William Shakespeare, King Lear
W. G. Clark, W. Aldis Wright, Ed.

ACT III

SCENE I

Kent.
Who's there, besides foul weather?

Gent.
One minded like the weather, most unquietly.

Kent.
I know you. Where's the king?

Gent.
Contending with the fretful element:

Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea,

Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main,

That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,

Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,

Catch in their fury, and make nothing of;

Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn (11)

The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.

This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,

The lion and the belly-pinched wolf

Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,

And bids what will take all.

Kent.
But who is with him?

Gent.
None but the fool; who labours to out-jest

His heart-struck injuries.

Kent.
Sir, I do know you;

And dare, upon the warrant of my note,

Commend a dear thing to you. There is division, (20)

Although as yet the face of it be cover'd

With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;

Who have--as who have not, that their great stars

Throned and set high?--servants, who seem no less,

Which are to France the spies and speculations

Intelligent to our state; what hath been seen,

Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes,

Or the hard rein which both of them have borne

Against the old kind king; or something deeper,

Whereof perchance these are but furnishings; (30)

But, true it is, from France there comes a power

Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already,

Wise in our negligence, have secret feet

In some of our best ports, and are at point

To show their open banner. Now to you:

If on my credit you dare build so far

To make your speed to Dover, you shall find

Some that will thank you, making just report

Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow

The king hath cause to plain. (40)

I am a gentleman of blood and breeding;

And, from some knowledge and assurance, offer

This office to you.

Gent.
I will talk further with you.

Kent.
No, do not.

For confirmation that I am much more

Than my out-wall, open this purse and take

What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia,--

As fear not but you shall,--show her this ring;

And she will tell you who your fellow is

That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm! (50)

I will go seek the king.

Gent.
Give me your hand: have you no more to say?

Kent.
Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet;

That, when we have found the king,--in which, your pain

That way, I'll this,--he that first lights on him

Holla the other. [Exeunt severally.

SCENE II

Lear.
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!

You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout

Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!

You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,

Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,

Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,

Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!

Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once, (9)

That make ingrateful man!

Fool.
O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry
house is better than this rain-water out o' door.
Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters' blessing:
here's a night pities neither wise man
nor fool.

Lear.
Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain!

Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:

I tax not you, you elements with unkindness;

I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children,

You owe me no subscription: then let fall

Your horrible pleasure; here I stand, your slave,

A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man: (21)

But yet I call you servile ministers,

That have with two pernicious daughters join'd

Your high engender'd battles 'gainst a head

So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul!

Fool.
He that has a house to put's head in
has a good head-piece.
The cod-piece that will house
Before the head has any,
The head and he shall louse; (30)
So beggars marry many.
The man that makes his toe
What he his heart should make
Shall of a corn cry woe,
And turn his sleep to wake.
For there was never yet fair woman but she
made mouths in a glass.

Lear.
No, I will be the pattern of all patience;

I will say nothing. Enter KENT.

Kent.
Who's there?

Fool.
Marry, here's grace and a cod-piece; (41)
that's a wise man and a fool.

Kent.
Alas, sir, are you here? things that love night

Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies

Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,

And make them keep their caves: since I was man,

Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,

Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never

Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot carry

The affliction nor the fear.

Lear.
Let the great gods,

That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads, (51)

Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,

That hast within thee undivulged crimes,

Unwhipp'd of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand;

Thou perjured, and thou simular man of virtue

That art incestuous: caitiff, to pieces shake,

That under covert and convenient seeming

Hast practised on man's life: close pent-up guilts,

Rive your concealing continents, and cry

These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man

More sinn'd against than sinning. (60)

Kent.
Alack, bare-headed!

Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel;

Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest:

Repose thou there; while I to this hard house--

More harder than the stones whereof 'tis raised;

Which even but now, demanding after you,

Denied me to come in--return, and force

Their scanted courtesy.

Lear.
My wits begin to turn.

Come on, my boy: how dost, my boy? art cold?

I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow? (70)

The art of our necessities is strange,

That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel.

Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart

That's sorry yet for thee.

Fool.
[Singing]
He that has and a little tiny wit,--

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,--

Must make content with his fortunes fit,

For the rain it raineth every day.

Lear.
True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this hovel. [Exeunt Lear and Kent.

Fool.
This is a brave night to cool a courtezan. (80)

I'll speak a prophecy ere I go:

When priests are more in word than matter;

When brewers mar their malt with water;

When nobles are their tailors' tutors;

No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;

When every case in law is right;

No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;

When slanders do not live in tongues;

Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;

When usurers tell their gold i' the field;

And bawds and whores do churches build; (91)

Then shall the realm of Albion

Come to great confusion:

Then comes the time, who lives to see't,

That going shall be used with feet.

This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time. [Exit.

SCENE III

Glou.
Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not
this unnatural dealing. When I desire their
leave that I might pity him, they took from me
the use of mine own house; charged me, on
pain of their perpetual displeasure, neither to
speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way
sustain him.

Edm.
Most savage and unnatural!

