When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind To suffer with the body. I'll forbear; And am fallen out with my more headier will, For the sound man.-Death on my state! where- [Exit. Glo. I'd have all well betwixt you. I have to think so. If thou shouldst not be glad, I can scarce speak to thee: thou 'lt not believe Do comfort, and not burn. 'Tis not in thee That she would soon be here.-Is your lady come? Thou didst not know of't.-Who Comes here? O, heavens, 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: Is it not well? What should you need of more? Should many people, under two commands, From those that she calls servants, or from mine? Reg: Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack you, We could control them. If you will come to me Lear. O reason not the need: our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous : You heavens, give me that patience, patience You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, No, I'll not weep: I have full cause of weeping; but this heart [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. 'Tis his own blame: he hath put himself from rest, And must needs taste his folly. Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly; But not one follower. Corn. Followed the old man forth.--He is returned. Re-enter GLOSTER. Glo. The King is in high rage. Glo. He calls to horse; but will I know not whither. Corn. 'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself. Gon. My lord, entreat him by no means to stay. Glo. Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds Do sorely ruffle: for many miles about Reg. O, sir, to wilful men, doors: Shut up your He is attended with a desperate train; Corn. Shut up your doors, my lord; 't is a wild night: My Regan counsels well. Come out o' the storm. [Exeunt. SCENE I.-A Heath. ACT III. ▲ Storm is heard, with thunder and lightning. Enter KENT and a Gentleman, meeting. Kent. Who's here, beside foul weather? Gent. One minded like the weather, most unquietly. Kent. I know you: where's the King? Gent. Contending with the fretful element: Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea, Or swell the curvéd waters 'bove the main, That things might change or cease: tears his white hair: Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage, Catch in their fury, and make nothing of: Strives in his little world of man to out scorn The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain. This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch, Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes, To make your speed to Dover, you shall find I am a gentleman of blood and breeding; Gent. I will talk further with you. Lear. Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o'the world! Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once, That make ingrateful man! 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 daughters' 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: The codpiece that will house The man that makes his toe What he his heart should make, And turn his sleep to wake. -for there was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass. Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing. He that has a little tiny wit, With heigh, ho, the wind and the rain,— When priests are more in word than matter; Come to great confusion. Then comes the time, who lives to see 't, That going shall be used with feet. This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time. [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;-'t is 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 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. The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind Good my lord, enter here. Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep. [Fool goes in. |