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King Lear 21.html
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King Lear 21.html
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<span id = 380 ></span><span id = 383 ><br /><br />SCENE I. King Lear's palace.<br /><br /> Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND <br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> I thought the king had more affected the Duke of<br /> Albany than Cornwall.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> It did always seem so to us: but now, in the<br /> division of the kingdom, it appears not which of<br /> the dukes he values most; for equalities are so<br /> weighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice<br /> of either's moiety.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Is not this your son, my lord?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have<br /> so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am<br /> brazed to it.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> I cannot conceive you.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Sir, this young fellow's mother could: whereupon<br /> she grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a son<br /> for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed.<br /> Do you smell a fault?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it<br /> being so proper.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year<br /> elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account:<br /> though this knave came something saucily into the<br /> world before he was sent for, yet was his mother<br /> fair; there was good sport at his making, and the<br /> whoreson must be acknowledged. Do you know this<br /> noble gentleman, Edmund?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> No, my lord.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my<br /> honourable friend.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> My services to your lordship.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> I must love you, and sue to know you better.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Sir, I shall study deserving.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> He hath been out nine years, and away he shall<br /> again. The king is coming.<br /><br /> Sennet. Enter KING LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA, and Attendants<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> I shall, my liege.<br /><br /> Exeunt GLOUCESTER and EDMUND<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.<br /> Give me the map there. Know that we have divided<br /> In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent<br /> To shake all cares and business from our age;<br /> Conferring them on younger strengths, while we<br /> Unburthen'd crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall,<br /> And you, our no less loving son of Albany,<br /> We have this hour a constant will to publish<br /> Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife<br /> May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy,<br /> Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,<br /> Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,<br /> And here are to be answer'd. Tell me, my daughters,--<br /> Since now we will divest us both of rule,<br /> Interest of territory, cares of state,--<br /> Which of you shall we say doth love us most?<br /> That we our largest bounty may extend<br /> Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,<br /> Our eldest-born, speak first.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;<br /> Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;<br /> Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;<br /> No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;<br /> As much as child e'er loved, or father found;<br /> A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;<br /> Beyond all manner of so much I love you.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> [Aside] What shall Cordelia do?<br /> Love, and be silent.<br /><br />LEAR<br /><br /> Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,<br /> With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd,<br /> With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,<br /> We make thee lady: to thine and Albany's issue<br /> Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,<br /> Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Sir, I am made<br /> Of the self-same metal that my sister is,<br /> And prize me at her worth. In my true heart<br /> I find she names my very deed of love;<br /> Only she comes too short: that I profess<br /> Myself an enemy to all other joys,<br /> Which the most precious square of sense possesses;<br /> And find I am alone felicitate<br /> In your dear highness' love.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> [Aside] Then poor Cordelia!<br /> And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's<br /> More richer than my tongue.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> To thee and thine hereditary ever<br /> Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom;<br /> No less in space, validity, and pleasure,<br /> Than that conferr'd on Goneril. Now, our joy,<br /> Although the last, not least; to whose young love<br /> The vines of France and milk of Burgundy<br /> Strive to be interess'd; what can you say to draw<br /> A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Nothing, my lord.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Nothing!<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Nothing.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave<br /> My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty<br /> According to my bond; nor more nor less.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little,<br /> Lest it may mar your fortunes.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Good my lord,<br /> You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I<br /> Return those duties back as are right fit,<br /> Obey you, love you, and most honour you.<br /> Why have my sisters husbands, if they say<br /> They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,<br /> That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry<br /> Half my love with him, half my care and duty:<br /> Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,<br /> To love my father all.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> But goes thy heart with this?<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Ay, good my lord.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> So young, and so untender?<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> So young, my lord, and true.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy dower:<br /> For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,<br /> The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;<br /> By all the operation of the orbs<br /> From whom we do exist, and cease to be;<br /> Here I disclaim all my paternal care,<br /> Propinquity and property of blood,<br /> And as a stranger to my heart and me<br /> Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian,<br /> Or he that makes his generation messes<br /> To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom<br /> Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and relieved,<br /> As thou my sometime daughter.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Good my liege,--<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Peace, Kent!<br /> Come not between the dragon and his wrath.<br /> I loved her most, and thought to set my rest<br /> On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight!<br /> So be my grave my peace, as here I give<br /> Her father's heart from her! Call France; who stirs?<br /> Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,<br /> With my two daughters' dowers digest this third:<br /> Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.<br /> I do invest you jointly with my power,<br /> Pre-eminence, and all the large effects<br /> That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,<br /> With reservation of an hundred knights,<br /> By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode<br /> Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain<br /> The name, and all the additions to a king;<br /> The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,<br /> Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,<br /> This coronet part betwixt you.<br /><br /> Giving the crown<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Royal Lear,<br /> Whom I have ever honour'd as my king,<br /> Loved as my father, as my master follow'd,<br /> As my great patron thought on in my prayers,--<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Let it fall rather, though the fork invade<br /> The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly,<br /> When Lear is mad. What wilt thou do, old man?<br /> Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak,<br /> When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound,<br /> When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom;<br /> And, in thy best consideration, cheque<br /> This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgment,<br /> Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least;<br /> Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound<br /> Reverbs no hollowness.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Kent, on thy life, no more.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> My life I never held but as a pawn<br /> To wage against thy enemies; nor fear to lose it,<br /> Thy safety being the motive.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Out of my sight!<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> See better, Lear; and let me still remain<br /> The true blank of thine eye.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Now, by Apollo,--<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Now, by Apollo, king,<br /> Thou swear'st thy gods in vain.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> O, vassal! miscreant!<br /><br /> Laying his hand on his sword<br /><br />ALBANY CORNWALL<br /><br /> Dear sir, forbear.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Do:<br /> Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow<br /> Upon thy foul disease. Revoke thy doom;<br /> Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,<br /> I'll tell thee thou dost evil.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Hear me, recreant!<br /> On thine allegiance, hear me!<br /> Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow,<br /> Which we durst never yet, and with strain'd pride<br /> To come between our sentence and our power,<br /> Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,<br /> Our potency made good, take thy reward.<br /> Five days we do allot thee, for provision<br /> To shield thee from diseases of the world;<br /> And on the sixth to turn thy hated back<br /> Upon our kingdom: if, on the tenth day following,<br /> Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,<br /> The moment is thy death. Away! by Jupiter,<br /> This shall not be revoked.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Fare thee well, king: sith thus thou wilt appear,<br /> Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.<br /><br /> To CORDELIA<br /> The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid,<br /> That justly think'st, and hast most rightly said!<br /><br /> To REGAN and GONERIL<br /> And your large speeches may your deeds approve,<br /> That good effects may spring from words of love.<br /> Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu;<br /> He'll shape his old course in a country new.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br /> Flourish. Re-enter GLOUCESTER, with KING OF FRANCE, BURGUNDY, and Attendants<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> My lord of Burgundy.<br /> We first address towards you, who with this king<br /> Hath rivall'd for our daughter: what, in the least,<br /> Will you require in present dower with her,<br /> Or cease your quest of love?<br /><br />BURGUNDY<br /><br /> Most royal majesty,<br /> I crave no more than what your highness offer'd,<br /> Nor will you tender less.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Right noble Burgundy,<br /> When she was dear to us, we did hold her so;<br /> But now her price is fall'n. Sir, there she stands:<br /> If aught within that little seeming substance,<br /> Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced,<br /> And nothing more, may fitly like your grace,<br /> She's there, and she is yours.<br /><br />BURGUNDY<br /><br /> I know no answer.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Will you, with those infirmities she owes,<br /> Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate,<br /> Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath,<br /> Take her, or leave her?<br /><br />BURGUNDY<br /><br /> Pardon me, royal sir;<br /> Election makes not up on such conditions.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Then leave her, sir; for, by the power that made me,<br /> I tell you all her wealth.<br /><br /> To KING OF FRANCE<br /> For you, great king,<br /> I would not from your love make such a stray,<br /> To match you where I hate; therefore beseech you<br /> To avert your liking a more worthier way<br /> Than on a wretch whom nature is ashamed<br /> Almost to acknowledge hers.<br /><br />KING OF FRANCE<br /><br /> This is most strange,<br /> That she, that even but now was your best object,<br /> The argument of your praise, balm of your age,<br /> Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time<br /> Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle<br /> So many folds of favour. Sure, her offence<br /> Must be of such unnatural degree,<br /> That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection<br /> Fall'n into taint: which to believe of her,<br /> Must be a faith that reason without miracle<br /> Could never plant in me.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> I yet beseech your majesty,--<br /> If for I want that glib and oily art,<br /> To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend,<br /> I'll do't before I speak,--that you make known<br /> It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,<br /> No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step,<br /> That hath deprived me of your grace and favour;<br /> But even for want of that for which I am richer,<br /> A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue<br /> As I am glad I have not, though not to have it<br /> Hath lost me in your liking.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Better thou<br /> Hadst not been born than not to have pleased me better.<br /><br />KING OF FRANCE<br /><br /> Is it but this,--a tardiness in nature<br /> Which often leaves the history unspoke<br /> That it intends to do? My lord of Burgundy,<br /> What say you to the lady? Love's not love<br /> When it is mingled with regards that stand<br /> Aloof from the entire point. Will you have her?<br /> She is herself a dowry.<br /><br />BURGUNDY<br /><br /> Royal Lear,<br /> Give but that portion which yourself proposed,<br /> And here I take Cordelia by the hand,<br /> Duchess of Burgundy.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm.<br /><br />BURGUNDY<br /><br /> I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father<br /> That you must lose a husband.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Peace be with Burgundy!<br /> Since that respects of fortune are his love,<br /> I shall not be his wife.<br /><br />KING OF FRANCE<br /><br /> Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor;<br /> Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!<br /> Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon:<br /> Be it lawful I take up what's cast away.<br /> Gods, gods! 'tis strange that from their cold'st neglect<br /> My love should kindle to inflamed respect.<br /> Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my chance,<br /> Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France:<br /> Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy<br /> Can buy this unprized precious maid of me.<br /> Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind:<br /> Thou losest here, a better where to find.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we<br /> Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see<br /> That face of hers again. Therefore be gone<br /> Without our grace, our love, our benison.<br /> Come, noble Burgundy.<br /><br /> Flourish. Exeunt all but KING OF FRANCE, GONERIL, REGAN, and CORDELIA<br /><br />KING OF FRANCE<br /><br /> Bid farewell to your sisters.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes<br /> Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are;<br /> And like a sister am most loath to call<br /> Your faults as they are named. Use well our father:<br /> To your professed bosoms I commit him<br /> But yet, alas, stood I within his grace,<br /> I would prefer him to a better place.<br /> So, farewell to you both.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Prescribe not us our duties.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Let your study<br /> Be to content your lord, who hath received you<br /> At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted,<br /> And well are worth the want that you have wanted.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides:<br /> Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.<br /> Well may you prosper!<br /><br />KING OF FRANCE<br /><br /> Come, my fair Cordelia.<br /><br /> Exeunt KING OF FRANCE and CORDELIA<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Sister, it is not a little I have to say of what<br /> most nearly appertains to us both. I think our<br /> father will hence to-night.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> That's most certain, and with you; next month with us.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> You see how full of changes his age is; the<br /> observation we have made of it hath not been<br /> little: he always loved our sister most; and<br /> with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off<br /> appears too grossly.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> 'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever<br /> but slenderly known himself.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> The best and soundest of his time hath been but<br /> rash; then must we look to receive from his age,<br /> not alone the imperfections of long-engraffed<br /> condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness<br /> that infirm and choleric years bring with them.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Such unconstant starts are we like to have from<br /> him as this of Kent's banishment.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> There is further compliment of leavetaking<br /> between France and him. Pray you, let's hit<br /> together: if our father carry authority with<br /> such dispositions as he bears, this last<br /> surrender of his will but offend us.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> We shall further think on't.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> We must do something, and i' the heat.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 401 ><br /><br />SCENE II. The Earl of Gloucester's castle.<br /><br /> Enter EDMUND, with a letter <br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law<br /> My services are bound. Wherefore should I<br /> Stand in the plague of custom, and permit<br /> The curiosity of nations to deprive me,<br /> For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines<br /> Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?<br /> When my dimensions are as well compact,<br /> My mind as generous, and my shape as true,<br /> As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us<br /> With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?<br /> Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take<br /> More composition and fierce quality<br /> Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,<br /> Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,<br /> Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well, then,<br /> Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:<br /> Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund<br /> As to the legitimate: fine word,--legitimate!<br /> Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,<br /> And my invention thrive, Edmund the base<br /> Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:<br /> Now, gods, stand up for bastards!<br /><br /> Enter GLOUCESTER<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted!<br /> And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power!<br /> Confined to exhibition! All this done<br /> Upon the gad! Edmund, how now! what news?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> So please your lordship, none.<br /><br /> Putting up the letter<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> I know no news, my lord.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> What paper were you reading?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Nothing, my lord.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> No? What needed, then, that terrible dispatch of<br /> it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath<br /> not such need to hide itself. Let's see: come,<br /> if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> I beseech you, sir, pardon me: it is a letter<br /> from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read;<br /> and for so much as I have perused, I find it not<br /> fit for your o'er-looking.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Give me the letter, sir.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The<br /> contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Let's see, let's see.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote<br /> this but as an essay or taste of my virtue.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> [Reads] 'This policy and reverence of age makes<br /> the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps<br /> our fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish<br /> them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage<br /> in the oppression of aged tyranny; who sways, not<br /> as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to<br /> me, that of this I may speak more. If our father<br /> would sleep till I waked him, you should half his<br /> revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your<br /> brother, EDGAR.'<br /> Hum--conspiracy!--'Sleep till I waked him,--you<br /> should enjoy half his revenue,'--My son Edgar!<br /> Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain<br /> to breed it in?--When came this to you? who<br /> brought it?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> It was not brought me, my lord; there's the<br /> cunning of it; I found it thrown in at the<br /> casement of my closet.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> You know the character to be your brother's?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear<br /> it were his; but, in respect of that, I would<br /> fain think it were not.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> It is his.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is<br /> not in the contents.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Hath he never heretofore sounded you in this business?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Never, my lord: but I have heard him oft<br /> maintain it to be fit, that, sons at perfect age,<br /> and fathers declining, the father should be as<br /> ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> O villain, villain! His very opinion in the<br /> letter! Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested,<br /> brutish villain! worse than brutish! Go, sirrah,<br /> seek him; I'll apprehend him: abominable villain!<br /> Where is he?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please<br /> you to suspend your indignation against my<br /> brother till you can derive from him better<br /> testimony of his intent, you shall run a certain<br /> course; where, if you violently proceed against<br /> him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great<br /> gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the<br /> heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life<br /> for him, that he hath wrote this to feel my<br /> affection to your honour, and to no further<br /> pretence of danger.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Think you so?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> If your honour judge it meet, I will place you<br /> where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an<br /> auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and<br /> that without any further delay than this very evening.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> He cannot be such a monster--<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Nor is not, sure.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> To his father, that so tenderly and entirely<br /> loves him. Heaven and earth! Edmund, seek him<br /> out: wind me into him, I pray you: frame the<br /> business after your own wisdom. I would unstate<br /> myself, to be in a due resolution.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> I will seek him, sir, presently: convey the<br /> business as I shall find means and acquaint you withal.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend<br /> no good to us: though the wisdom of nature can<br /> reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself<br /> scourged by the sequent effects: love cools,<br /> friendship falls off, brothers divide: in<br /> cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in<br /> palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son<br /> and father. This villain of mine comes under the<br /> prediction; there's son against father: the king<br /> falls from bias of nature; there's father against<br /> child. We have seen the best of our time:<br /> machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all<br /> ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our<br /> graves. Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall<br /> lose thee nothing; do it carefully. And the<br /> noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his<br /> offence, honesty! 'Tis strange.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,<br /> when we are sick in fortune,--often the surfeit<br /> of our own behavior,--we make guilty of our<br /> disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as<br /> if we were villains by necessity; fools by<br /> heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and<br /> treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,<br /> liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of<br /> planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,<br /> by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion<br /> of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish<br /> disposition to the charge of a star! My<br /> father compounded with my mother under the<br /> dragon's tail; and my nativity was under Ursa<br /> major; so that it follows, I am rough and<br /> lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am,<br /> had the maidenliest star in the firmament<br /> twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar--<br /><br /> Enter EDGAR<br /> And pat he comes like the catastrophe of the old<br /> comedy: my cue is villanous melancholy, with a<br /> sigh like Tom o' Bedlam. O, these eclipses do<br /> portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> How now, brother Edmund! what serious<br /> contemplation are you in?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read<br /> this other day, what should follow these eclipses.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Do you busy yourself about that?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed<br /> unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child<br /> and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of<br /> ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and<br /> maledictions against king and nobles; needless<br /> diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation<br /> of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> How long have you been a sectary astronomical?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Come, come; when saw you my father last?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Why, the night gone by.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Spake you with him?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Ay, two hours together.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Parted you in good terms? Found you no<br /> displeasure in him by word or countenance?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> None at all.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended<br /> him: and at my entreaty forbear his presence<br /> till some little time hath qualified the heat of<br /> his displeasure; which at this instant so rageth<br /> in him, that with the mischief of your person it<br /> would scarcely allay.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Some villain hath done me wrong.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent<br /> forbearance till the spied of his rage goes<br /> slower; and, as I say, retire with me to my<br /> lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to<br /> hear my lord speak: pray ye, go; there's my key:<br /> if you do stir abroad, go armed.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Armed, brother!<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Brother, I advise you to the best; go armed: I<br /> am no honest man if there be any good meaning<br /> towards you: I have told you what I have seen<br /> and heard; but faintly, nothing like the image<br /> and horror of it: pray you, away.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Shall I hear from you anon?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> I do serve you in this business.<br /><br /> Exit EDGAR<br /> A credulous father! and a brother noble,<br /> Whose nature is so far from doing harms,<br /> That he suspects none: on whose foolish honesty<br /> My practises ride easy! I see the business.<br /> Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit:<br /> All with me's meet that I can fashion fit.<br /><br /> Exit<br /></span><span id = 409 ><br /><br />SCENE III. The Duke of Albany's palace.<br /><br /> Enter GONERIL, and OSWALD, her steward <br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool?<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Yes, madam.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> By day and night he wrongs me; every hour<br /> He flashes into one gross crime or other,<br /> That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it:<br /> His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us<br /> On every trifle. When he returns from hunting,<br /> I will not speak with him; say I am sick:<br /> If you come slack of former services,<br /> You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> He's coming, madam; I hear him.<br /><br /> Horns within<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Put on what weary negligence you please,<br /> You and your fellows; I'll have it come to question:<br /> If he dislike it, let him to our sister,<br /> Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one,<br /> Not to be over-ruled. Idle old man,<br /> That still would manage those authorities<br /> That he hath given away! Now, by my life,<br /> Old fools are babes again; and must be used<br /> With cheques as flatteries,--when they are seen abused.<br /> Remember what I tell you.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Well, madam.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> And let his knights have colder looks among you;<br /> What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows so:<br /> I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall,<br /> That I may speak: I'll write straight to my sister,<br /> To hold my very course. Prepare for dinner.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 425 ><br /><br />SCENE IV. A hall in the same.<br /><br /> Enter KENT, disguised <br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> If but as well I other accents borrow,<br /> That can my speech defuse, my good intent<br /> May carry through itself to that full issue<br /> For which I razed my likeness. Now, banish'd Kent,<br /> If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd,<br /> So may it come, thy master, whom thou lovest,<br /> Shall find thee full of labours.<br /><br /> Horns within. Enter KING LEAR, Knights, and Attendants<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go get it ready.<br /><br /> Exit an Attendant<br /> How now! what art thou?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> A man, sir.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> What dost thou profess? what wouldst thou with us?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve<br /> him truly that will put me in trust: to love him<br /> that is honest; to converse with him that is wise,<br /> and says little; to fear judgment; to fight when I<br /> cannot choose; and to eat no fish.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> What art thou?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the king.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> If thou be as poor for a subject as he is for a<br /> king, thou art poor enough. What wouldst thou?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Service.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Who wouldst thou serve?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> You.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Dost thou know me, fellow?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> No, sir; but you have that in your countenance<br /> which I would fain call master.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> What's that?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Authority.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> What services canst thou do?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious<br /> tale in telling it, and deliver a plain message<br /> bluntly: that which ordinary men are fit for, I am<br /> qualified in; and the best of me is diligence.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> How old art thou?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor<br /> so old to dote on her for any thing: I have years<br /> on my back forty eight.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Follow me; thou shalt serve me: if I like thee no<br /> worse after dinner, I will not part from thee yet.<br /> Dinner, ho, dinner! Where's my knave? my fool?<br /> Go you, and call my fool hither.<br /><br /> Exit an Attendant<br /><br /> Enter OSWALD<br /> You, you, sirrah, where's my daughter?<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> So please you,--<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> What says the fellow there? Call the clotpoll back.<br /><br /> Exit a Knight<br /> Where's my fool, ho? I think the world's asleep.<br /><br /> Re-enter Knight<br /> How now! where's that mongrel?<br /><br />Knight<br /><br /> He says, my lord, your daughter is not well.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Why came not the slave back to me when I called him.<br /><br />Knight<br /><br /> Sir, he answered me in the roundest manner, he would<br /> not.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> He would not!<br /><br />Knight<br /><br /> My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my<br /> judgment, your highness is not entertained with that<br /> ceremonious affection as you were wont; there's a<br /> great abatement of kindness appears as well in the<br /> general dependants as in the duke himself also and<br /> your daughter.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Ha! sayest thou so?<br /><br />Knight<br /><br /> I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken;<br /> for my duty cannot be silent when I think your<br /> highness wronged.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Thou but rememberest me of mine own conception: I<br /> have perceived a most faint neglect of late; which I<br /> have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity<br /> than as a very pretence and purpose of unkindness:<br /> I will look further into't. But where's my fool? I<br /> have not seen him this two days.<br /><br />Knight<br /><br /> Since my young lady's going into France, sir, the<br /> fool hath much pined away.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> No more of that; I have noted it well. Go you, and<br /> tell my daughter I would speak with her.<br /><br /> Exit an Attendant<br /> Go you, call hither my fool.<br /><br /> Exit an Attendant<br /><br /> Re-enter OSWALD<br /> O, you sir, you, come you hither, sir: who am I,<br /> sir?<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> My lady's father.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> 'My lady's father'! my lord's knave: your<br /> whoreson dog! you slave! you cur!<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> I am none of these, my lord; I beseech your pardon.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal?<br /><br /> Striking him<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> I'll not be struck, my lord.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Nor tripped neither, you base football player.<br /><br /> Tripping up his heels<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and I'll<br /> love thee.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Come, sir, arise, away! I'll teach you differences:<br /> away, away! if you will measure your lubber's<br /> length again, tarry: but away! go to; have you<br /> wisdom? so.<br /><br /> Pushes OSWALD out<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee: there's<br /> earnest of thy service.<br /><br /> Giving KENT money<br /><br /> Enter Fool<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Let me hire him too: here's my coxcomb.<br /><br /> Offering KENT his cap<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> How now, my pretty knave! how dost thou?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Why, fool?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Why, for taking one's part that's out of favour:<br /> nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits,<br /> thou'lt catch cold shortly: there, take my coxcomb:<br /> why, this fellow has banished two on's daughters,<br /> and did the third a blessing against his will; if<br /> thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb.<br /> How now, nuncle! Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters!<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Why, my boy?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> If I gave them all my living, I'ld keep my coxcombs<br /> myself. There's mine; beg another of thy daughters.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Take heed, sirrah; the whip.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Truth's a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped<br /> out, when Lady the brach may stand by the fire and stink.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> A pestilent gall to me!<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Do.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Mark it, nuncle:<br /> Have more than thou showest,<br /> Speak less than thou knowest,<br /> Lend less than thou owest,<br /> Ride more than thou goest,<br /> Learn more than thou trowest,<br /> Set less than thou throwest;<br /> Leave thy drink and thy whore,<br /> And keep in-a-door,<br /> And thou shalt have more<br /> Than two tens to a score.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> This is nothing, fool.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Then 'tis like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer; you<br /> gave me nothing for't. Can you make no use of<br /> nothing, nuncle?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> [To KENT] Prithee, tell him, so much the rent of<br /> his land comes to: he will not believe a fool.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> A bitter fool!<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a<br /> bitter fool and a sweet fool?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> No, lad; teach me.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> That lord that counsell'd thee<br /> To give away thy land,<br /> Come place him here by me,<br /> Do thou for him stand:<br /> The sweet and bitter fool<br /> Will presently appear;<br /> The one in motley here,<br /> The other found out there.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Dost thou call me fool, boy?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> All thy other titles thou hast given away; that<br /> thou wast born with.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> This is not altogether fool, my lord.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> No, faith, lords and great men will not let me; if<br /> I had a monopoly out, they would have part on't:<br /> and ladies too, they will not let me have all fool<br /> to myself; they'll be snatching. Give me an egg,<br /> nuncle, and I'll give thee two crowns.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> What two crowns shall they be?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Why, after I have cut the egg i' the middle, and eat<br /> up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou<br /> clovest thy crown i' the middle, and gavest away<br /> both parts, thou borest thy ass on thy back o'er<br /> the dirt: thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown,<br /> when thou gavest thy golden one away. If I speak<br /> like myself in this, let him be whipped that first<br /> finds it so.<br /><br /> Singing<br /> Fools had ne'er less wit in a year;<br /> For wise men are grown foppish,<br /> They know not how their wits to wear,<br /> Their manners are so apish.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> When were you wont to be so full of songs, sirrah?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> I have used it, nuncle, ever since thou madest thy<br /> daughters thy mothers: for when thou gavest them<br /> the rod, and put'st down thine own breeches,<br /><br /> Singing<br /> Then they for sudden joy did weep,<br /> And I for sorrow sung,<br /> That such a king should play bo-peep,<br /> And go the fools among.<br /> Prithee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach<br /> thy fool to lie: I would fain learn to lie.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> An you lie, sirrah, we'll have you whipped.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are:<br /> they'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'lt<br /> have me whipped for lying; and sometimes I am<br /> whipped for holding my peace. I had rather be any<br /> kind o' thing than a fool: and yet I would not be<br /> thee, nuncle; thou hast pared thy wit o' both sides,<br /> and left nothing i' the middle: here comes one o'<br /> the parings.<br /><br /> Enter GONERIL<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> How now, daughter! what makes that frontlet on?<br /> Methinks you are too much of late i' the frown.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to<br /> care for her frowning; now thou art an O without a<br /> figure: I am better than thou art now; I am a fool,<br /> thou art nothing.<br /><br /> To GONERIL<br /> Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue; so your face<br /> bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum,<br /> He that keeps nor crust nor crum,<br /> Weary of all, shall want some.<br /><br /> Pointing to KING LEAR<br /> That's a shealed peascod.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Not only, sir, this your all-licensed fool,<br /> But other of your insolent retinue<br /> Do hourly carp and quarrel; breaking forth<br /> In rank and not-to-be endured riots. Sir,<br /> I had thought, by making this well known unto you,<br /> To have found a safe redress; but now grow fearful,<br /> By what yourself too late have spoke and done.<br /> That you protect this course, and put it on<br /> By your allowance; which if you should, the fault<br /> Would not 'scape censure, nor the redresses sleep,<br /> Which, in the tender of a wholesome weal,<br /> Might in their working do you that offence,<br /> Which else were shame, that then necessity<br /> Will call discreet proceeding.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> For, you trow, nuncle,<br /> The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,<br /> That it's had it head bit off by it young.<br /> So, out went the candle, and we were left darkling.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Are you our daughter?<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Come, sir,<br /> I would you would make use of that good wisdom,<br /> Whereof I know you are fraught; and put away<br /> These dispositions, that of late transform you<br /> From what you rightly are.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> May not an ass know when the cart<br /> draws the horse? Whoop, Jug! I love thee.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Doth any here know me? This is not Lear:<br /> Doth Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes?<br /> Either his notion weakens, his discernings<br /> Are lethargied--Ha! waking? 'tis not so.<br /> Who is it that can tell me who I am?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Lear's shadow.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> I would learn that; for, by the<br /> marks of sovereignty, knowledge, and reason,<br /> I should be false persuaded I had daughters.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Which they will make an obedient father.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Your name, fair gentlewoman?<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> This admiration, sir, is much o' the savour<br /> Of other your new pranks. I do beseech you<br /> To understand my purposes aright:<br /> As you are old and reverend, you should be wise.<br /> Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires;<br /> Men so disorder'd, so debosh'd and bold,<br /> That this our court, infected with their manners,<br /> Shows like a riotous inn: epicurism and lust<br /> Make it more like a tavern or a brothel<br /> Than a graced palace. The shame itself doth speak<br /> For instant remedy: be then desired<br /> By her, that else will take the thing she begs,<br /> A little to disquantity your train;<br /> And the remainder, that shall still depend,<br /> To be such men as may besort your age,<br /> And know themselves and you.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Darkness and devils!<br /> Saddle my horses; call my train together:<br /> Degenerate bastard! I'll not trouble thee.<br /> Yet have I left a daughter.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> You strike my people; and your disorder'd rabble<br /> Make servants of their betters.<br /><br /> Enter ALBANY<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Woe, that too late repents,--<br /><br /> To ALBANY<br /> O, sir, are you come?<br /> Is it your will? Speak, sir. Prepare my horses.<br /> Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,<br /> More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child<br /> Than the sea-monster!<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Pray, sir, be patient.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> [To GONERIL] Detested kite! thou liest.<br /> My train are men of choice and rarest parts,<br /> That all particulars of duty know,<br /> And in the most exact regard support<br /> The worships of their name. O most small fault,<br /> How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show!<br /> That, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature<br /> From the fix'd place; drew from heart all love,<br /> And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear!<br /> Beat at this gate, that let thy folly in,<br /><br /> Striking his head<br /> And thy dear judgment out! Go, go, my people.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant<br /> Of what hath moved you.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> It may be so, my lord.<br /> Hear, nature, hear; dear goddess, hear!<br /> Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend<br /> To make this creature fruitful!<br /> Into her womb convey sterility!<br /> Dry up in her the organs of increase;<br /> And from her derogate body never spring<br /> A babe to honour her! If she must teem,<br /> Create her child of spleen; that it may live,<br /> And be a thwart disnatured torment to her!<br /> Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth;<br /> With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks;<br /> Turn all her mother's pains and benefits<br /> To laughter and contempt; that she may feel<br /> How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is<br /> To have a thankless child! Away, away!<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Now, gods that we adore, whereof comes this?<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Never afflict yourself to know the cause;<br /> But let his disposition have that scope<br /> That dotage gives it.<br /><br /> Re-enter KING LEAR<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> What, fifty of my followers at a clap!<br /> Within a fortnight!<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> What's the matter, sir?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> I'll tell thee:<br /><br /> To GONERIL<br /> Life and death! I am ashamed<br /> That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus;<br /> That these hot tears, which break from me perforce,<br /> Should make thee worth them. Blasts and fogs upon thee!<br /> The untented woundings of a father's curse<br /> Pierce every sense about thee! Old fond eyes,<br /> Beweep this cause again, I'll pluck ye out,<br /> And cast you, with the waters that you lose,<br /> To temper clay. Yea, it is come to this?<br /> Let is be so: yet have I left a daughter,<br /> Who, I am sure, is kind and comfortable:<br /> When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails<br /> She'll flay thy wolvish visage. Thou shalt find<br /> That I'll resume the shape which thou dost think<br /> I have cast off for ever: thou shalt,<br /> I warrant thee.<br /><br /> Exeunt KING LEAR, KENT, and Attendants<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Do you mark that, my lord?<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> I cannot be so partial, Goneril,<br /> To the great love I bear you,--<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Pray you, content. What, Oswald, ho!<br /><br /> To the Fool<br /> You, sir, more knave than fool, after your master.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry and take the fool<br /> with thee.<br /> A fox, when one has caught her,<br /> And such a daughter,<br /> Should sure to the slaughter,<br /> If my cap would buy a halter:<br /> So the fool follows after.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> This man hath had good counsel:--a hundred knights!<br /> 'Tis politic and safe to let him keep<br /> At point a hundred knights: yes, that, on every dream,<br /> Each buzz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike,<br /> He may enguard his dotage with their powers,<br /> And hold our lives in mercy. Oswald, I say!<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Well, you may fear too far.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Safer than trust too far:<br /> Let me still take away the harms I fear,<br /> Not fear still to be taken: I know his heart.<br /> What he hath utter'd I have writ my sister<br /> If she sustain him and his hundred knights<br /> When I have show'd the unfitness,--<br /><br /> Re-enter OSWALD<br /> How now, Oswald!<br /> What, have you writ that letter to my sister?<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Yes, madam.