Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Adaptations; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Stories, plots, etc. -- Juvenile literature
But he that has a little tiny wit.
With heigh ho, the wind and the rain!
Must make content with his fortunes fit.
Though the rain it raineth every day:
and swearing it was a brave night to cool a lady's pride.
Thus poorly accompanied, this once great monarch was found by his
ever-faithful servant the good Earl of Kent, now transformed to Caius,
who ever followed close at his side, though the king did not know him to
be the earl; and he said, "Alas! sir, are you here? creatures that love
night, love not such nights as these. This dreadful storm has driven the
beasts to their hiding places. Man's nature cannot endure the affliction
or the fear." And Lear rebuked him and said, these lesser evils were not
felt, where a greater malady was fixed. When the mind is at ease, the
body has leisure to be delicate, but the tempest in his mind did take
all feeling else from his senses, but of that which beat at his
heart. And he spoke of filial ingratitude, and said it was all one as if
the mouth should tear the hand for lifting food to it; for parents were
hands and food and everything to children.
[Illustration: THERE UPON A HEATH, EXPOSED TO THE FURY OF THE STORM ON A
DARK NIGHT, DID KING LEAR WANDER OUT]
But the good Caius still persisting in his entreaties that the king
would not stay out in the open air, at last persuaded him to enter a
little wretched hovel which stood upon the heath, where the fool first
entering, suddenly ran back terrified, saying that he had seen a spirit.
But upon examination this spirit proved to be nothing more than a poor
Bedlam beggar, who had crept into this deserted hovel for shelter, and
with his talk about devils frighted the fool, one of those poor lunatics
who are either mad, or feign to be so, the better to extort charity from
the compassionate country people, who go about the country, calling
themselves poor Tom and poor Turlygood, saying, "Who gives anything to
poor Tom?" sticking pins and nails and sprigs of rosemary into their
arms to make them bleed; and with such horrible actions, partly by
prayers, and partly with lunatic curses, they move or terrify the
ignorant country-folks into giving them alms. This poor fellow was such
a one; and the king seeing him in so wretched a plight, with nothing but
a blanket about his loins to cover his nakedness, could not be persuaded
but that the fellow was some father who had given all away to his
daughters, and brought himself to that pass: for nothing he thought
could bring a man to such wretchedness but the having unkind daughters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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