3 + Fool. He that has a houfe to put 's head in, has a good head-piece. The cod-piece that will house, The man that makes his toe What be his heart fhould make, Shall of a corn cry, woe! And turn his fleep to wake. Muft make content with his fortunes fit; For the rain it raineth every day. Lear. True, my good boy.-Come, bring us to this hovel. [Exit. Fool. This is a brave night to cool a courtezan. I'll fpeak a prophecy ere I go : When priests are more in word than matter; -For there was never yet fair woman, but fhe Then comes the time, who lives to fee't, made mouths in a glass. Enter Kent. That going fhall be us'd with feet.When every cafe in law is right; Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience, No fquire in debt, nor no poor knight; I will fay nothing. Kent. Who's there? Fool. Marry, here's grace, and a cod-piece2; that's a wife man, and a fool. Kent. Alas, fir, are you here? things that love Love not fuch nights as thefe; the wrathful skies Lear. Let the great gods, ; That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads, 6 Kent. Alack, bare-headed! Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel; Lear. My wits begin to turn.- Come, your Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart That's forry yet for thee. Fool. He that has a little tiny wit, With beigh, bo, the wind and the rain When flanders do not live in tongues; This prophecy Merlin fhall make; for I live be- An Apartment in Glofter's Cafile. Enter Glofter, and Edmund. Glo. Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing: When I defired their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the use perpetual displeasure, neither to speak of him, enof mine own houfe; charg'd me, on pain of their treat for him, nor any way sustain him. Edm. Most favage, and unnatural! Glo. Go to; fay you nothing: There is divifion between the dukes; and a worse matter than that: I have received a letter this night;-'tis dangerous to be fpoken.I have lock'd the letter in my revenged home; there is part of a power already clofet thefe injuries the king now bears will be footed: we muft incline to the king. I will feek him, and privily relieve him go you, and maintain talk with the duke, that my charity be not of him perceived: If he ask for me, I am ill, and gone to bed. If I die for it, as no less is threaten'd me, the king my old mafter must be relieved. There is fome strange thing toward, Edmund; pray you, be careful. [Exit. Edm. This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke Inftantly know; and of that letter too :This seems a fair deferving, and must draw me That which my father lofes; no less than all : The younger rifes, when the old doth fall. [Exit. 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: I i. e. A beggar marries a wife and lice. 2 Alluding perhaps to the faying of a contemporary wit, That there is no difcretion below the girdle. 3 Gallow, a west-country word, fignifies to fcare or frighten. 4 Convenient feeming is appearance fuch as may promote his purpose to deflroy. 5 Continent ftands for that which contains or inclofes. 6 Summoners mean here the officers that fummon offenders before a proper tribunal. 71. e. invent fathions for them. 8 The disease to which wenches' fuiters are particularly expofed, was called in Shakipeare's time the brenning or burning. The tyranny of the open night's too rough Lear. Let me alone. Kent. Good my lord, enter here. Lear. Wilt break my heart? quagmire; that hath Taid knives under his pillow, [Storm fill. and halters in his pew; fet ratibane by his por ridge; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horfe over four-inch'd bridges, to courie his own fhadow for a traitor:-Blefs thy five wits !! Kent. I'd rather break mine own: Good my lord, Tom's a-cold.-O, do de, do de, do de.—Bless thee enter. [ftorm from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking 2! Do Lear. Thou think'ft 'tis much, that this contentious poor Tom fome charity, whom the foul fiend Invades us to the skin: fo 'tis to thee; But where the greater malady is fix'd, The leffer is fcarce felt. Thou'dft fhun a bear; Thou'dft meet the bear i' the mouth. When the mind's free, The body's delicate: the tempeft in my mind O, that way madness lies; let me shun that; [eafe; Kent. Good my lord, enter here. Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll fleep.- Poor naked wretches, wherefoe'er you are, Edg. [within.] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom! Fool. Come not in here, nuncle, here's a fpirit. Tom. Enter Edgar, difguis'd as a madman. vexes:-There could I have him now,-and there,-and there, and there again, and there. [Storm All Lear. What, have his daughters brought him to this país? Could'ft thou fave nothing? Didft thou give them Fool. Nay, he referv'd a blanket, else we had been all thamed. Lear. Now, all the plagues that in the pendu- Hang fated o'er men's faults, light on thy daughters! Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have fub- To such a lowness, but his unkind daughters.