Either in snuffs and packings" of the dukes; I am a gentleman of blood and breeding; Gent. I will talk further with you. No, do not. 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 I'll this :) he that first lights on him, That way; [Exeunt severally. Either in snuffs and packings-] Snuffs are dislikes, and packings underhand contrivances.-STEEVENS. - furnishings ;] i. e. External pretences, or perhaps samples. 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! Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once, Fool. O, nuncle, court holy-watert 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 bellyfull! 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 ;" 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, 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! Fool. He that has a house to put his head in, has a good head-piece. - thought-executing-] Doing execution with rapidity equal to thought. -JOHNSON. Vaunt couriers-] Avant couriers, Fr. This phrase is not unfamiliar to the writers of Shakspeare's time. It originally meant the foremost scouts of an army. STEEVENS. spill-] i. e. Destroy.-STEEVENS. court holy-water-]i. e. Fair words: the expression is proverbial.— Ray's Proverbs, p. 184. subscription ;] i. e. Obedience, submission. The cod-piece that will house, The man that makes his toe What he is heart should 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, And make them keep their caves: Since I was man, Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot carry Lear. Let the great gods, Unwhipp'd of justice: Hide thee, thou bloody hand; Hast practis'd on man's life!-Close pent-up guilts, * So beggars marry many.] i. e. So many beggars marry, before they have houses to put their heads in.-M. MASON. y a of a corn cry woe,] i. e. Be pained by.-MALONE. Gallow-] i. e. Scare or frighten, a west-country word.-WARBURTON. - convenient seeming-] i. e. Appearance such as may promote his purpose to destroy.-JOHNSON. Rive your concealing continents,' and cry These dreadful summoners grace.—I am a man, Kent. Alack, bare-headed! Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel; Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest; (More hard than is the stone whereof 'tis rais'd; Denied 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? 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,— Must make content with his fortunes fit ; Lear. True, my good boy.-Come, bring us to this hovel. [Exeunt LEAR and KENT. Fool. This is a brave night to cool a courtezan.— I'll speak a prophecy ere I c go: When priests are more in word than matter; No squire in debt, nor no poor knight; continents,] i. e. Those things which contain or inclose.-JOHNSON. tribunal.-STEEVENS. d burn'd, but wenches' suitors;] The disease to which wenches' suitors are particularly exposed was called the brenning or burning.-JOHNSON. 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 before his time. SCENE III. [Exit. 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! 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 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 ask for me, I am ill, and gone to bed. If I die for it, as no less is threatened me, the king my old master must be relieved. 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 : This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me [Exit. |