Mr. William Shakespeare-Tragedy-King Lear

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE I. King Lear's palace.[/h]

Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND​

KENT

I thought the king had more affected the Duke of
Albany than Cornwall.
​

GLOUCESTER

It did always seem so to us: but now, in the
division of the kingdom, it appears not which of
the dukes he values most; for equalities are so
weighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice
of either's moiety.
​

KENT

Is not this your son, my lord?
​

GLOUCESTER

His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have
so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am
brazed to it.
​

KENT

I cannot conceive you.
​

GLOUCESTER

Sir, this young fellow's mother could: whereupon
she grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a son
for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed.
Do you smell a fault?
​

KENT

I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it
being so proper.
​

GLOUCESTER

But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year
elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account:
though this knave came something saucily into the
world before he was sent for, yet was his mother
fair; there was good sport at his making, and the
whoreson must be acknowledged. Do you know this
noble gentleman, Edmund?
​

EDMUND

No, my lord.
​

GLOUCESTER

My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my
honourable friend.
​

EDMUND

My services to your lordship.
​

KENT

I must love you, and sue to know you better.
​

EDMUND

Sir, I shall study deserving.
​

GLOUCESTER

He hath been out nine years, and away he shall
again. The king is coming.
Sennet. Enter KING LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA, and Attendants
​

KING LEAR

Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.
​

GLOUCESTER

I shall, my liege.
Exeunt GLOUCESTER and EDMUND
​

KING LEAR

Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.
Give me the map there. Know that we have divided
In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent
To shake all cares and business from our age;
Conferring them on younger strengths, while we
Unburthen'd crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall,
And you, our no less loving son of Albany,
We have this hour a constant will to publish
Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife
May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy,
Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,
Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,
And here are to be answer'd. Tell me, my daughters,--
Since now we will divest us both of rule,
Interest of territory, cares of state,--
Which of you shall we say doth love us most?
That we our largest bounty may extend
Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,
Our eldest-born, speak first.
​

GONERIL

Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;
Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;
Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;
No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;
As much as child e'er loved, or father found;
A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
Beyond all manner of so much I love you.
​

CORDELIA

[Aside] What shall Cordelia do?
Love, and be silent.
​

LEAR

Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd,
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
We make thee lady: to thine and Albany's issue
Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,
Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.
​

REGAN

Sir, I am made
Of the self-same metal that my sister is,
And prize me at her worth. In my true heart
I find she names my very deed of love;
Only she comes too short: that I profess
Myself an enemy to all other joys,
Which the most precious square of sense possesses;
And find I am alone felicitate
In your dear highness' love.
​

CORDELIA

[Aside] Then poor Cordelia!
And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's
More richer than my tongue.
​

KING LEAR

To thee and thine hereditary ever
Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom;
No less in space, validity, and pleasure,
Than that conferr'd on Goneril. Now, our joy,
Although the last, not least; to whose young love
The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
Strive to be interess'd; what can you say to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.
​

CORDELIA

Nothing, my lord.
​

KING LEAR

Nothing!
​

CORDELIA

Nothing.
​

KING LEAR

Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
​

CORDELIA

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to my bond; nor more nor less.
​

KING LEAR

How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little,
Lest it may mar your fortunes.
​

CORDELIA

Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
Return those duties back as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
Why have my sisters husbands, if they say
They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty:
Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,
To love my father all.
​

KING LEAR

But goes thy heart with this?
​

CORDELIA

Ay, good my lord.
​

KING LEAR

So young, and so untender?
​

CORDELIA

So young, my lord, and true.
​

KING LEAR

Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy dower:
For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;
By all the operation of the orbs
From whom we do exist, and cease to be;
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian,
Or he that makes his generation messes
To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and relieved,
As thou my sometime daughter.
​

KENT

Good my liege,--
​

KING LEAR

Peace, Kent!
Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
I loved her most, and thought to set my rest
On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight!
So be my grave my peace, as here I give
Her father's heart from her! Call France; who stirs?
Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,
With my two daughters' dowers digest this third:
Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
I do invest you jointly with my power,
Pre-eminence, and all the large effects
That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,
With reservation of an hundred knights,
By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode
Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain
The name, and all the additions to a king;
The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,
This coronet part betwixt you.
Giving the crown
​

KENT

Royal Lear,
Whom I have ever honour'd as my king,
Loved as my father, as my master follow'd,
As my great patron thought on in my prayers,--
​

KING LEAR

The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft.
​

KENT

Let it fall rather, though the fork invade
The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly,
When Lear is mad. What wilt thou do, old man?
Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak,
When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound,
When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom;
And, in thy best consideration, cheque
This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgment,
Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least;
Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound
Reverbs no hollowness.
​

KING LEAR

Kent, on thy life, no more.
​

KENT

My life I never held but as a pawn
To wage against thy enemies; nor fear to lose it,
Thy safety being the motive.
​

KING LEAR

Out of my sight!
​

KENT

See better, Lear; and let me still remain
The true blank of thine eye.
​

KING LEAR

Now, by Apollo,--
​

KENT

Now, by Apollo, king,
Thou swear'st thy gods in vain.
​

KING LEAR

O, vassal! miscreant!
Laying his hand on his sword
​

ALBANY CORNWALL

Dear sir, forbear.
​

KENT

Do:
Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow
Upon thy foul disease. Revoke thy doom;
Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,
I'll tell thee thou dost evil.
​

KING LEAR

Hear me, recreant!
On thine allegiance, hear me!
Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow,
Which we durst never yet, and with strain'd pride
To come between our sentence and our power,
Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,
Our potency made good, take thy reward.
Five days we do allot thee, for provision
To shield thee from diseases of the world;
And on the sixth to turn thy hated back
Upon our kingdom: if, on the tenth day following,
Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,
The moment is thy death. Away! by Jupiter,
This shall not be revoked.
​

KENT

Fare thee well, king: sith thus thou wilt appear,
Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.
To CORDELIA
The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid,
That justly think'st, and hast most rightly said!
To REGAN and GONERIL
And your large speeches may your deeds approve,
That good effects may spring from words of love.
Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu;
He'll shape his old course in a country new.
Exit
Flourish. Re-enter GLOUCESTER, with KING OF FRANCE, BURGUNDY, and Attendants
​

GLOUCESTER

Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord.
​

KING LEAR

My lord of Burgundy.
We first address towards you, who with this king
Hath rivall'd for our daughter: what, in the least,
Will you require in present dower with her,
Or cease your quest of love?
​

BURGUNDY

Most royal majesty,
I crave no more than what your highness offer'd,
Nor will you tender less.
​

KING LEAR

Right noble Burgundy,
When she was dear to us, we did hold her so;
But now her price is fall'n. Sir, there she stands:
If aught within that little seeming substance,
Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced,
And nothing more, may fitly like your grace,
She's there, and she is yours.
​

BURGUNDY

I know no answer.
​

KING LEAR

Will you, with those infirmities she owes,
Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate,
Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath,
Take her, or leave her?
​

BURGUNDY

Pardon me, royal sir;
Election makes not up on such conditions.
​

KING LEAR

Then leave her, sir; for, by the power that made me,
I tell you all her wealth.
To KING OF FRANCE
For you, great king,
I would not from your love make such a stray,
To match you where I hate; therefore beseech you
To avert your liking a more worthier way
Than on a wretch whom nature is ashamed
Almost to acknowledge hers.
​

KING OF FRANCE

This is most strange,
That she, that even but now was your best object,
The argument of your praise, balm of your age,
Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time
Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle
So many folds of favour. Sure, her offence
Must be of such unnatural degree,
That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection
Fall'n into taint: which to believe of her,
Must be a faith that reason without miracle
Could never plant in me.
​

CORDELIA

I yet beseech your majesty,--
If for I want that glib and oily art,
To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend,
I'll do't before I speak,--that you make known
It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,
No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step,
That hath deprived me of your grace and favour;
But even for want of that for which I am richer,
A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue
As I am glad I have not, though not to have it
Hath lost me in your liking.
​

KING LEAR

Better thou
Hadst not been born than not to have pleased me better.
​

KING OF FRANCE

Is it but this,--a tardiness in nature
Which often leaves the history unspoke
That it intends to do? My lord of Burgundy,
What say you to the lady? Love's not love
When it is mingled with regards that stand
Aloof from the entire point. Will you have her?
She is herself a dowry.
​

BURGUNDY

Royal Lear,
Give but that portion which yourself proposed,
And here I take Cordelia by the hand,
Duchess of Burgundy.
​

KING LEAR

Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm.
​

BURGUNDY

I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father
That you must lose a husband.
​

CORDELIA

Peace be with Burgundy!
Since that respects of fortune are his love,
I shall not be his wife.
​

KING OF FRANCE

Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor;
Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!
Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon:
Be it lawful I take up what's cast away.
Gods, gods! 'tis strange that from their cold'st neglect
My love should kindle to inflamed respect.
Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my chance,
Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France:
Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy
Can buy this unprized precious maid of me.
Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind:
Thou losest here, a better where to find.
​

KING LEAR

Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we
Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see
That face of hers again. Therefore be gone
Without our grace, our love, our benison.
Come, noble Burgundy.
Flourish. Exeunt all but KING OF FRANCE, GONERIL, REGAN, and CORDELIA
​

KING OF FRANCE

Bid farewell to your sisters.
​

CORDELIA

The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes
Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are;
And like a sister am most loath to call
Your faults as they are named. Use well our father:
To your professed bosoms I commit him
But yet, alas, stood I within his grace,
I would prefer him to a better place.
So, farewell to you both.
​

REGAN

Prescribe not us our duties.
​

GONERIL

Let your study
Be to content your lord, who hath received you
At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted,
And well are worth the want that you have wanted.
​

CORDELIA

Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides:
Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.
Well may you prosper!
​

KING OF FRANCE

Come, my fair Cordelia.
Exeunt KING OF FRANCE and CORDELIA
​

GONERIL

Sister, it is not a little I have to say of what
most nearly appertains to us both. I think our
father will hence to-night.
​

REGAN

That's most certain, and with you; next month with us.
​

GONERIL

You see how full of changes his age is; the
observation we have made of it hath not been
little: he always loved our sister most; and
with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off
appears too grossly.
​

REGAN

'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever
but slenderly known himself.
​

GONERIL

The best and soundest of his time hath been but
rash; then must we look to receive from his age,
not alone the imperfections of long-engraffed
condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness
that infirm and choleric years bring with them.
​

REGAN

Such unconstant starts are we like to have from
him as this of Kent's banishment.
​

GONERIL

There is further compliment of leavetaking
between France and him. Pray you, let's hit
together: if our father carry authority with
such dispositions as he bears, this last
surrender of his will but offend us.
​

REGAN

We shall further think on't.
​

GONERIL

We must do something, and i' the heat.
Exeunt
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE II. The Earl of Gloucester's castle.[/h]

Enter EDMUND, with a letter​

EDMUND

Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true,
As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?
Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,
Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well, then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate: fine word,--legitimate!
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
Enter GLOUCESTER
​

GLOUCESTER

Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted!
And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power!
Confined to exhibition! All this done
Upon the gad! Edmund, how now! what news?
​

EDMUND

So please your lordship, none.
Putting up the letter
​

GLOUCESTER

Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?
​

EDMUND

I know no news, my lord.
​

GLOUCESTER

What paper were you reading?
​

EDMUND

Nothing, my lord.
​

GLOUCESTER

No? What needed, then, that terrible dispatch of
it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath
not such need to hide itself. Let's see: come,
if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles.
​

