Reg. My sister may receive it much more worse, To have her gentleman abus'd, assaulted, For following her affairs.-Put in his legs. [KENT is put in the Stocks." Come, my good lord; away. [Exeunt REGAN and Cornwall. Glo. I am sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure, Whose disposition, all the world well knows, Will not be rubb'd, nor stopp'd: I'll entreat for thee. Kent. Pray, do not, sir: I have watch'd, and travell'd hard; Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle. Glo. The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill Kent. Good king, that must approve the com mon saw!2 Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st To the warm sun! Approach, thou beacon to this under globe, Peruse this letter!-Nothing almost sees miracles, * It should be remembered, that formerly in great houses, as still in some colleges, there were moveable stocks for the correction of the servants. FARMER. Good king, that must approve the common saw ! &c.] The saw alluded to, is in Heywood's Dialogues on Proverbs, "In your running from him to me, ye runne This shameful lodging. Fortune, good night; smile once more; turn thy wheel! [He sleeps. SCENE III. A Part of the Heath. Enter EDGAR. Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd; And, by the happy hollow of a tree, Escap'd the hunt. No port is free; no place, That guard, and most unusual vigilance, Does not attend my taking. While I may scape, I will preserve myself: and am bethought To take the basest and most poorest shape, That every penury, in contempt of man, Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth Blanket my loins; elf all my hair in knots; And with presented nakedness out-face The winds and persecutions of the sky. 4 5 The country gives me proof and precedent 6 prayers, 3 elf all my hair in knots;] Hair thus knotted, was vulgarly supposed to be the work of elves and fairies in the night. + Of Bedlam beggars,] These were a species of vagabonds, described by contemporary writers, as half rogue, half fool. Edgar borrows his dress from them, and the phrases of Poor Tom, Poor Tom is a-cold. 7 wooden pricks,] i. e. skewers., 6 Poor pelting villages,] beggarly or petty. lunatick bans,] To ban, is to curse. Enforce their charity.-Poor Turlygood! poor Tom That's something yet;-Edgar I nothing am. SCENE IV. Before Gloster's Castle. Enter LEAR, Fool, and Gentleman. [Exit. Lear. 'Tis strange, that they should so depart from home, And not send back my messenger. Gent. As I learn'd, The night before there was no purpose in them Of this remove. Kent. Lear. How! Hail to thee, noble master! Mak'st thou this shame thy pastime ? Kent. No, my lord. Fool. Ha, ha; look! he wears cruel garters!9 Horses are tied by the heads; dogs, and bears, by the neck; monkies by the loins, and men by the legs when a man is over-lusty at legs, then he wears wooden nether-stocks.' Lear. What's he, that hath so much thy place mistook To set thee here? Kent. It is both he and she, Your son and daughter. 8 poor Turlygood! poor Tom!] For Turlupin. In the fourteenth century there was a new species of gipsies, called Turlupins, a fraternity of naked beggars, which ran up and down Europe. he wears cruel garters!] Probably a quibble was here intended. Crewel signifies worsted, of which stockings, garters, night-caps, &c. are made. wooden nether-stocks.] Nether-stocks is the old word for stockings. Breeches were at that time called "men's overstockes.” Lear. No. Kent. Yes. Lear. No, I say, Kent. I say, yea. Lear. No, no; they would not. Kent. Yes, they have. Lear. By Jupiter, I swear, no. Kent. By Juno, I swear, ay. Lear. They durst not do't; They could not, would not do't; 'tis worse than murder, To do upon respect such violent outrage: Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way Thou might'st deserve, or they impose, this usage, Coming from us. Kent. My lord, when at their home I did commend your highness' letters to them, Ere I was risen from the place that show'd My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post, Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth. From Goneril his mistress, salutations; Deliver❜d letters spite of intermission,3 Which presently they read: on whose contents, They summon'd up their meiny,* straight took horse; Commanded me to follow, and attend The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks: And meeting here the other messenger, Whose welcome, I perceiv'd, had poison'd mine, Display'd so saucily against your highness,) To do upon respect such violent outrage:] To be grossly deficient in respect. 3 spite of intermission,] i. e. without pause, without suffering time to intervene. "They summon'd up their meiny,] Meiny, i. e. people; from mesne, a house. Mesnie, a family, Fr. He rais'd the house with loud and coward cries: Fool. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way. Fathers, that wear rags, Do make their children blind; Shall see their children kind. Ne'er turns the key to the poor. But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours for thy daughters, as thou can'st tell in a year. $5 Lear. O, how this mother swells up toward my heart! Hysterica passio! down, thou climbing sorrow, Lear. Stay here. Follow me not; [Exit. Gent. Made you no more offence than what you speak of! Kent. None. How chance the king comes with so small a train ? Fool. An thou hadst been set i' the stocks for tha question, thou hadst well deserved it. Kent. Why, fool? All that Fool. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring in the winter. follow their noses are led by their eyes, but blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty, but can smell him that's stinking. Let go thy hold, when 5 dolours-] Quibble between dolours and dollars. 6 O, how this mother, &c.] Lear here affects to pass off the swelling of his heart ready to burst with grief and indignation, for the disease called the Mother, or Hysterica Passio, which, in our author's time, was not thought peculiar to women only. |