Hast practis'd on man's life!-Close pent-up guilts, Lear. 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,- When priests are more in word than matter; And bawds and whores do churches build;- 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. [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! : 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 That which my father loses; no less than all: The younger rises, when the old doth fall. SCENE IV, A Part of the Heath, with a Hovel, Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool. [Exit. Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand, Kent. Good, my lord, enter here. Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyself; seek thine own ease; This tempest will not give me leave to ponder On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in In, boy; go first.-[To the Fool] You houseless. poverty, Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.- Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, Kent. Give me thy band.-Who's there? [Tom. Enter Edgar, disguised as a Madman, Edg. Away! the fou! fiend follows me !-Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.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 through flame, through ford and whirlpool, over bog and quagmire; 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-inched bridges, to curse his own shadow for a traitor:-Bless thy five wits! Tom's a-cold.-O, do de, do de, do de.-Bless thee from whirlwinds, starblasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes: There could I have him now, and there, and there,-and there again, and there. [Storm continues. Lear. What, have his daughters brought him to this pass? Couldst thou save nothing? Didst 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 daughters! Kent. He hath no daughters, sir. [nature Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have subdu'd To such a lowness, but his unkind daughters.Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers Should have thus little merey on their flesh? Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot Those pelican daughters. Edg. Pillicock sat on pillicook's hill; Halloo, halloo, loo, loo! Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen. Edg. Take heed ofthe 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-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair, wore gloves in my cap, served the last of my mistress' heart, and did the act 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 lust, and waked to do it: Wine loved I deeply; dice dearly; and in woman, out-paramoured the Turk: 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, 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 were 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! here'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. [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 bare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth. Saint Withold footed thrice the wold; He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold; 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 tything to tything, and stocked, punished, and imprisoned ; 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. 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 daughters' hard commands: Though their injunction 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 :What is the cause of thunder? Kent. Good, my lord, take his offer; Go into the house. No words, no words: Lear. Come, good Athenian. I smell the blood of a British man. [Exeunt. 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 reproveable 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 stuff his suspicion more fally--I will persevere in my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore between that and my blood. Corn. I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a dearer father in my love. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. A Chamber in a Farm-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 to his impatience:-The gods reward your kindness! [Exit Gloster. Edg. Frateretto calls me; and tells me, Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend, Fool. Pr'ythee, nuncle, tell me, whether a madman be a gentleman, or a yeoman? 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 sou a gentleman before him. Lear. To have a thousand with red burning spits Come hissing in upon them : Edg. The foul tiend bites my back. Fool. He's mad, that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, 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 justiçer ;(To Edgar. Lear. I'll talk a word with this same learned The-Thou, sapient sir, sit here. [To the Fool]-Now, you What is your study? [ban: 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, His wits begin to unsettle. Glo. Canst thou blame him? His daughters seek his death:-Ah, that good Kent!He said it would be thus!-Poor banish'd man!-Thou say'st, the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend, I 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. 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. she foxes 1 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, An 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. Hepdance 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, [To Kent. Glo. In, fellow, there, to the hovel: keep thee Sit you too. Kent. Lear. This way, my lord. With him; I will keep still with my philosopher. 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. Arraign her first; 'lis 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 joint-stool. 