EDMUND

I beseech you, sir, pardon me: it is a letter
from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read;
and for so much as I have perused, I find it not
fit for your o'er-looking.
​

GLOUCESTER

Give me the letter, sir.
​

EDMUND

I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The
contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame.
​

GLOUCESTER

Let's see, let's see.
​

EDMUND

I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote
this but as an essay or taste of my virtue.
​

GLOUCESTER

[Reads] 'This policy and reverence of age makes
the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps
our fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish
them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage
in the oppression of aged tyranny; who sways, not
as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to
me, that of this I may speak more. If our father
would sleep till I waked him, you should half his
revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your
brother, EDGAR.'
Hum--conspiracy!--'Sleep till I waked him,--you
should enjoy half his revenue,'--My son Edgar!
Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain
to breed it in?--When came this to you? who
brought it?
​

EDMUND

It was not brought me, my lord; there's the
cunning of it; I found it thrown in at the
casement of my closet.
​

GLOUCESTER

You know the character to be your brother's?
​

EDMUND

If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear
it were his; but, in respect of that, I would
fain think it were not.
​

GLOUCESTER

It is his.
​

EDMUND

It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is
not in the contents.
​

GLOUCESTER

Hath he never heretofore sounded you in this business?
​

EDMUND

Never, my lord: but I have heard him oft
maintain it to be fit, that, sons at perfect age,
and fathers declining, the father should be as
ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue.
​

GLOUCESTER

O villain, villain! His very opinion in the
letter! Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested,
brutish villain! worse than brutish! Go, sirrah,
seek him; I'll apprehend him: abominable villain!
Where is he?
​

EDMUND

I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please
you to suspend your indignation against my
brother till you can derive from him better
testimony of his intent, you shall run a certain
course; where, if you violently proceed against
him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great
gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the
heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life
for him, that he hath wrote this to feel my
affection to your honour, and to no further
pretence of danger.
​

GLOUCESTER

Think you so?
​

EDMUND

If your honour judge it meet, I will place you
where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an
auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and
that without any further delay than this very evening.
​

GLOUCESTER

He cannot be such a monster--
​

EDMUND

Nor is not, sure.
​

GLOUCESTER

To his father, that so tenderly and entirely
loves him. Heaven and earth! Edmund, seek him
out: wind me into him, I pray you: frame the
business after your own wisdom. I would unstate
myself, to be in a due resolution.
​

EDMUND

I will seek him, sir, presently: convey the
business as I shall find means and acquaint you withal.
​

GLOUCESTER

These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend
no good to us: though the wisdom of nature can
reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself
scourged by the sequent effects: love cools,
friendship falls off, brothers divide: in
cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in
palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son
and father. This villain of mine comes under the
prediction; there's son against father: the king
falls from bias of nature; there's father against
child. We have seen the best of our time:
machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all
ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our
graves. Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall
lose thee nothing; do it carefully. And the
noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his
offence, honesty! 'Tis strange.
Exit
​

EDMUND

This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,
when we are sick in fortune,--often the surfeit
of our own behavior,--we make guilty of our
disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as
if we were villains by necessity; fools by
heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,
liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of
planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,
by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion
of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish
disposition to the charge of a star! My
father compounded with my mother under the
dragon's tail; and my nativity was under Ursa
major; so that it follows, I am rough and
lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am,
had the maidenliest star in the firmament
twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar--
Enter EDGAR
And pat he comes like the catastrophe of the old
comedy: my cue is villanous melancholy, with a
sigh like Tom o' Bedlam. O, these eclipses do
portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi.
​

EDGAR

How now, brother Edmund! what serious
contemplation are you in?
​

EDMUND

I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read
this other day, what should follow these eclipses.
​

EDGAR

Do you busy yourself about that?
​

EDMUND

I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed
unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child
and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of
ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and
maledictions against king and nobles; needless
diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation
of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.
​

EDGAR

How long have you been a sectary astronomical?
​

EDMUND

Come, come; when saw you my father last?
​

EDGAR

Why, the night gone by.
​

EDMUND

Spake you with him?
​

EDGAR

Ay, two hours together.
​

EDMUND

Parted you in good terms? Found you no
displeasure in him by word or countenance?
​

EDGAR

None at all.
​

EDMUND

Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended
him: and at my entreaty forbear his presence
till some little time hath qualified the heat of
his displeasure; which at this instant so rageth
in him, that with the mischief of your person it
would scarcely allay.
​

EDGAR

Some villain hath done me wrong.
​

EDMUND

That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent
forbearance till the spied of his rage goes
slower; and, as I say, retire with me to my
lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to
hear my lord speak: pray ye, go; there's my key:
if you do stir abroad, go armed.
​

EDGAR

Armed, brother!
​

EDMUND

Brother, I advise you to the best; go armed: I
am no honest man if there be any good meaning
towards you: I have told you what I have seen
and heard; but faintly, nothing like the image
and horror of it: pray you, away.
​

EDGAR

Shall I hear from you anon?
​

EDMUND

I do serve you in this business.
Exit EDGAR
A credulous father! and a brother noble,
Whose nature is so far from doing harms,
That he suspects none: on whose foolish honesty
My practises ride easy! I see the business.
Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit:
All with me's meet that I can fashion fit.
Exit
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE III. The Duke of Albany's palace.[/h]

Enter GONERIL, and OSWALD, her steward​

GONERIL

Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool?
​

OSWALD

Yes, madam.
​

GONERIL

By day and night he wrongs me; every hour
He flashes into one gross crime or other,
That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it:
His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us
On every trifle. When he returns from hunting,
I will not speak with him; say I am sick:
If you come slack of former services,
You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer.
​

OSWALD

He's coming, madam; I hear him.
Horns within
​

GONERIL

Put on what weary negligence you please,
You and your fellows; I'll have it come to question:
If he dislike it, let him to our sister,
Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one,
Not to be over-ruled. Idle old man,
That still would manage those authorities
That he hath given away! Now, by my life,
Old fools are babes again; and must be used
With cheques as flatteries,--when they are seen abused.
Remember what I tell you.
​

OSWALD

Well, madam.
​

GONERIL

And let his knights have colder looks among you;
What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows so:
I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall,
That I may speak: I'll write straight to my sister,
To hold my very course. Prepare for dinner.
Exeunt
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE IV. A hall in the same.[/h]

Enter KENT, disguised​

KENT

If but as well I other accents borrow,
That can my speech defuse, my good intent
May carry through itself to that full issue
For which I razed my likeness. Now, banish'd Kent,
If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd,
So may it come, thy master, whom thou lovest,
Shall find thee full of labours.
Horns within. Enter KING LEAR, Knights, and Attendants
​

KING LEAR

Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go get it ready.
Exit an Attendant
How now! what art thou?
​

KENT

A man, sir.
​

KING LEAR

What dost thou profess? what wouldst thou with us?
​

KENT

I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve
him truly that will put me in trust: to love him
that is honest; to converse with him that is wise,
and says little; to fear judgment; to fight when I
cannot choose; and to eat no fish.
​

KING LEAR

What art thou?
​

KENT

A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the king.
​

KING LEAR

If thou be as poor for a subject as he is for a
king, thou art poor enough. What wouldst thou?
​

KENT

Service.
​

KING LEAR

Who wouldst thou serve?
​

KENT

You.
​

KING LEAR

Dost thou know me, fellow?
​

KENT

No, sir; but you have that in your countenance
which I would fain call master.
​

KING LEAR

What's that?
​

KENT

Authority.
​

KING LEAR

What services canst thou do?
​

KENT

I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious
tale in telling it, and deliver a plain message
bluntly: that which ordinary men are fit for, I am
qualified in; and the best of me is diligence.
​

KING LEAR

How old art thou?
​

KENT

Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor
so old to dote on her for any thing: I have years
on my back forty eight.
​

KING LEAR

Follow me; thou shalt serve me: if I like thee no
worse after dinner, I will not part from thee yet.
Dinner, ho, dinner! Where's my knave? my fool?
Go you, and call my fool hither.
Exit an Attendant
Enter OSWALD
You, you, sirrah, where's my daughter?
​

OSWALD

So please you,--
Exit
​

KING LEAR

What says the fellow there? Call the clotpoll back.
Exit a Knight
Where's my fool, ho? I think the world's asleep.
Re-enter Knight
How now! where's that mongrel?
​

Knight

He says, my lord, your daughter is not well.
​

KING LEAR

Why came not the slave back to me when I called him.
​

Knight

Sir, he answered me in the roundest manner, he would
not.
​

KING LEAR

He would not!
​

Knight

My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my
judgment, your highness is not entertained with that
ceremonious affection as you were wont; there's a
great abatement of kindness appears as well in the
general dependants as in the duke himself also and
your daughter.
​

KING LEAR

Ha! sayest thou so?
​

Knight

I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken;
for my duty cannot be silent when I think your
highness wronged.
​

KING LEAR

Thou but rememberest me of mine own conception: I
have perceived a most faint neglect of late; which I
have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity
than as a very pretence and purpose of unkindness:
I will look further into't. But where's my fool? I
have not seen him this two days.
​

Knight

Since my young lady's going into France, sir, the
fool hath much pined away.
​

KING LEAR

No more of that; I have noted it well. Go you, and
tell my daughter I would speak with her.
Exit an Attendant
Go you, call hither my fool.
Exit an Attendant
Re-enter OSWALD
O, you sir, you, come you hither, sir: who am I,
sir?
​

OSWALD

My lady's father.
​

KING LEAR

'My lady's father'! my lord's knave: your
whoreson dog! you slave! you cur!
​

OSWALD

I am none of these, my lord; I beseech your pardon.
​

KING LEAR

Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal?
Striking him
​

OSWALD

I'll not be struck, my lord.
​

KENT

Nor tripped neither, you base football player.
Tripping up his heels
​

KING LEAR

I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and I'll
love thee.
​

KENT

Come, sir, arise, away! I'll teach you differences:
away, away! if you will measure your lubber's
length again, tarry: but away! go to; have you
wisdom? so.
Pushes OSWALD out
​

KING LEAR

Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee: there's
earnest of thy service.
Giving KENT money
Enter Fool
​

Fool

Let me hire him too: here's my coxcomb.
Offering KENT his cap
​

KING LEAR

How now, my pretty knave! how dost thou?
​

Fool

Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb.
​

KENT

Why, fool?
​

Fool

Why, for taking one's part that's out of favour:
nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits,
thou'lt catch cold shortly: there, take my coxcomb:
why, this fellow has banished two on's daughters,
and did the third a blessing against his will; if
thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb.
How now, nuncle! Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters!
​

KING LEAR

Why, my boy?
​

Fool

If I gave them all my living, I'ld keep my coxcombs
myself. There's mine; beg another of thy daughters.
​

KING LEAR

Take heed, sirrah; the whip.
​

Fool

Truth's a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped
out, when Lady the brach may stand by the fire and stink.
​

KING LEAR

A pestilent gall to me!
​

Fool

Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech.
​

KING LEAR

Do.
​

Fool

Mark it, nuncle:
Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest,
Lend less than thou owest,
Ride more than thou goest,
Learn more than thou trowest,
Set less than thou throwest;
Leave thy drink and thy whore,
And keep in-a-door,
And thou shalt have more
Than two tens to a score.
​

