Strives in his little world of mandeg to outscorn
The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.
This night, wherein the cub-drawndeg bear would
couch,deg
The lion, and the belly-pincheddeg wolf
Keep their fur dry, unbonneteddeg he runs, 3.1. s.d. still continually
2 minded ... unquietly disturbed in mind, like the weather
6 main land
7 change (1) be destroyed (2) be exchanged (i.e., turned upside down) (3) change for the better
8 eyeless (1) blind (2) invisible
10 little world of man (the microcosm, as opposed to the universe or macrocosm, which it copies in little)
12 cub-drawn sucked dry by her cubs, and so ravenously hungry 12 couch take shelter in its lair
18 belly-pinched starved
14 unbonneted hatless
And bids what will take all.deg
Kent. But who is with him?
Gentleman. None but the Fool, who labors to outjest His heart-struck injuries.
Kent. Sir, I do know you, And dare upon the warrant of my notedeg
Commend a dear thingdeg to you. There is division,
Although as yet the face of it is covered
With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;
Who have--as who have not, thatdeg their great
stars
Throneddeg and set high?--servants, who seem no
less,deg
Which are to France the spies and speculations
Intelligentdeg of our state. What hath been seen,
Either in snuffs and packingsdeg of the Dukes,
Or the hard rein which both of them hath bornedeg
Against the old kind King, or something deeper,
Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishingsdeg--
But, true it is, from France there comes a powerdeg
Into this scattereddeg kingdom, who already,
Wise in our negligence, have secret feet
In some of our best ports, and are at pointdeg
To show their open banner. Now to you:
If on my credit you dare builddeg so far
Todeg make your speed to Dover, you shall find
Some that will thank you, makingdeg justdeg report
Of how unnatural and bemaddingdeg sorrow
The King hath cause to plain.deg
I am a gentleman of blood and breeding,deg 15 take all (like the reckless gambler, staking all he has left)
18 warrant of my note strength of what I have taken note (of you)
19 Commend ... thing entrust important business
22 that whom
22-23 stars/Throned destinies have throned
23 seem no less seem to be so
24-25 speculations/Intelligent giving intelligence
26 snuffs and packings quarrels and plots
27 hard ... borne close and cruel control they have exercised
29 furnishings excuses
30 power army
31 scattered disunited
33 at point ready
35 If ... build if you can trust me, proceed
36 To as to
37 making for making
37 just accurate
38 bemadding maddening
39 plain complain of
40 blood and breeding noble family
And from some knowledge and assurancedeg offer
This officedeg to you.
Gentleman. I will talk further with you.
Kent. No, do not. For confirmation that I am much more
Than my out-wall,deg open this purse and take
What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia,
As fear not but you shall, show her this ring,
And she will tell you who that fellowdeg is
That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm!
I will go seek the King.
Gentleman. Give me your hand. Have you no more to say?
Kent. Few words, but, to effect,deg more than all yet: That when we have found the King--in which your
paindeg
That way, I'll this--he that first lights on him,
Holla the other. Exeunt [severally].
Scene 2. [Another part of the heath.] Storm still.
Enter Lear and Fool.
Lear. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks. Rage, blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes,deg spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the
cocks.deg 41 knowledge and assurance sure and trustworthy information
42 office service (i.e., the trip to Dover)
45 out-wall superficial appearance
48 fellow companion
52 to effect in their importance
53 pain labor 3.2.2 hurricanoes waterspouts
3 cocks weathercocks
You sulph'rous and thought-executingdeg fires,
Vaunt-couriersdeg of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head. And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotunditydeg o' th' world,
Crack Nature's molds,deg all germains spilldeg at once,
That makes ingratefuldeg man.
Fool. O Nuncle, court holy-waterdeg in a dry house is better than this rain water out o' door. Good Nuncle, in; ask thy daughters blessing. Here's a night pities neither wise man nor fools.
Lear. Rumble thy bellyful. Spit, fire. Spout, rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters.
I taxdeg not you, you elements, with unkindness.
I never gave you kingdom, called you children,
You owe me no subscription.deg Then let fall
Your horrible pleasure.deg Here I stand your slave,
A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man.
But yet I call you servile ministers,deg
That will with two pernicious daughters join
Your high-engendered battlesdeg 'gainst a head
So old and white as this. O, ho! 'tis foul.
