Page:King Lear (1917) Yale.djvu/111

King Lear, IV. iv 

Cor. Alack! 'tis he: why, he was met even now

As mad as the vex'd sea; singing aloud;

Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow weeds,

With burdocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,

Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow

In our sustaining corn. A century send forth;

Search every acre in the high-grown field,

And bring him to our eye.

What can man's wisdom

In the restoring his bereaved sense?

He that helps him take all my outward worth.

[Doc.] There is means, madam;

Our foster-nurse of nature is repose,

The which he lacks; that to provoke in him,

Are many simples operative, whose power

Will close the eye of anguish.

Cor. All bless'd secrets,

All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth,

Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate

In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him,

Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life

That wants the means to lead it.

Mess. News, madam;

The British powers are marching hitherward.

 3 fumiter: fumitory, plant with bitter taste

4 cuckoo-flowers: the ragged robin, a marsh plant

5 Darnel: a weed, injurious to growing crops

idle: worthless

6 century: company of one hundred men

14 simples: medicinal plants

17 aidant and remediate: aiding and remedial

