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That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel;
Poor fool and knave, I've one string 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;
Must 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 priests are more in words than matter,
When brewers man their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors' tutors;

No heretics burnt, but wenches' faitors;
d, Then comes the time, who lives to fee't,
That Going shall be us'd with feet.
When every cafe in law is right,
No squire in debt, and no poor knight;
When slanders do not live in tongues;
And cut-purses come not to throngs;
When ufurers tell their gold i'th' field;
And bawds and whores do churches build::
Then shall the realm of Albion

Come to great confufion.

This prophecy Merlin shall make, for I do live before

Glo.

his time..

[Exit.

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An Apartment in Glo'ster's castle.

Enter Glo'ster, and Edmund.

ALACK, alack, Edmund,

I like not this un

natural 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 displeasure, neither to speak of him, intreat for him, or any way sustain him.

D6

Edm,

Edm. Most savage 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 spoken; (I have lock'd 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 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 master must be relieved. There are strange things toward Edmund; pray, you, be careful. [Exit.

Edm. This courtesy forbid thee, shall the Duke Instantly know, and of that letter too. This feems a fair deserving, and must draw me That which my father lofes; no less than all. The younger rises, when the old doth fall.

Kent.

SCENEV.

Changes to a part of the Heath with a Hovel.

Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool.

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enter.

[Exit.

the place, my lord; good my lord,

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 ftill.

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

enter.

Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much, that this conten

tious ftorm

Invades us to the skin; so 'tis to thee;

But where the greater malady is fixt,

The

The leffer is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear; on But if thy flight lay toward the roaring fea, :l Thou'dst meet the bearith' mouth. When the mind's

be

:)

free,

The body's delicate; the tempest in my mind ed Doth front my serses take all Feeling elfe, we Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!

d

le

Is it not, as this mouth should tear this hand For lifting food to't? - But I'll punish home; No, I will weep no more-In such a night, To shut me out? pour on, I will endure: dIn fuch a night as this? O, Regan, Gonerill, Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave allO, that way madness lies; let me shun that; No more of that.

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Kent. Good my lord, enter here.

Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyself, seek thine own eafe;

This tempeft will not give me leave to ponder
On things would hurt me more but I'll go in;
In, boy, go first. You houseless poverty
Nay, get thee in; I'll pray, and then I'll fleep-
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm!
How shall your houseless heads, and unfed fides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? OI have ta'en
Too little care of this! take phyfic, Pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou may'st shake the fuperflux to them,
And shew the Heavens more just.

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

poor Tom.

Fool. Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit; help me, help me. [The fool runs out from the hovel.

Kent. Give me thy hand, who's there?

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

straw? come forth.

SCENE

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Enter Edgar, disguis'd like a Madman.

Edg. A WAY! the foul fiend follows me. Through

the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.

Humph, go to thy bed and warm thee.

Lear. Didft 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 ratsbane by his Porridge, made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horfe, over four inch'd bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor, bless thy five wits; Tom's a-cold. O do, de, do, de, do, de; bless thee from whirl-winds, star-blasting, and taking; do poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes. There could I have him now, and there, and here again, and there. [Storm ftill. Lear. What, have his daughters brought him to this pass ?

Could'st thou save nothing? didst thou give 'em all? Fool. Nay, he reserv'd a blanket, else we had been all shamed.

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 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 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 justly; swear not; commit not gh with man's worn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on d. proud array. Tom's a-cold.

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er

Lear. What hast thou been?

Edg. A ferving-man, proud in heart and mind: that curl'd my hair, wore gloves in my cap, serv'd m the luft of my mistress's heart, and did the act of darkness with her: fwore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heav'n. One that flept in the contriving lust, and wak'd.to do it. Wine lov'd I deeply; dice early; and in woman, out-paramour'd the Turk. False of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in floth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes, nor the rustling of filks be- tray 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: says suum, mun, nonny, dolphin my boy, boy, Sessey: let him trot by. [Storm still.

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Lear. 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? Confider him well. Thou ow'st the worm no filk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three of us are sophisticated. Thou art the thing itself; unaccommodated man is no more but fuch a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings; come unbutton here.

[Tearing off his clothes.

Fool. Pr'ythee, 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, and all the rest on's body cold; look, here comes a walking fire. Edg.

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