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Mend when thou canft, be better at thy leifure,
I can be patient, I can ftay with Regan,
I and my hundred Knights.

Reg. Not all together.

I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided
For your fit welcome; give ear to my fifter
For thofe that mingle reason with your paffion,
Muft be content to think you old, and fo-
But fhe knows what the does.

Lear. Is this well spoken?

Reg. I dare avouch it, Sir; what, fifty followers?
Is it not well? what fhould you need of more?
Yea, or fo many? fince both charge and danger
Speak 'gainft fo great a number: how in one house
Should many people under two commands
Hold amity? 'tis hard, almost impoffible.

Gon. Why might not you, my Lord, receive attendance From thofe that the calls fervants, or from mine?

Reg. Why not, my Lord? if then they chanc'd to flack ye, We could controll them; if you'll come to me,

(For now I spy a danger) I intreat you

To bring but five and twenty; to no more
Will I give place or notice.

Lear. I gave you all

Reg. And in good time you gave it.

Lear. Made you my guardians, my depofitaries,

But kept a refervation to be follow'd

With fuch a number; must I come to you

With five and twenty? Regan, said you so ?

Reg. And speak't again, my Lord, no more with mea Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd When others are more wicked. Not being worft Stands in fome rank of praife; I'll go with thee, [To Gon. Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty;

And thou haft twice her love.

Gon. Hear me, my Lord;

What need you five and twenty? ten? or five?
To follow in a house, where twice fo many

Have a command to tend you?

Reg. What needs one?

Lear,

1

Lear. O, reafon not the need: our basest beggars Are in the pooreft thing fuperfluous;

Allow not nature more than nature needs,

Man's life is cheap as beafts'. Thou art a Lady;
If only to go warm were gorgeous,

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'ft,
Which fcarcely keeps thee warm; but for true need,
You heav'ns, give me that patience which I need!
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 womens weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man's cheeks. No, you unnat❜ral hags,
I will have fuch revenges on you both,

That all the world fhall-I will do fuch things,—
What they are yet I know not, but they fhall be
The terrors of the earth: you think I'll weep:
No, I'll not weep. Though I have full caufe of weeping;
This heart fhall break into a thousand flaws

Or e'er I weep.

1

O fool, I fhall go mad.

[Exeunt Lear, Glo'fter, Kent, and Fool. SCENE XII.

Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a storm.

[Storm and Tempest. Reg. This house is small, the old man and his people Cannot be well beftow'd.

Gon. 'Tis his own blame, he'ath put himself from reft, And must needs tafte his folly.

Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly, But not one follower.

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Corn. Follow'd the old man forth ;—he is return'd.
Glo. The King is in high rage.

Corn. Whither is he going?

Glo. He calls to horfe: but will I know not whither.
Corn. 'Tis beft to give him way, he leads himself.

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Gon. My Lord, intreat him by no means to ftay.

Glo. Alack, the night comes on: and the high winds Do forely rufsle; for nay miles about

There's fcarce a bush.

Reg. O Sir, to wilful man,

The injuries that they themi Ives procure

Muft be their school-mafters; fhut up your doors

He is attended with a defp'rau train,

And what they may incense him to, being apt

To have his ear abus'd,/wisdom bids fear.

Corn. Shut up your doors, my Lord, 'tis a wild night. My Regan counfels well: come out o'th' ftorm. [Exeunt.

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A form is beard with Thunder and Lightning. Enter
Kent, and a Gentleman, feverally.

Kent.

WH

"HO's there befides foul weather.? Gent. One minded like the weather, most Kent. I know you: where's the King? [unquietly. Gent. Contending with the fretful elements; Bids the wind blow the earth into the fea, Or fwell the curled waters 'bove the main,

That things might change or cease: tears his white hair, ] Which the impetuous blafts with eyeless rage

Catch in their fury, and make nothing of.

This night, in which the cub-drawn bear * would couch, The lien, and the belly-pinched wolf

Keep their furr dry, unbonneted he runs,

And bids what will, take all.

Kent. But who is with him?

Gent. None but the fool, who labours to out-jest

His heart-ftruck injuries.

Kent. Sir, I do know you,

And dare upon the warrant of my note

Commend a dear thing to you. There's divifion (Although as yet the face of it is cover'd

By cub-drawn bear must be understood the she-bear drawn dry by the fucking of her cubs, and thence most ravenous and greedy of prey.

With

With mutual craft) 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;"
And true it is from France there comes a pow's
Into this fhatter'd kingdom, who already
Wife in our negligence, have secret sea
In fome of our beft ports, and are at point
To fhow their open bannerNow to you?
If on my credit you dare build fo far

To make your speed to Dover, you shall find
Some that will thank you, making just report
Of how unnatural and madding forrow
The King hath cause to plain.

I am a gentleman of blood and breeding,
And from fome knowledge and affurance of you,
Offer this office.

Gent. I'll talk further with you.

Kent. No, do not;

For confirmation that I am much more
Than my out-wall, open this purfe and take
What it contains. If you fhall fee Cordelia,
(As fear not but you fhall) fhew her that Ring,
And the will tell you who this fellow is,
That yet you do not know. Fie on this ftorm!
I will go feek the King.

Gent. Give me your hand, have you no more to fay?
Kent. Few words, but to effect more than all yet;
That, when we have found the King, (for which
That way, I this:) he that first lights on him,
Holla the other.

SCENE 11.

Storm fill. Enter Lear and Fool.

you take

[Exeunt.

Lear. Blow winds, and crack your cheeks; rage, blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes spout

--- 'twixt Albany and Cornwall:

Who have (as who have not, whom their great ftars
Thron'd and fet high?) fervants, who feem no lef
Which are to France the fpies and speculations
Intelligent of our state. What hath been seen,
Either in fnuffs and packings of the Dukes,
Or the hard rein which both of them have bora
Against the old kind King, or fomething deeper,
Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings

Gent. I will talk.

Till

'Till you have drencht our fteeples, drown'd the cocks!
You fulph'rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunder-bolts,
Singe my white head! And thou all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o'th' world,

Crack nature's mould, all germins fpill at once
That make ingrateful man!

Fool. O nuncle, court-holy-water in a dry houfe is better than the rain-water out o' door. Good nuncle, in, afk thy daughters bleffing; here's a night that pities neither wife men nor fools.

Lear. Rumble thy belly full, fpit fire, fpout rain!
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters;
tax not you, you elements, with unkindness,
I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children,
You owe me no fubmiffion. Then let fall
Your horrible pleasure ;-here I ftand your flave,
A poor, infirm, weak, and defpis'd old man!
But yet I call you fervile minifters,

That have with two pernicious daughters join'd
Your high-engender'd battles, 'gainst a head
So old and white as this. O, ho! 'tis foul.

Fool. He that has a house to put's head in, has a good head-piece:

The cod-piece that will houfe, before the head has any: The head and he shall lowfe; fo beggars marry many. That man that makes his toe, what he his heart fhould make, Shall of a corn cry woe, and turn his fleep to wake.

For there was never yet fair woman, but the made mouths in a glass,

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SCENE III, To them, Enter Kent. Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience, I will fay nothing.

Kent. Who's there?

Fool. Marry, here's grace, and a cod-piece, that's a wife man and a fool.

Kent. Alas, Sir, are you here? things that love night,
Love not fuch nights as thefe: the wrathful fkies
Gallow the very wand'rers of the dark,

And make them keep their caves: fince I was man,
VOL. IV

N

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