Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main,

That things might change, or cease: tears his white

hair;

Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,
Catch in their fury, and make nothing of:
Strives in this little world of man to out-scorn
The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.

This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,

The lion and the belly pinched wolf

Keep their fur dry, unbonnetted he runs,
And bids what will take all.

LEAR'S EXCLAMATIONS IN THE TEMPEST.

Blow, wind and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout

Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!

You sulphurous and thought-executing† fires
Vaunt couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thun
der,

Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!

Rumble thy bellyfull! Spit, fire! spout, rain!
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness,
I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children,
You owe me no subscription;§ why then let fall
Your horrible pleasure; here I stand, your slave,
A poor, infirm, weak, and despis'd old man:-
But yet I call you servile ministers,

That have with two pernicious daughters join'd
Your high engender'd battles, 'gainst a head
So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul!

* Whose dugs are drawn dry by its young.

+ Quick as thought.

§ Obedience.

Avaunt couriers. French.

Kent. Alas, sir, are you here? things that love

night,

Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies
Gallow* the very wanderers of the dark,

And make them keep their caves: Since I was man,
Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot carry
The affliction, nor the fear.

Lear.

Let the great gods, That keep this dreadful potherf o'er our heads, Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch, That hast within thee undivulged crimes,

Unwhipp'd of Justice: Hide thee, thou bloody hand;
Thou perjur'd, and thou simular‡ man of virtue
That art incestuous: Caitiff, to pieces shake,
That under covert and convenient seeming§
Has practis'd on man's life!-Close pent-up guilts,
Rive your concealing continents, and cry-
These dreadful summoners grace. -I am a man,
More sinn'd against, than sinning.

Kent.

Alack, bareheaded! Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel;

Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest.

**

*

*

Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much,that this contentious

storm

Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee;

But where the greater malady is fix'd,

The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear;
But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,
Thou'dst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the
mind's free,

The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else,
Save what beats there.-Filial ingratitude!
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand,
For lifting food to't?-But I will punish home:-
No, I will weep no more.-In such a night

To shut me out!-Pour on; I will endure:
In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!-
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all,-
O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
No more of that,-

Kent.

Good, my lord, enter here.
Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyself; seek thine own ease;
This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in:
In, boy; go first.-[To the Fool.] You houseless
poverty,-

Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep,-
[Fool goes in.
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? Ŏ, I have ta'en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel;
That thou may'st shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.

Enter EDGAR, disguised as a Madman. Edg. Away! the foul fiend follows me!-Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.Humph! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee. Lear. Hast thou given all to thy two daughters? And art thou come to this?

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 subdu'd

nature

To such a lowness, but his unkind daughters.—
Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers
Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?

Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot
Those pelícan daughters.

ON MAN.

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:-Ha! here's three of us are sophisticated?-Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art-Off, off, you lendings.

ACT IV.

THE JUSTICE OF PROVIDENCE.

That I am wretched,

Makes thee the happier:-Heavens, deal so still!
Let the superfluous, and lust-dieted man,
That slaves your ordinance,* that will not see
Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly;
So distribution should undo excess,
And each man have enough.

PATIENCE AND SORROW.

Patience and sorrow strove

Who should express her goodliest. You have seen
Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears
Were like a better day: Those happy smiles
That play'd on her ripe lip, seem'd not to know
What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence,
As pearls from diamonds dropp'd.-In brief, sorrow
Would be a rarity most belov'd, if all

Could so become it.

LEAR'S DISTRACTION DESCRIBED.

Alack, 'tis he; why, he was met even now
As mad as the vex'd sea: singing aloud;
Crown'd with rank fumitert and furrow weeds,
With harlocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,
Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn.

*i. e. To make it subject to us, instead of acting in obedience to it, + Fumitory.

+ Charlocks.

"DESCRIPTION OF DOVER CLIFF.

Come on, sir; here's the place;-stand still.-How And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low! [fearful The crows, and choughs,* that wing the midway air, Show scarce so gross as beetles: Half way down Hangs one that gathers samphire;† dreadful trade! Methinks he seems no bigger than his head: The fishermen, that walk upon the beach, Appear like mice; and yon' tall anchoring bark, Diminish'd to her cock;t her cock, a buoy Almost too small for sight: The murmuring surge, That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes, Cannot be heard so high:-I'll look no more; Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight Topple down headlong.

GLOSTER'S FAREWELL TO THE WORLD.
O you mighty gods!

This world I do renounce; and, in your sights,
Shake patiently my great affliction off:
If I could bear it longer, and not fall

To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
My snuff, and loathed part of nature, should
Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!

LEAR ON HIS FLATTERERS.

They flatter'd me like a dog; and told me, I had white hairs in my beard, ere the black ones were there. To say ay, and no, to every thing I said!Ay and no too was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me once, and the wind to make me chat ter; when the thunder would not peace at my bidding; there I found them, there I smelt them out. Go to, they are not men o' their words: they told me I was every thing; 'tis a lie; I am not ague-proof.

ON THE ABUSE OF POWER.

Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand: Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own

back;

Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind

* Daws.
ter cock-boat.

† A vegetable gathered for pickling.
Tumble.