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Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure:

I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,

I and my hundred knights.

Reg. Not altogether so:

I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided

For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister;

For those that mingle reason with your passion

Must be content to think you old, and so—

But she knows what she does.

Lear. Is this well spoken?

Reg. I dare avouch it, sir: what! fifty followers?

Is it not well? What should you need of more?

Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger

Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house,

Should many people, under two commands,

Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.

Gon. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance

From those that she calls servants, or from mine?

Reg. Why not, my lord? If then they chanc'd to slack you

We could control them. If you will come to me,—

For now I spy a danger,—I entreat you

To bring but five-and-twenty; to no more

Will I give place or notice.

Lear. I gave you all—

Reg. And in good time you gave it.

Lear. Made you my guardians, my depositaries,

But kept a reservation to be follow'd

With such a number. What! must I come to you

With five-and-twenty? Regan, said you so?

Reg. And speak 't again, my lord; no more with me.

 252 notice: countenance

