TPTT The Tragedy of King Lear: ACT III
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
SCENE I. A heath.
SCENE II. Another part of the heath. Storm still.
SCENE III. Gloucester's castle.
SCENE IV. The heath. Before a hovel.
SCENE V. Gloucester's castle.
SCENE VI. A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle.
SCENE VII. Gloucester's castle.
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE IV. The heath. Before a hovel.
Enter KING LEAR, KENT, and 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
KING LEAR
      Let me alone.
KENT
5     Good my lord, enter here.
KING LEAR
      Wilt break my heart?
KENT
      I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.
KING LEAR
      Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm
      Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee;
10    But where the greater malady is fix'd,
      The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'ldst shun a bear;
      But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,
      Thou'ldst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the
      mind's free,
15    The body's delicate: the 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:
20    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 frank heart gave all,--
      O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
25    No more of that.
KENT
      Good my lord, enter here.
KING 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

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

Fool goes in

      Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
      That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
      How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
35    Your loop'd and window'd 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,
40    And show the heavens more just.
EDGAR
      (Within) Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom!
The Fool runs out 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
45    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 a mad man
EDGAR
      Away! the foul fiend follows me!
      Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.
50    Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.
KING LEAR
      Hast thou given all to thy two daughters?
      And art thou come to this?
EDGAR
      Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul
      fiend hath led through fire and through flame, and
55    through ford and whirlipool e'er bog and quagmire;
      that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters
      in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made film
      proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over
      four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a
60    traitor. Bless thy five wits! 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
KING LEAR
65    What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?
      Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all?
Fool
      Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed.
KING LEAR
      Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air
      Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters!
KENT
70    He hath no daughters, sir.
KING 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?
75    Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot
      Those pelican daughters.
EDGAR
      Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:
      Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!
Fool
      This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.
EDGAR
80    Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy parents;
      keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with
      man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud
      array. Tom's a-cold.
KING LEAR
      What hast thou been?
EDGAR
85    A serving-man, 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
90    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 stealth,
      wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey.
95    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:
100   Says suum, mun, ha, no, nonny.
      Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let him trot by.
Storm still
KING LEAR
      Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer
      with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies.
      Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou
105   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! Thou art the thing itself:
      unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor bare,
      forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings!
110   come unbutton here.
Tearing 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
115   This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins
      at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives
      the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the
      hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the
      poor creature of earth.
120   S. Withold footed thrice the old;
      He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;
      Bid her alight,
      And her troth plight,
      And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!
KENT
125   How fares your grace?
KING LEAR
      What's 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,
130   the tadpole, 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
135   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.
140   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 call'd, and Mahu.
GLOUCESTER
      Our flesh and blood is grown so vile, my lord,
145   That it doth hate what gets it.
EDGAR
      Poor Tom's a-cold.
GLOUCESTER
      Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer
      To obey in all your daughters' hard commands:
      Though their injunction be to bar my doors,
150   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.
KING LEAR
      First let me talk with this philosopher.
      What is the cause of thunder?
KENT
155   Good my lord, take his offer; go into the house.
KING LEAR
      I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.
      What is your study?
EDGAR
      How to prevent the fiend, and to kill vermin.
KING LEAR
      Let me ask you one word in private.
KENT
160   Importune him once more to go, my lord;
      His wits begin to unsettle.
GLOUCESTER
      Canst thou blame him?

Storm still

      His daughters seek his death: ah, that good Kent!
      He said it would be thus, poor banish'd man!
165   Thou say'st the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend,
      I am almost mad myself: I had a son,
      Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life,
      But lately, very late: I loved him, friend;
      No father his son dearer: truth to tell thee,
170   The grief hath crazed my wits. What a night's this!
      I do beseech your grace,--
KING LEAR
      O, cry your mercy, sir.
      Noble philosopher, your company.
EDGAR
      Tom's a-cold.
GLOUCESTER
175   In, fellow, there, into the hovel: keep thee warm.
KING LEAR
      Come let's in all.
KENT
      This way, my lord.
KING LEAR
      With him;
      I will keep still with my philosopher.
KENT
180   Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.
GLOUCESTER
      Take him you on.
KENT
      Sirrah, come on; go along with us.
KING LEAR
      Come, good Athenian.
GLOUCESTER
      No words, no words: hush.
EDGAR
185   Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
      His word was still,--Fie, foh, and fum,
      I smell the blood of a British man.
Exeunt
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