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SHAKESPEARE

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VOL. XI

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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

(Continued)

(From "KING LEAR")

Before GLOUCESTER'S castle. KENT in the stocks

Enter LEAR, FOOL, and GENTLEMAN.

Lear. 'Tis strange that they should so depart from home, And not send back my messenger.

No, my lord.

Kent. Fool. Ha, ha! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied by the heads, dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys by the loins, and men by the legs: when a man's overlusty at legs, then he wears wooden nether-stocks.

Lear. What's he that hath so much thy place mistook To set thee here?

Kent. By Juno, I swear, aye.

Lear.

They durst not do't;

They could not, would not do't; 'tis worse than murder,

To do upon respect such violent outrage:

Resolve me with all modest haste which way

Thou mightst deserve, or they impose, this usage,
Coming from us.

Kent.

My lord, when at their home
I did commend your highness' letters to them,
Ere I was risen from the place that show'd
My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,
Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth
From Goneril his mistress salutations;
Deliver❜d letters, spite of intermission,

Which presently they read: on whose contents
They summon'd up their meiny, straight took horse;
Commanded me to follow and attend

The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks:
And meeting here the other messenger,

Whose welcome, I perceived, had poison'd mine —
Being the very fellow that of late

Display'd so saucily against your highness

Having more man than wit about me, drew:

He raised the house with loud and coward cries.

Your son and daughter found this trespass worth

The shame which here it suffers.

Fool. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way. Fathers that wear rags

Do make their children blind;

But fathers that bear bags

Shall see their children kind.

Fortune, that arrant whore,

Ne'er turns the key to the poor.

But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolors for thy daugh

ters as thou canst tell in a year.

Lear. O how this mother swells up toward my heart!

Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow,

Thy element's below! Where is this daughter?

Kent. With the earl, sir, here within.