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Scene IV

The heath. Before a hovel.

[Enter King Lear, Kent, and Fool]

KENT:

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

[Storm still]

KING LEAR:

Let me alone.

KENT:

Good my lord, enter here.(5)

KING LEAR:

Wilt break my heart?

KENT:

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

KING LEAR:

Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious
storm
Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee;(10)
But where the greater malady is fixed,
The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'ldst shun a bear;
But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,
Thou'ldst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the mind's
free,(15)
The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else
Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand
For lifting food to't? But I will punish home:(20)
No, I will weep no more. In such a night
To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure.
In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all,—
O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;(25)
No more of that.

KENT:

Good my lord, enter here.

KING LEAR:

Prithee, go in thyself: seek thine own ease:
This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in.(30)

[To the Fool]

In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty,—
Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.

[Fool goes in]

Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,(35)
Your looped and windowed 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,(40)
And show the heavens more just.

EDGAR:

[Within]

Fathom and half, fathom and half!
Poor Tom!

[The Fool runs out from the hovel]

FOOL:

Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit.
Help me, help me!(45)

KENT:

Give me thy hand. Who's there?

FOOL:

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

KENT:

What art thou that dost grumble there i' the straw?
Come forth.

[Enter Edgar disguised as a madman]

EDGAR:

Away! the foul fiend follows me!(50)
Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.
Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.

KING LEAR:

Hast thou given all to thy two daughters?
And art thou come to this?

EDGAR:

Who gives anything to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend(55)
hath led through fire and through flame, and through ford
and whirlipool e'er bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives
under his pillow, and halters in his pew; set ratsbane
by his porridge; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay
trotting-horse over four-inched bridges, to course his own(60)
shadow for a traitor. Bless thy five wits! Tom's a-cold,—O, do
de, do de, do de. Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting,
and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend
vexes: there could I have him now,—and there,—and there
again, and there.(65)

[Storm still]

KING LEAR:

Has his daughters brought him to this pass?
Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all?

FOOL:

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

KING LEAR:

Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air
Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters!(70)

KENT:

He hath no daughters, sir.

KING LEAR:

Death, traitor! nothing could have subdued
nature
To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.
Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers(75)
Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?
Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot
Those pelican daughters.

EDGAR:

Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:
Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!(80)

FOOL:

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

EDGAR:

Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep
thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn
spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array. Tom's a-
cold.(85)

KING LEAR:

What hast thou been?

EDGAR:

A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled
my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of my
mistress' heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore
as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the(90)
sweet face of heaven: one that slept in the contriving of
lust, and waked to do it: wine loved I deeply, dice dearly:
and in woman out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart,
light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth,
wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not(95)
the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray thy
poor heart to woman: keep thy foot out of brothels, thy
hand out of plackets, thy pen from lenders' books, and
defy the foul fiend.
Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind:(100)
Says suum, mun, ha, no, nonny.
Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let him trot by.

[Storm still]

KING LEAR:

Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer
with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies. Is
man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou owest(105)
the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the
cat no perfume. Ha! here's three on 's are sophisticated!
Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no
more but such a poor bare, forked animal as thou art. Off,
off, you lendings! come unbutton here.(110)

[Tearing off his clothes]

FOOL:

Prithee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis a naughty night to swim
in. Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher's
heart; a small spark, all the rest on's body cold. Look, here
comes a walking fire.

[Enter Gloucester, with a torch]

EDGAR:

This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at(115)
curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and
the pin, squints the eye, and makes the hare-lip; mildews
the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth.
S'withold footed thrice the 'old,
He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;(120)
Bid her alight,
And her troth plight,
And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!

• illness
• suitable to or due from a son or daughter
• endure
• wealth, luxury
• extra
• a sailor's cry when checking water depth
• swamp
• nooses
• rat poison
• hunt
• astrological influence that can cause sickness or death
• overhanging
• greedy
• verse from old rhyme
• i.e., had more mistresses than
• a sultan
• slits in skirts
• dauphin (name for the heir to French throne)
• stop
• civet, a cat from whom a kind of perfume was taken
• borrowed clothes
• name for a devil
• nine o'clock
• midnight
• cataract
• English saint and healer
• rolling hills
• be gone

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

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