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King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606. It is considered one of his greatest works. King Lear descends into madness after wrongly distributing his estate on the strength of flattery. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological pre-Roman Celtic king. It has been widely adapted for stage and screen, with the part of Lear played by many of the world's most accomplished actors.

There are two distinct versions of the play:The True Chronicle of the History of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters, which appeared in quarto in 1608, and The Tragedy of King Lear, a more theatrical version, which appeared in the First Folio in 1623. The two texts are commonly printed in a conflated version, although many modern editors have argued that each version has its individual integrity.^[1]

After the Restoration the play was often modified by theatre practitioners who disliked its dark and depressing tone, but since the 19th century it has been regarded as one of Shakespeare's supreme achievements. The tragedy is particularly noted for its probing observations on the nature of human suffering and kinship.

Contents 1 Characters 2 Synopsis 3 Sources 3.1 Changes from source material 4 Date and text 5 Interpretations 6 Performance history 6.1 20th Century 6.2 21st Century 7 Points of debate 7.1 Opening 7.2 Tragic ending 7.3 Cordelia and the Fool 8 Adaptations and cultural references 8.1 Adaptations 8.2 Critical analysis 8.3 Reworkings 8.3.1 Novels 8.3.2 Graphic Novels 8.3.3 Plays 8.3.4 Films 8.4 Film adaptations 8.5 Notable performers as King Lear 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

Characters

Lear, King of Britain Goneril (sometimes written Gonerill), eldest daughter of Lear Regan, second daughter of Lear Cordelia, youngest daughter of Lear[2] Duke of Albany, husband to Goneril[3] Duke of Cornwall, husband to Regan Earl of Gloucester (sometimes written as Gloster) Earl of Kent, who appears throughout much of the play under the guise of Caius Edgar, son of Gloucester Edmund (sometimes written Edmond), illegitimate son of Gloucester

Oswald, steward to Goneril Fool King of France, suitor and later husband to Cordelia Duke of Burgundy, suitor to Cordelia Curan, a courtier Old man, tenant of Gloucester. A Doctor, an Officer employed by Edmund, a Gentleman attending on Cordelia, a Herald, Servants to Cornwall. Knights of Lear's Train, Officers, Messengers, Soldiers, and Attendants

Synopsis

Lear, who is elderly, wants to retire from power. He decides to divide his realm among his three daughters, and offers the largest share to the one who loves him best. Goneril and Regan both proclaim in fulsome terms that they love him more than anything in the world, which pleases him. Cordelia speaks temperately, honestly but bluntly which annoys him. In his anger he disinherits her, and divides the kingdom between the other two. Kent objects to this unfair treatment. Lear is further enraged by Kent's protests, and banishes him from the country. Cordelia's two suitors enter. Learning that she is disinherited, the Duke of Burgundy withdraws his suit, but the King of France is impressed by her honesty and marries her anyway.

Lear announces he will live alternately with Goneril and Regan, and their husbands, the Dukes of Albany and Cornwall. He reserves to himself a retinue of one hundred knights, to be supported by his daughters. Goneril and Regan speak privately, agreeing that Lear is old and foolish.

Edmund resents his illegitimate status, and plots to supplant his legitimate older brother Edgar. He tricks their father Gloucester with a forged letter, making him think Edgar plans to usurp the estate. Kent returns from exile in disguise under the name of Caius, and Lear hires him as a servant. Lear discovers that now that Goneril has power, she no longer respects him. She orders him to behave better and reduce his retinue. Enraged, Lear departs for Regan's home. The Fool mocks Lear's misfortune. Edmund fakes an attack by Edgar, and Gloucester is completely taken in. He disinherits Edgar and proclaims him outlaw.

Kent meets Oswald at Gloucester's home, quarrels with him, and is put in the stocks by Regan and her husband Cornwall. When Lear arrives, he objects, but Regan takes the same line as Goneril. Lear is enraged but impotent. Goneril arrives and echoes Regan. Lear yields completely to his rage. He rushes out into a storm to rant against his ungrateful daughters, accompanied by the mocking Fool. Kent later follows to protect him. Gloucester protests Lear's mistreatment. Wandering on the heath after the storm, Lear meets Edgar, in the guise of Tom o' Bedlam, that is, a madman. Edgar babbles madly while Lear denounces his daughters. Gloucester leads them all to shelter.

