King Lear by William Shakespeare
Act 2 - Scene 3
The open country.
Edgar : I heard myself proclaim'd,
[p]And by the happy hollow of a
tree
[p]Escap'd the hunt. No port is free, no place
[p]That guard and
most unusual vigilance
[p]Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may
scape,
[p]I will preserve myself; and am bethought
[p]To take the
basest and most poorest shape
[p]That ever penury, in contempt of
man,
[p]Brought near to beast. My face I'll grime with
filth,
[p]Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots,
[p]And with
presented nakedness outface
[p]The winds and persecutions of the
sky.
[p]The country gives me proof and precedent
[p]Of Bedlam beggars,
who, with roaring voices,
[p]Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare
arms
[p]Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
[p]And with
this horrible object, from low farms,
[p]Poor pelting villages,
sheepcotes, and mills,
[p]Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with
prayers,
[p]Enforce their charity. 'Poor Turlygod! poor
Tom!'
[p]That's something yet! Edgar I nothing am. Exit.
Previous: Act 2 - Scene 2
Next: Act 2 - Scene 4
