Fathers that wear rags,

Do make their children blind; But fathers that bear bags,

poor.

Shall see their children kind. Fortune, that arrant whore, Ne'er turns the key to the But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours for thy daughters, as thou canst tell in a year. LEAR. O, how this mother swells up toward my

heart!

b

KENT. Why, fool?

FOOL. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring i' the winter. All that follow their noses are led by their eyes but blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him that's stinking. Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it: but the great one that goes up the hill,§ let him draw thee after. When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.

That sir which serves and seeks for gain,
And follows but for form,
Will pack when it begins to rain,

And leave thee in the storm.
But I will tarry; the fool will stay,
And let the wise man fly :
The knave turns fool that runs away;
The fool no knave, perdy.

KENT. Where learned you this, fool?
FOOL. Not i' the stocks, fool.

My dear lord,
You know the fiery quality of the duke;
How unremoveable and fix'd he is
In his own course.

LEAR. Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!— Fiery? what quality? Why, Gloster, Gloster, I'd speak with the duke of Cornwall and his wife. GLO. Well, my good lord, I have inform'd

them so.d

LEAR. Inform'd them! Dost thou understand
me, man?
GLO. Ay, my good lord.

LEAR. The king would speak with Cornwall;
the dear father

Would with his daughter speak, commands her service: +

Are they inform'd of this?-My breath and blood!

Fiery? the fiery duke ?-Tell the hot duke, that— No, but not yet:-may be, he is not well: Infirmity doth still neglect all office,

Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves,

When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind

To suffer with the body: I'll forbear;
And am fall'n out with my more headier will,
To take the indispos'd and sickly fit

fore

For the sound man.-Death on my state! where[Looking on KENT. Should he sit here? This act persuades me, That this remotion of the duke and her Is practice only. Give me my servant forth : Go, tell the duke and 's wife I'd speak with them,

Now, presently bid them come forth and hear

(†) First folio, commands, tends, service.

d Well, my good lord, &c.] This speech and Lear's rejoinder are found only in the folio.

e Is practice only.] Practice, it need hardly be repeated, meant artifice, conspiracy, &c.

f Till it cry sleep to death.] Till the clamour of the drum destroys or is the death of sleep. The line is usually given, however,

"Till it cry, Sleep to death!"

that is, till it cry out, awake no more, and this very possibly was the poet's idea.

a-the cockney-] "Cockney," of old, bore more than one signification; as employed by Chaucer, in "The Reve's Tale," verse 4205,

"And when this jape is told another day,
I sal be hald a daf, a cokenay,"-

it plainly means an effeminate spoony. In Dekker's "Newes from Hell," &c. 1602,-""Tis not their fault, but our mothers', our cockering mothers, who for their labour made us to be called

knapp'd 'em o'the coxcombs with a stick, and cried, Down, wantons, down: 't was her brother, that, in pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.

cockneys," it has the same import. According to Percy, whose authority is the following couplet from the ancient ballad called "The Turnament of Tottenham,"

"At that feast were they served in rich array;
Every five and five had a cokenay,"-

it meant a cook cr scullion; and that, perhaps, is the sense of the word in the present place.

*

I have to think so: if thou shouldst not be glad, I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb, Sepulchring an adultress.-O, are you free?

[TO KENT. Some other time for that.-Beloved Regan, Thy sister's naught: O, Regan, she hath tied Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here!-[Points to his heart. I can scarce speak to thee; thou❜lt not believe, With how deprav'd a quality-O Regan!

REG. I pray you, sir, take patience: I have hope,

You less know how to value her desert,
Than she to scant her duty.

LEAR.
Say, how is that?
REG. I cannot think my sister in the least
Would fail her obligation: if, sir, perchance,
She have restrain'd the riots of your followers,
'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end,
As clears her from all blame.

LEAR. My curses on her! REG. O, sir, you are old; Nature in you stands on the very verge Of her confine: you should be rul'd, and led By some discretion that discerns your state Better than you yourself. Therefore, I pray you, That to our sister you do make return; Say you have wrong'd her, sir.†

Do

LEAR.

you

Ask her forgiveness?

but mark how this becomes the house: (5)

She hath abated me of half my train;

Look'd black upon me;

tongue,

(*) First folio, Mother.

thine

Do comfort, and not burn. 'Tis not in thee
To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,
And, in conclusion, to oppose the bolt
Against my coming in: thou better know'st
The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude;
Thy half o'the kingdom hast thou not forgot,
Wherein I thee endow'd.
REG.

Good sir, to the purpose. LEAR. Who put my man i'the stocks?

[Trumpets without.
CORN.
What trumpet's that?
REG. I know't my sister's: this approves her

letter,

That she would soon be here.—

Enter OSWALD.

Is your lady come? LEAR. This is a slave, whose easy-borrow'd 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 on't.-Who comes here?
O heavens,

Enter GONERIL.

(t) First folio omits, sir.

a Say, how is that?] This and the next speech are not in the quartos.

b You taking airs,-] To take, in old language, signified to blast, or infect with baneful influence. So in Act III. Sc. 4,"Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking."

c To fall and blast her pride!] The folio tamely reads,"To fall and blister."

(*) First folio inserts, you.

d Thy tender-hefted nature-] Tender-hefted is a very doubtful expression; and "tender hested," the reading of the quartos, is not much less so: but we have not sufficient confidence in the substitution, "tender-hearted," which Rowe and Pope adopt, to alter the ancient text.

eto scant my sizes,-] "Sizes" are allowances of provision. f Allow obedience,-] That is, approve obedience.

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 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. [Pointing to OsWALD. At your choice, sir.

GON.

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: 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,

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,
And let not women'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, GLOUCESTER, KENT, and Fool.-Storm heard at a distance. CORN. Let us withdraw, 't will be a storm. REG. This house is little; the old man and his people

Cannot be well bestow'd.

[rest, GON. 'Tis his own blame hath put himself from And must needs taste his folly.

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