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Such fheets of fire, fuch bursts of horrid thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
Remember to have heard. Man's nature cannot carry
Th' affliction, nor the force.

Lear. Let the great Gods,

That keep this dreadful thund'ring o'er our heads,
Find out their enemies now.

Tremble, thou wretch

That haft within thee undivulged crimes

Unwhipt of justice! Hide thee, thou bloody hand
Thou perjure, and thou fimular of virtue,
That art incestuous! caitiff, fhake to pieces,
That under covert and convenient feeming
Has practis'd on man's life! Close pent-up guilts,
Rive your concealing continents, and ask
Thefe dreadful fummoners grace!-
More finn'd againft, than finning.
Kent. Alack, bare-headed?

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-I am a man,

Gracious my Lord, hard by here is a hovel,

Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempeft:
Repofe you there, while I to this hard house

(More hard than is the ftone whereof 'tis rais'd;
Which even but now, demanding after you,
Deny'd me to come in) return, and force
Their fcanted courtefie.

Lear. My wits begin to turn.

Come on, my boy. How doft, my boy? art cold?
I'm cold myself. Where is this ftraw, my fellow?

The art of our neceffities is ftrange,

That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel;

Poor fool and knave, I've one string in my heart

That's forry yet for thee.

Fool. He that bas and a little tiny wit,

With beigh bo, the wind and the rain,
Muft make content with his fortunes fit,

Though the rain it raineth

every day.

Lear. True, my good boy: come, bring us to this hovel.

[Exit.

Fool. 'Tis a brave night to cool à courtezan.

I'll (peak a prophecy or e'er I go ;

When priests are more in words than matter,

When

When brewers marr their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors tutors ;
No hereticks burn'd, but wenches fuitors;
Then comes the time, who lives to fee't,
That going fhall be us'd with feet.
When every cafe in law is right,

No 'Squire in debt, nor no poor Knight;
When flanders do not live in tongues,
And cut-purfes come not to throngs;
When ufurers tell their gold i'th' field,
And bawds and whores do churches build :
Then fhall the realm of Albion

Come unto great confufion.

This prophecy Merlin shall make, for I do live before his

time.

[Exit. SCENE IV. An apartment in Glo'fter's Caftle. Enter Glo'fter and Baftard.

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 of mine own house, charg'd me on pain of perpetual displeasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for him, or any way sustain him.

Baft. Moft 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 spoken, I have lock'd the letter in my clofet: these injuries the King now bears will be revenged home; there is part of a power already footed; we must incline to the King, I will look for him, and privily relieve him; go you and maintain talk with the Duke, that my charity be not of him perceiv'd; if he afk for me, I am ill, and gone to bed; if I die for it, as no lefs is threatned me, the King my old mafter must be relieved. There are ftrange things toward, Edmund; pray you, be careful.

Baf. This courtefie forbid thee shall the Duke
Inftantly know, and of that letter too.
This feems a fair deferving, and must draw me
That which my father lofes no less than all.
The younger rifes, when the old doth fall,

N 2

[Exit.

[Exit.

SCENE

SCENE V. Part of the Heath with a Hovel, Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool.

Kent. Here is the place, my Lord; good my Lord, enter; The tyranny of th' open night's too rough

For nature to endure.

Lear. Let me alone.

Kent. Good my Lord, enter here.

Lear. Wilt break my heart?

[Storm fill.

Kent. I'd rather break mine own; good my Lord, enter. Lear.Thou think'ft 'tis much that this contentious form Invades us to the fkin; fo 'tis to thee;

But where the greater malady is fixt,

The leffer is fcarce felt. Thou'dft fhun a bear;

But if thy flight lay toward the roaring fea,

Thou'dft meet the bear i'th' mouth; when the mind's free,
The body's delicate? the tempest in my mind
Doth from my fenfes take all feeling elfe,
Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!
Is it not, as this mouth fhould tear this hand
For lifting food to't?-But I'll punish home;
No, I will weep no more-in fuch a night,
To fhut me out?-pour on, I will endure:
In fuch a night as this? O Regan, Gonerill,
Your old kind father, whofe frank heart gave all-
O, that way madness lyes, let me shun that,
No more of that.

Kent. Good my Lord, enter here.

Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyfelf, seek thine own ease,
This tempeft will not give me leave to ponder

On things would hurt me more-but I'll go in ;
In, boy, go first. You houseless poverty-

Nay, get thee in; I'll pray, and then I'll fleep-[Ex. Fool.
Poor naked wretches, wherefoe'er you are
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm!
How fhall your houfelefs heads, and unfed fides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From feafons fuch as thefe ?-O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this: take phyfick, pomp!
Expofe thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou may'ft shake the superflux to them,

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And

And fhew the heav'ns more juft.

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

[The fool

Fool. Come not in here, nuncle, here's a fpirit, help me, help me. runs out from the Hovel. Kent. Give me thy hand, who's there? Fool. A fpirit, a fpirit, he fays his name's poor Tom. Kent.What art thou that do'ft grumble there i'th' ftraw? come forth.

SCENE VI.

Enter Edgar, difguis'd like a Madman.

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

Lear. Didft thou give all to thy daughters? and art thou come to this?

Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, o'er bog and quagmire, that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his pue; fet ratfbane by his porridge, made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horfe, over four-inch'd bridges, to course his own fhadow for a traitor,-blefs thy five wits, Tom's a-cold.

do, de, do, de, do, de,-bless thee from whirlwinds, ftar-blafting, and taking; do poor Tom fome charity, whom the foul fiend vexes. There could I have him now, and there, and here again, and there. [Storm ftill. Lear. What! have his daughters brought him to this pass? Could't thou fave nothing? didft thou give 'em all? Fool. Nay, he referv'd a blanket, else we had been fhamed.

Lear. 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.

Lear. Death, traitor, nothing could have fubdu'd nature To fuch a lownefs, 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
Those pelican daughters.

N 3

Edg

Edg. Pillicock fat on pillicock-hill, alow, alow, loo, t loo.

Fool. This told night will turn us all to fools, and madmen.

Edg. Take heed o'th' foul fiend, obey thy parents, keep thy word juftly, fwear not, commit not with man's fworn fpouse; 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, ferv'd the luft of my mistress's heart, and did the act of darkness with her : iwore as many oaths as I fpáke words, and broke them in the sweet face of heav'n. One that flept on the contriving Juft, and wak'd to do it. Wine lov'd I deeply; dice dearly; and in woman, out-paramour'd the Turk. Falle of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hóg in sloth, fox in ftealth, wolf in greedinefs, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of fhoes, nor the rustling of filks,betray thy poor heart to woman. Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen from lenders books, and defie the foul fiend. Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind: fays fuum, mun, nonny, dolphin my boy, boy, Selley: let him trot by. [Storm fill.

Lear. Thou wert better in a grave, than to answer with thy uncover'd body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than this? Confider him well. Thou ow'ft the worm no filk, the beaft 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 fuch a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings: come, unbutton here.

[Tearing off bis cloaths,

Fool. Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis a naughty night to fwim in. Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old letcher's heart, a small spark, and all the reft en's body cold; look, here comes a walking fire.

Edg. This is the foul Flibbertigibbet; he begins at cuffew, and walks 'till the firft cock; he gives the web and the pin, fquints the eye, and makes the hare-lip; mil

dews

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