Page:King Lear (1917) Yale.djvu/87

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
King Lear, III. iv
71

Edg. Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:
Halloo, halloo, loo, loo! 76

Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools
and madmen.

Edg. Take heed o' the foul fiend. Obey thy
parents; keep thy word justly; swear not; com-
mit not with man's sworn spouse; set not thy
sweet heart on proud array. Tom's a-cold. 82

Lear. What hast thou been?

Edg. A servingman, proud in heart and
mind; that curled my hair, wore gloves in my
cap, served the lust of my mistress's 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 con-
triving of lust, and waked to do it. Wine loved
I deeply, dice dearly, and in woman out-para-
moured the Turk: false of heart, light of ear,
bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth,
wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey.
Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of
silks betray thy poor heart to woman: keep thy
foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets,
thy pen from lenders' books, and defy the foul
fiend. Still through the hawthorn blows the
cold wind; says suum, mun ha no nonny.
Dolphin my boy, my boy; sessa! let him
trot by. Storm still.

Lear. Why, thou wert better in thy grave
than to answer with thy uncovered body this
extremity of the skies. Is man no more than
this? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm

97 plackets: the slit in a woman's skirt
100 suum, mun, etc.: probably mere nonsensical exclamations