We could control them. If you will come to me
(For now I spy a danger), I entreat you

To bring but five-and-twenty; to no more
Will I give place or notice.

Lear. I gave you all—

Reg.

And in good time you gave it.

Lear. Made you my guardians, my depositaries;
But kept a reservation to be followed

With such a number. What, must I come to you
With five-and-twenty, Regan? said you so?

Reg. And speak 't again, my lord ;* no more with me.
Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favoured,
When others are more wicked; not being the worst
Stands in some rank of praise :-I'll go with thee;

Thy fifty yet doth double five-and-twenty,

And thou art twice her love.

Gon.

[To GONERIL.

Hear me, my lord;

What need you1 five-and-twenty, ten, or five,
To follow, in a house where twice so many
Have a command to tend you?

Reg.

What need one?

Lear. O, reason not the need: our basest beggars

Are in the poorest thing superfluous:

Allow not nature more than nature needs,

Man's life is cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;

If only to go warm were gorgeous,

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wearest, Which scarcely keeps thee warm.-But, for true need

1 What need you.] What was formerly used (like quid in Latin) adverbially to mean why, or for what reason. See the Editor's Comus of Milton, p. 22, note on l. 362, 'What need a man forestall his date of grief.'

2 Man's life is.] And then man's life is.

You heavens, give me that! 1 patience, patience I need!
You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much

To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
And let not women's weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man's cheeks!—No, you unnatural hags,
I will have such revenges on you both,

That all the world shall-I will do such things-
What they are yet I know not; but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep;
No, I'll not weep:-

I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
Or ere I'll weep. O, fool, I shall go mad!

[Exeunt LEAR, GLOSTER, KENT, and Fool.
Storm heard at a distance.

Corn. Let us withdraw, 'twill be a storm.

Reg. This house is little; the old man and his people Cannot be well bestowed.

Gon. 'Tis his own blame hath put himself from rest, And must needs taste his folly.

2

Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly,

But not one follower.

Gon.

So am I purposed.

Where is my Lord of Gloster?

Corn. Followed the old man forth :-he is returned.

1 That.] Viz. true need; what is truly needful for me.

2 For his particular.] For his individual self. 'In regard of his own particular the atheist hath as little cause to rejoice.'-Fuller's Holy and Profane State, v. 6. So, the great bulk of the community was often called the general.

Re-enter GLOSTER.

Glo. The king is in high rage.
Corn.

Whither is he going?

Glo. He calls to horse; but will I know not whither. Corn. 'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself. Gon. My lord, entreat him by no means to stay. Glo. Alack, the night comes on, and the high winds Do sorely ruffle; for many miles about

There's scarce a bush.

Reg.

O, sir, to wilful men,

The injuries that they themselves procure

Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors;
He is attended with a desperate train;

And what they may incense him to, being apt

To have his ear abused, wisdom bids fear.

Corn. Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night :

My Regan counsels well: come out o' the storm.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I.-A Heath. A storm, with thunder and lightning.

Enter KENT and a Gentleman, meeting.

Kent. Who's there, besides foul weather?

Gent. One minded like the weather, most unquietly.
Kent. I know you. Where's the king?

Gent. Contending with the fretful elements;
Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea,

Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main,'

That things might change or cease: tears his white hair,
Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,

Catch in their fury, and make nothing of:
Strives in his little world of man 2 to outscorn

The to-and-fro conflicting wind and rain.

This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear 3 would couch,
The lion and the belly-pinched wolf

1 The main.] The mainland.

2 Little world of man.] This alludes to the ancient notion of man being a microcosm, or little world, composed of elements corresponding to those of the external world. So in K. Richard II. v. 5, ‘And these same thoughts people this little world.' 'Heraclitus,' says Bacon, 'gave a just censure, saying, Men sought truth in their own little worlds, and not in the great and common world.' Drayton, in his Heroical Epistles (William de la Poole), says:

'Man in himself a little world doth bear,

His soul the monarch ever ruling there.'

The cub-drawn bear.] Made hungry by her cubs drawing nourishment from her.

Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,
And bids what will take all.

And dare upon the warrant of my note,1

Commend a dear thing to you. There is division,-
Although as yet the face of it be covered

With mutual cunning,-'twixt Albany and Cornwall;
Who have (as who have not, that their great stars
Throned and set high?) servants, who seem no less;
Which are to France the spies and speculations
Intelligent of our state;2 what hath been seen,
Either in snuffs and packings3 of the dukes;
Or the hard rein which both of them have borne
Against the old kind king; or something deeper,
Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings;4
But, true it is, from France there comes a power
Into this scattered kingdom; who already,
Wise in our negligence, have secret feet

2

Of my note.] Of my observation of you.

Speculations, &c.] Means of observation, by which France obtains intelligence of our state, of what hath been seen, &c.

Snuffs and packings.] Petty displeasures and intrigues. To take anything in snuff was to take offence at it; hence Hotspur's quibble about the fop and

'A pouncet-box, which ever and anon

He gave his nose, and took 't away again;

Who, therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in snuff.'—1 K. Henry IV. i. 3.

'You'll mar the light, by taking it in snuff.'-Love's Lab. Lost, v. 2. 'Pallas and Juno then in high disdain

Took snuff.'-Cleveland's Mount Ida.

4 Furnishings.] Means towards an end.