Kent. I say, yea.

Lear. No, no; they would not.
Kent. Yes, they have.
Lear. By Jupiter, I swear, no.
Kent. By Juno, I swear, ay.
Lear. They durst not do 't;

They could not, would not do 't: 't is worse than murder,

To do upon respect such violent outrage." Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way Thou mightst deserve, or they impose, this usage, Coming from us.

Kent.

My lord, when at their home

I did commend your highness' letters to them,
Ere I was risen from the place that shewed
My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,
Stewed in his haste, half breathless, panting
forth,

From Goneril his mistress, salutations:
Delivered letters, spite of intermission,
Which presently they read: on whose contents
They summoned up their meiny, straight took
horse;

Commanded me to follow, and attend
The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks:
And meeting here the other messenger,
Whose welcome I perceived had poisoned mine
(Being the very fellow that of late

Displayed so saucily against your highness),
Having more man than wit about me, drew:
He raised the house with loud and coward cries:
Your son and daughter found this trespass worth
The shame which here it suffers.

Fool. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way.

Fathers that wear rags

Do make their children blind;

But fathers that bear bags

Shall see their children kind.

Fortune, that arrant whore,

Ne'er turns the key to the poor.

But for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours for thy daughters as thou canst tell in a year. Lear. O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!

Hysterica passio!-Down, thou climbing sorrow,
Thy element's below!-Where is this daughter?
Kent. With the earl, sir, here within.
Lear.
Follow me not:
Stay here.

[Exit.

Gent. Made you no more offence than what you speak of?

Kent. None.

How chance the king comes with so small a train?
Fool. An thou hadst been set i' the stocks for
that question, thou hadst well deserved it.
Kent. Why, fool?

Fool. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring in the winter. All that follow their noses are led by their eyes, but blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him that's stinking. Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it: but the great one that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.

That sir which serves and seeks for gain,
And follows but for form,

Will pack when it begins to rain,

And leave thee in the storm.
But I will tarry; the fool will stay,
And let the wise man fly:
The knave turns fool that runs away;
The fool no knave, perdy.
Kent. Where learned you this, fool?
Fool. Not i' the stocks, fool.

Re-enter LEAR, with GLOSTER. Lear. Deny to speak with me? They are sick; they are weary;

They have travelled hard to-night? Mere fetches;
The images of revolt and flying off!
Fetch me a better answer.

When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind

To suffer with the body. I'll forbear;
And am fallen out with my more headier will,
To take the indisposed and sickly fit

For the sound man.-Death on my state! where-
fore
[Looking on Kent.
Should he sit here? This act persuades me
That this remotion of the duke and her
Is practice only. Give me my servant forth :
Go, tell the duke and his wife I'd speak with them,
Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,
Or at their chamber door I 'll beat the drum
Till it cry-" Sleep to death."

[Exit.

Glo. I'd have all well betwixt you. Lear. O me, my heart, my rising heart!--but down.

Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels when she put them i' the paste alive: she rapped 'em o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cried, "Down, wantons, down." 'Twas her brother that, in pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.

Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOSTER, and Servants.

Lear. Good morrow to you both.

I have to think so. If thou shouldst not be glad,
I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb,
Sepúlch'ring an adultress. O, are you free?
[TO KENT.

Some other time for that.-Belovéd Regan,
Thy sister's naught. O Regan, she hath tied
Sharp-toothed unkindness, like a vulture, here:--
[Points to his heart.
I can scarce speak to thee: thou 'lt not believe
Of how depraved a quality-O Regan!

Reg. I pray you, sir, take patience: I have hope
You less know how to value her desert,
Than she to scant her duty.

Reg. I cannot think my sister in the least Would fail her obligation. If, sir, perchance, She have restrained the riots of your followers, 'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end, As clears her from all blame.

Lear. My curses on her!
Reg.
O, sir, you are old:

Nature in you stands on the very verge
Of her confine you should be ruled and led
By some discretion that discerns your state
Better than you yourself. Therefore I pray you,

curse;

Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give
Thee o'er to harshness: her eyes are fierce, but

thine

Do comfort, and not burn. T is not in thee
To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,
And, in conclusion, to oppose the bolt
Against my coming in. Thou better know'st
The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude :
Thy half o' the kingdom hast thou not forgot,
Wherein I thee endowed.

Reg. I pray you, father, being weak, seem so. If, till the expiration of your month, You will return and sojourn with my sister, Dismissing half your train, come then to me: I am now from home, and out of that provision Which shall be needful for your entertainment.

Lear. Return to her, and fifty men dismissed! No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose To wage against the enmity o' the air; To be a comrade with the wolf and owl: Necessity's sharp pinch!-Return with her! Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took Our youngest born, I could as well be brought To knee his throne, and, squire-like, pension beg To keep base life afoot.-Return with her! Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter To this detested groom. [Looking on the Steward. Gon. At your choice, sir.

Lear. I pr'y thee, daughter, do not make me

mad:

I will not trouble thee, my child: farewell:
We'll no more meet; no more see one another.-
But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;
Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,
Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,
A plague-sore, an embosséd carbuncle,
In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee:
Let shame come when it will; I do not call it :
I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,
Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove:
Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure:
I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,
I and my hundred knights.

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: 't will be a storm.

[Storm heard at a distance.

Reg. This house is little; the old man and his people

Cannot be well bestowed.

Gon. "T is his own blame: he hath put himself from rest,

And must needs taste his folly.

Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly;