Crack nature's moulds, all germins spill at once, Fool. O nuncle, court holy-water' in a dry house is better than this rain-water out o' door. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughter's 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: 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 will with two pernicious daughters join 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 's head in has a good head-piece. The cod-piece that will house, Before the head has any, So beggars marry many. What he his heart should make, Shall of a corn cry woe, And turn his sleep to wake. 8 -for there was never yet fair woman, but she made mouths in a glass. 7 de cour, court holy-water-] Cotgrave, in his Dictionary, translates Eau benite court holie water; compliments, faire words, flattering speeches." 8 That WILL with two pernicious daughters JOIN,] The quartos read hare and join'd. 9 Shall or a corn cry woe,] The quartos read "Shall have a corn cry woe." Lower down for "are you here?" they have "sit you here.” There are one or two other immaterial variations. 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', 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 Th' 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, Unwhipp'd of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand; 1 GALLOW the very wanderers of the dark,] To "gallow," or gally, is a provincial word for to terrify, common to several parts of England, and not merely employed in the West, as stated by Warburton and Steevens. 2 Th' affliction, nor the FEAR.] 3 — this dreadful POTHER -] the others thundering. The quartos have force for "fear." Thou perjur'd, and thou SIMULAR of virtue] A "simular" is a simulator: possibly we ought to spell it simuler, but the word man, by which it is followed in the quartos, is needless as regards the sense, and injurious as regards the metre. It may be doubted whether we ought not to read "Thou perjure," instead of "Thou perjur'd." When in "Love's Labour's Lost," Vol. ii. p. 332, the quarto and folio read "he comes like a perjure," they are possibly correct, for in the old play of "King John," which preceded that of Shakespeare, we meet with this line: "But now black-spotted perjure as he is," &c. 5 Rive your CONCEALING continents,] So the folio: the quartos concealed centers. These dreadful summoners grace.—I am a man, Kent. Alack, bare-headed! Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel; Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest: Repose you there, while I to this hard house, (More hard than is the stone" whereof 'tis rais'd, Which even but now, demanding after you, Denied me to come in) return, and force Their scanted courtesy. Lear. My wits begin to turn.— Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold? I am cold myself.-Where is this straw, my fellow? 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 a little tiny wit, [Sings. With heigh, ho, the wind and the rain,— 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; No squire in debt, nor no poor knight; 6 More HARD than is the stone] The folio "More harder than the stone." In the next line, the quartos have me for "you." 7 That's SORRY yet for thee.] The quartos "That sorrowes yet for thee." 8 For the rain it raineth every day.] This scrap has the same burden as the song by the Clown at the end of "Twelfth Night," and possibly it was part of the same ballad. The folio inserts and, in the middle of the first line, and has though, instead of "for," in the last. When slanders do not live in tongues, Come to great confusion: Then comes the time, who lives to see't, This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time9. [Exit. SCENE III. A Room in GLOSTER'S Castle. Enter GLOSTER and EDMUND. Glo. 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 their perpetual displeasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him. Edm. Most savage, and unnatural! Glo. Go to; say you nothing. There is division between the dukes, and a worse matter than that. I have received a letter this night;-'tis dangerous to be spoken;-I have locked the letter in my closet. These injuries the king now bears will be revenged home; there is part of a power already footed': we must 9 for I live before his time.] This speech, and prophecy of the fool, are contained in no quarto impression. It is to be observed, that the two lines, "Then shall the realm of Albion Come to great confusion," are in Chaucer, as quoted by Puttenham in his " Arte of English Poesie," 1589, which Steevens, (citing the passage,) calls his " Art of Poetry." a power already FOOTED:] "Already landed" in the quartos. The 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. A Part of the Heath, with 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 lord, Kent. Good my lord, enter here. Lear. Kent. I'd rather break mine own. enter. Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much, that this contentious storm1 word occurs again in the same sense, in scene 7 of this act, and there it is "footed" in all the copies. The quartos often print verse as prose, but in this scene they have printed prose as verse: the last speech is verse according to all the old copies, but sadly mangled in the quartos. 1- that this CONTENTIOUS Storm] The quarto without the publisher's address has crulentious, and that with the publisher's address, tempestuous. "Contentious" of the folio is no doubt the true word. |