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white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were

there. To say 'ay' and 'no' to everything

I said! 'Ay' and 'no' too was no good divi-

nity. When the rain came to wet me once and

the wind to make me chatter, when the thunder

would not peace at my bidding, there I found

'em, there I smelt 'em out. Go to, they are not

men o' their words: they told me I was every-

thing; 'tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.

Glo. The trick of that voice I do well remember:

Is 't not the king?

Lear. Ay, every inch a king:

When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.

I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause?

Adultery?

Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No:

The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly

Does lecher in my sight.

Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son

Was kinder to his father than my daughters

Got 'tween the lawful sheets.

To 't luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers.

Behold yond simpering dame,

Whose face between her forks presageth snow;

That minces virtue, and does shake the head

To hear of pleasure's name;

The fitchew nor the soiled horse goes to 't

With a more riotous appetite.

Down from the waist they are Centaurs,

Though women all above:

But to the girdle do the gods inherit,

Beneath is all the fiends':

 101 'ay' and 'no'; cf. n.

120 luxury: lewdness

122 forks: legs

123 minces: makes an affected show of

125 fitchew: polecat

soiled: overfed

