King Lear

   Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;
   When usurers tell their gold i' the 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 us'd with feet.
This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time.

[Exit.]



Scene III. A Room in Gloster's Castle.

[Enter Gloster and Edmund.]

Glou.
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 mine own house; charged me on pain of perpetual displeasure,
neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him.

Edm.
Most savage and unnatural!

Glou.
Go to; say you nothing. There is division betwixt 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's part of a power already footed: we must incline to
the king. I will seek 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 some strange thing toward, Edmund;
pray you be careful.

[Exit.]

Edm.
This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke
Instantly 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.]



Scene IV. A part of the Heath with a Hovel. Storm continues.

[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.

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 storm
Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee
But where the greater malady is fix'd,
The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear;
But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,
Thou'dst meet the bear i' the 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:--
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.
Pr'ythee 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,--