o be without one attendant; and
it was the ingratitude in his daughters' denying it, more than what
he would suffer by the want of it, which pierced this poor king to
the heart: insomuch that with this double ill usage, and vexation
for having so foolishly given away a kingdom, his wits began to be
unsettled, and while he said he knew not what, he vowed revenge
against those unnatural hags, and to make examples of them that should
be a terror to the earth!

While he was thus idly threatening what his weak arm could never
execute, night came on, and a loud storm of thunder and lightning
with rain; and his daughters still persisting in their resolution not
to admit his followers, he called for his horses, and chose rather
to encounter the utmost fury of the storm abroad, than stay under
the same roof with these ungrateful daughters: and they saying that
the injuries which wilful men procure to themselves are their just
punishment, suffered him to go in that condition, and shut their doors
upon him.

The winds were high, and the rain and storm increased, when the old
man sallied forth to combat with the elements, less sharp than his
daughters' unkindness. For many miles about there was scarce a bush;
and there upon a heath, exposed to the fury of the storm in a dark
night, did king Lear wander out, and defy the winds and the thunder:
and he bid the winds to blow the earth into the sea, or swell the
waves of the sea till they drowned the earth, that no token might
remain of any such ungrateful animal as man. The old king was now left
with no other companion than the poor fool, who still abided with him,
with his merry conceits striving to out-jest misfortune, saying, it
was but a naughty night to swim in, and truly the king had better go
in and ask his daughter's blessing:

But he that has a little tiny wit,
With heigh ho, the wind and the rain!
Must make content with his fortunes fit,
Though the rain it raineth every day:

and swearing it was a brave night to cool a lady's pride.

Thus poorly accompanied this once great monarch was found by his ever
faithful servant the good earl of Kent, now transformed to Caius, who
ever followed close at his side, though the king did not know him to
be the earl; and he said, "Alas! sir, are you here? creatures that
love night, love not such nights as these. This dreadful storm has
driven the beasts to their hiding places. Man's nature cannot endure
the affliction or the