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Take you some company, and away to horse:<br /> Inform her full of my particular fear;<br /> And thereto add such reasons of your own<br /> As may compact it more. Get you gone;<br /> And hasten your return.<br /><br /> Exit OSWALD<br /> No, no, my lord,<br /> This milky gentleness and course of yours<br /> Though I condemn not, yet, under pardon,<br /> You are much more attask'd for want of wisdom<br /> Than praised for harmful mildness.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> How far your eyes may pierce I can not tell:<br /> Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Nay, then--<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Well, well; the event.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 426 ><br /><br />SCENE V. Court before the same.<br /><br /> Enter KING LEAR, KENT, and Fool <br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Go you before to Gloucester with these letters.<br /> Acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you<br /> know than comes from her demand out of the letter.<br /> If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there afore you.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered<br /> your letter.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> If a man's brains were in's heels, were't not in<br /> danger of kibes?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Ay, boy.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Then, I prithee, be merry; thy wit shall ne'er go<br /> slip-shod.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Ha, ha, ha!<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly;<br /> for though she's as like this as a crab's like an<br /> apple, yet I can tell what I can tell.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Why, what canst thou tell, my boy?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> She will taste as like this as a crab does to a<br /> crab. Thou canst tell why one's nose stands i'<br /> the middle on's face?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> No.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose; that<br /> what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> I did her wrong--<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> No.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Why?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his<br /> daughters, and leave his horns without a case.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> I will forget my nature. So kind a father! Be my<br /> horses ready?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the<br /> seven stars are no more than seven is a pretty reason.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Because they are not eight?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> To take 't again perforce! Monster ingratitude!<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'ld have thee beaten<br /> for being old before thy time.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> How's that?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst<br /> been wise.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven<br /> Keep me in temper: I would not be mad!<br /><br /> Enter Gentleman<br /> How now! are the horses ready?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Ready, my lord.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Come, boy.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure,<br /> Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 427 ></span><span id = 428 ><br /><br />SCENE I. GLOUCESTER's castle.<br /><br /> Enter EDMUND, and CURAN meets him <br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Save thee, Curan.<br /><br />CURAN<br /><br /> And you, sir. I have been with your father, and<br /> given him notice that the Duke of Cornwall and Regan<br /> his duchess will be here with him this night.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> How comes that?<br /><br />CURAN<br /><br /> Nay, I know not. You have heard of the news abroad;<br /> I mean the whispered ones, for they are yet but<br /> ear-kissing arguments?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Not I pray you, what are they?<br /><br />CURAN<br /><br /> Have you heard of no likely wars toward, 'twixt the<br /> Dukes of Cornwall and Albany?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Not a word.<br /><br />CURAN<br /><br /> You may do, then, in time. Fare you well, sir.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> The duke be here to-night? The better! best!<br /> This weaves itself perforce into my business.<br /> My father hath set guard to take my brother;<br /> And I have one thing, of a queasy question,<br /> Which I must act: briefness and fortune, work!<br /> Brother, a word; descend: brother, I say!<br /><br /> Enter EDGAR<br /> My father watches: O sir, fly this place;<br /> Intelligence is given where you are hid;<br /> You have now the good advantage of the night:<br /> Have you not spoken 'gainst the Duke of Cornwall?<br /> He's coming hither: now, i' the night, i' the haste,<br /> And Regan with him: have you nothing said<br /> Upon his party 'gainst the Duke of Albany?<br /> Advise yourself.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> I am sure on't, not a word.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> I hear my father coming: pardon me:<br /> In cunning I must draw my sword upon you<br /> Draw; seem to defend yourself; now quit you well.<br /> Yield: come before my father. Light, ho, here!<br /> Fly, brother. Torches, torches! So, farewell.<br /><br /> Exit EDGAR<br /> Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion.<br /><br /> Wounds his arm<br /> Of my more fierce endeavour: I have seen drunkards<br /> Do more than this in sport. Father, father!<br /> Stop, stop! No help?<br /><br /> Enter GLOUCESTER, and Servants with torches<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Now, Edmund, where's the villain?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out,<br /> Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon<br /> To stand auspicious mistress,--<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> But where is he?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Look, sir, I bleed.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Where is the villain, Edmund?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Fled this way, sir. When by no means he could--<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Pursue him, ho! Go after.<br /><br /> Exeunt some Servants<br /> By no means what?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Persuade me to the murder of your lordship;<br /> But that I told him, the revenging gods<br /> 'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend;<br /> Spoke, with how manifold and strong a bond<br /> The child was bound to the father; sir, in fine,<br /> Seeing how loathly opposite I stood<br /> To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion,<br /> With his prepared sword, he charges home<br /> My unprovided body, lanced mine arm:<br /> But when he saw my best alarum'd spirits,<br /> Bold in the quarrel's right, roused to the encounter,<br /> Or whether gasted by the noise I made,<br /> Full suddenly he fled.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Let him fly far:<br /> Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;<br /> And found--dispatch. The noble duke my master,<br /> My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night:<br /> By his authority I will proclaim it,<br /> That he which finds him shall deserve our thanks,<br /> Bringing the murderous coward to the stake;<br /> He that conceals him, death.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> When I dissuaded him from his intent,<br /> And found him pight to do it, with curst speech<br /> I threaten'd to discover him: he replied,<br /> 'Thou unpossessing bastard! dost thou think,<br /> If I would stand against thee, would the reposal<br /> Of any trust, virtue, or worth in thee<br /> Make thy words faith'd? No: what I should deny,--<br /> As this I would: ay, though thou didst produce<br /> My very character,--I'ld turn it all<br /> To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practise:<br /> And thou must make a dullard of the world,<br /> If they not thought the profits of my death<br /> Were very pregnant and potential spurs<br /> To make thee seek it.'<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Strong and fasten'd villain<br /> Would he deny his letter? I never got him.<br /><br /> Tucket within<br /> Hark, the duke's trumpets! I know not why he comes.<br /> All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not 'scape;<br /> The duke must grant me that: besides, his picture<br /> I will send far and near, that all the kingdom<br /> May have the due note of him; and of my land,<br /> Loyal and natural boy, I'll work the means<br /> To make thee capable.<br /><br /> Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, and Attendants<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> How now, my noble friend! since I came hither,<br /> Which I can call but now, I have heard strange news.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> If it be true, all vengeance comes too short<br /> Which can pursue the offender. How dost, my lord?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> O, madam, my old heart is crack'd, it's crack'd!<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> What, did my father's godson seek your life?<br /> He whom my father named? your Edgar?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> O, lady, lady, shame would have it hid!<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Was he not companion with the riotous knights<br /> That tend upon my father?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> I know not, madam: 'tis too bad, too bad.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Yes, madam, he was of that consort.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> No marvel, then, though he were ill affected:<br /> 'Tis they have put him on the old man's death,<br /> To have the expense and waste of his revenues.<br /> I have this present evening from my sister<br /> Been well inform'd of them; and with such cautions,<br /> That if they come to sojourn at my house,<br /> I'll not be there.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Nor I, assure thee, Regan.<br /> Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father<br /> A child-like office.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> 'Twas my duty, sir.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> He did bewray his practise; and received<br /> This hurt you see, striving to apprehend him.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Is he pursued?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Ay, my good lord.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> If he be taken, he shall never more<br /> Be fear'd of doing harm: make your own purpose,<br /> How in my strength you please. For you, Edmund,<br /> Whose virtue and obedience doth this instant<br /> So much commend itself, you shall be ours:<br /> Natures of such deep trust we shall much need;<br /> You we first seize on.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> I shall serve you, sir,<br /> Truly, however else.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> For him I thank your grace.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> You know not why we came to visit you,--<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Thus out of season, threading dark-eyed night:<br /> Occasions, noble Gloucester, of some poise,<br /> Wherein we must have use of your advice:<br /> Our father he hath writ, so hath our sister,<br /> Of differences, which I least thought it fit<br /> To answer from our home; the several messengers<br /> From hence attend dispatch. Our good old friend,<br /> Lay comforts to your bosom; and bestow<br /> Your needful counsel to our business,<br /> Which craves the instant use.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> I serve you, madam:<br /> Your graces are right welcome.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 430 ><br /><br />SCENE II. Before Gloucester's castle.<br /><br /> Enter KENT and OSWALD, severally <br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Good dawning to thee, friend: art of this house?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Ay.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Where may we set our horses?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> I' the mire.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Prithee, if thou lovest me, tell me.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> I love thee not.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Why, then, I care not for thee.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> If I had thee in Lipsbury pinfold, I would make thee<br /> care for me.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Fellow, I know thee.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> What dost thou know me for?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a<br /> base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited,<br /> hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a<br /> lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,<br /> glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue;<br /> one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a<br /> bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but<br /> the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar,<br /> and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I<br /> will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest<br /> the least syllable of thy addition.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail<br /> on one that is neither known of thee nor knows thee!<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> What a brazen-faced varlet art thou, to deny thou<br /> knowest me! Is it two days ago since I tripped up<br /> thy heels, and beat thee before the king? Draw, you<br /> rogue: for, though it be night, yet the moon<br /> shines; I'll make a sop o' the moonshine of you:<br /> draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw.<br /><br /> Drawing his sword<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Away! I have nothing to do with thee.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Draw, you rascal: you come with letters against the<br /> king; and take vanity the puppet's part against the<br /> royalty of her father: draw, you rogue, or I'll so<br /> carbonado your shanks: draw, you rascal; come your ways.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Help, ho! murder! help!<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Strike, you slave; stand, rogue, stand; you neat<br /> slave, strike.<br /><br /> Beating him<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Help, ho! murder! murder!<br /><br /> Enter EDMUND, with his rapier drawn, CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOUCESTER, and Servants<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> How now! What's the matter?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> With you, goodman boy, an you please: come, I'll<br /> flesh ye; come on, young master.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Weapons! arms! What 's the matter here?<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Keep peace, upon your lives:<br /> He dies that strikes again. What is the matter?<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> The messengers from our sister and the king.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> What is your difference? speak.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> I am scarce in breath, my lord.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> No marvel, you have so bestirred your valour. You<br /> cowardly rascal, nature disclaims in thee: a<br /> tailor made thee.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Thou art a strange fellow: a tailor make a man?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Ay, a tailor, sir: a stone-cutter or painter could<br /> not have made him so ill, though he had been but two<br /> hours at the trade.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Speak yet, how grew your quarrel?<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spared<br /> at suit of his gray beard,--<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter! My<br /> lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this<br /> unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the wall of<br /> a jakes with him. Spare my gray beard, you wagtail?<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Peace, sirrah!<br /> You beastly knave, know you no reverence?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Yes, sir; but anger hath a privilege.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Why art thou angry?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> That such a slave as this should wear a sword,<br /> Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these,<br /> Like rats, oft bite the holy cords a-twain<br /> Which are too intrinse t' unloose; smooth every passion<br /> That in the natures of their lords rebel;<br /> Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods;<br /> Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks<br /> With every gale and vary of their masters,<br /> Knowing nought, like dogs, but following.<br /> A plague upon your epileptic visage!<br /> Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool?<br /> Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain,<br /> I'ld drive ye cackling home to Camelot.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Why, art thou mad, old fellow?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> How fell you out? say that.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> No contraries hold more antipathy<br /> Than I and such a knave.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Why dost thou call him a knave? What's his offence?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> His countenance likes me not.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> No more, perchance, does mine, nor his, nor hers.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain:<br /> I have seen better faces in my time<br /> Than stands on any shoulder that I see<br /> Before me at this instant.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> This is some fellow,<br /> Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect<br /> A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb<br /> Quite from his nature: he cannot flatter, he,<br /> An honest mind and plain, he must speak truth!<br /> An they will take it, so; if not, he's plain.<br /> These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness<br /> Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends<br /> Than twenty silly ducking observants<br /> That stretch their duties nicely.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity,<br /> Under the allowance of your great aspect,<br /> Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire<br /> On flickering Phoebus' front,--<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> What mean'st by this?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> To go out of my dialect, which you<br /> discommend so much. I know, sir, I am no<br /> flatterer: he that beguiled you in a plain<br /> accent was a plain knave; which for my part<br /> I will not be, though I should win your displeasure<br /> to entreat me to 't.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> What was the offence you gave him?<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> I never gave him any:<br /> It pleased the king his master very late<br /> To strike at me, upon his misconstruction;<br /> When he, conjunct and flattering his displeasure,<br /> Tripp'd me behind; being down, insulted, rail'd,<br /> And put upon him such a deal of man,<br /> That worthied him, got praises of the king<br /> For him attempting who was self-subdued;<br /> And, in the fleshment of this dread exploit,<br /> Drew on me here again.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> None of these rogues and cowards<br /> But Ajax is their fool.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Fetch forth the stocks!<br /> You stubborn ancient knave, you reverend braggart,<br /> We'll teach you--<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Sir, I am too old to learn:<br /> Call not your stocks for me: I serve the king;<br /> On whose employment I was sent to you:<br /> You shall do small respect, show too bold malice<br /> Against the grace and person of my master,<br /> Stocking his messenger.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Fetch forth the stocks! As I have life and honour,<br /> There shall he sit till noon.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Till noon! till night, my lord; and all night too.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Why, madam, if I were your father's dog,<br /> You should not use me so.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Sir, being his knave, I will.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> This is a fellow of the self-same colour<br /> Our sister speaks of. Come, bring away the stocks!<br /><br /> Stocks brought out<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Let me beseech your grace not to do so:<br /> His fault is much, and the good king his master<br /> Will cheque him for 't: your purposed low correction<br /> Is such as basest and contemned'st wretches<br /> For pilferings and most common trespasses<br /> Are punish'd with: the king must take it ill,<br /> That he's so slightly valued in his messenger,<br /> Should have him thus restrain'd.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> I'll answer that.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> My sister may receive it much more worse,<br /> To have her gentleman abused, assaulted,<br /> For following her affairs. Put in his legs.<br /><br /> KENT is put in the stocks<br /> Come, my good lord, away.<br /><br /> Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER and KENT<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> I am sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure,<br /> Whose disposition, all the world well knows,<br /> Will not be rubb'd nor stopp'd: I'll entreat for thee.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Pray, do not, sir: I have watched and travell'd hard;<br /> Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle.<br /> A good man's fortune may grow out at heels:<br /> Give you good morrow!<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill taken.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Good king, that must approve the common saw,<br /> Thou out of heaven's benediction comest<br /> To the warm sun!<br /> Approach, thou beacon to this under globe,<br /> That by thy comfortable beams I may<br /> Peruse this letter! Nothing almost sees miracles<br /> But misery: I know 'tis from Cordelia,<br /> Who hath most fortunately been inform'd<br /> Of my obscured course; and shall find time<br /> From this enormous state, seeking to give<br /> Losses their remedies. All weary and o'erwatch'd,<br /> Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold<br /> This shameful lodging.<br /> Fortune, good night: smile once more: turn thy wheel!<br /><br /> Sleeps<br /></span><span id = 434 >SCENE III. A wood.<br /><br /> Enter EDGAR <br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> I heard myself proclaim'd;<br /> And by the happy hollow of a tree<br /> Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place,<br /> That guard, and most unusual vigilance,<br /> Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may 'scape,<br /> I will preserve myself: and am bethought<br /> To take the basest and most poorest shape<br /> That ever penury, in contempt of man,<br /> Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth;<br /> Blanket my loins: elf all my hair in knots;<br /> And with presented nakedness out-face<br /> The winds and persecutions of the sky.<br /> The country gives me proof and precedent<br /> Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,<br /> Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms<br /> Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;<br /> And with this horrible object, from low farms,<br /> Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills,<br /> Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,<br /> Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod! poor Tom!<br /> That's something yet: Edgar I nothing am.<br /><br /> Exit<br /></span><span id = 441 ><br /><br />SCENE IV. Before GLOUCESTER's castle. KENT in the stocks.<br /><br /> Enter KING LEAR, Fool, and Gentleman <br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> 'Tis strange that they should so depart from home,<br /> And not send back my messenger.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> As I learn'd,<br /> The night before there was no purpose in them<br /> Of this remove.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Hail to thee, noble master!<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Ha!<br /> Makest thou this shame thy pastime?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> No, my lord.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Ha, ha! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied<br /> by the heads, dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys by<br /> the loins, and men by the legs: when a man's<br /> over-lusty at legs, then he wears wooden<br /> nether-stocks.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> What's he that hath so much thy place mistook<br /> To set thee here?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> It is both he and she;<br /> Your son and daughter.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> No.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Yes.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> No, I say.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> I say, yea.