— Edg. Pillicock fat on pillicock-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; fwear not; commit not with man's fworn spouse ; fet not thy fweet heart on proud array: Tom's a-cold. Lear. What haft thou been? Edg. A ferving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curl'd my hair, wore gloves in my cap 4, ferv'd the luft of my miftrefs's heart, and did the aft of darkness with her: fwore as many oaths as I fpake words, and broke them in the tweet face of heaven: one that flept in the contriving of luft, and wak'd to do it: Wine lov'd I deeply; dice dearly; and in woman, out-paramour'd the Tork: Falfe of heart, light of ear 5, bloody of hand; Hog in floth, fox in ftealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of fhoes, nor the ruftling of filks, 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 fund, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, boy, Setfy;t him trot by. [Storm fo Lear. Why thou were better in thy grave, thu to antwer with thy uncover'd body this extrema of the skies.-Is man no more than this? Contite him well: thou owest the worm no fik, the be Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume » the foul fiend hath led through fire and through Ha! here's three of us are sophisticated — The flame, through ford and whirlpool, over bog and art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is 2 1 So the five fenfes were called by our old writers. 2 To take is to blaft, or firike with lignant influence. 3 The young pelican is fabled to fuck the mother's blood. miftrefs' favours: which was the fashion of that time. si. e. ready to receive malicious report Lear. I'll talk a word with this fame learned more but fuch a poor, bare, forked animal as thou | Go into the house. Fool. Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; this is a naughty night to fwim in.-Now a little fire in a wild field, were like an old lecher's heart; a small fpark, and all the reft 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 firft cock; he gives the web and the pin', fquints the eye, and makes the hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth. Saint Withold footed thrice the wold 2; And her troth plight, And, Aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee 3! Kent. How fares your grace? Enter Glofter, with a torch. Lear. What's he? Kent. Who's there? What is 't you feek? But mice, and rats, and fuch small deer 5, Glo. What, hath your grace no better company? [vile, Glo. Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown fo That it doth hate what gets it, Edg. Poor Tom's a-cold. Glo. Go in with me; my duty cannot fuffer Kent. My good lord, take his offer; Theban : What is your study? [min. Edg. How to prevent the fiend, and to kill ver- Glo. Canft thou blame him? [Storm fill. His daughters feek his death:-Ah, that good He faid it would be thus:-Poor banish'd man !--- I am almost mad myself: I had a fon, Lear. O, cry you mercy, fir :- I [warm. Glo. In, fellow, there, to the hovel: keep thee Kent. This way, my lord. Lear. With him; will keep ftill with my philofopher, Kent. Good my lord, footh him; let him take the fellow. Glo. Take him you on, Kent. Sirrah, come on; go along with us. Glo, No words, no words; hush. Glofter's Caftie. Enter Cornwall, and Edmund. Corn. I will have my revenge, ere I depart this house. Edm. How, my lord, I may be cenfur'd, that nature thus gives way to loyalty, fomething fears me to think of, Corn. I now perceive, it was not altogether your brother's evil difpofition made him feek his death; but a provoking merit, fet a-work by a reprovable badness in himself. Edm. How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to be just! This is the letter which he spoke 3 Thefe 1 Diseases of the eye. 2 Wold fignifies a down, or ground hilly and void of wood. verfes were no other than a popular charm, or night-fpell against the Epialtes; and the laft line is the formal execration or apostrophe of the fpeaker of the charm to the witch, aroynt thee right, i. e. depart forthwith. Bedlams, gipfies, and fuch-like vagabonds, ufed to fell thefe kind of fpells or charms to the people. They were of various kinds for various diforders. 4 A tything is a division of a place, a district; the fame in the country, as a ward in the city. In the Saxon times every hundred was divided into tythings. 5 Deer in old language is a general word for wild animals. 6 In the old times of chivalry, the noble youth who were candidates for knighthood, during the feafon of their probation, were called Infans, Varlets, Damoyfels, Bacheliers; the most noble of the youth particularly, Infans. Here a ftory is told, in fome old ballad, of the famous hero and giant-killer Roland, before he was knighted, who is, therefore, called Infans; which the ballad-maker translated, Child Roland, of, which approves him an intelligent party to the advantages of France. O heavens! that this treafon were not, or not I the detector! Corn. Go with me to the dutchess. Edm. If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty bufinefs in hand. Corn. True, or falfe, it hath made the earl of Glofter: Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehenfion. Edm. [Afide.] If I find him comforting the king, it will stuff his fufpicion more fully.