white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were
there. To say 'ay' and 'no' to everything
I said! 'Ay' and 'no' too was no good divi-
nity. When the rain came to wet me once and
the wind to make me chatter, when the thunder
would not peace at my bidding, there I found
'em, there I smelt 'em out. Go to, they are not
men o' their words: they told me I was every-
thing; 'tis a lie, I am not ague-proof. 108
Glo. The trick of that voice I do well remember:
Is 't not the king?
Lear. Ay, every inch a king:
When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.
I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause? 112
Adultery?
Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No:
The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly
Does lecher in my sight. 116
Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son
Was kinder to his father than my daughters
Got 'tween the lawful sheets.
To 't luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers. 120
Behold yond simpering dame,
Whose face between her forks presageth snow;
That minces virtue, and does shake the head
To hear of pleasure's name; 124
The fitchew nor the soiled horse goes to 't
With a more riotous appetite.
Down from the waist they are Centaurs,
Though women all above: 128
But to the girdle do the gods inherit,
Beneath is all the fiends':
101 'ay' and 'no'; cf. n.
120 luxury: lewdness
122 forks: legs
123 minces: makes an affected show of
125 fitchew: polecat
soiled: overfed