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 ? Edg. My tears begin to take his part so much, They'll mar my counterfeiting. Lear. The little dogs and all, [Aside. Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me. Edg. Tom will throw his head at them :-Avaunt, you curs! Be thy mouth or black or white, 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. Lear. Then let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds about her heart: Is there any cause in nature, that makes these hard hearts ?-You, sir, I entertain you for one of my hundred; only, 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. master? [meet Glo. Come hither, friend: Where is the king, my [gone. Kent. Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits are 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 Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master: If thou shouldst 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 some 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. [To the Fool. Come, come, away. [Exeunt Kent, Gloster, and the Fool, bearing off the King. Glo. 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 He childed, as I father'd !--Tom, away: [bow; 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.-Edinund, 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 posts shall be swift and intelligent betwixt ns. Farewell, dear sister;-farewell, my lord of Gloster. Enter Steward. How now? where's the king? Stew. My lord of Gloster bath convey'd him hence; Some five or six and thirty of his knights, Hot questrists after him, met him at gate; Who, with some other of the lord's dependants, Are gone with him towards Dover; where they boast To have well-armed friends. Corn. Get horses for your mistress. Gon. Farewell, sweet lord, and sister. [Exeunt Goneril and Edmund. Corn. Edmund, farewell.-Go, seek the traitor, Gloster, Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us. [Exeunt other Servants. Though well we may not pass upon his life Without the form of justice; yet our power Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men May blame, but not control. Who's there? The traitor ? Re-enter Servants, with Gloster. [consider Reg. Ingrateful fox! 'tis be. Corn. Bind fast his corky arms. Glo. What mean your graces?-Good, my friends, You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends. Corn. Bind him, I say. [Servants bind him. Reg. Hard, hard :-O filthy traitor ! Glo. Unmerciful lady as you are, I am none. Corn. To this chair bind him :-Villain, thou shalt find [Regan plucks his Beard, Glo. By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done To pluck me by the beard. Reg. So white, and such a traitor! Glo. Naughty lady, These hairs, which thou dost ravish from my chin, Will quicken, and accuse thee: I am your host; With robbers' hands, my hospitable favours You should not ruffle thus. What will you do? Corn. Come, sir, what letters had you late from France? Reg. Be simple-answer'd, for we know the truth. Corn. And what confederacy have you with the Late footed in the kingdom? [traitors Reg. To whose hands have you sent the lunatic Speak. [king? Glo. I have a letter guessingly set down, Which came from one that's of a neutral heart, And not from one oppos'd. Corn. Cunning. And false. Reg. Corn. Where hast thou sent the king? Glo. To Dover. Reg. Wherefore To Dover? Wast thou not charg'd at thy peritCorn. Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer [course. that. Glo. I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the Reg. Wherefore to Dover? Glo. Because I would not see thy cruel nails. The sea, with such a storm as his bare head If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time, Glo. He, that will think to live till he be old, Hold your hand, my lord: I have serv'd you ever since I was a child; But better service have I never done you, Than now to bid you hold. Reg. How now, you dog? Serv. If you did wear a beard upon your chin, I'd shake it on this quarrel: What do you mean? Corn. My villain! [Draws and runs at him. Serv. Nay, then come on, and take the chance of anger. [Draws. They fight. Cornwall is wounded. Reg. Give me thy sword.-[To another Servant] A peasant stand up thus ! [Snatches a Sword, comes behind, and stabs him. Serv. O, I am slain!-My lord, you have one eye left To see some mischief on him :-0! [Dies. Corn. Lest it see more, prevent it:-Out, vile jelly! Where is thy lustre now? [Tears out Gloster's other Eye, and throws it on the Ground. Glo. All dark and comfortless.- Where's my son Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature, Out, treacherous villain! Thou call'st on him that hates thee it was he Glo. Then Edgar was abus'd. O my follies! Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him! [Exit Cornwall, led by Regan.-Servants un- 1 Serv. I'll never care what wickedness I do, If this man comes to good. 2 Serv. 1 Serv. Let's follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam To lead him where he would; his roguish madness Allows itself to any thing. [of eggs, 2 Serv. Go thou; I'll fetch some flax, and whites To apply to his bleeding face. Now, heaven help him! [Exeunt severally. ACT IV. SCENE I. The Heath. Enter Edgar. Edg. Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd, Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst, The lowest, and most dejected thing of fortune, Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear: The lamentable change is from the best; The worst returns to laughter. Welcome then, Thou unsubstantial air, that I embrace! The wretch, that thou hast blown unto the worst, Owes nothing to thy blasts.