Edm.
Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law

My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in ^note the plague ^note of custom, and permit
The curiosity ^note of nations to deprive me,
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base? ^note
When my dimensions ^note are as well compact,
My mind as generous and my shape as true,
As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base? ^note
Who in the lusty stealth of nature take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth, within a dull, stale ^note, tired ^note bed,
Go to the creating ^note a whole tribe of fops,
Got 'tween asleep ^{note note} and wake? Well then, ^note
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate: fine word, ‘legitimate!’ ^note
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base ^note
Shall top the ^note legitimate. ^note I grow; I prosper:
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

^noteEnter Gloucester.

Glou.
Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted!
And the king gone to-night! subscribed ^note his power!
Confined to exhibition! All this done ^note
Upon the gad! ^note Edmund, how now! what news? ^note

Edm.

So please your lordship, none.

Glou.

Why ^note so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?

Edm.

I know no news, my lord.

Glou.

What paper were you reading?

Edm.

Nothing, my lord.

Glou.

No? What needed ^note then that terrible ^note dispatch of it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath not such need to hide ^note itself. Let's see: come, if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles.

Edm. ^note

I beseech you, sir, pardon me: it is a letter from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read; and ^note for so much as I have perused, I find it not fit for your o'er-looking ^note.

Glou.

Give me the letter, sir.

Edm.

I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame ^note. ^note

Glou.

Let's see, let's see.

Edm.

I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as an essay or taste ^note of my virtue.

Glou. [Reads ^note]

‘This policy and reverence ^note of age ^note makes the world bitter to the best ^note of our times; keeps our fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny; who ^note sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother,

Edgar.’

Hum! Conspiracy!—‘Sleep ^note till I waked ^note him, you should enjoy half his revenue!’—My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain ^note to breed it in? When came this to you ^note? who brought it?

Edm.

It was not brought me, my lord; there's the cunning of it; I found it thrown in at the casement of my closet.

Glou.

You know the character to be your brother's?

Edm.

If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his; but, in respect of ^note that, I would fain think it were not. ^note

Glou.

It is his. ^note

Edm.

It is his hand, my lord; but ^note I hope his heart is not in the contents.

Glou.

Hath ^note he never heretofore ^note sounded you in this business?

Edm.

Never, my lord: but I have heard him oft ^note maintain it to be fit, that, sons at ^note perfect ^note age, and fathers declining ^note,

the father ^note should be as ward ^note to the son, and the son manage his ^note revenue.

Glou.

O villain, villain! His very opinion in the letter! Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested, brutish villain! worse than brutish! Go, sirrah ^note, seek him; ay, ^note apprehend him: abominable villain! Where is he?

Edm.

I do not well know, my lord ^note. If it shall please you to suspend your indignation against my brother till you can derive from him better testimony of his ^note intent, you should ^note run a certain course; where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own ^note honour and shake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him that ^note he hath wrote ^note this to feel my affection to your honour and to no further ^note pretence of danger.

Glou.

Think you so?

Edm.

If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this and by an auricular ^note assurance have your satisfaction, and that without any further delay than this very evening.

Glou.

He cannot be such a monster— ^note

Edm.

Nor is not, sure.

Glou.

To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him. Heaven and earth! ^note Edmund, seek him out; wind me ^note into him, I pray you: frame ^note the ^note business after your own wisdom. I would unstate myself, to be in a due resolution.

Edm.

I will ^note seek him, sir, presently, convey the business as I shall find ^note means, and acquaint you withal.

Glou.

These late eclipses ^note in the sun and moon ^note portend no good to us: though the wisdom of nature ^{note note} can reason it ^note thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent ^note effects: love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord ^note; in palaces ^note, treason ^note; and the bond ^note cracked 'twixt ^note son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's son against father: the king falls from bias of nature; there's father against child. We have seen the best of our time: machinations, hollowness, treachery and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves. ^note Find out this villain ^note, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it carefully. And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his offence, honesty ^note! 'Tis strange. ^note

Edm.