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> No, no, they would not.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Yes, they have.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> By Jupiter, I swear, no.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> By Juno, I swear, ay.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> They durst not do 't;<br /> They could not, would not do 't; 'tis worse than murder,<br /> To do upon respect such violent outrage:<br /> Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way<br /> Thou mightst deserve, or they impose, this usage,<br /> Coming from us.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> My lord, when at their home<br /> I did commend your highness' letters to them,<br /> Ere I was risen from the place that show'd<br /> My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,<br /> Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth<br /> From Goneril his mistress salutations;<br /> Deliver'd letters, spite of intermission,<br /> Which presently they read: on whose contents,<br /> They summon'd up their meiny, straight took horse;<br /> Commanded me to follow, and attend<br /> The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks:<br /> And meeting here the other messenger,<br /> Whose welcome, I perceived, had poison'd mine,--<br /> Being the very fellow that of late<br /> Display'd so saucily against your highness,--<br /> Having more man than wit about me, drew:<br /> He raised the house with loud and coward cries.<br /> Your son and daughter found this trespass worth<br /> The shame which here it suffers.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Winter's not gone yet, if the wild-geese fly that way.<br /> Fathers that wear rags<br /> Do make their children blind;<br /> But fathers that bear bags<br /> Shall see their children kind.<br /> Fortune, that arrant whore,<br /> Ne'er turns the key to the poor.<br /> But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours<br /> for thy daughters as thou canst tell in a year.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!<br /> Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow,<br /> Thy element's below! Where is this daughter?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> With the earl, sir, here within.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Follow me not;<br /> Stay here.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Made you no more offence but what you speak of?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> None.<br /> How chance the king comes with so small a train?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> And thou hadst been set i' the stocks for that<br /> question, thou hadst well deserved it.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Why, fool?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee<br /> there's no labouring i' the winter. All that follow<br /> their noses are led by their eyes but blind men; and<br /> there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him<br /> that's stinking. Let go thy hold when a great wheel<br /> runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with<br /> following it: but the great one that goes up the<br /> hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man<br /> gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I<br /> would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.<br /> That sir which serves and seeks for gain,<br /> And follows but for form,<br /> Will pack when it begins to rain,<br /> And leave thee in the storm,<br /> But I will tarry; the fool will stay,<br /> And let the wise man fly:<br /> The knave turns fool that runs away;<br /> The fool no knave, perdy.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Where learned you this, fool?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Not i' the stocks, fool.<br /><br /> Re-enter KING LEAR with GLOUCESTER<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary?<br /> They have travell'd all the night? Mere fetches;<br /> The images of revolt and flying off.<br /> Fetch me a better answer.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> My dear lord,<br /> You know the fiery quality of the duke;<br /> How unremoveable and fix'd he is<br /> In his own course.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!<br /> Fiery? what quality? Why, Gloucester, Gloucester,<br /> I'ld speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Inform'd them! Dost thou understand me, man?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Ay, my good lord.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father<br /> Would with his daughter speak, commands her service:<br /> Are they inform'd of this? My breath and blood!<br /> Fiery? the fiery duke? Tell the hot duke that--<br /> No, but not yet: may be he is not well:<br /> Infirmity doth still neglect all office<br /> Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves<br /> When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind<br /> To suffer with the body: I'll forbear;<br /> And am fall'n out with my more headier will,<br /> To take the indisposed and sickly fit<br /> For the sound man. Death on my state! wherefore<br /><br /> Looking on KENT<br /> Should he sit here? This act persuades me<br /> That this remotion of the duke and her<br /> Is practise only. Give me my servant forth.<br /> Go tell the duke and 's wife I'ld speak with them,<br /> Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,<br /> Or at their chamber-door I'll beat the drum<br /> Till it cry sleep to death.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> I would have all well betwixt you.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> O me, my heart, my rising heart! but, down!<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels<br /> when she put 'em i' the paste alive; she knapped 'em<br /> o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cried 'Down,<br /> wantons, down!' 'Twas her brother that, in pure<br /> kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.<br /><br /> Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOUCESTER, and Servants<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Good morrow to you both.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Hail to your grace!<br /><br /> KENT is set at liberty<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> I am glad to see your highness.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Regan, I think you are; I know what reason<br /> I have to think so: if thou shouldst not be glad,<br /> I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb,<br /> Sepulchring an adultress.<br /><br /> To KENT<br /> O, are you free?<br /> Some other time for that. Beloved Regan,<br /> Thy sister's naught: O Regan, she hath tied<br /> Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here:<br /><br /> Points to his heart<br /> I can scarce speak to thee; thou'lt not believe<br /> With how depraved a quality--O Regan!<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> I pray you, sir, take patience: I have hope.<br /> You less know how to value her desert<br /> Than she to scant her duty.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Say, how is that?<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> I cannot think my sister in the least<br /> Would fail her obligation: if, sir, perchance<br /> She have restrain'd the riots of your followers,<br /> 'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end,<br /> As clears her from all blame.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> My curses on her!<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> O, sir, you are old.<br /> Nature in you stands on the very verge<br /> Of her confine: you should be ruled and led<br /> By some discretion, that discerns your state<br /> Better than you yourself. Therefore, I pray you,<br /> That to our sister you do make return;<br /> Say you have wrong'd her, sir.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Ask her forgiveness?<br /> Do you but mark how this becomes the house:<br /> 'Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;<br /><br /> Kneeling<br /> Age is unnecessary: on my knees I beg<br /> That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.'<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Good sir, no more; these are unsightly tricks:<br /> Return you to my sister.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> [Rising] Never, Regan:<br /> She hath abated me of half my train;<br /> Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue,<br /> Most serpent-like, upon the very heart:<br /> All the stored vengeances of heaven fall<br /> On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,<br /> You taking airs, with lameness!<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Fie, sir, fie!<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames<br /> Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,<br /> You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun,<br /> To fall and blast her pride!<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> O the blest gods! so will you wish on me,<br /> When the rash mood is on.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse:<br /> Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give<br /> Thee o'er to harshness: her eyes are fierce; but thine<br /> Do comfort and not burn. 'Tis not in thee<br /> To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,<br /> To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,<br /> And in conclusion to oppose the bolt<br /> Against my coming in: thou better know'st<br /> The offices of nature, bond of childhood,<br /> Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude;<br /> Thy half o' the kingdom hast thou not forgot,<br /> Wherein I thee endow'd.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Good sir, to the purpose.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Who put my man i' the stocks?<br /><br /> Tucket within<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> What trumpet's that?<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> I know't, my sister's: this approves her letter,<br /> That she would soon be here.<br /><br /> Enter OSWALD<br /> Is your lady come?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> This is a slave, whose easy-borrow'd pride<br /> Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows.<br /> Out, varlet, from my sight!<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> What means your grace?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good hope<br /> Thou didst not know on't. Who comes here? O heavens,<br /><br /> Enter GONERIL<br /> If you do love old men, if your sweet sway<br /> Allow obedience, if yourselves are old,<br /> Make it your cause; send down, and take my part!<br /><br /> To GONERIL<br /> Art not ashamed to look upon this beard?<br /> O Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand?<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Why not by the hand, sir? How have I offended?<br /> All's not offence that indiscretion finds<br /> And dotage terms so.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> O sides, you are too tough;<br /> Will you yet hold? How came my man i' the stocks?<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> I set him there, sir: but his own disorders<br /> Deserved much less advancement.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> You! did you?<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.<br /> If, till the expiration of your month,<br /> You will return and sojourn with my sister,<br /> Dismissing half your train, come then to me:<br /> I am now from home, and out of that provision<br /> Which shall be needful for your entertainment.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd?<br /> No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose<br /> To wage against the enmity o' the air;<br /> To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,--<br /> Necessity's sharp pinch! Return with her?<br /> Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took<br /> Our youngest born, I could as well be brought<br /> To knee his throne, and, squire-like; pension beg<br /> To keep base life afoot. Return with her?<br /> Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter<br /> To this detested groom.<br /><br /> Pointing at OSWALD<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> At your choice, sir.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad:<br /> I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell:<br /> We'll no more meet, no more see one another:<br /> But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;<br /> Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,<br /> Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,<br /> A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,<br /> In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee;<br /> Let shame come when it will, I do not call it:<br /> I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,<br /> Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove:<br /> Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure:<br /> I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,<br /> I and my hundred knights.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Not altogether so:<br /> I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided<br /> For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister;<br /> For those that mingle reason with your passion<br /> Must be content to think you old, and so--<br /> But she knows what she does.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Is this well spoken?<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> I dare avouch it, sir: what, fifty followers?<br /> Is it not well? What should you need of more?<br /> Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger<br /> Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house,<br /> Should many people, under two commands,<br /> Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance<br /> From those that she calls servants or from mine?<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack you,<br /> We could control them. If you will come to me,--<br /> For now I spy a danger,--I entreat you<br /> To bring but five and twenty: to no more<br /> Will I give place or notice.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> I gave you all--<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> And in good time you gave it.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Made you my guardians, my depositaries;<br /> But kept a reservation to be follow'd<br /> With such a number. What, must I come to you<br /> With five and twenty, Regan? said you so?<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> And speak't again, my lord; no more with me.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,<br /> When others are more wicked: not being the worst<br /> Stands in some rank of praise.<br /><br /> To GONERIL<br /> I'll go with thee:<br /> Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,<br /> And thou art twice her love.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Hear me, my lord;<br /> What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,<br /> To follow in a house where twice so many<br /> Have a command to tend you?<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> What need one?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> O, reason not the need: our basest beggars<br /> Are in the poorest thing superfluous:<br /> Allow not nature more than nature needs,<br /> Man's life's as cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;<br /> If only to go warm were gorgeous,<br /> Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,<br /> Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need,--<br /> You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!<br /> You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,<br /> As full of grief as age; wretched in both!<br /> If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts<br /> Against their father, fool me not so much<br /> To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,<br /> And let not women's weapons, water-drops,<br /> Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,<br /> I will have such revenges on you both,<br /> That all the world shall--I will do such things,--<br /> What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be<br /> The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep<br /> No, I'll not weep:<br /> I have full cause of weeping; but this heart<br /> Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,<br /> Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!<br /><br /> Exeunt KING LEAR, GLOUCESTER, KENT, and Fool<br /><br /> Storm and tempest<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Let us withdraw; 'twill be a storm.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> This house is little: the old man and his people<br /> Cannot be well bestow'd.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> 'Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest,<br /> And must needs taste his folly.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> For his particular, I'll receive him gladly,<br /> But not one follower.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> So am I purposed.<br /> Where is my lord of Gloucester?<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Follow'd the old man forth: he is return'd.<br /><br /> Re-enter GLOUCESTER<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> The king is in high rage.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Whither is he going?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> He calls to horse; but will I know not whither.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> 'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> My lord, entreat him by no means to stay.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds<br /> Do sorely ruffle; for many miles a bout<br /> There's scarce a bush.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> O, sir, to wilful men,<br /> The injuries that they themselves procure<br /> Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors:<br /> He is attended with a desperate train;<br /> And what they may incense him to, being apt<br /> To have his ear abused, wisdom bids fear.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night:<br /> My Regan counsels well; come out o' the storm.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 442 ></span><span id = 443 ><br /><br />SCENE I. A heath.<br /><br /> Storm still. Enter KENT and a Gentleman, meeting <br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Who's there, besides foul weather?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> One minded like the weather, most unquietly.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> I know you. Where's the king?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Contending with the fretful element:<br /> Bids the winds blow the earth into the sea,<br /> Or swell the curled water 'bove the main,<br /> That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,<br /> Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,<br /> Catch in their fury, and make nothing of;<br /> Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn<br /> The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.<br /> This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,<br /> The lion and the belly-pinched wolf<br /> Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,<br /> And bids what will take all.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> But who is with him?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> None but the fool; who labours to out-jest<br /> His heart-struck injuries.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Sir, I do know you;<br /> And dare, upon the warrant of my note,<br /> Commend a dear thing to you. There is division,<br /> Although as yet the face of it be cover'd<br /> With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;<br /> Who have--as who have not, that their great stars<br /> Throned and set high?--servants, who seem no less,<br /> Which are to France the spies and speculations<br /> Intelligent of our state; what hath been seen,<br /> Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes,<br /> Or the hard rein which both of them have borne<br /> Against the old kind king; or something deeper,<br /> Whereof perchance these are but furnishings;<br /> But, true it is, from France there comes a power<br /> Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already,<br /> Wise in our negligence, have secret feet<br /> In some of our best ports, and are at point<br /> To show their open banner. Now to you:<br /> If on my credit you dare build so far<br /> To make your speed to Dover, you shall find<br /> Some that will thank you, making just report<br /> Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow<br /> The king hath cause to plain.<br /> I am a gentleman of blood and breeding;<br /> And, from some knowledge and assurance, offer<br /> This office to you.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> I will talk further with you.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> No, do not.<br /> For confirmation that I am much more<br /> Than my out-wall, open this purse, and take<br /> What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia,--<br /> As fear not but you shall,--show her this ring;<br /> And she will tell you who your fellow is<br /> That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm!<br /> I will go seek the king.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Give me your hand: have you no more to say?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet;<br /> That, when we have found the king,--in which your pain<br /> That way, I'll this,--he that first lights on him<br /> Holla the other.<br /><br /> Exeunt severally<br /></span><span id = 444 ><br /><br />SCENE II. Another part of the heath. Storm still.<br /><br /> Enter KING LEAR and Fool <br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!<br /> You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout<br /> Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!<br /> You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,<br /> Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,<br /> Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,<br /> Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!<br /> Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill at once,<br /> That make ingrateful man!<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry<br /> house is better than this rain-water out o' door.<br /> Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters' blessing:<br /> here's a night pities neither wise man nor fool.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain!<br /> Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:<br /> I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;<br /> I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children,<br /> You owe me no subscription: then let fall<br /> Your horrible pleasure: here I stand, your slave,<br /> A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man:<br /> But yet I call you servile ministers,<br /> That have with two pernicious daughters join'd<br /> Your high engender'd battles 'gainst a head<br /> So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul!<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> He that has a house to put's head in has a good<br /> head-piece.<br /> The cod-piece that will house<br /> Before the head has any,<br /> The head and he shall louse;<br /> So beggars marry many.<br /> The man that makes his toe<br /> What he his heart should make<br /> Shall of a corn cry woe,<br /> And turn his sleep to wake.<br /> For there was never yet fair woman but she made<br /> mouths in a glass.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> No, I will be the pattern of all patience;<br /> I will say nothing.<br /><br /> Enter KENT<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Who's there?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Marry, here's grace and a cod-piece; that's a wise<br /> man and a fool.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Alas, sir, are you here? things that love night<br /> Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies<br /> Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,<br /> And make them keep their caves: since I was man,<br /> Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,<br /> Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never<br /> Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot carry<br /> The affliction nor the fear.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Let the great gods,<br /> That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads,<br /> Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,<br /> That hast within thee undivulged crimes,<br /> Unwhipp'd of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand;<br /> Thou perjured, and thou simular man of virtue<br /> That art incestuous: caitiff, to pieces shake,<br /> That under covert and convenient seeming<br /> Hast practised on man's life: close pent-up guilts,<br /> Rive your concealing continents, and cry<br /> These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man<br /> More sinn'd against than sinning.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Alack, bare-headed!<br /> Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel;<br /> Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest:<br /> Repose you there; while I to this hard house--<br /> More harder than the stones whereof 'tis raised;<br /> Which even but now, demanding after you,<br /> Denied me to come in--return, and force<br /> Their scanted courtesy.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> My wits begin to turn.<br /> Come on, my boy: how dost, my boy? art cold?<br /> I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow?<br /> The art of our necessities is strange,<br /> That can make vile things precious. Come,<br /> your hovel.<br /> Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart<br /> That's sorry yet for thee.