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, 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 carry The affliction, nor the fear. Lear. Let the great gods, That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads, Unwhipp'd of justice: Hide thee, thou bloody hand; Thou perjur'd, and thou similar man of virtue 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 friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tem pest; Repose you there: while I to this hard house, Their scanted courtesy. Lear. Come on, my boy: I am cold myself. My wits begin to turn.How dost, my boy? Art cold? 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,- 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 go: When priests are more in word than matter; 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, This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time. [Exit. SCENE III. A ROOM IN GLO'STER'S CASTLE. Enter Glo'ster 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 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 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. 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. Kent. Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter: The tyranny of the open night's too rough For nature to endure. [Storm still. Wilt break my heart? Kent. Good my lord, enter here. Lear. Kent. I'd rather break mine own: Good my lord, enter. Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much, that this conten tious 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, The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind No more of that, 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 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, |