He that has a little tiny wit, With heigh, ho, the wind and the rain,- 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; Then comes the time, who lives to see 't, [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;-'t is 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. The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep. [Fool goes in. Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, Edg. [within]. Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom! [The Fool runs out from the hovel. 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 anything 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 course 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, star-blasting, 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. Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.— Edg. Pillicock sat on pillicock's-hill!- Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen. Edg. Take heed o'the 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 lust of my mistress's 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, outparamoured 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 wert 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'y thee, 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 hare-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; Bid her alight, And her troth plight, And, Aroint thee, witch, aroint thee! Kent. How fares your grace? Enter GLOSTER, with a torch. Lear. What's he? you Kent. Who's there? What is 't 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 cowdung 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 called, 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 ventured 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. Lear. I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban. SCENE V.-A Room in GLOSTER'S Castle. Enter CORNWALL and EDMUND. Corn. I will have my revenge ere I depart his house. 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 fully.-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 Farmhouse, 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'y thee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a gentleman or a yeoman? 343 Lear. It shall be done; I will arraign them straight: Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer;— [To EDGAR. Thou, sapient sir, sit here. [To the Fool.]—Now, you she-foxes! 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, And 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. Hopdance 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 amazed: Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions? Lear. I'll see their trial first.-Bring in the evidence. Thou robéd 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; Sit you too. [TO KENT. 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, Pur! the cat is grey. Lear. Arraign her first; 'tis 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 jointstool. Lear. And here's another, whose warpéd 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 anatomise 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. Re-enter GLOSTER. Glo. Come hither, friend: where is the King, my master? Kent. Here, sir: but trouble him not, his wits are gone. Glo. Good friend, I pr'y thee take him in thy arms: I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him. Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master: Kent. Oppressed nature sleeps:- |