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From this enormous state, seeking to give

Losses their remedies'- All weary and o'erwatch'd,

Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold

This shameful lodging.

Fortune, good night; smile once more, turn thy wheel.

Sleeps.

Scene III. The open country.

Enter Edgar.

Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd,

And by the happy hollow of a tree

Escap'd the hunt. No port is free, no place

That guard and most unusual vigilance

Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may scape,

I will preserve myself; and am bethought

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, elf all my hair in knots,

And with presented nakedness outface

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 villages, sheepcotes, and mills,

Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,

Enforce their charity. 'Poor Turlygod! poor Tom!'

That's something yet! Edgar I nothing am. Exit.

Scene IV. Before Gloucester's Castle; Kent in the stocks.

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. Ha!

Mak'st thou this shame thy pastime?

Kent. No, my lord.

Fool. Ha, ha! look! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied by the

head, dogs and bears by th' neck, monkeys by th' loins, and men

by th' legs. When a man's 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.

Lear. 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 would not, could not do't. 'Tis worse than murther

To do upon respect such violent outrage.

Resolve me with all modest haste which way

Thou mightst 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 which 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 th' 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 but what you speak of?

Kent. None.

How chance the King comes with so small a number?

Fool. An thou hadst been set i' th' stocks for that question,

thou'dst well deserv'd it.

Kent. Why, fool?

Fool. We'll set thee to school to an