This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune—often the surfeit ^note of our own behaviour—we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon and the stars ^note: as if we were villains by ^note necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves and treachers ^note, by spherical ^note predominance, drunkards, liars and adulterers,

by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition ^note to the charge ^note of a star ^note! My father compounded with my mother under the dragon's tail, and my nativity was under Ursa major; so that it follows I am rough and lecherous ^note. Tut ^note, I should have been that ^note I am, had the maidenliest ^note star in ^note the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing ^note. Edgar—

And pat ^note he comes like the catastrophe of the old comedy: my cue ^note is villanous melancholy, with a sigh ^note like Tom o' ^note Bedlam. O, these eclipses do portend ^note these divisions! ^note fa, ^notesol, la, mi. ^note

Edg.

How now, brother Edmund! what serious contemplation are you in?

Edm.

I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what should follow these eclipses ^note.

Edg.

Do you busy yourself about ^note that?

Edm.

I promise you ^note, the effects he writ ^note of succeed

unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities ^note; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts ^note, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.

Edg.

How long have you been a sectary astronomical?

Edm.

Come, come; ^note when saw you my father last?

Edg.

Why, the ^note night gone by.

Edm.

Spake you with him?

Edg.

Ay, ^note two hours together.

Edm.

Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him by word or ^note countenance?

Edg.

None at all.

Edm.

Bethink yourself wherein you may ^note have offended him: and at my entreaty forbear his presence till ^note some little time hath qualified the heat of his displeasure, which at this instant so rageth in him that with ^note the mischief of your person ^note it would scarcely ^note allay.

Edg.

Some villain hath done me wrong.

Edm.

That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent forbearance till the speed of his rage goes slower and, as I say, retire with me to my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my lord speak: pray ye ^note, go; there's my key: if you do stir abroad, go armed.

Edg.

Armed, brother!

Edm.

Brother, ^note I advise you to the best: go armed ^note: I am no honest man if there be any good meaning towards ^note

you: I have told you what I have seen and heard; but faintly, ^note nothing like the image and horror of it: pray you, away.

Edg.
Shall I hear from you anon? ^note

Edm.
I do ^note serve you in this business. [Exit Edgar. ^note
A credulous father, and a brother noble,
Whose nature is so far from doing harms
That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty
My practices ride easy. I see the business.
Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit:
All with me's ^note meet that I can fashion fit. [Exit. ^note Scene III. [Footnote: The ^note Duke of Albany's palace. Enter Goneril and Oswald, her steward. ^note

Gon.

Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool?

Osw. ^note

Yes ^note, madam.

Gon.
By day and night ^note he wrongs me; every hour
He flashes into one gross crime or other, ^note
That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it:
His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids ^note us
On every trifle. When ^note he returns from hunting,
I will not speak with him; say I am sick:
If you come slack of former services,

You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer.

Osw.
He's coming, madam; I hear him. [Horns within. ^note

Gon.
Put on what weary ^note negligence you please,
You and your fellows ^note; I'ld have it come to ^note question:
If he distaste ^note it, let him to our ^note sister,
Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one, ^note
Not to be over-ruled. Idle old man,
That still would manage those authorities
That he hath given away! Now, by my life,
Old fools ^note are babes again, and must be used
With checks as flatteries, when they are seen abused ^note. ^{note note}
Remember what I tell you ^note.

Osw.
Very well ^note, madam.

Gon.
And let his knights have colder looks among you;
What grows of it, no matter; advise ^note your fellows so: ^note
I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall,
That I may speak: ^note I'll write straight to my sister,
To hold my very ^note course. Prepare ^note for dinner ^note. ^note [Exeunt. ^note

^note Scene IV. [Footnote: A hall in the same. ^note Enter Kent, disguised. ^note

Kent.
If but as well ^note I other accents borrow,
That can my speech defuse ^note, my good intent
May carry through itself to that full issue
For which I razed ^note my likeness. Now ^note, banish'd Kent,
If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd,
So may it come, ^note thy master whom thou lovest
Shall find thee full ^note of labours ^note. ^note Horns within. ^note Enter Lear, Knights, and Attendants. ^note

Lear.

Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go get it ready. [Exit an Attendant. ^note] ^noteHow now! what art thou?

Kent.

A man, sir.

Lear.

What dost thou profess? What wouldst thou with us?

Kent.

I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve him truly that will put me in trust; to love him that is honest; to converse with him that is wise and says ^note little; to fear judgement; to fight when I cannot choose, and to eat no fish.

Lear.

What art ^note thou?

Kent.

A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the king.

Lear.

