running scene 8
Enter Lear, Kent and Fool
Kent disguised as Caius
KENT Here is the place, my lord. Good my lord, enter:
The tyranny of the open night’s too rough
For nature3 to endure.
Storm still
LEAR Let me alone.
KENT Good my lord, enter here.
LEAR Will’t 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 malady10 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’th’mouth. When the mind’s free13,
The body’s delicate14: the tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else
Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!
Is it not as17 this mouth should tear this hand
For lifting food to’t? But I will punish home18.
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 frank22 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 [Fool]
Kneels
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are,
That bide32 the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides33,
Your lopped and windowed34 raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta’en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp36,
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux38 to them
And show the heavens more just.
Enter Edgar and Fool
Within the hovel
EDGAR Fathom and half, fathom and half40! Poor Tom!
FOOL Come not in here, nuncle, here’s a spirit41. 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 grumble45 there i’th’straw?
Come forth.
Edgar comes out, disguised as a mad beggar
EDGAR Away! The foul fiend follows me! Through the sharp
hawthorn blow the winds. Hum! Go to thy bed and warm
thee.
LEAR Did’st thou give all to thy daughters? And art thou
come to this?
EDGAR Who gives anything to poor Tom? Whom the foul52
fiend hath led through fire and through flame, through ford
and whirlpool, o’er bog and quagmire, that hath laid knives54
under his pillow, and halters in his pew, set ratsbane55 by his
porridge, made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay56 trotting-horse
over four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for57
a traitor. Bless thy five wits! Tom’s a-cold. O, do de, do de58, do
de. Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting and taking59! Do
poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes: there60
could I have him now — and there — and there again, and
there.
Storm still
LEAR Has his daughters brought him to this pass63?
Couldst thou save nothing? Wouldst thou give ’em all?
FOOL Nay, he reserved a blanket65, else we had been all
shamed.
LEAR Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous67 air
Hang fated o’er men’s faults68 light on thy daughters!
KENT He hath no daughters, sir.
LEAR Death, traitor! Nothing could have subdued nature70
To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.
Is it the fashion that discarded fathers
Should have thus little mercy on their flesh73?
Judicious punishment! ’Twas this flesh begot
Those pelican75 daughters.
EDGAR Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hilclass="underline" alow, alow, loo, loo76!
FOOL This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.
EDGAR Take heed o’th’foul fiend: obey78 thy parents, keep thy
word’s justice, swear not, commit not79 with man’s sworn
spouse, set not thy sweetheart on proud array80. Tom’s a-cold.
LEAR What hast thou been?
EDGAR A servingman, proud in heart and mind, that
curled my hair, wore gloves83 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 in86 the contriving of lust, and
waked to do it: wine loved I dearly, dice87 dearly, and in woman
out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of ear88, bloody
of hand: hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog
in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes nor90
the rustling of silks betray thy poor heart to woman: keep
thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen92
from lenders’ books, and defy the foul fiend. Still through the
hawthorn blows the cold wind, says suum, mun, nonny94,
Dolphin my boy, boy sessa! Let him trot by95.
Storm still
LEAR Thou wert better in a grave than to answer96 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 perfume99. Ha?
Here’s three on’s are sophisticated100. Thou art the thing itself:
unaccommodated101 man is no more but such a poor bare,
forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings102! Come,
unbutton here.
Tears off his clothes
Enter Gloucester with a torch
FOOL Prithee, nuncle, be contented: ’tis a naughty104 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 fire107.
EDGAR This is the foul Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew108
and walks till the first cock: he gives the web and the pin109,
squints110 the eye and makes the hare-lip, mildews the white
wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth.
Chants?
Swithold footed thrice the old112,
He met the nightmare and her nine-fold113;
Bid her alight,
And her troth plight115,
And, aroint116 thee, witch, aroint thee!
KENT How fares your grace?
LEAR What’s118 he?
KENT 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,