But who comes here?
The safer sense will ne'er accommodate
His master thus.

Lear.

No, they cannot touch me for coyning, I am the King himself.

Edg.

O thou side-piercing sight!

Lear.

Nature's above art in that respect. There's your pressmony. That fellow handles his bow like a cow-keeper: draw me a clothier's yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace, this piece of toasted cheese will do't—there's my gauntlet, I'll prove it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O well flown bird: i'th' clout, i'th' clout: hewgh. Give the word.

Edg.

Sweet marjoram.

Lear.

Pass.

Glo.

I know that voice.

Lear.

Ha! Gonerill! ^{g note}hah Regan! they flatter'd me like a dog, and told me I had white hairs in my beard, ere the black ones were there. To say ay, and no, to every thing that I said—Ay and no too, was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me once, and wind to make me chatter; when

the thunder would not peace at my bidding, there I found 'em, there I smelt 'em out. Go to, they are not men o' their words; they told me I was every thing: 'tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.

Glo.

The trick of that voice I do well remember: is't not the King?

Lear.
Ay, every inch a King.
When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.
I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause?

Adultery? thou shalt not die; die for adultery? no, the wren goes to't, and the small gilded flie does letcher in my sight. Let copulation thrive: for Glo'ster's bastard son was kinder to his father, than my daughters got 'tween the lawful sheets. To't luxury pell-mell, for I lack soldiers. Behold yon simpering dame, whose face 'tween her forks presages snow; that minces virtue, and does shake the head to hear of pleasure's name. The † ^notefitchew, nor the soyled horse goes to't with a more riotous appetite: down from the waste they are centaurs, though women all above; but to the girdle do the gods inherit, beneath is all the fiends. There's hell, there's darkness, there is the sulphurous pit, burning, scalding, stench, consumption: fie, fie, fie; pah, pah; give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination! there's mony for thee.

Glo.
O let me kiss that hand.

Lear.

Let me wipe it first, it smells of mortality.

Glo.
O ruin'd piece of nature! this great world
Shall so wear out to nought. Do'st thou know me?

Lear.

I remember thine eyes well enough: dost thou squint at me? no, do thy worst blind Cupid, I'll not love. Read thou this challenge, mark but the penning of it.

Glo.
Were all the letters suns, I could not see one.

Edg.
I would not take this from report;
It is, and my heart breaks at it.

Lear.
Read.

Glo.
What, with this case of eyes?

Lear.

Oh ho, are you there with me? no eyes in your head, nor mony in your purse? your eyes are in heavy case, your purse in a light, yet you see how this world goes.

Glo.

I see it feelingly.

Lear.

What, art mad? a man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark in thine ear: change places, and handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar.

Glo.

Ay Sir.

Lear.

And the creature run from the cur: there thou might'st behold the great image of authority, a dog's obey'd in office.

Edg.
O matter and impertinency mixt,
Reason in madness.

Lear.
If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes.
I know thee well enough, thy name is Glo'ster;
Thou must be patient; we came crying hither:
Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air

We wawle and cry. I will preach to thee: mark—

Glo.
Alack, alack the day!

Lear.
When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools.—This is a good block!—
It were a delicate stratagem to shooe
A troop of horse with Felt; I'll put't in proof,
And when I've stol'n upon these sons-in-law;
Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.

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