{"id":1616,"date":"2019-07-09T16:57:23","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T16:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/epcc-britlit1\/?post_type=chapter&p=1616"},"modified":"2019-07-09T17:01:01","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T17:01:01","slug":"king-lear-act-3","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/epcc-britlit1\/chapter\/king-lear-act-3\/","title":{"raw":"King Lear, Act 3","rendered":"King Lear, Act 3"},"content":{"raw":"

ACT III.<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

Scene I. A Heath.<\/span><\/h3>\r\n[A storm with thunder and lightning. Enter Kent and a Gentleman,\r\n
\r\n \t
meeting.]<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Who's there, besides foul weather?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGent.\r\n
\r\n \t
One minded like the weather, most unquietly.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
I know you. Where's the king?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Contending with the fretful elements;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Catch in their fury and make nothing of;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Strives in his little world of man to outscorn<\/dd>\r\n \t
The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.<\/dd>\r\n \t
This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,<\/dd>\r\n \t
The lion and the belly-pinched wolf<\/dd>\r\n \t
Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And bids what will take all.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
But who is with him?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGent.\r\n
\r\n \t
None but the fool, who labours to out-jest<\/dd>\r\n \t
His heart-struck injuries.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Sir, I do know you;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And dare, upon the warrant of my note,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Commend a dear thing to you. There is division,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Although as yet the face of it be cover'd<\/dd>\r\n \t
With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Who have,\u2014as who have not, that their great stars<\/dd>\r\n \t
Throne and set high?\u2014servants, who seem no less,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Which are to France the spies and speculations<\/dd>\r\n \t
Intelligent of our state; what hath been seen,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Or the hard rein which both of them have borne<\/dd>\r\n \t
Against the old kind king; or something deeper,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings;\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
But, true it is, from France there comes a power<\/dd>\r\n \t
Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Wise in our negligence, have secret feet<\/dd>\r\n \t
In some of our best ports, and are at point<\/dd>\r\n \t
To show their open banner.\u2014Now to you:<\/dd>\r\n \t
If on my credit you dare build so far<\/dd>\r\n \t
To make your speed to Dover, you shall find<\/dd>\r\n \t
Some that will thank you making just report<\/dd>\r\n \t
Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow<\/dd>\r\n \t
The king hath cause to plain.<\/dd>\r\n \t
I am a gentleman of blood and breeding;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And from some knowledge and assurance offer<\/dd>\r\n \t
This office to you.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGent.\r\n
\r\n \t
I will talk further with you.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
No, do not.<\/dd>\r\n \t
For confirmation that I am much more<\/dd>\r\n \t
Than my out wall, open this purse, and take<\/dd>\r\n \t
What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia,\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
As fear not but you shall,\u2014show her this ring;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And she will tell you who your fellow is<\/dd>\r\n \t
That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm!<\/dd>\r\n \t
I will go seek the king.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Give me your hand: have you no more to say?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet,\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
That, when we have found the king,\u2014in which your pain<\/dd>\r\n \t
That way, I'll this,\u2014he that first lights on him<\/dd>\r\n \t
Holla the other.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exeunt severally.]\r\n

Scene II. Another part of the heath. Storm continues.<\/span>[<\/span>edit<\/a>]<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\r\n[Enter Lear and Fool.]\r\n\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!<\/dd>\r\n \t
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout<\/dd>\r\n \t
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!<\/dd>\r\n \t
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Vaunt couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That make ingrateful man!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
O nuncle, court holy water in a dry house is better than this<\/dd>\r\n \t
rain water out o' door. Good nuncle, in; and ask thy daughters<\/dd>\r\n \t
blessing: here's a night pities nether wise men nor fools.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters:<\/dd>\r\n \t
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;<\/dd>\r\n \t
I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children;<\/dd>\r\n \t
You owe me no subscription: then let fall<\/dd>\r\n \t
Your horrible pleasure; here I stand, your slave,<\/dd>\r\n \t
A poor, infirm, weak, and despis'd old man:\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
But yet I call you servile ministers,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That will with two pernicious daughters join<\/dd>\r\n \t
Your high-engender'd battles 'gainst a head<\/dd>\r\n \t
So old and white as this! O! O! 'tis foul!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
He that has a house to put 's head in has a good head-piece.<\/dd>\r\n \t
The codpiece that will house<\/dd>\r\n \t
Before the head has any,<\/dd>\r\n \t
The head and he shall louse:<\/dd>\r\n \t
So beggars marry many.<\/dd>\r\n \t
The man that makes his toe<\/dd>\r\n \t
What he his heart should make<\/dd>\r\n \t
Shall of a corn cry woe,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And turn his sleep to wake.<\/dd>\r\n \t
\u2014for there was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a<\/dd>\r\n \t
glass.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
No, I will be the pattern of all patience;<\/dd>\r\n \t
I will say nothing.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Enter Kent.]\r\n
\r\n \t
Kent.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Who's there?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
Marry, here's grace and a codpiece; that's a wise man and a fool.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Alas, sir, are you here? Things that love night<\/dd>\r\n \t
Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies<\/dd>\r\n \t
Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And make them keep their caves; since I was man,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Such groans of roaring wind and rain I never<\/dd>\r\n \t
Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot carry<\/dd>\r\n \t
Th' affliction nor the fear.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Let the great gods,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That hast within thee undivulged crimes<\/dd>\r\n \t
Unwhipp'd of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Thou perjur'd, and thou simular man of virtue<\/dd>\r\n \t
That art incestuous: caitiff, to pieces shake<\/dd>\r\n \t
That under covert and convenient seeming<\/dd>\r\n \t
Hast practis'd on man's life: close pent-up guilts,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Rive your concealing continents, and cry<\/dd>\r\n \t
These dreadful summoners grace.\u2014I am a man<\/dd>\r\n \t
More sinn'd against than sinning.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Alack, bareheaded!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Repose you there, whilst I to this hard house,\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
More harder than the stones whereof 'tis rais'd;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Which even but now, demanding after you,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Denied me to come in,\u2014return, and force<\/dd>\r\n \t
Their scanted courtesy.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
My wits begin to turn.\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Come on, my boy. how dost, my boy? art cold?<\/dd>\r\n \t
I am cold myself.\u2014Where is this straw, my fellow?<\/dd>\r\n \t
The art of our necessities is strange,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel.\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart<\/dd>\r\n \t
That's sorry yet for thee.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
[Singing.]<\/dd>\r\n \t
He that has and a little tiny wit\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Must make content with his fortunes fit,<\/dd>\r\n \t
For the rain it raineth every day.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
True, boy.\u2014Come, bring us to this hovel.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exeunt Lear and Kent.]\r\n\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
This is a brave night to cool a courtezan.\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
I'll speak a prophecy ere I go:\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
When priests are more in word than matter;<\/dd>\r\n \t
When brewers mar their malt with water;<\/dd>\r\n \t
When nobles are their tailors' tutors;<\/dd>\r\n \t
No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;<\/dd>\r\n \t
When every case in law is right;<\/dd>\r\n \t
No squire in debt nor no poor knight;<\/dd>\r\n \t
When slanders do not live in tongues;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;<\/dd>\r\n \t
When usurers tell their gold i' the field;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And bawds and whores do churches build;\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Then shall the realm of Albion<\/dd>\r\n \t
Come to great confusion:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Then comes the time, who lives to see't,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That going shall be us'd with feet.<\/dd>\r\n \t
This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exit.]\r\n