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> [Singing]<br /> He that has and a little tiny wit--<br /> With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,--<br /> Must make content with his fortunes fit,<br /> For the rain it raineth every day.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this hovel.<br /><br /> Exeunt KING LEAR and KENT<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> This is a brave night to cool a courtezan.<br /> I'll speak a prophecy ere I go:<br /> When priests are more in word than matter;<br /> When brewers mar their malt with water;<br /> When nobles are their tailors' tutors;<br /> No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;<br /> When every case in law is right;<br /> No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;<br /> When slanders do not live in tongues;<br /> Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;<br /> When usurers tell their gold i' the field;<br /> And bawds and whores do churches build;<br /> Then shall the realm of Albion<br /> Come to great confusion:<br /> Then comes the time, who lives to see't,<br /> That going shall be used with feet.<br /> This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time.<br /><br /> Exit<br /></span><span id = 448 ><br /><br />SCENE III. Gloucester's castle.<br /><br /> Enter GLOUCESTER and EDMUND <br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural<br /> dealing. When I desire their leave that I might<br /> pity him, they took from me the use of mine own<br /> house; charged me, on pain of their perpetual<br /> displeasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for<br /> him, nor any way sustain him.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Most savage and unnatural!<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Go to; say you nothing. There's a division betwixt<br /> the dukes; and a worse matter than that: I have<br /> received a letter this night; 'tis dangerous to be<br /> spoken; I have locked the letter in my closet:<br /> these injuries the king now bears will be revenged<br /> home; there's part of a power already footed: we<br /> must incline to the king. I will seek him, and<br /> privily relieve him: go you and maintain talk with<br /> the duke, that my charity be not of him perceived:<br /> if he ask for me. I am ill, and gone to bed.<br /> Though I die for it, as no less is threatened me,<br /> the king my old master must be relieved. There is<br /> some strange thing toward, Edmund; pray you, be careful.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke<br /> Instantly know; and of that letter too:<br /> This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me<br /> That which my father loses; no less than all:<br /> The younger rises when the old doth fall.<br /><br /> Exit<br /></span><span id = 449 ><br /><br />SCENE IV. The heath. Before a hovel.<br /><br /> Enter KING LEAR, KENT, and Fool <br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter:<br /> The tyranny of the open night's too rough<br /> For nature to endure.<br /><br /> Storm still<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Let me alone.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Good my lord, enter here.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Wilt break my heart?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm<br /> Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee;<br /> But where the greater malady is fix'd,<br /> The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'ldst shun a bear;<br /> But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,<br /> Thou'ldst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the<br /> mind's free,<br /> The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind<br /> Doth from my senses take all feeling else<br /> Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!<br /> Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand<br /> For lifting food to't? But I will punish home:<br /> No, I will weep no more. In such a night<br /> To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure.<br /> In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!<br /> Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all,--<br /> O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;<br /> No more of that.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Good my lord, enter here.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Prithee, go in thyself: seek thine own ease:<br /> This tempest will not give me leave to ponder<br /> On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in.<br /><br /> To the Fool<br /> In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty,--<br /> Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.<br /><br /> Fool goes in<br /> Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,<br /> That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,<br /> How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,<br /> Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you<br /> From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en<br /> Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;<br /> Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,<br /> That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,<br /> And show the heavens more just.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> [Within] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom!<br /><br /> The Fool runs out from the hovel<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit<br /> Help me, help me!<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Give me thy hand. Who's there?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> A spirit, a spirit: he says his name's poor Tom.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> What art thou that dost grumble there i' the straw?<br /> Come forth.<br /><br /> Enter EDGAR disguised as a mad man<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Away! the foul fiend follows me!<br /> Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.<br /> Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Hast thou given all to thy two daughters?<br /> And art thou come to this?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul<br /> fiend hath led through fire and through flame, and<br /> through ford and whirlipool e'er bog and quagmire;<br /> that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters<br /> in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made film<br /> proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over<br /> four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a<br /> traitor. Bless thy five wits! Tom's a-cold,--O, do<br /> de, do de, do de. Bless thee from whirlwinds,<br /> star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some<br /> charity, whom the foul fiend vexes: there could I<br /> have him now,--and there,--and there again, and there.<br /><br /> Storm still<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?<br /> Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all?<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air<br /> Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters!<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> He hath no daughters, sir.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Death, traitor! nothing could have subdued nature<br /> To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.<br /> Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers<br /> Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?<br /> Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot<br /> Those pelican daughters.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:<br /> Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy parents;<br /> keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with<br /> man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud<br /> array. Tom's a-cold.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> What hast thou been?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled<br /> my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of<br /> my mistress' heart, and did the act of darkness with<br /> her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and<br /> broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one that<br /> slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it:<br /> wine loved I deeply, dice dearly: and in woman<br /> out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of<br /> ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth,<br /> wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey.<br /> Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of<br /> silks betray thy poor heart to woman: keep thy foot<br /> out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen<br /> from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend.<br /> Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind:<br /> Says suum, mun, ha, no, nonny.<br /> Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let him trot by.<br /><br /> Storm still<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer<br /> with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies.<br /> Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou<br /> owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep<br /> no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three on<br /> 's are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself:<br /> unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor bare,<br /> forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings!<br /> come unbutton here.<br /><br /> Tearing off his clothes<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Prithee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis a naughty night<br /> to swim in. Now a little fire in a wild field were<br /> like an old lecher's heart; a small spark, all the<br /> rest on's body cold. Look, here comes a walking fire.<br /><br /> Enter GLOUCESTER, with a torch<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins<br /> at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives<br /> the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the<br /> hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the<br /> poor creature of earth.<br /> S. Withold footed thrice the old;<br /> He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;<br /> Bid her alight,<br /> And her troth plight,<br /> And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> How fares your grace?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> What's he?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Who's there? What is't you seek?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> What are you there? Your names?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad,<br /> the tadpole, the wall-newt and the water; that in<br /> the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages,<br /> eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat and<br /> the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the<br /> standing pool; who is whipped from tithing to<br /> tithing, and stock- punished, and imprisoned; who<br /> hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his<br /> body, horse to ride, and weapon to wear;<br /> But mice and rats, and such small deer,<br /> Have been Tom's food for seven long year.<br /> Beware my follower. Peace, Smulkin; peace, thou fiend!<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> What, hath your grace no better company?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> The prince of darkness is a gentleman:<br /> Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Our flesh and blood is grown so vile, my lord,<br /> That it doth hate what gets it.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Poor Tom's a-cold.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer<br /> To obey in all your daughters' hard commands:<br /> Though their injunction be to bar my doors,<br /> And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,<br /> Yet have I ventured to come seek you out,<br /> And bring you where both fire and food is ready.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> First let me talk with this philosopher.<br /> What is the cause of thunder?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Good my lord, take his offer; go into the house.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.<br /> What is your study?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> How to prevent the fiend, and to kill vermin.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Let me ask you one word in private.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Importune him once more to go, my lord;<br /> His wits begin to unsettle.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Canst thou blame him?<br /><br /> Storm still<br /> His daughters seek his death: ah, that good Kent!<br /> He said it would be thus, poor banish'd man!<br /> Thou say'st the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend,<br /> I am almost mad myself: I had a son,<br /> Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life,<br /> But lately, very late: I loved him, friend;<br /> No father his son dearer: truth to tell thee,<br /> The grief hath crazed my wits. What a night's this!<br /> I do beseech your grace,--<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> O, cry your mercy, sir.<br /> Noble philosopher, your company.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Tom's a-cold.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> In, fellow, there, into the hovel: keep thee warm.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Come let's in all.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> This way, my lord.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> With him;<br /> I will keep still with my philosopher.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Take him you on.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Sirrah, come on; go along with us.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Come, good Athenian.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> No words, no words: hush.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Child Rowland to the dark tower came,<br /> His word was still,--Fie, foh, and fum,<br /> I smell the blood of a British man.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 450 ><br /><br />SCENE V. Gloucester's castle.<br /><br /> Enter CORNWALL and EDMUND <br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> I will have my revenge ere I depart his house.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus<br /> gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think<br /> of.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> I now perceive, it was not altogether your<br /> brother's evil disposition made him seek his death;<br /> but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reprovable<br /> badness in himself.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to<br /> be just! This is the letter he spoke of, which<br /> approves him an intelligent party to the advantages<br /> of France: O heavens! that this treason were not,<br /> or not I the detector!<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> o with me to the duchess.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> If the matter of this paper be certain, you have<br /> mighty business in hand.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> True or false, it hath made thee earl of<br /> Gloucester. Seek out where thy father is, that he<br /> may be ready for our apprehension.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> [Aside] If I find him comforting the king, it will<br /> stuff his suspicion more fully.--I will persevere in<br /> my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore<br /> between that and my blood.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a<br /> dearer father in my love.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 451 ><br /><br />SCENE VI. A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle.<br /><br /> Enter GLOUCESTER, KING LEAR, KENT, Fool, and EDGAR <br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Here is better than the open air; take it<br /> thankfully. I will piece out the comfort with what<br /> addition I can: I will not be long from you.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> All the power of his wits have given way to his<br /> impatience: the gods reward your kindness!<br /><br /> Exit GLOUCESTER<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Frateretto calls me; and tells me<br /> Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness.<br /> Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a<br /> gentleman or a yeoman?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> A king, a king!<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son;<br /> for he's a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman<br /> before him.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> To have a thousand with red burning spits<br /> Come hissing in upon 'em,--<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> The foul fiend bites my back.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a<br /> horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> It shall be done; I will arraign them straight.<br /><br /> To EDGAR<br /> Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer;<br /><br /> To the Fool<br /> Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she foxes!<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Look, where he stands and glares!<br /> Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?<br /> Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me,--<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Her boat hath a leak,<br /> And she must not speak<br /> Why she dares not come over to thee.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a<br /> nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two<br /> white herring. Croak not, black angel; I have no<br /> food for thee.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> How do you, sir? Stand you not so amazed:<br /> Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> I'll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence.<br /><br /> To EDGAR<br /> Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;<br /><br /> To the Fool<br /> And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity,<br /> Bench by his side:<br /><br /> To KENT<br /> you are o' the commission,<br /> Sit you too.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Let us deal justly.<br /> Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?<br /> Thy sheep be in the corn;<br /> And for one blast of thy minikin mouth,<br /> Thy sheep shall take no harm.<br /> Pur! the cat is gray.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my<br /> oath before this honourable assembly, she kicked the<br /> poor king her father.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> She cannot deny it.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim<br /> What store her heart is made on. Stop her there!<br /> Arms, arms, sword, fire! Corruption in the place!<br /> False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Bless thy five wits!<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> O pity! Sir, where is the patience now,<br /> That thou so oft have boasted to retain?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> [Aside] My tears begin to take his part so much,<br /> They'll mar my counterfeiting.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and<br /> Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs!<br /> Be thy mouth or black or white,<br /> Tooth that poisons if it bite;<br /> Mastiff, grey-hound, mongrel grim,<br /> Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,<br /> Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail,<br /> Tom will make them weep and wail:<br /> For, with throwing thus my head,<br /> Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.<br /> Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and<br /> fairs and market-towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Then let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds<br /> about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that<br /> makes these hard hearts?<br /><br /> To EDGAR<br /> You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred; only I<br /> do not like the fashion of your garments: you will<br /> say they are Persian attire: but let them be changed.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains:<br /> so, so, so. We'll go to supper i' he morning. So, so, so.<br /><br />Fool<br /><br /> And I'll go to bed at noon.<br /><br /> Re-enter GLOUCESTER<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Come hither, friend: where is the king my master?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits are gone.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Good friend, I prithee, take him in thy arms;<br /> I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him:<br /> There is a litter ready; lay him in 't,<br /> And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet<br /> Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master:<br /> If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life,<br /> With thine, and all that offer to defend him,<br /> Stand in assured loss: take up, take up;<br /> And follow me, that will to some provision<br /> Give thee quick conduct.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Oppressed nature sleeps:<br /> This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses,<br /> Which, if convenience will not allow,<br /> Stand in hard cure.<br /><br /> To the Fool<br /> Come, help to bear thy master;<br /> Thou must not stay behind.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Come, come, away.<br /><br /> Exeunt all but EDGAR<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> When we our betters see bearing our woes,<br /> We scarcely think our miseries our foes.<br /> Who alone suffers suffers most i' the mind,<br /> Leaving free things and happy shows behind:<br /> But then the mind much sufferance doth o'er skip,<br /> When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.<br /> How light and portable my pain seems now,<br /> When that which makes me bend makes the king bow,<br /> He childed as I father'd! Tom, away!<br /> Mark the high noises; and thyself bewray,<br /> When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee,<br /> In thy just proof, repeals and reconciles thee.<br /> What will hap more to-night, safe 'scape the king!<br /> Lurk, lurk.<br /><br /> Exit<br /></span><span id = 453 ><br /><br />SCENE VII. Gloucester's castle.<br /><br /> Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GONERIL, EDMUND, and Servants <br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Post speedily to my lord your husband; show him<br /> this letter: the army of France is landed. Seek<br /> out the villain Gloucester.<br /><br /> Exeunt some of the Servants<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Hang him instantly.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Pluck out his eyes.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Leave him to my displeasure. Edmund, keep you our<br /> sister company: the revenges we are bound to take<br /> upon your traitorous father are not fit for your<br /> beholding. Advise the duke, where you are going, to<br /> a most festinate preparation: we are bound to the<br /> like. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent<br /> betwixt us. Farewell, dear sister: farewell, my<br /> lord of Gloucester.<br /><br /> Enter OSWALD<br /> How now! where's the king?<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> My lord of Gloucester hath convey'd him hence:<br /> Some five or six and thirty of his knights,<br /> Hot questrists after him, met him at gate;<br /> Who, with some other of the lords dependants,<br /> Are gone with him towards Dover; where they boast<br /> To have well-armed friends.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Get horses for your mistress.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Edmund, farewell.<br /><br /> Exeunt GONERIL, EDMUND, and OSWALD<br /> Go seek the traitor Gloucester,<br /> Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us.<br /><br /> Exeunt other Servants<br /> Though well we may not pass upon his life<br /> Without the form of justice, yet our power<br /> Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men<br /> May blame, but not control. Who's there? the traitor?<br /><br /> Enter GLOUCESTER, brought in by two or three<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Ingrateful fox! 'tis he.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Bind fast his corky arms.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> What mean your graces? Good my friends, consider<br /> You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Bind him, I say.<br /><br /> Servants bind him<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Hard, hard. O filthy traitor!<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Unmerciful lady as you are, I'm none.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> To this chair bind him. Villain, thou shalt find--<br /><br /> REGAN plucks his beard<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done<br /> To pluck me by the beard.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> So white, and such a traitor!<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Naughty lady,<br /> These hairs, which thou dost ravish from my chin,<br /> Will quicken, and accuse thee: I am your host:<br /> With robbers' hands my hospitable favours<br /> You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Come, sir, what letters had you late from France?<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Be simple answerer, for we know the truth.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> And what confederacy have you with the traitors<br /> Late footed in the kingdom?<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> To whose hands have you sent the lunatic king? Speak.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> I have a letter guessingly set down,<br /> Which came from one that's of a neutral heart,<br /> And not from one opposed.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Cunning.