For those that mingle reason with your paffion,
Must be content to think you old, and fo
But she knows what she does.

Lear. Is this, well spoken ?

Reg. I dare avouch it, Sir; what, fifty followers? Is it not well? what should you need of more? Yea, or fo many? fince both charge and danger Speak 'gainst fo great a number: how in one house Should many people under two commands Hold amity?tis hard, almoft impoffible.

Gon. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance From thofe that the calls fervants, or from mine? Reg. Why not, my lord? if then they chanc'd to flack ye,

We could controul them; if you'll come to me,
(For now I fpy a danger). I intreat 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 depofitaries; But kept a refervation to be follow'd

With fuch a number; must I come to you
With five and twenty? Regan, faid you fo?

Reg. And speak't again, my lord, no more with me.
Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,
When others are more wicked: Not being worst,
Stands in fome rank of praife; I'll go with thee;
Thy fifty yet doth 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 houfe, where twice so many

Have a command to tend you?

Reg. What needs one ?

Lear. O, reafon not the need: our basest beggars

Are in the poorest thing fuperfluous;

Allow not nature more than nature needs,

Man's life is cheap as beafts'. Thou art a lady;

If only to go warm were gorgeous,

Why

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'it,
Which scarcely keeps thee warm; but for true need,
You heav'ns, give me that patience which I need?
You fee me here, you Gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
If it be you, that ftir thefe daughters' hearts'
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger;
Olet not womens' weapons, water-drops,..
Stain my man's cheeks. No, you unnat'ral hags,
I will have fuch revenges on you both,

That all the world fhall I will do fuch things
What they are, yet I know not; but they fhall be
The terrors of the earth: you think, I'll weep:
No, I'll not weep. I have full cause of weeping:
This heart fhall break into a thousand flaws
Or ere I weep. O'fool, I fhall go mad.

[Exeunt Lear, Glo'fter, Kent and Fool. Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a ftorm.

[Storm and tempest. Reg. This houfe is little; the old man and his people Cannot be well beftow'd.

Gon. 'Tis his own blame hath put himself from rest, 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?

Enter Glo'fter.

Corn. Follow'd the old man forth;

he is return d.

Glo. The King is in high rage, and will I know not whither.

Corn. 'Tis beft to give him way, he leads himself.
Gon. My lord, intreat him by no means to stay.

Glo Alack, the night comes on: and the high winds Do forely ruffle, for many miles about

There's fcarce a bush.

Reg. O Sir, to wilful men,

The injuries, that they themselves procure,

C 2

Mut

Must be their school-masters: shut up your doors ;
He is attended with a defp'rate train;

And what they may incenfe 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 counfels well come out o' th' ftorm.

[Exeunt.

SCENE, a Heath.

A ftorm is heard, with thunder and lightning. Enter Kent, and a Gentleman, feverally.

KENT.

HO's there, befides foul weather?

WHO

Gent. One minded like the weather, most
unquietly.

Kent. I know you; where's the King?
Gent. Contending with the fretful elements;
Bids the wind blow the earth into the fea;

Or fwell the curled waters 'bove the main,

That things might change, or cease: tears his white hair;
(Which the impetuous blafts with eyelefs rage
Catch in their fury, and make nothing of).
Strives in his little World of Man t' outfcorn
The to-and-fro-conflicting Wind and Rain.

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

Keep their furr dry; unbonnetted 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-ftruck injuries.

Kent. Sir, I do know you,

And dare, upon the warrant of my note,

Commend a dear thing to you. There's divifion

(Al

(Although as yet the face of it is cover'd

With mutual cunning) 'twixt Albany and Cornwall:
Who have fas who have not, whom their great ftars (13).
Throne and fet high?) fervants, who feem no lefs;
Which are to France the fpies and fpeculations
Intelligent of our ftate. What hath been seen,
Either in fnuffs and packings of the Dukes ;

Or the hard rein, which both of them have borne
Against the old kind king; or fomething deeper,
(Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings)
But true it is, from France there comes a power
Into this fcatter'd kingdom; who already,
Wife in our negligence, have fecret sea
In fome of our beft ports, and are at point
To fhow their open banner

Now to you,
If on my credit you dare build fo far

To make your fpeed to Dover, you shall find
Some that will thank you, making juft report
Of how unnatural and bemadding forrow
The King hath cause to plain.

I am a gentleman of blood and breeding,

And from fome knowledge and affurance of you,
Offer this office.

Gent. I'll talk further with you.

Kent. No, do not:

For confirmation that I am much more

Than my out-wall, open this purfe and take
What it contains. If you fhall fee Cordelia,
(As, fear not, but you fhall) fhew her that Ring,
And she will tell you who this fellow is

That yet you do not know. Fie on this ftorm!
I will go feek the King.

(13) Who bave, as who have not,] The eight fubfequent Verses were degraded by Mr. Pope, as unintelligible, and to no purpose. For my part, I fee nothing in them but what is very eafy to be understood; and the Lines feem'abfolutely neceffary to clear up the Motives, upon which France prepar'd his Invafion : nor without them is the Senfe of the Context compleat.

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 you take That way, I this :) he that firft lights on him, Halloo the other. [Exeunt feverally.

Storm fill. Enter Lear and Fool.

Lear. Blow winds, and crack your cheeks; rage, blow! You cataracts, and hurricanoes, fpout

'Till you have drencht our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You fulph'rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunder-bolts,
Singe my white head. And thou all-fhaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o' th' world;

Crack nature's mould, all germins fpill at once (14)
That make ingrateful man.

Fool. O nuncle, court-holy-water in a dry houfe is better than the rain-waters out o' door. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters blessing: here's a night, that pities neither wife men nor fools.

Lear. Rumble thy belly fall, fpit 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 fubfcription. Then let fall

(14) Crack Natures Mould, all Germains fpill at once.] Thus all the Editions have given us this Paffage, and Mr. Pope has explain'd Germains, to mean relations, or kindred Elements, Then it must have been germanes (from the Latin Adjective, germanus ;) a Word more than once used by our Author, tho' always falfe fpelt by his Editors. But the Poet means here, "Crack Nature's Mould, and fpill all the Seeds of Matter, that 66 are hoarded within it." To retrieve which Senfe, we must write Germins; (a Subftantive deriy'd from Germen, swopa': as the old Gloffaries expound it ;) And to put this Emendation beyond all Doubt, I'll produce one Paffage, where our Author not only uses the fame Thought again, but the Word that afcertains my Explication. In Winter's Tale;

Let Nature crush the Sides o' th' Earth together,
And marr the Seeds within.

Your