king!
Lurk, lurk.
(Exit.

SCENE VII. A room in Gloster's Castle.
Enter Cornwall, Regan, Goneril, Edmund, and
Servants.

Corn. Post speedily to my lord your husband; show him this letter;-the army of France is landed:-Seek out the villain Gloster.

[Exeunt some of the Servants. Reg. Hang him instantly. Gon. Pluck out his eyes. Corn. Leave him to my displeasure.-Edmund, keep you our sister company; the revenges we are bound to take upon your traitorous father, are not fit for your beholding. Advise the duke where you are going, to a most festinate preparation; we are bound to the like. Our post shall be swift, and intelligent betwixt us. Farewell, dear sister ;-farewell, my lord of Gloster. Enter Steward.

How now? Where's the king?

Stew. My lord of Gloster hath convey'd hin hence:

Some five or six and thirty of his knights Hot questrists after him, met him at gate; Lear. Then let them anatomize Regan, see Who with some other of the lord's dependants, what breeds about her heart: Is there any cause Are gone with him towards Dover; where they in nature, that makes these hard hearts ?-You, sir, I entertain you for one of my hundred; only 'To have well armed friends.

boast