Page:King Lear (1917) Yale.djvu/87

King Lear, III. iv

Edg. Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:

Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!

Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools

and madmen.

Edg. Take heed o' the foul fiend. Obey thy

parents; keep thy word justly; swear not; com-

mit not with man's sworn spouse; set not thy

sweet heart on proud array. Tom's a-cold.

Lear. What hast thou been?

Edg. A servingman, proud in heart and

mind; that curled my hair, wore gloves in my

cap, served the lust of my mistress's heart, and

did the act of darkness with her; swore as many

oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the

sweet face of heaven; one that slept in the con-

triving of lust, and waked to do it. Wine loved

I deeply, dice dearly, and in woman out-para-

moured the Turk: false of heart, light of ear,

bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth,

wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey.

Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of

silks betray thy poor heart to woman: keep thy

foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets,

thy pen from lenders' books, and defy the foul

fiend. Still through the hawthorn blows the

cold wind; says suum, mun ha no nonny.

Dolphin my boy, my boy; sessa! let him

trot by.

Lear. Why, thou wert better in thy grave

than to answer with thy uncovered body this

extremity of the skies. Is man no more than

this? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm

 97 plackets: the slit in a woman's skirt

100 suum, mun, etc.: probably mere nonsensical exclamations