KENT

This is nothing, fool.
​

Fool

Then 'tis like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer; you
gave me nothing for't. Can you make no use of
nothing, nuncle?
​

KING LEAR

Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing.
​

Fool

[To KENT] Prithee, tell him, so much the rent of
his land comes to: he will not believe a fool.
​

KING LEAR

A bitter fool!
​

Fool

Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a
bitter fool and a sweet fool?
​

KING LEAR

No, lad; teach me.
​

Fool

That lord that counsell'd thee
To give away thy land,
Come place him here by me,
Do thou for him stand:
The sweet and bitter fool
Will presently appear;
The one in motley here,
The other found out there.
​

KING LEAR

Dost thou call me fool, boy?
​

Fool

All thy other titles thou hast given away; that
thou wast born with.
​

KENT

This is not altogether fool, my lord.
​

Fool

No, faith, lords and great men will not let me; if
I had a monopoly out, they would have part on't:
and ladies too, they will not let me have all fool
to myself; they'll be snatching. Give me an egg,
nuncle, and I'll give thee two crowns.
​

KING LEAR

What two crowns shall they be?
​

Fool

Why, after I have cut the egg i' the middle, and eat
up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou
clovest thy crown i' the middle, and gavest away
both parts, thou borest thy ass on thy back o'er
the dirt: thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown,
when thou gavest thy golden one away. If I speak
like myself in this, let him be whipped that first
finds it so.
Singing
Fools had ne'er less wit in a year;
For wise men are grown foppish,
They know not how their wits to wear,
Their manners are so apish.
​

KING LEAR

When were you wont to be so full of songs, sirrah?
​

Fool

I have used it, nuncle, ever since thou madest thy
daughters thy mothers: for when thou gavest them
the rod, and put'st down thine own breeches,
Singing
Then they for sudden joy did weep,
And I for sorrow sung,
That such a king should play bo-peep,
And go the fools among.
Prithee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach
thy fool to lie: I would fain learn to lie.
​

KING LEAR

An you lie, sirrah, we'll have you whipped.
​

Fool

I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are:
they'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'lt
have me whipped for lying; and sometimes I am
whipped for holding my peace. I had rather be any
kind o' thing than a fool: and yet I would not be
thee, nuncle; thou hast pared thy wit o' both sides,
and left nothing i' the middle: here comes one o'
the parings.
Enter GONERIL
​

KING LEAR

How now, daughter! what makes that frontlet on?
Methinks you are too much of late i' the frown.
​

Fool

Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to
care for her frowning; now thou art an O without a
figure: I am better than thou art now; I am a fool,
thou art nothing.
To GONERIL
Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue; so your face
bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum,
He that keeps nor crust nor crum,
Weary of all, shall want some.
Pointing to KING LEAR
That's a shealed peascod.
​

GONERIL

Not only, sir, this your all-licensed fool,
But other of your insolent retinue
Do hourly carp and quarrel; breaking forth
In rank and not-to-be endured riots. Sir,
I had thought, by making this well known unto you,
To have found a safe redress; but now grow fearful,
By what yourself too late have spoke and done.
That you protect this course, and put it on
By your allowance; which if you should, the fault
Would not 'scape censure, nor the redresses sleep,
Which, in the tender of a wholesome weal,
Might in their working do you that offence,
Which else were shame, that then necessity
Will call discreet proceeding.
​

Fool

For, you trow, nuncle,
The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,
That it's had it head bit off by it young.
So, out went the candle, and we were left darkling.
​

KING LEAR

Are you our daughter?
​

GONERIL

Come, sir,
I would you would make use of that good wisdom,
Whereof I know you are fraught; and put away
These dispositions, that of late transform you
From what you rightly are.
​

Fool

May not an ass know when the cart
draws the horse? Whoop, Jug! I love thee.
​

KING LEAR

Doth any here know me? This is not Lear:
Doth Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes?
Either his notion weakens, his discernings
Are lethargied--Ha! waking? 'tis not so.
Who is it that can tell me who I am?
​

Fool

Lear's shadow.
​

KING LEAR

I would learn that; for, by the
marks of sovereignty, knowledge, and reason,
I should be false persuaded I had daughters.
​

Fool

Which they will make an obedient father.
​

KING LEAR

Your name, fair gentlewoman?
​

GONERIL

This admiration, sir, is much o' the savour
Of other your new pranks. I do beseech you
To understand my purposes aright:
As you are old and reverend, you should be wise.
Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires;
Men so disorder'd, so debosh'd and bold,
That this our court, infected with their manners,
Shows like a riotous inn: epicurism and lust
Make it more like a tavern or a brothel
Than a graced palace. The shame itself doth speak
For instant remedy: be then desired
By her, that else will take the thing she begs,
A little to disquantity your train;
And the remainder, that shall still depend,
To be such men as may besort your age,
And know themselves and you.
​

KING LEAR

Darkness and devils!
Saddle my horses; call my train together:
Degenerate bastard! I'll not trouble thee.
Yet have I left a daughter.
​

GONERIL

You strike my people; and your disorder'd rabble
Make servants of their betters.
Enter ALBANY
​

KING LEAR

Woe, that too late repents,--
To ALBANY
O, sir, are you come?
Is it your will? Speak, sir. Prepare my horses.
Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,
More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child
Than the sea-monster!
​

ALBANY

Pray, sir, be patient.
​

KING LEAR

[To GONERIL] Detested kite! thou liest.
My train are men of choice and rarest parts,
That all particulars of duty know,
And in the most exact regard support
The worships of their name. O most small fault,
How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show!
That, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature
From the fix'd place; drew from heart all love,
And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear!
Beat at this gate, that let thy folly in,
Striking his head
And thy dear judgment out! Go, go, my people.
​

ALBANY

My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant
Of what hath moved you.
​

KING LEAR

It may be so, my lord.
Hear, nature, hear; dear goddess, hear!
Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend
To make this creature fruitful!
Into her womb convey sterility!
Dry up in her the organs of increase;
And from her derogate body never spring
A babe to honour her! If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen; that it may live,
And be a thwart disnatured torment to her!
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth;
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks;
Turn all her mother's pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt; that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child! Away, away!
Exit
​

ALBANY

Now, gods that we adore, whereof comes this?
​

GONERIL

Never afflict yourself to know the cause;
But let his disposition have that scope
That dotage gives it.
Re-enter KING LEAR
​

KING LEAR

What, fifty of my followers at a clap!
Within a fortnight!
​

ALBANY

What's the matter, sir?
​

KING LEAR

I'll tell thee:
To GONERIL
Life and death! I am ashamed
That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus;
That these hot tears, which break from me perforce,
Should make thee worth them. Blasts and fogs upon thee!
The untented woundings of a father's curse
Pierce every sense about thee! Old fond eyes,
Beweep this cause again, I'll pluck ye out,
And cast you, with the waters that you lose,
To temper clay. Yea, it is come to this?
Let is be so: yet have I left a daughter,
Who, I am sure, is kind and comfortable:
When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails
She'll flay thy wolvish visage. Thou shalt find
That I'll resume the shape which thou dost think
I have cast off for ever: thou shalt,
I warrant thee.
Exeunt KING LEAR, KENT, and Attendants
​

GONERIL

Do you mark that, my lord?
​

ALBANY

I cannot be so partial, Goneril,
To the great love I bear you,--
​

GONERIL

Pray you, content. What, Oswald, ho!
To the Fool
You, sir, more knave than fool, after your master.
​

Fool

Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry and take the fool
with thee.
A fox, when one has caught her,
And such a daughter,
Should sure to the slaughter,
If my cap would buy a halter:
So the fool follows after.
Exit
​

GONERIL

This man hath had good counsel:--a hundred knights!
'Tis politic and safe to let him keep
At point a hundred knights: yes, that, on every dream,
Each buzz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike,
He may enguard his dotage with their powers,
And hold our lives in mercy. Oswald, I say!
​

ALBANY

Well, you may fear too far.
​

GONERIL

Safer than trust too far:
Let me still take away the harms I fear,
Not fear still to be taken: I know his heart.
What he hath utter'd I have writ my sister
If she sustain him and his hundred knights
When I have show'd the unfitness,--
Re-enter OSWALD
How now, Oswald!
What, have you writ that letter to my sister?
​

OSWALD

Yes, madam.
​

GONERIL

Take you some company, and away to horse:
Inform her full of my particular fear;
And thereto add such reasons of your own
As may compact it more. Get you gone;
And hasten your return.
Exit OSWALD
No, no, my lord,
This milky gentleness and course of yours
Though I condemn not, yet, under pardon,
You are much more attask'd for want of wisdom
Than praised for harmful mildness.
​

ALBANY

How far your eyes may pierce I can not tell:
Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.
​

GONERIL

Nay, then--
​

ALBANY

Well, well; the event.
Exeunt
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE V. Court before the same.[/h]

Enter KING LEAR, KENT, and Fool​

KING LEAR

Go you before to Gloucester with these letters.
Acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you
know than comes from her demand out of the letter.
If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there afore you.
​

KENT

I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered
your letter.
Exit
​

Fool

If a man's brains were in's heels, were't not in
danger of kibes?
​

KING LEAR

Ay, boy.
​

Fool

Then, I prithee, be merry; thy wit shall ne'er go
slip-shod.
​

KING LEAR

Ha, ha, ha!
​

Fool

Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly;
for though she's as like this as a crab's like an
apple, yet I can tell what I can tell.
​

KING LEAR

Why, what canst thou tell, my boy?
​

Fool

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

KING LEAR

No.
​

Fool

Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose; that
what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into.
​

KING LEAR

I did her wrong--
​

Fool

Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?
​

KING LEAR

No.
​

Fool

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

KING LEAR

Why?
​

Fool

Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his
daughters, and leave his horns without a case.
​

KING LEAR

I will forget my nature. So kind a father! Be my
horses ready?
​

Fool

Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the
seven stars are no more than seven is a pretty reason.
​

KING LEAR

Because they are not eight?
​

Fool

Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool.
​

KING LEAR

To take 't again perforce! Monster ingratitude!
​

Fool

If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'ld have thee beaten
for being old before thy time.
​

KING LEAR

How's that?
​

Fool

Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst
been wise.
​

KING LEAR

O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven
Keep me in temper: I would not be mad!
Enter Gentleman
How now! are the horses ready?
​

Gentleman

Ready, my lord.
​

KING LEAR

Come, boy.
​

Fool

She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure,
Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter.
Exeunt
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE I. GLOUCESTER's castle.[/h]

Enter EDMUND, and CURAN meets him​

EDMUND

Save thee, Curan.
​

CURAN

And you, sir. I have been with your father, and
given him notice that the Duke of Cornwall and Regan
his duchess will be here with him this night.
​

EDMUND

How comes that?
​

CURAN

Nay, I know not. You have heard of the news abroad;
I mean the whispered ones, for they are yet but
ear-kissing arguments?
​

EDMUND

Not I pray you, what are they?
​

CURAN

Have you heard of no likely wars toward, 'twixt the
Dukes of Cornwall and Albany?
​

