Fool. Come not in here, nuncle; here's a spirit. Help me! help me! Who's there? Kent. Give me thy hand. Fool. 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 Madman. Edgar. Away! the foul fiend follows me! Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.1 Humph, go to thy cold bed,2 and warm thee. Lear. Hast thou given all to thy two daughters? And art thou come to this? Edg. Who gives anything to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, over bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his pew3; set ratsbane by his porridge; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor. Bless thy five wits!4 Tom 's a-cold. O! do de, do de, do de.5 Bless thee from whirlwinds, starblasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes. There could I have him now, and there, and there, and there again, and there. [Storm continues. Lear. What! have his daughters brought him to this Could'st thou save nothing! Didst thou give pass? them all? Fool. Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed. Lear. Now, all the plagues, that in the pendulous air Hang fated o'er men's faults, light on thy daughters! Kent. He hath no daughters, Sir. Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have subdued nature To such a lowness, but his unkind daughters. Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers 1. A fragment of an old ballad. 2. To go to a cold bed (says Staunton) meant, to go cold to bed, as we now speak of lying on a sick bed. 3. i. e. in his place at church: the evil spirit had even followed him to church. -- 4. By our old writers the five senses were called the five wits. 5. He is shivering with the cold. 6. Starblasting, the pernicious influence of evil stars; taking, see note 2, page 46. Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?1 Edgar. Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill: - Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen. 3 Edg. 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. Lear. What hast thou been? Edg. A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair, wore gloves in my cap,5 served the lust of my mistress's 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 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. 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; says suum, mun, ho no nonny. Dolphin my boy, my boy; sessa! let him trot by. [Storm still continues. 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 owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume.10 Ha! here's three on 's are 1. See Edgar's description of the favour. Such was the fashion of the character he intended to represent, page 40. 2. According to fable, the young pelican is said to suck the mother's blood. 3. i. e. commit not adultery. 4. A serving man means here, a cicisbeo, a cavalier servante. 5. i. e. gloves which he had received from his mistress as marks of her time. 6. i. e. the Grand Turk, the Sultan. 7. i. e. credulous of evil, ready to receive malicious reports. 8. Plackets, petticoats. Obsolete. 9. These are scraps of old ballads. Sessa! See note 1, page 67. 10. A perfume derived from the civetcat was anciently much used. 2 sophisticated: thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man 3 is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. -Off, off, you lendings. - Come; unbutton [Tearing off his clothes. here. Fool. Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; 't is 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. Edgar. 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. Saint Withold footed thrice the wold; He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold; And her troth plight, And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!8 Enter GLOSTER, with a Torch. Lear. What 's he? Kent. Who's there? What is 't you seek? 9 Edg. Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the tadpole, the wall-newt, and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for 1. To sophisticate is to aduterate; 7. The web and the pin are diseases perhaps a quibble is intended with the of the eye; the web is a film covering termination of this word and the pre- the eye and obstructing the sight, the vious cat. It means that in comparison pin is a contraction of the pupil of with Edgar's simplicity they must be the eye; these were formerly always regarded as impure, or spurious. spoken of as one disease. 2. i. e. thou art the thing in its native purity. 3. i. e. natural man, man without any addition. 8. Saint Withold traversing the wold, or downs, met the night - mare with her nine familiars; he ordered her to alight from those persons whom she rides, and plight her troth, or 4. Lendings, borrowed things. swear, to do no more mischief. This 5. Naughty formerly had the mean-is taken from a story of the saint in ing of bad, wicked; now it is used his legend; he was popularly invoked a chiding epithet to children, or against the night mare. Aroint, playfully to older persons. as 6. i. e. till the first cock - crow in the morning. begone. sallets;1 swallows the old rat, and the ditch-dog;2 drinks the green mantle of the standing pool: who is whipped from tything to tything, and stocked, punished, and imprisoned;1 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. Beware my follower.5 Peace, Smulkin! peace, thou fiend! Gloster. What! hath your grace no better company? Edgar. The prince of darkness is a gentleman; Modo he 's call'd, and Mahu.“ Glos. Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile, That it doth hate what gets it.' Edg. Poor Tom 's a-cold. Glos. Go in with me. My duty cannot suffer And bring you where both fire and food is ready. What is the cause of thunder? Kent. Good my lord, take his offer: go into the house. Lear. I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban. What is your study? 8 Edg. How to prevent the fiend, and to kill vermin. Lear. Let me ask you one word in private. Kent. Impòrtune him once more to go, my lord, His wits begin t' unsettle. Glos. Canst thou blame him? His daughters seek his death. Ah, that good Kent! He said it would be thus, poor banish'd man! 1. Sallets, corrupted from sallads. Not in use. 2. Ditch-dog, a dead dog thrown into a ditch. 5. He means the evil spirit by whom he is haunted, and whom he calls Smulkin. 6. The names of pretended spirits. 7. i. e. what begets it; alluding to the conduct of their children. 3. A tything was an ancient territorial division, instituted by King Alfred: it consisted of a company of ten free-born men, who, dwelling near each 8. An obsolete meaning of to prevent other, were held free pledges to the is to anticipate, to get before; the king for mutual good behaviour. meaning here is to avoid, to flee 4. The common punishment of vaga-from. bonds in ancient times. Thou say'st, the king grows mad: I 'll tell thee, friend, Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life, The grief hath craz'd my wits. What a night 's this! Storm continues. 'O! cry you mercy, Sir. Noble philosopher, your company. Gloster. In fellow, there, into the hovel: keep thee warm. Kent. Lear. This way, my lord. With him: I will keep still with my philosopher. Hush. Kent. Good my lord, soothe him; let him tak the fellow. Glos. Take him you on. Kent. Sirrah, come on; go along with us. Lear. Come, good Athenian. Glos. No words, no words: Edg. Child Rowland to the dark tower came, SCENE V. A Room in GLOSTER'S Castle. Enter CORNWALL and EDMUND. [Exeunt. Cornwall. I will have my revenge, ere I depart this house. Edmund. How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think of. 2 Corn. I now perceive, it was not altogether your bro-` ther's evil disposition made him seek his death; but a pro 1. A' quotation from an old romance. The word child is often applied to knights in old historical songs and ro mances. 2. i. e. I am afraid to think of how my conduct may be judged, in thus To censure, which now signifies to |