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;
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.Gloucester's castle
Enter GLOUCESTER and EDMUND GLOUCESTER 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.EDMUND Most savage and unnatural!GLOUCESTER 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 EDMUND 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.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.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,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 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.
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.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,--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 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.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.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.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;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 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 Ihave him now,--and there,--and there again,and there.
Storm still KING 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.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.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 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;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 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.
