From this enormous slate, and seek to give
Losses their remedies. All weary and o'er-watch'd,
Take 'vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold
This shameful lodging.
Fortune, good night; smile once more, turn thy wheel.
[He seeps.
SCENE VIII.
Changes to a Part of a Heath.
Enter Edgar.
IM
'VE heard myself proclaim'd;
And, by the happy hollow of a tree,
Escap'd the hunt. No port is free, no place,
That Guard and most unusual vigilance
Does not attend my taking. While I may 'scape,
I will preserve myself: and am bethought
To take the basest and the poorest shape,
That ever Penury in contempt of man
Brought near to beaft: my face I'll grime with filth,
Blanket my loins; elfe all my hair in knots;
And with presented nakedness out-face
The winds, and perfecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and prelident
Of bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numb'd and mortify'd bare arms
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
And with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, sheep-coats and mills,
Sometimes with lunatic bans, sometimes with pray’rs,
Inforce their charity; poor Turlygood! poor Tom !
That's something yet : Edgar I nothing am. [Exit.
SCENE IX.
Changes again to the Earl of Glo'ster's Castle.
Enter Lear, Fool, and Gentleman,
Lear. IS strange, that they should so depart from
And not send back my messenger.
Gent. As I learn'd,
The night before, there was no purpose in them
Of this remove.
Kent. Hail to thee, noble master!
Lear. Ha! mak'lt thou thy shame thy pastime?
Kent. No, my lord.
Fool. Ha, ha, he wears cruel garters ; horses are ty'd by the heads, dogs and bears by th' neck, monkeys by th' loins, and men by th' legs; when a man is over-lufty at legs, then he wears wooden nether stocks. Lear. What's he, that hath so much thy Place
mistook, To set thee here?
Kent. It is both he and she,
Your son and daughter.
Lear. No.
Kent. Yes.
Lear. No, I say.
Kent. I say, yea.
Lear. By Jupiter, I swear, no.
Kent. By Juno, I swear, ay.
Lear. They durst not do't.
They could not, would not do't; 'tis worse than
murder, To do upon respect such violent outrage: Resolve me with all modelt haste, which
way Thou might'st deserve, or they impose this usage, Coming from us?
Kent. My lord, when at their home
I did commend your Highness' letters to them,
Ere I was risen from the place, that sbew'd
My duty kneeling, came a reeking Post,
Stew'd in his hafte, half breathless, panting forth
From Gonerill his mistress, falutation ;
Deliver'd letters spight of intermission,
Which presently they read: on whose contents
They
* They summon'd up their meiny, strait took horse;
Commanded me to follow, and attend
The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks;
And meeting here the other messenger,
Whose welcome, I perceiv?d, had poison'd mine;
(Being the very fellow, which of late
Display'd so saucily against your Highness,)
Having more man than wit about me, I drew;
He rais'd the house with loud and coward cries :
Your son and daughter fouad this trespass worth
The shame which here it suffers.
Fool. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly
Fathers, that wear rags,
Do make their children blind;
But fathers, that bear bags,
Shall see their children kind.
Fortune, that arrant whore,
Ne'er turns the key to th' poor.
But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours from
Thy dear daughters, as thou canst tell in a year.
Lear. Oh, how this mother swells up tow'rd: my
heart !
Hysterica pasio, down, thou climbing sorrow,
Thy element's below; where is this daughter?
Kent. With the Earl, Sir, here within.
Lear. Follow me not; stay here.
[Exit. Gent. Made you no more offence, But what you speak of?
Kent. None. How chance the King comes with so small a number?
Fool. An thou hadst been set i'th' ftocks for that question, thou'dít well deserved it:
Kent. Why, fool ?
Fool. We'll set thee to school to an Ant, to teach thee there's no lab'ring i'th' winter. All, that follow their noses are
their
eyes,
but blind men; and * They summond up their meiny, - ) Alciny, .i. e. People.
There's
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, left it break thy neck with follow-
ing it; but the great one that goes upward, 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 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 learn' d you this, fool ?
Fool. Not i'th' Stocks, fool.
SC E N E
Enter Lear and Glo'fter.
D
ENY to speak with me? they're sick,
they re weary,
They have travell’d all the night? mere fetches,
The images of revolt and flying off,
Bring me a better answer-
Glo. My dear lord,
You know the fiery quality of the Duke:
How unremovable, and fixt he is
In his own course.
Lear. Vengeance! .plague! death! confufion!
Fiery? what fiery quality? why, Glo-ser,
I'd speak with the Duke of Cornwall, and his wife.
Glo. Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them fo. Lear. Inform’d them? dost thou understand me,
man ? Glo. Ay, my good lord ? Lear. The King would speak with Cornwall, the dear father
Wou'd
Wou'd with his daughter speak; commands her ser
vice: 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 doch still neglect all office, Whereto our health is bound; we're not ourselves, When Nature, being oppreft, 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 For the sound man.-Death on my state! but wherefore Should he fit here? this Act persuades me, That this remotion of the Duke and her Is practice only. Give me my fervant forth; Go, tell the Duke and's wife, I'd speak with them: Now, presently,—bid them come forth and hear me, Or at their chamber-door I'll beat the drum, 'Till it cry, fleep to death.
Glo. I would have all well betwixt you. Exit. Lear. Oh me, my heart!. my rising heart! but down.
Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the Eels, when she put them i'th' Pafty aliye; fbe rapt 'em o'th' coxcombs with a stick, and cry'd, down wantons, down; 'Twas her brother, that in pure kindness to his horse butter'd his hay.
S C E N E XI.
Enter Cornwell, Regan, Glo'fter, and Servants.
Lear. OOD-morrow to you both.
Corn.
Hail to
your
Grace?
[Kent is set at liberty. Reg. I am glad to see your Highness.
Lear. Regan, I think, you are; I know, what reason I have to think so; if thou wert not glad, I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb, Sepulchring an adult'ress. O, are you free?[To Kent. Some other time for that. Beloved Regan,
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