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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!-

1

-Return with her?

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, 5 And thou art twice her love.

Why, the hot-blooded-France, that dowerless took 10
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 3
To this detested groom. [Looking on the steward.15
Gon. At your choice, sir.
[me mad;

3

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?

Leur. 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,---
[nced!
You heavens, give me that patience, patience I
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!
250, 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
30 The terrors of the earth. You think, I'll weep;
No, I'll not weep:

Lear. Now I pr'ythee, daughter, do not make
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; 20
Or, rather, a disease that's in my flesh,
Which I must needs call mine: thou art a bile,
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 so-
But she knows what she does,

Lear. Is this well spoken now?

35

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 40
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 45]

attendance

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I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
Or ere I'll weep:-O fool, I shall
go
mad!
[Exeunt Lear, Gloster, Kent, and Fool.
Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a storm.
[Storm and tempest heard.

Reg. This house is little; the old man and his
people

Cannot be well bestow'd.

[from rest, Gon. 'Tis his own blame; he hath put himself 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.

[turn'd. [whither.

Corn, Follow'd the old man forth:-He is re-
Glo. The king is in high rage.
Corn. Whither is he going?
Glo. He calls to horse; but will I know not
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 school-masters: Shut up your doors;
He is attended with a desperate train;

3

́1i. e. to make war. 2 i, e. in a servile state. Sumpter is a horse that carries necessaries on a journey; though sometimes used for the case to carry them in. Embossed is swelling, protuberant.

3 P

And

And what they may incense him to, being apt
To have his ear abus'd, wisdom bids fear. [night;
Corn. Slut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild

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

SCENE I.
A Heath.

ACT III.

A Storm is heard, with thunder and lightning.
Enter Kent, and a Gentleman, meeting.

Kent. WHO's there, besides foul weather?

Gent. One minded like the weather,
most unquietly.

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. [couch,
This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would
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;

10 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.

15 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,) shew her this ring;
And she will tell you who your fellow is
20 That yet you do not know.-Fie on this storm!
I will go seek the king,
[to say?
Gent. Give me your hand: Have you no more
Kent. Few words, but, to effect, more than all

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You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout [cocks! 35Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers to cak-cleaving thunder-bolts, Singemy white head! And thouall-shakingthunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world! Crack nature's moulds; all germens spill at once', That make ingrateful inan!

And dare, upon the warrant of my note 3,
Commend a dear thing to you. There is division,
Although as yet the face of it be cover'd [wall;
With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Corn-
Who have (as who have not, that their great stars 40
Throne 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 45
Against the old kind king; or something deeper,
Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings;-
But, true it is, from France there comes a power
Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already,
Wise in our negligence, have secret fee
In some of our best ports, and are at point
To shew 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.

Fool. Onuncle, court holy-water' in a dry house is better than this rain-water out o' door. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters blessing; here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools.

Lear. Rumble thy belly full! Spit, fire! spout,

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rain!

Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;
50I never gave yoù 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,

55 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"!

2 Cub-drawn means, whose dugs

4

The main seems to signify here the main land, the continent. are drawn dry by its young. 'My observation of your character. Snuffs are dislikes, and packings underhand contrivances. 'i. e. colours, external pretences. i. e. divided, unsettled. Avant-couriers, Fr. That is, "Crack nature's mould, and spill (or destroy) all the seeds of matter that are hoarded within it." ' Court holy-water is a proverbial expression, meaning fair tords. Subscription for obedience. Fool.

10

i. e. shameful, dishonourable.

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Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies
Gallow 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 groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot
The affliction, nor the fear.

[carry

Must make content with his fortun ́s fit;
For the ruin it raineth every day.
Lear. True, my good boy.-Come, bring us
[Exit.
Fool. This is a brave night to cool a courtezan.
I'll speak a prophecy ere I go:

to this hovel.

When priests are more in word than matter;
When brewers mar their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors' tutors';

10 No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors:
Then comes the time, who lives to see't,
That going shall be us'd with feet.—
When every case in law is right;
No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
15 When slanders do not live in tongues;
Nor cut-purses 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

20 Come to great confusion.

25

Lear. Let the great gods,
That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads,
Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch, 30
That hast within thee undivulged crimes,
Unwhipt of justice; Hide thee, thou bloody hand;
Thou perjur'd, and thou simular man of virtue
That art incestuous: Caitiff, to pieces shake,
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,
More sinn'd against, than sinning.

Kent. Alack, bare-headed!

Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel;
Some friendshipwill it lend you'gainst the tempest;
Repose you there: while I to this hard house,
(More hard than is the stone whereof 'tis rais'd;
Which even but now, demanding after you,
Deny'd 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 tiny wit,—

With heigh, ho, the wind and the rain,

1i. e. A beggar marries a wife and lice. That there is no discretion below the girdle.

2

35

This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live be-
Ifore his time.

SCENE III.

An Apartment in Gloster's Castle.

Enter Gloster, and Edmund.

[Exit.

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 perpetual displeasure, neither to speak of him, of mine own house; charg'd me, on pain of their entreat for him, nor any way sustain him.

Edm. Most savage, and unnatural!

Glo. Go to say you nothing: There is division between the dukes; and a worse matter than that: I have received a letter this night;-'tis dangerous to be spoken.I have lock'd 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 40 him, and privily relieve him: go you, and maintain talk with the duke, that my charity be not of him perceived: If he ask for me, I am ill, and gone to bed. If I die for it, as no less is threaten'd me, the king my old master must be relieved. 45 There is some strange thing toward, Edmund; pray you, be careful. [Exit. Edm. This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke Instantly know; and of that letter too :That which my father loses; no less than all: This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me The younger rises, when the old doth fall. [Exit. SCENE IV.

