Act 3, Scene 4

A part of the Heath with a Hovel. Storm continues.

[Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool.]
Kent
1733 Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter:
1734 The tyranny of the open night's too rough
1735 For nature to endure.
King Lear
1736 Let me alone.
Kent
1737 Good my lord, enter here.
King Lear
1738 Wilt break my heart?
Kent
1739 I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.
King Lear
1740 Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm
1741 Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee
1742 But where the greater malady is fix'd,
1743 The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear;
1744 But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,
1745 Thou'dst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the mind's free,
1746 The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
1747 Doth from my senses take all feeling else
1748 Save what beats there.—Filial ingratitude!
1749 Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand
1750 For lifting food to't?—But I will punish home:—
1751 No, I will weep no more.—In such a night
1752 To shut me out!—Pour on; I will endure:—
1753 In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!—
1754 Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all,—
1755 O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
1756 No more of that.
Kent
1757 Good my lord, enter here.
King Lear
1758 Pr'ythee go in thyself; seek thine own ease:
1759 This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
1760 On things would hurt me more.—But I'll go in.—
[To the Fool.]
King Lear
1761 In, boy; go first.—You houseless poverty,—
1762 Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.—
[Fool goes in.]
King Lear
1763 Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
1764 That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
1765 How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
1766 Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
1767 From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
1768 Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
1769 Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
1770 That thou mayst shake the superflux to them
1771 And show the heavens more just.
[Within.]
Edgar
1772 Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom!
[The Fool runs out from the hovel.]
Fool
1773 Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit.
1774 Help me, help me!
Kent
1775 Give me thy hand.—Who's there?
Fool
1776 A spirit, a spirit: he says his name's poor Tom.
Kent
1777 What art thou that dost grumble there i' the straw?
1778 Come forth.
[Enter Edgar, disguised as a madman.]
Edgar
1779 Away! the foul fiend follows me!—
1780 Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.—
1781 Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.
King Lear
1782 Didst thou give all to thy two daughters?
1783 And art thou come to this?
Edgar
1784 Who gives anything to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led
1785 through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, o'er
1786 bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow and
1787 halters in his pew, set ratsbane by his porridge; made him proud
1788 of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inched
1789 bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor.—Bless thy five
1790 wits!—Tom's a-cold.—O, do de, do de, do de.—Bless thee from
1791 whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity,
1792 whom the foul fiend vexes:—there could I have him now,—and
1793 there,—and there again, and there.
[Storm continues.]
King Lear
1794 What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?—
1795 Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give 'em all?
Fool
1796 Nay, he reserv'd a blanket, else we had been all shamed.
King Lear
1797 Now all the plagues that in the pendulous air
1798 Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters!
Kent
1799 He hath no daughters, sir.
King Lear
1800 Death, traitor! nothing could have subdu'd nature
1801 To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.—
1802 Is it the fashion that discarded fathers
1803 Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?
1804 Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot
1805 Those pelican daughters.
Edgar
1806 Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:—
1807 Halloo, halloo, loo loo!
Fool
1808 This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.
Edgar
1809 Take heed o' th' foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep thy word
1810 justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not
1811 thy sweet heart on proud array. Tom's a-cold.
King Lear
1812 What hast thou been?
Edgar
1813 A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair;
1814 wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of my mistress' heart, and
1815 did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake
1816 words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one that
1817 slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it: wine loved
1818 I deeply, dice dearly; and in woman out-paramour'd the Turk;
1819 false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox
1820 in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey.
1821 Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray
1822 thy poor heart to woman: keep thy foot out of brothel, thy hand
1823 out of placket, thy pen from lender's book, and defy the foul
1824 fiend.—Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind: says
1825 suum, mun, nonny. Dolphin my boy, boy, sessa! let him trot by.
[Storm still continues.]
King Lear
1826 Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy
1827 uncovered body this extremity of the skies.—Is man no more than
1828 this? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast
1829 no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume.—Ha! here's three
1830 on's are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself:
1831 unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked
1832 animal as thou art.—Off, off, you lendings!—Come, unbutton
1833 here.
[Tears off his clothes.]
Fool
1834 Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis a naughty night to swim
1835 in.—Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher's
1836 heart,—a small spark, all the rest on's body cold.—Look, here
1837 comes a walking fire.
Edgar
1838 This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew,
1839 and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin,
1840 squints the eye, and makes the harelip; mildews the white wheat,
1841 and hurts the poor creature of earth.
1842 Swithold footed thrice the old;
1843 He met the nightmare, and her nine-fold;
1844 Bid her alight
1845 And her troth plight,
1846 And aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!
Kent
1847 How fares your grace?
[Enter Gloster with a torch.]
