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

[Exit.
& Fool, e This is a brave night to cool a curtezan.
I'll speak a prophecy here 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' suitors;
* Then comes the time who lives to see't
That going shall be us'd with feet.
When every case in law is right,
No squire in debt, 'nor no poor knight;
When Nanders 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 confusion.
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.
° So all before P, who reads 'tis for this is; followed by the rest.

f Before ere P. inserts or; followed by T. and H. Here W. takes occafion 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.
bi. e, invent fashions for them. W.

i The disease to which werches suitors are particularly exposed, was called in Shakespeare's time the brenning or burning. J.

* In all editions before H. these two lines are not inferted till after confo-
fion below; but being placed so, the sense is lost.
1 W. and I read and for nor.

So all before P. he and all after read and for nor.
So the aft and ad fo's; the rest infert do before live.

G 2

SCENE

r

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; charg'd me on pain of P their 9 perpetual displeasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him.

lieved. There y are strange things toward, Edmund; pray you, be careful.

[Exit. Edm. This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke Instantly know, and of that letter too. 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 b doth 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 Lear. Let me alone. Kent. Good my lord, enter here. Lear. & Wilt break

my

heart? Kent. I'd rather break my own; good my lord, enter. Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much, that this h contentious storm

y The qu's read is some strange thing, &c. the fo's and R. is strange things. 2 The ad 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. d P. omits tbe,

J. has these two following speeches twice over. f The qu's omit bere.

8 So all before T.'s duodecimo; who reads willt, i.e. will it; but wilt, where there is understood, seems to be the true reading by the next speech, W. and J. follow T. The qu's read crulentious forme, 6c.

Invades

G 3

Invades us to the skin; fo 'tis to thee:
But where the greater malady is fixt,
The leser is scarce felt. k Thou'd ft shun a bear;
But if thy flight I lay toward the "raging fea,
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,
n Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude !
Is it not, as this mouth should tear o this hand
For lifting food to't?-But I will punish P home
No, I will weep no more! In such a night
To shut me out ? --Pour on, I will endure-
In such a night as this? O Regan, Gonerill,
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gavę' you all
o, that way, madness lies; let me fhun 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.my Nay, get thee in; I'll pray, and then I'll sleep

[Fool goesų

į To the skin fo: tis-fo's and R.'s 8vo k The 2d q. reads thou wouldft, br.

The 4th f. R. and P. read light for lay. m So the qu's; the rest roaring for raging. a The qu's read seve 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 sure for home. q This in italic is not in the qu's.

All but the qu's omit you. $ The qu's omit here. 1 These two lines are not in the qu's,

Pagr

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 physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel;
That thou may'st shake the superflux 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 spirit, 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 b cold bed and warm thee.

u 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.
y The qu's have a spirit but once,
2 The fo's and R. read blow the winds.
· The qu's omit bumph.

All but the qu’s amit cold.

G4

Lear.