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King Lear : Act 4, Scene 1

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           Enter EDGAR.

      EDGAR
  1   Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd,
  2   Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst,
  3   The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,
  4   Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear:
  5   The lamentable change is from the best;
  6   The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then,
  7   Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace!
  8   The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst
  9   Owes nothing to thy blasts. But who comes here?

           Enter GLOUCESTER, [led by] an Old Man.

 10   My father, poorly led? World, world, O world!
 11   But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,
 12   Life would not yield to age.

      Old Man
 12                                               O, my good lord,
 13   I have been your tenant, and your father's tenant,
 14   These fourscore years.

      GLOUCESTER
 15   Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone:
 16   Thy comforts can do me no good at all;
 17   Thee they may hurt.

      Old Man
 17                                    You cannot see your way.

      GLOUCESTER
 18   I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;
 19   I stumbled when I saw: full oft 'tis seen,
 20   Our means secure us, and our mere defects
 21   Prove our commodities. O dear son Edgar,
 22   The food of thy abused father's wrath!
 23   Might I but live to see thee in my touch,
 24   I'ld say I had eyes again!

      Old Man
 24                                            How now! Who's there?

      EDGAR [Aside.]
 25   O gods! Who is't can say 'I am at the worst'?
 26   I am worse than e'er I was.

      Old Man
 26                                              'Tis poor mad Tom.

      EDGAR [Aside.]
 27   And worse I may be yet: the worst is not
 28   So long as we can say 'This is the worst.'

      Old Man
 29   Fellow, where goest?

      GLOUCESTER
 29                                      Is it a beggar-man?

      Old Man
 30   Madman and beggar too.

      GLOUCESTER
 31   He has some reason, else he could not beg.
 32   I' the last night's storm I such a fellow saw;
 33   Which made me think a man a worm: my son
 34   Came then into my mind; and yet my mind
 35   Was then scarce friends with him: I have heard
           more since.
 36   As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods.
 37   They kill us for their sport.

      EDGAR [Aside.]
 37                                               How should this be?
 38   Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow,
 39   Ang'ring itself and others.—Bless thee, master!

      GLOUCESTER
 40   Is that the naked fellow?

      Old Man
 40                                           Ay, my lord.

      GLOUCESTER
 41   Then prithee get thee gone: if, for my sake,
 42   Thou wilt o'ertake us, hence a mile or twain,
 43   I' the way toward Dover, do it for ancient love;
 44   And bring some covering for this naked soul,
 45   Who I'll entreat to lead me.

      Old Man
 45                                            Alack, sir, he is mad.

      GLOUCESTER
 46   'Tis the times' plague, when madmen lead the blind.
 47   Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure;
 48   Above the rest, be gone.

      Old Man
 49   I'll bring him the best 'parel that I have,
 50   Come on't what will.

           Exit.

      GLOUCESTER
 51   Sirrah, naked fellow,—

      EDGAR
 52   Poor Tom's a-cold.

           [Aside.]
 52                                  I cannot daub it further.

      GLOUCESTER
 53   Come hither, fellow.

      EDGAR [Aside.]
 54   And yet I must.—Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed.

      GLOUCESTER
 55   Know'st thou the way to Dover?

      EDGAR
 56   Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path. Poor
 57   Tom hath been scared out of his good wits: bless
 58   thee, good man's son, from the foul fiend! Five
 59   fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as
 60   Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness; Mahu,
 61   of stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, of
 62   mopping and mowing, who since possesses chamber-
 63   maids and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master!

      GLOUCESTER
 64   Here, take this purse, thou whom the heavens' plagues
 65   Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched
 66   Makes thee the happier: heavens, deal so still!
 67   Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man,
 68   That slaves your ordinance, that will not see
 69   Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly;
 70   So distribution should undo excess,
 71   And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover?

      EDGAR
 72   Ay, master.

      GLOUCESTER
 73   There is a cliff, whose high and bending head
 74   Looks fearfully in the confined deep:
 75   Bring me but to the very brim of it,
 76   And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear
 77   With something rich about me: from that place
 78   I shall no leading need.

      EDGAR
 78                                          Give me thy arm:
 79   Poor Tom shall lead thee.

           Exeunt.