King Lear

Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.--

[Fool goes in.]

Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd 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.

Edg.
[Within.] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom!

[The Fool runs out from the hovel.]

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' the straw?
Come forth.

[Enter Edgar, disguised as a madman.]

Edg.
Away! the foul fiend follows me!--
Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.--
Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.

Lear.
Didst thou give all to thy two daughters?
And art thou come to this?

Edg.
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 continues.]

Lear.
What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?--
Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give 'em all?

Fool.
Nay, he reserv'd a blanket, else we had been all shamed.

Lear.
Now all the plagues that in the pendulous air
Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters!

Kent.
He hath no daughters, sir.

Lear.
Death, traitor! nothing could have subdu'd nature
To 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.

Edg.
Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:--
Halloo, halloo, loo loo!

Fool.
This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.

Edg.
Take heed o' th' foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep thy word
justly; 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?

Edg.
A serving-man, 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