!

Lear. True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this

hovel.

Fool. This is a brave night to cool a curtezan.

I'll speak a prophecy fere I go.

When priests are more in word than matter,
When brewers marr their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors' tutorsh;
No hereticks i burn'd, but wenches' fuitors;
* Then comes the time who lives to fee't
That going shall be us'd with feet.
When every case in law is right,
No squire in debt, 1 nor no poor knight;
When flanders do not live in tongues;
■ Nor cut-purses come not to throngs;
When usurers tell their gold i'th' field;
And bawds and whores do churches build: -

Then shall the realm of Albion

Come to great confufion.

[Exit.

This prophecy Merlin shall make, for I " live before his time.

• So the qu's; the rest true boy, &c.

d This speech is not in the qu's.

e So all before P. who reads 'tis for this is; followed by the rest.

f Before ere P. inferts or; followed by T. and H. Here W. takes occa

fion to say or ere I go is not English, and should be helped thus, I'll speak a prophecy or two ere I go, &c.

& So the 1st and 2d fo's; the rest read words.

i. e. invent fashions for them. W.

i The disease to which wenches fuitors are particularly exposed, was called

in Shakespeare's time the brenning or burning. J.

* In all editions before H. these two lines are not inserted till after confu

fion below; but being placed so, the sense is lost.

1 W. and J., read and for nor.

So all before P. he and all after read and for nor.

So the ift and ad fo's; the rest insert do before live.

!

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 their perpetual difpleasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way fustain him.

Edm. Most savages and unnatural !

Glo. Go to; say you nothing. There's a division u between the dukes, and a worse matter than that. I have receiv'd a letter this night-'tis dangerous to be spokenI have lock'd the letter in my closet. These injuries the king now bears will be revenged home; there is part of a power already w footed; we must incline to the king; I will * feek him, and privily relieve him; go you, and maintain talk with the duke, that my charity be not of him perceived; if he ask for me, I am ill, and gone to bed. If I die for it, as no less is threaten'd me, the king my old master must be reyou, be careful.

lieved. There y are strange things toward, Edmund; pray
Edm. This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke
Instantly know, and of that letter too.

[Exit.

This seems a fair deserving, and must z draw me
That which my father loses; no less than all.

* The younger rises, when the old bdoth fall.

Kent. Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter.

The tyranny of the open night's too rough
For nature to endure.

[Storm continuing.

Kent. I'd rather break my own; good my lord, enter.

Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much, that this contentious storm

Y The qu's read is some strange thing, &c. the fo's and R. is strange things.

2 The 2d q. reads draw to me,

a The qu's read then for the.

b The qu's read do for doth.

• The fo's call this scena quarta; R. Sc. III.

P. omits the,

e J. has these two following speeches twice over.

f The qu's omit bere.

& So all before T.'s duodecimo; who reads willt, i. e. will it; but wilt, where thou is understood, seems to be the true reading by the next speech. W. and J. follow T.

The qu's read crulentious storme, &c.

G3

Invades

1

:

Invades us to the skin; so 'tis to thee:
But where the greater malady is fixt,

The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear;

But if thy flight lay toward them raging sea,

Thou'dst meet the bear i'th' mouth. When the mind's free
The body's delicate; the tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else,

Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!
Is it not, as this mouth should tear this hand
For lifting food to't? - But I will punish Phome-
No, I will weep no more - In fuch a night
To fout me out? - Pour on, I will endure
In such a night as this? O Regan, Gonerill,
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave you all
O, that way, madness lies; let me shun that;
No more of that.-

Kent. Good my lord, enter here.

Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyself; seek thine own ease;
This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
On things would hurt me more-But I'll go in.
In boy, go first. [To the Fool.) You houseless poverty
Nay, get thee in; I'll pray, and then I'll sleep-

To the skin fo: tis-fo's and R.'s 8vo.

* The 2d q. reads thou wouldst, &c.
I The 4th f. R. and P. read light for lay.

m So the qu's; the rest roaring for raging.

The qu's read save what bears their filial ingratitude, &c.
The 3d and 4th fo's and R.'s 8vo read his for this.

P The qu's read fure for home.

This in italic is not in the qu's.

All but the qu's omit you.

The qu's omit here.

t These two lines are not in the qu's

نسة

[Fool goes,

Poor

Poor naked wretches, wherefoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless u night!
How shall your houseless heads, and unfed fides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness defend you
From seasons such as these ? O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this. Take phyfic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel;
That thou may'st shake the fuperflux to them,

And shew the heavens more just.

*Edg. [within.] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor

Tom.

Fool. Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit. Help me, help me. [The Fool runs out from the hovel.

Kent. Give me thy hand: who's there?

Fool. A fpirit, a spirit; he says his name's poor Tom. Kent. What art thou that dost grumble there i'th' straw? Come forth.

Edg. Away! the foul fiend follows me. Through the sharp hawthorn 2 blows the cold wind. * Humph, go to thy bcold bed and warm thee.

So the qu's; the rest storm for night.

The fo's and R. read iop'd.

* This speech of Edgar is omitted in the qu's.

The qu's have a fpirit but once,

2 The fo's and R. read blow the winds.

* The qu's omit bumph.

All but the qu's omit cold.

G4

Lear.