Lear. This is a slave whose easy borrowed pride Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows:

Out, varlet, from my sight!

Corn.

What means your grace?

Lear. Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good

hope

Thou didst not know of't.-Who comes here? Oh, heavens,

Enter GONERIL.

If you do love old men, if your sweet sway
Allow? obedience, if yourselves are old,

Make it your cause; send down, and take my part!
Art not asham'd to look upon this beard?

[To GONERIL.

O, Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand?
Gon. Why not by the hand, sir? How have I offended?
All's not offence, that indiscretion finds,

And dotage terms so.

Lear.

Will

O, sides, you are too tough!

you yet hold?-How came my man i'the stocks? Corn. I set him there, sir: but his own disorders Deserv'd much less advancement."

Lear.

You! did you?

Reg. I pray you, father, being weak, seem so."
If, till the expiration of your month,
You will return and sojourn with my sister,
Dismissing half your train, come then to me;
I am now from home, and out of that provision
Which shall be needful for your entertainment.
Lear. Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd?
No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
To wage against the enmity o'the air;

To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,-
Necessity's sharp pinch!-Return with her?

Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took

P Allow-] i. e. Approve.-UPTON.

Desert'd much less advancement.] Cornwall means that Kent's disorders had entitled him even to a post of less honour than the stocks.-STEEVENS.

being weak, seem so.] Since you are so weak, be content to think yourself weak.-JOHNSON.

Our youngest born, I could as well be brought
To knee his throne, and, squire-like, pension beg
To keep base life afoot:-Return with her?
Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter"
To this detested groom.

Gon.

[Looking on the Steward. At your choice, sir.

Lear. I pr'ythee, daughter, do not make me mad;
I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell:
We'll no more meet, no more see one another:-
But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;
Or, rather, a disease that's in my flesh,

Which I must needs call mine; thou art a boil,
A plague-sore, an embossed" carbuncle,

In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee;
Let shame come when it will, I do not call it :
I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,

Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove:
Mend, when thou canst; be better at thy leisure:
I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,

I, and my hundred knights.

Reg,

Not altogether so, sir;
I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided
For your fit welcome: Give ear, sir, to my sister;
For those that mingle reason with your passion,

Must be content to think you old, and so-
But she knows what she does.

Lear.
Is this well spoken now?
Reg. I dare avouch it, sir: What, fifty followers?
Is it not well? What should you need of more?
Yea, or so many? sith that both charge and danger
Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house,
Should many people, under two commands,

Hold amity? "Tis hard; almost impossible.

Gon. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance From those that she call servants, or from mine?

Reg. Why not, my lord? If then they chanc'd to

slack you,

·und sumpter—] i. e. A horse that carries necessaries on a journey, though sometimes used for the case to carry them in.-STEEVENS.

embossed-] i. e. Swelling, protuberant.

We could control them: If you will come to me,
(For now I spy a danger,) I entreat 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 depositaries;
But kept a reservation to be follow'd

With such a number: What, must I come to you
With five-and-twenty, Regan? said you so?

Reg. And speak it again, my lord; no more with me. Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd, When others are more wicked; not being the worst, Stands in some rank of praise:-I'll go with thee;

Thy fifty yet doth double five-and-twenty,
And thou art twice her love.

Gon.

[To GONERIL.

Hear me, my lord;
What need you five-and-twenty, ten, or five,
To follow in a house, where twice so many
Have a command to tend you?

Reg.

What need one?

Lear. O, reason not the need: our basest beggars

Are in the poorest thing superfluous:

Allow not nature more than nature needs,

Man's life is cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;

If only to go warm were gorgeous,

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,
Which scarcely keeps thee warm.-But, for true need,-
You heavens, give me that patience, patience 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 woman's weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man's cheeks!-No, you unnatural hags,
I will have such revenges on you both,

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
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
Or ere I'll weep:-O, fool, I shall go mad!

[Exeunt LEAR, GLOSTER, KENT, and Fool. Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a storm.

[Storm heard at a distance.

Reg.
Is little; the old man and his people cannot
Be well bestow'd.

Gon.

This house

'Tis his own blame; he hath put Himself from rest, and must needs taste his folly. Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly, But not one follower.

Gon.

Where is my lord of Gloster?

So am I purpos'd.

Re-enter GLOSTER.

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 horse; but will I know not whither. Corn. 'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself. Gon. My lord, entreat him by no means to stay. Glo. Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds Do sorely ruffle; for many miles about

There's scarce a bush.

Reg.

O, sir, to wilful men,

The injuries, that they themselves procure,

Must be their schoolmasters: Shut up your doors;
He is attended with a desperate 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 counsels well: come out o'the storm. [Exeunt.

h · incense him to,] i. e. Move him to.

ACT III.

SCENE I.-A Heath.

A Storm is heard, with Thunder and Lightning. Enter
KENT, and a Gentleman, meeting.

Kent. Who's here, beside foul weather?
Gent. One minded like the weather, most unquietly.
Kent. I know you; 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,'

That things might change, or cease: tears his white hair;
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.

This night, wherein the cub-drawn beark would couch, The lion and the belly-pinched wolf

Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,

And bids what will take all.

Kent.

Gent. None but the fool; His heart-struck injuries.

Kent.

But who is with him?

who labours to out-jest

Sir, I do know you;

And dare, upon the warrant of my art,'

Commend a dear thing to you. There is division,
Although as yet the face of it be cover'd

With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;
Who have (as who have not, that their great stars
Thron'd and set high?) servants, who seem no less;
Which are to France the spies and speculations
Intelligent of our state; what hath been seen.

the main,] i. e. The main land, the continent.

the cub-drawn bear-] i. e. Whose dugs are drawn dry by its young. As no animals leave their dens by night but for prey; the meaning is, that even hunger and the support of her young, would not force the bear to leave her den in such a night.-WARBURTON.

—the warrant of my art,] On the strength of my skill in physiognomy.— STEEVENS.