Page 1836 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

(Exit.)

LEAR
O me! my heart, my rising heart! but, down!

FOOL
Cry to it, Nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels when she put ’em i’th’paste
alive; she knapp’d ’em [120] o’th’ coxcombs with a stick, and cried ‘Down,
wantons, down!’ ’Twas her brother that, in pure kindness to his horse,

buttered his hay.

Re-enter Gloucester, with Cornwall, Regan, and Servants.

LEAR
Good morrow to you both.

CORNWALL
Hail to your Grace!
(Kent is set at liberty.)

REGAN
I am glad to see your Highness. [125]

LEAR
Regan, I think you are; I know what reason

I have to think so: if thou shouldst not be glad,
I would divorce me from thy mother’s tomb,
Sepulchring an adult’ress. (To Kent.) O! are you free?

Some other time for that. (Exit Kent.) Beloved Regan, [130]
Thy sister’s naught: O Regan! she hath tied
Sharp-tooth’d unkindness, like a vulture, here.
(Points to his heart.)
I can scarce speak to thee: thou’lt not believe

With how deprav’d a quality-O Regan!

REGAN
I pray you, Sir, take patience. I have hope [135]