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Scene III

A wood.

[Enter Edgar]

EDGAR:

I heard myself proclaimed;
And by the happy hollow of a tree
Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place,
That guard, and most unusual vigilance,
Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may 'scape,(5)
I will preserve myself: and am bethought
To take the basest and most poorest shape
That ever penury, in contempt of man,
Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth;
Blanket my loins: elf all my hair in knots;(10)
And with presented nakedness out-face
The winds and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numbed and mortified bare arms(15)
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
And with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills,
Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod! poor Tom!(20)
That's something yet: Edgar I nothing am.

[Exit]

• declared an outlaw
• fortunate
• resolved
• poverty
• elf locks
• defy
• worthless
• nonsense same

1. Strategies for Understanding Shakespeare's Language
2. Reading Pointers for Sharper Insight
3. Act I
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
4. Act II
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
5. Act III
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
   6. Scene VI
   7. Scene VII
6. Act IV
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
   6. Scene VI
   7. Scene VII
7. Act V
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
8. Copyright