Fool. He that has a house to put 's head in has a good headpiece.deg The codpiecedeg that will house
Before the head has any,
The head and hedeg shall louse:
So beggars marry many.deg
The man that makes his toe 4 thought-executing (1) doing execution as quick as thought (2) executing or carrying out the thought of him who hurls the lightning
5 Vaunt-couriers heralds, scouts who range before the main body of the army
7 rotundity i.e., not only the sphere of the globe, but the roundness of gestation (Delius)
8 Nature's molds the molds or forms in which men are made
8 all germains spill destroy the basic seeds of life
9 ingrateful ungrateful
10 court holy-water flattery
16 tax accuse
18 subscription allegiance, submission
9 pleasure will
21 ministers agents
23 high-engendered battles armies formed in the heavens
26 headpiece (1) helmet (2) brain
27 codpiece penis (lit., padding worn at the crotch of a man's hose)
29 he it
30 many i.e., lice
27-30 The ... many i.e., the man who gratifies his sexual appetites before he has a roof over his head will end up a lousy beggar
What he his heart should make
Shall of a corn cry woe,
And turn his sleep to wake.deg
For there was never yet fair woman but she made
mouths in a glass.deg
Enter Kent.
Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience, I will say nothing.
Kent. Who's there?
Fool. Marry,deg here's grace and a codpiece; that's a wise man and a fool.deg
Kent. Alas, sir, are you here? Things that love night Love not such nights as these. The wrathful skies
Gallowdeg the very wanderers of the dark
And make them keepdeg their caves. Since I was man
Such sheets of fire, such bursts
of horriddeg thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
Remember to have heard. Man's nature cannot
carrydeg
Th' affliction nor the fear.
Lear. Let the great gods That keep this dreadful pudderdeg o'er our heads
Find out their enemies now.deg Tremble, thou wretch,
That hast within thee undivulged crimes
Unwhipped of justice. Hide thee, thou bloody hand,
Thou perjured,deg and thou simulardeg of virtue 31-34 The ... wake i.e., the man who, ignoring the fit order of things, elevates what is base above what is noble, will suffer for it as Lear has, in banishing Cordelia and enriching her sisters
35-36 made mouths in a glass posed before a mirror (irrelevant nonsense, except that it calls to mind the general theme of vanity and folly)
40 Marry by the Virgin Mary
40-41 here's ... fool (Kent's question is answered: The King ["grace"] is here, and the Fool--who customarily wears an exaggerated codpiece. But which is which is left ambiguous, since Lear has previously been called a codpiece)
44 Gallow frighten
45 keep remain inside
46 horrid horrible
48 carry endure
50 pudder turmoil
51 Find ... now i.e., discover sinners by the terror they reveal
54 perjured perjurer
54 simular counterfeiter
That art incestuous. Caitiff,deg to pieces shake,
That under covert and convenient seemingdeg
Has practiced ondeg man's life. Closedeg pent-up guilts,
Rivedeg your concealing continentsdeg and cry
These dreadful summoners grace.deg I am a man
More sinned against than sinning.
Kent. Alack, bareheaded? Gracious my lord,deg hard by here is a hovel;
Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the
tempest.
Repose you there, while I to this hard house
(More harder than the stones whereof 'tis raised,
Which even but now, demanding afterdeg you,
Denied me to come in) return, and force
Their scanteddeg courtesy.
Lear. My wits begin to turn. Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold?
I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow?
The artdeg of our necessities is strange,
That can make vile things precious. Come, your
hovel.
Poor Fool and knave, I have one part in my heart
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,deg
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 bravedeg 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;deg
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,deg
And bawds and whores do churches build,deg
Then shall the realm of Albiondeg
Come to great confusion.
Then comes the time, who lives to see't,
That going shall be used with feet.deg
This prophecy Merlindeg 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 pitydeg him, they took from me the use of mine 79 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 sustaindeg. him.
Edmund. Most savage and unnatural.
Gloucester. Go to; say you nothing. There is divisiondeg between the Dukes, and a worsedeg matter than that. I have received a letter this night--'tis dangerous to be spokendeg--I have locked the letter in my closet.deg These injuries the King now bears will be revenged home;deg there is part of a powerdeg already footed;deg we must incline todeg the King. I will lookdeg him and privilydeg relieve him. Go you and maintain talk with the Duke, that my charity be not ofdeg 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,deg Edmund; pray you be careful. Exit.
Edmund. This courtesy forbiddeg thee shall the Duke Instantly know, and of that letter too.
This seems a fair deserving,deg 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)
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?deg
Kent. I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.
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 fixed,deg
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.deg When the
mind's free,deg
The b
ody's delicate. The tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else,
Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude,
Is it not asdeg this mouth should tear this hand
For lifting food to't? But I will punish home.deg
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 frankdeg 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
povertydeg--
Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.
Exit [Fool].
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bidedeg the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your looped and windoweddeg raggedness, defend
you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;deg
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superfluxdeg to them,
And show the heavens more just.
Edgar. [Within] Fathom and half, fathom and half!deg 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 downpour, pretends to take soundings)
Enter Edgar [disguised as a madman].