Kent. None.

How chance the king comes with so small a train?

Fool. An thou hadst been set i'the stocks for that question, thou hadst well deserved it. Kent. Why, fool?

Fool. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring in the winter. All that follow their noses are led by their eyes, but blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty, but can smell him that's stinking. Let go thy hold, when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it; but the great one that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise

man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.

That, Sir, which serves and seeks for gain,
And follows but for form,
Will pack, when it begins to rain,
And leave thee in the storm.
But I will tarry, the fool will stay,
And let the wise man fly:

The knave turns fool, that runs away;
The fool no knave, perdy.
Kent. Where learned you this, fool?
Fool. Not i'the stocks, fool.

Re-enter LEAR, with GLOSTER,

Lear. Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary? [fetches; They have travell'd hard to-night? Mere The images of revolt and flying off! Fetch me a better answer.

Are they inform'd of this?-My breath and blood!

Fiery? the fiery duke?-Tell the hot duke, that-
No, but not yet :-may be, he is not well:
Infirmity doth still neglect all office,
Whereto our health is bound; we are not our:
selves,
[mind
When nature, being oppress'd, commands the
To suffer with the body: I'll forbear;
And am fallen out with my more headier will,
To take the indispos'd and sickly fit
For the sound man.-Death on my state!
wherefore
Looking on KENT.
Should he sit here? This act persuades me,
That this remotion of the duke and her
Is practicet only. Give me my servant forth:
Go, tell the duke and his wife, I'd speak with

them,

[me,

Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear Or at their chamber door I'll beat the drum, Till it cry-Sleep to death.

Lear. O me, my heart, my rising heart!-but, down.

Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels, when she put them i'the paste* alive; she rapped 'em o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cried, Down, wantons, down: "Twas her brother, that in pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.

Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOSTER, and
Servants.

Lear. Good morrow to you both.
Corn. Hail to your grace!

[KENT is set at Liberty. Reg. I am glad to see your highness. Lear. Regan, I think you are; I know what

reason

[glad, I have to think so: if thou shouldst not be I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb, Seplúchring an adultress.-O, are you free? [TO KENT. Some other time for that.-Beloved Regan, Thy sister's naught: O Regan, she hath tied Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture here; [Points to his Heart. I can scarce speak to thee; thou'lt not believe, Of how deprav'd a quality- O Regan! Reg. I pray you, Sir, take patience; I have hope,

Than she to scant; her duty.
You less know how to value her desert,

Lear. Say, how is that?

Reg. I cannot think, my sister in the least Would fail her obligation: If, Sir, perchance, She have restrain'd the riots of your followers, 'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome As clears her from all blame.

[end,

Lear. My curses on her!
Reg. O, Sir, you are old;
Nature in you stands on the very verge
Of her confine: you should be rul'd, and led
By some discretion, that discerns your state
Better than you yourself: Therefore, I pray
That to our sister you do make return; [you,
Say, you have wrong'd her, Sir.

Do you but mark how this becomes the house :[]
Lear. Ask her forgiveness?
Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;
Age is unnecessary: on my knees 1 beg,

Kneeling
That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.
Reg. Good Sir, no more; these are unsightly
Return you to my sister.
[tricks.

Lear. Never, Regan: Look'd black upon me; struck me with her She hath abated me of half my train;

tongue,

All the stor'd vengeances of heaven fall
Most serpent-like, upon the very heart :-
On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,
You taking airs, with lameness!

Corn. Fie, fie, fie!

Lear. You nimble lightnings, dart your blindInto her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty, ing flames You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful To fall and blast her pride! [sun,

Reg. O the bless'd gods!

So will you wish on me, when the rash mood's

on.

Lear. No, Regan, thou shalt never have my

curse;

Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give

Glo. I'd have all well betwixt you. * Removing from their own house. + Artifice.

I The order of families

Be wanting in.

Thee o'er to harshness; her eyes are fierce, but thine

Do comfort, and not burn: "Tis not in thee
To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,*
And, in conclusion, to oppose the bolt
Against my coming in: thou better know'st
The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude;
Thy half o'the kingdom hast thou not forgot,
Wherein I thee endow'd.

Reg. Good Sir, to the purpose.

[Trumpets within. Lear. Who put my man i'the stocks? Corn. What trumpet's that?

