 | King Lear |  |
SCENE a Heath.
A Storm, with Thunder and Lightning.
Enter Lear and Kent.
Lear.
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage, blow!
You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head. And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o'th' world;
Crack nature's mould; all germins spill at once,
That make ingrateful man.
Kent.
Not all my best entreaties can persuade him
Into some needful shelter, or to 'bide
This poor, slight cov'ring on his aged head,
Expos'd to this wild war of earth and heav'n.
[Thunder.
Lear.
Rumble thy belly full! Spit, fire; spout, rain:
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters.
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;
I never gave you kingdoms, call'd you children;
You owe me no subscription. Then let fall
Your horrible pleasure—here I stand your slave;
A poor, infirm, weak, and despis'd old man!
But yet I call you servile ministers,
That have, with two pernicious daughters, join'd
Your high-engender'd battles 'gainst a head
So old and white as this. [Thunder.]
Oh, oh! 'tis foul!
Kent.
Hard by, sir, is a hovel that will lend
Some shelter from this tempest.
Lear.
No, I will be the pattern of all patience;
I will say nothing.
Kent.
Alas, sir, things that love night,
Love not such nights as these: the wrathful skies
Gallow the very wand'rers of the dark,
And make them keep their caves. Since I was man,
Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
Remember to have heard. Man's nature cannot carry
Th' affliction, nor the force.
Lear.
Let the great gods,
That keep this dreadful pudder o'er our heads,
Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,
That hast within thee undivulged crimes,
Unwhipt of justice. Hide thee, thou bloody hand;
Thou perjure, and thou similar of virtue,
That art incestuous. Caitiff, shake to pieces,
That under covert, and convenient seeming,
Hast practis'd on man's life!—Close pent-up guilts,
Rive your concealing continents, and ask
These dreadful summoners grace.—I am a man,
More sinn'd against than sinning.
Kent.
Good sir, to th' hovel.
Lear.
My wits begin to turn.
Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold?
I'm cold myself. Where is the straw, my fellow?
The art of our necessities is strange,
That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel,
My poor knave, I've one string in my heart,
That's sorry yet for thee.
[Exeunt.
A Storm, with Thunder and Lightning.
Enter Lear and Kent.
Lear.
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage, blow!
You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head. And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o'th' world;
Crack nature's mould; all germins spill at once,
That make ingrateful man.
Kent.
Not all my best entreaties can persuade him
Into some needful shelter, or to 'bide
This poor, slight cov'ring on his aged head,
Expos'd to this wild war of earth and heav'n.
[Thunder.
Lear.
Rumble thy belly full! Spit, fire; spout, rain:
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters.
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;
I never gave you kingdoms, call'd you children;
You owe me no subscription. Then let fall
Your horrible pleasure—here I stand your slave;
38
But yet I call you servile ministers,
That have, with two pernicious daughters, join'd
Your high-engender'd battles 'gainst a head
So old and white as this. [Thunder.]
Oh, oh! 'tis foul!
Kent.
Hard by, sir, is a hovel that will lend
Some shelter from this tempest.
Lear.
No, I will be the pattern of all patience;
I will say nothing.
Kent.
Alas, sir, things that love night,
Love not such nights as these: the wrathful skies
Gallow the very wand'rers of the dark,
And make them keep their caves. Since I was man,
Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
Remember to have heard. Man's nature cannot carry
Th' affliction, nor the force.
Lear.
Let the great gods,
That keep this dreadful pudder o'er our heads,
Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,
That hast within thee undivulged crimes,
Unwhipt of justice. Hide thee, thou bloody hand;
Thou perjure, and thou similar of virtue,
That art incestuous. Caitiff, shake to pieces,
That under covert, and convenient seeming,
Hast practis'd on man's life!—Close pent-up guilts,
Rive your concealing continents, and ask
These dreadful summoners grace.—I am a man,
More sinn'd against than sinning.
Kent.
Good sir, to th' hovel.
Lear.
My wits begin to turn.
Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold?
I'm cold myself. Where is the straw, my fellow?
The art of our necessities is strange,
That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel,
39
That's sorry yet for thee.
[Exeunt.
The Third Act begins with awful solemnity: a violent elementary conflict prepares our alarmed senses for the poor, discarded old man's approach, unguarded from all the inclemencies of night, and tumultuous skies. What Lear utters in the scene is emphatically characteristic, and teems with instructive precepts, most poetically connected.
| King Lear | |