Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have sub du'd nature To such a lowness, but his unkind daughters.- Should have thus little mercy on their flesh? Edg. Pillicock sat on pillicock's-hill ;— Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen. Edg. Take heed of the foul fiend: Obey thy parents; keep thy word justly; swear not; com. mit not with man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array: Tom's a-cold. Lear. What hast thou been? Edg. A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair; wore gloves in my cap,1 served the lust of my mistress's heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one, that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it: Wine loved I deeply; dice dearly; and in woman, out-paramoured the Turk : False of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand: Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes, nor the rustling of silks, betray thy poor heart to women: Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend. -Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind: Says suum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin, my boy, my boy, sessa; let him trot by. [Storm still continues. Lear. Why, thou were better in thy grave, than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies.Is man no more than this? Consider (1) It was the custom to wear gloves in the hat, as the favour of a mistress. him well: Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume :Ha! here's three of us are sophisticated!-Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art-Off, off, you lendings:-Come; unbutton here.1 [Tearing off his clothes. Fool. Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; this is a naughty night to swim in.--Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher's heart: a small spark, all the rest of his body cold.-Look, here comes a walking fire. Edg. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin,2 squints the eye, and makes the hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth. Saint Withold footed thrice the wold;4 And her troth plight, And, aroint5 thee, witch, aroint thee! Kent. How fares your grace? Enter Gloster, with a torch. Lear. What's he? Kent. Who's there? What is't you seek? Glo. What are you there? Your names? Edg. Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the tadpole, the wall-newt, and the water;6 that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend (1) The words unbutton here, are probably only a marginal direction crept into the matter. (2) Diseases of the eye. (3) A saint said to protect his devotees from the disease called the night-mare. (4) Wild downs, so called in various parts of England. (5) Avaunt. VOL. VIII. (6) i. e. The water-newt. E rages, eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat, and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; who is whipped from tything to ty thing, and stocked, punished, and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his body, horse to ride, and weapon to wear,— But mice, and rats, and such small deer, Have been Tom's food for seven long year. Beware my follower:-Peace, Smolkin;2 peace, thou fiend! Glo. What, hath your grace no better company? Edg. The prince of darkness is a gentleman; Modo he's called, and Mahu.3 Glo. Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile, That it doth hate what gets it. Edg. Poor Tom's a-cold. Glo. Go in with me; my duty cannot suffer To obey in all your daughters' hard commands: Though their injunction be to bar my doors, And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you; Yet have I ventur'd to come seek you out, And bring you where both fire and food is ready. Lear. First let me talk with this philosopher :What is the cause of thunder? Kent. Good my lord, take his offer; Go into the house. Lear. I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban: What is your study? Edg. How to prevent the fiend, and to kill vermin. Lear. Let me ask you one word in private. Kent. Impórtune him once more to go, my lord, His wits begin to unsettle. Glo. Canst thou blame him? His daughters seek his death:-Ah, that good Kent! (1) A tything is a division of a county. (2) Name of a spirit. (3) The chief devil. He said it would be thus:-Poor banish'd man!— Thou say'st, the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend, I am almost mad myself: I had a son, Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life, But lately, very late; I lov'd him, friend,— No father his son dearer: true to tell thee, [Storm continues. The grief hath craz'd my wits. What a night's this! I do beseech your grace,— Lear. O, cry you mercy, Noble philosopher, your company. Edg. Tom's a-cold. Glo. In, fellow, there, to the hovel: keep thee warm. Lear. Come, let's in all. Kent. Lear. This way, my lord. With him; I will keep still with my philosopher. Kent. Good my lord, sooth him; let him take the fellow. Glo. Take him you on. Kent. Sirrah, come on; go along with us. Lear. Come, good Athenian. Glo. No words, no words: Hush. Edg. Child1 Rowland to the dark tower came, His word was still,-Fie, foh, and fum, I smell the blood of a British man. [Exeunt. SCENE V-A room in Gloster's castle. Enter Cornwall and Edmund. Corn. I will have my revenge, ere I depart his house. Edm. How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to loyalty, something fears ine to think of. (1) Child is an old term for knight. Corn. I now perceive, it was not altogether your brother's evil disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reproveable badness in himself. Edm. How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to be just! This is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an intelligent party to the advantages of France. O heavens! that this treason were not, or not I the detector! Corn. Go with me to the duchess. Edm. If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business in hand. Corn. True, or false, it hath made thee earl of Gloster. Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension. Edm. [Aside.] If I find him conforting the king, it will stuff his suspicion more fully.-I will persevere in my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore between that and my blood. Corn. I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a dearer father in my love. [Exeunt. SCENE VI-A chamber in a farm-house, adjoining the castle. Enter Gloster, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar. . Glo. Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully: I will piece out the comfort with what addition I can I will not be long from you. ness! Kent. All the power of his wits has given way to his impatience:-The gods reward your kind[Exit Gloster. Edg. Frateretto calls me; and tells me, Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent,' and beware the foul fiend. Fool. Pr'ythee, nuncle, tell me, whether a madman be a gentleman, or a yeoman? Lear. A king, a king! (1) Addressed to the fool, who was anciently called an innocent. |
