UNKINDNESS. Thy sister's naught: O Regan, she hath tied Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture here. [Points to his heart, OFFENCES MISTAKEN. All's not offence, that indiscretion finds, And dotage terms so. RISING PASSION. I pr'ythee, daughter, do not make me mad; Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil, In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee: THE NECESSARIES OF LIFE FEW. O, reason not the need: our basest beggars LEAR ON THE INGRATITUDE OF HIS DAUGHTERS. You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, As full of grief as age; wretched in both! If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts Against their father, fool me not so much To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger! O, let not women's weapons, water-drops, Stain my man's cheeks.-No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both, * Swelling. That all the world shall-I will do such things,— What they are, yet I know not; but they shall be The terrors of the earth. You think, I'll weep; No, I'll not weep: - I have full cause of weeping; but this heart WILFUL MEN. O, sir, to wilful men, The injuries, that they themselves procure, Must be their schoolmasters. ACT III. LEAR'S DISTRESS IN THE STORM. Kent. WHERE'S the king? Gent. Contending with the fretful element: Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea, Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main, [hair; That things might change, or cease: tears his white Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage, Catch in their fury, and make nothing of: Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain. [couch, This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs, ON MAN. Is man no more than this? Consider him well: Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume:-Ha! here's three of us are sophisticated?-Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.-Off, off, you lendings. Whose dugs are drawn dry by its young. LEAR'S EXCLAMATIONS IN THE TEMPEST. Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout [cocks! Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once, * * * * Rumble thy bellyfull! Spit, fire! spout, rain! That have with two pernicious daughter's join'd So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul! * † Avant couriers, French. Kent. Alas, sir, are you here? things that love night, Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies Gallow the very wanderers of the dark, And make them keep their caves: Since I was man, Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder, Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot carry The affliction, nor the fear. Lear. Let the great gods, That keep this dreadful pother † o'er our heads, Unwhipp'd of justice: Hide thee, thou bloody hand; Hast practis'd on man's life!-Close pent-up guilts, These dreadful summoners grace||.—I am a man, More sinn'd against, than sinning. Kent. Alack, bare-headed! Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel; Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest. Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much, that this contentious Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee; But where the greater malady is fix'd, [storm The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear: * Scare or frighten. + Blustering noise. + Counterfeit. § Appearance. || Favour. In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!— Kent. Good my lord, enter here. Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyself; seek thine own ease; This tempest will not give me leave to ponder On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in: [ty,In, boy; go first.-[To the Fool.] You houseless poverNay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep,[Fool goes in. Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides, Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp; Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel; That thou may'st shake the superflux to them, And show the heavens more just. Enter EDGAR, disguised as a Madman. Edg. Away! the foul fiend follows me!— Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.— Humph! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee. Lear. Hast thou given all to thy two daughters! And art thou come to this? Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air, Hang fated o'er men's faults, light on thy daughters! Kent. He hath no daughters, sir. [nature Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have subdu'd To such a lowness, but his unkind daughters.- Should have thus little mercy on their flesh? CC |