50

55

3

A Part of the Heath, with a Hovel.

Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool.

Kent. Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter:

› Con

Alluding perhaps to the saying of a contemporary wit, Gallow, a west-country word, signifies to scare or frighten. * Convenient seeming is appearance such as may promote his purpose to destroy. tinent stands for that which contains or incloses. Summoners mean here the officers that summon offenders before a proper tribunal. 'i. e. invent fashions for them. The disease to which wenches' suitors are particularly exposed, was called in Shakspeare's time the brenning or burning. 3 P 2

The

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mind's free,

The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else,
Save what beats there.-Filial ingratitude !---
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand,
For lifting food to 'ti-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!—
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave you
all,-

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

[ease;

fquagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inch'd bridges, to course 5 nis own shadow for a traitor:-Bless thy five wits!! ---Tom's a-cold.---O, do de, do de, do de.---Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes:- -There could I have him now,--and 10there,---and there, and there again, and there. [Storm still.

Lear. What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?

[all? Could'st thou save nothing? Didst thou give them 15 Fool. Nay, he reserv'd a blanket, else we had been all shamed.

201

lous air

Lear. Now, all the plagues that in the pendu[ters! Hang fated o'er men's faults, light on thy daugh Kent. He hath no daughters, sir.

Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have sub-
dued nature

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

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

Kent. Good my lord, enter here.
Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyself; seek thine own
This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
On things would hurt me more.-But I'll go in:-30
In, boy; go first.-[To the Fool.] You houseless
poverty,-

Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.-
[Fool goes in.
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
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 shew the heavens more just.

Edg. [within.] Fathom and half, fathom and
half! Poor Tom!

Fool. Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit.
Help me, help me! [The Fool runs out from the hovel.
Kent. Give me thy hand.- -Who's there?
Fool. A spirit, a spirit; he says, his name's poor
Tom.
[the straw
Kent. What art thou that dost grumble there
Come forth.

i'

35

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

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

Edg. Take heed o' 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-inan, proud in heart and mind; that curl'd my hair, wore gloves in my cap, serv'd the lust of my mistress's heart, and did the act of 40 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 wak'd to do it: Wine lov'd I deeply; dice dearly; and in woman, out-paramour'd the Turk: 45 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, 50thy 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, boy, Sessy; let him trot by. [Storm still.

Enter Edgar, disguised as a madman.
Edg. Away! the foul fiend follows me !-
Thro' the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.---55)
Humph! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.

Lear. Hast thou given all to thy two daughters?
And art thou come to this?

Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and throug! flame, through ford and whirlpool, over bog and

Lear. Why thou wert better in thy grave, than to answer with thy uncover'd body this extremity of the skies.-Is man no more than this? Consider nim well: thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume:Ha! here's three of us are sophisticated!-Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no So the five senses were called by our old writers. 2 To take is to blast, or strike with malignant influence. "The young pelican is fabled to suck the mother's blood. * i. e. his mistress' fayours: which was the fashion of that time. i. e. ready to receive malicious reports.

more

more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou -Off,off, you lendings:-Come; unbutton [Tearing off his clothes.

art. here.

Fool. Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; this is a naughty night to swim in.-Now a little fire in a 5 wild field, were like an old lecher's heart; a small spark, and all the rest of his body cold.-Look, here comes a walking fire.

Edg. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he beg ns at curfew, and walks 'till the first cock; he 10 gives the web and the pin', squints the eye, and} makes the hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth.

Saint Withold footed thrice the world2;
He met the night-mare, and her nine fold;
Bid her alight,

And her troth plight,

And, Aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee?! Kent. How fares your grace?

Enter Gloster, with a torch.

Lear. What's he?

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15I am almost mad myself; I had a son,
Now out-law'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, [this!
The grief hath craz'd my wits. What a night's'
201 do beseech your grace,—

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 wa-25
ter-newt; that in the fury of his heart, when the
foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets; swal-
lows the old rat, and the ditch-dog; drinks the
green mantle of the standing pool; who is whipt
from tything to tything, and stock'd, punish'd, 30
and imprison'd; 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; peace,

thou fiend!

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

35

[vile, 40

Glo. Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so
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:45
Though their injunctions 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:-50
What is the cause of thunder?

Kent. My good lord, take his offer;

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

[warm.

Glo. In, fellow, there, to the hovel: keep thee
Lear. Come, let's in all.

Kent. This way, my lord.

Lear. With him;

will keep still with my philosopher.

Kent. Good my lord, sooth him; let him take the fellow.

Glo. Take him you on.

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

Glo. No words, no words; hush.
Edg. Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
His word was still,-Fie, foh, and fum,
I smell the blood of a British man. [Exeunt,

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These

1 Diseases of the eye. 2 Wold signifies a down, or ground hilly and void of wood. verses were no other than a popular charm, or night-spell against the Epialtes; and the last line is the formal execration or apostrophe of the speaker of the charm to the witch, aroynt thee right, i. e. depart forthwith.-Bedlams, gipsies, and such-like vagabonds, used to sell these kind of spells or charms to the people. They were of various kinds for various disorders. A tything is a division of a place, a district; the same in the country, as a ward in the city. In the Saxon times, every hundred was divided into tythings. "Deer in old language is a general word for wild animals." 6 In the old times of chivalry, the noble youth who were candidates for knighthood, during the season of their probation, were called Infans, Varlets, Damoysels, Bacheliers; the most noble of the youth particularly, Infans. Here a story is told, in some old ballad, of the famous hero and giant-killer Roland, before he was knighted, who is, therefore, called Infans; which the ballad-maker translated, Child Roland.

3 P3

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