night; rob, murder and commit
The oldest sins, the newest kind of ways!
Be happy, he will trouble you no more;
England shall double gild his treble guilt;
For the Fifth Harry from curbed license plucks
The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog
Shall flesh his tooth in every innocent.
O, poor Kingdom, sick with civil blows!
When that my care could not withhold thy riots
What wilt thou do, when riot is thy care?
O, thou wilt be a wilderness again,
Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants!"_

King Lear, the generous old monarch of Britain, in a spasm of parental
love, bequeathes his dominion to his two daughters, Goneril and Regan, and
gave nothing to the beautiful Cordelia. Hear the old man rave at his
ungrateful daughters and the corrupt world:

_"Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend,
More hideous, when thou show'st in a child,
Than the sea monster!
Hear, nature, hear!
Dear goddess, hear! Suspend thy purpose, if
Thou did'st intend to make this creature fruitful!
Into her womb convey sterility!
Dry up in her the organs of increase;
And from her degraded body never spring
A babe to honor her! If she must teem,
Create her a child of spleen; that it may live
And be a thwart disnatured torment to her!
Let it stamp wrinkles on her brow of youth;
With falling tears fret channels in her cheeks;
Turn all her mother's pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt; that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!"_

* * * * *

_Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts, and hurricanes, spout
Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity of the world!
Crack nature's molds, all germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful men!
Rumble thy belly full! Spit fire! Spout rain!
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters;
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness,
I never gave you kingdom, called you children,
You owe me no obedience; why then let fall
Your horrible pleasure; here I stand your slave,
A poor, infirm, weak and despised old man;
But yet I call you serv