Edmund betrays Gloucester to Cornwall, Regan, and Goneril. He shows a letter from his father to the King of France asking for help against them; and in fact a French army has landed in Britain. Gloucester is arrested, and Cornwall gouges out his eyes. But one of Cornwall's servants is so outraged by this that he attacks and fatally wounds Cornwall. Regan kills the mutinous servant, and tells Gloucester that Edmund tricked him; then she turns him out to wander the heath too. Edgar, in his madman's guise as Tom, meets blinded Gloucester on the heath. Gloucester begs Tom to lead him to a cliff, so that he may jump to his death.

Goneril meets Edmund and discovers that she finds him more attractive than her honest husband Albany, whom she regards as milk-livered. Albany is disgusted by the sisters' treatment of Lear, and the mutilation of Gloucester, and denounces Goneril. Kent leads Lear to the French army, which is accompanied by Cordelia. But Lear is half-mad and terribly embarrassed by his earlier follies. Albany leads the British army to meet the French. Regan too is attracted to Edmund, and the two sisters become jealous. Goneril sends Oswald with letters to Edmund, and also tells Oswald to kill Gloucester if he sees him. Edgar pretends to lead Gloucester to a cliff, then changes his voice and tells Gloucester he has miraculously survived a great fall. They meet Lear, who is now completely mad. Lear rants that the whole world is corrupt and runs off.

Oswald tries to kill Gloucester, but is slain by Edgar. In Oswald's pocket, Edgar finds a letter from Goneril to Edmund suggesting the murder of Albany. Kent and Cordelia take charge of Lear, whose madness largely passes. Regan, Goneril, Albany, and Edmund meet with their forces. Albany insists that they fight the French invaders, but not harm Lear or Cordelia. The two sisters lust for Edmund, who has made promises to both. He considers the dilemma, and plots the deaths of Albany, Lear, and Cordelia. Edgar gives Goneril's letter to Albany. The armies meet in battle, the British defeat the French, and Lear and Cordelia are captured. Edmund sends them off with secret orders for execution.

The victorious British leaders meet, and Regan now declares she will marry Edmund. But Albany exposes the intrigues of Edmund and Goneril, and proclaims Edmund a traitor. Regan collapses; Goneril has poisoned her. Edmund defies Albany, who calls for a trial by combat. Edgar appears to fight Edmund, and fatally stabs him in a duel. Albany shows Goneril's letter to her; she flees in shame and rage. Edgar reveals himself; Gloucester dies offstage from the overwhelming shock and joy of this revelation.

Offstage, Goneril stabs herself, and confesses to poisoning Regan. Edmund, dying, reveals his order to kill Lear and Cordelia. But it is too late: Cordelia is dead, though Lear slew the killer. Lear recognizes Kent. Albany urges Lear to resume his throne, but Lear is too far gone in grief and hardship. He collapses and dies. Albany offers to share power between Kent and Edgar but Kent, overwhelmed with sadness, refuses. At the end, either Albany or Edgar (depending on whether one reads the Quarto or the Folio version^[4]) is crowned King.

Sources

Shakespeare's play is based on various accounts of the semi-legendary Celtic figure Lear/Lir/Llŷr. Shakespeare's most important source is probably the second edition of The Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande by Raphael Holinshed, published in 1587. Holinshed himself found the story in the earlier Historia Regum Britanniae by Geoffrey of Monmouth, which was written in the 12th century. Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, published 1590, also contains a character named Cordelia, who also dies from hanging, as in King Lear.

Other possible sources are A Mirror for Magistrates (1574), by John Higgins; The Malcontent (1604), by John Marston; The London Prodigal (1605); Arcadia (1580–1590), by Sir Philip Sidney, from which Shakespeare took the main outline of the Gloucester subplot; Montaigne's Essays, which were translated into English by John Florio in 1603; An Historical Description of Iland of Britaine, by William Harrison; Remaines Concerning Britaine, by William Camden (1606); Albion's England, by William Warner, (1589); and A Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures, by Samuel Harsnett (1603), which provided some of the language used by Edgar while he feigns madness. King Lear is also a literary variant of a common fairy tale, in which a father rejects his youngest daughter for a statement of her love that does not please him.^[5]

The source of the subplot involving Gloucester, Edgar, and Edmund is a tale in Philip Sidney's Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, with a blind Paphlagonian king and his two sons, Leonatus and Plexitrus.^[6]

Changes from source material

Besides the subplot involving the Earl of Gloucester and his sons, the principal innovation Shakespeare made to this story was the death of Cordelia and Lear at the end. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this tragic ending was much criticised, and alternative versions were written and performed, in which the leading characters survived and Edgar and Cordelia were married (despite the fact that Cordelia was already married to the King of France.)

