t
invites Lear into the hovel, but Lear answers that he has no reason to
shelter himself from the tempest, that he does not feel it, having a
tempest in his mind, called forth by the ingratitude of his daughters,
which extinguishes all else. This true feeling, expressed in simple
words, might elicit sympathy, but amidst the incessant, pompous raving
it escapes one and loses its significance.

The hovel into which Lear is led, turns out to be the same which Edgar
has entered, disguised as a madman, _i.e._, naked. Edgar comes out of
the hovel, and, altho all have known him, no one recognizes him,--as no
one recognizes Kent,--and Edgar, Lear, and the fool begin to say
senseless things which continue with interruptions for many pages. In
the middle of this scene, enter Gloucester, who also does not recognize
either Kent or his son Edgar, and tells them how his son Edgar wanted to
kill him.

This scene is again cut short by another in Gloucester's castle, during
which Edmund betrays his father and the Duke promises to avenge himself
on Gloucester. Then the scene shifts back to Lear. Kent, Edgar,
Gloucester, Lear, and the fool are at a farm and talking. Edgar says:
"Frateretto calls me, and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake of
darkness...." The fool says: "Tell me whether a madman be a gentleman or
a yeoman?" Lear, having lost his mind, says that the madman is a king.
The fool says no, the madman is the yeoman who has allowed his son to
become a gentleman. Lear screams: "To have a thousand with red burning
spirits. Come hissing in upon 'em,"--while Edgar shrieks that the foul
fiend bites his back. At this the fool remarks that one can not believe
"in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's
oath." Then Lear imagines he is judging his daughters. "Sit thou here,
most learned justicer," says he, addressing the naked Edgar; "Thou,
sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she foxes." To this Edgar says: "Look
where he stands and glares! Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?" "Come
o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me,----" while the fool sings:

"Her boat hath a leak
And she must not speak
Why she dares not come over to thee."

Edgar goes on in his own strain. Kent suggests that Lear should lie
down, but Lear continues his imaginary trial: "Bring in their evidence,"
he cries. "Thou robed man of justice, take thy place," he says to Edgar,
"and thou" (to the fool) "his yoke-fellow of equity, bench by