Gon. You strike my people; and your disorder'd rabble Make servants of their betters. Enter Albany. Lear. Woe, that too late repents, O, sir, are you come? Is it your will? [To Alb.] Speak, sir.-Prepare my horses. Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend, More hideous, when thou show'st thee in a child, Than the sea-monster! Alb. Pray, sir, be patient. [To Goneril. Leur. Detested kite! thou liest: My train are men of choice and rarest parts, That all particulars of duty know; And in the most exact regard support The worships of their name.-O most small fault, Which, like an engine*, wrench'd my frame of nature [Striking his head. Lear. It may be so, my lord.-Hear, nature, hear; Dry up in her the organs of increase; • The rack. With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks; [Exit. Alb. Now, gods, that we adore, whereof comes this? Gon. Never afflict yourself to know the cause; But let his disposition have that scope That dotage gives it. Re-enter Lear. Lear. What, fifty of my followers, at a clap! Lear. I'll tell thee;-Life and death! I am asham'd That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus: The untented + woundings of a father's curse Gon. Do you mark that, my lord? Alb. I cannot be so partial, Goneril, To the great love I bear you, Gon. Pray you, content.What, Oswald, ho! You, sir, more knave than fool, after your master. [To the Fool. Fool. Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry, and take the fool with thee. A fox, when one has caught her, Should sure to the slaughter, If my cap would buy a halter; So the fool follows after. [Exit. Gon. This man hath had good counsel:-A hundred knights! 'Tis politick, and safe, to let him keep At point, a hundred knights. Yes, that on every dream Each buz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike, Gon. Safer than trust: Let me still take away the harms I fear, If she sustain him and his hundred knights, Enter Steward. What, have you writ that letter to my sister? Stew. Ay, madam. Gon. Take you some company, and away to horse: Inform her full of my particular fear; And thereto add such reasons of your own, As may compact it more. Get you gone; And hasten your return. [Exit Stew.] No, no, my lord, This milky gentleness, and course of yours, * Armed.. DE Though I condemn it not, yet, under pardon, Alb. How far your eyes may pierce, I cannot tell; Striving to better, oft we mar what's well. Gon. Nay, then Alb. Well, well; the event. [Exeunt. SCENE V. Court before the same. Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool. Lear. Go you before to Gloster with these letters: acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you know, than comes from her demand out of the letter: If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there before you. Kent. I will not sleep, my lord, till I have deli vered your letter. [Exit. Fool. If a man's brains were in his heels, were't not in danger of kibes? Lear. Ay, boy. Fool. Then, I pr'ythee, be merry; thy wit shall not go slip-shod. Lear. Ha, ha, ha! Fool. Shalt see, thy other daughter will use thee kindly for though she's as like this as a crab is like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell. Lear. Why, what canst thou tell, my boy? Fool. She will taste as like this, as a crab does to a crab. Thou canst tell, why one's nose stands i' the middle of his face? Lear. No. Fool. Why, to keep his eyes on either side his Liable to reprehension. nose; that what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into. Lear. I did her wrong: Fool. Can'st tell how an oyster makes his shell? Fool. Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house. Lear. Why? Fool. Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his daughters, and leave his horns without a case. Lear. I will forget my nature.-So kind a father! -Be my horses ready? Fool. Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the seven stars are no more than seven, is a pretty reason. Lear. Because they are not eight? Fool. Yes, indeed: Thou would'st make a good fool. Lear. To take it again perforee !-Monster ingratitude! Fool. If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'd have thee beaten for being old before thy time. Lear, How's that? Fool. Thou should'st not have been old, before thou hadst been wise. Lear. O let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven ! Keep me in temper; I would not be mad! Enter Gentleman. How now! Are the horses ready? Gent. Ready, my lord. Lear. Come, boy. Fool. She that is maid now, and laughs at my de parture, Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter. [Exeunt. |