Kent. Where learned you this, fool? Re-enter LEAR, with GLOSTER. Lear. Deny to speak with me? they are weary? They have travelled hard to-night? Glo. They are sick? Mere fetches: My dear lord, You know the fiery quality of the duke; 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. Glo. Well, my good lord, I have informed them so. Lear. Informed 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. Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves, And am fallen out with my more headier will, For the sound man. Death on my state! wherefore [Looking on KEnt. Should he sit here? This act persuades me, That this remotion 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, 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 2 did to the eels, when she put them i'the paste alive; she rapped 'em o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cried, Down, wantons, down. 'Twas her brother, that, in pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay. Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOSTER, and Servants. Lear. Good morrow to you both. Corn. Hail to your grace! [KENT is set at liberty. 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 shouldst not be glad, I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb, Sepulchring an adultress.-O, are you free? [TO KENT. Some other time for that.-Beloved 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.3 Lear. followers, 1 The meaning of this passage seems to be, "I'll beat the drum till it cries out-Let them awake no more; let their present sleep be their last." Mason would read, " death to sleep," instead of "sleep to death." 2 A cockney and a ninny-hammer, or simpleton, were convertible terms. 3 This is somewhat inaccurately expressed. Shakspeare having, as on some other occasions, perplexed himself by the word less. '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; Of her confine. You should be ruled, and led Say, you have wronged her, sir.1 Lear. Ask her forgiveness? Do you but mark how this becomes the house. Dear daughter, I confess that I am old; Age is unnecessary; 3 on my knees I beg, [Kneeling. That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food. Lear. Never, Regan. She hath abated me of half my train; Looked black upon me; struck me with her tongue, Most serpent-like, upon the very heart.— All the stored vengeances of Heaven fall On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones, Corn. Fie, fie, fie! Lear. You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty, You fen-sucked fogs, drawn by the powerful sun, Reg. 1 "Say," &c. This line and the following speech is omitted in the quartos. 2 i. e. the order of families, duties of relation. 3 Unnecessary is here used in the sense of necessitous. 4 Fall seems here to be used as an active verb, signifying to humble or pull down. 5 Tender-hefted may mean moved, or heaving with tenderness. The Thee o'er to harshness; her eyes are fierce, but thine Thy half o' the kingdom hast thou not forgot, Reg. I know't, my sister's; this approves her letter, That she would soon be here.-Is your lady come? Lear. This is a slave, whose easy-borrowed pride Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows.Out, varlet, from my sight! Corn. What means your grace? Lear. Who stocked my servant? Regan, I have good hope Thou didst not know of't.-Who comes here? Heavens, Enter GONERIL. If you do love old men, if your sweet sway Make it your cause; send down, and take my part !— [To GONERIL. O Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand? quartos read tender-hested, which may be right, and signify giving tender hests or commands. 1 A size is a portion or allotment of food. The word and its origin are explained in Minsheu's Guide to Tongues, 1617. The term sizer is still used at Cambridge for one of the lowest rank of students, living on a stated allowance. 2 To allow is to approve, in old phraseology. Gon. Why not by the hand, sir? How have I of fended? All's not offence, that indiscretion finds, And dotage terms so. Lear. O sides, you are too tough! Will you yet hold?-How came my man i'the stocks? Corn. I set him there, sir; but his own disorders Deserved much less advancement.1 You! did you? Lear. 3 To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,— Gon. 4 Lear. I pr'ythee, daughter, do not make me mad; I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell. We'll no more meet, no more see one another.— But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter; Or rather a disease that's in my flesh, Which I must needs call mine; thou art a boil, 1 By less advancement, Cornwall means that Kent's disorders had entitled him to a post of even less honor than the stocks. 2 Since you are weak, be content to think yourself weak. 3 See p. 14, note 6, ante. 4 Sumpter is generally united with horse or mule, to signify one that carried provisions or other necessaries; from sumptus (Lat.). In the present instance horse seems to be understood. |