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King Lear - Act 3, scene 2
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King Lear - Act 3, scene 2Act 3, scene 2
Scene 2
Synopsis:
Lear rages against the elements while the Fool begs him to return to his daughters for shelter; when Kent finds them, he leads them toward a hovel.
Storm still. Enter Lear and Fool.LEAR
1776 Blow winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!
1777 You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
1778 Till you have drenched our steeples, ⟨drowned⟩ the
1779 cocks.
1780 5 You sulph’rous and thought-executing fires,
1781 Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
1782 Singe my white head. And thou, all-shaking
1783 thunder,
1784 Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ th’ world.
1785 10 Crack nature’s molds, all germens spill at once
1786 That makes ingrateful man.
FOOL 1787 O nuncle, court holy water in a dry house is
1788 better than this rainwater out o’ door. Good nuncle,
1789 in. Ask thy daughters’ blessing. Here’s a night
1790 15 pities neither wise men nor fools.
LEAR
1791 Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain!
1792 Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters.
1793 I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness.
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129
1794
I never gave you kingdom, called you children;1795 20 You owe me no subscription. Then let fall
1796 Your horrible pleasure. Here I stand your slave,
1797 A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man.
1798 But yet I call you servile ministers,
1799 That will with two pernicious daughters join
1800 25 Your high-engendered battles ’gainst a head
1801 So old and white as this. O, ho, ’tis foul!
FOOL 1802 He that has a house to put ’s head in has a good
1803 headpiece.
1804 The codpiece that will house
1805 30 Before the head has any,
1806 The head and he shall louse;
1807 So beggars marry many.
1808 The man that makes his toe
1809 What he his heart should make,
1810 35 Shall of a corn cry woe,
1811 And turn his sleep to wake.
1812 For there was never yet fair woman but she made
1813 mouths in a glass.
LEAR
1814 No, I will be the pattern of all patience.
1815 40 I will say nothing.
Enter Kent ⌜in disguise.⌝
KENT 1816 Who’s there?
FOOL 1817 Marry, here’s grace and a codpiece; that’s a
1818 wise man and a fool.
KENT
1819 Alas, sir, are you here? Things that love night
1820 45 Love not such nights as these. The wrathful skies
1821 Gallow the very wanderers of the dark
1822 And make them keep their caves. Since I was man,
1823 Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
1824 Such groans of roaring wind and rain I never
1825 50 Remember to have heard. Man’s nature cannot carry
1826 Th’ affliction nor the fear.
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131
LEAR
1827
Let the great gods1828 That keep this dreadful pudder o’er our heads
1829 Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,
1830 55 That hast within thee undivulgèd crimes
1831 Unwhipped of justice. Hide thee, thou bloody hand,
1832 Thou perjured, and thou simular of virtue
1833 That art incestuous. Caitiff, to pieces shake,
1834 That under covert and convenient seeming
1835 60 Has practiced on man’s life. Close pent-up guilts,
1836 Rive your concealing continents and cry
1837 These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man
1838 More sinned against than sinning.
KENT 1839 Alack,
1840 65 bareheaded?
1841 Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel.
1842 Some friendship will it lend you ’gainst the tempest.
1843 Repose you there while I to this hard house—
1844 More harder than the stones whereof ’tis raised,
1845 70 Which even but now, demanding after you,
1846 Denied me to come in—return and force
1847 Their scanted courtesy.
LEAR 1848 My wits begin to turn.—
1849 Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold?
1850 75 I am cold myself.—Where is this straw, my fellow?
1851 The art of our necessities is strange
1852 And can make vile things precious. Come, your
1853 hovel.—
1854 Poor Fool and knave, I have one part in my heart
1855 80 That’s sorry yet for thee.
FOOL ⌜sings⌝
1856 He that has and a little tiny wit,
1857 With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
1858 Must make content with his fortunes fit,
1859 Though the rain it raineth every day.
LEAR
1860 85 True, ⟨my good⟩ boy.—Come, bring us to this hovel.
⌜Lear and Kent⌝ exit.
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133
[FOOL
1861
This is a brave night to cool a courtesan. I’ll1862 speak a prophecy ere I go:
1863 When priests are more in word than matter,
1864 When brewers mar their malt with water,
1865 90 When nobles are their tailors’ tutors,
1866 No heretics burned but wenches’ suitors,
1867 When every case in law is right,
1868 No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
1869 When slanders do not live in tongues,
1870 95 Nor cutpurses come not to throngs,
1871 When usurers tell their gold i’ th’ field,
1872 And bawds and whores do churches build,
1873 Then shall the realm of Albion
1874 Come to great confusion;
1875 100 Then comes the time, who lives to see ’t,
1876 That going shall be used with feet.
1877 This prophecy Merlin shall make, for I live before
1878 his time.
He exits.]