Kent.
Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter:
The tyranny of the ^note open night's ^note too rough
For nature to endure. ^note [Storm still. ^note

Lear.
Let me alone.

Kent.
Good my lord, enter here ^note. ^note

Lear.
Wilt ^note break my ^note heart?

Kent.
I had ^note rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter. ^note

Lear.
Thou think'st 'tis ^note much that this contentious ^note storm
Invades us to the skin: so 'tis ^note to thee;
But where the greater malady is fix'd

The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'ldst ^note shun a bear,
But if thy ^note flight lay ^note toward the raging ^note sea
Thou'ldst ^note meet the bear i' the mouth. When the mind's ^note free
The body's ^note delicate: the ^note tempest in my mind ^note
Doth from my senses take all feeling else
Save what beats ^note there. Filial ingratitude! ^note
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand ^note
For lifting food to't ^note? But I will punish home ^note.
No, I will weep no more. In such a night
To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure. ^note
In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave you ^note all,— ^note
O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
No more of that.

Kent.
Good my lord, enter here. ^note

Lear.
Prithee, go in thyself; seek thine own ^note ease:
This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in. [To the Fool] ^note
In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty,— ^note
Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep. ^note [Fool goes in. ^note
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,

That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm ^note,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop'd ^note and window'd ^note 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 ^note
And show the heavens more just.

Edg. [Within] ^{note note}
Fathom and half, fathom and half!
Poor Tom! ^note [The Fool runs out from the hovel. ^note

Fool.

Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit. Help me, help me! ^note

Kent.

Give me thy hand. Who's there? ^note

Fool.

A spirit, a spirit: ^note he says his name's ^note poor Tom.

Kent.

What art thou that dost grumble there i' the ^note straw? Come forth. ^{note note}

Edg. ^note

Away! the foul fiend follows me! ‘Through ^note the sharp hawthorn ^note blows the cold wind ^note. ^note’ Hum! ^note go to thy cold ^note bed and warm thee. ^note

^note

Lear.

Hast thou ^note given all to thy two ^note daughters? and art thou come to this?

Edg.

Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, ^note through ford ^note and whirlpool ^note, o'er bog and quagmire; that hath ^note laid knives under his pillow and halters in his pew ^note; set ratsbane ^note by his porridge ^note; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over four-inched ^note bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor. Bless ^note thy five wits! Tom's a-cold. O, do de, do de, do de. ^note Bless ^note thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting ^note, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes. There could I have him now, and there, and there ^note again ^note, and there.

Lear.
What, have his ^note daughters brought him to this pass ^note?
Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give them ^note all?

Fool.

Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed ^note.

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

Kent.
He hath no daughters, sir.

Lear.
Death, traitor! nothing could have subdued 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 ^note. ^note

Edg.
Pillicock sat on ^note Pillicock-hill ^note:
Halloo, halloo, loo, loo! ^{note note}

Fool.

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

Edg.

Take heed o' the ^note foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep thy word justly ^note; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not ^note thy sweet heart ^note 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 ^note in my cap; served the lust of my mistress' ^note 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 ^note lust and waked to do it: wine loved I deeply ^note, dice dearly, and in woman out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand ^note; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling ^note of silks ^note betray thy

poor heart to woman ^note: keep thy foot out of brothels ^note, thy hand out of plackets ^note, thy pen from lenders' books ^note, and defy the foul fiend.

  ‘Still through the hawthorn ^{note note} blows the cold wind. ^note’
  Says suum, mun, ha, no, nonny ^note.
  Dolphin my boy, my boy ^note, sessa! let ^note him trot by ^note. [Storm still. ^note

Lear.

Why, ^note thou wert ^note better in thy grave ^note than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than ^note this? Consider ^note him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! ^note here's ^note three on 's ^note are sophisticated ^note. Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings ^note! come, unbutton here. ^{note note}

Fool.

Prithee ^note, nuncle, be contented ^note; 'tis a naughty night

to swim in. Now a little fire in a wild field ^note were like an old lecher's heart, a small spark, all ^note the rest on's ^note body cold. Look, here comes a walking fire.

Edg.

This is the foul fiend ^note Flibbertigibbet ^note: he begins at curfew and walks till the ^note first cock; he gives ^note the web and the pin, squints ^note the eye and makes the hare-lip ^note; mildews the white wheat and hurts the poor creature ^note of earth ^note.

  Saint Withold ^note footed thrice the 'old ^note;
  He met the night-mare ^note and her nine-fold ^note;
    Bid her alight ^note,
    And her troth plight ^note,
  And aroint thee, witch, ^note aroint ^note thee! ^{note note}

Kent.

How fares your grace?

Lear.

What's he?

Kent.

Who's ^note there? What is't you seek?

Glou.

What are you there? Your names?

Edg.

Poor Tom, that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the tadpole ^note, the wall-newt ^note and the water ^note; that in the fury ^note of his heart, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets ^note; swallows the old rat and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; who is whipped from tithing to tithing, and stock-punished ^note, and imprisoned; who hath had ^note three suits to his back, six shirts to his body, horse to ride and weapon to wear; ^note

  But mice and rats and such small deer ^note
  Have ^note been Tom's food for seven long year.

Beware my follower. Peace, Smulkin ^note; peace, thou fiend!

Glou.

What, hath your grace no better company?

Edg.

The prince of darkness is a gentleman: Modo ^note he's call'd, and Mahu ^note. ^note

Glou.
Our flesh and blood is grown so vile, my lord, ^note
That it doth hate what gets it ^note. ^note

Edg.
Poor ^note Tom's a-cold ^note.

Glou.
Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer
To obey in all your daughters' hard commands:
Though ^note their injunction be to bar my doors
And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,
Yet have I ventured ^note to come seek you out
And bring you where both fire and food ^note is ^note ready. ^note

Lear.
First let me talk with this philosopher.
What is the cause of thunder?

Kent.
Good my ^note lord, take his offer; go into the house. ^note

Lear.
I'll talk ^note a word with this same ^note learned Theban.
What is your study? ^note

Edg.
How to prevent the fiend and to kill vermin.

Lear.
Let me ^note ask you one word in private ^note.

Kent.
Importune him once more ^note to go, my lord;
His wits begin to unsettle. ^note

Glou.
Canst thou blame him? [Storm still. ^note
His daughters seek his death: ah ^note, that good Kent!
He said it would be thus, poor banish'd man!
Thou say'st ^note the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend,
I am ^note almost mad myself: I had a son,
Now outlaw'd ^note from my blood; he sought ^note my life,
But lately, very late: I loved him, friend, ^note
No father his son dearer: truth ^note to tell thee,
The grief hath ^note crazed my wits. What a night's ^note this!

I do beseech your grace,— ^note

Lear.
O, cry you mercy, sir.
Noble ^note philosopher, your company. ^note

Edg.
Tom's a-cold ^note.

Glou.
In, fellow, there, into the ^note hovel: keep thee warm.

Lear.
Come, let's in all.

Kent.
This way, my lord.

Lear.
With him;
I ^note will keep still with my philosopher. ^note

Kent.
Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow. ^note

Glou.
Take him you on.

Kent.
Sirrah, come on; go along with us. ^note

Lear.
Come, good Athenian.

Glou.
No words, no words: ^note hush. ^note

Edg.
Child Rowland to the dark tower ^note came ^note:
  His word was still ‘Fie, foh, and fum,
    I smell the blood of a British man.’ [Exeunt. ^note

^note

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