And bawds and whores do churches build:

Then shall the realm of Albion

Come to great confusion:

Then comes the time, who lives to see 't,
That going shall be used with feet.

This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before

his time.

[Exit.

SCENE III. Gloucester's castle.

Enter GLOUCESTER and EDMUND.

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

Edm. Most savage and unnatural!

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

Edm. This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke Instantly khow; and of that letter too:

ΤΟ

20

This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me
That which my father loses; no less than all :
The younger rises when the old doth fall.

[Exit.

SCENE IV. The heath. Before a hovel.

Enter LEAR, KENT, and Fool.

Kent. Here is the place, my lord; good my lord,

Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much that this con

tentious storm

Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee;

But where the greater malady is fix'd,

The lesser is scarce felt. Thou 'ldst shun a bear;

But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,
Thou 'ldst meet the bear i' the mouth.

mind's free,

When the

The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else
Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand
For lifting food to 't? But I will punish home.
No, I will weep no more. In such a night
To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure.
In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril !
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave you

ΤΟ

all,

20

O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;

No more of that.

Kent.

Good my lord, enter here.

Lear. Prithee, go in thyself; seek thine own

ease:

This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
On things would hurt me more.

[To the Fool] In, poverty,―

Nay, get thee in.

But I'll go in.

boy; go first. You houseless

I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.

[Fool goes in.

Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'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 mayst shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.

Edg. [Within] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom!

[The Fool runs out from the hovel. Fool. Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit. Help me, help me!

Kent. Give me thy hand. Who's there? Fool. A spirit, a spirit: he says his name's poor Tom.

Kent. What art thou that dost grumble there i' the straw? Come forth.

Enter EDGAR disguised as a madman.

Edg. Away! the foul fiend follows me ! Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind. Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.

30

40

Lear. Hast thou given all to thy two daughters? And art thou come to this?

50

Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, and through ford and whirlipool, o'er bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor. Bless thy five wits! Tom's a-cold,-O, do de, do de, do de. Bless thee from whirlwinds, star- 60 blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes: there could I have him now, and there, -and there again, and there.

[Storm still.

Lear. What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?

Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all?

Fool. Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed

Lear. Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air

Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters! 70 Kent. He hath no daughters, sir.

Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have sub-
dued nature

To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.
Is it the fashion that discarded fathers
Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?
Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot

54, 55. laid knives under his pillow, etc. Malone quotes from Harsnett's Declaration a story of an apothecary who used this method of tempting to

suicide.

60. star-blasting, being 'starstruck, i.e. blighted by the influence of the stars.

61. taking, infection

Those pelican daughters.

Edg. Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill: Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!

Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools 80 and madmen.

Edg. Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array. Tom's a-cold.

Lear. What hast thou been?

Edg. A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of my mistress' heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as 90 I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven one that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it: wine loved I deeply, dice dearly; and in woman out-paramoured the Turk : false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray thy poor heart to woman: keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen from lenders' 100 books, and defy the foul fiend.

'Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind.' Says suum, mun, ha, no, nonny.

Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let him trot by.

[Storm still.

Lear. Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than this? Con

77. pelican daughters; since the young of the pelican fed upon the parent's blood.

78. Pillicock. A nursery term equivalent to 'a pretty knave';

here suggested by 'pelican.'

88. gloves, as ladies' favours. 97. prey, preying.

104. sessa; 'on!' a term of incitement to speed.