Page:King Lear (1917) Yale.djvu/75

King Lear, II. iv

Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,

When others are more wicked; not being the worst

Stands in some rank of praise. [To Goneril.] I'll go with thee:

Thy fifty yet doth double five-and-twenty,

And thou art twice her love.

Gon. Hear me, my lord.

What need you five-and-twenty, ten, or five,

To follow in a house, where twice so many

Have a command to tend you?

Reg. What need one?

Lear. O! reason not the need; our basest beggars

Are in the poorest thing superfluous:

Allow not nature more than nature needs,

Man's life is cheap as beast's. Thou art a lady;

If only to go warm were gorgeous,

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,

Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need,—

You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!

You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,

As full of grief as age; wretched in both!

If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts

Against their father, fool me not so much

To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,

And let not women's weapons, water-drops,

Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,

I will have such revenges on you both

That all the world shall—I will do such things,—

What they are yet I know not,—but they shall be

 268 superfluous: possessed of more than they need

271 gorgeous; cf. n.

278 fool much: make me not such a fool