<\/span>Scene III. A Room in Gloucester's Castle.<\/span>[<\/span>edit<\/a>]<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\r\n[Enter Gloucester and Edmund.]\r\n\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing. When I<\/dd>\r\n \t
desired their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the<\/dd>\r\n \t
use of mine own house; charged me on pain of perpetual displeasure,<\/dd>\r\n \t
neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdm.\r\n
\r\n \t
Most savage and unnatural!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
Go to; say you nothing. There is division betwixt the dukes,<\/dd>\r\n \t
and a worse matter than that: I have received a letter this<\/dd>\r\n \t
night;\u2014'tis dangerous to be spoken;\u2014I have locked the letter in<\/dd>\r\n \t
my closet: these injuries the king now bears will be revenged<\/dd>\r\n \t
home; there's part of a power already footed: we must incline to<\/dd>\r\n \t
the king. I will seek him, and privily relieve him: go you and<\/dd>\r\n \t
maintain talk with the duke, that my charity be not of him<\/dd>\r\n \t
perceived: if he ask for me, I am ill, and gone to bed. If I<\/dd>\r\n \t
die for it, as no less is threatened me, the king my old master<\/dd>\r\n \t
must be relieved. There is some strange thing toward, Edmund;<\/dd>\r\n \t
pray you be careful.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exit.]\r\n\r\nEdm.\r\n
\r\n \t
This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke<\/dd>\r\n \t
Instantly know; and of that letter too:\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me<\/dd>\r\n \t
That which my father loses,\u2014no less than all:<\/dd>\r\n \t
The younger rises when the old doth fall.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exit.]\r\n

Scene IV. A part of the Heath with a Hovel. Storm continues.<\/span>[<\/span>edit<\/a>]<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\r\n[Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool.]\r\n\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter:<\/dd>\r\n \t
The tyranny of the open night's too rough<\/dd>\r\n \t
For nature to endure.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Let me alone.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Good my lord, enter here.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Wilt break my heart?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm<\/dd>\r\n \t
Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee<\/dd>\r\n \t
But where the greater malady is fix'd,<\/dd>\r\n \t
The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear;<\/dd>\r\n \t
But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Thou'dst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the mind's free,<\/dd>\r\n \t
The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind<\/dd>\r\n \t
Doth from my senses take all feeling else<\/dd>\r\n \t
Save what beats there.\u2014Filial ingratitude!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand<\/dd>\r\n \t
For lifting food to't?\u2014But I will punish home:\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
No, I will weep no more.\u2014In such a night<\/dd>\r\n \t
To shut me out!\u2014Pour on; I will endure:\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all,\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;<\/dd>\r\n \t
No more of that.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Good my lord, enter here.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Pr'ythee go in thyself; seek thine own ease:<\/dd>\r\n \t
This tempest will not give me leave to ponder<\/dd>\r\n \t
On things would hurt me more.\u2014But I'll go in.\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
[To the Fool.] In, boy; go first.\u2014You houseless poverty,\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.\u2014<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Fool goes in.]\r\n
\r\n \t
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,<\/dd>\r\n \t
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you<\/dd>\r\n \t
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en<\/dd>\r\n \t
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them<\/dd>\r\n \t
And show the heavens more just.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
[Within.] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[The Fool runs out from the hovel.]\r\n\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Help me, help me!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Give me thy hand.\u2014Who's there?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
A spirit, a spirit: he says his name's poor Tom.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
What art thou that dost grumble there i' the straw?<\/dd>\r\n \t
Come forth.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Enter Edgar, disguised as a madman.]\r\n\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Away! the foul fiend follows me!\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Didst thou give all to thy two daughters?<\/dd>\r\n \t
And art thou come to this?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Who gives anything to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led<\/dd>\r\n \t
through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, o'er<\/dd>\r\n \t
bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow and<\/dd>\r\n \t
halters in his pew, set ratsbane by his porridge; made him proud<\/dd>\r\n \t
of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inched<\/dd>\r\n \t
bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor.\u2014Bless thy five<\/dd>\r\n \t
wits!\u2014Tom's a-cold.\u2014O, do de, do de, do de.\u2014Bless thee from<\/dd>\r\n \t
whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity,<\/dd>\r\n \t
whom the foul fiend vexes:\u2014there could I have him now,\u2014and<\/dd>\r\n \t
there,\u2014and there again, and there.<\/dd>\r\n \t
[Storm continues.]<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give 'em all?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
Nay, he reserv'd a blanket, else we had been all shamed.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Now all the plagues that in the pendulous air<\/dd>\r\n \t
Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
He hath no daughters, sir.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Death, traitor! nothing could have subdu'd nature<\/dd>\r\n \t
To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Is it the fashion that discarded fathers<\/dd>\r\n \t
Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?<\/dd>\r\n \t
Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot<\/dd>\r\n \t
Those pelican daughters.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Halloo, halloo, loo loo!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Take heed o' th' foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep thy word<\/dd>\r\n \t
justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not<\/dd>\r\n \t
thy sweet heart on proud array. Tom's a-cold.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
What hast thou been?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair;<\/dd>\r\n \t
wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of my mistress' heart, and<\/dd>\r\n \t
did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake<\/dd>\r\n \t
words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one that<\/dd>\r\n \t
slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it: wine loved<\/dd>\r\n \t
I deeply, dice dearly; and in woman out-paramour'd the Turk;<\/dd>\r\n \t
false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox<\/dd>\r\n \t
in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray<\/dd>\r\n \t
thy poor heart to woman: keep thy foot out of brothel, thy hand<\/dd>\r\n \t
out of placket, thy pen from lender's book, and defy the foul<\/dd>\r\n \t
fiend.\u2014Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind: says<\/dd>\r\n \t
suum, mun, nonny. Dolphin my boy, boy, sessa! let him trot by.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Storm still continues.]\r\n\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy<\/dd>\r\n \t
uncovered body this extremity of the skies.\u2014Is man no more than<\/dd>\r\n \t
this? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast<\/dd>\r\n \t
no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume.\u2014Ha! here's three<\/dd>\r\n \t
on's are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself:<\/dd>\r\n \t
unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked<\/dd>\r\n \t
animal as thou art.\u2014Off, off, you lendings!\u2014Come, unbutton<\/dd>\r\n \t
here.<\/dd>\r\n \t
[Tears off his clothes.]<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis a naughty night to swim<\/dd>\r\n \t
in.\u2014Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher's<\/dd>\r\n \t
heart,\u2014a small spark, all the rest on's body cold.\u2014Look, here<\/dd>\r\n \t
comes a walking fire.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew,<\/dd>\r\n \t
and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin,<\/dd>\r\n \t
squints the eye, and makes the harelip; mildews the white wheat,<\/dd>\r\n \t
and hurts the poor creature of earth.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Swithold footed thrice the old;<\/dd>\r\n \t
He met the nightmare, and her nine-fold;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Bid her alight<\/dd>\r\n \t
And her troth plight,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
How fares your grace?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Enter Gloucester with a torch.]\r\n\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
What's he?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Who's there? What is't you seek?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
What are you there? Your names?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the todpole, the<\/dd>\r\n \t
wall-newt and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when the<\/dd>\r\n \t
foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat<\/dd>\r\n \t
and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool;<\/dd>\r\n \t
who is whipped from tithing to tithing, and stocked, punished,<\/dd>\r\n \t
and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts<\/dd>\r\n \t
to his body, horse to ride, and weapons to wear;\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
But mice and rats, and such small deer,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Have been Tom's food for seven long year.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Beware my follower.\u2014Peace, Smulkin; peace, thou fiend!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
What, hath your grace no better company?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
The prince of darkness is a gentleman:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile<\/dd>\r\n \t
That it doth hate what gets it.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Poor Tom's a-cold.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer<\/dd>\r\n \t
To obey in all your daughters' hard commands;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Though their injunction be to bar my doors,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Yet have I ventur'd to come seek you out<\/dd>\r\n \t
And bring you where both fire and food is ready.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
First let me talk with this philosopher.\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
What is the cause of thunder?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Good my lord, take his offer; go into the house.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
What is your study?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
How to prevent the fiend and to kill vermin.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Let me ask you one word in private.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Importune him once more to go, my lord;<\/dd>\r\n \t
His wits begin to unsettle.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
Canst thou blame him?<\/dd>\r\n \t
His daughters seek his death:\u2014ah, that good Kent!\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
He said it would be thus,\u2014poor banish'd man!\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Thou say'st the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend,<\/dd>\r\n \t
I am almost mad myself: I had a son,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life<\/dd>\r\n \t
But lately, very late: I lov'd him, friend,\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
No father his son dearer: true to tell thee,<\/dd>\r\n \t
[Storm continues.]<\/dd>\r\n \t
The grief hath craz'd my wits.\u2014What a night's this!\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
I do beseech your grace,\u2014<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
O, cry you mercy, sir.\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Noble philosopher, your company.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Tom's a-cold.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
In, fellow, there, into the hovel; keep thee warm.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Come, let's in all.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
This way, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
With him;<\/dd>\r\n \t
I will keep still with my philosopher.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
Take him you on.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Sirrah, come on; go along with us.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Come, good Athenian.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
No words, no words: hush.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Child Rowland to the dark tower came,<\/dd>\r\n \t
His word was still\u2014Fie, foh, and fum,<\/dd>\r\n \t
I smell the blood of a British man.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exeunt.]\r\n

