Page:King Lear (1917) Yale.djvu/74

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58
King Lear, II. iv

Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure: 232
I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,
I and my hundred knights.

Reg. Not altogether so:
I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided
For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister; 236
For those that mingle reason with your passion
Must be content to think you old, and so—
But she knows what she does.

Lear. Is this well spoken?

Reg. I dare avouch it, sir: what! fifty followers? 240
Is it not well? What should you need of more?
Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger
Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house,
Should many people, under two commands, 244
Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.

Gon. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance
From those that she calls servants, or from mine?

Reg. Why not, my lord? If then they chanc'd to slack you 248
We could control them. If you will come to me,—
For now I spy a danger,—I entreat you
To bring but five-and-twenty; to no more
Will I give place or notice. 252

Lear. I gave you all—

Reg. And in good time you gave it.

Lear. Made you my guardians, my depositaries,
But kept a reservation to be follow'd
With such a number. What! must I come to you 256
With five-and-twenty? Regan, said you so?

Reg. And speak 't again, my lord; no more with me.


252 notice: countenance