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> And false.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Where hast thou sent the king?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> To Dover.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not charged at peril--<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Wherefore to Dover, sir?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Because I would not see thy cruel nails<br /> Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister<br /> In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.<br /> The sea, with such a storm as his bare head<br /> In hell-black night endured, would have buoy'd up,<br /> And quench'd the stelled fires:<br /> Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain.<br /> If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time,<br /> Thou shouldst have said 'Good porter, turn the key,'<br /> All cruels else subscribed: but I shall see<br /> The winged vengeance overtake such children.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> See't shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair.<br /> Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> He that will think to live till he be old,<br /> Give me some help! O cruel! O you gods!<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> One side will mock another; the other too.<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> If you see vengeance,--<br /><br />First Servant<br /><br /> Hold your hand, my lord:<br /> I have served you ever since I was a child;<br /> But better service have I never done you<br /> Than now to bid you hold.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> How now, you dog!<br /><br />First Servant<br /><br /> If you did wear a beard upon your chin,<br /> I'd shake it on this quarrel. What do you mean?<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> My villain!<br /><br /> They draw and fight<br /><br />First Servant<br /><br /> Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of anger.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus!<br /><br /> Takes a sword, and runs at him behind<br /><br />First Servant<br /><br /> O, I am slain! My lord, you have one eye left<br /> To see some mischief on him. O!<br /><br /> Dies<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly!<br /> Where is thy lustre now?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> All dark and comfortless. Where's my son Edmund?<br /> Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature,<br /> To quit this horrid act.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Out, treacherous villain!<br /> Thou call'st on him that hates thee: it was he<br /> That made the overture of thy treasons to us;<br /> Who is too good to pity thee.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> O my follies! then Edgar was abused.<br /> Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell<br /> His way to Dover.<br /><br /> Exit one with GLOUCESTER<br /> How is't, my lord? how look you?<br /><br />CORNWALL<br /><br /> I have received a hurt: follow me, lady.<br /> Turn out that eyeless villain; throw this slave<br /> Upon the dunghill. Regan, I bleed apace:<br /> Untimely comes this hurt: give me your arm.<br /><br /> Exit CORNWALL, led by REGAN<br /><br />Second Servant<br /><br /> I'll never care what wickedness I do,<br /> If this man come to good.<br /><br />Third Servant<br /><br /> If she live long,<br /> And in the end meet the old course of death,<br /> Women will all turn monsters.<br /><br />Second Servant<br /><br /> Let's follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam<br /> To lead him where he would: his roguish madness<br /> Allows itself to any thing.<br /><br />Third Servant<br /><br /> Go thou: I'll fetch some flax and whites of eggs<br /> To apply to his bleeding face. Now, heaven help him!<br /><br /> Exeunt severally<br /></span><span id = 454 ></span><span id = 455 ><br /><br />SCENE I. The heath.<br /><br /> Enter EDGAR <br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd,<br /> Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst,<br /> The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,<br /> Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear:<br /> The lamentable change is from the best;<br /> The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then,<br /> Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace!<br /> The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst<br /> Owes nothing to thy blasts. But who comes here?<br /><br /> Enter GLOUCESTER, led by an Old Man<br /> My father, poorly led? World, world, O world!<br /> But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,<br /> Lie would not yield to age.<br /><br />Old Man<br /><br /> O, my good lord, I have been your tenant, and<br /> your father's tenant, these fourscore years.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone:<br /> Thy comforts can do me no good at all;<br /> Thee they may hurt.<br /><br />Old Man<br /><br /> Alack, sir, you cannot see your way.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;<br /> I stumbled when I saw: full oft 'tis seen,<br /> Our means secure us, and our mere defects<br /> Prove our commodities. O dear son Edgar,<br /> The food of thy abused father's wrath!<br /> Might I but live to see thee in my touch,<br /> I'ld say I had eyes again!<br /><br />Old Man<br /><br /> How now! Who's there?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> [Aside] O gods! Who is't can say 'I am at<br /> the worst'?<br /> I am worse than e'er I was.<br /><br />Old Man<br /><br /> 'Tis poor mad Tom.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> [Aside] And worse I may be yet: the worst is not<br /> So long as we can say 'This is the worst.'<br /><br />Old Man<br /><br /> Fellow, where goest?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Is it a beggar-man?<br /><br />Old Man<br /><br /> Madman and beggar too.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> He has some reason, else he could not beg.<br /> I' the last night's storm I such a fellow saw;<br /> Which made me think a man a worm: my son<br /> Came then into my mind; and yet my mind<br /> Was then scarce friends with him: I have heard<br /> more since.<br /> As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods.<br /> They kill us for their sport.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> [Aside] How should this be?<br /> Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow,<br /> Angering itself and others.--Bless thee, master!<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Is that the naked fellow?<br /><br />Old Man<br /><br /> Ay, my lord.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Then, prithee, get thee gone: if, for my sake,<br /> Thou wilt o'ertake us, hence a mile or twain,<br /> I' the way toward Dover, do it for ancient love;<br /> And bring some covering for this naked soul,<br /> Who I'll entreat to lead me.<br /><br />Old Man<br /><br /> Alack, sir, he is mad.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> 'Tis the times' plague, when madmen lead the blind.<br /> Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure;<br /> Above the rest, be gone.<br /><br />Old Man<br /><br /> I'll bring him the best 'parel that I have,<br /> Come on't what will.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Sirrah, naked fellow,--<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Poor Tom's a-cold.<br /><br /> Aside<br /> I cannot daub it further.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Come hither, fellow.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> [Aside] And yet I must.--Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Know'st thou the way to Dover?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path. Poor<br /> Tom hath been scared out of his good wits: bless<br /> thee, good man's son, from the foul fiend! five<br /> fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as<br /> Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of<br /> stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, of<br /> mopping and mowing, who since possesses chambermaids<br /> and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master!<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Here, take this purse, thou whom the heavens' plagues<br /> Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched<br /> Makes thee the happier: heavens, deal so still!<br /> Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man,<br /> That slaves your ordinance, that will not see<br /> Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly;<br /> So distribution should undo excess,<br /> And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Ay, master.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> There is a cliff, whose high and bending head<br /> Looks fearfully in the confined deep:<br /> Bring me but to the very brim of it,<br /> And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear<br /> With something rich about me: from that place<br /> I shall no leading need.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Give me thy arm:<br /> Poor Tom shall lead thee.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 456 ><br /><br />SCENE II. Before ALBANY's palace.<br /><br /> Enter GONERIL and EDMUND <br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Welcome, my lord: I marvel our mild husband<br /> Not met us on the way.<br /><br /> Enter OSWALD<br /> Now, where's your master'?<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Madam, within; but never man so changed.<br /> I told him of the army that was landed;<br /> He smiled at it: I told him you were coming:<br /> His answer was 'The worse:' of Gloucester's treachery,<br /> And of the loyal service of his son,<br /> When I inform'd him, then he call'd me sot,<br /> And told me I had turn'd the wrong side out:<br /> What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him;<br /> What like, offensive.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> [To EDMUND] Then shall you go no further.<br /> It is the cowish terror of his spirit,<br /> That dares not undertake: he'll not feel wrongs<br /> Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way<br /> May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother;<br /> Hasten his musters and conduct his powers:<br /> I must change arms at home, and give the distaff<br /> Into my husband's hands. This trusty servant<br /> Shall pass between us: ere long you are like to hear,<br /> If you dare venture in your own behalf,<br /> A mistress's command. Wear this; spare speech;<br /><br /> Giving a favour<br /> Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak,<br /> Would stretch thy spirits up into the air:<br /> Conceive, and fare thee well.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Yours in the ranks of death.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> My most dear Gloucester!<br /><br /> Exit EDMUND<br /> O, the difference of man and man!<br /> To thee a woman's services are due:<br /> My fool usurps my body.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Madam, here comes my lord.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br /> Enter ALBANY<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> I have been worth the whistle.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> O Goneril!<br /> You are not worth the dust which the rude wind<br /> Blows in your face. I fear your disposition:<br /> That nature, which contemns its origin,<br /> Cannot be border'd certain in itself;<br /> She that herself will sliver and disbranch<br /> From her material sap, perforce must wither<br /> And come to deadly use.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> No more; the text is foolish.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile:<br /> Filths savour but themselves. What have you done?<br /> Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd?<br /> A father, and a gracious aged man,<br /> Whose reverence even the head-lugg'd bear would lick,<br /> Most barbarous, most degenerate! have you madded.<br /> Could my good brother suffer you to do it?<br /> A man, a prince, by him so benefited!<br /> If that the heavens do not their visible spirits<br /> Send quickly down to tame these vile offences,<br /> It will come,<br /> Humanity must perforce prey on itself,<br /> Like monsters of the deep.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Milk-liver'd man!<br /> That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;<br /> Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning<br /> Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know'st<br /> Fools do those villains pity who are punish'd<br /> Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum?<br /> France spreads his banners in our noiseless land;<br /> With plumed helm thy slayer begins threats;<br /> Whiles thou, a moral fool, sit'st still, and criest<br /> 'Alack, why does he so?'<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> See thyself, devil!<br /> Proper deformity seems not in the fiend<br /> So horrid as in woman.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> O vain fool!<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame,<br /> Be-monster not thy feature. Were't my fitness<br /> To let these hands obey my blood,<br /> They are apt enough to dislocate and tear<br /> Thy flesh and bones: howe'er thou art a fiend,<br /> A woman's shape doth shield thee.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Marry, your manhood now--<br /><br /> Enter a Messenger<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> What news?<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall's dead:<br /> Slain by his servant, going to put out<br /> The other eye of Gloucester.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Gloucester's eye!<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> A servant that he bred, thrill'd with remorse,<br /> Opposed against the act, bending his sword<br /> To his great master; who, thereat enraged,<br /> Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead;<br /> But not without that harmful stroke, which since<br /> Hath pluck'd him after.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> This shows you are above,<br /> You justicers, that these our nether crimes<br /> So speedily can venge! But, O poor Gloucester!<br /> Lost he his other eye?<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> Both, both, my lord.<br /> This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer;<br /> 'Tis from your sister.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> [Aside] One way I like this well;<br /> But being widow, and my Gloucester with her,<br /> May all the building in my fancy pluck<br /> Upon my hateful life: another way,<br /> The news is not so tart.--I'll read, and answer.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Where was his son when they did take his eyes?<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> Come with my lady hither.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> He is not here.<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> No, my good lord; I met him back again.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Knows he the wickedness?<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> Ay, my good lord; 'twas he inform'd against him;<br /> And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment<br /> Might have the freer course.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Gloucester, I live<br /> To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king,<br /> And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend:<br /> Tell me what more thou know'st.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 461 ><br /><br />SCENE III. The French camp near Dover.<br /><br /> Enter KENT and a Gentleman <br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back<br /> know you the reason?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Something he left imperfect in the<br /> state, which since his coming forth is thought<br /> of; which imports to the kingdom so much<br /> fear and danger, that his personal return was<br /> most required and necessary.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Who hath he left behind him general?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> The Marshal of France, Monsieur La Far.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Did your letters pierce the queen to any<br /> demonstration of grief?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence;<br /> And now and then an ample tear trill'd down<br /> Her delicate cheek: it seem'd she was a queen<br /> Over her passion; who, most rebel-like,<br /> Sought to be king o'er her.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> O, then it moved her.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Not to a rage: patience and sorrow strove<br /> Who should express her goodliest. You have seen<br /> Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears<br /> Were like a better way: those happy smilets,<br /> That play'd on her ripe lip, seem'd not to know<br /> What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence,<br /> As pearls from diamonds dropp'd. In brief,<br /> Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved,<br /> If all could so become it.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Made she no verbal question?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> 'Faith, once or twice she heaved the name of 'father'<br /> Pantingly forth, as if it press'd her heart:<br /> Cried 'Sisters! sisters! Shame of ladies! sisters!<br /> Kent! father! sisters! What, i' the storm? i' the night?<br /> Let pity not be believed!' There she shook<br /> The holy water from her heavenly eyes,<br /> And clamour moisten'd: then away she started<br /> To deal with grief alone.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> It is the stars,<br /> The stars above us, govern our conditions;<br /> Else one self mate and mate could not beget<br /> Such different issues. You spoke not with her since?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> No.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Was this before the king return'd?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> No, since.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Well, sir, the poor distressed Lear's i' the town;<br /> Who sometime, in his better tune, remembers<br /> What we are come about, and by no means<br /> Will yield to see his daughter.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Why, good sir?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> A sovereign shame so elbows him: his own unkindness,<br /> That stripp'd her from his benediction, turn'd her<br /> To foreign casualties, gave her dear rights<br /> To his dog-hearted daughters, these things sting<br /> His mind so venomously, that burning shame<br /> Detains him from Cordelia.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Alack, poor gentleman!<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard not?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> 'Tis so, they are afoot.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Well, sir, I'll bring you to our master Lear,<br /> And leave you to attend him: some dear cause<br /> Will in concealment wrap me up awhile;<br /> When I am known aright, you shall not grieve<br /> Lending me this acquaintance. I pray you, go<br /> Along with me.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 465 ><br /><br />SCENE IV. The same. A tent.<br /><br /> Enter, with drum and colours, CORDELIA, Doctor, and Soldiers <br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Alack, 'tis he: why, he was met even now<br /> As mad as the vex'd sea; singing aloud;<br /> Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds,<br /> With bur-docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,<br /> Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow<br /> In our sustaining corn. A century send forth;<br /> Search every acre in the high-grown field,<br /> And bring him to our eye.<br /><br /> Exit an Officer<br /> What can man's wisdom<br /> In the restoring his bereaved sense?<br /> He that helps him take all my outward worth.<br /><br />Doctor<br /><br /> There is means, madam:<br /> Our foster-nurse of nature is repose,<br /> The which he lacks; that to provoke in him,<br /> Are many simples operative, whose power<br /> Will close the eye of anguish.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> All blest secrets,<br /> All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth,<br /> Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate<br /> In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him;<br /> Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life<br /> That wants the means to lead it.<br /><br /> Enter a Messenger<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> News, madam;<br /> The British powers are marching hitherward.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> 'Tis known before; our preparation stands<br /> In expectation of them. O dear father,<br /> It is thy business that I go about;<br /> Therefore great France<br /> My mourning and important tears hath pitied.<br /> No blown ambition doth our arms incite,<br /> But love, dear love, and our aged father's right:<br /> Soon may I hear and see him!<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 467 ><br /><br />SCENE V. Gloucester's castle.<br /><br /> Enter REGAN and OSWALD <br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> But are my brother's powers set forth?<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Ay, madam.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Himself in person there?<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Madam, with much ado:<br /> Your sister is the better soldier.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home?<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> No, madam.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> What might import my sister's letter to him?<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> I know not, lady.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> 'Faith, he is posted hence on serious matter.<br /> It was great ignorance, Gloucester's eyes being out,<br /> To let him live: where he arrives he moves<br /> All hearts against us: Edmund, I think, is gone,<br /> In pity of his misery, to dispatch<br /> His nighted life: moreover, to descry<br /> The strength o' the enemy.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> I must needs after him, madam, with my letter.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Our troops set forth to-morrow: stay with us;<br /> The ways are dangerous.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> I may not, madam:<br /> My lady charged my duty in this business.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you<br /> Transport her purposes by word? Belike,<br /> Something--I know not what: I'll love thee much,<br /> Let me unseal the letter.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Madam, I had rather--<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> I know your lady does not love her husband;<br /> I am sure of that: and at her late being here<br /> She gave strange oeillades and most speaking looks<br /> To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> I, madam?<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> I speak in understanding; you are; I know't:<br /> Therefore I do advise you, take this note:<br /> My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd;<br /> And more convenient is he for my hand<br /> Than for your lady's: you may gather more.<br /> If you do find him, pray you, give him this;<br /> And when your mistress hears thus much from you,<br /> I pray, desire her call her wisdom to her.<br /> So, fare you well.<br /> If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,<br /> Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Would I could meet him, madam! I should show<br /> What party I do follow.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Fare thee well.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 468 ><br /><br />SCENE VI. Fields near Dover.<br /><br /> Enter GLOUCESTER, and EDGAR dressed like a peasant <br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> When shall we come to the top of that same hill?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> You do climb up it now: look, how we labour.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Methinks the ground is even.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Horrible steep.<br /> Hark, do you hear the sea?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> No, truly.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect<br /> By your eyes' anguish.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> So may it be, indeed:<br /> Methinks thy voice is alter'd; and thou speak'st<br /> In better phrase and matter than thou didst.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> You're much deceived: in nothing am I changed<br /> But in my garments.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Methinks you're better spoken.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Come on, sir; here's the place: stand still. How fearful<br /> And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low!<br /> The crows and choughs that wing the midway air<br /> Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down<br /> Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!<br /> Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:<br /> The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,<br /> Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,<br /> Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy<br /> Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge,<br /> That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,<br /> Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more;<br /> Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight<br /> Topple down headlong.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Set me where you stand.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Give me your hand: you are now within a foot<br /> Of the extreme verge: for all beneath the moon<br /> Would I not leap upright.