1    'Tis strange that they should so depart from home,
2    And not send back my messenger.

3    As I learn'd,
4    The night before there was no purpose in them
5    Of this remove.

6    Hail to thee, noble master!

7    Ha!
8    Makest thou this shame thy pastime?

9    No, my lord.

10   Ha, ha! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied
11   by the heads, dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys by
12   the loins, and men by the legs: when a man's
13   over-lusty at legs, then he wears wooden
14   nether-stocks.

15   What's he that hath so much thy place mistook
16   To set thee here?

17   It is both he and she;
18   Your son and daughter.

19   No.

20   Yes.

21   No, I say.

22   I say, yea.

23   No, no, they would not.

24   Yes, they have.

25   By Jupiter, I swear, no.

26   By Juno, I swear, ay.

27   They durst not do 't;
28   They could not, would not do 't; 'tis worse than murder,
29   To do upon respect such violent outrage:
30   Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way
31   Thou mightst deserve, or they impose, this usage,
32   Coming from us.

33   My lord, when at their home
34   I did commend your highness' letters to them,
35   Ere I was risen from the place that show'd
36   My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,
37   Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth
38   From Goneril his mistress salutations;
39   Deliver'd letters, spite of intermission,
40   Which presently they read: on whose contents,
41   They summon'd up their meiny, straight took horse;
42   Commanded me to follow, and attend
43   The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks:
44   And meeting here the other messenger,
45   Whose welcome, I perceived, had poison'd mine,--
46   Being the very fellow that of late
47   Display'd so saucily against your highness,--
48   Having more man than wit about me, drew:
49   He raised the house with loud and coward cries.
50   Your son and daughter found this trespass worth
51   The shame which here it suffers.

52   Winter's not gone yet, if the wild-geese fly that way.
53   Fathers that wear rags
54   Do make their children blind;
55   But fathers that bear bags
56   Shall see their children kind.
57   Fortune, that arrant whore,
58   Ne'er turns the key to the poor.
59   But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours
60   for thy daughters as thou canst tell in a year.

61   O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!
62   Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow,
63   Thy element's below! Where is this daughter?

64   With the earl, sir, here within.

65   Follow me not;
66   Stay here.

67   Made you no more offence but what you speak of?

68   None.
69   How chance the king comes with so small a train?

70   And thou hadst been set i' the stocks for that
71   question, thou hadst well deserved it.

72   Why, fool?

73   We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee
74   there's no labouring i' the winter. All that follow
75   their noses are led by their eyes but blind men; and
76   there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him
77   that's stinking. Let go thy hold when a great wheel
78   runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with
79   following it: but the great one that goes up the
80   hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man
81   gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I
82   would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.
83   That sir which serves and seeks for gain,
84   And follows but for form,
85   Will pack when it begins to rain,
86   And leave thee in the storm,
87   But I will tarry; the fool will stay,
88   And let the wise man fly:
89   The knave turns fool that runs away;
90   The fool no knave, perdy.

91   Where learned you this, fool?

92   Not i' the stocks, fool.

93   Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary?
94   They have travell'd all the night? Mere fetches;
95   The images of revolt and flying off.
96   Fetch me a better answer.

97   My dear lord,
98   You know the fiery quality of the duke;
99   How unremoveable and fix'd he is
100  In his own course.

101  Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!
102  Fiery? what quality? Why, Gloucester, Gloucester,
103  I'ld speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.

104  Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so.

105  Inform'd them! Dost thou understand me, man?

106  Ay, my good lord.

107  The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father
108  Would with his daughter speak, commands her service:
109  Are they inform'd of this? My breath and blood!
110  Fiery? the fiery duke? Tell the hot duke that--
111  No, but not yet: may be he is not well:
112  Infirmity doth still neglect all office
113  Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves
114  When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind
115  To suffer with the body: I'll forbear;
116  And am fall'n out with my more headier will,
117  To take the indisposed and sickly fit
118  For the sound man. Death on my state! wherefore
Looking on KENT
119  Should he sit here? This act persuades me
120  That this remotion of the duke and her
121  Is practise only. Give me my servant forth.
122  Go tell the duke and 's wife I'ld speak with them,
123  Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,
124  Or at their chamber-door I'll beat the drum
125  Till it cry sleep to death.

126  I would have all well betwixt you.

127  O me, my heart, my rising heart! but, down!

128  Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels
129  when she put 'em i' the paste alive; she knapped 'em
130  o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cried 'Down,
131  wantons, down!' 'Twas her brother that, in pure
132  kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.

133  Good morrow to you both.

134  Hail to your grace!

135  I am glad to see your highness.

136  Regan, I think you are; I know what reason
137  I have to think so: if thou shouldst not be glad,
138  I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb,
139  Sepulchring an adultress.
To KENT
140  O, are you free?
141  Some other time for that. Beloved Regan,
142  Thy sister's naught: O Regan, she hath tied
143  Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here:
Points to his heart
144  I can scarce speak to thee; thou'lt not believe
145  With how depraved a quality--O Regan!

146  I pray you, sir, take patience: I have hope.
147  You less know how to value her desert
148  Than she to scant her duty.

149  Say, how is that?

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

155  My curses on her!

156  O, sir, you are old.
157  Nature in you stands on the very verge
158  Of her confine: you should be ruled and led
159  By some discretion, that discerns your state
160  Better than you yourself. Therefore, I pray you,
161  That to our sister you do make return;
162  Say you have wrong'd her, sir.

