Page:King Lear (1917) Yale.djvu/73

King Lear, II. iv

Corn. I set him there, sir: but his own disorders

Deserv'd much less advancement.

Lear. You! did you?

Reg. I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.

If, till the expiration of your month,

You will return and sojourn with my sister,

Dismissing half your train, come then to me:

I am now from home, and out of that provision

Which shall be needful for your entertainment.

Lear. Return to her? and fifty men dismiss'd!

No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose

To wage against the enmity o' the air;

To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,

Necessity's sharp pinch! Return with her!

Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took

Our youngest born, I could as well be brought

To knee his throne, and, squire-like, pension beg

To keep base life afoot. Return with her!

Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter

To this detested groom.

Gon. At your choice, sir.

Lear. I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad:

I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell.

Well no more meet, no more see one another;

But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;

Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,

Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,

A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,

In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee;

Let shame come when it will, I do not call it:

I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,

Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove.

 202 disorders: disorderly acts

212 wage: wage war

219 sumpter: drudge

227 embossed: swollen

