rages, eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat, and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; who is whipped from tything to tything and stocked, punished, and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his body, horse to ride, and weapon to wear, But mice, and rats, and such small deer, Have been Tom's food for seven long year. Beware my follower:-Peace, Smolkin;2 peace, thou fiend! Glo. What, hath your grace no better company! Edg. The prince of darkness is a gentleman; Modo he's called, and Mahu.3 Glo. Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile, That it doth hate what gets it. Glo. Go in with me; my duty cannot suffer Kent. Good my lord, take his offer; Go into the house. Lear. I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban : What is your study? Edg. How to prevent the fiend, and to kill vermin. Lear. Let me ask you one word in private. Kent. Impórtune him once more to go, my lord, His wits begin to unsettle. Glo. Canst thou blame him? His daughters seek his death:-Ah, that good Kent! (1) A tything is a division of a county. Name of a spirit. (3) The chief devil. He said it would be thus:-Poor banish'd man!Thou say'st, the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend, . I am almost mad myself: I had a son, Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life, But lately, very late; 1 lov'd him, friend,— No father his son dearer: true to tell thee, [Storm continues. The grief hath craz'd my wits. What a night's this! I do beseech your grace, Lear. O, cry you mercy, Noble philosopher, your company. Edg. Tom's a-cold. Glo. In, fellow, there, to the hovel: keep thee I will keep still with my philosopher. Kent. Good my lord, sooth him; let him take the fellow. Glo. Take him you on. Kent. Sirrah, come on; go along with us. Lear. Come, good Athenian. Glo. Hush. No words, no words: Edg. Child Rowland to the dark tower came, His word was still,-Fie, foh, and fum, I smell the blood of a British man. [Exeunt. SCENE V-A room in Gloster's castle. Enter Cornwall and Edmund. Corn. I will have my revenge, ere I depart his house. Edm. How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think of. (1) Child is an old term for knight. Corn. I now perceive, it was not altogether your brother's evil disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reproveable badness in himself. Edm. How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to be just! This is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an intelligent party to the advantages of France. O heavens! that this treason were not, or not I the detector! Corn. Go with me to the duchess. Edm. If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business in hand. Corn. True, or false, it hath made thee earl of Gloster. Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension. Edm. [Aside.] If I find him comforting the king, it will stuff his suspicion more fully-I will persevere in my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore between that and my blood. Corn. I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a dearer father in my love. [Exeunt. SCENE VI-A chamber in a farm-house, adjoining the castle. Enter Gloster, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar. Glo. Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully: I will piece out the comfort with what addition I can: I will not be long from you. ness! Kent. All the power of his wits has given way to his impatience:-The gods reward your kind[Exit Gloster. Edg. Frateretto calls me; and tells me, Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent,' and beware the foul fiend. Fool. Pr'ythee, nuncle, tell me, whether a madman be a gentleman, or a yeoman? Lear. A king, a king! (1) Addressed to the fool, who was anciently called an innocent. Fool. No; he's a yeoman, that has a gentleman to his son: for he's a mad yeoman, that sees his son a gentleman before him. Lear. To have a thousand with red burning spitsCome hissing in upon them : Edg. The foul fiend bites my back. Fool. He's mad, that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath. Lear. It shall be done, I will arraign them straight : Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer ; [To Edgar. Thou, sapient sir, sit here. [To the Fool.]-Now, you she foxes! Edg. Look, where he stands and glares! Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam? Come o'er the bourn,? Bessy, to me :-Fool. Her boat hath a leak, And she must not speak Why she dares not come over to thee. Edg. The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly, for two white herrings. Croak not, black angel; I have no food for thee. Kent. How do you, sir? Stand you not so amaz'd : Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions? Lear. I'll see their trial first:-Bring in the evidence. Thou robed man of justice, take thy place; [To Edgar. And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity, [To the Fool. Bench by his side:-You are of the commission, Sit you too. [To Kent. (1) Edgar is speaking in the character of a madman, who thinks he sees the fiend. (2) Brook or rivulet. Edg. Let us deal justly. Sleepest, or wakest thou, jolly shepherd? And for one blast of thy minikin mouth, Pur! the cat is grey. Lear. Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my oath before this honourable assembly, she kick ed the poor king her father. Fool. Come hither, mistress; Is your name Goneril? Lear. She cannot deny it. I took you for a joint-stool. 'Lear. And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim What store her heart is made of.-Stop her there! Kent. O pity!-Sir, where is the patience now, That you so oft have boasted to retain ? Edg. My tears begin to take his part so much, They'll mar my counterfeiting. Lear. The little dogs and all, [Aside Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me. Be thy mouth or black or white, Do de, de de. Sessa. Come, march to wakes and (1) A blood-hound. |