Page 1812 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

LEAR

What canst tell, boy?

FOOL
She will taste as like this as a crab does to a crab. Thou canst tell why one’s
nose stands i’th’middle on’s face?

LEAR
No. [20]

FOOL
Why, to keep one’s eyes of either side’s nose, that what a man cannot smell

out, he may spy into.

LEAR
I did her wrong, −

FOOL
Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?

LEAR
No. [25]

FOOL
Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.

LEAR
Why?

FOOL
Why, to put’s head in; not to give it away to his daughters, and leave his

horns without a case.

LEAR

I will forget my nature. So kind a father! Be my [30] horses ready?

FOOL