<\/span>Scene V. A Room in Gloucester's Castle.<\/span>[<\/span>edit<\/a>]<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\r\n[Enter Cornwall and Edmund.]\r\n\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
I will have my revenge ere I depart his house.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdm.\r\n
\r\n \t
How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to<\/dd>\r\n \t
loyalty, something fears me to think of.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
I now perceive it was not altogether your brother's evil<\/dd>\r\n \t
disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set<\/dd>\r\n \t
a-work by a reproveable badness in himself.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdm.\r\n
\r\n \t
How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to be just! This<\/dd>\r\n \t
is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an intelligent<\/dd>\r\n \t
party to the advantages of France. O heavens! that this treason<\/dd>\r\n \t
were not\u2014or not I the detector!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
Go with me to the duchess.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdm.\r\n
\r\n \t
If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business<\/dd>\r\n \t
in hand.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
True or false, it hath made thee earl of Gloucester. Seek out<\/dd>\r\n \t
where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdm.\r\n
\r\n \t
[Aside.] If I find him comforting the king, it will stuff his<\/dd>\r\n \t
suspicion more fully.\u2014I will persever in my course of loyalty,<\/dd>\r\n \t
though the conflict be sore between that and my blood.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a dearer father<\/dd>\r\n \t
in my love.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exeunt.]\r\n

Scene VI. A Chamber in a Farmhouse adjoining the Castle.<\/span>[<\/span>edit<\/a>]<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\r\n[Enter Gloucester, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar.]\r\n\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully. I will<\/dd>\r\n \t
piece out the comfort with what addition I can: I will not be<\/dd>\r\n \t
long from you.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
All the power of his wits have given way to his impatience:\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
the gods reward your kindness!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exit Gloucester.]\r\n\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Frateretto calls me; and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake<\/dd>\r\n \t
of darkness.\u2014Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
Pr'ythee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a gentleman or a<\/dd>\r\n \t
yeoman.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
A king, a king!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son; for he's a mad<\/dd>\r\n \t
yeoman that sees his son a gentleman before him.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
To have a thousand with red burning spits<\/dd>\r\n \t
Come hissing in upon 'em,\u2014<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
The foul fiend bites my back.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health,<\/dd>\r\n \t
a boy's love, or a whore's oath.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
It shall be done; I will arraign them straight.\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
[To Edgar.] Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
[To the Fool.] Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she-foxes!\u2014<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Look, where he stands and glares!\u2014Want'st thou eyes at trial,<\/dd>\r\n \t
madam?<\/dd>\r\n \t
Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me,\u2014<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
Her boat hath a leak,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And she must not speak<\/dd>\r\n \t
Why she dares not come over to thee.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Hoppedance cries in Tom's belly for two white herring. Croak not,<\/dd>\r\n \t
black angel; I have no food for thee.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
How do you, sir? Stand you not so amaz'd;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
I'll see their trial first.\u2014Bring in their evidence.<\/dd>\r\n \t
[To Edgar.] Thou, robed man of justice, take thy place;\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
[To the Fool.] And thou, his yokefellow of equity,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Bench by his side:\u2014[To Kent.] you are o' the commission,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Sit you too.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Let us deal justly.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?<\/dd>\r\n \t
Thy sheep be in the corn;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And for one blast of thy minikin mouth<\/dd>\r\n \t
Thy sheep shall take no harm.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Purr! the cat is gray.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my oath before<\/dd>\r\n \t
this honourable assembly, she kicked the poor king her father.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
She cannot deny it.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim<\/dd>\r\n \t
What store her heart is made on.\u2014Stop her there!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Arms, arms! sword! fire!\u2014Corruption in the place!\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Bless thy five wits!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
O pity!\u2014Sir, where is the patience now<\/dd>\r\n \t
That you so oft have boasted to retain?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
[Aside.] My tears begin to take his part so much<\/dd>\r\n \t
They'll mar my counterfeiting.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
The little dogs and all,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Tom will throw his head at them.\u2014Avaunt, you curs!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Be thy mouth or black or white,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Tooth that poisons if it bite;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail,\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Tom will make them weep and wail;<\/dd>\r\n \t
For, with throwing thus my head,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and fairs and market-<\/dd>\r\n \t
towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Then let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds about her<\/dd>\r\n \t
heart. Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard<\/dd>\r\n \t
hearts?\u2014[To Edgar.] You, sir, I entertain you for one of my<\/dd>\r\n \t
hundred; only I do not like the fashion of your garments: you'll<\/dd>\r\n \t
say they are Persian; but let them be changed.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLear.\r\n
\r\n \t
Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains:<\/dd>\r\n \t
So, so. We'll go to supper i' the morning.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFool.\r\n
\r\n \t
And I'll go to bed at noon.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Re-enter Gloucester.]\r\n\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
Come hither, friend: where is the king my master?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Here, sir; but trouble him not,\u2014his wits are gone.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
Good friend, I pr'ythee, take him in thy arms;<\/dd>\r\n \t
I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him;<\/dd>\r\n \t
There is a litter ready; lay him in't<\/dd>\r\n \t
And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet<\/dd>\r\n \t
Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master;<\/dd>\r\n \t
If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life,<\/dd>\r\n \t
With thine, and all that offer to defend him,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Stand in assured loss: take up, take up;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And follow me, that will to some provision<\/dd>\r\n \t
Give thee quick conduct.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nKent.\r\n
\r\n \t
Oppressed nature sleeps:\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken sinews,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Which, if convenience will not allow,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Stand in hard cure.\u2014Come, help to bear thy master;<\/dd>\r\n \t
[To the Fool.] Thou must not stay behind.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
Come, come, away!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exeunt Kent, Gloucester, and the Fool, bearing off Lear.]\r\n\r\nEdg.\r\n
\r\n \t
When we our betters see bearing our woes,<\/dd>\r\n \t
We scarcely think our miseries our foes.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Who alone suffers suffers most i' the mind,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Leaving free things and happy shows behind:<\/dd>\r\n \t
But then the mind much sufferance doth o'erskip<\/dd>\r\n \t
When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.<\/dd>\r\n \t
How light and portable my pain seems now,<\/dd>\r\n \t
When that which makes me bend makes the king bow;<\/dd>\r\n \t
He childed as I fathered!\u2014Tom, away!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Mark the high noises; and thyself bewray,<\/dd>\r\n \t
When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee,<\/dd>\r\n \t
In thy just proof repeals and reconciles thee.<\/dd>\r\n \t
What will hap more to-night, safe 'scape the king!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Lurk, lurk.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exit.]\r\n

