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King Lear : Act 3, Scene 4

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           Enter LEAR, KENT [disguised as Caius],
           and Fool.

      KENT
  1   Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter:
  2   The tyranny of the open night's too rough
  3   For nature to endure.

           Storm still.

      KING LEAR
  3                                               Let me alone.

      KENT
  4   Good my lord, enter here.

      KING LEAR
  4                                               Wilt break my heart?

      KENT
  5   I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.

      KING LEAR
  6   Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm
  7   Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee;
  8   But where the greater malady is fix'd,
  9   The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'ldst shun a bear;
 10   But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,
 11   Thou'ldst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the mind's free,
 12   The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
 13   Doth from my senses take all feeling else
 14   Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!
 15   Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand
 16   For lifting food to't? But I will punish home:
 17   No, I will weep no more. In such a night
 18   To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure.
 19   In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!
 20   Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all,—
 21   O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
 22   No more of that.

       KENT
 22                             Good my lord, enter here.

      KING LEAR
 23   Prithee, go in thyself: seek thine own ease:
 24   This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
 25   On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in.

           [To the Fool.]

 26   In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty,—
 27   Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.

           Exit [Fool].

 28   Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
 29   That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
 30   How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
 31   Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
 32   From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
 33   Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
 34   Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
 35   That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
 36   And show the heavens more just.

      EDGAR [Within.]
 37   Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor
 38   Tom!

           [The] Fool [runs out from the hovel].

      Fool
 39   Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit
 40   Help me, help me!

      KENT
 41   Give me thy hand. Who's there?

      Fool
 42   A spirit, a spirit: he says his name's poor
 43   Tom.

      KENT
 44   What art thou that dost grumble
 45    there i' the straw? Come forth.

           Enter EDGAR [disguised as a mad man].

      EDGAR
 46   Away! the foul fiend follows me! Through the
 47   sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind. Humh!
 48   go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.

      KING LEAR
 49   Hast thou given all to thy two daughters? And art
 50   thou come to this?

      EDGAR
 51   Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul
 52   fiend hath led through fire and through flame,
 53   through ford and whirlpool o'er bog and quagmire;
 54   that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters
 55   in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made him
 56   proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over
 57   four-inch'd bridges, to course his own shadow for
 58   a traitor. Bless thy five wits! Tom's a-cold,—O, do de,
 59   do de, do de. Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting,
 60   and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, whom the
 61   foul fiend vexes. There could I have him now,—and
 62   there,— and there again,— and there.

           Storm still.

      KING LEAR
 63   What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?
 64   Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all?

      Fool
 65   Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all
 66   sham'd.

      KING LEAR
 67   Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air
 68   Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters!

      KENT
 69   He hath no daughters, sir.

      KING LEAR
 70   Death, traitor! nothing could have subdued nature
 71   To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.
 72   Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers
 73   Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?
 74   Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot
 75   Those pelican daughters.

      EDGAR
 76   Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill: alow, alow,
 77   loo, loo!

      Fool
 78   This cold night will turn us all to fools and
 79   madmen.

      EDGAR
 80   Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy parents;
 81   keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with
 82   man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud
 83   array. Tom's a-cold.

      KING LEAR
 84   What hast thou been?

      EDGAR
 85   A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled
 86   my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of
 87   my mistress' heart, and did the act of darkness with
 88   her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and
 89   broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one that
 90   slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it:
 91   wine loved I deeply, dice dearly: and in woman
 92   out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of ear,
 93   bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in
 94   greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the
 95   creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray thy
 96   poor heart to woman: keep thy foot out of brothels,
 97   thy hand out of plackets, thy pen from lenders' books,
 98   and defy the foul fiend. Still through the hawthorn
 99   blows the cold wind: Says suum, mun, ha, no, nonny.
100   Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let him trot by.

           Storm still.

      KING LEAR
101   Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer
102   with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies.
103   Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou
104   owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep
105   no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three on
106   's are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself:
107   unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor bare,
108   forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings!
109   come unbutton here.

           [Tearing off his clothes.]

      Fool
110   Prithee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis a naughty
111   night to swim in. Now a little fire in a wild field
112   were like an old lecher's heart; a small spark,
113   all the rest on's body cold. Look, here comes a
114   walking fire.

           Enter GLOUCESTER, with a torch.

      EDGAR
115   This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins
116   at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives
117   the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the
118   hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the
119   poor creature of earth.
120        Swithold footed thrice the 'old;
121        He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;
122             Bid her alight,
123             And her troth plight,
124        And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!

      KENT
125   How fares your grace?

      KING LEAR
126   What's he?

      KENT
127   Who's there? What is't you seek?

      GLOUCESTER
128   What are you there? Your names?

      EDGAR
129   Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad,
130   the tadpole, the wall-newt and the water; that in
131   the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages,
132   eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat and
133   the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the
134   standing pool; who is whipped from tithing to
135   tithing, and stock-punished, and imprisoned; who
136   hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his body—
137        Horse to ride, and weapon to wear;
138        But mice and rats, and such small deer,
139        Have been Tom's food for seven long year.
140   Beware my follower. Peace, Smulkin; peace,
141   thou fiend!

      GLOUCESTER
142   What, hath your grace no better company?

      EDGAR
143   The prince of darkness is a gentleman:
144   Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.

      GLOUCESTER
145   Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vild,
146   That it doth hate what gets it.

      EDGAR
147   Poor Tom's a-cold.

      GLOUCESTER
148   Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer
149   To obey in all your daughters' hard commands:
150   Though their injunction be to bar my doors,
151   And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,
152   Yet have I ventured to come seek you out,
153   And bring you where both fire and food is ready.

      KING LEAR
154   First let me talk with this philosopher.
155   What is the cause of thunder?

      KENT
156   Good my lord, take his offer; go into the house.

      KING LEAR
157   I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.
158   What is your study?

      EDGAR
159   How to prevent the fiend, and to kill vermin.

      KING LEAR
160   Let me ask you one word in private.

      KENT
161   Importune him once more to go, my lord;
162   His wits begin to unsettle.

      GLOUCESTER
162                                             Canst thou blame him?

           Storm still.

163   His daughters seek his death: ah, that good Kent!
164   He said it would be thus, poor banish'd man!
165   Thou say'st the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend,
166   I am almost mad myself: I had a son,
167   Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life,
168   But lately, very late: I loved him, friend;
169   No father his son dearer: truth to tell thee,
170   The grief hath crazed my wits. What a night's this!
171   I do beseech your grace,—

      KING LEAR
171                                               O, cry your mercy, sir.
172   Noble philosopher, your company.

      EDGAR
173   Tom's a-cold.

      GLOUCESTER
174   In, fellow, there, into the hovel: keep thee warm.

      KING LEAR
175   Come, let's in all.

      KENT
175                                 This way, my lord.

      KING LEAR
175                                                                 With him;
176   I will keep still with my philosopher.

      KENT
177   Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.

      GLOUCESTER
178   Take him you on.

      KENT
179   Sirrah, come on; go along with us.

      KING LEAR
180   Come, good Athenian.

      GLOUCESTER
181   No words, no words: hush.

      EDGAR
182    Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
183   His word was still, "Fie, foh, and fum,
184   I smell the blood of a British man."

           Exeunt.