This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me [Exit. SCENE IV. A part of the heath, with a hovel. Storm continues. Enter LEAR, KENT, and Fool. Kent. Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter: The tyranny of the open night's too rough For nature to endure. Lear. Let me alone. Kent. Good my lord, enter here. Lear. Wilt break my heart? Kent. I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter. Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee; But where the greater malady is fix'd, The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear; But if thy flight lay toward the roaring sea, Thou'dst meet the bear i̇' the mouth. When the mind's free, - The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind Kent. Good my lord, enter here. - - -- Lear. Prithee, 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. [To the Fool] In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty, Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.- [Fool goes in. Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, Edg. [within] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom! [The Fool runs out from the hovel. Fool. Come not in here, nuncle here's a spirit. Help me, help me! 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' the straw? Come forth. Enter EDGAR disguised as a madman. Edg. Away! the foul fiend follows me! Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind. Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee. Lear. Didst thou give all to thy daughters? And art thou come to this? Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, o'er bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trottinghorse over four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor.— Bless thy five wits! - Tom's a-cold, - O, do de, do de, do de.-Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes: there could I have him now, and there, there again, and there. and [Storm continues. Lear. What, have his daughters brought him to this pass? Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give 'em all? Fool. Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed. Lear. Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters! Kent. He hath no daughters, sir. Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have subdu'd nature To such a lowness but his únkind daughters. Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers Edg. Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill: Halloo, halloo, loo, loo! Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen. Edg. Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array. Tom's acold. Lear. What hast thou been? Edg. A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of my mistress' heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it: wine loved I deeply, dice dearly; and in woman out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray thy poor heart to woman: keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend. Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind; Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let him trot by. [Storm continues. Lear. Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three on 's are sophisticated!— Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. you lendings! come, unbutton here. Off, off, [Tearing off his clothes. Fool. Prithee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis a naughty night to swim in. Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher's heart, a small spark, all the rest on 's body cold. — Look, here comes a walking fire. Edg. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth. Swithold footed thrice the old; He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold; And her troth plight, And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee! Kent. How fares your grace? Enter GLOSTER with a torch. Lear. What's he? Kent. Who's there? What is't you seek? Glo. What are you there? Your names? Edg. Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the tadpole, the wall-newt and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend 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 tithing to tithing, and stock-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, Smulkin; peace, thou fiend! Glo. What, hath your grace no better company? Modo he's call'd, and Mahu. Glo. Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile, That it doth hate what gets it. Edg. Poor Tom's a-cold. Glo. Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer Kent. Good my lord, take his offer; go into th' 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. Kent. Impórtune him once more to go, my lord; Glo. Canst thou blame him? His daughters seek his death: - ah, that good Kent! Thou say'st the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend, Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life, But lately, very late: I 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, sir. Noble philosopher, your company. Edg. Tom's a-cold. Glo. In, fellow, there, into th' hovel: keep thee warm. Lear. Come, let's in all. Kent. This way, my |