| William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare. 1914. | | | |
| King Lear | | | | Act II. Scene III. |
| | A Part of the Heath. | |
| |
Enter EDGAR. | |
| Edg. I heard myself proclaim’d; | |
| And by the happy hollow of a tree | |
| Escap’d the hunt. No port is free; no place, | 5 |
| That guard, and most unusual vigilance, | |
| Does not attend my taking. While I may ’scape | |
| I will preserve myself; and am bethought | |
| To take the basest and most poorest shape | |
| That ever penury, in contempt of man, | 10 |
| Brought near to beast; my face I’ll grime with filth, | |
| Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots, | |
| And with presented nakedness outface | |
| The winds and persecutions of the sky. | |
| The country gives me proof and precedent | 15 |
| Of Bedlam beggars, who with roaring voices, | |
| Strike in their numb’d and mortified bare arms | |
| Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary; | |
| And with this horrible object, from low farms, | |
| Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills, | 20 |
| Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers, | |
| Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygood! poor Tom! | |
| That’s something yet: Edgar I nothing am. [Exit. | | | |
|
|
