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With checks; as flatteries,

Remember what I have said.

Oswald.

when they are seen, abus'd.1

Well, Madam.

Goneril. And let his knights have colder looks among you. What grows of it, no matter; advise2 your fellows so: I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall,

That I may speak:

To hold my course.3

I'll write straight to my sister,
Prepare for dinner.

SCENE IV.

A Hall in the same.

Enter KENT, disguised.

4

Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow,
That can my speech diffuse, my good intent
May carry through itself to that full issue
For which I raz'd my likeness.

[Exeunt.

Now, banish'd Kent,
If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd,
(So may it come!) thy master, whom thou lov'st,
Shall find thee full of labours.

Horns within. Enter LEAR, Knights, and Attendants. Lear. Let me not stay a jot for dinner: go, get it ready. [Exit an Attendant.] How now! what art thou?

Kent. A man, Sir.

Lear. What dost thou profess? What wouldest thou with us?

Kent. I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve him truly that will put me in trust; to love him that is honest; to converse with him that is wise, and says little; to fear judgment; to fight when I cannot choose, and to eat no fish.

1. When flatteries are seen to be 6. To converse is here used in its abused (by old fools) checks, i, e. harsh immediate signification of, to keep commeasures, must be used, as the only pany. means left to subdue them.

2. To advise, to inform. In this sense now chiefly confined to commercial language.

7. In Queen Elizabeth's time the papists were esteemed, and with good reason, enemies to the Government. Hence the proverbial phrase of, “He 's an honest man, and eats no fish;" to signify that he is a friend to the GovWhich in-ernment and a Protestant.

3. To act in the same manner as I do. 4. Diffuse here signifies disguise. 5. To raze, to efface. duced me to disguise myself. King Lear.

2

Lear. What art thou?

Kent. A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the king.

Lear. If thou be as poor for a subject, as he is for a king, thou art poor enough. What wouldest thou?

Kent.

Lear.

Service.

Whom wouldest thou serve?

Kent. You.

Lear. Dost thou know me, fellow?

Kent. No, Sir; but you have that in your countenance, which I would fain call master.

Lear. What 's that?

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Kent. I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious tale in telling it, and deliver a plain message bluntly that which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in; and the best of me is diligence.

Lear. How old art thou?

Kent. Not so young, Sir, to love a woman for singing; nor so old, to dote on her for any thing: I have years on my back forty-eight.

Lear. Follow me; thou shalt serve me: if I like thee no worse after dinner, I will not part from thee yet. Dinner, ho! dinner! Where 's my knave? my fool? Go you, and call my fool hither. [Exit an Attendant.

Enter OSWALD.

You, you, sirrah, where 's my daughter?

Osw. So please you,

[Exit.

Lear. What says the fellow there? Call the clotpoll1

back. [Exit a Knight]. Where's my fool, ho? I think the world 's asleep.

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Re-enter KNIGHT.

How now! where 's that mongrel?

Knight. He says, my lord, your daughter is not well.
Lear. Why came not the slave back to me, when I

called him?

Knight. Sir, he answered me in the roundest manner, he would not.

1. Clotpoll, thick-skull, blockhead.

Lear. He would not!

Knight. My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my judgment, your highness is not entertained with that ceremonious affection as you were wont: there's a great abatement of kindness appears, as well in the general dependants, as in the duke himself also, and your daughter. Lear. Ha! sayest thou so?

Knight. I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken; for my duty cannot be silent, when I think your highness wronged.

Lear. Thou but rememberest me of mine own conception. I have perceived a most faint neglect of late; which I have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity,1 than as a very pretence2 and purpose of unkindness: I will look farther into 't.

this two days.

But where 's my fool? I have not seen him

Knight. Since my young lady's going into France, Sir, the fool hath much pined away.

Lear. No more of that; I have noted it well. you, and tell my daughter I would speak with her. you, call hither my fool.

Re-enter OSWALD.

