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But she knows what she does.

Lear. Is this well spoken now?

Reg. I dare avouch it, sir. What, fifty followers? Is it not well? What should you need of more? Yea, or so many? sith that both charge and danger 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 attendance From those that she calls servants, or from mine? Reg. Why not, my lord? If then they chanc'd 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-

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
With five and twenty, Regan? said you so?

Reg. And speak it again, my lord; no more with me.
Lea. Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,
When others are more wicked; not being the worst,
Stands in some rank of praise :-I'll go with thee;
Thy fifty doth yet 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?

Reg. What need one?

[To GON.

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 is cheap as beast's. Thou art a lady;

If only to go warm were gorgeous,

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!
If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger!

O, let not women's weapons, water-drops,
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!

[Exeunt LEAR, GLOSTER, KENT, and Fool. Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a storm.

Reg. This house

[Storm heard at a distance.

Is little; the old man and his people cannot
Be well bestow'd.

Gon. 'Tis his own blame; he 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 purpos'd.

Where is my lord of Gloster?

Re-enter GLOSTER.

Corn. Follow'd the old man forth :-he is return'd. Glo. The king is in high rage.

Corn. Whither is he going?

Glo. 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.

Glo. 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 wilful men,

The injuries, that they themselves procure,

Must be their schoolmasters: Shut up your doors;

He is attended with a desperate train;

And what they may incense him to, being apt

To have his ear abus'd, wisdom bids fear.

Corn. Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night;

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

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I-A Heath. A storm is heard, with thunder and lightning. Enter KENT, and a Gentleman, meeting.

Kent. Who's here, beside foul weather?

Gent. One minded like the weather, most unquietly.
Kent. I know you; Where's the king?
Gent. Contending with the fretful element :
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

The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.

This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,4 The lion and the belly-pinched wolf

Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,

And bids what will take all.

Kent. But who is with him?

Gent. None but the fool; who labours to out-jest

His heart-struck injuries.

Kent. Sir, I do know you;

And dare, upon the warrant of my art,5

Commend a dear thing to you.

There is division,

Although as yet the face of it be cover'd

With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;
Who have (as who have not, that their great stars
Thron'd and set high?) servants, who seem no less;
Which are to France the spies and speculations
Intelligent of our state; what hath been seen,
Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes ;6
Or the hard rein which both of them have borne
Against the old kind king; or something deeper,
Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings;
But, true it is, from France there comes a power
Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already,

[4] Cub drawn has been explained to signify drawn by nature to its young; whereas it means whose dugs are drawn dry by its young. For no animals leave their dens by night but for prey. So that the meaning is, "that even hunger, and the support of its young, would not force the bear to leave her den in such a night." WARBURTON.

[5] On the strength of that art or skill, which teaches us "to find the mind's construction in the face." MALONE.

[6] Snuffs are dislikes, and packings underhand contrivances. STEEVENS. [7] Furnishings are what we now call colours, external pretences. JOHN.

Wise in our negligence, have secret feet
In some of our best ports, and are at point
To show their open banner.-Now to you:
If on my credit you dare build so far

To make your speed to Dover, you shall find
Some that will thank you, making just report
Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow
The king hath cause to plain.

I am a gentleman of blood and breeding;
And, from some knowledge and assurance, offer
This office to you.

Gent. I will talk further with you.

Kent. No, do not.

For confirmation that I am much more

Than my out wall, open this purse, and take
What it contains: If you shall see Cordelia,
(As fear not but you shall,) show her this ring ;
And she will tell you who your fellow is

That yet you do not know. Fye on this storm !
I will go seek the king.

Gent. Give me your hand: Have you no more to say? Kent. Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet; That, when we have found the king, (in which your pain That way; I'll this ;) he that first lights on him, Holla the other.

[Exeunt severally.

SCENE II.

Another Part of the Heath. Storm continues. Enter LEAR and Fool.

Lear. Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout

Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, 8
Vaunt couriers to oak-cleaving thunder-bolts,

Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o'the world!

Crack nature's moulds, all germins spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!

Fool. O nuncle, court holy-water9 in a dry house is better than this rain-water out o'door. Good nuncle,

[8] Doing execution with rapidity equal to thought. JOHNSON.

[9] Ray, among his proverbial phrases, mentions court holy-water to mean fair words. The french have the same phrase Eau benite de cour; fair empty words-Chambaud's Dict. STEEVENS.

in, and ask thy daughters blessing; here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools.

Lear. Rumble thy bellyfull! spit, fire! spout, rain!
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness,
I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children,
You owe me no subscription; why then let fall
Your horrible pleasure; here I stand, your slave,
A poor, infirm, weak, and despis'd old man :—
But yet I call you servile ministers,

That have with two pernicious daughters join'd
Your high-engender'd battles, 'gainst a head
So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul!

Fool. He that has a house to put his head in, has a good head-piece.

The cod-piece that will house,
Before the head has any,
The head and he shall louse ;-
So beggars marry many.2

The man that makes his toe

What he his heart would make,

Shall of a corn cry woe,

And turn his sleep to wake.

-for there was never yet fair woman, but she made mouths in a glass.

Enter KENT.

Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience,

I will say nothing.

Kent. Who's there?

Fool. Marry, here's grace, and a cod-piece; that's a wise man, and a fool.

Kent. Alas, sir, are you here? things that love night, Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,3

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,

[1] Subscription-for obedience.

WARBURTON.
JOHNSON.

[2] A beggar marries a wife and lice.

[3] Gallow-a west country word, signifies to scare or frighten. WARB. So theSomersetshire proverb, "The dunder do gally the beans." Beans are vulgarly supposed to shoot up faster after thunder-storms,

STEEVENS

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