-I will perfevere in my courfe of loyalty, though the conflict be fore between that and my blood. Corn. I will lay truft upon thee; and thou fhalt find a dearer father in my love. [Exeunt. Fool. No; he's a yeoman, that has a gentleman to a fon for he's a mad yeoman, that fees his fon a gentleman before him. Edg. Blefs thy five wits! Keat. O pity!-Sir, where is the patience now, That you fo oft have boafted to retain ? Edg. My tears begin to take his part fo much, They'll mar my counterfeiting. Lear. The little dogs and all, Lear. To have a thousand with red burning fpits Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, fee, they bark at Come hizzing in upon them : Edg. The foul fiend bites my back. Fool. He's mad, that trufts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath. Lear. It fhall be done, I will arraign them ftraight: Come, fit thou here, most learned justicer ;— [To Edgar. Thou, fapient fir, fit here. [To the Fool.]-Now, you the foxes! Edg. Look, where he ftands and glares! Wanteft thou eyes at trial, madam ? "Come o'er the bourn 2, Beffy, to me: Fool. "Her boat hath a leak, "And the muft 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 herring 3. Croak not, black angel; I have no food for thee. me. Edg. Tom will throw his head at them :Avaunt, you curs! Be thy mouth or black or white, Tooth that poifons if it bite; Maftiff, grey-hound, mungril grim, Hound, or fpaniel, brache 7, or lym $; Or bobtail tike 9, or trundle-tail; Tom will make him weep and wail: For, with throwing thus my head, Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled. Do de, de de. Seffy, come, march to wakes and fairs, And market towns:-Poor Tom, thy horn is dry. Lear. Then let them anatomize Regan, fee wi breeds about her heart: Is there any caufe in nature, that makes these hard hearts?—You, fir, I entertain you for one of my hundred; only, I do not like the fashion of your garments: you will fay, they are Perfian attire; but let them be change [To Edgar. 1 i. e. Supporting, helping. 2 A bourn in the North signifies a rivulet or brook. Hence the names of many of our villages terminate in burn, as Milburn, Sherburn, &c. 3 White herrings are pickled herrings. 4 Minikin was anciently a term of endearment. s This is a proverbial exprethon. 6 To have the roof of the mouth black is in fome dogs a proof that their breed is genuine. 7 A racht is a dog that hunts by feent wild beats, birds, and even fishes, and the female of it is called a brackt. SA limmer or leamer, a dog of the chace, was fo called from the leam or leafh in which he was held till he was let flip. 9 Tijk is the Runic word for a little, or worthless dog. Kat Kent. Now, good my lord, lie here, and reft when you are going, to a most festinate preparaa while. [curtains: tion; we are bound to the like. Our posts shall Lear. Make no noife, make no noife; draw the be fwift, and intelligent betwixt us. Farewel, So, fo, fo: We'll go to fupper 'i the morning: dear fifter;-farewel, my lord of Glofter. Kent. Oppretfed nature fleeps: Enter Steward. How now? Where's the king? Stew. My lord of Glofter hath convey'd him Some five or fix and thirty of his knights, To have well-armed friends. Corn. Get horfes for your mistress. [Exeunt Goneril, and Edmund. Corn. Edmund, farewel.-Go, feek the traitor Glofter, Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us :Though well we may not pafs upon his life Without the form of juftice; yet our power This reft might yet have balm'd thy broken fenfes, Shall do a courtesy to our wrath 3, which men Stand in hard cure.--Come, help to bear thy mafter; Glo. Come, come, away. [To the Fool. [Exeunt, bearing off the King. Manet Edgar. Edg. When we our betters fee bearing our woes, He childed, as I father'd!- -Tom, away: thee, May blame, but not controul. The traitor? Who's there? Exter Glofler, brought in by fervants. Corn. Bind faft his corky 4 arms. Glo. What mean your graces ?-Good my friends, confider You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends. Reg. So white, and fuch a traitor! Glo. Naughty lady, Thefe hairs, which thou dost ravish from my chin, Will quicken, and accufe thee: I am your host; With robbers' hands, my hofpitable favours 5 You should not ruffle thus. What will you do? Corn. Come, fir, what letters Id you late from France ? [truth. Reg. Be fimple-anfwer'd 6, for we know the Corn. And what confederacy have you with the traitors Late footed in the kingdom? [king? Reg. To whofe hands have you fent the lunatic Speak. Glo. I have a letter gueffingly fet down, Which came from one that's of a neutral heart, And not from one oppos'd. Corn. Cunning. Reg. And falfe. Corn. Where haft thou fent the king? Glo. To Dover Reg. Wherefore to Dover? 4 i. e. dry, 1 i. e. States clear from diftrefs. 2 A queftrift is one who goes in fearch or quest of another. 3 To do a courtesy is to gratify, to comply with. To pafs, is to pafs a judicial fentence." wither'd, hufky arins. 5 Favours here means the fame as features, i. e. the different parts of which a face is compofed. 6 Simple means plain. Waft |