EDMUND

Not a word.
​

CURAN

You may do, then, in time. Fare you well, sir.
Exit
​

EDMUND

The duke be here to-night? The better! best!
This weaves itself perforce into my business.
My father hath set guard to take my brother;
And I have one thing, of a queasy question,
Which I must act: briefness and fortune, work!
Brother, a word; descend: brother, I say!
Enter EDGAR
My father watches: O sir, fly this place;
Intelligence is given where you are hid;
You have now the good advantage of the night:
Have you not spoken 'gainst the Duke of Cornwall?
He's coming hither: now, i' the night, i' the haste,
And Regan with him: have you nothing said
Upon his party 'gainst the Duke of Albany?
Advise yourself.
​

EDGAR

I am sure on't, not a word.
​

EDMUND

I hear my father coming: pardon me:
In cunning I must draw my sword upon you
Draw; seem to defend yourself; now quit you well.
Yield: come before my father. Light, ho, here!
Fly, brother. Torches, torches! So, farewell.
Exit EDGAR
Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion.
Wounds his arm
Of my more fierce endeavour: I have seen drunkards
Do more than this in sport. Father, father!
Stop, stop! No help?
Enter GLOUCESTER, and Servants with torches
​

GLOUCESTER

Now, Edmund, where's the villain?
​

EDMUND

Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out,
Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon
To stand auspicious mistress,--
​

GLOUCESTER

But where is he?
​

EDMUND

Look, sir, I bleed.
​

GLOUCESTER

Where is the villain, Edmund?
​

EDMUND

Fled this way, sir. When by no means he could--
​

GLOUCESTER

Pursue him, ho! Go after.
Exeunt some Servants
By no means what?
​

EDMUND

Persuade me to the murder of your lordship;
But that I told him, the revenging gods
'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend;
Spoke, with how manifold and strong a bond
The child was bound to the father; sir, in fine,
Seeing how loathly opposite I stood
To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion,
With his prepared sword, he charges home
My unprovided body, lanced mine arm:
But when he saw my best alarum'd spirits,
Bold in the quarrel's right, roused to the encounter,
Or whether gasted by the noise I made,
Full suddenly he fled.
​

GLOUCESTER

Let him fly far:
Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;
And found--dispatch. The noble duke my master,
My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night:
By his authority I will proclaim it,
That he which finds him shall deserve our thanks,
Bringing the murderous coward to the stake;
He that conceals him, death.
​

EDMUND

When I dissuaded him from his intent,
And found him pight to do it, with curst speech
I threaten'd to discover him: he replied,
'Thou unpossessing bastard! dost thou think,
If I would stand against thee, would the reposal
Of any trust, virtue, or worth in thee
Make thy words faith'd? No: what I should deny,--
As this I would: ay, though thou didst produce
My very character,--I'ld turn it all
To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practise:
And thou must make a dullard of the world,
If they not thought the profits of my death
Were very pregnant and potential spurs
To make thee seek it.'
​

GLOUCESTER

Strong and fasten'd villain
Would he deny his letter? I never got him.
Tucket within
Hark, the duke's trumpets! I know not why he comes.
All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not 'scape;
The duke must grant me that: besides, his picture
I will send far and near, that all the kingdom
May have the due note of him; and of my land,
Loyal and natural boy, I'll work the means
To make thee capable.
Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, and Attendants
​

CORNWALL

How now, my noble friend! since I came hither,
Which I can call but now, I have heard strange news.
​

REGAN

If it be true, all vengeance comes too short
Which can pursue the offender. How dost, my lord?
​

GLOUCESTER

O, madam, my old heart is crack'd, it's crack'd!
​

REGAN

What, did my father's godson seek your life?
He whom my father named? your Edgar?
​

GLOUCESTER

O, lady, lady, shame would have it hid!
​

REGAN

Was he not companion with the riotous knights
That tend upon my father?
​

GLOUCESTER

I know not, madam: 'tis too bad, too bad.
​

EDMUND

Yes, madam, he was of that consort.
​

REGAN

No marvel, then, though he were ill affected:
'Tis they have put him on the old man's death,
To have the expense and waste of his revenues.
I have this present evening from my sister
Been well inform'd of them; and with such cautions,
That if they come to sojourn at my house,
I'll not be there.
​

CORNWALL

Nor I, assure thee, Regan.
Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father
A child-like office.
​

EDMUND

'Twas my duty, sir.
​

GLOUCESTER

He did bewray his practise; and received
This hurt you see, striving to apprehend him.
​

CORNWALL

Is he pursued?
​

GLOUCESTER

Ay, my good lord.
​

CORNWALL

If he be taken, he shall never more
Be fear'd of doing harm: make your own purpose,
How in my strength you please. For you, Edmund,
Whose virtue and obedience doth this instant
So much commend itself, you shall be ours:
Natures of such deep trust we shall much need;
You we first seize on.
​

EDMUND

I shall serve you, sir,
Truly, however else.
​

GLOUCESTER

For him I thank your grace.
​

CORNWALL

You know not why we came to visit you,--
​

REGAN

Thus out of season, threading dark-eyed night:
Occasions, noble Gloucester, of some poise,
Wherein we must have use of your advice:
Our father he hath writ, so hath our sister,
Of differences, which I least thought it fit
To answer from our home; the several messengers
From hence attend dispatch. Our good old friend,
Lay comforts to your bosom; and bestow
Your needful counsel to our business,
Which craves the instant use.
​

GLOUCESTER

I serve you, madam:
Your graces are right welcome.
Exeunt
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE II. Before Gloucester's castle.[/h]

Enter KENT and OSWALD, severally​

OSWALD

Good dawning to thee, friend: art of this house?
​

KENT

Ay.
​

OSWALD

Where may we set our horses?
​

KENT

I' the mire.
​

OSWALD

Prithee, if thou lovest me, tell me.
​

KENT

I love thee not.
​

OSWALD

Why, then, I care not for thee.
​

KENT

If I had thee in Lipsbury pinfold, I would make thee
care for me.
​

OSWALD

Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not.
​

KENT

Fellow, I know thee.
​

OSWALD

What dost thou know me for?
​

KENT

A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a
base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited,
hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a
lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,
glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue;
one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a
bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but
the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar,
and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I
will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest
the least syllable of thy addition.
​

OSWALD

Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail
on one that is neither known of thee nor knows thee!
​

KENT

What a brazen-faced varlet art thou, to deny thou
knowest me! Is it two days ago since I tripped up
thy heels, and beat thee before the king? Draw, you
rogue: for, though it be night, yet the moon
shines; I'll make a sop o' the moonshine of you:
draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw.
Drawing his sword
​

OSWALD

Away! I have nothing to do with thee.
​

KENT

Draw, you rascal: you come with letters against the
king; and take vanity the puppet's part against the
royalty of her father: draw, you rogue, or I'll so
carbonado your shanks: draw, you rascal; come your ways.
​

OSWALD

Help, ho! murder! help!
​

KENT

Strike, you slave; stand, rogue, stand; you neat
slave, strike.
Beating him
​

OSWALD

Help, ho! murder! murder!
Enter EDMUND, with his rapier drawn, CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOUCESTER, and Servants
​

EDMUND

How now! What's the matter?
​

KENT

With you, goodman boy, an you please: come, I'll
flesh ye; come on, young master.
​

GLOUCESTER

Weapons! arms! What 's the matter here?
​

CORNWALL

Keep peace, upon your lives:
He dies that strikes again. What is the matter?
​

REGAN

The messengers from our sister and the king.
​

CORNWALL

What is your difference? speak.
​

OSWALD

I am scarce in breath, my lord.
​

KENT

No marvel, you have so bestirred your valour. You
cowardly rascal, nature disclaims in thee: a
tailor made thee.
​

CORNWALL

Thou art a strange fellow: a tailor make a man?
​

KENT

Ay, a tailor, sir: a stone-cutter or painter could
not have made him so ill, though he had been but two
hours at the trade.
​

CORNWALL

Speak yet, how grew your quarrel?
​

OSWALD

This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spared
at suit of his gray beard,--
​

KENT

Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter! My
lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this
unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the wall of
a jakes with him. Spare my gray beard, you wagtail?
​

CORNWALL

Peace, sirrah!
You beastly knave, know you no reverence?
​

KENT

Yes, sir; but anger hath a privilege.
​

CORNWALL

Why art thou angry?
​

KENT

That such a slave as this should wear a sword,
Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these,
Like rats, oft bite the holy cords a-twain
Which are too intrinse t' unloose; smooth every passion
That in the natures of their lords rebel;
Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods;
Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks
With every gale and vary of their masters,
Knowing nought, like dogs, but following.
A plague upon your epileptic visage!
Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool?
Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain,
I'ld drive ye cackling home to Camelot.
​

CORNWALL

Why, art thou mad, old fellow?
​

GLOUCESTER

How fell you out? say that.
​

KENT

No contraries hold more antipathy
Than I and such a knave.
​

CORNWALL

Why dost thou call him a knave? What's his offence?
​

KENT

His countenance likes me not.
​

CORNWALL

No more, perchance, does mine, nor his, nor hers.
​

KENT

Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain:
I have seen better faces in my time
Than stands on any shoulder that I see
Before me at this instant.
​

CORNWALL

This is some fellow,
Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect
A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb
Quite from his nature: he cannot flatter, he,
An honest mind and plain, he must speak truth!
An they will take it, so; if not, he's plain.
These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness
Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends
Than twenty silly ducking observants
That stretch their duties nicely.
​

KENT

Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity,
Under the allowance of your great aspect,
Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire
On flickering Phoebus' front,--
​

CORNWALL

What mean'st by this?
​

KENT

To go out of my dialect, which you
discommend so much. I know, sir, I am no
flatterer: he that beguiled you in a plain
accent was a plain knave; which for my part
I will not be, though I should win your displeasure
to entreat me to 't.
​

CORNWALL

What was the offence you gave him?
​

OSWALD

I never gave him any:
It pleased the king his master very late
To strike at me, upon his misconstruction;
When he, conjunct and flattering his displeasure,
Tripp'd me behind; being down, insulted, rail'd,
And put upon him such a deal of man,
That worthied him, got praises of the king
For him attempting who was self-subdued;
And, in the fleshment of this dread exploit,
Drew on me here again.
​

KENT

None of these rogues and cowards
But Ajax is their fool.
​

CORNWALL

Fetch forth the stocks!
You stubborn ancient knave, you reverend braggart,
We'll teach you--
​

KENT

Sir, I am too old to learn:
Call not your stocks for me: I serve the king;
On whose employment I was sent to you:
You shall do small respect, show too bold malice
Against the grace and person of my master,
Stocking his messenger.
​

CORNWALL

Fetch forth the stocks! As I have life and honour,
There shall he sit till noon.
​

REGAN

Till noon! till night, my lord; and all night too.
​

KENT

Why, madam, if I were your father's dog,
You should not use me so.
​

REGAN

Sir, being his knave, I will.
​

CORNWALL

This is a fellow of the self-same colour
Our sister speaks of. Come, bring away the stocks!
Stocks brought out
​

GLOUCESTER

Let me beseech your grace not to do so:
His fault is much, and the good king his master
Will cheque him for 't: your purposed low correction
Is such as basest and contemned'st wretches
For pilferings and most common trespasses
Are punish'd with: the king must take it ill,
That he's so slightly valued in his messenger,
Should have him thus restrain'd.
​

CORNWALL

I'll answer that.
​

REGAN

My sister may receive it much more worse,
To have her gentleman abused, assaulted,
For following her affairs. Put in his legs.
KENT is put in the stocks
Come, my good lord, away.
Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER and KENT
​

