Edgar. Away! the foul fiend follows me. Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.deg Humh! Go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.deg
Lear. Didst thou give all to thy daughters? And art thou come to this?
Edgar. Who gives anything to Poor Tom? Whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, o'er bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow and halters in his pew,deg set ratsbanedeg by his porridge,deg made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inched bridges,deg to coursedeg his own shadow fordeg a traitor. Bless thy five wits,deg Tom's a-cold. O, do, de, do, de, do, de. Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting,deg and taking.deg Do Poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes. There could I have him now--and there--and there again--and there.
Storm still.
Lear. What, has his daughters brought him to this pass?deg Couldst thou save nothing? Wouldst thou give 'em all?
Fool. Nay, he reserved a blanket,deg else we had been all shamed.
Lear. Now all the plagues that in the pendulousdeg air Hang fated o'erdeg men's faults light on thy daughters!
45-46 Through ... wind (a line from the ballad of "The Friar of Orders Gray")
46-47 go ... thee (a reminiscence of The Taming of the Shrew, Induction, 1.10)
53-54 knives ... halters ... ratsbane (the fiend tempts Poor Tom to suicide)
54 pew gallery or balcony outside a window
54 porridge broth
55-56 ride ... bridges i.e., risk his life
56 course chase
57 for as
57 five wits i.e., common wit, imagination, fantasy, estimation, memory
59 star-blasting the evil caused by malignant stars 59 taking pernicious influences
63 pass wretched condition
65 blanket i.e., to cover his nakedness
67 pendulous overhanging
68 fated o'er destined to punish
Kent. He hath no daughters, sir.
Lear. Death, traitor; nothing could have subdueddeg nature To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.
Is it the fashion that discarded fathers
Should have thus little mercy ondeg their flesh?
Judicious punishment--'twas this flesh begot
Those pelicandeg daughters.
Edgar. Pillicock sat on Pillicock Hill.deg Alow, alow, loo, loo!deg
Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.
Edgar. Take heed o' th' foul fiend; obey thy parents; keep thy word's justice;deg swear not; commit notdeg with man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array. Tom's a-cold.
Lear. What hast thou been?
Edgar. A servingman, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair, wore gloves in my cap;deg served the lust of my mistress' heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven. One that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it. Wine loved I deeply, dice dearly; and in woman out-paramoured the Turk.deg False of heart, light of ear,deg bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey.deg Let not the creakingdeg of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray thy poor 70 subdued reduced
73 on i.e., shown to
75 pelican (supposed to feed on its parent's blood)
76 Pillicock ... Hill (probably quoted from a nursery rhyme, and suggested by "pelican." Pillicock is a term of endearment and the phallus)
76-77 Alow ... loo (? a hunting call, or the refrain of the song)
81 keep ... justice i.e., do not break thy word
81 commit not i.e., adultery
86 gloves in my cap i.e., as a pledge from his mistress
92 out-paramoured the Turk had more concubines than the Sultan
93 light of ear ready to hear flattery and slander
95 prey preying
95 creaking (deliberately cultivated, as fashionable)
heart to woman. Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets,deg thy pen from lenders' books,deg and defy the foul fiend. Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind; says suum, mun, nonny.deg Dolphindeg my boy, boy, sessa!deg let him trot by.
Storm still.
Lear. Thou wert better in a grave than to answerdeg with thy uncovered body this extremitydeg of the skies. Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou ow'stdeg the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the catdeg no perfume. Ha! here's three on'sdeg are sophisticated.deg Thou art the thing itself; unaccommodateddeg man is no more but such a poor, bare, forkeddeg animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings!deg Come, unbutton here.
[Tearing off his clothes.]
Fool. Prithee, Nuncle, be contented, 'tis a naughtydeg night to swim in. Now a little fire in a wilddeg field were like an old lecher's heart--a small spark, all the rest on's body, cold. Look, here comes a walking fire.
Enter Gloucester, with a torch.
Edgar. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet.deg He begins at curfew,deg and walks till the first cock.deg He gives the web and the pin,deg squintsdeg the eye, and makes the harelip; mildews the whitedeg wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth. 98 plackets openings in skirts
98-99 pen ... books i.e., do not enter your name in the moneylender's account book
100-01 suum, mun, nonny the noise of the wind
101 Dolphin the French Dauphin (identified by the English with the devil. Poor Tom is presumably quoting from a ballad)
101 sessa an interjection: "Go on!"
103 answer confront, bear the brunt of
104 extremity extreme severity
106 ow'st have taken from
107 cat civet cat, whose glands yield perfume
108 on's of us
108 sophisticated adulterated, made artificial
109 unaccommodated uncivilized
110 forked i.e., two-legged
111 lendings borrowed garments
112 naughty wicked
113 wild barren
117 Flibbertigibbet (a figure from Elizabethan demonology) 118 curfew: 9 P.M.
118 first cock midnight
119 web and the pin cataract
119 squints crosses
120 white ripening.