If thou be ^note as poor for a subject as he is ^note for a king, thou art ^note poor enough. What wouldst thou?

Kent.

Service.

Lear.

Who ^note wouldst thou serve?

Kent.

You.

Lear.

Dost thou know me, fellow?

Kent.

No, sir; but you have that in your countenance which I would fain call master.

Lear.

What's ^note that?

Kent.

Authority.

Lear.

What services ^note canst thou ^note do?

Kent.

I can keep honest counsel ^note, ride, run, mar a curious tale in telling it, and deliver a plain message bluntly: that which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in, and the best of me is diligence.

Lear.

How old art thou?

Kent.

Not so young, sir ^note, to love a woman for singing ^note, nor so old to dote on her for any thing: I have years on my back forty eight.

Lear.

Follow me; thou ^note shalt serve me: if I like thee no worse after dinner, I ^note will not part from thee yet. Dinner, ho, dinner ^note! ^note Where's my knave? my fool? Go you, and ^notecall my fool hither ^note.

Enter Oswald. ^note

You, you, ^note sirrah, where's my daughter?

Osw. ^note

So please you,— ^note

Lear.

What says the fellow there? Call the clotpoll ^note back. [Exit a Knight. ^note] Where's my fool, ho? ^note I think the world's ^note asleep.

How now! where's that mongrel?

Knight. ^note

He says, my lord, your daughter ^note is not well.

Lear.

Why came not the slave back to me when I called him?

Knight. ^note

Sir, he answered me ^note in the roundest manner, he would not.

Lear.

He ^note would not!

Knight. ^note

My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my judgement, your highness is not entertained with that ceremonious affection as you were wont; there's a great abatement of kindness ^note appears as well in the general dependants ^note as in the duke himself also and your daughter.

Lear.

Ha! sayest thou so?

Knight. ^note

I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I be

mistaken; for my duty cannot be silent when I think your highness wronged ^note.

Lear.

Thou but rememberest me of mine ^note own conception: I have perceived a most faint ^note neglect of late; which I have rather blamed as mine own ^note jealous curiosity than as a very pretence and purpose ^note of unkindness: I will look further into't ^note. But where's ^note my ^note fool? I have not seen him this ^note two days.

Knight. ^note

Since my young lady's going into France, sir, the fool hath much pined away.

Lear.

No more of that; I have noted it well ^note. Go you, and tell my daughter I would speak with her. [Exit an Attendant. ^note] ^noteGo you, call hither my fool.

O, you sir, you, come you hither, sir ^note: who am I, sir?

Osw.

My lady's father.

Lear.

My lady's father! my lord's knave: you whoreson dog! you slave! you cur!

Osw.

I am none of these ^note, my lord; I beseech your pardon ^note. ^note

Lear.

Do you bandy looks ^note with me, you rascal?

^note

Osw.

I'll not be struck ^note, my lord.

Kent.

Nor tripped neither, you base foot-ball player. ^note

Lear.

I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and I'll love thee. ^note

Kent.

Come, sir, arise, away ^note! I'll teach you differences: away, away! If you will measure your lubber's length ^note again, tarry ^note: but away! go to ^note; have you wisdom? so. ^note

Lear.

Now, my ^note friendly knave, I thank thee: there's ^note earnest of thy service.

Fool.

Let me hire him too: here's my coxcomb.

Lear.

How now, my pretty knave! how dost thou?

Fool.

Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb.

Kent.

Why, fool? ^note

Fool.

Why, for ^note taking one's ^note part that's ^note out of favour: nay, an ^note thou canst not smile as the wind sits, thou'lt ^note catch

cold shortly: there, take my coxcomb: why, this fellow hath ^note banished two on's ^note daughters, and done ^note the third a blessing against his will; if thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb. How now, nuncle! Would I had two coxcombs and two ^note daughters!

Lear.

Why, my boy?

Fool.

If I gave ^note them all my ^note living, I'ld ^note keep my coxcombs ^note myself. There's mine; beg another of thy daughters.

Lear.

Take heed, sirrah; the whip.

Fool.

Truth's a ^note dog must to ^note kennel; he must be whipped out, when Lady the brach ^note may stand by the fire and stink.

Lear.

A pestilent gall ^note to me!

Fool.

Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech.

Lear. ^note

Do.

Fool.

