Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove: Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure: I can be patient; I can stay with Regan, I and my hundred knights. Reg. Not altogether so: I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister; But she knows what she does. Lear. Is this well spoken? Reg. I dare avouch it, sir: what, fifty followers? Hold amity? 'Tis hard, almost impossible. Gon. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance From those that she calls servants or from mine? Reg. Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack you, We could control them. If you will come to me, For now I spy a danger, I entreat you, To bring but five and twenty: to no more Will I give place or notice. Lear. I gave you all Reg. And in good time you gave it. Lear. Made you my guardians, my depositaries, But kept a reservation to be follow'd With such a number. What, must I come to you With five and twenty, Regan? said you so? Reg. And speak't again, my lord; no more with me. When others are more wicked; not being the worst Stands in some rank of praise. (To GONERIL.) I'll go with thee: Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty, And thou art twice her love. Gon. Hear me, my lord: What need you five and twenty, ten, or five, To follow in a house where twice so many Have a command to tend you? Reg. What need one? Lear. O reason not the need: our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous: Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man's life's as cheap as beast's: thou art a lady; But for true need, Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st, To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger, That all the world shall I will do such things, What they are, yet I know not, but they shall be I have full cause of weeping; but this heart [Exeunt LEAR, GLOUCESTER, KENT, and FOOL. Corn. Let us withdraw; 'twill be a storm. [Storm and tempest. Reg. This house is little: the old man and his people Cannot be well bestow'd. Gon. 'Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest, And must needs taste his folly. Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly, But not one follower. Gon. So am I purposed. Where is my lord of Gloucester ? Corn. Follow'd the old man forth: he is return'd. Reënter GLOUCESTER. Glou. The king is in high rage. Corn. Whither is he going? Glou. He calls to horse; but will I know not whither. There's scarce a bush. Reg. O, sir, to wilful men The injuries that they themselves procure Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors: And what they may incense him to, being apt To have his ear abused, wisdom bids fear. Corn. Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night: My Regan counsels well: come out o' the storm. A heath [Exeunt. Storm still. Enter KENT and a GENTLEMAN, meeting. Kent. Who's there, besides foul weather? Gent. One minded like the weather, most unquietly. Kent. I know you. Where's the king? Gent. Contending with the fretful elements; Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea, Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main, That things might change or cease; tears his white hair, Catch in their fury, and make nothing of; Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain. This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch, Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs, And bids what will take all. Kent. But who is with him? Gent. None but the fool; who labors to out-jest His heart-struck injuries. Kent. Sir, I do know you; And dare, upon the warrant of my note, Commend a dear thing to you. There is division, With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall; To make your speed to Dover, you shall find I am a gentleman of blood and breeding, Gent. I will talk further with you. No, do not. For confirmation that I am much more Gent. Have you no more to say? Give me your hand: Kent. Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet; That when we have found the king, in which your pain Holla the other. [Exeunt severally. Another part of the heath. Storm still Enter LEAR and FOOL. Lear. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks! Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, That make ingrateful man! Fool. O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry house is better than this rain-water out o' door. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters' blessing: here's a night pities neither wise man nor fool. Lear. Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain. That have with two pernicious daughters join'd So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul! Fool. He that has a house to put's head in has a good head piece. The cod-piece that will house Before the head has any, So beggars marry many. |