_Fool_. This is a brave night to cool a courtezan. I'll[3639][3640][3641] speak a prophecy ere I go:[3639][3640][3642] 80 When priests are more in word than matter;[3639][3643] When brewers mar their malt with water;[3639] When nobles are their tailors' tutors;[3639] No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;[3639] When every case in law is right;[3639] 85 No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;[3639][3644] When slanders do not live in tongues,[3639][3645] Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;[3639][3646] When usurers tell their gold i' the field,[3639] And bawds and whores do churches build;[3639] 90 Then shall the realm of Albion[3639][3647] Come to great confusion:[3639][3647] Then comes the time, who lives to see't,[3639][3648] That going shall be used with feet.[3639][3648] This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time. 95 [_Exit._[3649] SCENE III. _Gloucester's castle._ _Enter_ GLOUCESTER _and_ EDMUND.[3650] _Glou._ Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural[3651] dealing. When I desired their leave that I might pity him,[3651] they took from me the use of mine own house; charged[3651][3652] me, on pain of their perpetual displeasure, neither to speak[3651][3653] of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him.[3651][3654] 5 _Edm._ Most savage and unnatural![3651][3655] _Glou._ Go to; say you nothing. There's a division betwixt[3651][3656] the dukes, and a worse matter than that: I have received[3651] a letter this night; 'tis dangerous to be spoken; I[3651] have locked the letter in my closet: these injuries the king[3651] 10 now bears will be revenged home; there is part of a power[3651][3657] already footed: we must incline to the king. I will seek[3651][3658] him and privily relieve him: go you, and maintain talk[3651] with the duke, that my charity be not of him perceived: if[3651] he ask for me, I am ill and gone to bed. Though I die[3651][3659] 15 for it, as no less is threatened me, the king my old master[3651][3660] must be relieved. There is some strange thing toward,[3651][3661] Edmund; pray you, be careful. [_Exit._[3651] _Edm._ This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke[3662][3663] Instantly know, and of that letter too:[3662] 20 This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me[3662][3664] That which my father loses; no less than all:[3662][3665] The younger rises when the old doth fall. [_Exit._[3662][3666] SCENE IV. _The heath. Before a hovel._[3667] _Enter_ LEAR, KENT, _and_ FOOL.