Lear. Vengeance! plague! death! confusion! Fiery? what quality? Why, Gloster, Gloster,

I'd speak with the duke of Cornwall and his wife.

Gloster. Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so.
Lear. Inform'd them! Dost thou understand me, man?
Glos. Ay, my good lord.

Lear. The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear
father

Would with his daughter speak, commands her service:
Are they inform'd of this? My breath and blood! -
Fiery? the fiery duke? Tell the hot duke, that -
No, but not yet; may be, he is not well:
Infirmity doth still neglect all office,

Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves,
When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind
To suffer with the body. I'll forbear;

And am fallen out with my more headier will,
To take the indispos'd and sickly fit

For the sound man.2

Death on my state! wherefore

[Looking on KEnt.

Should he sit here? This act persuades me,
That this remotion3 of the duke and her

Is practice only. Give me my servant forth.
Go, tell the duke and 's wife, I 'd speak with them,
Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,
Or at their chamber door I'll beat the drum,

Till it cry

"Sleep to death.” 5

Glos. I would have all well betwixt you.

[Exit.

Lear. O me! my heart, my rising heart! - but, down. Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels, when she put them i' the paste alive; she rapp'd 'em o' the coxcombs 8 with a stick, and cried, "Down, wantons,

1. In sickness, we always treat with neglect services, which, when in good health, we accept with thankful acknowledgement.

2. And am vexed at my own headstrong will, which treats the man when suffering from illness as if he were in possession of good health.

3. Remotion, removal. Not in use. 4. Practice, artifice, conspiracy. See note 1, page 33.

5. Till the clamour of the drum de

stroys, or is the death of, sleep; or, Till it cry out "Awake no more."

6. Cockney formerly bore several significations: it meant an effeminate, ignorant fellow; a cook or scullion, in which sense it is here used; and is now applied by way of contempt to a native of London.

7. The paste, or crust of a pie, in Shakspeare's time, was called a coffin. 8. Coxcomb, corrupted from cock'scomb, the top of the head.

down:" 't was her brother, that in pure kindness to his horse buttered his hay.

Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOSTER, and Servants.

Lear. Good morrow to you both.

Cornwall.

Hail to your grace!

[KENT is set at liberty.

Regan. I am glad to see your highness.

[TO KENT.

Lear. Regan, I think you are; I know what reason I have to think so: if thou shouldst not be glad, I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb, Sepulchring an adult'ress. O are you free? Some other time for that. Beloved Regan, Thy sister 's naught: O Regan! she hath tied Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here.

[Points to his heart.

I can scarce speak to thee: thou 'It not believe,
With how deprav'd a quality O Regan!

Reg. I pray you, Sir, take patience. I have hope,
You less know how to value her desert,

Than she to scant her duty.1

Lear.

Say, how is that?

Reg. I cannot think, my sister in the least
Would fail her obligation: if, Sir, perchance,
She have restrain'd the riots of your followers,
'T is on such ground, and to such wholesome end,
As clears her from all blame.

Lear. My curses on her!

Reg.
O, Sir! you are old;
Nature in you stands on the very verge

Of her confine: you should be rul'd and led
By some discretion, that discerns your state
Better than you yourself.2 Therefore, I pray you,
That to our sister you do make return:

Say, you have wrong'd her, Sir.

Lear.
Ask her forgiveness?
Do you but mark how this becomes the house:3
"Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;

1. i. e. to be deficient in her duty. 2. The chief persons of your state are better able to judge of this than you are yourself.

3. The house is probably here used in its genealogical sense, for the paternal line, or, as the heraldic expression was, the first house.

Age is unnecessary:1 on my knees I beg,

That you

[Kneeling.

'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food." Regan. Good Sir, no more: these are unsightly tricks. Return you to my sister.

Lear.

Never, Regan.

She hath abated me of half my train;

Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue,
Most serpent-like, upon the very heart.

All the stor❜d vengeances of heaven fall

On her ungrateful top! Strike her young bones,
You taking airs,2 with lameness!

Corn.

Fie, Sir, fie!

Lear. You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,

You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun,

To fall and blast her pride!

Reg.

O the blest gods!

So will you wish on me, when the rash mood is on.

Lear. No, Regan; thou shalt never have my curse:

Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give

Thee o'er to harshness: her eyes are fierce; but thine
Do comfort; and not burn. "T is not in thee

To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,5
And, in conclusion, to oppose the bolt
Against my coming in: thou better know'st
The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude;

Thy half o' the kingdom hast thou not forgot,
Wherein I thee endow'd.

Reg.

Good Sir, to the purpose..

Lear. Who put my man i' the stocks? [Tucket within.
Corn.
What trumpet's that?

1. This may mean, old age has few wants, or, old people are useless.

2. To take, in old language, signified to blast, or infect with baneful influence.

therefore, tender-hefted may mean, whose bosom is agitated by tender passions. Some editors substitute, "tender-hearted."

5. i. e. to contract my allowances. 3. To fall, as a verb active, to Sizes are allowances of provision: the make fall, to diminish. word is still used in colleges.

4. Hefted is the same as heaved;

Enter OSWALD.

Regan. I know 't, my sister's: this approves her letter, That she would soon be here. Is your lady come? Lear. This is a slave, whose easy-borrow'd pride Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows.

Out, varlet, from my sight?

Cornwall.

What means your grace?

Lear. Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good hope Thou didst not know on 't. Who comes here? O heavens!

Enter GONERIL.

If you do love old men, if your sweet sway
Allow obedience, if yourselves are old,

Make it your cause; send down, and take my part!
Art not asham'd to look upon this beard?

O Regan! wilt thou take her by the hand?

[To GONERIL.

Goneril. Why not by the hand, Sir? How have I

All 's not offence, that indiscretion finds 2
And dotage terms so.

Lear.

offended?

O sides! you are too tough: How came my man i' the stocks? there, Sir; but his own disorders

Will you yet hold?
Corn. I set him
Deserv'd much less advancement.3

Lear.

You! did you?

Regan. I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.4
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 dismiss'd?
No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
To wage against the enmity o' the air;6
To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,

1. Allow sometimes signifies approve. 2. i. e. that indiscretion thinks so. 3. i. e. a still worse or more disgraceful situation.

4. Since you are weak, be content to acknowledge that you are so.

5. I am now away from home, and unprovided with the provisions necessary to entertain you and your followers.

6. i. e. To wage war with the air. The verb wage is now only used in connexion with war.

1

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 2
To this detested groom.

Goneril.

[Looking at OsWALD.

At your choice, Sir.

Lear. I pr'ythee, daughter, do not make me mad:
I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell.
We'll no more meet, no more see one another;
But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;
Or, rather, a disease that's in my flesh,
Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,
A plague-sore, an embossed 3 carbuncle,

In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee;
Let shame come when it will, I do not call it:
I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,

Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove.
Mend, when thou canst; be better, at thy leisure:
I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,

I, and my hundred knights.

Regan.

4

Not altogether so:
I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided
For your fit welcome. Give ear,5 Sir, to my sister,
For those that mingle reason with your passion,

Must be content to think you old, and so

But she knows what she does.

Is this well spoken?

Lear. Reg. I dare avouch it, Sir. What! fifty followers? Is it not well? What should you need of more? Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house, Should many people, under two commands,

Hold amity? T is hard; almost impossible.

Gon. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance From those that she calls servants, or from mine?

1. i. e.

to kneel at his throne.

2. Sumpter, a horse that carries the necessaries on a journey.

3. Embossed, swelling, protuberant.

4. I did not yet expect you.

5. To give ear, to pay attention, to listen.

6. Sith, since.