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Let go my hand.<br /> Here, friend, 's another purse; in it a jewel<br /> Well worth a poor man's taking: fairies and gods<br /> Prosper it with thee! Go thou farther off;<br /> Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Now fare you well, good sir.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> With all my heart.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Why I do trifle thus with his despair<br /> Is done to cure it.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> [Kneeling] O you mighty gods!<br /> This world I do renounce, and, in your sights,<br /> Shake patiently my great affliction off:<br /> If I could bear it longer, and not fall<br /> To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,<br /> My snuff and loathed part of nature should<br /> Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!<br /> Now, fellow, fare thee well.<br /><br /> He falls forward<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Gone, sir: farewell.<br /> And yet I know not how conceit may rob<br /> The treasury of life, when life itself<br /> Yields to the theft: had he been where he thought,<br /> By this, had thought been past. Alive or dead?<br /> Ho, you sir! friend! Hear you, sir! speak!<br /> Thus might he pass indeed: yet he revives.<br /> What are you, sir?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Away, and let me die.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,<br /> So many fathom down precipitating,<br /> Thou'dst shiver'd like an egg: but thou dost breathe;<br /> Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound.<br /> Ten masts at each make not the altitude<br /> Which thou hast perpendicularly fell:<br /> Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> But have I fall'n, or no?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.<br /> Look up a-height; the shrill-gorged lark so far<br /> Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Alack, I have no eyes.<br /> Is wretchedness deprived that benefit,<br /> To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort,<br /> When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage,<br /> And frustrate his proud will.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Give me your arm:<br /> Up: so. How is 't? Feel you your legs? You stand.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Too well, too well.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> This is above all strangeness.<br /> Upon the crown o' the cliff, what thing was that<br /> Which parted from you?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> A poor unfortunate beggar.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> As I stood here below, methought his eyes<br /> Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses,<br /> Horns whelk'd and waved like the enridged sea:<br /> It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father,<br /> Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours<br /> Of men's impossibilities, have preserved thee.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear<br /> Affliction till it do cry out itself<br /> 'Enough, enough,' and die. That thing you speak of,<br /> I took it for a man; often 'twould say<br /> 'The fiend, the fiend:' he led me to that place.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Bear free and patient thoughts. But who comes here?<br /><br /> Enter KING LEAR, fantastically dressed with wild flowers<br /> The safer sense will ne'er accommodate<br /> His master thus.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> No, they cannot touch me for coining; I am the<br /> king himself.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> O thou side-piercing sight!<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Nature's above art in that respect. There's your<br /> press-money. That fellow handles his bow like a<br /> crow-keeper: draw me a clothier's yard. Look,<br /> look, a mouse! Peace, peace; this piece of toasted<br /> cheese will do 't. There's my gauntlet; I'll prove<br /> it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O, well<br /> flown, bird! i' the clout, i' the clout: hewgh!<br /> Give the word.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Sweet marjoram.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Pass.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> I know that voice.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Ha! Goneril, with a white beard! They flattered<br /> me like a dog; and told me I had white hairs in my<br /> beard ere the black ones were there. To say 'ay'<br /> and 'no' to every thing that I said!--'Ay' and 'no'<br /> too was no good divinity. When the rain came to<br /> wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter; when<br /> the thunder would not peace at my bidding; there I<br /> found 'em, there I smelt 'em out. Go to, they are<br /> not men o' their words: they told me I was every<br /> thing; 'tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> The trick of that voice I do well remember:<br /> Is 't not the king?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Ay, every inch a king:<br /> When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.<br /> I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause? Adultery?<br /> Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No:<br /> The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly<br /> Does lecher in my sight.<br /> Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son<br /> Was kinder to his father than my daughters<br /> Got 'tween the lawful sheets.<br /> To 't, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers.<br /> Behold yond simpering dame,<br /> Whose face between her forks presages snow;<br /> That minces virtue, and does shake the head<br /> To hear of pleasure's name;<br /> The fitchew, nor the soiled horse, goes to 't<br /> With a more riotous appetite.<br /> Down from the waist they are Centaurs,<br /> Though women all above:<br /> But to the girdle do the gods inherit,<br /> Beneath is all the fiends';<br /> There's hell, there's darkness, there's the<br /> sulphurous pit,<br /> Burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie,<br /> fie, fie! pah, pah! Give me an ounce of civet,<br /> good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination:<br /> there's money for thee.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> O, let me kiss that hand!<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world<br /> Shall so wear out to nought. Dost thou know me?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny<br /> at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid! I'll not<br /> love. Read thou this challenge; mark but the<br /> penning of it.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Were all the letters suns, I could not see one.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> I would not take this from report; it is,<br /> And my heart breaks at it.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Read.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> What, with the case of eyes?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your<br /> head, nor no money in your purse? Your eyes are in<br /> a heavy case, your purse in a light; yet you see how<br /> this world goes.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> I see it feelingly.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes<br /> with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond<br /> justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in<br /> thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which<br /> is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen<br /> a farmer's dog bark at a beggar?<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Ay, sir.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> And the creature run from the cur? There thou<br /> mightst behold the great image of authority: a<br /> dog's obeyed in office.<br /> Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand!<br /> Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back;<br /> Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind<br /> For which thou whipp'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener.<br /> Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear;<br /> Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,<br /> And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks:<br /> Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it.<br /> None does offend, none, I say, none; I'll able 'em:<br /> Take that of me, my friend, who have the power<br /> To seal the accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes;<br /> And like a scurvy politician, seem<br /> To see the things thou dost not. Now, now, now, now:<br /> Pull off my boots: harder, harder: so.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> O, matter and impertinency mix'd! Reason in madness!<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes.<br /> I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester:<br /> Thou must be patient; we came crying hither:<br /> Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air,<br /> We wawl and cry. I will preach to thee: mark.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Alack, alack the day!<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> When we are born, we cry that we are come<br /> To this great stage of fools: this a good block;<br /> It were a delicate stratagem, to shoe<br /> A troop of horse with felt: I'll put 't in proof;<br /> And when I have stol'n upon these sons-in-law,<br /> Then, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!<br /><br /> Enter a Gentleman, with Attendants<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> O, here he is: lay hand upon him. Sir,<br /> Your most dear daughter--<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even<br /> The natural fool of fortune. Use me well;<br /> You shall have ransom. Let me have surgeons;<br /> I am cut to the brains.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> You shall have any thing.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> No seconds? all myself?<br /> Why, this would make a man a man of salt,<br /> To use his eyes for garden water-pots,<br /> Ay, and laying autumn's dust.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Good sir,--<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> I will die bravely, like a bridegroom. What!<br /> I will be jovial: come, come; I am a king,<br /> My masters, know you that.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> You are a royal one, and we obey you.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Then there's life in't. Nay, if you get it, you<br /> shall get it with running. Sa, sa, sa, sa.<br /><br /> Exit running; Attendants follow<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch,<br /> Past speaking of in a king! Thou hast one daughter,<br /> Who redeems nature from the general curse<br /> Which twain have brought her to.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Hail, gentle sir.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Sir, speed you: what's your will?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Most sure and vulgar: every one hears that,<br /> Which can distinguish sound.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> But, by your favour,<br /> How near's the other army?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Near and on speedy foot; the main descry<br /> Stands on the hourly thought.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> I thank you, sir: that's all.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Though that the queen on special cause is here,<br /> Her army is moved on.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> I thank you, sir.<br /><br /> Exit Gentleman<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me:<br /> Let not my worser spirit tempt me again<br /> To die before you please!<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Well pray you, father.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Now, good sir, what are you?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows;<br /> Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows,<br /> Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand,<br /> I'll lead you to some biding.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Hearty thanks:<br /> The bounty and the benison of heaven<br /> To boot, and boot!<br /><br /> Enter OSWALD<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> A proclaim'd prize! Most happy!<br /> That eyeless head of thine was first framed flesh<br /> To raise my fortunes. Thou old unhappy traitor,<br /> Briefly thyself remember: the sword is out<br /> That must destroy thee.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Now let thy friendly hand<br /> Put strength enough to't.<br /><br /> EDGAR interposes<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Wherefore, bold peasant,<br /> Darest thou support a publish'd traitor? Hence;<br /> Lest that the infection of his fortune take<br /> Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Ch'ill not let go, zir, without vurther 'casion.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Let go, slave, or thou diest!<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor volk<br /> pass. An chud ha' bin zwaggered out of my life,<br /> 'twould not ha' bin zo long as 'tis by a vortnight.<br /> Nay, come not near th' old man; keep out, che vor<br /> ye, or ise try whether your costard or my ballow be<br /> the harder: ch'ill be plain with you.<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Out, dunghill!<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Ch'ill pick your teeth, zir: come; no matter vor<br /> your foins.<br /><br /> They fight, and EDGAR knocks him down<br /><br />OSWALD<br /><br /> Slave, thou hast slain me: villain, take my purse:<br /> If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body;<br /> And give the letters which thou find'st about me<br /> To Edmund earl of Gloucester; seek him out<br /> Upon the British party: O, untimely death!<br /><br /> Dies<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> I know thee well: a serviceable villain;<br /> As duteous to the vices of thy mistress<br /> As badness would desire.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> What, is he dead?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Sit you down, father; rest you<br /> Let's see these pockets: the letters that he speaks of<br /> May be my friends. He's dead; I am only sorry<br /> He had no other death's-man. Let us see:<br /> Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not:<br /> To know our enemies' minds, we'ld rip their hearts;<br /> Their papers, is more lawful.<br /><br /> Reads<br /> 'Let our reciprocal vows be remembered. You have<br /> many opportunities to cut him off: if your will<br /> want not, time and place will be fruitfully offered.<br /> There is nothing done, if he return the conqueror:<br /> then am I the prisoner, and his bed my goal; from<br /> the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply<br /> the place for your labour.<br /> 'Your--wife, so I would say--<br /> 'Affectionate servant,<br /> 'GONERIL.'<br /> O undistinguish'd space of woman's will!<br /> A plot upon her virtuous husband's life;<br /> And the exchange my brother! Here, in the sands,<br /> Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified<br /> Of murderous lechers: and in the mature time<br /> With this ungracious paper strike the sight<br /> Of the death practised duke: for him 'tis well<br /> That of thy death and business I can tell.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> The king is mad: how stiff is my vile sense,<br /> That I stand up, and have ingenious feeling<br /> Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract:<br /> So should my thoughts be sever'd from my griefs,<br /> And woes by wrong imaginations lose<br /> The knowledge of themselves.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Give me your hand:<br /><br /> Drum afar off<br /> Far off, methinks, I hear the beaten drum:<br /> Come, father, I'll bestow you with a friend.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 469 ><br /><br />SCENE VII. A tent in the French camp. LEAR on a bed asleep,<br /><br /> soft music playing; Gentleman, and others attending.<br /><br /> Enter CORDELIA, KENT, and Doctor<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work,<br /> To match thy goodness? My life will be too short,<br /> And every measure fail me.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> To be acknowledged, madam, is o'erpaid.<br /> All my reports go with the modest truth;<br /> Nor more nor clipp'd, but so.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Be better suited:<br /> These weeds are memories of those worser hours:<br /> I prithee, put them off.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Pardon me, dear madam;<br /> Yet to be known shortens my made intent:<br /> My boon I make it, that you know me not<br /> Till time and I think meet.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Then be't so, my good lord.<br /><br /> To the Doctor<br /> How does the king?<br /><br />Doctor<br /><br /> Madam, sleeps still.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> O you kind gods,<br /> Cure this great breach in his abused nature!<br /> The untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up<br /> Of this child-changed father!<br /><br />Doctor<br /><br /> So please your majesty<br /> That we may wake the king: he hath slept long.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Be govern'd by your knowledge, and proceed<br /> I' the sway of your own will. Is he array'd?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Ay, madam; in the heaviness of his sleep<br /> We put fresh garments on him.<br /><br />Doctor<br /><br /> Be by, good madam, when we do awake him;<br /> I doubt not of his temperance.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Very well.<br /><br />Doctor<br /><br /> Please you, draw near. Louder the music there!<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> O my dear father! Restoration hang<br /> Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss<br /> Repair those violent harms that my two sisters<br /> Have in thy reverence made!<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Kind and dear princess!<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Had you not been their father, these white flakes<br /> Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face<br /> To be opposed against the warring winds?<br /> To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?<br /> In the most terrible and nimble stroke<br /> Of quick, cross lightning? to watch--poor perdu!--<br /> With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog,<br /> Though he had bit me, should have stood that night<br /> Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father,<br /> To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn,<br /> In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!<br /> 'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once<br /> Had not concluded all. He wakes; speak to him.<br /><br />Doctor<br /><br /> Madam, do you; 'tis fittest.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave:<br /> Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound<br /> Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears<br /> Do scald like moulten lead.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Sir, do you know me?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> You are a spirit, I know: when did you die?<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Still, still, far wide!<br /><br />Doctor<br /><br /> He's scarce awake: let him alone awhile.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight?<br /> I am mightily abused. I should e'en die with pity,<br /> To see another thus. I know not what to say.<br /> I will not swear these are my hands: let's see;<br /> I feel this pin prick. Would I were assured<br /> Of my condition!<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> O, look upon me, sir,<br /> And hold your hands in benediction o'er me:<br /> No, sir, you must not kneel.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Pray, do not mock me:<br /> I am a very foolish fond old man,<br /> Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;<br /> And, to deal plainly,<br /> I fear I am not in my perfect mind.<br /> Methinks I should know you, and know this man;<br /> Yet I am doubtful for I am mainly ignorant<br /> What place this is; and all the skill I have<br /> Remembers not these garments; nor I know not<br /> Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me;<br /> For, as I am a man, I think this lady<br /> To be my child Cordelia.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> And so I am, I am.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Be your tears wet? yes, 'faith. I pray, weep not:<br /> If you have poison for me, I will drink it.<br /> I know you do not love me; for your sisters<br /> Have, as I do remember, done me wrong:<br /> You have some cause, they have not.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> No cause, no cause.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Am I in France?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> In your own kingdom, sir.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Do not abuse me.<br /><br />Doctor<br /><br /> Be comforted, good madam: the great rage,<br /> You see, is kill'd in him: and yet it is danger<br /> To make him even o'er the time he has lost.<br /> Desire him to go in; trouble him no more<br /> Till further settling.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> Will't please your highness walk?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> You must bear with me:<br /> Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old and foolish.<br /><br /> Exeunt all but KENT and Gentleman<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Holds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so slain?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Most certain, sir.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Who is conductor of his people?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> As 'tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> They say Edgar, his banished son, is with the Earl<br /> of Kent in Germany.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Report is changeable. 'Tis time to look about; the<br /> powers of the kingdom approach apace.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> The arbitrement is like to be bloody. Fare you<br /> well, sir.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> My point and period will be throughly wrought,<br /> Or well or ill, as this day's battle's fought.<br /><br /> Exit<br /></span><span id = 472 ></span><span id = 473 ><br /><br />SCENE I. The British camp, near Dover.<br /><br /> Enter, with drum and colours, EDMUND, REGAN, Gentlemen, and Soldiers. <br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Know of the duke if his last purpose hold,<br /> Or whether since he is advised by aught<br /> To change the course: he's full of alteration<br /> And self-reproving: bring his constant pleasure.<br /><br /> To a Gentleman, who goes out<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Our sister's man is certainly miscarried.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> 'Tis to be doubted, madam.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Now, sweet lord,<br /> You know the goodness I intend upon you:<br /> Tell me--but truly--but then speak the truth,<br /> Do you not love my sister?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> In honour'd love.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> But have you never found my brother's way<br /> To the forfended place?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> That thought abuses you.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> I am doubtful that you have been conjunct<br /> And bosom'd with her, as far as we call hers.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> No, by mine honour, madam.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> I never shall endure her: dear my lord,<br /> Be not familiar with her.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Fear me not:<br /> She and the duke her husband!<br /><br /> Enter, with drum and colours, ALBANY, GONERIL, and Soldiers<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> [Aside] I had rather lose the battle than that sister<br /> Should loosen him and me.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Our very loving sister, well be-met.<br /> Sir, this I hear; the king is come to his daughter,<br /> With others whom the rigor of our state<br /> Forced to cry out. Where I could not be honest,<br /> I never yet was valiant: for this business,<br /> It toucheth us, as France invades our land,<br /> Not bolds the king, with others, whom, I fear,<br /> Most just and heavy causes make oppose.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Sir, you speak nobly.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Why is this reason'd?<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Combine together 'gainst the enemy;<br /> For these domestic and particular broils<br /> Are not the question here.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Let's then determine<br /> With the ancient of war on our proceedings.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> I shall attend you presently at your tent.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Sister, you'll go with us?<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> No.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> 'Tis most convenient; pray you, go with us.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> [Aside] O, ho, I know the riddle.--I will go.<br /><br /> As they are going out, enter EDGAR disguised<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> If e'er your grace had speech with man so poor,<br /> Hear me one word.