GONERIL: My lord, entreat him by no means to stay.
GLOUCESTER: Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds
Do sorely ruffle. For many miles about
There’s scarce a bush.
– William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act 2, Scene 4. Goneril urges her husband Cornwall not to invite Lear into Gloucester’s palace to lodge. Gloucester, a loyal subject of Lear and concerned for the King’s welfare and safety in the gathering storm, tries to play the peacemaker. But he is just as naive and blind to the truth as Lear. He is attempting to appeal to a humanity which Lear’s older daughters clearly don’t have.