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For those that mingle reason with your paffion,
Must be content to think you old, and fo
But she knows what she does.

Lear. Is this well spoken ?

Reg. I dare avouch it, Sir; what, fifty followers? Is it not well? what should you need of more? Yea, or so many? since 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 impoffible.

Gon. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance From those that she calls fervants, or from mine?

Reg. Why not, my lord? if then they chanc'd to

flack ye,

We could controul them; if you'll come to me, (For now I spy a danger) I intreat you

To bring but five and twenty; to no more

Will I give place or notice.

Lear. I gave you all

Reg. And in good time you gave it.

Lear. Made you my Guardians, my depofitaries;

But kept a reservation to be follow'd

With such a number; must I come to you

With five and twenty? Regan, said you fo?

Reg. And speak't again, my lord, no more with me.
Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,

When others are more wicked: Not being worst,
Stands in fome rank of praise; I'll go with thee;
Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty;
And thou art twice her love.

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 needs one ?

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 beasts'. Thou art a lady;

If only to go warm were gorgeous,

Why Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'ft, Which scarcely keeps thee warm, but for true need, You heav'ns, give me that patience which 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 womens' weapons, water-drops,.. Stain my man's cheeks. No, you unnat'ral 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 The terrors of the earth: you think, I'll weep: No, I'll not weep. I have full cause of weeping: This heart shall break into a thousand flaws Or ere I weep. O fool, I shall go mad.

[Exeunt Lear, Glo'ster, Kent and Fool.

Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a storm.

[Storm and tempeft.

Reg. This house is little; the old man and his people Cannot be well beftow'd.

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

And muft 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 Glo'fter?

Enter Glo'ster.

Corn. Follow'd the old man forth; - he is return'd. Glo. The King is in high rage, and will I know not

whither.

Corn. 'Tis best to give him way, he leads himself.
Gon. My lord, intreat him by no means to stay.

Glo. Alack, the night comes on and the high winds

Do forely ruffle, for many miles about

There's scarce a bush.

Reg. O Sir, to wilful men,

The injuries, that they themselves procure,

C2

Mut

Must be their school-masters: shut up your doors;

He is attended with a desp'rate 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'th' storm.

[Exeunt.

ACTIII.

SCENE, a Heath.

A ftorm is heard, with thunder and lightning. Enter Kent, and a Gentleman, severally.

KENT.

HO's there, besides foul weather?

WH

Gent. One minded like the weather, most

unquietly.

Kent. I know you; where's the King? Gent. Contending with the fretful elements; 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 t' outscorn The to-and-fro-conflicting Wind and Rain. This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch, The lion, and the belly-pinched wolf

Keep their furr dry; unbonnetted 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 note,

Commend a dear thing to you. There's division

(Al

1

(Although as yet the face of it is cover'd
With mutual cunning) 'twixt Albany and Cornwall :
Who have (as who have not, whom their great ftars (13).
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
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,
Wife in our negligence, have secret sea
In some of our best ports, and are at point
To show 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 forrow
The King hath cause to plain.
I am a gentleman of blood and breeding,
And from fome knowledge and assurance of you,
Offer this office.

Gent. I'll talk further with you.

Kent. No, do not :

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 that Ring,
And she will tell you who this fellow is
That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm!
I will go seek the King.

(13) Wbe bave, as who have not, The eight subsequent Verses were degraded by Mr. Pope, as unintelligible, and to no purpose. For my part, I see nothing in them but what is very easy to be understood; and the Lines seem' absolutely neceffary to clear up the Motives, upon which France prepar'd his Invasion: nor without them is the Senfe of the Context compleat.

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Gent. Give me your hand, have you no more to fay? Kent. Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet; That, when we have found the King, (in which you take That way, I this:) he that first lights on him, Halloo the other.

[Exeunt feverally.

Storm ftill. Enter Lear and Fool.

Lear. Blow winds, and crack your cheeks; rage, blow! You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout

'Till you have drencht our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You fulph'rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunder-bolts,
Singe my white head. And thou all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o'th' world;
Crack nature's mould, all germins spill at once (14)
That make ingrateful man.

Fool. O nuncle, court-holy-water in a dry house is better than the rain-waters out o' door. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters blessing: here's a night, that pities neither wife men nor fools.

Lear. Rumble thy belly fall, spit fire, spout rain;
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters;
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;
I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children;
You owe me no subscription. Then let fall

(14) Crack Natures Mould, all Germains fpill at once.] Thus all the Editions have given us this Passage, and Mr. Pope has explain'd Germains, to mean relations, or kindred Elements, Then it must have been germanes (from the Latin Adjective, germanus;) a Word more than once used by our Author, tho' always false spelt by his Editors. But the Poet means here, "Crack Nature's Mould, and spill all the Seeds of Matter, that " are hoarded within it." To retrieve which Sense, we must write Germins; (a Substantive deriy'd from Germen, σπορά: 28 the old Gloffaries expound it;) And to put this Emendation beyond all Doubt, I'll produce one Passage, where pur Author not only uses the fame Thought again, but the Thought Word that afcertains my Explication. In Winter's Tale;

Let Nature crush the Sides o' th' Earth together,
And marr the Seeds within.

Your

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