GLOUCESTER

I am sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure,
Whose disposition, all the world well knows,
Will not be rubb'd nor stopp'd: I'll entreat for thee.
​

KENT

Pray, do not, sir: I have watched and travell'd hard;
Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle.
A good man's fortune may grow out at heels:
Give you good morrow!
​

GLOUCESTER

The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill taken.
Exit
​

KENT

Good king, that must approve the common saw,
Thou out of heaven's benediction comest
To the warm sun!
Approach, thou beacon to this under globe,
That by thy comfortable beams I may
Peruse this letter! Nothing almost sees miracles
But misery: I know 'tis from Cordelia,
Who hath most fortunately been inform'd
Of my obscured course; and shall find time
From this enormous state, seeking to give
Losses their remedies. All weary and o'erwatch'd,
Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold
This shameful lodging.
Fortune, good night: smile once more: turn thy wheel!
Sleeps
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE III. A wood.[/h]

Enter EDGAR​

EDGAR

I heard myself proclaim'd;
And by the happy hollow of a tree
Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place,
That guard, and most unusual vigilance,
Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may 'scape,
I will preserve myself: and am bethought
To take the basest and most poorest shape
That ever penury, in contempt of man,
Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth;
Blanket my loins: elf all my hair in knots;
And with presented nakedness out-face
The winds and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
And with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills,
Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod! poor Tom!
That's something yet: Edgar I nothing am.
Exit
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE IV. Before GLOUCESTER's castle. KENT in the stocks.[/h]

Enter KING LEAR, Fool, and Gentleman​

KING LEAR

'Tis strange that they should so depart from home,
And not send back my messenger.
​

Gentleman

As I learn'd,
The night before there was no purpose in them
Of this remove.
​

KENT

Hail to thee, noble master!
​

KING LEAR

Ha!
Makest thou this shame thy pastime?
​

KENT

No, my lord.
​

Fool

Ha, ha! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied
by the heads, dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys by
the loins, and men by the legs: when a man's
over-lusty at legs, then he wears wooden
nether-stocks.
​

KING LEAR

What's he that hath so much thy place mistook
To set thee here?
​

KENT

It is both he and she;
Your son and daughter.
​

KING LEAR

No.
​

KENT

Yes.
​

KING LEAR

No, I say.
​

KENT

I say, yea.
​

KING LEAR

No, no, they would not.
​

KENT

Yes, they have.
​

KING LEAR

By Jupiter, I swear, no.
​

KENT

By Juno, I swear, ay.
​

KING LEAR

They durst not do 't;
They could not, would not do 't; 'tis worse than murder,
To do upon respect such violent outrage:
Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way
Thou mightst deserve, or they impose, this usage,
Coming from us.
​

KENT

My lord, when at their home
I did commend your highness' letters to them,
Ere I was risen from the place that show'd
My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,
Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth
From Goneril his mistress salutations;
Deliver'd letters, spite of intermission,
Which presently they read: on whose contents,
They summon'd up their meiny, straight took horse;
Commanded me to follow, and attend
The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks:
And meeting here the other messenger,
Whose welcome, I perceived, had poison'd mine,--
Being the very fellow that of late
Display'd so saucily against your highness,--
Having more man than wit about me, drew:
He raised the house with loud and coward cries.
Your son and daughter found this trespass worth
The shame which here it suffers.
​

Fool

Winter's not gone yet, if the wild-geese fly that way.
Fathers that wear rags
Do make their children blind;
But fathers that bear bags
Shall see their children kind.
Fortune, that arrant whore,
Ne'er turns the key to the poor.
But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours
for thy daughters as thou canst tell in a year.
​

KING LEAR

O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!
Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow,
Thy element's below! Where is this daughter?
​

KENT

With the earl, sir, here within.
​

KING LEAR

Follow me not;
Stay here.
Exit
​

Gentleman

Made you no more offence but what you speak of?
​

KENT

None.
How chance the king comes with so small a train?
​

Fool

And thou hadst been set i' the stocks for that
question, thou hadst well deserved it.
​

KENT

Why, fool?
​

Fool

We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee
there's no labouring i' the winter. All that follow
their noses are led by their eyes but blind men; and
there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him
that's stinking. Let go thy hold when a great wheel
runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with
following it: but the great one that goes up the
hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man
gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I
would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.
That sir which serves and seeks for gain,
And follows but for form,
Will pack when it begins to rain,
And leave thee in the storm,
But I will tarry; the fool will stay,
And let the wise man fly:
The knave turns fool that runs away;
The fool no knave, perdy.
​

KENT

Where learned you this, fool?
​

Fool

Not i' the stocks, fool.
Re-enter KING LEAR with GLOUCESTER
​

KING LEAR

Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary?
They have travell'd all the night? Mere fetches;
The images of revolt and flying off.
Fetch me a better answer.
​

GLOUCESTER

My dear lord,
You know the fiery quality of the duke;
How unremoveable and fix'd he is
In his own course.
​

KING LEAR

Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!
Fiery? what quality? Why, Gloucester, Gloucester,
I'ld speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.
​

GLOUCESTER

Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so.
​

KING LEAR

Inform'd them! Dost thou understand me, man?
​

GLOUCESTER

Ay, my good lord.
​

KING LEAR

The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father
Would with his daughter speak, commands her service:
Are they inform'd of this? My breath and blood!
Fiery? the fiery duke? Tell the hot duke that--
No, but not yet: may be he is not well:
Infirmity doth still neglect all office
Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves
When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind
To suffer with the body: I'll forbear;
And am fall'n out with my more headier will,
To take the indisposed and sickly fit
For the sound man. Death on my state! wherefore
Looking on KENT
Should he sit here? This act persuades me
That this remotion of the duke and her
Is practise only. Give me my servant forth.
Go tell the duke and 's wife I'ld speak with them,
Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,
Or at their chamber-door I'll beat the drum
Till it cry sleep to death.
​

GLOUCESTER

I would have all well betwixt you.
Exit
​

KING LEAR

O me, my heart, my rising heart! but, down!
​

Fool

Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels
when she put 'em i' the paste alive; she knapped 'em
o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cried 'Down,
wantons, down!' 'Twas her brother that, in pure
kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.
Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOUCESTER, and Servants
​

KING LEAR

Good morrow to you both.
​

CORNWALL

Hail to your grace!
KENT is set at liberty
​

REGAN

I am glad to see your highness.
​

KING LEAR

Regan, I think you are; I know what reason
I have to think so: if thou shouldst not be glad,
I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb,
Sepulchring an adultress.
To KENT
O, are you free?
Some other time for that. Beloved Regan,
Thy sister's naught: O Regan, she hath tied
Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here:
Points to his heart
I can scarce speak to thee; thou'lt not believe
With how depraved a quality--O Regan!
​

REGAN

I pray you, sir, take patience: I have hope.
You less know how to value her desert
Than she to scant her duty.
​

KING LEAR

Say, how is that?
​

REGAN

I cannot think my sister in the least
Would fail her obligation: if, sir, perchance
She have restrain'd the riots of your followers,
'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end,
As clears her from all blame.
​

KING LEAR

My curses on her!
​

REGAN

O, sir, you are old.
Nature in you stands on the very verge
Of her confine: you should be ruled and led
By some discretion, that discerns your state
Better than you yourself. Therefore, I pray you,
That to our sister you do make return;
Say you have wrong'd her, sir.
​

KING LEAR

Ask her forgiveness?
Do you but mark how this becomes the house:
'Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;
Kneeling
Age is unnecessary: on my knees I beg
That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.'
​

REGAN

Good sir, no more; these are unsightly tricks:
Return you to my sister.
​

KING LEAR

[Rising] Never, Regan:
She hath abated me of half my train;
Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue,
Most serpent-like, upon the very heart:
All the stored vengeances of heaven fall
On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,
You taking airs, with lameness!
​

CORNWALL

Fie, sir, fie!
​

KING LEAR

You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames
Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,
You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun,
To fall and blast her pride!
​

REGAN

O the blest gods! so will you wish on me,
When the rash mood is on.
​

KING LEAR

No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse:
Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give
Thee o'er to harshness: her eyes are fierce; but thine
Do comfort and not burn. 'Tis not in thee
To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,
And in conclusion to oppose the bolt
Against my coming in: thou better know'st
The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude;
Thy half o' the kingdom hast thou not forgot,
Wherein I thee endow'd.
​

REGAN

Good sir, to the purpose.
​

KING LEAR

Who put my man i' the stocks?
Tucket within
​

CORNWALL

What trumpet's that?
​

REGAN

I know't, my sister's: this approves her letter,
That she would soon be here.
Enter OSWALD
Is your lady come?
​

KING LEAR

This is a slave, whose easy-borrow'd pride
Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows.
Out, varlet, from my sight!
​

CORNWALL

What means your grace?
​

KING LEAR

Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good hope
Thou didst not know on't. Who comes here? O heavens,
Enter GONERIL
If you do love old men, if your sweet sway
Allow obedience, if yourselves are old,
Make it your cause; send down, and take my part!
To GONERIL
Art not ashamed to look upon this beard?
O Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand?
​

GONERIL

Why not by the hand, sir? How have I offended?
All's not offence that indiscretion finds
And dotage terms so.
​

KING LEAR

O sides, you are too tough;
Will you yet hold? How came my man i' the stocks?
​

CORNWALL

I set him there, sir: but his own disorders
Deserved much less advancement.
​

KING LEAR

You! did you?
​

REGAN

I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.
If, till the expiration of your month,
You will return and sojourn with my sister,
Dismissing half your train, come then to me:
I am now from home, and out of that provision
Which shall be needful for your entertainment.
​

KING LEAR

Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd?
No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
To wage against the enmity o' the air;
To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,--
Necessity's sharp pinch! Return with her?
Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took
Our youngest born, I could as well be brought
To knee his throne, and, squire-like; pension beg
To keep base life afoot. Return with her?
Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter
To this detested groom.
Pointing at OSWALD
​

GONERIL

At your choice, sir.
​

KING LEAR

I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad:
I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell:
We'll no more meet, no more see one another:
But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;
Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,
Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,
A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,
In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee;
Let shame come when it will, I do not call it:
I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,
Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove:
Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure:
I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,
I and my hundred knights.
​

REGAN

Not altogether so:
I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided
For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister;
For those that mingle reason with your passion
Must be content to think you old, and so--
But she knows what she does.
​

KING LEAR

Is this well spoken?
​

REGAN

I dare avouch it, sir: what, fifty followers?
Is it not well? What should you need of more?
Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger
Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house,
Should many people, under two commands,
Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.
​

GONERIL

Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance
From those that she calls servants or from mine?
​

REGAN

Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack you,
We could control them. If you will come to me,--
For now I spy a danger,--I entreat you
To bring but five and twenty: to no more
Will I give place or notice.
​

KING LEAR

I gave you all--
​

REGAN

And in good time you gave it.
​

KING LEAR

Made you my guardians, my depositaries;
But kept a reservation to be follow'd
With such a number. What, must I come to you
With five and twenty, Regan? said you so?
​

REGAN

And speak't again, my lord; no more with me.
​

KING LEAR

Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,
When others are more wicked: not being the worst
Stands in some rank of praise.
To GONERIL
I'll go with thee:
Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,
And thou art twice her love.
​

GONERIL

Hear me, my lord;
What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,
To follow in a house where twice so many
Have a command to tend you?
​

