They summon'd up their meiny, straight took horse;
Commanded me to follow, and attend

The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks:
And meeting here the other messenger,

Whose welcome, I perceiv'd, had poison'd mine,
(Being the very fellow that of late

Display'd so saucily against your highness,)
Having more man than wit about me, drew;
He rais'd the house with loud and coward cries:

Your son and daughter found this trespass worth
The shame which here it suffers.

Fool. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild-geese fly that

way.

Fathers, that wear rags,

Do make their children blind;
But fathers, that bear bags,

Shall see their children kind.

Fortune, that arrant whore,

Ne'er turns the key to the poor.

But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours for thy

daughters, as thou can'st tell in a year.

Lear. O, how this mother swells up toward my heart! Hysterica passio! down, thou climbing sorrow,

Thy elements below!-Where is this daughter?

Kent. With the earl, sir, here within.

Lear.

Stay here.

Follow me not;

[Exit.

Gent. Made you no more offence than what you speak of?

Kent. None.

How chance the king comes with so small a train ?

Fool. An thou hadst been set i'the stocks for that question, thou hadst well deserved it.

Kent. Why, fool?

meiny,] i. e. Family. Mesnie, Fr.

dolours Quibble between dolours and dollars.-HANMER.

e O, how this mother, &c.] Lear here affects to pass off the swelling of his heart ready to burst with grief and indignation, for the disease called the Mother, or Hysterica passio, which, in our author's time, was not thought peculiar to women only.-PERCY.

Fool. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring in the winter. All that follow their noses are led by their eyes, but blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty, but can smell him that's stinking. Let go thy hold, when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it; but the great one that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again; I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.

That, sir, which serves and seeks for gain,

And follows but for form,

Will pack, when it begins to rain,

And leave thee in the storm.
But I will tarry; the fool will stay,
And let the wise man fly:

The knave turns fool, that runs away;
The fool no knave, perdy.

Kent. Where learn'd you this, fool?

Fool. Not i'the stocks, fool.

Re-enter LEAR, with GLOSTER.

Lear. Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary?

They have travell'd hard to-night? Mere fetches;

The images of revolt and flying off!

Fetch me a better answer.

Glo.

My dear lord,

You know the fiery quality of the duke;
How unremoveable and fix'd he is

In his own course.

Lear. Vengeance! plague! death! confusion !Fiery? what quality? why, Gloster, Gloster,

I'd speak with the duke of Cornwall, and his wife.

The knave turns fool, that runs away;

The fool no knave, perdy.] I think the passage is erroneous, though both the copies concur. The sense will be mended if we read:

The fool turns knave, that runs away;

The knave no fool, perdy.

That I stay with the king is a proof that I am a fool; the wise men are deserting him. There is knavery in this desertion, but there is no folly.JOHNSON. Perdy is a corruption of par dieu.

Glo. Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so.
Lear. Inform'd them! Dost thou understand me, man?
Glo. Ay, my good lord.

Lear. The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father

Would with his daughter speak, commands her service:
Are they inform'd of this?My breath and blood!-
Fiery? the fiery duke ?-Tell the hot duke, that—
No, but not yet:-may be, he is not well:
Infirmity doth still neglect all office,

Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves,
When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind
To suffer with the body: I'll forbear;

And am fallen out with my more headier will,
To take the indispos'd and sickly fit

For the sound man.-Death on my state! wherefore

[Looking on Kent.

Should he sit here? This act persuades me,

That this remotions of the duke and her

Is practice only. Give me my servant forth:

Go, tell the duke and his wife, I'd speak with them,
Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,
Or at their chamber door I'll beat the drum,
Till it cry-Sleep to death.1

Glo. I'd have all well betwixt you.

[Exit.

Lear. O me, my heart, my rising heart!—but, down. Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels, when she put them i'the paste alive; she rapp'd 'em o'the coxcombs with a stick, and cry'd, Down, wantons, down: "Twas her brother, that, in pure kindness to his horse, butter'd his hay.

Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOSTER, and Servants.
Lear. Good morrow to you both.
Corn.

Hail to your grace! [KENT is set at liberty.

this remotion-] From their own house to that of the earl of Gloster.-MALONE.

h

practice-] i. e. Deceit. This word is commonly used in an ill sense by the writers of Shakspeare's time.

Sleep to death.] i. e. I'll beat the drum till it cries out-Let them awake no more; let their present sleep be their last.-STEEVENS.

Reg. I am glad to see your highness.

Lear. Regan, I think you are; I know what reason I have to think so: if thou should'st not be glad, I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb, Sepúlch'ring an adultress.-O, are you are you free?

[TO KENT.

Some other time for that.-Beloved Regan,
Thy sister's naught: O Regan, she hath tied
Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here,-

[Points to his Heart.

I can scarce speak to thee: thou'lt not believe,
Of how deprav'd a quality-O Regan!
Reg. I pray you, sir, take patience; I have hope,
You less know how to value her desert,

Than she to scant her duty.*

Lear.

Say, how is that?

Reg. I cannot think, my sister in the least
Would fail her obligation: If, sir, perchance,
She have restrain'd the riots of your followers,
'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end,
As clears her from all blame.

Lear. My curses on her!

Reg.
O, sir, you are old;
Nature in you stands on the very verge
Of her confine: you should be rul'd, and led
By some discretion, that discerns your state
Better than you yourself: Therefore, I pray you,
That to our sister you do make return;

Say, you have wrong'd her, sir.

Lear.

Ask her forgiveness?

Do you but mark how this becomes the house?
Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;

Age is unnecessary: on my knees I beg,
That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.

I have hope,

You less know how to value her desert,

[Kneeling.

Than she to scant her duty.] The sense is, "I have hope that you are more ignorant of her merits, than she is ignorant of any inclination to neglect her duty." The sense is most inaccurately expressed, to scant is to be deficient in. 1 — the house?] i. e. The order of families, duties of relation.-WARBURTON. Age is unnecessary:] i. e. Old people are useless.

Reg. Good sir, no more; these are unsightly tricks : Return you to my sister.

Lear.

Never, Regan:

She hath abated me of half my train;

Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue,
Most serpent-like, upon the very heart:-

All the stor❜d vengeances of heaven fall

On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,
You taking airs, with lameness!

Corn.

Fye, fye, fye!

Lear. You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,

You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun,

To fall and blast her pride!

Reg.
O the blest gods!
So will you wish on me, when the rash mood is on.
Lear. No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse;
Thy tender-hefted" nature shall not give

Thee o'er to harshness; her eyes are fierce, but thine
Do comfort, and not burn: 'Tis not in thee

To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,"
And, in conclusion, to oppose the bolt
Against my coming in: thou better know'st
The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude;
Thy half o'the kingdom hast thou not forgot,
Wherein I thee endow'd.

Reg.

Good sir, to the purpose.

[Trumpets within.

What trumpet's that?

Lear. Who put my man i'the stocks?

Corn.

Enter Steward.

Reg. I know't, my sister's: this approves her letter, That she would soon be here.-Is your lady come?

n

tender-hefted-] i. e. Moved with tenderness. Hefted is the same as

heaved.-NARES.

to scant my sizes,[ i. e. To contract my allowances. Sizes are certain portions of bread, beer, or other victuals, which in publick societies are set down to the account of particular persons. The word is still used in colleges.JOHNSON and STEEVENS.