King Lear
1848 What's he?
Kent
1849 Who's there? What is't you seek?
Gloucester
1850 What are you there? Your names?
Edgar
1851 Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the todpole, the
1852 wall-newt and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when the
1853 foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat
1854 and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool;
1855 who is whipped from tithing to tithing, and stocked, punished,
1856 and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts
1857 to his body, horse to ride, and weapons to wear;—
1858 But mice and rats, and such small deer,
1859 Have been Tom's food for seven long year.
1860 Beware my follower.—Peace, Smulkin; peace, thou fiend!
Gloucester
1861 What, hath your grace no better company?
Edgar
1862 The prince of darkness is a gentleman:
1863 Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.
Gloucester
1864 Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile
1865 That it doth hate what gets it.
Edgar
1866 Poor Tom's a-cold.
Gloucester
1867 Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer
1868 To obey in all your daughters' hard commands;
1869 Though their injunction be to bar my doors,
1870 And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,
1871 Yet have I ventur'd to come seek you out
1872 And bring you where both fire and food is ready.
King Lear
1873 First let me talk with this philosopher.—
1874 What is the cause of thunder?
Kent
1875 Good my lord, take his offer; go into the house.
King Lear
1876 I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.—
1877 What is your study?
Edgar
1878 How to prevent the fiend and to kill vermin.
King Lear
1879 Let me ask you one word in private.
Kent
1880 Importune him once more to go, my lord;
1881 His wits begin to unsettle.
Gloucester
1882 Canst thou blame him?
1883 His daughters seek his death:—ah, that good Kent!—
1884 He said it would be thus,—poor banish'd man!—
1885 Thou say'st the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend,
1886 I am almost mad myself: I had a son,
1887 Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life
1888 But lately, very late: I lov'd him, friend,—
1889 No father his son dearer: true to tell thee,
[Storm continues.]
Gloucester
1890 The grief hath craz'd my wits.—What a night's this!—
1891 I do beseech your grace,—
King Lear
1892 O, cry you mercy, sir.—
1893 Noble philosopher, your company.
Edgar
1894 Tom's a-cold.
Gloucester
1895 In, fellow, there, into the hovel; keep thee warm.
King Lear
1896 Come, let's in all.
Kent
1897 This way, my lord.
King Lear
1898 With him;
1899 I will keep still with my philosopher.
Kent
1900 Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.
Gloucester
1901 Take him you on.
Kent
1902 Sirrah, come on; go along with us.
King Lear
1903 Come, good Athenian.
Gloucester
1904 No words, no words: hush.
Edgar
1905 Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
1906 His word was still—Fie, foh, and fum,
1907 I smell the blood of a British man.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1742rhetorical device
“where the greater malady is fix'd, The lesser is scarce felt”
Lear argues that physical suffering cannot compete with mental anguish: a man with a consuming wound in his mind barely notices the body's pain. The rhetorical logic is exact — a lesser hurt is blotted out by a greater — and it is the only explanation Lear offers for why he refuses to go inside out of the storm.
TLN 1748rhetorical device
“Filial ingratitude! Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand”
Lear frames his daughters' cruelty through a body analogy: it is as unnatural as a mouth biting the hand that feeds it. The image makes the breach of filial duty a violation of the body's own order, where every organ serves the whole. The single exclamatory word 'Filial ingratitude!' stands alone as a rhetorical figure called apostrophe — a sudden direct address of an abstraction.
TLN 1755rhetorical device
“O, that way madness lies; let me shun that”
This is the play's first explicit acknowledgment by Lear himself that he is in danger of losing his mind. He has been building toward this — grieving over Regan and Goneril — and then abruptly cuts himself off. The phrase 'that way' is crucial: madness is not here yet, but it is a direction he can feel himself moving in. His attempt to change the subject ('No more of that') does not succeed for long.
TLN 1763rhetorical device
“Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm”
Lear, on the edge of the hovel, stops and prays — not for himself but for all the homeless poor who endure storms like this one every night without his royal protections. This is the play's sharpest turn toward social conscience: the king who never thought about the destitute now recognizes his own failure of care. 'Too little care of this' is his self-indictment.
historical The fall of princes (de casibus tragedy)
TLN 1772archaic vocab
“Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom!”
A fathom is six feet — used to measure the depth of water. 'Fathom and half' (nine feet) is a sailor's depth-sounding call, shouted from the bow as the ship approaches shallow water. Edgar, hiding inside the hovel, shouts it first as a cry of 'Poor Tom,' instantly establishing the deranged nautical patter that will define his Bedlam-beggar performance throughout the scene.
