16551433[Storm still.] Enter Lear and Fool. Blow wind and crack your cheeks. Rage, blow.
16571435You cataracts, and hurricanoes spout
1658'Til you have drenched
1436the steeples, drowned the cocks.
1659You sulfurous and
1437thought-executing fires,
1660Vaunt-couriers to
1438oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
1661Singe my white head,
1439and thou, all-shaking thunder,
1662Smite flat
1440the thick rotundity of the world,
1663Crack nature's
1441mold; all germens spill at once
O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry house
16661444is better than this rainwater out o'door.
1445Good nuncle
1667in, and ask thy daughters' blessing.
1446Here's a night pities
1668neither wise man nor fool.
Rumble thy bellyful. Spit fire, spout rain.
16701448Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters.
16711449I task not you, you elements, with unkindness.
16721450I never gave you kingdom, called you children.
16731451You owe me no subscription. Why, then, let fall
1674Your horrible pleasure.
1452Here I stand your slave,
1675A poor, infirm, weak, and
1453despised old man.
1676But yet I call you servile
1454ministers,
1677That have with two pernicious daughters joined
16781455Your high-engendered battle 'gainst a head
1679So old and white
1456as this. Oh, 'tis foul.
He that has a house to put his head in, has a good
16811458headpiece.
[Sings]
1682111The codpiece that will house
Before the head has
1459any,
1683The head and he shall louse,
So beggars marry many.
What he his heart should make,
And turn his sleep to wake.
1686For
1462there was never yet fair woman but she made
1687mouths in a
1463glass.
No, I will be the pattern of all patience.
[He sits.]
Enter Kent [disguised].
Who's there?
Marry here's grace, and a codpiece, that's a
1693wise man and
1468a fool.
Alas, sir, sit you here?
1470Things that love night
1695Love not such nights as these.
1471The wrathful skies
1696Gallow the very wanderers of the
1472dark,
1697And makes them keep their caves.
1473Since I was man,
1698Such sheets of fire,
1474such bursts of horrid thunder,
1699Such groans of
1475roaring wind and rain, I ne'er
1700Remember
1476to have heard. Man's nature cannot carry
The affliction, nor the force. Let the great gods
1703That keep this dreadful
1479pother o'er our heads
1704Find out their enemies now.
1480Tremble thou wretch,
1705That hast within thee
1481undivulgèd crimes,
1706Unwhipped of justice.
1482Hide thee, thou bloody hand,
1707Thou perjured, and
1483thou simular man of virtue
1708That art incestuous;
1484caitiff, in pieces
Shake,
1709that under covert
1485and convenient
Seeming
1710hast practised on man's life;
1486Close pent-up guilts,
1711rive your concealèd centers,
1487And cry
1712these dreadful summoners grace.
1488I am a man
1713more sinned against than sinning.
Alack, bare-headed?
1715Gracious my lord, hard by here is
1490a hovel.
1716Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest.
17171491Repose you there whilst I to this hard house--
1718More hard than is
1492the stone whereof 'tis raised--
1719Which even but now, demanding
1493after you,
1720Denied me to come in, return and force
Their scanted courtesy. My wit begins to turn.
17231496[To the Fool] Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold?
17241497I am cold myself.
[To Kent] Where is this straw, my fellow?
1499Make vile things precious. Come, your hovel.
1727Poor
1500Fool and knave, I have one part of my heart
[Sings.]
He that has a little tiny wit,
1730 With hey, ho. the wind
1503and the rain,
1731Must make content with his fortunes fit,
1732 For the
1504rain, it raineth every day.
True, my good boy. [To Kent] Come bring us to this hovel.
27.1[Exeunt 28all but the Fool]. This is a brave night to cool a courtesan.
1735I'll speak a prophecy ere I go.
1736When priests are more in word than matter,
1737When brewers mar their malt with water,
1738When nobles are their tailors' tutors,
1739No heretics burned but wenches' suitors;
1740When every case in law is right,
1741No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
1742When slanders do not live in tongues,
1743Nor cut-purses come not to throngs;
1744When usurers tell their gold i'th'field,
1745And bawds and whores do churches build;
1746Then shall the realm of Albion
Come to great confusion.
1747Then comes the time, who lives to see't,
1748That going shall be used with feet.
1749This prophecy Merlin shall make, for I live before his time.