-But who comes here? Enter Gloster, led by an Old Man. My father, poorly led ?-World, world, O world! But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee, Life would not yield to age. Old M. O my good lord, I have been your tenant, and your father's tenant, these fourscore years, Glo. Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone : Thy comforts can do me no good at all, Thee they may hurt. Old M. Alack, sir, you cannot see your way. Glo. I have no way, and therefore want no eyes; I stumbled when I saw: Full oft 'tis seen, Our mean secures us; and our mere defects Prove our commodities.-Ah, dear son Edgar, The food of thy abused father's wrath! Might I but live to see thee in my touch, I'd say, I had eyes again! Old M. How now? Who's there? Edg. [Aside] O gods! Who is't can say, I am at I am worse than e'er I was. [the worst? Old M. "Tis poor mad Tom. Edg. [Aside] And worse I may be yet: The worst So long as we can say, This is the worst. [is not, Old M. Fellow, where goest? Glo. Is it a beggar-man? Gld M. Madman and beggar too. Glo. He has some reason, eise he could not beg, I'the last night's storm I such a fellow saw; Which made me think a man a worm: My son Came then into my mind, and yet my mind [since : Was then scarce friends with him: I have heard more As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport. Edg. [ter! How should this be ?Bad is the trade must play the fool to sorrow, Ang'ring itself and others. [Aside)-Bless thee, masGlo. Is that the naked fellow ? Old M. Ay, my lord. Glo. Then, pr'ythee, get thee gone: If, for my sake, Thou wilt o'ertake us, hence a mile or twain, I'the way to Dover, do it for ancient love; And bring some covering for this naked soul, Whom I'll entreat to lead me. Old M. Alack, sir, he's mad. Glo. "Tis the times' plague, when madmen lead the Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure; [blind: Above the rest, be gone. Old M. I'll bring him the best 'parrel that I have, Come on't what will. [Exit. Glo. Sirrah, naked fellow. Edg. Poor Tom's a-cold.-I cannot daub it further. [Aside. Glo. Come hither, fellow. [eyes, they bleed. Edg. [Aside] And yet I must.-Bless thy sweet Glo. Know'st thou the way to Dover? Edg. Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path. Poor Tom hath been scared out of his good wits: Bless the good man from the foul fiend! Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as Obidicul; Hobbididdance, prince of dumbuess; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; and Flibber tigibbet, of mopping and mowing; who since possesses chambermaids and waiting-women. So bless thee, master! Glo. Here, take this purse, thou whom the heaven's plagues Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched, Makes thee the happier: Heavens, deal so still! Let the superfluous, and lust-dieted man, That slaves Because he doth ordinance, that will not see not feel, feel your power quickly; So distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough.-Dost thou know Dover? Edg. Ay, master. Glo. There is a cliff, whose high and bending head Looks fearfully in the confined deep: Bring me but to the very brim of it, And I repair the misery thou dost bear, With something rich about me; from that place I shall no leading need. Edg. Give me thy arm; Poor Tom shall lead thee. SCENE II. Before the Duke of Albany's Palace. Enter Goneril and Edmund; Steward meeting them. Gon. Welcome, my lord: I marvel, our mild hus band [Exeunt. Not met us on the way :-Now, where's your master? When I inform'd him, then he call'd me sot; Then shall you go no further. I must change arms at home, and give the distaff Edm. Yours in the ranks of death. My most dear Gloster! Madam, here comes my lord. [Exit. Enter Albany, Gon. I have been worth the whistle. Alb. O Goneril! You are not worth the dust which the rude wind Blows in your face.-I fear your disposition: That nature, which contemns its origin, Gon. No more; the text is foolish. Alb. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile: Whose reverence the head-lugg'd bear would lick, If that the heavens do not their visible spirits Humanity must perforce prey on itself, Gon. Milk-liver'd man; Alb. Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame, They are apt enough to dislocate and tear Thy flesh and bones: -Howe'er thou art a fiend, A woman's shape doth shield thee. Gon. Marry, your manhood now ! Enter a Messenger. Alb. What news? Kent. Did your letters pierce the queen to any demonstration of grief! Gent. Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my pre- Kent. Kent. Kent. Kent. Was this before the king return'd? No, since. Kent. Well, sir; The poor distress'd Lear is i'the Who sometime, in his better tune, remembers Gent. Why, good sir? Kent. A sovereign shame so elbows him his own ankindness, That stripp'd her from his benediction, turn'd her Mess. O, my good lord, the duke of Cornwall's dead; His mind so venomously, that burning shame The other eye of Gloster. Alb. Gloster's eyes! Mess. A servant that he bred, thrill'd with remorse, Mess. Both, both, my lord. Alb. Where was his son, when they did take his Gloster, I live To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king, SCENE III. The French Camp near Dover. Kent. Why the king of France is so suddenly gone back know you the reason? Gent. Something he left imperfect in the state, Kent. Who hath he left behind him general? Detains him from Cordelia. Gent. SCENE IV. The same. A Tent. In our sustaining corn-A century send forth; He, that helps him, take all my outward worth. Cor. All bless'd secrets, Mess. Madam, news; My mourning, and important tears, hath pitied. |