<\/span>Scene VII. A Room in Gloucester's Castle.<\/span>[<\/span>edit<\/a>]<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\r\n[Enter Cornwall, Regan, Goneril, Edmund, and Servants.]\r\n\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
Post speedily to my lord your husband, show him this letter:\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
the army of France is landed.\u2014Seek out the traitor Gloucester.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exeunt some of the Servants.]\r\n\r\nReg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Hang him instantly.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGon.\r\n
\r\n \t
Pluck out his eyes.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
Leave him to my displeasure.\u2014Edmund, keep you our sister<\/dd>\r\n \t
company: the revenges we are bound to take upon your traitorous<\/dd>\r\n \t
father are not fit for your beholding. Advise the duke where you<\/dd>\r\n \t
are going, to a most festinate preparation: we are bound to the<\/dd>\r\n \t
like. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent betwixt us.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Farewell, dear sister:\u2014farewell, my lord of Gloucester.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Enter Oswald.]\r\n\r\nHow now! Where's the king?\r\n\r\nOsw.\r\n
\r\n \t
My lord of Gloucester hath convey'd him hence:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Some five or six and thirty of his knights,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Hot questrists after him, met him at gate;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Who, with some other of the lord's dependants,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Are gone with him towards Dover: where they boast<\/dd>\r\n \t
To have well-armed friends.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
Get horses for your mistress.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGon.\r\n
\r\n \t
Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
Edmund, farewell.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exeunt Goneril, Edmund, and Oswald.]\r\n
\r\n \t
Go seek the traitor Gloucester,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exeunt other Servants.]\r\n
\r\n \t
Though well we may not pass upon his life<\/dd>\r\n \t
Without the form of justice, yet our power<\/dd>\r\n \t
Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men<\/dd>\r\n \t
May blame, but not control.\u2014Who's there? the traitor?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Re-enter servants, with Gloucester.]\r\n\r\nReg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Ingrateful fox! 'tis he.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
Bind fast his corky arms.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
What mean your graces?\u2014Good my friends, consider<\/dd>\r\n \t
You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
Bind him, I say.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Servants bind him.]\r\n\r\nReg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Hard, hard.\u2014O filthy traitor!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
Unmerciful lady as you are, I'm none.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
To this chair bind him.\u2014Villain, thou shalt find,\u2014<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Regan plucks his beard.]\r\n\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done<\/dd>\r\n \t
To pluck me by the beard.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nReg.\r\n
\r\n \t
So white, and such a traitor!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
Naughty lady,<\/dd>\r\n \t
These hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin<\/dd>\r\n \t
Will quicken, and accuse thee: I am your host:<\/dd>\r\n \t
With robber's hands my hospitable favours<\/dd>\r\n \t
You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
Come, sir, what letters had you late from France?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nReg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Be simple-answer'd, for we know the truth.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
And what confederacy have you with the traitors<\/dd>\r\n \t
Late footed in the kingdom?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nReg.\r\n
\r\n \t
To whose hands have you sent the lunatic king?<\/dd>\r\n \t
Speak.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
I have a letter guessingly set down,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Which came from one that's of a neutral heart,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And not from one oppos'd.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
Cunning.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nReg.\r\n
\r\n \t
And false.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
Where hast thou sent the king?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
To Dover.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nReg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not charg'd at peril,\u2014<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nReg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Wherefore to Dover, sir?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
Because I would not see thy cruel nails<\/dd>\r\n \t
Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister<\/dd>\r\n \t
In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.<\/dd>\r\n \t
The sea, with such a storm as his bare head<\/dd>\r\n \t
In hell-black night endur'd, would have buoy'd up,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And quench'd the stelled fires; yet, poor old heart,<\/dd>\r\n \t
He holp the heavens to rain.<\/dd>\r\n \t
If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Thou shouldst have said, 'Good porter, turn the key.'<\/dd>\r\n \t
All cruels else subscrib'd:\u2014but I shall see<\/dd>\r\n \t
The winged vengeance overtake such children.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
See't shalt thou never.\u2014Fellows, hold the chair.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Gloucester is held down in his chair, while Cornwall plucks out one\r\n
\r\n \t
of his eyes and sets his foot on it.]<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
He that will think to live till he be old,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Give me some help!\u2014O cruel!\u2014O ye gods!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nReg.\r\n
\r\n \t
One side will mock another; the other too!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
If you see vengeance,\u2014<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFirst Serv.\r\n
\r\n \t
Hold your hand, my lord:<\/dd>\r\n \t
I have serv'd you ever since I was a child;<\/dd>\r\n \t
But better service have I never done you<\/dd>\r\n \t
Than now to bid you hold.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nReg.\r\n
\r\n \t
How now, you dog!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFirst Serv.\r\n
\r\n \t
If you did wear a beard upon your chin,<\/dd>\r\n \t
I'd shake it on this quarrel. What do you mean?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
My villain!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Draws, and runs at him.]\r\n\r\nFirst Serv.\r\n
\r\n \t
Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of anger.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Draws. They fight. Cornwall is wounded.]\r\n\r\nReg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Give me thy sword [to another servant.]\u2014A peasant stand up thus?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Snatches a sword, comes behind, and stabs him.]\r\n\r\nFirst Serv.\r\n
\r\n \t
O, I am slain!\u2014My lord, you have one eye left<\/dd>\r\n \t
To see some mischief on thim. O!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Dies.]\r\n\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
Lest it see more, prevent it.\u2014Out, vile jelly!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Where is thy lustre now?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Tears out Gloucester's other eye and throws it on the ground.]\r\n\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
All dark and comfortless.\u2014Where's my son Edmund?<\/dd>\r\n \t
Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature<\/dd>\r\n \t
To quit this horrid act.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nReg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Out, treacherous villain!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Thou call'st on him that hates thee: it was he<\/dd>\r\n \t
That made the overture of thy treasons to us;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Who is too good to pity thee.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nGlou.\r\n
\r\n \t
O my follies! Then Edgar was abus'd.\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nReg.\r\n
\r\n \t
Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell<\/dd>\r\n \t
His way to Dover.\u2014How is't, my lord? How look you?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nCorn.\r\n
\r\n \t
I have receiv'd a hurt:\u2014follow me, lady.\u2014<\/dd>\r\n \t
Turn out that eyeless villain;\u2014throw this slave<\/dd>\r\n \t
Upon the dunghill.\u2014Regan, I bleed apace:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Untimely comes this hurt: give me your arm.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exit Cornwall, led by Regan; Servants unbind Gloucester and lead\r\n
\r\n \t
him out.]<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nSecond Serv.\r\n
\r\n \t
I'll never care what wickedness I do,<\/dd>\r\n \t
If this man come to good.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nThird Serv.\r\n
\r\n \t
If she live long,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And in the end meet the old course of death,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Women will all turn monsters.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nSecond Serv.\r\n
\r\n \t
Let's follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam<\/dd>\r\n \t
To lead him where he would: his roguish madness<\/dd>\r\n \t
Allows itself to anything.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nThird Serv.\r\n
\r\n \t
Go thou: I'll fetch some flax and whites of eggs<\/dd>\r\n \t
To apply to his bleeding face. Now heaven help him!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n[Exeunt severally.]","rendered":"

ACT III.<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

Scene I. A Heath.<\/span><\/h3>\n

[A storm with thunder and lightning. Enter Kent and a Gentleman,<\/p>\n

\n
meeting.]<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Who’s there, besides foul weather?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Gent.<\/p>\n

\n
One minded like the weather, most unquietly.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
I know you. Where’s the king?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Gent.<\/p>\n

\n
Contending with the fretful elements;<\/dd>\n
Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea,<\/dd>\n
Or swell the curled waters ‘bove the main,<\/dd>\n
That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,<\/dd>\n
Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,<\/dd>\n
Catch in their fury and make nothing of;<\/dd>\n
Strives in his little world of man to outscorn<\/dd>\n
The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.<\/dd>\n
This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,<\/dd>\n
The lion and the belly-pinched wolf<\/dd>\n
Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,<\/dd>\n
And bids what will take all.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
But who is with him?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Gent.<\/p>\n

