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, This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch, The lion and the belly pinched wolf Keep their fur dry, unbonnetted he runs, 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 Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world! Rumble thy bellyfull! Spit, fire! spout, rain! That have with two pernicious daughters join'd * 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 And make them keep their caves: Since I was man, 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; 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; The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind To shut me out!-Pour on; I will endure: Kent. Good, my lord, enter here. Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep,- 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.— Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot 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! PATIENCE AND SORROW. Patience and sorrow strove Who should express her goodliest. You have seen Could so become it. LEAR'S DISTRACTION DESCRIBED. Alack, 'tis he; why, he was met even now *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. This world I do renounce; and, in your sights, To quarrel with your great opposeless wills, 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. † A vegetable gathered for pickling. |