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Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thyfelf; feek thine own ease This Tempeft will not give me leave to ponder

3

On things would hurt me more-But I'll go in.
In, boy, go first. [To the Fol.] You houseless po-

verty

Nay, 'get thee in; I'll pray, and then I'll fleep

[Fool goes in.

Poor naked wretches, where foe'er you are,

That 'bide the pelting of this pitiless storm!
How fhall your houseless heads, and unfed fides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From feafons fuch as thefe? O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this. Take phyfick, Pomp;
Expofe thyfelf to feel what wretches feel,
That thou may'ft shake the fuperflux to them,
And fhew the Heav'ns more juft.

Edg. [within.] Fathom and half, fathom and half! poor Tom.

Fool. Come not in here, nuncle, here's a fpirit. Help me, help me. [The Fool runs out from the hovel, Kent. Give me thy hand, who's there?

Fool. A fpirit, a fpirit; he fays, his name's poor Tom. Kent. What art thou, that doft grumble there i'th' ftraw?

Come forth.

SCENE

VI.

Enter Edgar, difguis'd like a Madman.

Edg. Away! the foul fiend follows me. Through the fharp hawthorn blows the cold wind. Humph, go to thy bed and warm thee.

• In, boy, co firft.] These two lines were added in the authour's revifion, and are only in the folio They are very judicioufly intended to reprefent that humility, or tenderness, or neglect

of forms, which affliction forces on the mind.

2 Humph, go to thy bed] So the folio. The quarto,

Go to thy cold bed and warm thee.

Lear.

Lear. Didit thou give all to thy daughters? and art thou come to this?

Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath 3 led through fire and through flame, through ford and through whirlpool, o'er bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his pew; fet ratfbane by his porridge; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horfe over four inch'd bridges, to courfe his own hadow for a traitor. Blefs thy five wits; Tom's -cold. O do de, do de, do de. Bless thee from whirl-winds, ftar-blafting, and taking. Do poor Tom tome charity, whom the foul fiend vexes There could I have him now-and there-and here again, and there [Storm ftill. Lear What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?

-Couldft thou fave nothing? didft thou give 'em all? Fool. Nay, he referv'd a blanket, elfe we had been all fhamed.

Lear. Now all the plagues, that in the pendulous air Hang fated o'er men's faults, light on thy daughters! Kent. He hath no daughters, Sir.

Lear. Death! traitor. Nothing could have fubdued

nature

To fuch a lownefs, but his unkind daughters.
Is it the tashion, that difcarded fathers
Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?
Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot
Thofe pelican daughters.

3 led through fire and through flame,] Alluding to the igis fatuus, fuppofed to be lights kindled by mischievous beings to lead travellers into deftruction.

4 laid knives under his pillow,] He recounts the temptations by which he was prompted to fuicide; the opportunities of detroying himself which often oc

curred to him in his melancholy moods.

5 tak ng.] To take is to blast, or ftrike with malignant influ

ence.

-ftrike her young limbs

Ye taking airs with lameness. -pelican daughters.] The young pelican is fabled to fuck the mother's blood.

Edg.

Edg. Pillicock fat on pillicock-hill, Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!

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

Edg. Take heed o'th' foul fiend. Obey thy parents. Keep thy word juftly. Swear not. Commit not with man's fworn fpoufe. Set not thy fweet heart on proud array. Tom's a-cold.

Lear. What haft thou been?

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Edg. A ferving man, proud in heart and mind; that curl'd my hair, wore gloves in my cap, ferv'd the luft of my mistress's heart, and did the act of dark nefs with her; fwore as many oaths as I fpake words, and broke them in the fweet face of heav'n. One that slept in the contriving luft, and wak'd to do it. Wine lov'd I deeply; dice dearly; and in woman, out-paramour'd the Turk. Falfe of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in floth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of fhoes, nor the rustling of filks, 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: fays fuum, mun, nonny, dolphin my boy, boy, Seffey: let him trot by.

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[Storm ftill.

Dolphins, my boy, ceafe, let him trot by. Of interpreting this there is not much hope or much need. But any thing may be tried. The mad man, now counterfeiting a proud fit, fuppofes himself met on the road by fome one that disputes the way, and cries Hey!--Nobut altering his mind condefcends to let him pafs, and calls to his boy Dolphin [Rodolph] not to contend with him. OnDolphin, my boy, ceafe. Let him trot by.

Lear.

Lear. Thou wert better in thy grave, than to answer with thy uncover'd body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than this? Confider him well. Thou ow'ft the worm no filk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three of us are fophifticated, thou art the thing itself; unaccommodated man is no more but fuch a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings. Come. Unbutton here. [Tearing off his clothes.

Fool. Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis a naughty night to fwim in. Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher's heart, a fmall fpark, and all the reft on's body cold. Look, here comes a walking fire. Edg. This is the foul Flibbertigibbet; he begins at •Fliber di= curfew, and walks till the firft cock. He gives the web-gibbet. and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the hair-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature hare-lip.

of the earth.

9 Saint Withold footed thrice the Wold,
He met the night-mare, and her name told,
Bid her alight, and her troth plight,
And aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee.
Kent. How fares your Grace?

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*

SCENE

Saint Withold footed thrice the
wold,

He met the night-mare, and her

NAME TOLD,

Bid her alight, and her troth
plight,

And aroynt thee, switch, aroynt

thee RIGHT.

i. e. Saint Withold traverfing the
Wold or Downs, met the night-
mare; who having told her
name, he obliged her to alight
from those persons whom the
rides, and plight her troth to do
no more mischief. This is taken

from

SCENE

VII.

Enter Glo'fter, with a Torch.

Lear. What's he?

Kent. Who's there? what is't you feek?
Glo. What are you there? Your names?

Edg. Poor Tom, that eats the fwimming frog, the toad, the tadpole; the wall-newt, and the waternewt; that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for fallets, fwallows the old rat, and the ditch dog, drinks the green mantle of the ftanding pool; who is whipt from tything to tything, and stock-punish'd, and imprifon'd: who hath had three fuits to his back, fix fhirts to his body;

Horfe to ride, and weapon to wear;

2

But mice, and rats, and fuch small deer
Have been Tom's food for feven long year.

from a story of him in his le-
gend. Hence he was invoked
as the patron faint against that
diftemper. And thefe verfes
were no other than a popular
charm, or night spell against the
Epialtes. The laft line is the
formal execration or apoftrophe
of the speaker of the charm to
the witch, aroynt thee right, i. e.
depart forthwith. Bedlams, Gip-
fies, and fuch like vagabonds,
ufed to fell these kind of spells
or charms to the people. They
were of various kinds for vari-
ous diforders. We have another
of them in the Monfieur Thomas of
Fletcher, which he exprefly calls
a night-fpell, and is in thefe
words,

Saint George, Saint George, our Lady's Knight,

He walks by day, fo he does by
night;

And when he hid her found,
He her beat and her bound;
Until to him her troth the
plight,
She would not flir from him that
night.

WARBURTON.

In the old quarto the corrup tion is fuch as may deferve to be noted. Swithold footed thrice the old another night Moore and ber nine fold bid her, O light, and her troth plight, and arint thee, with arint thee.

2

-Small deer] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads geer, and is followed by Dr. Warburton. But deer in old language is a general word for wild animals.

Be

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