That’s sorry yet for thee.
Fool. [Singing]He that has and a little tiny wit,
With heigh-ho, the wind and the rain,
Must make content with his fortunes fit,°
Though the rain it raineth every day.
Lear. True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this hovel. Exit [with Kent].
55 Caitiff wretch
56 seeming hypocrisy
57 practiced on plotted against
57 Close hidden
58 Rive split open
58 continents containers
58-59 cry ... grace beg mercy from the vengeful gods (here figured as officers who summoned a man charged with immorality before the ecclesiastical court)
61 Gracious my lord my gracious lord
65 demanding after asking for
67 scanted stinted
70 art magic powers of the alchemists, who sought to transmute base metals into precious
76 Must ... fit must be satisfied with a fortune as tiny as his wit
Fool. This is a brave° night to cool a courtesan. I’ll speak a prophecy ere I go:When priests are more in word than matter;
When brewers mar their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors’ tutors,
No heretics burned, but wenches’ suitors;°
When every case in law is right,
No squire in debt nor no poor knight;
When slanders do not live in tongues;
Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;
When usurers tell their gold i’ th’ field,°
And bawds and whores do churches build,°
Then shall the realm of Albion°
Come to great confusion.
Then comes the time, who lives to see‘t,
That going shall be used with feet.°
This prophecy Merlin° shall make, for I live before
his time. Exit.
Scene 3. [Gloucester’s castle.]
Enter Gloucester and Edmund.
Gloucester. Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing. When I desired their leave that I might pity° him, they took from me the use of mine79 brave fine
81-84 When ... suitors (the first four prophecies are fulfilled already, and hence “confusion” has come to England. The priest does not suit his action to his words. The brewer adulterates his beer. The nobleman is subservient to his tailor [i.e., cares only for fashion]. Religious heretics escape, and only those burn [i.e., suffer] who are afflicted with venereal disease)
89 tell ... field count their money in the open
85-90 When ... build (the last six prophecies, as they are Utopian, are meant ironically. They will never be fulfilled)
91 Albion England
94 going ... feet people will walk on their feet
95 Merlin King Arthur’s great magician who, according to Holinshed’s Chronicles, lived later than Lear
3.3.3 pity show pity to
own house, charged me on pain of perpetual displeasure neither to speak of him, entreat for him, or any way sustain°. him.
Edmund. Most savage and unnatural.
Gloucester. Go to; say you nothing. There is division° between the Dukes, and a worse° matter than that. I have received a letter this night—‘tis dangerous to be spoken°—I have locked the letter in my closet.° These injuries the King now bears will be revenged home;° there is part of a power° already footed;° we must incline to° the King. I will look° him and privily° relieve him. Go you and maintain talk with the Duke, that my charity be not of° him perceived. If he ask for me, I am ill and gone to bed. If I die for it, as no less is threatened me, the King my old master must be relieved. There is strange things toward,° Edmund; pray you be careful. Exit.
Edmund. This courtesy forbid° thee shall the DukeInstantly know, and of that letter too.
This seems a fair deserving,° and must draw me
That which my father loses—no less than all.
The younger rises when the old doth fall.
Exit.
3.3.6 sustain care for
8 division falling out
9 worse more serious (i.e., the French invasion)
11 spoken spoken of
12 closet room
13 home to the utmost
13 power army
14 footed landed
14 incline to take the side of
14 look search for
15 privily secretly
16 of by
20 toward impending
22 courtesy forbid kindness forbidden (i.e., to Lear)
24 fair deserving an action deserving reward
Scene 4. [The heath. Before a hovel.]
Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool.
Kent. Here is the place, my lord. Good my lord, enter.The tyranny of the open night’s too rough
For nature to endure.
Storm still.
Lear. Let me alone.
Kent. Good my lord, enter here.
Lear. Wilt break my heart?°
Kent. I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.
Lear. Thou think‘st ’tis much that this contentious stormInvades us to the skin: so ‘tis to thee;
But where the greater malady is fixed,°
The lesser is scarce felt. Thou’dst shun a bear;
But if thy flight lay toward the roaring sea,
Thou‘dst meet the bear i’ th’ 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.3.4.4 break my heart i.e., by shutting out the storm which distracts me from thinking
8 fixed lodged (in the mind)
11 i’ th’ mouth in the teeth
11 free i.e., from care
15 as as if
16 home to the utmost
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. Prithee 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.
