That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel; Poor fool and knave, I've one ftring in my heart, That's forry yet for thee.

Fool. He that has an a little tyny wit,

With heigh ho, the wind and the rain;
Muft make content with his fortunes fit,
Though the rain it raineth every day.

Lear. True, my good boy: come bring us to this hovel. [Exit.

Fool. 'Tis a brave night to cool a courtezan.
I'll speak a prophecy or two ere I go.
When priefts are more in words than matter,
When brewers mar their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors' tutors;
No heretics burnt, but wenches' fuitors;
Then comes the time, who lives to fee't,
That Going fhall be us'd with feet.
When every cafe in law is right,
No fquire in debt, and no poor knight;
When flanders do not live in tongues;
And cut-purfes come not to throngs;
When ufurers tell their gold i'th' field;
And bawds and whores do churches build:
Then fhall the realm of Albion

Come to great confufion.

This prophecy Merlin fhall make, for I do live before

Glo.

his time.

[Exit.

LACK, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing; when I defir'd their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the use of mine own house; charg'd me on pain of perpetual difpleasure, neither to speak of him, intreat for him, or any way fuftain him.

D 6

Edm.

Edm. Moft favage and unnatural!

Glo Go to; fay you nothing. There is divifion between the Dukes, and a worse matter than that: I have receiv'd a letter this night, 'tis dangerous to be fpoken; (I have lock'd the letter in my closet:) thefe injuries the King now bears, will be revenged home; there is part of a power already footed; we muft incline to the King; I will look for 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. There are ftrange things toward Edmund; pray, you, be careful. [Exit. Edm. This courtesy forbid thee, fhall the Duke Inftantly know, and of that letter too. This feems a fair deferving, and must draw me That which my father lofes; no less than all. The younger rifes, when the old doth fall.

Kent.

Changes to a part of the Heath with a Hovel.
Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool.

H

[Exit.

ERE is the place, my lord; good my lord,

enter.

The tyranny o' the open night's too rough

For nature to endure.

Lear. Let me alone.

Kent. Good my lord, enter here..

Lear. Will't break my heart?

[Storm fill.

Kent. I'd rather break mine own; good my lord,

enter.

Lear. Thou think'ft 'tis much, that this contentious florm

Invades us to the fkin; fo 'tis to thee;
But where the greater malady is fixt,

The

The leffer is fcarce felt. Thou'dft fhrun a bear;
But if thy flight lay toward the roaring fea,

Thou'dft meet the bear i'th' mouth. When the mind's free,

The body's delicate; the tempeft in my mind
Doth from my fenfes take all Feeling elfe,
Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!
Is it not, as this mouth fhould tear this hand
For lifting food to't? But I'll punish home;
-In fuch a night,

No, I will weep no more—

To hut me out?pour on, I will endure:
In fuch a night as this?, O, Regan, Gonerill,
Your old kind father, whofe frank heart gave all-
O, that way madness lies; let me fhun that;
No more of that.-

Kent. Good my lord, enter here.

in;

Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyself, seek thine own ease; This tempeft will not give me leave to ponder On things would hurt me more-but I'll go In, boy, go first. You houseless povertyNay, get thee in; I'll pray, and then I'll fleepPoor naked wretches, wherefoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm! How fhall your houseless heads, and unfed fides, Your loop'd and window'd raggednefs, defend you. From feasons fuch as the fe?- -O I have ta'en Too little care of this! take phyfic, Pomp; Expofe thyfelf to feel what wretches feel, That thou may'ft fhake the fuperflux to them, And fhew the Heavens more juft.

Edg. [within.] Fathom and half, fathom and half! poor Tom.

Fool. Come not in here, nuncle, here's a fpirit; help me, help me. [The fool runs out from the hovel. Kent. Give me thy hand, who's there?

Fool. A fpirit, a fpirit; he says his name's poor Tom. Kent. What art thou, that doft grumble there i'th' ftraw? come forth.

SCENE

Edg.

Enter Edgar, difguis'd like a Madman.

AWAY! the foul fiend follows me. Through

the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind. Humph, go to thy bed and warm thee.

Lear. Didit thou give all to thy daughters? and art thou come to this?

Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, o'er bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his pew; fet ratfbane by his Porridge, made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horfe, over four inch'd bridges, to courfe his own fhadow for a traitor, blefs thy five wits; Tom's a-cold. O do, de, do, de, do, de ;— -bless thee from whirl-winds, ftar-blafting, and taking; do poor Tom fome charity, whom the foul fiend vexes. There could I have him now, and there, and here again, and there. [Storm fill. Lear. What, have his daughters brought him to this pass ?

Could't thou fave nothing? didft thou give 'em all? Fool. Nay, he referv'd a blanket, elfe we had been all fhamed.

Lear. Now all the plagues, that in the pendulous air Hang fated o'er men's faults, light on thy daughters! Kent. He hath no daughters, Sir.

Lear. Death! traitor, nothing could have fubdu'd

nature

To fuch a lownefs, but his unkind daughters.
Is it the fashion that discarded fathers

Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?
Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot
Thofe pelican daughters.

Edg. Pillicock fat on pillicock-hill, halloo, halloo, loo, loo!

Fool.

Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools, and madmen.

Edg. Take heed o'th' foul fiend; obey thy parents; keep thy word juftly; fwear not; commit not with man's fworn fpoufe; fet not thy sweet 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, ferv'd the luft of my miftrefs's heart, and did the act of darkness with her: fwore as many oaths as I fpake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heav'n. One that flept in the contriving luft, and wak'd to do it. Wine lov'd I deeply; dice early; and in woman, out-paramour'd the Turk. Falfe of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in floth, fox in ftealth, wolf in greedinefs, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of fhoes, nor the ruftling of filks betray thy poor heart to woman. 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: fays fuum, mun, nonny, dolphin my boy, boy, Seffey: let him trot by. [Storm ftill.

Lear. Thou wert 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 ow'ft the worm no filk, the beast no hide, the fheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three of us are fophifticated. Thou art the thing itself; unaccommodated man is no more but fuch a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. off, you lendings; come unbutton here.

Off,

[Tearing off his clothes. Fool. Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis a naughty night to fwim in. Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher's heart, a small spark, and all the reft on's body cold ; look, here comes a walking fire.

Edg.