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The Heath. | |
| |
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 thing of fortune, | 5 |
| Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear: | |
| The lamentable change is from the best; | |
| The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then, | |
| Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace: | |
| The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst | 10 |
| Owes nothing to thy blasts. But who comes here? | |
| |
Enter GLOUCESTER, led by an old Man. | |
| My father, poorly led? World, world, O world! | |
| But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee, | |
| Life would not yield to age. | 15 |
| Old Man. O my good lord! | |
| I have been your tenant, and your father’s tenant, | |
| These fourscore years. | |
| Glo. Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone; | |
| Thy comforts can do me no good at all; | 20 |
| Thee they may hurt. | |
| Old Man. You cannot see your way. | |
| Glo. I have no way, and therefore want no eyes; | |
| I stumbled when I saw. Full oft ’tis seen, | |
| Our means secure us, and our mere defects | 25 |
| Prove our commodities. Ah! dear son Edgar. | |
| The food of thy abused father’s wrath; | |
| Might I but live to see thee in my touch, | |
| I’d say I had eyes again. | |
| Old Man. How now! Who’s there? | 30 |
| Edg. [Aside.] O gods! Who is ’t can say, ‘I am at the worst?’ | |
| I am worse than e’er I was. | |
| 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.’ | 35 |
| Old Man. Fellow, where goest? | |
| Glo. Is it a beggar-man? | |
| Old Man. Madman and beggar too. | |
| Glo. He has some reason, else he could not beg. | |
| I’ the last night’s storm I such a fellow saw, | 40 |
| 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; | |
| They kill us for their sport. | 45 |
| Edg. [Aside.] How should this be? | |
| Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow, | |
| Angering itself and others.—[To GLOUCESTER.] Bless thee, master! | |
| Glo. Is that the naked fellow? | |
| Old Man. Ay, my lord. | 50 |
| Glo. Then, prithee, get thee gone. If, for my sake, | |
| Thou wilt o’ertake us, hence a mile or twain, | |
| I’ the way toward Dover, do it for ancient love; | |
| And bring some covering for this naked soul | |
| Who I’ll entreat to lead me. | 55 |
| Old Man. Alack, sir! he is mad. | |
| Glo. ’Tis the times’ 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, | 60 |
| Come on ’t what will. [Exit. | |
| Glo. Sirrah, naked fellow,— | |
| Edg. Poor Tom’s a-cold. [Aside.] I cannot daub it further. | |
| Glo. Come hither, fellow. | |
| Edg. [Aside.] And yet I must. Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed. | 65 |
| Glo. Know’st thou the way to Dover? | |
| Edg. Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path. Poor Tom hath been scared 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; Hobbididance, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; and Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing; who since possesses chambermaids and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master! | |
| Glo. Here, take this purse, thou whom the heavens’ plagues | |
| Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched | |
| Makes thee the happier: heavens, deal so still! | 70 |
| Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man, | |
| That slaves your ordinance, that will not see | |
| Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly; | |
| So distribution should undo excess, | |
| And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover? | 75 |
| Edg. Ay, master. | |
| Glo. There is a cliff, whose high and bending head | |
| Looks fearfully in the confined deep; | |
| Bring me but to the very brim of it, | |
| And I’ll repair the misery thou dost bear; | 80 |
| With something rich about me; from that place | |
| I shall no leading need. | |
| Edg. Give me thy arm: | |
| Poor Tom shall lead thee. [Exeunt. | |
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