[To the Fool] In, boy; go first. You houseless
poverty°—
Nay, get thee in. I’ll pray, and then I’ll sleep.
Exit [Fool].
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe‘er you are,
That bide° the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your looped and windowed° raggedness, defend
you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta’en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;°
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux° to them,
And show the heavens more just.
Edgar. [Within] Fathom and half, fathom and half!° Poor Tom!
Enter Fool.
Fool. Come not in here, Nuncle, here’s a spirit. Help me, help me!
Kent. Give me thy hand. Who’s there?
Fool. A spirit, a spirit. He says his name’s Poor Tom.
Kent. What art thou that dost grumble there i’ th’ straw?Come forth.
20 frank liberal (magnanimous)
26 houseless poverty (the unsheltered poor, abstracted)
29 bide endure
31 looped and windowed full of holes
33 Take physic, pomp take medicine to cure yourselves, you great men
35 superflux superfluity
37 Fathom and half (Edgar, because of the d
ownpour, pretends to take soundings)
Enter Edgar [disguised as a madman].
Edgar. Away! the foul fiend follows me. Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.° Humh! Go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.°
Lear. Didst thou give all to thy daughters? And art thou come to this?
Edgar. Who gives anything to Poor Tom? Whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, o‘er bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow and halters in his pew,° set ratsbane° by his porridge,° made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inched bridges,° to course° his own shadow for° a traitor. Bless thy five wits,° Tom’s a-cold. O, do, de, do, de, do, de. Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting,° and taking.° Do Poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes. There could I have him now—and there—and there again—and there.
Storm still.
Lear. What, has his daughters brought him to this pass?°Couldst thou save nothing? Wouldst thou give ‘em all?
Fool. Nay, he reserved a blanket,° else we had been all shamed.
Lear. Now all the plagues that in the pendulous° airHang fated o‘er° men’s faults light on thy daughters!
45-46 Through ... wind (a line from the ballad of “The Friar of Orders Gray”)
46-47 go ... thee (a reminiscence of The Taming of the Shrew, Induction, 1.10)
53-54 knives ... halters ... ratsbane (the fiend tempts Poor Tom to suicide)
54 pew gallery or balcony outside a window
54 porridge broth
55-56 ride ... bridges i.e., risk his life
56 course chase
57 for as
57 five wits i.e., common wit, imagination, fantasy, estimation, memory
59 star-blasting the evil caused by malignant stars 59 taking pernicious influences
63 pass wretched condition
65 blanket i.e., to cover his nakedness
67 pendulous overhanging
68 fated o‘er destined to punish
Kent. He hath no daughters, sir.
Lear. Death, traitor; nothing could have subdued° natureTo 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 pelican° daughters.
Edgar. Pillicock sat on Pillicock Hill.° Alow, alow, loo, loo!°
Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.
Edgar. Take heed o’ th’ foul fiend; obey thy parents; keep thy word’s justice;° swear not; commit not° with man’s sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array. Tom’s a-cold.
Lear. What hast thou been?
Edgar. A servingman, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair, wore gloves in my cap;° served the lust of my mistress’ heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven. One that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it. Wine loved I deeply, dice dearly; and in woman out-paramoured the Turk.° False of heart, light of ear,° bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey.° Let not the creaking° of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray thy poor70 subdued reduced
73 on i.e., shown to
75 pelican (supposed to feed on its parent’s blood)
76 Pillicock ... Hill (probably quoted from a nursery rhyme, and suggested by “pelican.” Pillicock is a term of endearment and the phallus)
76-77 Alow ... loo (? a hunting call, or the refrain of the song)
81 keep ... justice i.e., do not break thy word
81 commit not i.e., adultery
86 gloves in my cap i.e., as a pledge from his mistress
92 out-paramoured the Turk had more concubines than the Sultan
93 light of ear ready to hear flattery and slander
95 prey preying
95 creaking (deliberately cultivated, as fashionable)
heart to woman. Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets,° thy pen from lenders’ books,° and defy the foul fiend. Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind; says suum, mun, nonny.° Dolphin° my boy, boy, sessa!° let him trot by.
