Speak 'gainst so great a number? How in one house

Should many people under two commands

Hold amity? 'Tis hard, almost impossible.

Gon. Why might not you, my lord, receive attend

ance

From those that she calls servants or from mine? Reg. Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack you,

We could control them. If you will come to

me,

For now I spy a danger, I entreat you
To bring but five and twenty: to no more
Will I give place or notice.

Lear. I gave you

all

250

Reg.
And in good time you gave it.
Lear. Made you my guardians, my depositaries,
But kept a reservation to be follow'd

With such a number. What, must I come to

you

254. "And in good time you gave it"; observe what a compact wolfishness of heart is expressed in these few cold and steady words! It is chiefly in this readiness of envenomed sarcasm that Regan is discriminated from Goneril: otherwise they seem almost too much like mere repetitions of each other to come fairly within the circle of nature, who never repeats herself. Yet their very agreement in temper and spirit only makes them the fitter for the work they do. For the sameness of treatment thence proceeding renders their course the more galling and unbearable, by causing it to appear the result of a set purpose, a conspiracy coolly formed and unrelentingly pursued. That they should lay on their father the blame of their own ingratitude, and stick their poisoned tongues into him under pretense of doing him good, is a further refinement of cruelty, not more natural to them than tormenting to him. On the whole, it is not easy to imagine how creatures could be framed more apt to drive mad anyone who had set his heart on receiving any comfort or kindness from them.-H. N. H.

With five and twenty, Regan? said you so? Reg. And speak 't again, my lord; no more with

me.

Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look well

favor'd,

260

When others are more wicked; not being the worst

Stands in some rank of praise. [To Gon.] I'll
go with thee:

Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,
And thou art twice her love.

Gon.

Hear me, my lord:
What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,
To follow in a house where twice so many
Have a command to tend you?

What need one?

Reg.
Lear. O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life's as cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;
If only to go warm were gorgeous,

270

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,

Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But for true need,—

You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!

You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,

As full of grief as age; wretched in both:

268. "O, reason not the need"; observe, that the tranquillity which follows the first stunning of the blow permits Lear to reason (Coleridge).-H. N. H.

1

If it be you that stirs these daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
And let not woman's weapons, water-drops, 281
Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural
hags,

I will have such revenges on you both

That all the world shall-I will do such
things,―

What they are, yet I know not, but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep;

No, I'll not weep:

I have full cause of weeping; but this heart Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws, Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad! 290 [Exeunt Lear, Gloucester, Kent, and Fool. Corn. Let us withdraw; 'twill be a storm.

[Storm and tempest. Reg. This house is little: the old man and his peo

ple

Cannot be well bestow'd.

Gon. 'Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest,

And must needs taste his folly.

Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly, But not one follower.

Gon.

So am I purposed.

Where is my lord of Gloucester?

Corn. Follow'd the old man forth: he is return'd.

Re-enter Gloucester.

Glou. The king is in high rage.

Corn.

Whither is he going? 300

Glou. He calls to horse; but will I know not

whither.

Corn. 'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself.
Gon. My lord, entreat him by no means to stay.
Glou. Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak
winds

Do sorely ruffle; for many miles about
There's scarce a bush.

Reg.

O, sir, to willful men

The injuries that they themselves procure
Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your
doors:

He is attended with a desperate train;

311

And what they may incense him to, being apt To have his ear abused, wisdom bids fear. Corn. Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night:

My Regan counsels well: come out o' the storm. [Exeunt.

300. "whither is he going?"; this question, and the words, "He calls to horse," of Gloucester's reply, are found only in the folio.— H. N. H.

304. "bleak"; so Qq.; Ff., "high.”—I. G.

305. "Do sorely ruffle"; thus the folio. The quartos read, “Do sorely russel," that is, rustle. But ruffle is most probably the truc reading.-H. N. H.

Kent. Who's there, besides foul weather?
Gent. One minded like the weather, most unquietly.

Kent. I know you. Where's the king?

Gent. Contending with the fretful elements;

Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea,

Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main,
That things might change or cease; tears his
white hair,

Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,
Catch in their fury, and make nothing of;

Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn 10
The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.
This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would
couch,

The lion and the belly-pinched wolf

Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,

And bids what will take all.

6. The "main" seems to signify here the main land, the continent. So in Bacon's Wars with Spain: "In 1589 we turned challengers, and invaded the main of Spain." This interpretation sets the two objects of Lear's desire in proper opposition to each other. He wishes for the destruction of the world, either by the winds blowing the land into the water, or raising the waters so as to over whelm the land.-H. N. H.

7-15; omitted in the Folios.-I. G.