Date and text

Although a date of composition cannot be given, many editions of the play date King Lear between 1603 and 1606. The latest it could have been written is 1606, because the Stationers' Register notes a performance on December 26, 1606. The 1603 date originates from words in Edgar's speeches which may derive from Samuel Harsnett's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603).^[7] In his Arden edition, R.A. Foakes argues for a date of 1605–6, because one of Shakespeare's sources, The True Chronicle History of King Leir, was not published until 1605; close correspondences between that play and Shakespeare's suggest that he may have been working from a text (rather than from recollections of a performance).^[8] On the contrary, Frank Kermode, in the Riverside Shakespeare, considers the publication of Leir to have been a response to performances of Shakespeare's already-written play; noting a sonnet by William Strachey that may have verbal resemblances with Lear, Kermode concludes that "1604-5 seems the best compromise".^[9]

However, before Kenneth Muir set out the case for the play's indebtedness to Harsnett's 1603 text, a minority of scholars believed the play to be much older. In 1936, A. S. Cairncross argued that "the relationship of the two plays [Leir and Lear] has been inverted": Shakespeare's Lear came first and that the anonymous Leir is an imitation of it.^[10] One piece of evidence for this view is that in 1594, King Leir was entered into the Stationers' Register (but never published), while in the same year a play called King Leare was recorded by Philip Henslowe as being performed at the Rose theatre.^[11] However, the majority view is that these two references are simply variant spellings of the same play, King Leir.^[12] In addition, Shakespeare authorship researcher Eva Turner Clark, who believed the plays were written by the Earl of Oxford, saw numerous parallels between the play and the events of 1589–90, including the Kent banishment subplot, which she believed to parallel the 1589 banishment of Sir Francis Drake by Queen Elizabeth.^[13] The question of dating is further complicated by the question of revision (see below).

The modern text of King Lear derives from three sources: two quartos, published in 1608 (Q₁) and 1619 (Q₂) ^[14] respectively, and the version in the First Folio of 1623 (F₁). The differences between these versions are significant. Q₁ contains 285 lines not in F₁; F₁ contains around 100 lines not in Q₁. Also, at least a thousand individual words are changed between the two texts, each text has a completely different style of punctuation, and about half the verse lines in the F₁ are either printed as prose or differently divided in the Q₁. The early editors, beginning with Alexander Pope, simply conflated the two texts, creating the modern version that has remained nearly universal for centuries. The conflated version is born from the presumption that Shakespeare wrote only one original manuscript, now unfortunately lost, and that the Quarto and Folio versions are distortions of that original.

As early as 1931, Madeleine Doran suggested that the two texts had basically different provenances, and that these differences between them were critically interesting. This argument, however, was not widely discussed until the late 1970s, when it was revived, principally by Michael Warren and Gary Taylor. Their thesis, while controversial, has gained significant acceptance. It posits, essentially, that the Quarto derives from something close to Shakespeare's foul papers, and the Folio is drawn in some way from a promptbook, prepared for production by Shakespeare's company or someone else. In short, Q₁ is "authorial"; F₁ is "theatrical." In criticism, the rise of "revision criticism" has been part of the pronounced trend away from mid-century formalism. The New Cambridge Shakespeare has published separate editions of Q and F; the most recent Pelican Shakespeare edition contains both the 1608 Quarto and the 1623 Folio text as well as a conflated version; the New Arden edition edited by R.A. Foakes is not the only recent edition to offer the traditional conflated text.