Mark it, nuncle ^note:

  Have more than thou showest,
  Speak less than thou knowest,
  Lend less than thou owest,
  Ride more than thou goest,
  Learn more than thou trowest,
  Set less than thou throwest;
  Leave thy drink and thy whore,
  And keep in-a-door ^note,

  And thou shalt have more
  Than two tens to a score. ^note

Kent. ^note

This is nothing, fool.

Fool.

Then 'tis ^note like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer, you gave ^note me nothing for't. Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle ^note?

Lear.

Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing.

Fool. [To Kent ^note]

Prithee, tell him, so much the rent of his land comes to: he will not believe a fool.

Lear.

A bitter fool!

Fool.

Dost thou know the difference, my boy ^note, between a bitter fool and a sweet fool ^note?

Lear.

No, lad; teach me. ^note

Fool.
  That lord that counsell'd thee
    To give away thy land,
  Come place him here by me;
    Do ^note thou ^note for him stand:
  The sweet and bitter fool
    Will presently appear;
  The one in motley here,
    The other found out there. ^note

Lear.

Dost thou call me fool, boy ^note?

Fool.

All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou was born with.

Kent.

This is not altogether fool, my lord.

Fool.

No, faith, lords and great men will not let me; if I had a monopoly out ^note, they would have part on't: and

ladies too, ^note they will ^note not let me have all the fool ^note to myself; they'll be snatching. ^note Give me an egg, nuncle ^note, and I'll give thee two crowns.

Lear.

What two crowns shall they be?

Fool.

Why, after I have cut the egg in the ^note middle and eat up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou clovest thy crown ^note i' the ^note middle and gavest away both parts, thou borest ^note thine ass on thy ^note back o'er ^note the dirt: thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown when thou gavest thy golden one ^note away. If I speak like myself in this, let him be whipped that first finds it so ^note.

[Singing ^note]
  Fools had ne'er ^note less wit ^note in a year;
    For wise men are grown foppish,
  And ^note know not how ^note their wits to ^note wear,
    Their manners are so apish.

Lear.

When ^note were you wont to be so full of songs, sirrah?

Fool.

I have used it, nuncle, ever ^note since thou madest thy daughters thy mother ^note: for when thou gavest them the rod and puttest down thine own breeches,

[Singing ^note]
  Then they ^note for sudden joy did weep,
    And I for sorrow sung,

  That such a king should play bo-peep,
    And go the fools ^note among. ^note

Prithee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool to lie: I would fain learn to lie ^note.

Lear.

An ^note you lie, sirrah ^note, we'll have you whipped.

Fool.

I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are: they'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'lt ^note have me whipped for lying, and sometimes ^note I am whipped for holding my peace. I had rather be any kind o' ^note thing than a fool: and yet I would not be thee, nuncle; thou hast pared thy wit o' both ^note sides and left nothing i' the ^note middle. Here ^note comes one o' ^note the ^note parings.

Lear.
How now, daughter ^note! what makes that frontlet on? ^note
Methinks ^note you are too much of late ^note i' the frown. ^note

Fool.

Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to care for her frowning ^note; now thou ^note art an O without a figure: I am better than thou art now; I am a fool, thou art nothing. [To Gon. ^note] Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue; so your face bids me, though you say nothing.

^note
  Mum, mum: ^note
  He that keeps nor crust ^note nor crumb,
  Weary of all, shall want some.

[Pointing to Lear ^note]
That's ^note a shealed ^note peascod ^note.

Gon.
Not only, sir, this ^note your all-licensed fool,
But other ^note of your insolent retinue
Do hourly carp and quarrel, breaking forth
In rank and not to be endured riots. Sir, ^{note note}
I had ^note thought, by making this well known unto you,
To have found a safe redress; but now grow fearful,
By what yourself too late have spoke and done,
That you protect this course and put it on ^note
By your allowance; which ^note if you should, the fault
Would ^note not 'scape censure, nor the redresses ^note sleep,
Which, in the tender of a wholesome weal,
Might in their working do you that offence
Which ^note else were shame, that then necessity
Will ^note call discreet proceeding ^note. ^note

Fool.
For, you know ^note, nuncle,

  The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,
  That it had it head ^note bit off by it ^note young. ^note
So out went the candle, and we were left darkling.

Lear.
Are you our daughter?

