King Lear

King Lear

ACT III SCENE IV	The heath. Before a hovel.
	Enter KING LEAR, KENT, and Fool
KENT	Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter:
	The tyranny of the open night's too rough
	For nature to endure.
	Storm still
KING LEAR	Let me alone.	5
KENT	Good my lord, enter here.
KING LEAR	Wilt break my heart?
KENT	I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.
KING LEAR	Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm
	Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee;	10
	But where the greater malady is fix'd,
	The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'ldst shun a bear;
	But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,
	Thou'ldst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the
	mind's free,	15
	The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
	Doth from my senses take all feeling else
	Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!
	Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand
	For lifting food to't? But I will punish home:	20
	No, I will weep no more. In such a night
	To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure.
	In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!
	Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all,--
	O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;	25
	No more of that.
KENT	Good my lord, enter here.
KING LEAR	Prithee, go in thyself: seek thine own ease:
	This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
	On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in.	30
	To the Fool
	In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty,--
	Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.
	Fool goes in
	Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
	That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
	How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,	35
	Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
	From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
	Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
	Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
	That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,	40
	And show the heavens more just.
EDGAR	Within
	The Fool runs out from the hovel
Fool	Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit
	Help me, help me!
KENT	Give me thy hand. Who's there?
Fool	A spirit, a spirit: he says his name's poor Tom.	45
KENT	What art thou that dost grumble there i' the straw?
	Come forth.
	Enter EDGAR disguised as a mad man
EDGAR	Away! the foul fiend follows me!
	Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.
	Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.	50
KING LEAR	Hast thou given all to thy two daughters?
	And art thou come to this?
EDGAR	Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul
	fiend hath led through fire and through flame, and
	through ford and whirlipool e'er bog and quagmire;	55
	that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters
	in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made film
	proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over
	four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a
	traitor. Bless thy five wits! Tom's a-cold,--O, do	60
	de, do de, do de. Bless thee from whirlwinds,
	star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some
	charity, whom the foul fiend vexes: there could I
	have him now,--and there,--and there again, and there.
	Storm still
KING LEAR	What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?	65
	Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all?
Fool	Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed.
KING 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.	70
KING LEAR	Death, traitor! nothing could have subdued 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	75
	Those pelican daughters.
EDGAR	Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:
	Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!
Fool	This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.
EDGAR	Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy parents;	80
	keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with
	man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud
	array. Tom's a-cold.
KING LEAR	What hast thou been?
EDGAR	A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled	85
	my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served 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 waked to do it:	90
	wine loved I deeply, dice dearly: and in woman
	out-paramoured 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	95
	silks 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:
	Says suum, mun, ha, no, nonny.	100
	Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let him trot by.
	Storm still
KING LEAR	Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer
	with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies.
	Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou
	owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep	105
	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.	110
	Tearing off 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
EDGAR	This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins	115
	at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives
	the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the
	hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the
	poor creature of earth.
	S. Withold footed thrice the old;	120
	He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;
	Bid her alight,
	And her troth plight,
	And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!
KENT	How fares your grace?	125
KING LEAR	What's he?
KENT	Who's there? What is't you seek?
GLOUCESTER	What are you there? Your names?
EDGAR	Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad,
	the tadpole, the wall-newt and the water; that in	130
	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 whipped from tithing to
	tithing, and stock- punished, and imprisoned; who	135
	hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his
	body, horse to ride, and weapon 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!	140
GLOUCESTER	What, hath your grace no better company?
EDGAR	The prince of darkness is a gentleman:
	Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.
GLOUCESTER	Our flesh and blood is grown so vile, my lord,
	That it doth hate what gets it.	145
EDGAR	Poor Tom's a-cold.
GLOUCESTER	Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer
	To obey in all your daughters' hard commands:
	Though their injunction be to bar my doors,
	And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,	150
	Yet have I ventured to come seek you out,
	And bring you where both fire and food is ready.
KING LEAR	First let me talk with this philosopher.
	What is the cause of thunder?
KENT	Good my lord, take his offer; go into the house.	155
KING LEAR	I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.
	What is your study?
EDGAR	How to prevent the fiend, and to kill vermin.
KING LEAR	Let me ask you one word in private.
KENT	Importune him once more to go, my lord;	160
	His wits begin to unsettle.
GLOUCESTER	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,	165
	I am almost mad myself: I had a son,
	Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life,
	But lately, very late: I loved him, friend;
	No father his son dearer: truth to tell thee,
	The grief hath crazed my wits. What a night's this!	170
	I do beseech your grace,--
KING LEAR	O, cry your mercy, sir.
	Noble philosopher, your company.
EDGAR	Tom's a-cold.
GLOUCESTER	In, fellow, there, into the hovel: keep thee warm.	175
KING LEAR	Come let's in all.
KENT	This way, my lord.
KING LEAR	With him;
	I will keep still with my philosopher.
KENT	Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.	180
GLOUCESTER	Take him you on.
KENT	Sirrah, come on; go along with us.
KING LEAR	Come, good Athenian.
GLOUCESTER	No words, no words: hush.
EDGAR	Child Rowland to the dark tower came,	185
	His word was still,--Fie, foh, and fum,
	I smell the blood of a British man.
	Exeunt