Scene III
A wood
Enter Edgar.[3299]
Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd;[3300]
And by the happy hollow of a tree
Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place,
That guard and most unusual vigilance[3301]
Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may 'scape[3302] 5
I will preserve myself: and am bethought
To take the basest and most poorest shape[3303]
That ever penury in contempt of man
Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth,
Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots,[3304] 10
And with presented nakedness out-face
The winds and persecutions of the sky.[3305]
The country gives me proof and precedent[3306]
Of Bedlam beggars, who with roaring voices
Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms[3307] 15
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;[3308]
And with this horrible object, from low farms,[3309]
Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes and mills,[3310]
Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,[3311]
Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod! poor Tom![3312] 20
That's something yet: Edgar I nothing am. [Exit.
And by the happy hollow of a tree
Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place,
That guard and most unusual vigilance[3301]
Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may 'scape[3302] 5
I will preserve myself: and am bethought
To take the basest and most poorest shape[3303]
That ever penury in contempt of man
Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth,
Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots,[3304] 10
And with presented nakedness out-face
The winds and persecutions of the sky.[3305]
The country gives me proof and precedent[3306]
Of Bedlam beggars, who with roaring voices
Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms[3307] 15
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;[3308]
And with this horrible object, from low farms,[3309]
Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes and mills,[3310]
Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,[3311]
Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod! poor Tom![3312] 20
That's something yet: Edgar I nothing am. [Exit.
We’ll remember where you stopped. All chapters