Swithold footed thrice the old;deg
He met the nightmare,deg and her nine fold;deg
Bid her alightdeg
And her troth plight,deg
And arointdeg thee, witch, aroint thee!
Kent. How fares your Grace?
Lear. What's he?
Kent. Who's there? What is't you seek?
Gloucester. What are you there? Your names? Edgar. Poor Tom, that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the todpole, the wall-newt and the water;deg that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets,deg swallows the old rat and the ditch-dog,deg drinks the green mantledeg of the standingdeg pool; who is whipped from tithingdeg to tithing, and stocked, punished, and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his body, Horse to ride, and weapon to wear,
But mice and rats, and such small deer,deg
Have been Tom's food for seven long year.deg
Beware my follower!deg Peace, Smulkin,deg peace,
thou fiend!
Gloucester. What, hath your Grace no better company?
Edgar. The Prince of Darkness is a gentleman. Mododeg he's called, and Mahu.deg
122 Swithold ... old Withold (an Anglo-Saxon saint who subdued demons) walked three times across the open country
123 nightmare demon
123 fold offspring
124 alight i.e., from the horse she had possessed
125 her troth plight pledge her word
126 aroint be gone
132 todpole ... water tadpole, wall lizard, water newt
134 sallets salads
135 ditch-dog dead dog in a ditch
135 mantle scum
136 standing stagnant
136 ti
thing a district comprising ten families
141-42 But ... year (adapted from a popular romance, "Bevis of Hampton")
141 deer game
143 follower familiar
143, 147 Smulkin, Modo, Mahu (Elizabethan devils, from Samuel Harsnett's Declaration of 1603)
Gloucester. Our flesh and blood, my Lord, is grown so vile That it doth hate what getsdeg it.
Edgar. Poor Tom's a-cold.
Gloucester. Go in with me. My duty cannot sufferdeg T' obey in all your daughters' hard commands.
Though their injunction be to bar my doors
And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,
Yet have I ventured to come seek you out
And bring you where both fire and food is ready.
Lear. First let me talk with this philosopher. What is the cause of thunder?
Kent. Good my lord, take his offer; go into th' house.
Lear. I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.deg What is your study?deg
Edgar. How to preventdeg the fiend, and to kill vermin.
Lear. Let me ask you one word in private.
Kent. Importune him once more to go, my lord. His wits begin t' unsettle.
Gloucester. Canst thou blame him?
Storm still.
His daughters seek his death. Ah, that good Kent,
He said it would be thus, poor banished man!
Thou say'st the King grows mad--I'll tell thee,
friend,
I am almost mad myself. I had a son,
Now outlawed from my blood;deg he sought my life
But lately, very late.deg I loved him, friend,
No father his son dearer. True to tell thee,
The grief hath crazed my wits. What a night's this! 149 gets begets
151 suffer permit me
160 Theban i.e., Greek philosopher
161 study particular scientific study
162 prevent balk
170 outlawed from my blood disowned and tainted, like a carbuncle in the corrupted blood
171 late recently
I do beseech your Grace
Lear. 0, cry you mercy, sir. Noble philosopher, your company.
Edgar. Tom's a-cold.
Gloucester. In, fellow, there, into th' hovel; keep thee warm.
Lear. Come, let's in all.
Kent. This way, my lord.
Lear. With him! I will keep still with my philosopher.
Kent. Good my lord, soothedeg him; let him take the fellow.
Gloucester. Take him you on.deg
Kent. Sirrah, come on; go along with us.
Lear. Come, good Athenian.deg
Gloucester. No words, no words! Hush.
Edgar. Child Rowland to the dark tower came;deg His word was still,deg "Fie, foh, and fum,
I smell the blood of a British man."deg Exeunt.
174 cry you mercy I beg your pardon
180 soothe humor
181 you on with you
183 Athenian i.e., philosopher (like "Theban")
185 Child ... came (? from a lost ballad; "child"=a candidate for knighthood; Rowland was Charlemagne's nephew, the hero of The Song of Roland)
186 His ... still his motto was always
186-87 Fie ... man (a deliberately absurd linking of the chivalric hero with the nursery tale of Jack the Giant-Killer)
Scene 5. [Gloucester's castle.]
Enter Cornwall and Edmund.
Cornwall. I will have my revenge ere I depart his house.
Edmund. How, my lord, I may be censured,deg that nature thus gives way to loyalty, something fearsdeg me to think of.
Cornwall. I now perceive it was not altogether your brother's evil disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reprovable badness in himself.deg
Edmund. How malicious is my fortune that I must repent to be just! This is the letter which he spoke of, which approvesdeg him an intelligent partydeg to the advantagesdeg of France. O heavens, that his treason were not! or not I the detector!
Cornwall. Go with me to the Duchess.
Edmund. If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business in hand.
