Enter Lear, Kent, and the 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
LEAR
Let me alone.
KENT
Good my lord, enter here.
LEAR
Wilt break my heart?
KENT
I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.
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
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
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, Gonerill!
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.
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.
Exit the Fool
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
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
And show the heavens more just.
EDGAR
(within)
Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom!
Enter the Fool 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 Poor Tom
EDGAR
Away! The foul fiend follows me.
Through the sharp hawthorn blow the cold winds.
Humh! Go to thy bed and warm thee.
LEAR
Didst thou give all to thy daughters? And art thou
come to this?
EDGAR
Who gives anything to Poor Tom? whom the foul
fiend hath led through fire and through flame, 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
porridge (n.) meat and vegetable stew or broth [reputed to produce strength]
ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inched bridges to
course his own shadow for a traitor. Bless thy five wits!
wits, also five wits faculties of the mind (common wit, imagination, fantasy, estimation, memory) or body (the five senses)
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 I
have him now, and there, and there again, and there.
Storm still
LEAR
What, has 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.
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.
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.
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's justice, swear not, commit not with man's
sworn spouse, set not thy sweet heart on proud array.
Tom's a-cold.
LEAR
What hast thou been?
EDGAR
A servingman, 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
ear (n.) hearing, listening, paying attention
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 plackets, thy pen from lenders'
books, and defy the foul fiend.
Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind,
Says suum, mun, nonny.
Dolphin, my boy, boy, sesey! Let him trot by.
Storm still
LEAR
Thou wert better in a 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 no wool, the
cat no perfume. Ha! Here's three on's are sophisticated.
cat (n.) civet cat [source of some perfumes]
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.
He tears 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 Flibberdigibbet. He begins
at curfew and walks till the first cock. He gives the web
and the pin, squenies the eye and makes the harelip,
mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of
earth.
S'Withold footed thrice the 'old;
He met the nightmare and her nine-fold,
Bid her alight and her troth plight –
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?
EDGAR
Poor Tom, that eats the swimming frog, the toad,
the todpole, the wall-newt and the water; that in 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 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!
GLOUCESTER
What, hath your grace no better company?
EDGAR
The prince of darkness is a gentleman; Modo he's
called and Mahu.
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
Go in with me. My duty cannot suffer
T' obey in all your daughters' hard commands;
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.
(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.
(To Edgar)
What is your study?
EDGAR
How to prevent the fiend and to kill vermin.
LEAR
Let me ask you one word in private.
Lear and Edgar talk apart
KENT
Importune him once more to go, my lord.
His wits begin t' unsettle.
wits, also five wits faculties of the mind (common wit, imagination, fantasy, estimation, memory) or body (the five senses)
GLOUCESTER
Canst thou blame him? –
(storm still)
His daughters seek his death. Ah, that good Kent,
He said it would be thus, poor banished man!
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,
The grief hath crazed my wits. What a night's this! –
wits, also five wits faculties of the mind (common wit, imagination, fantasy, estimation, memory) or body (the five senses)
I do beseech your grace –
LEAR
O, cry you mercy, sir.
(To Edgar)
Noble philosopher, your company.
EDGAR
Tom's a-cold.
GLOUCESTER
In, fellow, there, into th' hovel; keep thee
warm.
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 him you on.
KENT
Sirrah, come on. Go along with us.
LEAR
Come, good Athenian.
GLOUCESTER
No words, no words! Hush!
EDGAR
Child Roland to the dark tower came;
His word was still ‘ Fie, foh, and fum,
I smell the blood of a British man.’
Exeunt