REGAN

What need one?
​

KING LEAR

O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life's as cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;
If only to go warm were gorgeous,
Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,
Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need,--
You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!
You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
And let not women's weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,
I will have such revenges on you both,
That all the world shall--I will do such things,--
What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep
No, I'll not weep:
I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!
Exeunt KING LEAR, GLOUCESTER, KENT, and Fool
Storm and tempest
​

CORNWALL

Let us withdraw; 'twill be a storm.
​

REGAN

This house is little: the old man and his people
Cannot be well bestow'd.
​

GONERIL

'Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest,
And must needs taste his folly.
​

REGAN

For his particular, I'll receive him gladly,
But not one follower.
​

GONERIL

So am I purposed.
Where is my lord of Gloucester?
​

CORNWALL

Follow'd the old man forth: he is return'd.
Re-enter GLOUCESTER
​

GLOUCESTER

The king is in high rage.
​

CORNWALL

Whither is he going?
​

GLOUCESTER

He calls to horse; but will I know not whither.
​

CORNWALL

'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself.
​

GONERIL

My lord, entreat him by no means to stay.
​

GLOUCESTER

Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds
Do sorely ruffle; for many miles a bout
There's scarce a bush.
​

REGAN

O, sir, to wilful men,
The injuries that they themselves procure
Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors:
He is attended with a desperate train;
And what they may incense him to, being apt
To have his ear abused, wisdom bids fear.
​

CORNWALL

Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night:
My Regan counsels well; come out o' the storm.
Exeunt

​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE I. A heath.[/h]

Storm still. Enter KENT and a Gentleman, meeting​

KENT

Who's there, besides foul weather?
​

Gentleman

One minded like the weather, most unquietly.
​

KENT

I know you. Where's the king?
​

Gentleman

Contending with the fretful element:
Bids the winds blow the earth into the sea,
Or swell the curled water 'bove the main,
That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,
Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,
Catch in their fury, and make nothing of;
Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn
The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.
This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,
The lion and the belly-pinched wolf
Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,
And bids what will take all.
​

KENT

But who is with him?
​

Gentleman

None but the fool; who labours to out-jest
His heart-struck injuries.
​

KENT

Sir, I do know you;
And dare, upon the warrant of my note,
Commend a dear thing to you. There is division,
Although as yet the face of it be cover'd
With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;
Who have--as who have not, that their great stars
Throned and set high?--servants, who seem no less,
Which are to France the spies and speculations
Intelligent of our state; what hath been seen,
Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes,
Or the hard rein which both of them have borne
Against the old kind king; or something deeper,
Whereof perchance these are but furnishings;
But, true it is, from France there comes a power
Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already,
Wise in our negligence, have secret feet
In some of our best ports, and are at point
To show their open banner. Now to you:
If on my credit you dare build so far
To make your speed to Dover, you shall find
Some that will thank you, making just report
Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow
The king hath cause to plain.
I am a gentleman of blood and breeding;
And, from some knowledge and assurance, offer
This office to you.
​

Gentleman

I will talk further with you.
​

KENT

No, do not.
For confirmation that I am much more
Than my out-wall, open this purse, and take
What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia,--
As fear not but you shall,--show her this ring;
And she will tell you who your fellow is
That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm!
I will go seek the king.
​

Gentleman

Give me your hand: have you no more to say?
​

KENT

Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet;
That, when we have found the king,--in which your pain
That way, I'll this,--he that first lights on him
Holla the other.
Exeunt severally
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE II. Another part of the heath. Storm still.[/h]

Enter KING LEAR and Fool​

KING LEAR

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!
​

Fool

O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry
house is better than this rain-water out o' door.
Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters' blessing:
here's a night pities neither wise man nor fool.
​

KING LEAR

Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain!
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;
I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children,
You owe me no subscription: then let fall
Your horrible pleasure: here I stand, your slave,
A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man:
But yet I call you servile ministers,
That have with two pernicious daughters join'd
Your high engender'd battles 'gainst a head
So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul!
​

Fool

He that has a house to put's head in has a good
head-piece.
The cod-piece that will house
Before the head has any,
The head and he shall louse;
So beggars marry many.
The man that makes his toe
What he his heart should make
Shall of a corn cry woe,
And turn his sleep to wake.
For there was never yet fair woman but she made
mouths in a glass.
​

KING LEAR

No, I will be the pattern of all patience;
I will say nothing.
Enter KENT
​

KENT

Who's there?
​

Fool

Marry, here's grace and a cod-piece; that's a wise
man and a fool.
​

KENT

Alas, sir, are you here? things that love night
Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies
Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,
And make them keep their caves: since I was man,
Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot carry
The affliction nor the fear.
​

KING LEAR

Let the great gods,
That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads,
Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,
That hast within thee undivulged crimes,
Unwhipp'd of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand;
Thou perjured, and thou simular man of virtue
That art incestuous: caitiff, to pieces shake,
That under covert and convenient seeming
Hast practised on man's life: close pent-up guilts,
Rive your concealing continents, and cry
These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man
More sinn'd against than sinning.
​

KENT

Alack, bare-headed!
Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel;
Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest:
Repose you there; while I to this hard house--
More harder than the stones whereof 'tis raised;
Which even but now, demanding after you,
Denied me to come in--return, and force
Their scanted courtesy.
​

KING LEAR

My wits begin to turn.
Come on, my boy: how dost, my boy? art cold?
I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow?
The art of our necessities is strange,
That can make vile things precious. Come,
your hovel.
Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart
That's sorry yet for thee.
​

Fool

[Singing]
He that has and a little tiny wit--
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,--
Must make content with his fortunes fit,
For the rain it raineth every day.
​

KING LEAR

True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this hovel.
Exeunt KING LEAR and KENT
​

Fool

This is a brave night to cool a courtezan.
I'll speak a prophecy ere I go:
When priests are more in word than matter;
When brewers mar their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors' tutors;
No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;
When every case in law is right;
No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
When slanders do not live in tongues;
Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;
When usurers tell their gold i' the field;
And bawds and whores do churches build;
Then shall the realm of Albion
Come to great confusion:
Then comes the time, who lives to see't,
That going shall be used with feet.
This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time.
Exit
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE III. Gloucester's castle.[/h]

Enter GLOUCESTER and EDMUND​

GLOUCESTER

Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural
dealing. When I desire their leave that I might
pity him, they took from me the use of mine own
house; charged me, on pain of their perpetual
displeasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for
him, nor any way sustain him.
​

EDMUND

Most savage and unnatural!
​

GLOUCESTER

Go to; say you nothing. There's a division betwixt
the dukes; and a worse matter than that: I have
received a letter this night; 'tis dangerous to be
spoken; I have locked the letter in my closet:
these injuries the king now bears will be revenged
home; there's part of a power already footed: we
must incline to the king. I will seek him, and
privily relieve him: go you and maintain talk with
the duke, that my charity be not of him perceived:
if he ask for me. I am ill, and gone to bed.
Though I die for it, as no less is threatened me,
the king my old master must be relieved. There is
some strange thing toward, Edmund; pray you, be careful.
Exit
​

EDMUND

This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke
Instantly know; and of that letter too:
This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me
That which my father loses; no less than all:
The younger rises when the old doth fall.
Exit
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE IV. The heath. Before a hovel.[/h]

Enter KING LEAR, KENT, and Fool​

KENT

Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter:
The tyranny of the open night's too rough
For nature to endure.
Storm still
​

KING LEAR

Let me alone.
​

KENT

Good my lord, enter here.
​

KING LEAR

Wilt break my heart?
​

KENT

I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.
​

KING LEAR

Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm
Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee;
But where the greater malady is fix'd,
The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'ldst shun a bear;
But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,
Thou'ldst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the
mind's free,
The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else
Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand
For lifting food to't? But I will punish home:
No, I will weep no more. In such a night
To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure.
In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all,--
O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
No more of that.
​

KENT

Good my lord, enter here.
​

KING LEAR

Prithee, go in thyself: seek thine own ease:
This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in.
To the Fool
In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty,--
Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.
Fool goes in
Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.
​

EDGAR

[Within] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom!
The Fool runs out from the hovel
​

Fool

Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit
Help me, help me!
​

KENT

Give me thy hand. Who's there?
​

Fool

A spirit, a spirit: he says his name's poor Tom.
​

KENT

What art thou that dost grumble there i' the straw?
Come forth.
Enter EDGAR disguised as a mad man
​

EDGAR

Away! the foul fiend follows me!
Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.
Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.
​

KING LEAR

Hast thou given all to thy two daughters?
And art thou come to this?
​

EDGAR

Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul
fiend hath led through fire and through flame, and
through ford and whirlipool e'er bog and quagmire;
that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters
in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made film
proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over
four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a
traitor. Bless thy five wits! Tom's a-cold,--O, do
de, do de, do de. Bless thee from whirlwinds,
star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some
charity, whom the foul fiend vexes: there could I
have him now,--and there,--and there again, and there.
Storm still
​

KING LEAR

What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?
Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all?
​

Fool

Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed.
​

KING LEAR

Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air
Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters!
​

KENT

He hath no daughters, sir.
​

KING LEAR

Death, traitor! nothing could have subdued nature
To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.
Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers
Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?
Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot
Those pelican daughters.
​

EDGAR

Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:
Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!
​

Fool

This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.
​

EDGAR

Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy parents;
keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with
man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud
array. Tom's a-cold.
​

KING LEAR

What hast thou been?
​

EDGAR

A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled
my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of
my mistress' heart, and did the act of darkness with
her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and
broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one that
slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it:
wine loved I deeply, dice dearly: and in woman
out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of
ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth,
wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey.
Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of
silks betray thy poor heart to woman: keep thy foot
out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen
from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend.
Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind:
Says suum, mun, ha, no, nonny.
Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let him trot by.
Storm still
​

KING LEAR

Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer
with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies.
Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou
owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep
no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three on
's are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself:
unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor bare,
forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings!
come unbutton here.
Tearing off his clothes
​

Fool

Prithee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis a naughty night
to swim in. Now a little fire in a wild field were
like an old lecher's heart; a small spark, all the
rest on's body cold. Look, here comes a walking fire.
Enter GLOUCESTER, with a torch
​

EDGAR

This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins
at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives
the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the
hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the
poor creature of earth.
S. Withold footed thrice the old;
He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;
Bid her alight,
And her troth plight,
And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!
​

KENT

How fares your grace?
​

KING LEAR

What's he?
​

KENT

Who's there? What is't you seek?
​

GLOUCESTER

What are you there? Your names?
​

EDGAR

Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad,
the tadpole, the wall-newt and the water; that in
the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages,
eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat and
the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the
standing pool; who is whipped from tithing to
tithing, and stock- punished, and imprisoned; who
hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his
body, horse to ride, and weapon to wear;
But mice and rats, and such small deer,
Have been Tom's food for seven long year.
Beware my follower. Peace, Smulkin; peace, thou fiend!
​

GLOUCESTER

What, hath your grace no better company?
​

EDGAR

The prince of darkness is a gentleman:
Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.
​

GLOUCESTER

Our flesh and blood is grown so vile, my lord,
That it doth hate what gets it.
​

EDGAR

Poor Tom's a-cold.
​

GLOUCESTER

Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer
To obey in all your daughters' hard commands:
Though their injunction be to bar my doors,
And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,
Yet have I ventured to come seek you out,
And bring you where both fire and food is ready.
​