\n
None but the fool, who labours to out-jest<\/dd>\n
His heart-struck injuries.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Sir, I do know you;<\/dd>\n
And dare, upon the warrant of my note,<\/dd>\n
Commend a dear thing to you. There is division,<\/dd>\n
Although as yet the face of it be cover’d<\/dd>\n
With mutual cunning, ‘twixt Albany and Cornwall;<\/dd>\n
Who have,\u2014as who have not, that their great stars<\/dd>\n
Throne and set high?\u2014servants, who seem no less,<\/dd>\n
Which are to France the spies and speculations<\/dd>\n
Intelligent of our state; what hath been seen,<\/dd>\n
Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes;<\/dd>\n
Or the hard rein which both of them have borne<\/dd>\n
Against the old kind king; or something deeper,<\/dd>\n
Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings;\u2014<\/dd>\n
But, true it is, from France there comes a power<\/dd>\n
Into this scatter’d kingdom; who already,<\/dd>\n
Wise in our negligence, have secret feet<\/dd>\n
In some of our best ports, and are at point<\/dd>\n
To show their open banner.\u2014Now to you:<\/dd>\n
If on my credit you dare build so far<\/dd>\n
To make your speed to Dover, you shall find<\/dd>\n
Some that will thank you making just report<\/dd>\n
Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow<\/dd>\n
The king hath cause to plain.<\/dd>\n
I am a gentleman of blood and breeding;<\/dd>\n
And from some knowledge and assurance offer<\/dd>\n
This office to you.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Gent.<\/p>\n

\n
I will talk further with you.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
No, do not.<\/dd>\n
For confirmation that I am much more<\/dd>\n
Than my out wall, open this purse, and take<\/dd>\n
What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia,\u2014<\/dd>\n
As fear not but you shall,\u2014show her this ring;<\/dd>\n
And she will tell you who your fellow is<\/dd>\n
That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm!<\/dd>\n
I will go seek the king.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Gent.<\/p>\n

\n
Give me your hand: have you no more to say?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet,\u2014<\/dd>\n
That, when we have found the king,\u2014in which your pain<\/dd>\n
That way, I’ll this,\u2014he that first lights on him<\/dd>\n
Holla the other.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exeunt severally.]<\/p>\n

Scene II. Another part of the heath. Storm continues.<\/span>[<\/span>edit<\/a>]<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

[Enter Lear and Fool.]<\/p>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!<\/dd>\n
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout<\/dd>\n
Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks!<\/dd>\n
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,<\/dd>\n
Vaunt couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,<\/dd>\n
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,<\/dd>\n
Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!<\/dd>\n
Crack nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once,<\/dd>\n
That make ingrateful man!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
O nuncle, court holy water in a dry house is better than this<\/dd>\n
rain water out o’ door. Good nuncle, in; and ask thy daughters<\/dd>\n
blessing: here’s a night pities nether wise men nor fools.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain!<\/dd>\n
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters:<\/dd>\n
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;<\/dd>\n
I never gave you kingdom, call’d you children;<\/dd>\n
You owe me no subscription: then let fall<\/dd>\n
Your horrible pleasure; here I stand, your slave,<\/dd>\n
A poor, infirm, weak, and despis’d old man:\u2014<\/dd>\n
But yet I call you servile ministers,<\/dd>\n
That will with two pernicious daughters join<\/dd>\n
Your high-engender’d battles ‘gainst a head<\/dd>\n
So old and white as this! O! O! ’tis foul!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
He that has a house to put ‘s head in has a good head-piece.<\/dd>\n
The codpiece that will house<\/dd>\n
Before the head has any,<\/dd>\n
The head and he shall louse:<\/dd>\n
So beggars marry many.<\/dd>\n
The man that makes his toe<\/dd>\n
What he his heart should make<\/dd>\n
Shall of a corn cry woe,<\/dd>\n
And turn his sleep to wake.<\/dd>\n
\u2014for there was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a<\/dd>\n
glass.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
No, I will be the pattern of all patience;<\/dd>\n
I will say nothing.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Enter Kent.]<\/p>\n

\n
Kent.<\/dd>\n
Who’s there?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
Marry, here’s grace and a codpiece; that’s a wise man and a fool.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Alas, sir, are you here? Things that love night<\/dd>\n
Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies<\/dd>\n
Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,<\/dd>\n
And make them keep their caves; since I was man,<\/dd>\n
Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,<\/dd>\n
Such groans of roaring wind and rain I never<\/dd>\n
Remember to have heard: man’s nature cannot carry<\/dd>\n
Th’ affliction nor the fear.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Let the great gods,<\/dd>\n
That keep this dreadful pother o’er our heads,<\/dd>\n
Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,<\/dd>\n
That hast within thee undivulged crimes<\/dd>\n
Unwhipp’d of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand;<\/dd>\n
Thou perjur’d, and thou simular man of virtue<\/dd>\n
That art incestuous: caitiff, to pieces shake<\/dd>\n
That under covert and convenient seeming<\/dd>\n
Hast practis’d on man’s life: close pent-up guilts,<\/dd>\n
Rive your concealing continents, and cry<\/dd>\n
These dreadful summoners grace.\u2014I am a man<\/dd>\n
More sinn’d against than sinning.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Alack, bareheaded!<\/dd>\n
Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel;<\/dd>\n
Some friendship will it lend you ‘gainst the tempest:<\/dd>\n
Repose you there, whilst I to this hard house,\u2014<\/dd>\n
More harder than the stones whereof ’tis rais’d;<\/dd>\n
Which even but now, demanding after you,<\/dd>\n
Denied me to come in,\u2014return, and force<\/dd>\n
Their scanted courtesy.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
My wits begin to turn.\u2014<\/dd>\n
Come on, my boy. how dost, my boy? art cold?<\/dd>\n
I am cold myself.\u2014Where is this straw, my fellow?<\/dd>\n
The art of our necessities is strange,<\/dd>\n
That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel.\u2014<\/dd>\n
Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart<\/dd>\n
That’s sorry yet for thee.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
[Singing.]<\/dd>\n
He that has and a little tiny wit\u2014<\/dd>\n
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,\u2014<\/dd>\n
Must make content with his fortunes fit,<\/dd>\n
For the rain it raineth every day.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
True, boy.\u2014Come, bring us to this hovel.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exeunt Lear and Kent.]<\/p>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
This is a brave night to cool a courtezan.\u2014<\/dd>\n
I’ll speak a prophecy ere I go:\u2014<\/dd>\n
When priests are more in word than matter;<\/dd>\n
When brewers mar their malt with water;<\/dd>\n
When nobles are their tailors’ tutors;<\/dd>\n
No heretics burn’d, but wenches’ suitors;<\/dd>\n
When every case in law is right;<\/dd>\n
No squire in debt nor no poor knight;<\/dd>\n
When slanders do not live in tongues;<\/dd>\n
Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;<\/dd>\n
When usurers tell their gold i’ the field;<\/dd>\n
And bawds and whores do churches build;\u2014<\/dd>\n
Then shall the realm of Albion<\/dd>\n
Come to great confusion:<\/dd>\n
Then comes the time, who lives to see’t,<\/dd>\n
That going shall be us’d with feet.<\/dd>\n
This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exit.]<\/p>\n

<\/span>Scene III. A Room in Gloucester’s Castle.<\/span>[<\/span>edit<\/a>]<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

[Enter Gloucester and Edmund.]<\/p>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing. When I<\/dd>\n
desired their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the<\/dd>\n
use of mine own house; charged me on pain of perpetual displeasure,<\/dd>\n
neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edm.<\/p>\n

\n
Most savage and unnatural!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
Go to; say you nothing. There is division betwixt the dukes,<\/dd>\n
and a worse matter than that: I have received a letter this<\/dd>\n
night;\u2014’tis dangerous to be spoken;\u2014I have locked the letter in<\/dd>\n
my closet: these injuries the king now bears will be revenged<\/dd>\n
home; there’s part of a power already footed: we must incline to<\/dd>\n
the king. I will seek him, and privily relieve him: go you and<\/dd>\n
maintain talk with the duke, that my charity be not of him<\/dd>\n
perceived: if he ask for me, I am ill, and gone to bed. If I<\/dd>\n
die for it, as no less is threatened me, the king my old master<\/dd>\n
must be relieved. There is some strange thing toward, Edmund;<\/dd>\n
pray you be careful.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exit.]<\/p>\n