Gon.
Come, sir, ^note

I would you would make use of that ^note good wisdom
Whereof ^note I know you are fraught, and put away
These dispositions that of late transform ^note you
From what you rightly are. ^note

Fool.

May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse? Whoop, Jug! I love thee.

Lear.
Doth ^note any here know me? This ^note is not Lear: ^note
Doth ^note Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes?
Either his notion weakens ^note, his discernings ^note
Are lethargied— ^noteHa! waking ^note? ^note 'tis not so.
Who is it that ^note can tell me who I am? ^note

Fool.
Lear's shadow. ^note

Lear.

I would learn that ^note; for, by the marks of sovereignty ^note knowledge and reason, I should be false ^note persuaded I ^note had daughters.

Fool.
Which they will ^note make an obedient father. ^note

Lear. ^note
Your name, fair gentlewoman?

Gon.
This admiration, sir, ^note is much o' the ^note savour ^note
Of other your new pranks. I do beseech you
To ^note understand my purposes aright: ^note
As you are old and reverend, you should ^{note note} be wise.
Here do you keep a hundred ^note knights and squires;
Men so disorder'd, so debosh'd ^note and bold,
That this our court, infected with their manners,
Shows like a riotous inn ^note: epicurism and lust
Make it more ^note like a tavern or a brothel ^note
Than a graced ^note palace. The ^note shame itself doth speak
For instant remedy: be then ^note desired
By her that else will take the thing she begs
A little ^note to disquantity your train,
And the remainder ^note that shall still depend,
To be such men as may besort your age,
Which ^note know themselves and you.

Lear.
Darkness and devils!
Saddle my horses; call my train together.
Degenerate bastard! I'll not trouble thee:
Yet have I left a daughter. ^note

Gon.
You strike my people, and your disorder'd rabble
Make servants of their betters. ^note Enter Albany. ^{note note}

Lear.
Woe, that too late repents,— ^note[To Alb. ^note] O, sir, are you come? ^note
Is it your will? Speak, sir. Prepare my ^note horses.
Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,
More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child
Than the ^note sea-monster!

Alb.
Pray, sir ^note, be patient. ^note

Lear. ^note [To Gon.]
Detested kite! thou liest.
My train are ^note men of choice and rarest parts,
That all particulars of duty know,
And in the most exact regard support
The worships ^note of their name ^note. O most small fault,
How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show!
That ^note, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature
From the fix'd place, drew from my heart all love
And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear! ^note
Beat at this gate, that let thy folly in [Striking his head. ^note

And thy dear ^note judgement out! Go, go, my people. ^note

Alb.
My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ^note ignorant
Of what hath moved you. ^note

Lear.
It may be so, my lord.
Hear ^note, nature, hear; dear ^{note note} goddess, hear! ^note
Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend
To make this creature fruitful: ^note
Into her womb convey sterility:
Dry up in her the organs of increase,
And from her derogate ^note body never spring
A babe to honour her! If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen, that it may live
And be a thwart ^note disnatured ^note torment to her.
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth;
With cadent ^note tears fret channels in her cheeks;
Turn all her mother's pains ^note and benefits
To laughter and contempt; that she may feel ^note
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child! Away, away! ^note [Exit. ^note

Alb.
Now, gods that we adore, whereof ^note comes this? ^note

Gon.
Never afflict yourself to know the cause ^note,
But let his disposition have that scope
That ^note dotage ^note gives it. Re-enter Lear. ^note

Lear.
What, fifty of my followers at a clap!
Within a fortnight!

Alb.
What's ^note the matter, sir?

Lear.
I'll tell thee. [To Gon. ^note] Life and death! I am ashamed ^note
That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus;
That these hot tears, which ^note break from me perforce,
Should make thee worth them. Blasts ^note and fogs upon thee! ^note
The untented ^note woundings of a father's curse
Pierce ^note every sense ^note about thee! Old ^note fond eyes,
Beweep this cause ^note again, I'll pluck ye ^note out
And cast you ^note with the waters that you lose ^note,
To temper clay. Yea, is it come to this? ^note
Let it be so: ^note yet have I ^note left a daughter,

Who ^note, I am sure, is kind and comfortable:
When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails
She'll flay ^note thy wolvish ^note visage. Thou shalt find
That I'll resume the shape which thou dost think
I have cast off for ever: thou shalt, I warrant thee. ^note [Exeunt ^note Lear, Kent, and Attendants. ^note

Gon.
Do you mark that, my lord ^note?

