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. | |
KENT | Good my lord, enter here. | 5 |
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; | ||
But where the greater malady is fix’d, | 10 | |
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, | ||
The body’s delicate: the tempest in my mind | 15 | |
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 | 20 | |
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; | ||
No more of that. | 25 | |
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. | ||
[To the Fool] | ||
In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty,– | 30 | |
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, | ||
Your loop’d and window’d raggedness, defend you | 35 | |
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. | 40 | |
EDGAR | [Within] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom! | |
[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] |
King Lear, Act 3, Scene 5