Glou. My dear lord,[3380]
You know the fiery quality of the duke;[3380]
How unremoveable and fix'd he is[3380]
In his own course.[3380] 90
Lear. Vengeance! plague! death! confusion![3380][3381]
Fiery? what quality? Why, Gloucester, Gloucester,[3380][3382]
I'ld speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.[3380]
Glou. Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so.[3383]
Lear. Inform'd them! Dost thou understand me, man?[3383] 95
Glou. Ay, my good lord.
Lear. The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father[3384]
Would with his daughter speak, commands her service:[3385]
Are they inform'd of this? My breath and blood![3386]
'Fiery'? 'the fiery duke'? Tell the hot duke that—[3387] 100
No, but not yet: may be he is not well:[3388]
Infirmity doth still neglect all office[3389]
Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves[3389][3390]
When nature being oppress'd commands the mind[3389][3391]
To suffer with the body: I'll forbear;[3389] 105
And am fall'n out with my more headier will,[3392]
To take the indisposed and sickly fit[3393]
For the sound man. [Looking on Kent] Death on my state! wherefore[3393][3394]
Should he sit here? This act persuades me[3393][3395]
That this remotion of the duke and her[3393] 110
Is practice only. Give me my servant forth.[3396]
Go tell the duke and's wife I'ld speak with them,[3397]
Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,
Or at their chamber-door I'll beat the drum
Till it cry sleep to death.[3398] 115
Glou. I would have all well betwixt you. [Exit.[3399]
Lear. O me, my heart, my rising heart! But down![3400]
Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels[3401]
when she put 'em i' the paste alive; she knapped 'em o' the[3402]
coxcombs with a stick, and cried 'Down, wantons, down!' 120
'Twas her brother that, in pure kindness to his horse, buttered[3403]
his hay.
Re-enter Gloucester, with Cornwall, Regan, and Servants.[3404]