The arden shakespeare co.., p.283
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works, page 283
pray you, be careful. Exit.
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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.
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3.4 Enter LEAR, KENT[, disguised,] 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. [FStorm still.F]
LEAR Let me alone.
KENT Good my lord, enter FhereF.
LEAR Wilt break my heart?
KENT
I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.
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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 fixed,
The lesser is scarce felt. Thou’dst shun a bear,
But if thy flight lay toward the roaring sea,
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Thou’dst meet the bear i’the mouth. When the mind’s free,
The body’s delicate: this 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
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For lifting food to’t? But I will punish home;
No, I will weep no more. FIn such a night
To shut me out? Pour on, I will endure.F
In such a night as this? O, Regan, Goneril,
Your old, kind father, whose frank heart gave Q youQ all –
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O, that way madness lies, let me shun that;
No more of that.
KENT Good my lord, enter FhereF.
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;
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[to the Fool] FIn boy, go first. You houseless poverty –
Nay, get thee in. I’ll pray, and then I’ll sleep.
ExitF [Fool].
[Kneels.] Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
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Your looped and windowed 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
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And show the heavens more just.
[Enter Fool, as from the hovel.]
FEDGAR [within] Fathom and half, fathom and half:
Poor Tom!F
FOOL Come not in here, nuncle, here’s a spirit. Help me, help me!
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KENT Give me thy hand. Who’s there?
FOOL A spirit, Fa spirit.F He says his name’s Poor Tom.
KENT What art thou that dost grumble there i’the straw? Come forth.
Enter EDGAR[, disguised as Poor Tom].
EDGAR Away, the foul fiend follows me. Through the
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sharp hawthorn blows the Q coldQ wind. F Humh,F go
to thy Q coldQ bed and warm thee.
LEAR Didst thou give all to thy Q twoQ daughters? And
art thou come to this?
EDGAR Who gives anything to Poor Tom? Whom the
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foul fiend hath led through fire and Fthrough flame,F
through ford and whirlpool, 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
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bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor. Bless
thy five wits, Tom’s a-cold. FO do, de, do, de, do, de:F
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
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there again, Fand there.F[FStorm still.F]
LEAR Have his daughters brought him to this pass?
Couldst thou save nothing? Wouldst thou give ’em all?
FOOL Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed.
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LEAR [to Edgar]
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.
LEAR
Death, traitor! Nothing could have subdued nature
To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.
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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,
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Alow, alow, 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
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man’s sworn spouse, set not thy sweet-heart on proud
array. Tom’s a-cold.
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
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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
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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
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plackets, thy pen from lenders’ books, and defy the
foul fiend. Still through the hawthorn blows the cold
wind, says suum, mun, nonny, Dauphin my boy, Q myQ
boy, cessez! Let him trot by. [FStorm still.F]
LEAR QWhyQ, thou wert better in a grave than to answer
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with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies. Is
man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou
ow’st the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no
wool, the cat no perfume. FHa?F Here’s three on’s us
are sophisticated; thou art the thing itself.
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Unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor,
bare, forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings:
come, unbutton FhereF. [Tearing at his clothes, he is
restrained by Kent and the Fool.]
F Enter GLOUCESTER, with a torch.F
FOOL Prithee, nuncle, be contented; ’tis a naughty night
to swim in. Now a little fire in a wild field were like an
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old lecher’s heart, a small spark, all the rest on’s body
cold: look, here comes a walking fire.
EDGAR This is the foul QfiendQ Flibbertigibbet: he
begins at curfew and walks till the first cock; he gives
the web and the pin, squinies the eye and makes the
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harelip; mildews the white wheat and hurts the poor
creature of earth.
Swithold footed thrice the wold;
He met the nightmare and her nine foal,
Bid her alight and her troth plight,
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And aroint thee, witch, aroint thee.
KENT How fares your grace?
LEAR What’s he?
KENT [to Gloucester] Who’s there? What is’t you seek?
GLOUCESTER What are you there? Your names?
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EDGAR 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 salads; swallows the old rat and the
ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing
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pool; who is whipped from tithing to tithing and
stocked, punished and imprisoned – who hath Q hadQ
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
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Have been Tom’s food for seven long year.
Beware my follower. Peace Smulkin, peace, thou fiend.
GLOUCESTER
What, hath your grace no better company?
EDGAR The prince of darkness is a gentleman. Modo he’s called, and Mahu.
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GLOUCESTER
Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile
That it doth hate what gets it.
EDGAR Poor Tom’s a-cold.
GLOUCESTER [to Lear]
Go in with me. My duty cannot suffer
T’obey in all your daughters’ hard commands.
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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:
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[to Edgar] 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?
EDGAR How to prevent the fiend and to kill vermin.
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LEAR Let me ask you one word in private.
KENT [to Gloucester]
Importune him Fonce moreF to go, my lord;
His wits begin t’unsettle.
GLOUCESTER Canst thou blame him?
[FStorm still.F]
His daughters seek his death. Ah, that good Kent,
He said it would be thus, poor banished man.
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Thou sayest the King grows mad; I’ll tell thee, friend,
I am almost mad myself. I had a son,
Now outlawed from my blood; he sought my life,
But lately, very late. I loved him, friend,
No father his son dearer. True to tell thee,
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The grief hath crazed my wits. What a night’s this?
[to Lear] I do beseech your grace.
LEAR O, cry you mercy, Fsir.F
[to Edgar] Noble philosopher, your company.
EDGAR Tom’s a-cold.
GLOUCESTER
In, fellow, there, into the hovel; keep thee warm.
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LEAR Come, let’s in all.
KENT This way, my lord.
LEAR With him;
I will keep still with my philosopher.
KENT
Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.
GLOUCESTER Take you him on.
KENT Sirrah, come on; go along with us.
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LEAR Come, good Athenian.
GLOUCESTER No words, no words; hush.
EDGAR
Childe Rowland to the dark tower came,
His word was still ‘Fie, foh and fum,
I smell the blood of a British man.’ FExeunt.F
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3.5 Enter CORNWALL and EDMUND.
CORNWALL I will have my revenge, ere I depart his house.
EDMUND How, my lord, I may be censured that nature
thus gives way to loyalty something fears me to think of.
CORNWALL I now perceive it was not altogether your
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brother’s evil disposition made him seek his death, but
a provoking merit set a-work by a reprovable badness
in himself.
EDMUND How malicious is my fortune, that I must
repent to be just? This is the letter FwhichF he spoke
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of, which approves him an intelligent party to the
advantages of France. O heavens! That this treason
were FnotF, or not I the detector.