163  Ask her forgiveness?
164  Do you but mark how this becomes the house:
165  'Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;
Kneeling
166  Age is unnecessary: on my knees I beg
167  That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.'

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

Rising
170   Never, Regan:
171  She hath abated me of half my train;
172  Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue,
173  Most serpent-like, upon the very heart:
174  All the stored vengeances of heaven fall
175  On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,
176  You taking airs, with lameness!

177  Fie, sir, fie!

178  You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames
179  Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,
180  You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun,
181  To fall and blast her pride!

182  O the blest gods! so will you wish on me,
183  When the rash mood is on.

184  No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse:
185  Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give
186  Thee o'er to harshness: her eyes are fierce; but thine
187  Do comfort and not burn. 'Tis not in thee
188  To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
189  To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,
190  And in conclusion to oppose the bolt
191  Against my coming in: thou better know'st
192  The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
193  Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude;
194  Thy half o' the kingdom hast thou not forgot,
195  Wherein I thee endow'd.

196  Good sir, to the purpose.

197  Who put my man i' the stocks?

198  What trumpet's that?

199  I know't, my sister's: this approves her letter,
200  That she would soon be here.
Enter OSWALD
201  Is your lady come?

202  This is a slave, whose easy-borrow'd pride
203  Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows.
204  Out, varlet, from my sight!

205  What means your grace?

206  Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good hope
207  Thou didst not know on't. Who comes here? O heavens,
Enter GONERIL
208  If you do love old men, if your sweet sway
209  Allow obedience, if yourselves are old,
210  Make it your cause; send down, and take my part!
To GONERIL
211  Art not ashamed to look upon this beard?
212  O Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand?

213  Why not by the hand, sir? How have I offended?
214  All's not offence that indiscretion finds
215  And dotage terms so.

216  O sides, you are too tough;
217  Will you yet hold? How came my man i' the stocks?

218  I set him there, sir: but his own disorders
219  Deserved much less advancement.

220  You! did you?

221  I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.
222  If, till the expiration of your month,
223  You will return and sojourn with my sister,
224  Dismissing half your train, come then to me:
225  I am now from home, and out of that provision
226  Which shall be needful for your entertainment.

227  Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd?
228  No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
229  To wage against the enmity o' the air;
230  To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,--
231  Necessity's sharp pinch! Return with her?
232  Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took
233  Our youngest born, I could as well be brought
234  To knee his throne, and, squire-like; pension beg
235  To keep base life afoot. Return with her?
236  Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter
237  To this detested groom.

238  At your choice, sir.

239  I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad:
240  I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell:
241  We'll no more meet, no more see one another:
242  But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;
243  Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,
244  Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,
245  A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,
246  In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee;
247  Let shame come when it will, I do not call it:
248  I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,
249  Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove:
250  Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure:
251  I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,
252  I and my hundred knights.

253  Not altogether so:
254  I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided
255  For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister;
256  For those that mingle reason with your passion
257  Must be content to think you old, and so--
258  But she knows what she does.

259  Is this well spoken?

260  I dare avouch it, sir: what, fifty followers?
261  Is it not well? What should you need of more?
262  Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger
263  Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house,
264  Should many people, under two commands,
265  Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.

266  Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance
267  From those that she calls servants or from mine?

268  Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack you,
269  We could control them. If you will come to me,--
270  For now I spy a danger,--I entreat you
271  To bring but five and twenty: to no more
272  Will I give place or notice.

273  I gave you all--

274  And in good time you gave it.

275  Made you my guardians, my depositaries;
276  But kept a reservation to be follow'd
277  With such a number. What, must I come to you
278  With five and twenty, Regan? said you so?

279  And speak't again, my lord; no more with me.

280  Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,
281  When others are more wicked: not being the worst
282  Stands in some rank of praise.
To GONERIL
283  I'll go with thee:
284  Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,
285  And thou art twice her love.

286  Hear me, my lord;
287  What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,
288  To follow in a house where twice so many
289  Have a command to tend you?

290  What need one?

291  O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
292  Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
293  Allow not nature more than nature needs,
294  Man's life's as cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;
295  If only to go warm were gorgeous,
296  Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,
297  Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need,--
298  You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!
299  You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
300  As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
301  If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
302  Against their father, fool me not so much
303  To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
304  And let not women's weapons, water-drops,
305  Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,
306  I will have such revenges on you both,
307  That all the world shall--I will do such things,--
308  What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be
309  The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep
310  No, I'll not weep:
311  I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
312  Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
313  Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!

314  Let us withdraw; 'twill be a storm.

315  This house is little: the old man and his people
316  Cannot be well bestow'd.

317  'Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest,
318  And must needs taste his folly.

319  For his particular, I'll receive him gladly,
320  But not one follower.

321  So am I purposed.
322  Where is my lord of Gloucester?

323  Follow'd the old man forth: he is return'd.

324  The king is in high rage.

325  Whither is he going?

326  He calls to horse; but will I know not whither.

327  'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself.

328  My lord, entreat him by no means to stay.

329  Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds
330  Do sorely ruffle; for many miles about
331  There's scarce a bush.

332  O, sir, to wilful men,
333  The injuries that they themselves procure
334  Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors:
335  He is attended with a desperate train;
336  And what they may incense him to, being apt
337  To have his ear abused, wisdom bids fear.

338  Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night:
339  My Regan counsels well; come out o' the storm.