night Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies Gallow the very wanderers of the dark, And make them keep their caves. Since I was man Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder, Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never Remember to have heard; man's nature cannot carry The affliction nor the fear. Lear. Let the great gods, That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads, Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch, That hast within thee undivulged crimes, Unwhipp'd of justice; hide thee, thou bloody hand, Thou perjured, and thou simular of virtue These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man Kent. Alack bare-headed! Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel; pest; Repose you there while I to this hard house, Lear. Come on, my boy. cold? I am cold myself. fellow ? My wits begin to turn. Where is this straw, my The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel. Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart That's sorry yet for thee. Fool. He that has and a little tiny wit, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, Though the rain it raineth every day. Lear. True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this hovel. [Exeunt LEAR and KENT. Fool. This is a brave night to cool a courtezan. I'll speak a prophecy ere I go: When priests are more in word than matter; Come to great confusion: Then comes the time, who lives to see 't, 1 This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time. [Exit. SCENE III. A Room in GLOUCESTER's Castle. Enter GLOUCESTER and EDMUND. Glou. 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; charged me, on pain of perpetual displeasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him. Edm. Most savage and unnatural! Glou. Go to; say you nothing. There is division between the dukes, and a worse matter than that. I have received a letter this night; 't is dangerous to be spoken; I have locked the letter in my closet. These injuries the king now bears will be revenged home; there's part of a power already footed; we must incline to the king. I will seek 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 threatened me, the king, my old master, must be relieved. There is some strange thing 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 draw me That which my father loses; no less than all: The younger rises when the old doth fall. [Exit. SCENE IV. The Heath. Before a Hovel. 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. [Storm still. Let me alone. Wilt break my heart? Good my Kent. Good my lord, enter here. Kent. I'd rather break mine own. lord, enter. Lear. Thou think'st 't is much that this conten tious storm Invades us to the skin: so 't is 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, mind's free When the 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 [To the Fool.] In, boy; go first. poverty, But I'll go in. You houseless Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep. 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? Tom. his name's poor 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 blow the winds. Hum! go to thy bed and warm thee. Lear. Didst thou give all to thy two daughters? And art thou come to this? |