Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea, Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage, This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear* would couch, The lion and the belly-pinched wolf Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs, And bids what will take all. Kent. But who is with him? Gent. None but the fool; who labours to outjest His heart-struck injuries. Kent. Sir, I do know you; And dare, upon the warrant of my artt, Commend a dear thing to you. There is division, With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall; To make your speed to Dover, you shall find * Whose dugs are drawn dry by its young. Which teaches us to find the mind's construction in the face." § Samples. Some that will thank you, making just report I am a gentleman of blood and breeding; Gent. I will talk further with you. Kent. No, do not. That yet you do not know. Fye on this storm! Gent. Give me your hand: say: Have you no more to Kent. Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet; That, when we have found the king (in which your pain That way; I'll this ;) he that first lights on him, Holla the other. [Exeunt severally. SCENE II. Another part of the heath. Storm continues. Enter Lear and Fool. Lear. Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks! You sulphurous and thought-executing + fires, * Companion. + Quick as thought. Avaunt couriers, French. Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o'the world! Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once, That make ingrateful man! Fool. O, nuncle, court holy-water* in a dry house is better than this rain-water out o'door.-Good nuncle, in and ask thy daughters' blessing: here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools. Lear. Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters: That have with two pernicious daughters join'd The cod-piece that will house, So beggars marry many. The man that makes his toe What he his heart should make, Shall of a corn cry woe, And turn his sleep to wake. -for there was never yet fair woman, but she made mouths in a glass. Enter Kent. Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience, I will say nothing. Kent. Who's there? * A proverbial phrase for fair words. + Obedience. Fool. Marry, here's grace, and a cod-piece; that's a wise man, and a fool. 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, Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch, That hast within thee undivulged crimes, Unwhipp'd of justice: Hide thee, thou bloody hand; These dreadful summoners grace||.—I am a man, Kent. Alack, bare-headed! Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel; Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest; Their scanted courtesy. Lear. My wits begin to turn. Come on, my boy: How dost, my boy? Art cold? I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow? Come, your Counterfeit. ¶ Enquiring. Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart That's sorry yet for thee. Fool. He that has a little tiny wit, With heigh, ho, the wind and the rain,- Lear. True, my good boy.-Come, bring us to Fool. This is a brave night to cool a courtezan.I'll speak a prophecy ere I go : When priests are more in word than matter; No squire in debt, nor no poor knight; Come to great confusion. Then comes the time, who lives to see't, This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time. [Exit. SCENE III. A room in Gloster's castle. Enter Gloster and Edmund. Glo. 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 * Part of the Clown's song in Twelfth Night. |