You will return and fojourn with my fister, 1 10 To wage 1 against the enmity o' the air; 4 Which I must needs call mine: thou art a bile, Reg. Not altogether fo, fir; I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided Lear. Is this well spoken now? Reg. I dare avouch it, fir: What, fifty followers? Is it not well? What should you need of more? 15 Lear. O, reafon not the need: our basest beggars Allow not nature more than nature needs, Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st, need, [need! Stain my man's cheeks!-No, you unnatural hags, 35 I have full caufe of weeping; but this heart Yea, or so many? fith that both charge and danger 40 Cannot be well beftow'd. Speak 'gainst fo great a number? How, in one houfe, freft, Gon.'Tis his own blame; he hath put himself from And muft needs tafte 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 Glofter? Re-enter Glofter. Corn. Follow'd the old man forth:-he is return'd. Corn. Whither is he going? [whither. Glo. He calls to horfe; but will I know not Do forely ruffle; for many miles about Reg. O, fir, to wilful men, The injuries, that they themselves procure, 1 i. e. to make war. 2 i. e. in a fervile state. 3 Sumpter is a horse that carries neceffaries on a journey, though fometimes used for the cafe to carry them in. 4 Embed is fuelling, protuberant. 3 P And Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage, Kent. But who is with him? Gent. None but the fool; who labours to out-jeft His heart-ftruck injuries. Kent. Sir, I do know you; And dare, upon the warrant of my note 3, With mutual cunning,'twixt Albany andCornwall; To make your speed to Dover, you shall find frolI am a gentleman of blood and breeding, Gent. I will talk further with you. Kent. No, do not. 15 For confirmation that I am much more Than my out-wall, open this purfe, and take 20 That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm! rage! blow! You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout [cocks! 35 Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the You fulphurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers 7 to oak-cleaving thunder-bolts, Singe my white head! And thou all-shaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world! 40 Crack nature's moulds; all germens spill at once 3, That make ingrateful man! Fool. O nuncle, court holy-water 9 in a dry house is better than this rain-water out o' door. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters bleffing; here's 45 a night pities neither wife men nor fools. Lear. Rumble thy belly full! Spit, fire! spout, rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters: I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness, 50I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children, You owe me no fubfcription 10; why then let fall Your horrible pleasure; here I ftand, your slave, A poor, infirm, weak, and defpis'd old man:But yet I call you fervile ministers, 55 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!! 1 The main feems to fignify here the main land, the continent. drawn dry by its young. 3 My obfervation of your character. 5 i. e. colours, external pretences. underhand contrivances. couriers, Fr. hoarded within it." 2 Cub-drawn means, whofe dugs art 4 Snuffs are diflikes, and packings 6 i. e. divided, unfettled. 7 Avant 10 Sub 8 That is, "Crack nature's mould, and spill (or destroy) all the feeds of matter that are fcription for obedience. Fool. Marry, here's grace, and a cod-piece2; that's a wife man, and a fool. Kent. Alas, fir, are you here? things that love Love not fuch nights as these; the wrathful skies Lear. Let the great gods, 5 Muft make content with bis fortunes fit; Lear. True, my good boy.-Come, bring us to this hovel. [Exit. Fool. This is a brave night to cool a courtezan. When priests are more in word than matter; 10 No heretics burn'd, but wenches' fuitors: No fquire in debt, nor no poor knight; 20 Come to great confufion. 25 That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads, Kent. Alack, bare-headed! Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel; This prophecy Merlin fhall make; for I live be fore his time. An Apartment in Glofter's Castle. Enter Glofter, and Edmund. [Exit. Glo. Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing: When I defired their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the use perpetual displeasure, neither to speak of him, enof mine own house; charg'd me, on pain of their treat for him, nor any way sustain him. Edm. Moft favage, and unnatural! Glo. Go to; fay you nothing: There is divifion between the dukes; and a worse matter than that: 35I have received a letter this night;-'tis dangerous to be spoken.I have lock'd the letter in my clofet: these injuries the king now bears will be revenged home; there is part of a power already footed: we must incline to the king. I will feek 40 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 threaten'd me, the king my old mafter must be relieved. 45 There is fome strange thing toward, Edmund ; pray you, be careful. [Exit. i. e. A beggar marries a wife and lice. That there is no difcretion below the girdle. frighten. 4 Convenient feeming is appearance ment ftands for that which contains or inclfes. 6 Summoners mean. here the officers that fummon offenders before a proper tribunal. 7 i. e. invent fashions for them. The disease to 'which wenches' fuiters are particularly expofed, was called in Shakspeare's time the brenning or burning, 2 Alluding perhaps to the saying of a contemporary wit, enter. [ftorm The body's delicate: the tempeft in my mind O, that way madness lies; let me fhun that; Kent. Good my lord, enter here. [eafe; Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyself; feek thine own This tempeft will not give me leave to ponder On things would hurt me more.