g.

000

WS

Saddle my horses, call my train together.--
Degen'rate bastard! I'll not trouble thee;
Yet have I left a daughter.

[rabble

Gon. You strike my people, and your diforder'd Make servants of their betters.

Lear.

SCENE XV.

To them, Enter Albany.

W OE! that too late repents-O, Sir, are

you come?

> Is it your will, speak, Sir? prepare my horses.

[To Albany.

es? Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend,
More hideous, when thou shew'st thee in a child,
Than the fea-monster.

Alb. Pray, Sir, be patient.

Lear. Detefted kite! thou lieft.

[To Gonerill.

My train are men of choice and rarest parts,

That all particulars of duty know;

And in the most exact regard support

The worships of their names. O most small fault! B

How ugly didst thou in Cordelia shew?

Which, like an engine, wrencht my frame of nature From the fixt place; drew from my heart all love, And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear!

Beat at this gate that let thy folly in,

[Striking his head.

And thy dear judgment out. -Go, go, my people. Alb. My lord, I'm guiltless, as I'm ignorant,

Of what hath moved you.

Lear. It may be so, my lord-

Hear, Nature, hear; dear Goddess, hear a Father!
Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend

To make this creature fruitful:

Into her womb convey sterility,

Dry up in her the organs of increase,

And from her derogate body never spring

C3

A

A Babe to honour her! If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen, that it may live,
And be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her;
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,
* With candent tears fret channels in her cheeks:
Turn all her mother's pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt; that she may feel,
How sharper than a ferpent's tooth it is,

To have a thankless child.-Go, go, my people.

Alb. Now, Gods, that we adore, whereof comes

this?

Av

Gon. Never afflict yourself to know of it:

But let his disposition have that scope,

That dotage gives it.

Lear. What, fifty of my followers at a clap?

Within a fortnight?

Alb. What's the matter, Sir?

Lear. I'll tell thee--life and death! I am aflam'd

That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus;
[To Gonerill.
That these hot tears, which break from me perforce,
Should make thee worth them, blasts and fogs

upon thee!

Th' untented woundings of a father's curse
+ Pierce every fence about thee! Old fond eyes,
Beweep this Cause again, I'll pluck ye out,
And caft you, with the waters that you lose,
To temper clay. Ha! is it come to this?
Let it be fo: I have another daughter,
Who, I am fure, is kind and comfortable;
When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails
She'll flea thy wolfish visage. Thou shalt find,

es

That I'll refume the shape, which thou doft think

I have caft off for ever.

Gon.

[Ex. Lear and Attendants.

SCENE XVI.

O you mark that?

Alb. I cannot be so partial, Gonerill,

To the great love I bear you,

Gon. Pray you, be content.

What, Oswald, ho!

You, Sir, more knave than fool, after your master.

Fool. Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry, take the fool

with thee:

A Fox, when one has caught her,

And fuch a daughter,

Should fure to the flaughter,

If my cap would buy a halter,

So the fool follows after.

[Exit.

Gon. This man hath had good counsel-a hundred

Knights?

'Tis politic, and safe, to let him keep

A hundred Knights; yes, that on ev'ry dream,
Each buz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike,
He may enguard his dotage with their pow'rs,
And hold our lives at mercy: Ofwald, I fay.

Alb. Well, you may fear too far;-
Gon. Safer than trust too far.

Let me still take away the harms I fear,
Not fear still to be harm'd. I know his heart;

> What he hath utter'd, I have writ my sister;
If she'll sustain him and his hundred Knights,
When I have shew'd th'unfitness

How now, Oswald?

Enter Steward.

What, have you writ that letter to my sister?

Stew. Ay, Madam.

Gon. Take you some company, and away to horse;

Inform her full of my particular fears,

And thereto add fuch reasons of your own,

As may compact it more.

So get you gone,

[Exit Steward..

And haften your return.

-No, no, my lord,

This milky gentleness and course of yours,
Though I condemn it not, yet, under pardon,
You are much more at task for want of wisdom,

Than prais'd for harmful mildnefs.

Alb. How far your eyes may pierce, I cannot tell ;

Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.

Gon. Nay then

Alb. Well, well, th' event.

[Exeunt.

A Court-Yard belonging to the Duke of Albany's Palace.

Lear.

Re-enter Lear, Kent, Gentlemen and Fool.

G

O you before to Glo'ster with these letters; acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you know, than comes from her demand out of the letter: if your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there afore you.

Kent. I will not fleep, my lord, 'till I have deli[Exit.

vered your letter.

Fool. If a man's brain were in his heels, were't not

in danger of kibes ?

Lear. Ay, boy.

Fool. Then, I pr'ythee, be merry, thy wit shall not go flip-fhod.

Lear. Ha, ha, ha.

Fool. Shalt fee, thy other daughter will use thee kindly; for though she's as like this as a crab's like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell.

Lear. What canft tell, boy?

Fool. She will taste as like this, as a crab does to a crab. Canst thou tell, why one's nose stands i'th' middle of one's face ?

Lear. Lear. No.

Fool. Why, to keep one's eyes of either fide one's 1 nose; that what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into.

Lear. I did her wrong

Fool. Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?

Lear. No.

Fool. Nor I neither; but I can tell, why a snail has a house.

Lear. Why?

Fool. Why, to put's head in, not to give it away › to his daughters, and leave his horns without a cafe. Lear. I will forget my nature: fo kind a father ! be my horfes ready?

Fool. Thy affes are gone about 'em; the reason, why the seven stars are no more than seven, is a pretty reason.

Lear. Because they are not eight.

Fool. Yes, indeed; thou would'st make a good fool.

Lear. To take't again perforce! monster ingra

I titude!

Fool. If you were my fool, nuncle, I'd have thee beaten for being old before thy time.

Lear. How's that?

Fool. Thou should'st not have been old, 'till thou hadst been wife.

Lear. O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heav'n! Keep me in temper, I would not be mad.

Enter Gentleman.

How now, are the horses ready?

Gent. Ready, my lord.

Lear. Come, boy.

Fool. She that's a maid now, and laughs at my

departure,

Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter.

[Exeunt.