Corn. Hail to your grace! Reg. I am glad to see your highness. [KENT is set at liberty. Lear. Regan, I think you are; I know what reason Thy sister's naught: O Regan, she hath tied I can scarce speak to thee; thou'lt not believe, [Points to his heart. Reg. I pray you, sir, take patience; I have hope, You less know how to value her desert, Than she to scant her duty. Lear. Say, how is that? Reg. I cannot think, my sister in the least Lear. My curses on her! O, sir, you are old; By some discretion, that discerns your state Better than you yourself: Therefore, I pray you, That to our sister you do make return: Say, you have wrong'd her, sir. Lear. Do you but mark how this becomes the house? Ask her forgiveness? Dear daughter, I confess that I am old; [Kneeling Age is unnecessary: on my knees I beg, That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food. Reg. Good sir, no more; these are unsightly tricks : Return you to my sister. Lear. Never, Regan: She hath abated me of half my train; Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue, All the stor❜d vengeances of heaven fall On her ungrateful top! Strike her young bones. Corn. Fye, fye, fye! Lear. You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty, You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun, To fall and blast her pride! Reg. O the blest gods! So will you wish on me, when the rash mood's on. Thee o'er to harshness; her eyes are fierce, but thine Reg. Lear. Who put my man i' the stocks? Corn. Good sir, to the purpose. [Trumpets within What trumpet's that? Enter Steward. Reg. I know't, my sister's: this approves her letter, What means your grace? Corn. If Enter GONERIL. you do love old men, if your sweet sway Allow obedience, if yourselves are old, Make it your cause: send down, and take my part !— Art not asham'd to look upon this beard ?— O, Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand? [To GONERIL Gon. Why not by the hand, sir? How have I offended? All's not offence, that indiscretion finds, And dotage terms so. Lear. O, sides, you are too tough! Will you yet hold?-How came my man i' the stocks? Lear. No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose [Looking on the Steward Gon. Which I must needs call mine; thou art a boil, In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee; Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove : I, and my hundred knights. Reg. Not altogether so, sir; Lear. Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible. Gon. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance, From those that she calls servants, or from mine? Reg. Why not, my lord? If then they chanc'd to slack you, We could control them: If you will come to me, (For now I spy a danger,) I entreat you To bring but five and twenty; to no more Will I give place, or notice. Lear. I gave you all Reg. And in good time you gave it. Lear. Made you my guardians, my depositaries; But kept a reservation to be follow'd With such a number: What, must I come to you Reg. And speak it again, my lord; no more with me. Gon. Hear me, my lord; What need you five and twenty, ten, or five, Reg. • What need one? Lear. O, reason not the need: our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous : Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man's life is cheap as beast's: thou art a lady; If only to go warm were gorgeous, [TO GONERIL Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st, That all the world shall-I will do such things,— I have full cause of weeping; but this heart [Exeunt LEAR, GLOSTER, KENT and Fool. Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a storm. [Storm heard at a distance. This house Reg. Gon. 'Tis his own blame; he hath put Himself from rest, and must needs taste his folly. Re-enter GLOSTER. Corn. Follow'd the old man forth :-he is return'd. There's scarce a bush. Reg. O, sir, to wilful men, The injuries, that they themselves procure, Must be their schoolmasters: Shut up your doors; And what they may incense him to, being apt To have his ear abus'd, wisdom bids fear. Corn. Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild nig My Regan counsels well: come out o' the storm. ACT III. Lear, cast off by his pitiless daughters, wanders distracted through country, accom panied by his faithful Fool. Kent is released, and immediately proc. ds in search of his royal master. SCENE.—A Heath. A storm is heard, with thunder and lightning. Enter LEAR, and Fool. Lear. Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! rage! Slow! You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench'd our steeples! You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt couriers to oak-cleaving thunder-bolts, Singe my white head! And thou, all shaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world! Crack nature's moulds, all germins* spill at once, That make ingrateful man! Fool. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters' blessing; here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools. Lear. Rumble thy bellyfull! Spit, fire! spout, rain ! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters: I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness, *Seeds begun to sprout. |