King Lear : Act 2, Scene 3
Enter EDGAR: Kent is on stage, in stocks, and asleep. For us in the audience, he's not there; we're seeing Edgar somewhere near the "happy hollow of a tree."
Enter EDGAR.
EDGAR
1 I heard myself proclaim'd;
1. proclaim'd: declared an outlaw.
2 And by the happy hollow of a tree
2. happy: handy, opportune.
3 Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place,
3. Escaped the hunt: >>> No port is free: i.e., no walled town or seaport is open to me.
4 That guard, and most unusual vigilance,
5 Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may 'scape,
3-5. no place . . . my taking: i.e., in every place people are watching and waiting to take me prisoner.
6 I will preserve myself: and am bethought
6. am bethought: am resolved; consider it best.
7 To take the basest and most poorest shape
8 That ever penury, in contempt of man,
8. penury: extreme poverty.
9 Brought near to beast. My face I'll grime with filth,
10 Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots;
10. elf all my hair in knots: tangle my hair into elflocks. >>>
11 And with presented nakedness outface
11. presented: exposed.
12 The winds and persecutions of the sky.
13 The country gives me proof and precedent
10. proof: example.
14 Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
14. Bedlam beggars: crazy beggars. >>>
15 Strike in their numb'd and mortified arms
16 Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
16. wooden pricks: skewers.
17 And with this horrible object, from low farms,
17. object: spectacle; appearance.
18 Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills,
19 Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
19. bans: curses. prayers: requests.
20 Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod! poor Tom!
20. Enforce their charity: give urgency to their pleas for charity. Poor . . . Tom: >>>
21 That's something yet. Edgar I nothing am.
21. Edgar I nothing am: I am no longer Edgar.
Exit.