Alb.
I cannot be so partial, Goneril,
To the great love I bear you,— ^note

Gon.
Pray you, content ^note. What, Oswald, ho! [To the Fool ^note]
You, sir, more ^note knave than fool, after your master. ^note

Fool.

Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry; take ^note the fool with thee. ^note

  A fox ^note, when one has caught her,
  And such a daughter,
  Should sure to the slaughter,
  If my cap would buy ^note a halter:
  So the fool follows after. [Exit. ^note

Gon.
This man hath had good counsel: a hundred knights! ^note
'Tis ^note politic and safe to let him keep

At point ^note a hundred knights: yes, that on every dream,
Each buzz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike,
He may enguard his dotage with their powers
And hold our lives in mercy ^note. Oswald, I say!

Alb.
Well, you may fear too far ^note.

Gon.
Safer than trust too far:
Let me still take away the harms I fear,
Not fear still to be taken ^note: I know his heart.
What he hath utter'd I have writ my sister:
If she ^note sustain him and his hundred knights,
When I have show'd the unfitness ^note,— ^note Re-enter Oswald. ^note
How now, Oswald!
What ^note, have you writ that ^note letter to my sister?

Osw.
Yes ^note, madam.

Gon.
Take you some company, and ^note away to horse:
Inform her full of my particular fear ^note,
And thereto add such reasons of your own
As may compact it more. Get ^note you gone;
And hasten your return. [Exit Oswald. ^note] No, no, my lord ^note,
This milky ^note gentleness and ^note course of yours

Though I condemn not ^note, yet, under pardon ^note,
You are ^note much more attask'd for ^note want of wisdom
Than ^note praised ^note for harmful ^note mildness.

Alb.
How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell:
Striving to better, oft ^note we mar what's well. ^note

Gon.
Nay, then— ^note

Alb.
Well, well; the event. ^note [Exeunt. ^{note note} Scene V. [Footnote: Court ^note before the same. Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool. ^note

Lear. ^note

Go you before to Gloucester with these letters. ^note Acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you know than comes from her demand out of the letter. If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there afore ^note you.

Kent.

I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered your letter.

Fool.

If a man's brains ^note were ^note in's ^note heels, were't ^note not in danger of kibes?

Lear.

Ay, boy.

Fool.

Then, I prithee ^note, be merry; thy wit shall ne'er ^note go slip-shod.

Lear.

Ha, ha, ha!

Fool.

Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly; for though she's ^note as like this as a crab's ^note like an apple, yet I can tell what ^note I can tell.

Lear.

Why, what canst thou ^note tell, boy?

Fool.

She will ^note taste as like this as a crab does ^note to a crab. Thou canst ^note tell why one's nose stands ^note i' the ^note middle on's ^note face?

Lear.

No.

Fool.

Why, to keep one's ^note eyes of ^note either side's ^note nose, that what a man cannot smell out he ^note may spy into.

Lear.

I did her wrong— ^note

Fool.

Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell? ^note

Lear.

No.

Fool.

Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.

Lear.

Why?

Fool.

Why, to put 's ^note head in; not to give it away to his ^note daughters ^note, and leave his horns without a case.

Lear.

I will forget my nature.—So kind a father!—Be my horses ready?

Fool.

Thy asses are gone about 'em ^note. The reason why the seven stars are no more ^note than seven is a pretty reason.

Lear.

Because they are not eight? ^note

Fool.

Yes, indeed ^note: thou wouldst make a good fool.

Lear.

To take 't ^note again perforce! Monster ^note ingratitude!

Fool.

If thou wert ^note my fool, nuncle, I'ld have thee beaten for being old before thy time.

Lear.

How's that?

Fool.

Thou shouldst not have been old till ^note thou hadst been wise.

Lear.
O, let me not be mad, not mad ^note, sweet heaven! ^note
Keep me in temper: I would not be mad ^note! Enter Gentleman. ^note
How now! ^note are the horses ready?

Gent. ^note
Ready, my lord. ^note

Lear.
Come, boy.

Fool.
She that's a ^note maid now and laughs at my departure
Shall not be a maid long, unless ^note things be cut shorter. [Exeunt. ^note

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