-But I'll go in :In, boy; go first.-[To the Fool.] You houfelefs poverty,Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.[Fool goes in. Poor naked wretches, wherefoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How fhall your houfeless heads, and unfed fides, Your loop'd and window'd raggednefs, defend you From feafons fuch as thefe? O, I have ta'en Too little care of this! Take phyfic, pomp; Expofe thyself to feel what wretches feel: That thou may'ft shake the fuperflux to them, And fhew the heavens more juft. Edg. [within.] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom! quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his pew; fet ratsbane by his porridge; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horfe over four-inch'd bridges, to courie 5 his own fhadow for a traitor :-Blefs thy five wits'! Tom's a cold.-O, do de, do de, do de.-Biefs thee from whirlwinds, star-blafting, and taking 21 Do poor Tom fome charity, whom the foul fiend vexes: There could I have him now, and 10 there, and there, and there again, and there. [Storm fill. 30 Edg. Pillicock fat on pillicock-hill ;- Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen. Edg. Take heed o' the foul fiend: Obey thy parents; keep thy word juftly; fwear not; commit not with man's fworn spouse; fet not thy fweet 35 heart on proud array: Tom's a-cold. Lear. What haft thou been? Edg. A ferving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curl'd my hair, wore gloves in my cap 4, ferv'd the luft of my mistress's heart, and did the act of 40 darkness with her: fwore as many oaths as I fpake words, and broke them in the fwest face of heaven: one that slept in the contriving of luft, and wak'd to do it: Wine lov'd I deeply; dice dearly; and in woman, out-paramour'd the Turk; 45 Falfe of heart, light of ear 5, bloody of hand; Hog in floth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madnefs, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of fhoes, nor the ruftling of filks, 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 fuum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, boy, Seffy; let him trot by. [Storm fül. Fool. Come not in here, nuncle, here's a fpirit. Enter Edgar, disguis'd as a madman. Lear. Haft thou given all to thy two daughters? Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through|60 flame, through ford and whirlpool, over bog and Lear. Why thou were better in thy grave, than to anfwer with thy uncover'd body this extremity of the fkies.-Is man no more than this? Confider him well: thou owest the worm no filk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume Ha! here's three of us are sophisticated!———Thos art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is na So the five fenfes were called by our old writers. 2 To take is to blaft, or ftrike with malignant influence. 3 The young pelican is fabled to fuck the mother's blood. 4 i. e. his miftrefs' favours: which was the fashion of that time. 5 i. e. ready to receive malicious reports. more more but fuch a poor, bare, forked animal as thou 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 fpark, and all the reft of his body cold.-Look, here comes a walking fire. Edg. How to prevent the fiend, and to kill ver- Glo. Canft thou blame him? [Storm fill. Edg. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks 'till the first cock; he 10 His daughters feek his death:—Ah, that good Kent! He faid it would be thus :-Poor banish'd man!- 15I am almoft mad myself: I had a fon, The grief hath craz'd my wits, What a night's this! 20I do befeech your grace, Lear. O, cry you mercy, fir:- [warm. Glu. In, fellow, there, to the hovel: keep thee Kent. This way, my lord. Kent. Who's there? What is 't you feek? But mice, and rats, and fuch small deer 3, Glo. What, hath your grace no better company? 35 [vile, 40 Glo. Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown fo That it doth hate what gets it. Edg. Poor Tom's a-cold. Glo. Go in with me; my duty cannot suffer Kent. My good lord, take his offer; I will keep ftill with my philofopher. Kent. Good my lord, footh him; let him take Glo. Take him you on. Kent. Sirrah, come on; go along with us. Glo. No words, no words; hush. Edg. Child 6 Reruland to the dark tower came, SCE NE V. Glofter's Cafile. Enter Cornwall, and Edmund. [Excunt. Corn. I will have my revenge, ere I depart this houfe. Edm. How, my lord, I may be cenfur'd, that 45 nature thus gives way to loyalty, fomething fears me to think of. Corn. I now perceive, it was not altogether your brother's evil difpofition made him feek his death; but a provoking merit, fet a-work by a reprovable 50 badnefs in himfelf. Edm. How malicious is my fortune, that I muft repent to be just! This is the letter which he spoke 3 Thefe • Diseases of the eye. 2 Wold fignifies a down, or ground hilly and void of wood. verfes were no other than a popular charm, or night-spell against the Epialtes; and the laft line is the formal execration or apoftrophe of the fpeaker of the charm to the witch, aroynt thee right, i. e. depart forthwith. Bedlams, gipfies, and fuch-like vagabonds, ufed to fell thefe kind of fpells or charms to the people. They were of various kinds for various disorders. 4 A tything is a divifion of a place, a district; the fame in the country, as a ward in the city, In the Saxon times every hundred was divided into tythings. 5 Deer in old language is a general word for wild animals. the old times of chivalry, the noble youth who were candidates for knighthood, during the season of their probation, were called Infans, Varlets, Damoyfels, Bacheliers; the most noble of the youth particularly, Infans. Here a ftory is told, in fome old ballad, of the famous hero and giant-killer Roland, before he was knighted, who is, therefore, called Infans; which the ballad-maker tranflated, Child Roland. 6 In |