Cornwall. True or false, it hath made thee Earl of Gloucester. Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension.deg
Edmund. [Aside] If I find him comfortingdeg the King, it will stuff his suspicion more fully.--I will perseverdeg in my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore between that and my blood.deg
3.5.8 censured judged
4 something fears somewhat frightens
8-9 a provoking ... himself a stimulating goodness in Edgar, brought into play by a blamable badness in Gloucester
12 approves proves
12 intelligent party (1) spy (2) well-informed person
13 to the advantages on behalf of
20 apprehension arrest 21 comforting supporting (a legalism)
23 persever persevere
24 blood natural feelings
Cornwall. I will lay trust upondeg thee, and thou shalt find a dearer father in my love. Exeunt.
Scene 6. [A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle.]
Enter Kent and Gloucester.
Gloucester. Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully. I will piece out the comfort with what addition I can. I will not be long from you.
Kent. All the power of his wits have given way to his impatience.deg The gods reward your kindness.
Exit [Gloucester].
Enter Lear, Edgar, and Fool.
Edgar. Fraterettodeg calls me, and tells me Nerodeg is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent,deg and beware the foul fiend.
Fool. Prithee, Nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a gentleman or a yeoman.deg
Lear. A king, a king.
Fool. No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son; for he's a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman before him.
Lear. To have a thousand with red burning spits Come hizzingdeg in upon 'em--
25 lay trust upon (1) trust (2) advance
3.6.5 impatience raging
6 Frateretto Elizabethan devil, from Harsnett's Declaration
6 Nero (who is mentioned by Harsnett, and whose angling is reported by Chaucer in "The Monk's Tale")
7 innocent fool
10 yeoman farmer (just below a gentleman in rank. The Fool asks what class of man has most indulged his children, and thus been driven mad)
16 hizzing hissing
Edgar. The foul fiend bites my back.
Fool. He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath.
Lear. It shall be done; I will arraigndeg them straight.deg [To Edgar] Come, sit thou here, most learned justice.deg [To the Fool] Thou, sapientdeg sir, sit here. Now, you she-foxes--
Edgar. Look, where hedeg stands and glares. Want'st thou eyes at trial, madam?deg Come o'er the bourn,deg Bessy, to me.
Fool. Her boat hath a leak, And she must not speak
Why she dares not come over to thee.deg
Edgar. The foul fiend haunts Poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale.deg Hoppedancedeg cries in Tom's belly for two white herring.deg Croakdeg not, black angel; I have no food for thee.
Kent. How do you, sir? Stand you not so amazed.deg Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?
Lear. I'll see their trial first. Bring in their evidence. [To Edgar] Thou, robed man of justice, take thy place. [To the Fool] And thou, his yokefellow of equity,deg
Benchdeg by his side. [To Kent] You are o' th'
commission;deg
Sit you too.
Edgar. Let us deal justly. 20 arraign bring to trial
20 straight straightaway
21 justice justicer, judge
22 sapient wise
23 he i.e., a fiend
23-24 Want'st ... madam (to Goneril) i.e., do you want eyes to look at you during your trial? The fiend serves that purpose
2
5 bourn brook (Edgar quotes from a popular ballad)
26-28 Her ... thee (the Fool parodies the ballad)
30 nightingale i.e., the Fool's singing
30 Hoppedance Hoberdidance (another devil from Harsnett's Declaration)
31 white herring unsmoked (? as against the black and sulfurous devil)
31 Croak rumble (because his belly is empty)
33 amazed astonished
35 evidence the evidence of witnesses against them
37 yokefellow of equity partner in justice
38 Bench sit on the bench
38 commission those commissioned as king's justices
Steepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?
Thy sheep be in the corn;deg
And for one blast of thy minikindeg mouth
Thy sheep shall take no harm.deg
Purr, the cat is gray.deg
Lear. Arraign her first. 'Tis Goneril, I here take my oath before this honorable assembly, she kicked the poor King her father.
Fool. Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril?
Lear. She cannot deny it.
Fool. Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint stool.deg
Lear. And here's another, whose warped looks proclaim What storedeg her heart is made on. Stop her there!
Arms, arms, sword, fire! Corruption in the place!deg
False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape?
Edgar. Bless thy five wits!
Kent. O pity! Sir, where is the patience now That you so oft have boasted to retain?
Edgar. [Aside] My tears begin to take his part so much They mar my counterfeiting.deg
Lear. The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart--see, they bark at me.
Edgar. Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs. Be thy mouth or black ordeg white, 41-44 Sleepest ... harm (probably quoted or adapted from an Elizabethan song)
42 corn wheat
43 minikin shrill
45 gray (devils were thought to assume the shape of a gray cat)
51 Cry ... joint stool (proverbial and deliberately impudent apology for overlooking a person. A joint stool was a low stool made by a joiner, perhaps here a stage property to represent Goneril and in line