Glou.
Go to; say you nothing. There's a
division betwixt the dukes: and a worse matter
than that: I have received a letter this
night; 'tis dangerous to be spoken; I have
locked the letter in my closet: these injuries
the king now bears will be revenged home;
there's part of a power already footed: we
must incline to the king. I will seek 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. Though I die for it, as no less is threatened
me, the king my old master must be relieved.
There is some strange thing toward, Edmund;
pray you, be careful. [Exit.

Edm.
This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke

Instantly know; and of that letter too:

This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me

That which my father loses; no less than all.

The younger rises when the old doth fall. [Exit.

SCENE IV

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.

Lear.
Let me alone.

Kent.
Good my lord, enter here.

Lear.
Wilt break my heart?

Kent.
I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.

Lear.
Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm

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

But where the greater malady is fix'd,

The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'ldst shun a bear; (10)

But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,

Thou'ldst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the mind's free,

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:

No, I will weep no more. In such a night

To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure.

Tn such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!

Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave (20)
all,--

O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;

No more of that.

Kent.
Good my lord, enter here.

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.

[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, wheresoe'er you are,

That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, (30)

How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,

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,

And show the heavens more just.

Edg.
[Within]

Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom! [The Fool runs out from the hovel.

Fool.
Come not in here, nuncle, here's aspirit.

Help me, help me!

Kent.
Give me thy hand. Who's there?

Fool.
A spirit, a spirit: he says his name's
poor Tom.

Kent.
What art thou that dost grumble
there i' the straw? Come forth. Enter EDGAR disguised as a madman.

Edg.
Away! the foul fiend follows me!

Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.

Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.

Lear.
Hast thou given all to thy two daughters? (50)

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 whirli-pool,
o'er bog and quagmire; that hath laid
knives under his pillow, and halters in his
pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made him
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 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.

Lear.
What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?

Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all?

Fool.
Nay, he reserved 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 (70)
daughters!

Kent.
He hath no daughters, sir.

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

Those pelican daughters.

Edg.
Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:

Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!

Fool.
This cold night will turn us all to
fools and madmen.

Edg.
Take heed o' the 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 a-cold.

Lear.
What hast thou been?

Edg.
A serving-man, proud in heart and
mind; that curled 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: 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 silks betray thy
poor heart to woman: keep thy foot out of
brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen (101)
from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend.
Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind:
Says suum, mun, ha, 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 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 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. [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. (119)
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 hare-lip; mildews the
white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of
earth.

S. Withold footed thrice the old;

He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;

Bid her alight,

And her troth plight,

And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee! (130)

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 tadpole, 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 ditch-dog; drinks
the green mantle of the standing pool; who is
whipped from tithing to tithing, and stock-
punished, and imprisoned; who 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!

Glou.
What, hath your grace no better company?

Edg.
The prince of darkness is a gentle-

man: Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.

Glou.
Our flesh and blood is grown so vile, (150)
my lord,

That it doth hate what gets it.

Edg.
Poor Tom's a-cold.

Glou.
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,

Yet have I ventured to come seek you out,

And bring you where both fire and food is ready.

Lear.
First let me talk with this philosopher. (160)

What is the cause of thunder?

Kent.
Good my lord, take his offer; go into the 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 to 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! (170)

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 loved him, friend:

No father his son dearer: truth to tell thee,

The grief hath crazed 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 a-cold.

Glou.
In, fellow, there, into the hovel: keep thee warm.

Lear.
Come, let's in all.

Kent.
This way, my lord.

Lear.
With him; (181)

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

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 a-work (9)
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, (20)
that be may he ready for our apprehension.

Edm.
[Aside]

If I find him comforting the
king. it will stuff his suspicion more fully.--I
will persevere 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

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 (11)
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 hissing 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 (21)
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!

Wantest 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. Hopdance 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 amazed:

Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?

Lear.
I'll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence.

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

[To the Fool]
And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity, (40)

Bench by his side: [To Kent]
you are o' the 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.

Pur! the cat is gray.

Lear.
Arraign her first: 'tis Goneril. I here
take my oath before this honourable assembly, (50)
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? (60)

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 Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me.

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

Be thy mouth or black or white, (70)

Tooth that poisons if it bite;

Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim,

Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,

Or bobtail tyke or trundle-tail,

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 (79)
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 for one of
my hundred; only I do not like the fashion of
your garments: you will say they are Persian
attire; but let them be changed.

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' (91)
the morning. So, so, so.

Fool.
And I'll go to bed at noon. Re-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 (99)

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 provision

Give thee quick conduct.

Kent.
Oppressed nature sleeps:

This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses,

Which, if convenience will not allow,

Stand in hard cure. [To the Fool]
Come, help to bear thy master;

Thou must not stay behind.

Glou.
Come, come, away. [Exeunt all but Edgar.

Edg.
When we our betters see bearing our woes, (110)

We scarcely think our miseries our foes.

Who alone suffers suffers most i' the mind,

Leaving free things and happy shows behind:

But then the mind much sufferance doth o'er-skip,

When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.

How light and portable my pain seems now,

When that which makes me bend makes the king bow,

He childed as I father'd! Tom, away!