Edm.<\/p>\n

\n
This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke<\/dd>\n
Instantly know; and of that letter too:\u2014<\/dd>\n
This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me<\/dd>\n
That which my father loses,\u2014no less than all:<\/dd>\n
The younger rises when the old doth fall.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exit.]<\/p>\n

Scene IV. A part of the Heath with a Hovel. Storm continues.<\/span>[<\/span>edit<\/a>]<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

[Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool.]<\/p>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter:<\/dd>\n
The tyranny of the open night’s too rough<\/dd>\n
For nature to endure.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Let me alone.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Good my lord, enter here.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Wilt break my heart?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Thou think’st ’tis much that this contentious storm<\/dd>\n
Invades us to the skin: so ’tis to thee<\/dd>\n
But where the greater malady is fix’d,<\/dd>\n
The lesser is scarce felt. Thou’dst shun a bear;<\/dd>\n
But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,<\/dd>\n
Thou’dst meet the bear i’ the mouth. When the mind’s free,<\/dd>\n
The body’s delicate: the tempest in my mind<\/dd>\n
Doth from my senses take all feeling else<\/dd>\n
Save what beats there.\u2014Filial ingratitude!<\/dd>\n
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand<\/dd>\n
For lifting food to’t?\u2014But I will punish home:\u2014<\/dd>\n
No, I will weep no more.\u2014In such a night<\/dd>\n
To shut me out!\u2014Pour on; I will endure:\u2014<\/dd>\n
In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!\u2014<\/dd>\n
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all,\u2014<\/dd>\n
O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;<\/dd>\n
No more of that.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Good my lord, enter here.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Pr’ythee go in thyself; seek thine own ease:<\/dd>\n
This tempest will not give me leave to ponder<\/dd>\n
On things would hurt me more.\u2014But I’ll go in.\u2014<\/dd>\n
[To the Fool.] In, boy; go first.\u2014You houseless poverty,\u2014<\/dd>\n
Nay, get thee in. I’ll pray, and then I’ll sleep.\u2014<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Fool goes in.]<\/p>\n

\n
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are,<\/dd>\n
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,<\/dd>\n
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,<\/dd>\n
Your loop’d and window’d raggedness, defend you<\/dd>\n
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta’en<\/dd>\n
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;<\/dd>\n
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,<\/dd>\n
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them<\/dd>\n
And show the heavens more just.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
[Within.] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[The Fool runs out from the hovel.]<\/p>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
Come not in here, nuncle, here’s a spirit.<\/dd>\n
Help me, help me!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Give me thy hand.\u2014Who’s there?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
A spirit, a spirit: he says his name’s poor Tom.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
What art thou that dost grumble there i’ the straw?<\/dd>\n
Come forth.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Enter Edgar, disguised as a madman.]<\/p>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
Away! the foul fiend follows me!\u2014<\/dd>\n
Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.\u2014<\/dd>\n
Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Didst thou give all to thy two daughters?<\/dd>\n
And art thou come to this?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
Who gives anything to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led<\/dd>\n
through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, o’er<\/dd>\n
bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow and<\/dd>\n
halters in his pew, set ratsbane by his porridge; made him proud<\/dd>\n
of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inched<\/dd>\n
bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor.\u2014Bless thy five<\/dd>\n
wits!\u2014Tom’s a-cold.\u2014O, do de, do de, do de.\u2014Bless thee from<\/dd>\n
whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity,<\/dd>\n
whom the foul fiend vexes:\u2014there could I have him now,\u2014and<\/dd>\n
there,\u2014and there again, and there.<\/dd>\n
[Storm continues.]<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?\u2014<\/dd>\n
Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give ’em all?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
Nay, he reserv’d a blanket, else we had been all shamed.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Now all the plagues that in the pendulous air<\/dd>\n
Hang fated o’er men’s faults light on thy daughters!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
He hath no daughters, sir.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Death, traitor! nothing could have subdu’d nature<\/dd>\n
To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.\u2014<\/dd>\n
Is it the fashion that discarded fathers<\/dd>\n
Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?<\/dd>\n
Judicious punishment! ’twas this flesh begot<\/dd>\n
Those pelican daughters.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:\u2014<\/dd>\n
Halloo, halloo, loo loo!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
Take heed o’ th’ foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep thy word<\/dd>\n
justly; swear not; commit not with man’s sworn spouse; set not<\/dd>\n
thy sweet heart on proud array. Tom’s a-cold.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
What hast thou been?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair;<\/dd>\n
wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of my mistress’ heart, and<\/dd>\n
did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake<\/dd>\n
words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one that<\/dd>\n
slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it: wine loved<\/dd>\n
I deeply, dice dearly; and in woman out-paramour’d the Turk;<\/dd>\n
false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox<\/dd>\n
in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey.<\/dd>\n
Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray<\/dd>\n
thy poor heart to woman: keep thy foot out of brothel, thy hand<\/dd>\n
out of placket, thy pen from lender’s book, and defy the foul<\/dd>\n
fiend.\u2014Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind: says<\/dd>\n
suum, mun, nonny. Dolphin my boy, boy, sessa! let him trot by.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Storm still continues.]<\/p>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy<\/dd>\n
uncovered body this extremity of the skies.\u2014Is man no more than<\/dd>\n
this? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast<\/dd>\n
no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume.\u2014Ha! here’s three<\/dd>\n
on’s are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself:<\/dd>\n
unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked<\/dd>\n
animal as thou art.\u2014Off, off, you lendings!\u2014Come, unbutton<\/dd>\n
here.<\/dd>\n
[Tears off his clothes.]<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
Pr’ythee, nuncle, be contented; ’tis a naughty night to swim<\/dd>\n
in.\u2014Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher’s<\/dd>\n
heart,\u2014a small spark, all the rest on’s body cold.\u2014Look, here<\/dd>\n
comes a walking fire.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew,<\/dd>\n
and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin,<\/dd>\n
squints the eye, and makes the harelip; mildews the white wheat,<\/dd>\n
and hurts the poor creature of earth.<\/dd>\n
Swithold footed thrice the old;<\/dd>\n
He met the nightmare, and her nine-fold;<\/dd>\n
Bid her alight<\/dd>\n
And her troth plight,<\/dd>\n
And aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
How fares your grace?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Enter Gloucester with a torch.]<\/p>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
What’s he?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Who’s there? What is’t you seek?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
What are you there? Your names?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the todpole, the<\/dd>\n
wall-newt and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when the<\/dd>\n
foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat<\/dd>\n
and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool;<\/dd>\n
who is whipped from tithing to tithing, and stocked, punished,<\/dd>\n
and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts<\/dd>\n
to his body, horse to ride, and weapons to wear;\u2014<\/dd>\n
But mice and rats, and such small deer,<\/dd>\n
Have been Tom’s food for seven long year.<\/dd>\n
Beware my follower.\u2014Peace, Smulkin; peace, thou fiend!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
What, hath your grace no better company?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
The prince of darkness is a gentleman:<\/dd>\n
Modo he’s call’d, and Mahu.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile<\/dd>\n
That it doth hate what gets it.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
Poor Tom’s a-cold.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer<\/dd>\n
To obey in all your daughters’ hard commands;<\/dd>\n
Though their injunction be to bar my doors,<\/dd>\n
And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,<\/dd>\n
Yet have I ventur’d to come seek you out<\/dd>\n
And bring you where both fire and food is ready.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
First let me talk with this philosopher.\u2014<\/dd>\n
What is the cause of thunder?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Good my lord, take his offer; go into the house.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
I’ll talk a word with this same learned Theban.\u2014<\/dd>\n
What is your study?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
How to prevent the fiend and to kill vermin.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Let me ask you one word in private.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Importune him once more to go, my lord;<\/dd>\n
His wits begin to unsettle.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
Canst thou blame him?<\/dd>\n
His daughters seek his death:\u2014ah, that good Kent!\u2014<\/dd>\n
He said it would be thus,\u2014poor banish’d man!\u2014<\/dd>\n
Thou say’st the king grows mad; I’ll tell thee, friend,<\/dd>\n
I am almost mad myself: I had a son,<\/dd>\n
Now outlaw’d from my blood; he sought my life<\/dd>\n
But lately, very late: I lov’d him, friend,\u2014<\/dd>\n
No father his son dearer: true to tell thee,<\/dd>\n
[Storm continues.]<\/dd>\n
The grief hath craz’d my wits.\u2014What a night’s this!\u2014<\/dd>\n
I do beseech your grace,\u2014<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
O, cry you mercy, sir.\u2014<\/dd>\n
Noble philosopher, your company.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
Tom’s a-cold.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
In, fellow, there, into the hovel; keep thee warm.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Come, let’s in all.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
This way, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
With him;<\/dd>\n
I will keep still with my philosopher.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
Take him you on.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Sirrah, come on; go along with us.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Come, good Athenian.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
No words, no words: hush.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
Child Rowland to the dark tower came,<\/dd>\n
His word was still\u2014Fie, foh, and fum,<\/dd>\n
I smell the blood of a British man.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exeunt.]<\/p>\n

