Page:King Lear (1917) Yale.djvu/102

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I have been your tenant, and your father's tenant,

These fourscore years.

Glo. Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone;

Thy comforts can do me no good at all;

Thee they may hurt.

Old Man. You cannot see your way.

Glo. I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;

I stumbled when I saw. Full oft 'tis seen,

Our means secure us, and our mere defects

Prove our commodities. Ah! dear son Edgar,

The food of thy abused father's wrath;

Might I but live to see thee in my touch,

I'd say I had eyes again.

Old Man. How now! Who's there?

Edg. [Aside.] O gods! Who is 't can say, 'I am at the worst?'

I am worse than e'er I was.

Old Man. 'Tis poor mad Tom.

Edg. [Aside.] And worse I may be yet; the worst is not,

So long as we can say, 'This is the worst.'

Old Man. Fellow, where goest?

Glo. Is it a beggar-man?

Old Man. Madman and beggar too.

Glo. He has some reason, else he could not beg.

I' the last night's storm I such a fellow saw,

Which made me think a man a worm: my son

Came then into my mind; and yet my mind

Was then scarce friends with him: I have heard more since.

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;

They kill us for their sport.

Edg. [Aside.] How should this be?

 20 means; cf. n.

