To take the basest and most poorest shape,
That ever penury, in contempt of man,
Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth;
Blanket my loins; 39 elf all my hair in knots”;
And with presented nakedness out-face
The winds, and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numb’d and mortified bare arms
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary :
And with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting 40 villages, sheep-cotes, and mills,
Sometime with lunatick bans, sometime with prayers,
Enforce their charity.-Poor Turlygood"l! poor

Tom!
That's something yet;~Edgar I nothing am. [Exit.

SCENE IV.

Before Gloster's Castle.

Enter LEAR, Fool, and Gentleman. Lear. 'Tis strange, that they should so depart from

home,
And not send back my messenger.
Gent.

As I learn'd,
The night before there was no purpose in them
Of this remove.
Kent.

Hail to thee, noble master!

Lear. How!
Mak'st thou this shame thy pastime?
Kent.

No, my lord. Fool. Ha, ha; look! he wears cruel garters 42! Horses are tied by the heads; dogs, and bears, by the neck; monkies by the loins, and men by the legs: when a man is over-lusty at legs, then he wears wooden nether-stocks. Lear. What's he, that hath so much thy place

mistook To set thee here? Kent.

It is both he and she,
Your son and daughter.

Lear. No.
Kent. Yes.
Lear. No, I say
Kent. I say, yea.
Leur. No, no; they would not.
Kent. Yes, they have.
Lear. By Jupiter, I swear no.
Kent. By Juno, I swear, ay.

Lear. They durst not do't;
They could not, would not do't; 'tis worse than

murder, To do upon respect such violent outrage : Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way Thou might'st deserve, or they impose, this usage, Coming from us. Kent.

My lord, when at their home

I did commend your highness' letters to them,
Ere I was risen from the place that show'd
My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,
Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth
From Goneril his mistress, salutations;
Deliver'd letters, spite of intermission,
Which presently they read: on whose contents,
They summon'd up their meiny“, straight took

horse;
Commanded me to follow, and attend
The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks:
And meeting here the other messenger,
Whose welcome, I perceiv'd, had poison'd mine,
(Being the very fellow that of late
Display'd so saucily against your highness,)
Having more man than wit about me, drew;
He rais'd the house with loud and coward cries:
Your son and daughter found this trespass worth
The shame which here it suffers.

Fool. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way. Fathers, that wear rags,

Do make their children blind;
But fathers, that bear bags,

Shall see their children kind.
Fortune, that arrant whore,

Ne'er turns the key to the poor.But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours for thy daughters, as thou canst tell in a year.

Lear. O, how this mother swells up toward my

heart!
Hysterica passio! down, thou climbing sorrow,
Thy element's below!--Where is this daughter ?

Kent. With the earl, sir, here within.
Lear.

Follow me not; Stay here.

[Exit. Gent. Made you no more offence than what you

speak of? Kent. None. How chance the king comes with so small a train ?

Tool. An thou hadst been set i'the stocks for that question, thou hadst well deserved it.

Kent. Why, fool?

Fool. We'll set thee to school to an ant; to teach thee there's no labouring in the winter. All that follow their noses are led by their eyes; but blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty, but can sinell him that's stinking. Let go thy hold, when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it; but the great one that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after.

When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool

gives it.

That, sir, which serves and seeks for gain,

And. follows but for form,
Will pack, when it begins to rain,

And leave thee in the storm.

But I will tarry; the fool will stay,

And let the wise man fly :
'The knave turns fool, that runs away;

The fool no knave, perdy.
Kent. Where learn'd you this, fool?
Fool. Not i'the stocks, fool.

Re-enter LEAR, with GLOSTER.
Lear. Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they

are weary?
They have travellid hard to-night? Mere fetches;
The images of revolt and flying off!
Fetch me a better answer.
Glo.

My dear lord,
You know the fiery quality of the duke;
How unremoveable and fix'd he is
In his own course.

Lear. Vengeance! plague! death ! confusion !-
Fiery? what quality? Why, Gloster, Gloster,
I'd speak with the duke of Cornwall, and his wife.

Glo. Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so.
Lear. Inform'd them! Dost thou understand me,

man ?
Glo. Ay, my good lord.
Lear. The king would speak with Cornwall; the

dear father Would with his daughter speak, commands her ser

vice: Are they inform' of this ?-My breath and blood ! Fiery? the fiery duke!--Tell the hot duke, that

VOL. XIII.

G