KING LEAR

First let me talk with this philosopher.
What is the cause of thunder?
​

KENT

Good my lord, take his offer; go into the house.
​

KING LEAR

I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.
What is your study?
​

EDGAR

How to prevent the fiend, and to kill vermin.
​

KING LEAR

Let me ask you one word in private.
​

KENT

Importune him once more to go, my lord;
His wits begin to unsettle.
​

GLOUCESTER

Canst thou blame him?
Storm still
His daughters seek his death: ah, that good Kent!
He said it would be thus, poor banish'd man!
Thou say'st the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend,
I am almost mad myself: I had a son,
Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life,
But lately, very late: I loved him, friend;
No father his son dearer: truth to tell thee,
The grief hath crazed my wits. What a night's this!
I do beseech your grace,--
​

KING LEAR

O, cry your mercy, sir.
Noble philosopher, your company.
​

EDGAR

Tom's a-cold.
​

GLOUCESTER

In, fellow, there, into the hovel: keep thee warm.
​

KING LEAR

Come let's in all.
​

KENT

This way, my lord.
​

KING LEAR

With him;
I will keep still with my philosopher.
​

KENT

Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.
​

GLOUCESTER

Take him you on.
​

KENT

Sirrah, come on; go along with us.
​

KING LEAR

Come, good Athenian.
​

GLOUCESTER

No words, no words: hush.
​

EDGAR

Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
His word was still,--Fie, foh, and fum,
I smell the blood of a British man.
Exeunt
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE V. Gloucester's castle.[/h]

Enter CORNWALL and EDMUND​

CORNWALL

I will have my revenge ere I depart his house.
​

EDMUND

How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus
gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think
of.
​

CORNWALL

I now perceive, it was not altogether your
brother's evil disposition made him seek his death;
but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reprovable
badness in himself.
​

EDMUND

How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to
be just! This is the letter he spoke of, which
approves him an intelligent party to the advantages
of France: O heavens! that this treason were not,
or not I the detector!
​

CORNWALL

o with me to the duchess.
​

EDMUND

If the matter of this paper be certain, you have
mighty business in hand.
​

CORNWALL

True or false, it hath made thee earl of
Gloucester. Seek out where thy father is, that he
may be ready for our apprehension.
​

EDMUND

[Aside] If I find him comforting the king, it will
stuff his suspicion more fully.--I will persevere in
my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore
between that and my blood.
​

CORNWALL

I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a
dearer father in my love.
Exeunt

​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE VI. A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle.[/h]

Enter GLOUCESTER, KING LEAR, KENT, Fool, and EDGAR​

GLOUCESTER

Here is better than the open air; take it
thankfully. I will piece out the comfort with what
addition I can: I will not be long from you.
​

KENT

All the power of his wits have given way to his
impatience: the gods reward your kindness!
Exit GLOUCESTER
​

EDGAR

Frateretto calls me; and tells me
Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness.
Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.
​

Fool

Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a
gentleman or a yeoman?
​

KING LEAR

A king, a king!
​

Fool

No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son;
for he's a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman
before him.
​

KING LEAR

To have a thousand with red burning spits
Come hissing in upon 'em,--
​

EDGAR

The foul fiend bites my back.
​

Fool

He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a
horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath.
​

KING LEAR

It shall be done; I will arraign them straight.
To EDGAR
Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer;
To the Fool
Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she foxes!
​

EDGAR

Look, where he stands and glares!
Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?
Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me,--
​

Fool

Her boat hath a leak,
And she must not speak
Why she dares not come over to thee.
​

EDGAR

The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a
nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two
white herring. Croak not, black angel; I have no
food for thee.
​

KENT

How do you, sir? Stand you not so amazed:
Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?
​

KING LEAR

I'll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence.
To EDGAR
Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;
To the Fool
And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity,
Bench by his side:
To KENT
you are o' the commission,
Sit you too.
​

EDGAR

Let us deal justly.
Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?
Thy sheep be in the corn;
And for one blast of thy minikin mouth,
Thy sheep shall take no harm.
Pur! the cat is gray.
​

KING LEAR

Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my
oath before this honourable assembly, she kicked the
poor king her father.
​

Fool

Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril?
​

KING LEAR

She cannot deny it.
​

Fool

Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.
​

KING LEAR

And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim
What store her heart is made on. Stop her there!
Arms, arms, sword, fire! Corruption in the place!
False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape?
​

EDGAR

Bless thy five wits!
​

KENT

O pity! Sir, where is the patience now,
That thou so oft have boasted to retain?
​

EDGAR

[Aside] My tears begin to take his part so much,
They'll mar my counterfeiting.
​

KING LEAR

The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and
Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me.
​

EDGAR

Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs!
Be thy mouth or black or white,
Tooth that poisons if it bite;
Mastiff, grey-hound, mongrel grim,
Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,
Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail,
Tom will make them weep and wail:
For, with throwing thus my head,
Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.
Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and
fairs and market-towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.
​

KING LEAR

Then let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds
about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that
makes these hard hearts?
To EDGAR
You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred; only I
do not like the fashion of your garments: you will
say they are Persian attire: but let them be changed.
​

KENT

Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile.
​

KING LEAR

Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains:
so, so, so. We'll go to supper i' he morning. So, so, so.
​

Fool

And I'll go to bed at noon.
Re-enter GLOUCESTER
​

GLOUCESTER

Come hither, friend: where is the king my master?
​

KENT

Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits are gone.
​

GLOUCESTER

Good friend, I prithee, take him in thy arms;
I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him:
There is a litter ready; lay him in 't,
And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet
Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master:
If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life,
With thine, and all that offer to defend him,
Stand in assured loss: take up, take up;
And follow me, that will to some provision
Give thee quick conduct.
​

KENT

Oppressed nature sleeps:
This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses,
Which, if convenience will not allow,
Stand in hard cure.
To the Fool
Come, help to bear thy master;
Thou must not stay behind.
​

GLOUCESTER

Come, come, away.
Exeunt all but EDGAR
​

EDGAR

When we our betters see bearing our woes,
We scarcely think our miseries our foes.
Who alone suffers suffers most i' the mind,
Leaving free things and happy shows behind:
But then the mind much sufferance doth o'er skip,
When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.
How light and portable my pain seems now,
When that which makes me bend makes the king bow,
He childed as I father'd! Tom, away!
Mark the high noises; and thyself bewray,
When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee,
In thy just proof, repeals and reconciles thee.
What will hap more to-night, safe 'scape the king!
Lurk, lurk.
Exit
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE VII. Gloucester's castle.[/h]

Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GONERIL, EDMUND, and Servants​

CORNWALL

Post speedily to my lord your husband; show him
this letter: the army of France is landed. Seek
out the villain Gloucester.
Exeunt some of the Servants
​

REGAN

Hang him instantly.
​

GONERIL

Pluck out his eyes.
​

CORNWALL

Leave him to my displeasure. Edmund, keep you our
sister company: the revenges we are bound to take
upon your traitorous father are not fit for your
beholding. Advise the duke, where you are going, to
a most festinate preparation: we are bound to the
like. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent
betwixt us. Farewell, dear sister: farewell, my
lord of Gloucester.
Enter OSWALD
How now! where's the king?
​

OSWALD

My lord of Gloucester hath convey'd him hence:
Some five or six and thirty of his knights,
Hot questrists after him, met him at gate;
Who, with some other of the lords dependants,
Are gone with him towards Dover; where they boast
To have well-armed friends.
​

CORNWALL

Get horses for your mistress.
​

GONERIL

Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.
​

CORNWALL

Edmund, farewell.
Exeunt GONERIL, EDMUND, and OSWALD
Go seek the traitor Gloucester,
Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us.
Exeunt other Servants
Though well we may not pass upon his life
Without the form of justice, yet our power
Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men
May blame, but not control. Who's there? the traitor?
Enter GLOUCESTER, brought in by two or three
​

REGAN

Ingrateful fox! 'tis he.
​

CORNWALL

Bind fast his corky arms.
​

GLOUCESTER

What mean your graces? Good my friends, consider
You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends.
​

CORNWALL

Bind him, I say.
Servants bind him
​

REGAN

Hard, hard. O filthy traitor!
​

GLOUCESTER

Unmerciful lady as you are, I'm none.
​

CORNWALL

To this chair bind him. Villain, thou shalt find--
REGAN plucks his beard
​

GLOUCESTER

By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done
To pluck me by the beard.
​

REGAN

So white, and such a traitor!
​

GLOUCESTER

Naughty lady,
These hairs, which thou dost ravish from my chin,
Will quicken, and accuse thee: I am your host:
With robbers' hands my hospitable favours
You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?
​

CORNWALL

Come, sir, what letters had you late from France?
​

REGAN

Be simple answerer, for we know the truth.
​

CORNWALL

And what confederacy have you with the traitors
Late footed in the kingdom?
​

REGAN

To whose hands have you sent the lunatic king? Speak.
​

GLOUCESTER

I have a letter guessingly set down,
Which came from one that's of a neutral heart,
And not from one opposed.
​

CORNWALL

Cunning.
​

REGAN

And false.
​

CORNWALL

Where hast thou sent the king?
​

GLOUCESTER

To Dover.
​

REGAN

Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not charged at peril--
​

CORNWALL

Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that.
​

GLOUCESTER

I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course.
​

REGAN

Wherefore to Dover, sir?
​

GLOUCESTER

Because I would not see thy cruel nails
Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister
In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.
The sea, with such a storm as his bare head
In hell-black night endured, would have buoy'd up,
And quench'd the stelled fires:
Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain.
If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time,
Thou shouldst have said 'Good porter, turn the key,'
All cruels else subscribed: but I shall see
The winged vengeance overtake such children.
​

CORNWALL

See't shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair.
Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot.
​

GLOUCESTER

He that will think to live till he be old,
Give me some help! O cruel! O you gods!
​

REGAN

One side will mock another; the other too.
​

CORNWALL

If you see vengeance,--
​

First Servant

Hold your hand, my lord:
I have served you ever since I was a child;
But better service have I never done you
Than now to bid you hold.
​

REGAN

How now, you dog!
​

First Servant

If you did wear a beard upon your chin,
I'd shake it on this quarrel. What do you mean?
​

CORNWALL

My villain!
They draw and fight
​

First Servant

Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of anger.
​

REGAN

Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus!
Takes a sword, and runs at him behind
​

First Servant

O, I am slain! My lord, you have one eye left
To see some mischief on him. O!
Dies
​

CORNWALL

Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly!
Where is thy lustre now?
​

GLOUCESTER

All dark and comfortless. Where's my son Edmund?
Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature,
To quit this horrid act.
​

REGAN

Out, treacherous villain!
Thou call'st on him that hates thee: it was he
That made the overture of thy treasons to us;
Who is too good to pity thee.
​

GLOUCESTER

O my follies! then Edgar was abused.
Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!
​

REGAN

Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell
His way to Dover.
Exit one with GLOUCESTER
How is't, my lord? how look you?
​

CORNWALL

I have received a hurt: follow me, lady.
Turn out that eyeless villain; throw this slave
Upon the dunghill. Regan, I bleed apace:
Untimely comes this hurt: give me your arm.
Exit CORNWALL, led by REGAN
​

Second Servant

I'll never care what wickedness I do,
If this man come to good.
​

Third Servant

If she live long,
And in the end meet the old course of death,
Women will all turn monsters.
​