TLN 1784historical topical
“whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool”
Edgar is performing as 'Poor Tom,' a Bedlam beggar who claims to be tormented and driven by a devil. The 'foul fiend' who leads him through fire, flood, and over narrow bridges is a demon of popular belief. Shakespeare drew Tom's language of demonic possession — and the specific devil-names that follow — from Samuel Harsnett's 1603 book exposing fraudulent Catholic exorcisms.
historical Harsnett's Declaration and Poor Tom's devils
TLN 1787archaic vocab
“set ratsbane by his porridge; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inched bridges”
'Ratsbane' is rat poison (arsenic or a similar compound). 'Porridge' is here simply a thick broth or pottage, the ordinary poor person's food. Edgar-as-Tom claims the devil laid poison beside his food, drove him to reckless pride (riding a horse over bridges so narrow they were only four inches wide), and made him chase his own shadow as if it were a traitor. The list catalogues typical demonic temptations — toward self-destruction, arrogance, and paranoia.
TLN 1804biblical allusion
“'twas this flesh begot Those pelican daughters”
The pelican was a medieval symbol of parental self-sacrifice: legend held that a mother pelican pierced her own breast to feed her starving chicks with her blood. Here Lear inverts the image savagely — his daughters are 'pelican daughters' who feed on their parent's flesh instead of the other way round. The symbol turns filial cruelty into a violation of the very icon of parental love.
TLN 1809biblical allusion
“obey thy parents; keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse”
Edgar-as-Tom rattles off a garbled version of the Ten Commandments — honour parents, keep vows, do not swear falsely, do not commit adultery ('commit not with man's sworn spouse'), do not covet fine clothing ('set not thy sweet heart on proud array'). The list is deliberately scrambled and colloquial, as if the Commandments themselves are breaking apart under the pressure of madness. Edgar has just invented a sinful past for Tom, and now Tom delivers a penitent moral code.
TLN 1818historical topical
“in woman out-paramour'd the Turk”
The Ottoman sultan (called 'the Turk' in Elizabethan England) maintained a harem of hundreds of women, which to European writers represented the ultimate degree of sexual excess. To say Tom 'out-paramoured the Turk' means he slept with even more women than the Sultan — the hyperbolic claim of someone confessing to extreme lechery. The Turkish harem was a stock reference for limitless lust in Renaissance literature.
TLN 1822archaic vocab
“keep thy foot out of brothel, thy hand out of placket, thy pen from lender's book”
A 'placket' was a slit or opening in a petticoat or skirt, and by extension a slang term for a woman's genitals. 'Pen from lender's book' means do not go into debt — keep your signature out of a moneylender's ledger. Edgar-as-Tom is delivering a mock-moral sermon in three commands: avoid brothels, avoid sexual groping, avoid debt. The parallel structure makes the comic sermon feel like a corrupted set of proverbs.
TLN 1827rhetorical device
“Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume”
Staring at the near-naked Edgar, Lear asks what a human being actually is when stripped of everything borrowed from nature and society. 'Unaccommodated man' means man without the accommodations — the additions, the coverings — that civilization provides: silk from worms, leather from beasts, wool from sheep, civet perfume from the civet cat. Tom 'owes' none of these creatures anything because he has taken nothing from them. Lear calls him 'the thing itself': bare, forked animal.
historical The great chain of being (order and degree)historical The king's two bodies
TLN 1838historical topical
“the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock”
Flibbertigibbet is one of the named devils Edgar-as-Tom claims to be possessed by. Shakespeare took this name directly from Samuel Harsnett's 1603 exposé of fake Catholic exorcisms, which listed the 'fiends' the Jesuit priests claimed to cast out of servants at Denham. Harsnett intended the names to seem ridiculous and fraudulent. Flibbertigibbet here is a devil of night — active from curfew to cockcrow — who causes eye diseases ('the web and the pin'), squinting, harelips, and crop blight.
historical Harsnett's Declaration and Poor Tom's devils
TLN 1873historical topical
“First let me talk with this philosopher. What is the cause of thunder?”
Lear calls Tom a 'philosopher' and then asks him the one question a classical natural philosopher would be expected to answer: the cause of thunder. In ancient and Renaissance natural philosophy, thunder was a leading puzzle — Aristotle treated it in his Meteorologica, attributing it to the collapse of wind-clouds. Lear is not mocking Tom; in his dissolving mind, the half-naked madman has become a sage. The question 'what is the cause of thunder?' is also a theological one — is it divine punishment, or a natural event?
TLN 1905cultural context
“Child Rowland to the dark tower came, His word was still—Fie, foh, and fum, I smell the blood of a British man”
'Child Rowland' appears to come from a lost folk-tale or ballad about a hero named Roland ('Child' is an archaic honorific for a young knight or hero, as in 'Child Harold'). He goes to a 'dark tower,' and his password or warcry echoes the giant's chant from 'Jack and the Beanstalk' — 'Fie, foh, and fum, I smell the blood of a British man.' Shakespeare pointedly changes the traditional 'English man' to 'British,' putting the giant in a pre-English, legendary-British world consistent with the play's setting.