Fool. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese
fly that way.
Fathers that wear rags 48
Do make their children blind,
But fathers that bear bags
Shall see their children kind.
Fortune, that arrant whore, 52
Ne'er turns the key to the poor.
But for all this thou shalt have as many dolours
for thy daughters as thou canst tell in a year.
Lear. O! how this mother swells up toward my heart; 56
Hysterica passio! down, thou climbing sorrow!
Thy element's below. Where is this daughter?
Kent. With the earl, sir: here within.
Lear. Follow me not; stay here. Exit.
Gent. Made you no more offence than what
you speak of?
Kent. None.
How chance the king comes with so small a number? 64
Fool. An thou hadst been set i' the stocks for
that question, thou hadst well deserved it.
Kent. Why, fool? 67
Fool. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to
teach thee there's no labouring i' the winter. All
that follow their noses are led by their eyes but
blind men; and there's not a nose among twenty
but can smell him that's stinking. Let go thy
hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it
break thy neck with following it; but the great
one that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after.
54 dolours: pun on dollars
55 tell: count
56 mother: vertigo, a disease called the "hysteric passion"