<\/span>Scene V. A Room in Gloucester’s Castle.<\/span>[<\/span>edit<\/a>]<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

[Enter Cornwall and Edmund.]<\/p>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
I will have my revenge ere I depart his house.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edm.<\/p>\n

\n
How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to<\/dd>\n
loyalty, something fears me to think of.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
I now perceive it was not altogether your brother’s evil<\/dd>\n
disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set<\/dd>\n
a-work by a reproveable badness in himself.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edm.<\/p>\n

\n
How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to be just! This<\/dd>\n
is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an intelligent<\/dd>\n
party to the advantages of France. O heavens! that this treason<\/dd>\n
were not\u2014or not I the detector!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
Go with me to the duchess.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edm.<\/p>\n

\n
If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business<\/dd>\n
in hand.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
True or false, it hath made thee earl of Gloucester. Seek out<\/dd>\n
where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edm.<\/p>\n

\n
[Aside.] If I find him comforting the king, it will stuff his<\/dd>\n
suspicion more fully.\u2014I will persever in my course of loyalty,<\/dd>\n
though the conflict be sore between that and my blood.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a dearer father<\/dd>\n
in my love.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exeunt.]<\/p>\n

Scene VI. A Chamber in a Farmhouse adjoining the Castle.<\/span>[<\/span>edit<\/a>]<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

[Enter Gloucester, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar.]<\/p>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully. I will<\/dd>\n
piece out the comfort with what addition I can: I will not be<\/dd>\n
long from you.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
All the power of his wits have given way to his impatience:\u2014<\/dd>\n
the gods reward your kindness!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exit Gloucester.]<\/p>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
Frateretto calls me; and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake<\/dd>\n
of darkness.\u2014Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
Pr’ythee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a gentleman or a<\/dd>\n
yeoman.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
A king, a king!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
No, he’s a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son; for he’s a mad<\/dd>\n
yeoman that sees his son a gentleman before him.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
To have a thousand with red burning spits<\/dd>\n
Come hissing in upon ’em,\u2014<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
The foul fiend bites my back.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
He’s mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse’s health,<\/dd>\n
a boy’s love, or a whore’s oath.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
It shall be done; I will arraign them straight.\u2014<\/dd>\n
[To Edgar.] Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer\u2014<\/dd>\n
[To the Fool.] Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she-foxes!\u2014<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
Look, where he stands and glares!\u2014Want’st thou eyes at trial,<\/dd>\n
madam?<\/dd>\n
Come o’er the bourn, Bessy, to me,\u2014<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
Her boat hath a leak,<\/dd>\n
And she must not speak<\/dd>\n
Why she dares not come over to thee.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale.<\/dd>\n
Hoppedance cries in Tom’s belly for two white herring. Croak not,<\/dd>\n
black angel; I have no food for thee.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
How do you, sir? Stand you not so amaz’d;<\/dd>\n
Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
I’ll see their trial first.\u2014Bring in their evidence.<\/dd>\n
[To Edgar.] Thou, robed man of justice, take thy place;\u2014<\/dd>\n
[To the Fool.] And thou, his yokefellow of equity,<\/dd>\n
Bench by his side:\u2014[To Kent.] you are o’ the commission,<\/dd>\n
Sit you too.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
Let us deal justly.<\/dd>\n
Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?<\/dd>\n
Thy sheep be in the corn;<\/dd>\n
And for one blast of thy minikin mouth<\/dd>\n
Thy sheep shall take no harm.<\/dd>\n
Purr! the cat is gray.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Arraign her first; ’tis Goneril. I here take my oath before<\/dd>\n
this honourable assembly, she kicked the poor king her father.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
She cannot deny it.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
And here’s another, whose warp’d looks proclaim<\/dd>\n
What store her heart is made on.\u2014Stop her there!<\/dd>\n
Arms, arms! sword! fire!\u2014Corruption in the place!\u2014<\/dd>\n
False justicer, why hast thou let her ‘scape?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
Bless thy five wits!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
O pity!\u2014Sir, where is the patience now<\/dd>\n
That you so oft have boasted to retain?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
[Aside.] My tears begin to take his part so much<\/dd>\n
They’ll mar my counterfeiting.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
The little dogs and all,<\/dd>\n
Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
Tom will throw his head at them.\u2014Avaunt, you curs!<\/dd>\n
Be thy mouth or black or white,<\/dd>\n
Tooth that poisons if it bite;<\/dd>\n
Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim,<\/dd>\n
Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,<\/dd>\n
Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail,\u2014<\/dd>\n
Tom will make them weep and wail;<\/dd>\n
For, with throwing thus my head,<\/dd>\n
Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.<\/dd>\n
Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and fairs and market-<\/dd>\n
towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Then let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds about her<\/dd>\n
heart. Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard<\/dd>\n
hearts?\u2014[To Edgar.] You, sir, I entertain you for one of my<\/dd>\n
hundred; only I do not like the fashion of your garments: you’ll<\/dd>\n
say they are Persian; but let them be changed.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lear.<\/p>\n

\n
Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains:<\/dd>\n
So, so. We’ll go to supper i’ the morning.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Fool.<\/p>\n

\n
And I’ll go to bed at noon.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Re-enter Gloucester.]<\/p>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
Come hither, friend: where is the king my master?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Here, sir; but trouble him not,\u2014his wits are gone.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
Good friend, I pr’ythee, take him in thy arms;<\/dd>\n
I have o’erheard a plot of death upon him;<\/dd>\n
There is a litter ready; lay him in’t<\/dd>\n
And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet<\/dd>\n
Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master;<\/dd>\n
If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life,<\/dd>\n
With thine, and all that offer to defend him,<\/dd>\n
Stand in assured loss: take up, take up;<\/dd>\n
And follow me, that will to some provision<\/dd>\n
Give thee quick conduct.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kent.<\/p>\n

\n
Oppressed nature sleeps:\u2014<\/dd>\n
This rest might yet have balm’d thy broken sinews,<\/dd>\n
Which, if convenience will not allow,<\/dd>\n
Stand in hard cure.\u2014Come, help to bear thy master;<\/dd>\n
[To the Fool.] Thou must not stay behind.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
Come, come, away!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exeunt Kent, Gloucester, and the Fool, bearing off Lear.]<\/p>\n

Edg.<\/p>\n

\n
When we our betters see bearing our woes,<\/dd>\n
We scarcely think our miseries our foes.<\/dd>\n
Who alone suffers suffers most i’ the mind,<\/dd>\n
Leaving free things and happy shows behind:<\/dd>\n
But then the mind much sufferance doth o’erskip<\/dd>\n
When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.<\/dd>\n
How light and portable my pain seems now,<\/dd>\n
When that which makes me bend makes the king bow;<\/dd>\n
He childed as I fathered!\u2014Tom, away!<\/dd>\n
Mark the high noises; and thyself bewray,<\/dd>\n
When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee,<\/dd>\n
In thy just proof repeals and reconciles thee.<\/dd>\n
What will hap more to-night, safe ‘scape the king!<\/dd>\n
Lurk, lurk.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exit.]<\/p>\n