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> I'll overtake you. Speak.<br /><br /> Exeunt all but ALBANY and EDGAR<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Before you fight the battle, ope this letter.<br /> If you have victory, let the trumpet sound<br /> For him that brought it: wretched though I seem,<br /> I can produce a champion that will prove<br /> What is avouched there. If you miscarry,<br /> Your business of the world hath so an end,<br /> And machination ceases. Fortune love you.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Stay till I have read the letter.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> I was forbid it.<br /> When time shall serve, let but the herald cry,<br /> And I'll appear again.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Why, fare thee well: I will o'erlook thy paper.<br /><br /> Exit EDGAR<br /><br /> Re-enter EDMUND<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> The enemy's in view; draw up your powers.<br /> Here is the guess of their true strength and forces<br /> By diligent discovery; but your haste<br /> Is now urged on you.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> We will greet the time.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> To both these sisters have I sworn my love;<br /> Each jealous of the other, as the stung<br /> Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take?<br /> Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd,<br /> If both remain alive: to take the widow<br /> Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril;<br /> And hardly shall I carry out my side,<br /> Her husband being alive. Now then we'll use<br /> His countenance for the battle; which being done,<br /> Let her who would be rid of him devise<br /> His speedy taking off. As for the mercy<br /> Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia,<br /> The battle done, and they within our power,<br /> Shall never see his pardon; for my state<br /> Stands on me to defend, not to debate.<br /><br /> Exit<br /></span><span id = 474 ><br /><br />SCENE II. A field between the two camps.<br /><br /> Alarum within. Enter, with drum and colours, KING LEAR, CORDELIA, and Soldiers, over the stage; and exeunt <br /><br /> Enter EDGAR and GLOUCESTER <br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Here, father, take the shadow of this tree<br /> For your good host; pray that the right may thrive:<br /> If ever I return to you again,<br /> I'll bring you comfort.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> Grace go with you, sir!<br /><br /> Exit EDGAR<br /><br /> Alarum and retreat within. Re-enter EDGAR<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Away, old man; give me thy hand; away!<br /> King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en:<br /> Give me thy hand; come on.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> No farther, sir; a man may rot even here.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure<br /> Their going hence, even as their coming hither;<br /> Ripeness is all: come on.<br /><br />GLOUCESTER<br /><br /> And that's true too.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /></span><span id = 481 ><br /><br />SCENE III. The British camp near Dover.<br /><br /> Enter, in conquest, with drum and colours, EDMUND, KING LEAR and CORDELIA, prisoners; Captain, Soldiers, & c <br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Some officers take them away: good guard,<br /> Until their greater pleasures first be known<br /> That are to censure them.<br /><br />CORDELIA<br /><br /> We are not the first<br /> Who, with best meaning, have incurr'd the worst.<br /> For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down;<br /> Myself could else out-frown false fortune's frown.<br /> Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison:<br /> We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:<br /> When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,<br /> And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,<br /> And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh<br /> At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues<br /> Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,<br /> Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;<br /> And take upon's the mystery of things,<br /> As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out,<br /> In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones,<br /> That ebb and flow by the moon.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Take them away.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,<br /> The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee?<br /> He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven,<br /> And fire us hence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes;<br /> The good-years shall devour them, flesh and fell,<br /> Ere they shall make us weep: we'll see 'em starve<br /> first. Come.<br /><br /> Exeunt KING LEAR and CORDELIA, guarded<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Come hither, captain; hark.<br /> Take thou this note;<br /><br /> Giving a paper<br /> go follow them to prison:<br /> One step I have advanced thee; if thou dost<br /> As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way<br /> To noble fortunes: know thou this, that men<br /> Are as the time is: to be tender-minded<br /> Does not become a sword: thy great employment<br /> Will not bear question; either say thou'lt do 't,<br /> Or thrive by other means.<br /><br />Captain<br /><br /> I'll do 't, my lord.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> About it; and write happy when thou hast done.<br /> Mark, I say, instantly; and carry it so<br /> As I have set it down.<br /><br />Captain<br /><br /> I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats;<br /> If it be man's work, I'll do 't.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br /> Flourish. Enter ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, another Captain, and Soldiers<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain,<br /> And fortune led you well: you have the captives<br /> That were the opposites of this day's strife:<br /> We do require them of you, so to use them<br /> As we shall find their merits and our safety<br /> May equally determine.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Sir, I thought it fit<br /> To send the old and miserable king<br /> To some retention and appointed guard;<br /> Whose age has charms in it, whose title more,<br /> To pluck the common bosom on his side,<br /> An turn our impress'd lances in our eyes<br /> Which do command them. With him I sent the queen;<br /> My reason all the same; and they are ready<br /> To-morrow, or at further space, to appear<br /> Where you shall hold your session. At this time<br /> We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend;<br /> And the best quarrels, in the heat, are cursed<br /> By those that feel their sharpness:<br /> The question of Cordelia and her father<br /> Requires a fitter place.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Sir, by your patience,<br /> I hold you but a subject of this war,<br /> Not as a brother.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> That's as we list to grace him.<br /> Methinks our pleasure might have been demanded,<br /> Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers;<br /> Bore the commission of my place and person;<br /> The which immediacy may well stand up,<br /> And call itself your brother.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Not so hot:<br /> In his own grace he doth exalt himself,<br /> More than in your addition.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> In my rights,<br /> By me invested, he compeers the best.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> That were the most, if he should husband you.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Jesters do oft prove prophets.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Holla, holla!<br /> That eye that told you so look'd but a-squint.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Lady, I am not well; else I should answer<br /> From a full-flowing stomach. General,<br /> Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony;<br /> Dispose of them, of me; the walls are thine:<br /> Witness the world, that I create thee here<br /> My lord and master.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Mean you to enjoy him?<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> The let-alone lies not in your good will.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Nor in thine, lord.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Half-blooded fellow, yes.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> [To EDMUND] Let the drum strike, and prove my title thine.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Stay yet; hear reason. Edmund, I arrest thee<br /> On capital treason; and, in thine attaint,<br /> This gilded serpent<br /><br /> Pointing to Goneril<br /> For your claim, fair sister,<br /> I bar it in the interest of my wife:<br /> 'Tis she is sub-contracted to this lord,<br /> And I, her husband, contradict your bans.<br /> If you will marry, make your loves to me,<br /> My lady is bespoke.<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> An interlude!<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Thou art arm'd, Gloucester: let the trumpet sound:<br /> If none appear to prove upon thy head<br /> Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,<br /> There is my pledge;<br /><br /> Throwing down a glove<br /> I'll prove it on thy heart,<br /> Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less<br /> Than I have here proclaim'd thee.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> Sick, O, sick!<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> [Aside] If not, I'll ne'er trust medicine.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> There's my exchange:<br /><br /> Throwing down a glove<br /> what in the world he is<br /> That names me traitor, villain-like he lies:<br /> Call by thy trumpet: he that dares approach,<br /> On him, on you, who not? I will maintain<br /> My truth and honour firmly.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> A herald, ho!<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> A herald, ho, a herald!<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Trust to thy single virtue; for thy soldiers,<br /> All levied in my name, have in my name<br /> Took their discharge.<br /><br />REGAN<br /><br /> My sickness grows upon me.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> She is not well; convey her to my tent.<br /><br /> Exit Regan, led<br /><br /> Enter a Herald<br /> Come hither, herald,--Let the trumpet sound,<br /> And read out this.<br /><br />Captain<br /><br /> Sound, trumpet!<br /><br /> A trumpet sounds<br /><br />Herald<br /><br /> [Reads] 'If any man of quality or degree within<br /> the lists of the army will maintain upon Edmund,<br /> supposed Earl of Gloucester, that he is a manifold<br /> traitor, let him appear by the third sound of the<br /> trumpet: he is bold in his defence.'<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Sound!<br /><br /> First trumpet<br /><br />Herald<br /><br /> Again!<br /><br /> Second trumpet<br /><br />Herald<br /><br /> Again!<br /><br /> Third trumpet<br /><br /> Trumpet answers within<br /><br /> Enter EDGAR, at the third sound, armed, with a trumpet before him<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Ask him his purposes, why he appears<br /> Upon this call o' the trumpet.<br /><br />Herald<br /><br /> What are you?<br /> Your name, your quality? and why you answer<br /> This present summons?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Know, my name is lost;<br /> By treason's tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit:<br /> Yet am I noble as the adversary<br /> I come to cope.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Which is that adversary?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> What's he that speaks for Edmund Earl of Gloucester?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Himself: what say'st thou to him?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Draw thy sword,<br /> That, if my speech offend a noble heart,<br /> Thy arm may do thee justice: here is mine.<br /> Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours,<br /> My oath, and my profession: I protest,<br /> Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence,<br /> Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,<br /> Thy valour and thy heart, thou art a traitor;<br /> False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father;<br /> Conspirant 'gainst this high-illustrious prince;<br /> And, from the extremest upward of thy head<br /> To the descent and dust below thy foot,<br /> A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou 'No,'<br /> This sword, this arm, and my best spirits, are bent<br /> To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,<br /> Thou liest.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> In wisdom I should ask thy name;<br /> But, since thy outside looks so fair and warlike,<br /> And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes,<br /> What safe and nicely I might well delay<br /> By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn:<br /> Back do I toss these treasons to thy head;<br /> With the hell-hated lie o'erwhelm thy heart;<br /> Which, for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise,<br /> This sword of mine shall give them instant way,<br /> Where they shall rest for ever. Trumpets, speak!<br /><br /> Alarums. They fight. EDMUND falls<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Save him, save him!<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> This is practise, Gloucester:<br /> By the law of arms thou wast not bound to answer<br /> An unknown opposite; thou art not vanquish'd,<br /> But cozen'd and beguiled.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Shut your mouth, dame,<br /> Or with this paper shall I stop it: Hold, sir:<br /> Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil:<br /> No tearing, lady: I perceive you know it.<br /><br /> Gives the letter to EDMUND<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Say, if I do, the laws are mine, not thine:<br /> Who can arraign me for't.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Most monstrous! oh!<br /> Know'st thou this paper?<br /><br />GONERIL<br /><br /> Ask me not what I know.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Go after her: she's desperate; govern her.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> What you have charged me with, that have I done;<br /> And more, much more; the time will bring it out:<br /> 'Tis past, and so am I. But what art thou<br /> That hast this fortune on me? If thou'rt noble,<br /> I do forgive thee.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Let's exchange charity.<br /> I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;<br /> If more, the more thou hast wrong'd me.<br /> My name is Edgar, and thy father's son.<br /> The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices<br /> Make instruments to plague us:<br /> The dark and vicious place where thee he got<br /> Cost him his eyes.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Thou hast spoken right, 'tis true;<br /> The wheel is come full circle: I am here.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Methought thy very gait did prophesy<br /> A royal nobleness: I must embrace thee:<br /> Let sorrow split my heart, if ever I<br /> Did hate thee or thy father!<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Worthy prince, I know't.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Where have you hid yourself?<br /> How have you known the miseries of your father?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> By nursing them, my lord. List a brief tale;<br /> And when 'tis told, O, that my heart would burst!<br /> The bloody proclamation to escape,<br /> That follow'd me so near,--O, our lives' sweetness!<br /> That we the pain of death would hourly die<br /> Rather than die at once!--taught me to shift<br /> Into a madman's rags; to assume a semblance<br /> That very dogs disdain'd: and in this habit<br /> Met I my father with his bleeding rings,<br /> Their precious stones new lost: became his guide,<br /> Led him, begg'd for him, saved him from despair;<br /> Never,--O fault!--reveal'd myself unto him,<br /> Until some half-hour past, when I was arm'd:<br /> Not sure, though hoping, of this good success,<br /> I ask'd his blessing, and from first to last<br /> Told him my pilgrimage: but his flaw'd heart,<br /> Alack, too weak the conflict to support!<br /> 'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,<br /> Burst smilingly.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> This speech of yours hath moved me,<br /> And shall perchance do good: but speak you on;<br /> You look as you had something more to say.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> If there be more, more woeful, hold it in;<br /> For I am almost ready to dissolve,<br /> Hearing of this.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> This would have seem'd a period<br /> To such as love not sorrow; but another,<br /> To amplify too much, would make much more,<br /> And top extremity.<br /> Whilst I was big in clamour came there in a man,<br /> Who, having seen me in my worst estate,<br /> Shunn'd my abhorr'd society; but then, finding<br /> Who 'twas that so endured, with his strong arms<br /> He fastened on my neck, and bellow'd out<br /> As he'ld burst heaven; threw him on my father;<br /> Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him<br /> That ever ear received: which in recounting<br /> His grief grew puissant and the strings of life<br /> Began to crack: twice then the trumpets sounded,<br /> And there I left him tranced.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> But who was this?<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Kent, sir, the banish'd Kent; who in disguise<br /> Follow'd his enemy king, and did him service<br /> Improper for a slave.<br /><br /> Enter a Gentleman, with a bloody knife<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Help, help, O, help!<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> What kind of help?<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Speak, man.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> What means that bloody knife?<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> 'Tis hot, it smokes;<br /> It came even from the heart of--O, she's dead!<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Who dead? speak, man.<br /><br />Gentleman<br /><br /> Your lady, sir, your lady: and her sister<br /> By her is poisoned; she hath confess'd it.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> I was contracted to them both: all three<br /> Now marry in an instant.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Here comes Kent.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead:<br /> This judgment of the heavens, that makes us tremble,<br /> Touches us not with pity.<br /><br /> Exit Gentleman<br /><br /> Enter KENT<br /> O, is this he?<br /> The time will not allow the compliment<br /> Which very manners urges.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> I am come<br /> To bid my king and master aye good night:<br /> Is he not here?<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Great thing of us forgot!<br /> Speak, Edmund, where's the king? and where's Cordelia?<br /> See'st thou this object, Kent?<br /><br /> The bodies of GONERIL and REGAN are brought in<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Alack, why thus?<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Yet Edmund was beloved:<br /> The one the other poison'd for my sake,<br /> And after slew herself.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Even so. Cover their faces.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> I pant for life: some good I mean to do,<br /> Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send,<br /> Be brief in it, to the castle; for my writ<br /> Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia:<br /> Nay, send in time.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Run, run, O, run!<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> To who, my lord? Who hath the office? send<br /> Thy token of reprieve.<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> Well thought on: take my sword,<br /> Give it the captain.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Haste thee, for thy life.<br /><br /> Exit EDGAR<br /><br />EDMUND<br /><br /> He hath commission from thy wife and me<br /> To hang Cordelia in the prison, and<br /> To lay the blame upon her own despair,<br /> That she fordid herself.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile.<br /><br /> EDMUND is borne off<br /><br /> Re-enter KING LEAR, with CORDELIA dead in his arms; EDGAR, Captain, and others following<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones:<br /> Had I your tongues and eyes, I'ld use them so<br /> That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone for ever!<br /> I know when one is dead, and when one lives;<br /> She's dead as earth. Lend me a looking-glass;<br /> If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,<br /> Why, then she lives.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Is this the promised end<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Or image of that horror?<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Fall, and cease!<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so,<br /> It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows<br /> That ever I have felt.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> [Kneeling] O my good master!<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Prithee, away.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> 'Tis noble Kent, your friend.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!<br /> I might have saved her; now she's gone for ever!<br /> Cordelia, Cordelia! stay a little. Ha!<br /> What is't thou say'st? Her voice was ever soft,<br /> Gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman.<br /> I kill'd the slave that was a-hanging thee.<br /><br />Captain<br /><br /> 'Tis true, my lords, he did.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Did I not, fellow?<br /> I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion<br /> I would have made them skip: I am old now,<br /> And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you?<br /> Mine eyes are not o' the best: I'll tell you straight.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> If fortune brag of two she loved and hated,<br /> One of them we behold.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent?<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> The same,<br /> Your servant Kent: Where is your servant Caius?<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> He's a good fellow, I can tell you that;<br /> He'll strike, and quickly too: he's dead and rotten.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> No, my good lord; I am the very man,--<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> I'll see that straight.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> That, from your first of difference and decay,<br /> Have follow'd your sad steps.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> You are welcome hither.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Nor no man else: all's cheerless, dark, and deadly.<br /> Your eldest daughters have fordone them selves,<br /> And desperately are dead.<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> Ay, so I think.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> He knows not what he says: and vain it is<br /> That we present us to him.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Very bootless.<br /><br /> Enter a Captain<br /><br />Captain<br /><br /> Edmund is dead, my lord.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> That's but a trifle here.<br /> You lords and noble friends, know our intent.<br /> What comfort to this great decay may come<br /> Shall be applied: for us we will resign,<br /> During the life of this old majesty,<br /> To him our absolute power:<br /><br /> To EDGAR and KENT<br /> you, to your rights:<br /> With boot, and such addition as your honours<br /> Have more than merited. All friends shall taste<br /> The wages of their virtue, and all foes<br /> The cup of their deservings. O, see, see!<br /><br />KING LEAR<br /><br /> And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!<br /> Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,<br /> And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,<br /> Never, never, never, never, never!<br /> Pray you, undo this button: thank you, sir.<br /> Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,<br /> Look there, look there!<br /><br /> Dies<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> He faints! My lord, my lord!<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Break, heart; I prithee, break!<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> Look up, my lord.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! he hates him much<br /> That would upon the rack of this tough world<br /> Stretch him out longer.<br /><br />EDGAR<br /><br /> He is gone, indeed.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> The wonder is, he hath endured so long:<br /> He but usurp'd his life.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> Bear them from hence. Our present business<br /> Is general woe.<br /><br /> To KENT and EDGAR<br /> Friends of my soul, you twain<br /> Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain.<br /><br />KENT<br /><br /> I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;<br /> My master calls me, I must not say no.<br /><br />ALBANY<br /><br /> The weight of this sad time we must obey;<br /> Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.<br /> The oldest hath borne most: we that are young<br /> Shall never see so much, nor live so long.<br /><br /> Exeunt, with a dead march<br /></span>