Second Servant

Let's follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam
To lead him where he would: his roguish madness
Allows itself to any thing.
​

Third Servant

Go thou: I'll fetch some flax and whites of eggs
To apply to his bleeding face. Now, heaven help him!
Exeunt severally
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE I. The heath.[/h]

Enter EDGAR​

EDGAR

Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd,
Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst,
The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,
Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear:
The lamentable change is from the best;
The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then,
Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace!
The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst
Owes nothing to thy blasts. But who comes here?
Enter GLOUCESTER, led by an Old Man
My father, poorly led? World, world, O world!
But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,
Lie would not yield to age.
​

Old Man

O, my good lord, I have been your tenant, and
your father's tenant, these fourscore years.
​

GLOUCESTER

Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone:
Thy comforts can do me no good at all;
Thee they may hurt.
​

Old Man

Alack, sir, you cannot see your way.
​

GLOUCESTER

I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;
I stumbled when I saw: full oft 'tis seen,
Our means secure us, and our mere defects
Prove our commodities. O dear son Edgar,
The food of thy abused father's wrath!
Might I but live to see thee in my touch,
I'ld say I had eyes again!
​

Old Man

How now! Who's there?
​

EDGAR

[Aside] O gods! Who is't can say 'I am at
the worst'?
I am worse than e'er I was.
​

Old Man

'Tis poor mad Tom.
​

EDGAR

[Aside] And worse I may be yet: the worst is not
So long as we can say 'This is the worst.'
​

Old Man

Fellow, where goest?
​

GLOUCESTER

Is it a beggar-man?
​

Old Man

Madman and beggar too.
​

GLOUCESTER

He has some reason, else he could not beg.
I' the last night's storm I such a fellow saw;
Which made me think a man a worm: my son
Came then into my mind; and yet my mind
Was then scarce friends with him: I have heard
more since.
As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport.
​

EDGAR

[Aside] How should this be?
Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow,
Angering itself and others.--Bless thee, master!
​

GLOUCESTER

Is that the naked fellow?
​

Old Man

Ay, my lord.
​

GLOUCESTER

Then, prithee, get thee gone: if, for my sake,
Thou wilt o'ertake us, hence a mile or twain,
I' the way toward Dover, do it for ancient love;
And bring some covering for this naked soul,
Who I'll entreat to lead me.
​

Old Man

Alack, sir, he is mad.
​

GLOUCESTER

'Tis the times' plague, when madmen lead the blind.
Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure;
Above the rest, be gone.
​

Old Man

I'll bring him the best 'parel that I have,
Come on't what will.
Exit
​

GLOUCESTER

Sirrah, naked fellow,--
​

EDGAR

Poor Tom's a-cold.
Aside
I cannot daub it further.
​

GLOUCESTER

Come hither, fellow.
​

EDGAR

[Aside] And yet I must.--Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed.
​

GLOUCESTER

Know'st thou the way to Dover?
​

EDGAR

Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path. Poor
Tom hath been scared out of his good wits: bless
thee, good man's son, from the foul fiend! five
fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as
Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of
stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, of
mopping and mowing, who since possesses chambermaids
and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master!
​

GLOUCESTER

Here, take this purse, thou whom the heavens' plagues
Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched
Makes thee the happier: heavens, deal so still!
Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man,
That slaves your ordinance, that will not see
Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly;
So distribution should undo excess,
And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover?
​

EDGAR

Ay, master.
​

GLOUCESTER

There is a cliff, whose high and bending head
Looks fearfully in the confined deep:
Bring me but to the very brim of it,
And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear
With something rich about me: from that place
I shall no leading need.
​

EDGAR

Give me thy arm:
Poor Tom shall lead thee.
Exeunt
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE II. Before ALBANY's palace.[/h]

Enter GONERIL and EDMUND​

GONERIL

Welcome, my lord: I marvel our mild husband
Not met us on the way.
Enter OSWALD
Now, where's your master'?
​

OSWALD

Madam, within; but never man so changed.
I told him of the army that was landed;
He smiled at it: I told him you were coming:
His answer was 'The worse:' of Gloucester's treachery,
And of the loyal service of his son,
When I inform'd him, then he call'd me sot,
And told me I had turn'd the wrong side out:
What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him;
What like, offensive.
​

GONERIL

[To EDMUND] Then shall you go no further.
It is the cowish terror of his spirit,
That dares not undertake: he'll not feel wrongs
Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way
May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother;
Hasten his musters and conduct his powers:
I must change arms at home, and give the distaff
Into my husband's hands. This trusty servant
Shall pass between us: ere long you are like to hear,
If you dare venture in your own behalf,
A mistress's command. Wear this; spare speech;
Giving a favour
Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak,
Would stretch thy spirits up into the air:
Conceive, and fare thee well.
​

EDMUND

Yours in the ranks of death.
​

GONERIL

My most dear Gloucester!
Exit EDMUND
O, the difference of man and man!
To thee a woman's services are due:
My fool usurps my body.
​

OSWALD

Madam, here comes my lord.
Exit
Enter ALBANY
​

GONERIL

I have been worth the whistle.
​

ALBANY

O Goneril!
You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
Blows in your face. I fear your disposition:
That nature, which contemns its origin,
Cannot be border'd certain in itself;
She that herself will sliver and disbranch
From her material sap, perforce must wither
And come to deadly use.
​

GONERIL

No more; the text is foolish.
​

ALBANY

Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile:
Filths savour but themselves. What have you done?
Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd?
A father, and a gracious aged man,
Whose reverence even the head-lugg'd bear would lick,
Most barbarous, most degenerate! have you madded.
Could my good brother suffer you to do it?
A man, a prince, by him so benefited!
If that the heavens do not their visible spirits
Send quickly down to tame these vile offences,
It will come,
Humanity must perforce prey on itself,
Like monsters of the deep.
​

GONERIL

Milk-liver'd man!
That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;
Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning
Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know'st
Fools do those villains pity who are punish'd
Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum?
France spreads his banners in our noiseless land;
With plumed helm thy slayer begins threats;
Whiles thou, a moral fool, sit'st still, and criest
'Alack, why does he so?'
​

ALBANY

See thyself, devil!
Proper deformity seems not in the fiend
So horrid as in woman.
​

GONERIL

O vain fool!
​

ALBANY

Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame,
Be-monster not thy feature. Were't my fitness
To let these hands obey my blood,
They are apt enough to dislocate and tear
Thy flesh and bones: howe'er thou art a fiend,
A woman's shape doth shield thee.
​

GONERIL

Marry, your manhood now--
Enter a Messenger
​

ALBANY

What news?
​

Messenger

O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall's dead:
Slain by his servant, going to put out
The other eye of Gloucester.
​

ALBANY

Gloucester's eye!
​

Messenger

A servant that he bred, thrill'd with remorse,
Opposed against the act, bending his sword
To his great master; who, thereat enraged,
Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead;
But not without that harmful stroke, which since
Hath pluck'd him after.
​

ALBANY

This shows you are above,
You justicers, that these our nether crimes
So speedily can venge! But, O poor Gloucester!
Lost he his other eye?
​

Messenger

Both, both, my lord.
This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer;
'Tis from your sister.
​

GONERIL

[Aside] One way I like this well;
But being widow, and my Gloucester with her,
May all the building in my fancy pluck
Upon my hateful life: another way,
The news is not so tart.--I'll read, and answer.
Exit
​

ALBANY

Where was his son when they did take his eyes?
​

Messenger

Come with my lady hither.
​

ALBANY

He is not here.
​

Messenger

No, my good lord; I met him back again.
​

ALBANY

Knows he the wickedness?
​

Messenger

Ay, my good lord; 'twas he inform'd against him;
And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment
Might have the freer course.
​

ALBANY

Gloucester, I live
To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king,
And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend:
Tell me what more thou know'st.
Exeunt
​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE III. The French camp near Dover.[/h]

Enter KENT and a Gentleman​

KENT

Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back
know you the reason?
​

Gentleman

Something he left imperfect in the
state, which since his coming forth is thought
of; which imports to the kingdom so much
fear and danger, that his personal return was
most required and necessary.
​

KENT

Who hath he left behind him general?
​

Gentleman

The Marshal of France, Monsieur La Far.
​

KENT

Did your letters pierce the queen to any
demonstration of grief?
​

Gentleman

Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence;
And now and then an ample tear trill'd down
Her delicate cheek: it seem'd she was a queen
Over her passion; who, most rebel-like,
Sought to be king o'er her.
​

KENT

O, then it moved her.
​

Gentleman

Not to a rage: patience and sorrow strove
Who should express her goodliest. You have seen
Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears
Were like a better way: those happy smilets,
That play'd on her ripe lip, seem'd not to know
What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence,
As pearls from diamonds dropp'd. In brief,
Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved,
If all could so become it.
​

KENT

Made she no verbal question?
​

Gentleman

'Faith, once or twice she heaved the name of 'father'
Pantingly forth, as if it press'd her heart:
Cried 'Sisters! sisters! Shame of ladies! sisters!
Kent! father! sisters! What, i' the storm? i' the night?
Let pity not be believed!' There she shook
The holy water from her heavenly eyes,
And clamour moisten'd: then away she started
To deal with grief alone.
​

KENT

It is the stars,
The stars above us, govern our conditions;
Else one self mate and mate could not beget
Such different issues. You spoke not with her since?
​

Gentleman

No.
​

KENT

Was this before the king return'd?
​

Gentleman

No, since.
​

KENT

Well, sir, the poor distressed Lear's i' the town;
Who sometime, in his better tune, remembers
What we are come about, and by no means
Will yield to see his daughter.
​

Gentleman

Why, good sir?
​

KENT

A sovereign shame so elbows him: his own unkindness,
That stripp'd her from his benediction, turn'd her
To foreign casualties, gave her dear rights
To his dog-hearted daughters, these things sting
His mind so venomously, that burning shame
Detains him from Cordelia.
​

Gentleman

Alack, poor gentleman!
​

KENT

Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard not?
​

Gentleman

'Tis so, they are afoot.
​

KENT

Well, sir, I'll bring you to our master Lear,
And leave you to attend him: some dear cause
Will in concealment wrap me up awhile;
When I am known aright, you shall not grieve
Lending me this acquaintance. I pray you, go
Along with me.
Exeunt

​

 

[*JujU*]

[h=3]SCENE IV. The same. A tent.[/h]

Enter, with drum and colours, CORDELIA, Doctor, and Soldiers​

CORDELIA

Alack, 'tis he: why, he was met even now
As mad as the vex'd sea; singing aloud;
Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds,
With bur-docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,
Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn. A century send forth;
Search every acre in the high-grown field,
And bring him to our eye.
Exit an Officer
What can man's wisdom
In the restoring his bereaved sense?
He that helps him take all my outward worth.
​

Doctor

There is means, madam:
Our foster-nurse of nature is repose,
The which he lacks; that to provoke in him,
Are many simples operative, whose power
Will close the eye of anguish.
​

CORDELIA

All blest secrets,
All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth,
Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate
In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him;
Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life
That wants the means to lead it.
Enter a Messenger
​

Messenger

News, madam;
The British powers are marching hitherward.
​

CORDELIA

'Tis known before; our preparation stands
In expectation of them. O dear father,
It is thy business that I go about;
Therefore great France
My mourning and important tears hath pitied.
No blown ambition doth our arms incite,
But love, dear love, and our aged father's right:
Soon may I hear and see him!
Exeunt
​