<\/span>Scene VII. A Room in Gloucester’s Castle.<\/span>[<\/span>edit<\/a>]<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

[Enter Cornwall, Regan, Goneril, Edmund, and Servants.]<\/p>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
Post speedily to my lord your husband, show him this letter:\u2014<\/dd>\n
the army of France is landed.\u2014Seek out the traitor Gloucester.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exeunt some of the Servants.]<\/p>\n

Reg.<\/p>\n

\n
Hang him instantly.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Gon.<\/p>\n

\n
Pluck out his eyes.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
Leave him to my displeasure.\u2014Edmund, keep you our sister<\/dd>\n
company: the revenges we are bound to take upon your traitorous<\/dd>\n
father are not fit for your beholding. Advise the duke where you<\/dd>\n
are going, to a most festinate preparation: we are bound to the<\/dd>\n
like. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent betwixt us.<\/dd>\n
Farewell, dear sister:\u2014farewell, my lord of Gloucester.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Enter Oswald.]<\/p>\n

How now! Where’s the king?<\/p>\n

Osw.<\/p>\n

\n
My lord of Gloucester hath convey’d him hence:<\/dd>\n
Some five or six and thirty of his knights,<\/dd>\n
Hot questrists after him, met him at gate;<\/dd>\n
Who, with some other of the lord’s dependants,<\/dd>\n
Are gone with him towards Dover: where they boast<\/dd>\n
To have well-armed friends.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
Get horses for your mistress.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Gon.<\/p>\n

\n
Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
Edmund, farewell.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exeunt Goneril, Edmund, and Oswald.]<\/p>\n

\n
Go seek the traitor Gloucester,<\/dd>\n
Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exeunt other Servants.]<\/p>\n

\n
Though well we may not pass upon his life<\/dd>\n
Without the form of justice, yet our power<\/dd>\n
Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men<\/dd>\n
May blame, but not control.\u2014Who’s there? the traitor?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Re-enter servants, with Gloucester.]<\/p>\n

Reg.<\/p>\n

\n
Ingrateful fox! ’tis he.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
Bind fast his corky arms.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
What mean your graces?\u2014Good my friends, consider<\/dd>\n
You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
Bind him, I say.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Servants bind him.]<\/p>\n

Reg.<\/p>\n

\n
Hard, hard.\u2014O filthy traitor!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
Unmerciful lady as you are, I’m none.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
To this chair bind him.\u2014Villain, thou shalt find,\u2014<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Regan plucks his beard.]<\/p>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
By the kind gods, ’tis most ignobly done<\/dd>\n
To pluck me by the beard.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Reg.<\/p>\n

\n
So white, and such a traitor!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
Naughty lady,<\/dd>\n
These hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin<\/dd>\n
Will quicken, and accuse thee: I am your host:<\/dd>\n
With robber’s hands my hospitable favours<\/dd>\n
You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
Come, sir, what letters had you late from France?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Reg.<\/p>\n

\n
Be simple-answer’d, for we know the truth.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
And what confederacy have you with the traitors<\/dd>\n
Late footed in the kingdom?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Reg.<\/p>\n

\n
To whose hands have you sent the lunatic king?<\/dd>\n
Speak.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
I have a letter guessingly set down,<\/dd>\n
Which came from one that’s of a neutral heart,<\/dd>\n
And not from one oppos’d.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
Cunning.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Reg.<\/p>\n

\n
And false.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
Where hast thou sent the king?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
To Dover.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Reg.<\/p>\n

\n
Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not charg’d at peril,\u2014<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Reg.<\/p>\n

\n
Wherefore to Dover, sir?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
Because I would not see thy cruel nails<\/dd>\n
Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister<\/dd>\n
In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.<\/dd>\n
The sea, with such a storm as his bare head<\/dd>\n
In hell-black night endur’d, would have buoy’d up,<\/dd>\n
And quench’d the stelled fires; yet, poor old heart,<\/dd>\n
He holp the heavens to rain.<\/dd>\n
If wolves had at thy gate howl’d that stern time,<\/dd>\n
Thou shouldst have said, ‘Good porter, turn the key.’<\/dd>\n
All cruels else subscrib’d:\u2014but I shall see<\/dd>\n
The winged vengeance overtake such children.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
See’t shalt thou never.\u2014Fellows, hold the chair.<\/dd>\n
Upon these eyes of thine I’ll set my foot.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Gloucester is held down in his chair, while Cornwall plucks out one<\/p>\n

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of his eyes and sets his foot on it.]<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

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He that will think to live till he be old,<\/dd>\n
Give me some help!\u2014O cruel!\u2014O ye gods!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Reg.<\/p>\n

\n
One side will mock another; the other too!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

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If you see vengeance,\u2014<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

First Serv.<\/p>\n

\n
Hold your hand, my lord:<\/dd>\n
I have serv’d you ever since I was a child;<\/dd>\n
But better service have I never done you<\/dd>\n
Than now to bid you hold.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Reg.<\/p>\n

\n
How now, you dog!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

First Serv.<\/p>\n

\n
If you did wear a beard upon your chin,<\/dd>\n
I’d shake it on this quarrel. What do you mean?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
My villain!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Draws, and runs at him.]<\/p>\n

First Serv.<\/p>\n

\n
Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of anger.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Draws. They fight. Cornwall is wounded.]<\/p>\n

Reg.<\/p>\n

\n
Give me thy sword [to another servant.]\u2014A peasant stand up thus?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Snatches a sword, comes behind, and stabs him.]<\/p>\n

First Serv.<\/p>\n

\n
O, I am slain!\u2014My lord, you have one eye left<\/dd>\n
To see some mischief on thim. O!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Dies.]<\/p>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
Lest it see more, prevent it.\u2014Out, vile jelly!<\/dd>\n
Where is thy lustre now?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Tears out Gloucester’s other eye and throws it on the ground.]<\/p>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
All dark and comfortless.\u2014Where’s my son Edmund?<\/dd>\n
Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature<\/dd>\n
To quit this horrid act.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Reg.<\/p>\n

\n
Out, treacherous villain!<\/dd>\n
Thou call’st on him that hates thee: it was he<\/dd>\n
That made the overture of thy treasons to us;<\/dd>\n
Who is too good to pity thee.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Glou.<\/p>\n

\n
O my follies! Then Edgar was abus’d.\u2014<\/dd>\n
Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Reg.<\/p>\n

\n
Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell<\/dd>\n
His way to Dover.\u2014How is’t, my lord? How look you?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Corn.<\/p>\n

\n
I have receiv’d a hurt:\u2014follow me, lady.\u2014<\/dd>\n
Turn out that eyeless villain;\u2014throw this slave<\/dd>\n
Upon the dunghill.\u2014Regan, I bleed apace:<\/dd>\n
Untimely comes this hurt: give me your arm.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exit Cornwall, led by Regan; Servants unbind Gloucester and lead<\/p>\n

\n
him out.]<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Second Serv.<\/p>\n

\n
I’ll never care what wickedness I do,<\/dd>\n
If this man come to good.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Third Serv.<\/p>\n

\n
If she live long,<\/dd>\n
And in the end meet the old course of death,<\/dd>\n
Women will all turn monsters.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Second Serv.<\/p>\n

\n
Let’s follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam<\/dd>\n
To lead him where he would: his roguish madness<\/dd>\n
Allows itself to anything.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Third Serv.<\/p>\n

\n
Go thou: I’ll fetch some flax and whites of eggs<\/dd>\n
To apply to his bleeding face. Now heaven help him!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

[Exeunt severally.]<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

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Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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Public domain content<\/div>