Storm still.
Lear. Thou wert better in a grave than to answer° with thy uncovered body this extremity° of the skies. Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou ow‘st° the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat° no perfume. Ha! here’s three on’s° 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!° Come, unbutton here.
[Tearing off his clothes.]
Fool. Prithee, Nuncle, be contented, ‘tis a naughty° night to swim in. Now a little fire in a wild° field were like an old lecher’s heart—a small spark, all the rest on’s body, cold. Look, here comes a walking fire.
Enter Gloucester, with a torch.
Edgar. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet.° He begins at curfew,° and walks till the first cock.° He gives the web and the pin,° squints° the eye, and makes the harelip; mildews the white° wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth.98 plackets openings in skirts
98-99 pen ... books i.e., do not enter your name in the moneylender’s account book
100-01 suum, mun, nonny the noise of the wind
101 Dolphin the French Dauphin (identified by the English with the devil. Poor Tom is presumably quoting from a ballad)
101 sessa an interjection: “Go on!”
103 answer confront, bear the brunt of
104 extremity extreme severity
106 ow‘st have taken from
107 cat civet cat, whose glands yield perfume
108 on’s of us
108 sophisticated adulterated, made artificial
109 unaccommodated uncivilized
110 forked i.e., two-legged
111 lendings borrowed garments
112 naughty wicked
113 wild barren
117 Flibbertigibbet (a figure from Elizabethan demonology) 118 curfew: 9 P.M.
118 first cock midnight
119 web and the pin cataract
119 squints crosses
120 white ripening.
Swithold footed thrice the old;°
He met the nightmare,° and her nine fold;°
Bid her alight°
And her troth plight,°
And aroint° thee, witch, aroint thee!
Kent. How fares your Grace?
Lear. What’s he?
Kent. Who’s there? What is’t you seek?
Gloucester. What are you there? Your names? Edgar. Poor Tom, that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the todpole, the wall-newt and the water;° that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets,° swallows the old rat and the ditch-dog,° drinks the green mantle° of the standing° pool; who is whipped from tithing° to tithing, and stocked, punished, and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his body,Horse to ride, and weapon to wear,
But mice and rats, and such small deer,°
Have been Tom’s food for seven long year.°
Beware my follower!° Peace, Smulkin,° peace,
thou fiend!
Gloucester. What, hath your Grace no better company?
Edgar. The Prince of Darkness is a gentleman. Modo° he’s called, and Mahu.°
122 Swithold ... old Withold (an Anglo-Saxon saint who subdued demons) walked three times across the open country
123 nightmare demon
123 fold offspring
124 alight i.e., from the horse she had possessed
125 her troth plight pledge her word
126 aroint be gone
132 todpole ... water tadpole, wall lizard, water newt
134 sallets salads
135 ditch-dog dead dog in a ditch
136 standing stagnant
136 tithing a district comprising ten families
141-42 But ... year (adapted from a popular romance, “Bevis of Hampton”)
141 deer game
143 follower familiar
143, 147 Smulkin, Modo, Mahu (Elizabethan devils, from Samuel Harsnett’s Declaration of 1603)
Gloucester. Our flesh and blood, my Lord, is grown so vileThat it doth hate what gets° it.
Edgar. Poor Tom’s a-cold.
Gloucester. Go in with me. My duty cannot suffer°T’ obey in all your daughters’ hard commands.
Though their injunction be to bar my doors
And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,
Yet have I ventured to come seek you out
And bring you where both fire and food is ready.
Lear. First let me talk with this philosopher. What is the cause of thunder?
Kent. Good my lord, take his offer; go into th’ house.
Lear. I’ll talk a word with this same learnèd Theban.° What is your study?°
Edgar. How to prevent° the fiend, and to kill vermin.
Lear. Let me ask you one word in private.
Kent. Importune him once more to go, my lord. His wits begin t’ unsettle.
Gloucester. Canst thou blame him?
Storm still.
His daughters seek his death. Ah, that good Kent,
He said it would be thus, poor banished man!
Thou say‘st the King grows mad—I’ll tell thee,
friend,
I am almost mad myself. I had a son,
King Lear Page 16
