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[The open country near Gloucester’s castle]
Enter EDGAR
Edg. Yet better thus, and known to be contemn’d, | |
| Than, still contemn’d and flatter’d, to be worst, | |
| The lowest and most dejected 1 thing of fortune | |
| Stands still in esperance, 2 lives not in fear. | 4 |
| The lamentable change is from the best; | |
| The worst returns to laughter. 3 Welcome, then, | |
| Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace! | |
| The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst | 8 |
| Owes nothing to thy blasts. | |
| |
Enter GLOUCESTER, led by an Old Man
But who comes here? | |
| My father, poorly led? World, world, O world! | |
| But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee, | 12 |
| Life would not yield to age. | |
| Old Man. O, my good lord, I have been your tenant, and your father’s tenant, these fourscore years. | |
| Glou. Away, get thee away! Good friend, be gone; | |
| Thy comforts can do me no good at all; | 16 |
| Thee they may hurt. | |
| Old Man. [Alack, sir,] you cannot see your way. | |
| Glou. I have no way, and therefore want no eyes; | |
| I stumbled when I saw. Full oft ’tis seen, | 20 |
| Our means secure us, 4 and our mere defects | |
| Prove our commodities. 5 O dear son Edgar, | |
| The food of thy abused 6 father’s wrath! | |
| Might I but live to see thee in my touch, | 24 |
| I’d say I had eyes again! | |
| Old Man. How now! Who’s there? | |
| Edg. [Aside.] O gods! Who is ’t can say, “I am at the worst”? | |
| I am worse than e’er I was. | 28 |
| Old Man. ’Tis poor mad Tom. | |
| Edg. [Aside.] And worse I may be yet; the worst is not | |
| So long as we can say, “This is the worst.” | |
| Old Man. Fellow, where goest? | 32 |
| Glou. Is it a beggar-man? | |
| Old Man. Madman and beggar too. | |
| Glou. He has some reason, else he could not beg. | |
| I’ the last night’s storm I such a fellow saw, | 36 |
| Which made me think a man a worm. My son | |
| Came then into my mind, and yet my mind | |
| Was then scarce friends with him. I have heard more since. | |
| As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods, | 40 |
| They kill us for their sport. | |
| Edg. [Aside.] How should this be? | |
| Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow, | |
| Ang’ring itself and others.—Bless thee, master! | 44 |
| Glou. Is that the naked fellow? | |
| Old Man. Ay, my lord. | |
| Glou. [Then, prithee,] get thee away. If, for my sake, | |
| Thou wilt o’ertake us, hence a mile or twain | 48 |
| I’ the way toward Dover, do it for ancient love; | |
| And bring some covering for this naked soul, | |
| Which I’ll entreat to lead me. | |
| Old Man. Alack, sir, he is mad. | 52 |
| Glou. ’Tis the time’s plague, when madmen lead the blind. | |
| Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure; | |
| Above the rest, be gone | |
| Old Man. I’ll bring him the best ’parel that I have, | 56 |
| Come on ’t what will. | |
| Glou. Sirrah, naked fellow,— | |
| Edg. Poor Tom’s a-cold. [Aside.] I cannot daub it 7 further. | |
| Glou. Come hither, fellow. | 60 |
| Edg. [Aside.] And yet I must.—Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed. | |
| Glou. Know’st thou the way to Dover? | |
| Edg. Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path. Poor Tom hath been scar’d out of his good wits. Bless thee, good man’s son, from the foul fiend! [Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing, 8 who since possesses chambermaids and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master!] | |
| Glou. Here, take this purse, thou whom the heavens’ plagues | 64 |
| Have humbled to all strokes. That I am wretched | |
| Makes thee the happier; heavens, deal so still! | |
| Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man, | |
| That slaves your ordinance, 9 that will not see | 68 |
| Because he does not feel, feel your power quickly; | |
| So distribution should undo excess, | |
| And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover? | |
| Edg. Ay, master. | 72 |
| Glou. There is a cliff, whose high and bending head | |
| Looks fearfully in the confined 10 deep. | |
| Bring me but to the very brim of it, | |
| And I’ll repair the misery thou dost bear | 76 |
| With something rich about me. From that place | |
| I shall no leading need. | |
| Edg. Give me thy arm; | |
| Poor Tom shall lead thee. Exeunt. | 80 |