O! you Sir, you Sir, come you hither. Who am I, Sir? Osw. My lady's father.

Go

Go

Lear. My lady's father! my lord's knave: you whoreson dog! you slave! you cur!

Osw. I am none of these, my lord; I beseech your pardon.

Lear. Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal?

[Striking him.

Osw. I'll not be struck, my lord. Kent. Nor tripped neither, you base foot-ball player. [Tripping up his heels. Lear. I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and I'll love thee.

Kent. Come, Sir, arise, away! I'll teach you differ,ences: away, away! If you will measure your lubber's length again, tarry; but away! Go to:3 have you wisdom? so. [Pushes OSWALD out.

1. i. e. punctilious jealousy. 2. Pretence, in Shakespeare, generally signifies design. Very, real, true.

3. Go to, a scornful exhortation.

*

Lear. Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee: there's earnest of thy service.

[Giving KENT money.

Enter Fool.

Fool. Let me hire him too:

here 's my coxcomb.
[Giving KENT his cap.

Lear. How now, my pretty knave! how dost thou?
Fool. Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb.

Kent. Why, fool?

Fool. Why, for taking one's part that 's out of favour. Nay, an2 thou canst not smile as the wind sits, thou 'lt catch cold shortly: there, take my coxcomb. Why, this fellow has banished two on's daughters, and did the third a blessing against his will: if thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb. How now, nuncle! Would I had two coxcombs, and two daughters!

Lear. Why, my boy?

Fool. If I gave them all my living, 5 I'd keep my coxcombs myself. There's mine; beg another of thy daughters.

Lear. Take heed, sirrah; the whip.

Fool. Truth 's a dog must to kennel: he must be whipped out, when the lady brach may stand by the fire and stink.

Lear. A pestilent gall to me.

Fool. Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech.

Lear. Do.

Fool. Mark it, nuncle.

Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest,
Lend less than thou owest,
Ride more than thou goest,
Learn more than thou trowest,
Set less than thou throwest;

1. Earnest, money given for the purpose of confirming a contract.

2. An, contraction of and if, or for if alone.

3. On's, for of his. On is still frequently used for of in low language.

4. Nuncle, a corruption of mine uncle, as the fool familiarly addresses Lear.

5. Living formerly signified estate, or property. In this sense the benefice of a clergyman is now so called.

6. Brach, a bitch of the hunting kind.

7. To trow, to believe, to imagine, to conceive. Obsolete.

8. To set, to stake at play.

Leave thy drink and thy whore,
And keep in-a-door,

And thou shalt have more

Than two tens to a score.

Lear. This is nothing, fool.

Fool. Then, 't is like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer; you gave me nothing for 't. Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle?

Lear. Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing.

recalls words

Fool. Pr'ythee, tell him, so much the rent of his land comes to: he will not believe a fool.

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Fool. Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a bitter fool and a sweet one?

Lear. No, lad; teach me.

Fool.

That lord, that counsell'd thee
To give away thy land,
Come place him here by me;
Do thou for him stand:
The sweet and bitter fool
Will presently appear;
The one in motley here,

The other found out there.

Lear. Dost thou call me fool, boy?

Fool. All thy other titles thou hast given away, that

thou wast born with.

Kent. This is not altogether fool, my lord.

2

Fool. No, 'faith; lords and great men will not let me: if I had a monopoly out, they would have part on 't, and loads too: they will not let me have all fool to myself; they 'll be snatching. Give me an egg, nuncle, and I'll give

thee two crowns.

Lear. What two crowns shall they be?

Fool. Why, after I have cut the egg i' the middle, and eat up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou clovest thy crown i' the middle, and gavest away both parts, thou borest thine ass on thy back o'er the dirt: thou

1. Motley, of various colours: allud-ruption and avarice of the courtiers, ing to the fool's clothes.' who commonly went shares with the

2. A satire on the gross abuses of patentee. monopolies at that time, and the cor

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