Act 3 — Scene II. Another part of the heath. Storm still.[3578]

Lear. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow![3579] You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout[3580][3581] Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks![3580][3582] You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,[3580][3583] Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,[3580][3584] 5 Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,[3580][3585] Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world![3580][3586] Crack nature's moulds, all germins spill at once[3580][3587] That make ingrateful man![3580][3588] Fool. O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry house is[3589] 10 better than this rain-water out o' door. Good nuncle, in,[3589][3590] and ask thy daughters' blessing: here's a night pities neither[3589][3591] wise man nor fool.[3589][3592] Lear. Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain![3593] Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters: 15 I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;[3594] I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children,[3595] You owe me no subscription: then let fall[3596][3597] Your horrible pleasure; here I stand, your slave,[3596][3598] A poor, infirm, weak and despised old man:[3596] 20 But yet I call you servile ministers,[3596] That have with two pernicious daughters join'd[3596][3599] Your high-engender'd battles 'gainst a head[3596][3600] So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul![3596][3601] Fool. He that has a house to put's head in has a good[3602] 25 head-piece. The cod-piece that will house[3603] Before the head has any,[3603] The head and he shall louse;[3603] So beggars marry many.[3603] 30 The man that makes his toe[3603][3604] What he his heart should make[3603][3605] Shall of a corn cry woe,[3603][3606] And turn his sleep to wake.[3603] For there was never yet fair woman but she made mouths[3607] 35 in a glass. Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience;[3608] I will say nothing.

Kent. Who's there? Fool. Marry, here's grace and a cod-piece; that's a 40 wise man and a fool. Kent. Alas, sir, are you here? things that love night[3609][3610] Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies[3609] Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,[3609][3611] And make them keep their caves: since I was man,[3609][3612] 45 Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,[3609] Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never[3609][3613] Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot carry[3609] The affliction nor the fear.[3609] Lear. Let the great gods,[3609][3614] That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads,[3609][3615] 50 Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,[3609] That hast within thee undivulged crimes,[3609] Unwhipp'd of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand;[3609] Thou perjured, and thou simular man of virtue[3609][3616] That art incestuous: caitiff, to pieces shake,[3609][3617] 55 That under covert and convenient seeming[3609][3618] Hast practised on man's life: close pent-up guilts,[3609][3619] Rive your concealing continents and cry[3609][3620] These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man[3609] More sinn'd against than sinning.[3621] Kent. Alack, bare-headed![3622] 60 Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel;[3622] Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest:[3622] Repose you there; while I to this hard house—[3622][3623] More harder than the stones whereof 'tis raised;[3622][3624] Which even but now, demanding after you,[3622][3625] 65 Denied me to come in—return, and force[3622] Their scanted courtesy.[3622] Lear. My wits begin to turn.[3626] Come on, my boy: how dost, my boy? art cold? I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow?[3627] The art of our necessities is strange,[3628] 70 That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel.[3628][3629][3630] Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart[3628][3630][3631] That's sorry yet for thee.[3632] Fool. [Singing] He that has and a little tiny wit,—[3633][3634][3635] With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,—[3634][3636] 75 Must make content with his fortunes fit,[3634] For the rain it raineth every day.[3634][3637] Lear. True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this hovel. [Exeunt Lear and Kent.[3638] Fool. This is a brave night to cool a courtezan. I'll[3639][3640][3641] speak a prophecy ere I go:[3639][3640][3642] 80 When priests are more in word than matter;[3639][3643] When brewers mar their malt with water;[3639] When nobles are their tailors' tutors;[3639] No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;[3639] When every case in law is right;[3639] 85 No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;[3639][3644] When slanders do not live in tongues,[3639][3645] Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;[3639][3646] When usurers tell their gold i' the field,[3639] And bawds and whores do churches build;[3639] 90 Then shall the realm of Albion[3639][3647] Come to great confusion:[3639][3647] Then comes the time, who lives to see't,[3639][3648] That going shall be used with feet.[3639][3648] This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time. 95