The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (book suggestions TXT) 📖

What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?

Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give ‘em all?

Fool. Nay, he reserv’d a blanket, else we had been all sham’d.

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 subdu’d nature To such a lowness 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 Those pelican daughters.

Edg. Pillicock sat on Pillicock’s Hill. ‘Allow, ‘allow, loo, loo!

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 justly; swear not; commit not with man’s sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array. Tom ‘s acold.

Lear. What hast thou been?

Edg. A servingman, proud in heart and mind; that curl’d my hair, wore gloves in my cap; serv’d the lust of my mistress’ 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 wak’d to do it. Wine lov’d I deeply, dice dearly; and in woman out-paramour’d 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 woman. Keep thy foot out of brothel, thy hand out of placket, thy pen from lender’s book, and defy the foul fiend. Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind; says suum, mun, hey, no, nonny. Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let him trot by.

Storm still.

Lear. Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy uncover’d body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou ow’st the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! Here’s three on’s 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.

[Tears at his clothes.]

Fool. Prithee, nuncle, be contented! ‘Tis 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 on’s body cold. Look, here comes a walking fire.

 

Enter Gloucester with a torch.

 

Edg. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet. He begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock. He gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the harelip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth.

 

Saint Withold footed thrice the ‘old; He met the nightmare, and her nine fold; Bid her alight

And her troth plight,

And aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!

 

Kent. How fares your Grace?

Lear. What’s he?

Kent. Who’s there? What is’t you seek?

Glou. What are you there? Your names?

Edg. Poor Tom, that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the todpole, the wall-newt and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets, swallows the old rat and the ditch-dog, drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; who is whipp’d from tithing to tithing, and stock-punish’d and imprison’d; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his body, horse to ride, and weapons to wear;

 

But mice and rats, and such small deer, Have been Tom’s food for seven long year.

 

Beware my follower. Peace, Smulkin! peace, thou fiend!

Glou. What, hath your Grace no better company?

Edg. The prince of darkness is a gentleman!

Modo he’s call’d, and Mahu.

Glou. Our flesh and blood is grown so vile, my lord, That it doth hate what gets it.

Edg. Poor Tom ‘s acold.

Glou. Go in with me. My duty cannot suffer T’ 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 th’ 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. Importune him once more to go, my lord.

His wits begin t’ unsettle.

Glou. Canst thou blame him?

Storm still.

His daughters seek his death. Ah, that good Kent!

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, The grief hath craz’d my wits. What a night ‘s this!

I do beseech your Grace—

Lear. O, cry you mercy, sir.

Noble philosopher, your company.

Edg. Tom’s acold.

Glou. In, fellow, there, into th’ hovel; keep thee warm.

Lear. Come, let’s in all.

Kent. This way, my lord.

Lear. With him!

I will keep still with my philosopher.

Kent. Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.

Glou. Take him you on.

Kent. Sirrah, come on; go along with us.

Lear. Come, good Athenian.

Glou. No words, no words! hush.

Edg. Child 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.

Gloucester’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 me to think of.

Corn. I now perceive it was not altogether your brother’s evil disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set awork 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 Gloucester.

Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension.

Edm. [aside] If I find him comforting the King, it will stuff his suspicion more fully.- I will persever 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 farmhouse near Gloucester’s Castle.

 

Enter Gloucester, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar.

 

Glou. 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.

Kent. All the power of his wits have given way to his impatience.

The gods reward your kindness!

Exit [Gloucester].

Edg. Frateretto calls me, and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.

Fool. Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a gentleman or a yeoman.

Lear. A king, a king!

Fool. No, he’s a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son; for he’s a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman before him.

Lear. To have a thousand with red burning spits Come hizzing in upon ‘em-Edg. The foul fiend bites my back.

Fool. He’s mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse’s health, a boy’s love, or a whore’s oath.

Lear. It shall be done; I will arraign them straight.

[To Edgar] Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer.

[To the Fool] Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she-foxes!

Edg. Look, where he stands and glares! Want’st thou eyes at trial, madam?

 

Come o’er the bourn, Bessy, to me.

 

Fool. Her boat hath a leak,

And she must not speak

Why she dares not come over to thee.

 

Edg. The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale.

Hoppedance cries in Tom’s belly for two white herring. Croak not, black angel; I have no food for thee.

Kent. How do you, sir? Stand you not so amaz’d.

Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?

Lear. I’ll see their trial first. Bring in their evidence.

[To Edgar] Thou, robed man of justice, take thy place.

[To the Fool] And thou, his yokefellow of equity, Bench by his side. [To Kent] You are o’ th’ commission, Sit you too.

Edg. Let us deal justly.

 

Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?

Thy sheep be in the corn;

And for one blast of thy minikin mouth Thy sheep shall take no harm.

 

Purr! the cat is gray.

Lear. Arraign her first. ‘Tis Goneril. I here take my oath before this honourable assembly, she kicked the poor King her father.

Fool. Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril?

Lear. She cannot deny it.

Fool. Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.

Lear. And here’s another, whose warp’d looks proclaim What store her heart is made on. Stop her there!

Arms, arms! sword! fire! Corruption in the place!

False justicer, why hast thou let her scape?

Edg. Bless thy five wits!

Kent. O pity! Sir, where is the patience now That you so oft have boasted to retain?

Edg. [aside] My tears begin to take his part so much They’ll mar my counterfeiting.

Lear. The little dogs and all,

Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me.

Edg. Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs!

Be thy mouth or black or white, Tooth that poisons if it bite; Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim, Hound or spaniel, brach or lym, Bobtail tyke or trundle-tall-Tom will make them weep and wail; For, with throwing thus my head, Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.

Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and fairs and market towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.

Lear. Then let them anatomize Regan. See what breeds about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard hearts? [To Edgar] You, sir-I entertain you for one of my hundred; only I do not like the fashion of your garments. You’ll say they are Persian attire; but let them be chang’d.

Kent. Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile.

Lear. Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains.

So, so, so. We’ll go to supper i’ th’ morning. So, so, so.

Fool. And I’ll go to bed at noon.

 

Enter Gloucester.

 

Glou. Come hither, friend. Where is the King my master?

Kent. Here, sir; but trouble him not; his wits are gone.

Glou. Good friend, I prithee take him in thy arms.

I have o’erheard a plot of death upon him.

There is a litter ready; lay him in’t And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master.

If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life, With thine, and all that offer to defend him, Stand in assured loss. Take up, take up!

And follow me, that will to some