Enter STEWARD.

Reg. I know't, my sister's: this approves her letter, [come? That she would soon be here.-Is your lady Lear. This is a slave whose easy-borrow'd pride

Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows:Out, varlet, from my sight!

Corn. What means your grace?

We'll no more meet, no more see one an-
other :-
[ter;
But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daugh
Or, rather, a disease that's in my flesh,
Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,
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 lei-

sure:

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 soBut she knows what she does.

Lear. Is this well spoken now?

Reg. I dare avouch it, Sir: What, fifty followers?

have good hope

Thou didst not know of't.-Who comes here?

O heavens,

Enter GONERIL.

If you do love old men, if your sweet sway
Allow+ obedience, if yourselves are old,
Make it your cause; send down, and take my
part!-

Art not asham'd to look upon this beard?-
[To GONERIL.
O, Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand?
Gon. Why not by the hand, Sir? How have
I offended?

All's not offence, that indiscretion finds,
And dotage terms so.

Lear. O, sides, you are too tough! Will you yet hold?-How came my man i'the stocks?

Corn. I set him there, Sir: but his own disDeserv'd much less advancement.

Lear. You! did you?

[orders

Reg. I pray you, father, being weak, seem If, till the expiration of your month, {so. 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 provi

sion

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 waget against the enmity o'the air;
To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,-
Necessity's sharp pinch!-Return with her?
Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless
took

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 sumpters To this detested groom.

[Looking on the STEWARD.

Gon. At your choice, Sir. Lear. I pr'ythee, daughter, do not make me mad;

I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell:

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

attendance

[mine? From those that she calls servants, or frem Reg. Why not, my lord? If then they chanc'd to slack you, [me, We could control them: If you will come to (For now I spy a danger,) I entreat you To bring but five and twenty; to no more Will I give place or notice.

Leur. I gave you all

Reg. And in good time you gave it.

Lear. Made you my guardians, my depositBut kept a reservation to be follow'd [aries; With such a number: What, must I come to you

With five and twenty, Regan? said you so? Reg. And speak it again, my lord; no more with me.

Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd, [worst, When others are more wicked; not being the Stands in some rank of praise:-I'll go with thee; [To GONERIL 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 need 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 beast's: thou art a lady;
If only to go warm were gorgeous, [wear'st,
Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous
Which scarcely keeps thee warm.-But, for
true need,-

You heavens, give me that patience, patience
I need!

You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, As full of grief as age; wretched in both!

cold?

Lear. Rumble thy bellyfull! Spit, fire! spout, rain! [ters: Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughI tax not you, you elements, with unkindness, I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children, You owe me no subscription;t why then, let fall [slave, Your horrible pleasure; here I stand, your 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! Ŏ! 'tis foul! Fool. He that has a house to put his head in, has a good head-piece.

The cod-piece that will house,
Before the head has any,

The head and he shall louse ;-
So beggars marry many.

The man that makes his toe

What he his 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.

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, [skies Love not such nights as these; the wrathful Gallow the very wanderers of the dark, And make them keep their caves: Since I was [der, Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunSuch groans of roaring wind and rain, I never Remember to have heard; man's nature cannot carry The affliction, nor the fear.

man,

Lear. Let the great gods, That keep this dreadful pothers o'er our heads, Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,

That hast within thee undivulged crimes, Unwhipp'd of justice: Hide thee, thou bloody hand; [tue Thou perjur'd, and thou simular man of virThat 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 More sinn'd against, than sinning.

[man,

Kent. Alack, bare-headed! Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel; Some friendship will 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, demandingtt after you, Denied me to come in,) return, and force Their scanted courtesy.

Lear. My wits begin to turn.

[fellow I am cold myself.-Where is this straw, my The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel. (heat Poor fool and knave, I have one part in 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 fu; For the rain it raineth every day.* Lear. True, my good boy.-Come, bring us to this hovel. [Exeunt LEAR and KENT Fool. This is a brave night to cool a courte zan.-I'll speak a prophecy ere I go;

When priests are more in word than matter.
When brewers mar their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors' tutors;
No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors:
When every case in law is right;
No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
When slanders do not live in tongues;
Nor cutpurses 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

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 at 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, [Exit. pray you, be careful.

Edm. This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the

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.

* Part of the Clown's song in Twelfth Night,
A force already landed.