Mark the high noises; and thyself bewray,

When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee,

In thy just proof, repeals and reconciles thee. (121)

What will hap more to-night, safe 'scape the king!

Lurk, lurk. [Exit.

SCENE VII

Corn.
Post speedily to my lord your husband;
show him this letter: the army of
France is landed. Seek out the villain Gloucester. [Exeunt some of the Servants.

Reg.
Hang him instantly.

Gon.
Pluck out his eyes.

Corn.
Leave him to my displeasure. Edmund,
keep you our sister company: the revenges
we are bound to take upon your traitorous
father are not fit for your beholding.
Advise the duke, where you are going, to a
most festinate preparation: we are bound to
the like. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent
betwixt us. Farewell, dear sister: farewell,
my lord of Gloucester. Enter OSWALD.
How now! where's the king?

Osw.
My lord of Gloucester hath convey'd him hence:

Some five or six and thirty of his knights,

Hot questrists after him, met him at gate;

Who, with some other of the lords dependants,

Are gone with him towards Dover; where they boast

To have well-armed friends.

Corn.
Get horses for your mistress. (21)

Gon.
Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.

Corn.
Edmund, farewell. [Exeunt Goneril, Edmund, and Oswald.


Go seek the traitor Gloucester,

Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us. [Exeunt other Servants.


Though well we may not pass upon his life

Without the form of justice, yet our power

Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men

May blame, but not control. Who's there? the traitor? Enter GLOUCESTER, brought in by two or three.

Reg.
Ingrateful fox! 'tis he.

Corn.
Bind fast his corky arms. (30)

Glou.
What mean your graces? Good my friends, consider

You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends.

Corn.
Bind him, I say. [Servants bind him.

Reg.
Hard, hard. O filthy traitor!

Glou.
Unmerciful lady as you are, I'm none.

Corn.
To this chair bind him. Villain, thou shalt find-- [Regan plucks his beard.

Glou.
By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done

To pluck me by the beard.

Reg.
So white, and such a traitor!

Glou.
Naughty lady,

These hairs, which thou dost ravish from my chin,

Will quicken, and accuse thee: I am your host: (40)

With robbers' hands my hospitable favours

You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?

Corn.
Come, sir, what letters had you late from France?

Reg.
Be simple answerer, for we know the truth.

Corn.
And what confederacy have you with the traitors

Late footed in the kingdom?

Reg.
To whose hands have you sent the lunatic king?

Speak.

Glou.
I have a letter guessingly set down,

Which came from one that's of a neutral heart,

And not from one opposed.

Corn.
Cunning.

Reg.
And false. (50)

Corn.
Where hast thou sent the king?

Glou.
To Dover.

Reg.
Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not charged at peril--

Corn.
Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that.

Glou.
I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course.

Reg.
Wherefore to Dover, sir?

Glou.
Because I would not see thy cruel nails

Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister

In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.

The sea, with such a storm as his bare head (60)

In hell-black night endured, would have buoy'd up,

And quench'd the stelled fires:

Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain.

If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time,

Thou shouldst have said 'Good porter, turn the key,'

All cruels else subscribed: but I shall see

The winged vengeance overtake such children.

Corn.
See't shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair.

Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot.

Glou.
He that will think to live till he be old,

Give me some help! O cruel! O you gods!

Reg.
One side will mock another; the other too.

Corn.
If you see vengeance,--

First Serv.
Hold your hand, my lord:

I have served you ever since I was a child;

But better service have I never done you

Than now to bid you hold.

Reg.
How now, you dog!

First Serv.
If you did wear a beard upon your chin,

I'd shake it on this quarrel. What do you mean?

Corn.
My villain! [They draw and fight.

First Serv.
Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of anger. (80)

Reg.
Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus! [Takes a sword, and runs at him behind.

First Serv.
O, I am slain! My lord, you have one eye left

To see some mischief on him. O! [Dies.

Corn.
Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly!

Where is thy lustre now?

Glou.
All dark and comfortless. Where's my son Edmund?

Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature,

To quit this horrid act.

Reg.
Out, treacherous villain!

Thou call'st on him that hates thee: it was he

That made the overture of thy treasons to us; (90)

Who is too good to pity thee.

Glou.
O my follies! then Edgar was abused.

Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!

Reg.
Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell

His way to Dover. [Exit one with Gloucester.
How is't, my lord? how look you?

Corn.
I have received a hurt: follow me, lady.

Turn out that eyeless villain; throw this slave

Upon the dunghill. Regan, I bleed apace:

Untimely comes this hurt: give me your arm. [Exit Cornwall, led by Regan.

Second Serv.
I'll never care what wickedness I do,

If this man come to good.

Third Serv.
100If she live long,

And in the end meet the old course of death,

Women will all turn monsters.

Second Serv.
Let's follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam

To lead him where he would: his roguish madness

Allows itself to any thing.

Third Serv.
Go thou: I'll fetch some flax and white of eggs

To apply to his bleeding face. Now, heaven help him! [Exeunt severally.