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