Interpretations

Since there are no literal mothers in King Lear, Coppélia Kahn^[15] provides a psychoanalytic interpretation of the “maternal subtext” found in the play. According to Kahn, Lear in his old age regresses to an infantile disposition, and now seeks for a love that is normally satisfied by a mothering woman. Her characterization of Lear is that of a child being mothered, but without real mothers, his children become the daughter-mother figures. Lear’s contest of love serves as the binding agreement; his daughters will get their inheritance provided they care for him, especially Cordelia, whose “kind nursery” he will greatly depend on. Her refusal to love him more than a husband is often interpreted as a resistance from incest, but Kahn also inserts the image of a rejecting mother. The situation is now a reversal of parent-child roles, in which Lear’s madness is essentially a childlike rage from being deprived of maternal care. Even when Lear and Cordelia are captured together, this madness persists as Lear envisions a nursery in prison, where Cordelia’s sole existence is for him. However, it is Cordelia’s death that ultimately ends his fantasy of a daughter-mother, as the play ends with only male characters left.

Freud asserted that Cordelia symbolizes Death. Therefore, when the play begins with Lear rejecting his daughter, it can be interpreted as him rejecting death; Lear is unwilling to face the finitude of his being. The play’s poignant ending scene, wherein Lear carries the body of his beloved Cordelia, was of great importance to Freud. In this scene, she causes in Lear a realization of his finitude, or as Freud put it, she causes him to “make friends with the necessity of dying”^[16]. It is logical to infer that Shakespeare had special intentions with Cordelia’s death, as he was the only writer to have Cordelia killed (in the version by the anonymous author, she continues to live happily, and in Holinshed’s, she restores her father and succeeds him).^{[citation needed]}

Performance history

The first recorded performance on December 26, 1606 is the only one known with certainty from Shakespeare's era. The play was revived soon after the theatres re-opened after the 1660 Restoration, and was played in its original form as late as 1675. But the urge to adapt and change that was so liberally applied to Shakespeare's plays in that period eventually settled on Lear as on other works. Nahum Tate produced an adaptation in 1681: he gave the play a happy ending, with Edgar and Cordelia marrying, and Lear restored to kingship. The Fool was eliminated altogether, and Arante, a confidant for Cordelia, was added.^[17] This was the version acted by Thomas Betterton, David Garrick, and Edmund Kean, and praised by Samuel Johnson. The play was suppressed in the late 18th and early 19th century by the British government, which disliked the dramatization of a mad monarch at a time when George III was suffering mental impairment.^[18] The original text did not return to the London stage until William Charles Macready's production of 1838.^[19] Other actors who were famous as King Lear in the nineteenth century were Samuel Phelps and Edwin Booth.

20th Century

The play is among the most popular of Shakespeare’s works to be staged in the 20th century. The most famous staging may be the 1962 production directed by Peter Brook, with Paul Scofield as Lear and Alec McCowen as The Fool. In a 2004 opinion poll of members of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Scofield's Lear was voted as the greatest performance in a Shakespearean play in the history of the RSC .^[20] and immortalized on film in 1971. The longest Broadway run of King Lear was the 1968 production with Lee J. Cobb as Lear, Stacy Keach as Edmund, Philip Bosco as Kent, and Rene Auberjonois as the Fool. It ran for 72 performances: no other Broadway production of the play has run for as many as 50 performances. A Soviet film adaptation was done by Mosfilm in 1971, directed by Grigori Kozintsev, with black-and-white photography and a score by Shostakovich. The script was based on a translation by Boris Pasternak, and Estonian actor Jüri Järvet played the mad king.

Other famous actors played Lear in the twentieth century.

• Laurence Olivier decided to tackle the role for the second time at the age of 75 in a television production in 1983 with an all-star cast that included Diana Rigg, John Hurt, and Colin Blakely. Olivier had played Lear previously in 1946, at the age of 39, at the Old Vic, but his performance was generally considered a disappointment and overshadowed in the production by Alec Guinness' depiction of The Fool ^[21]. His 1983 Lear was telecast in the United States in 1984 as a two hour and forty minute production, which was widely acclaimed; Olivier received the last of his several Emmy Awards as Best Actor for his performance.
• John Gielgud was 26 when he first played Lear at the Old Vic in 1931, and played the part in three additional stage productions including a controversial 1955 Stratford Memorial Theatre production designed by sculptor Isamu Noguchi^[22]. He was 90 when he took on the part for the final time in a 1994 radio production with a cast that included Judi Dench, Kenneth Branagh, and Derek Jacobi.
• Orson Welles starred in a live television version (now preserved on kinescope) in 1953 for CBS, directed by Peter Brook. This production condensed the play to ninety minutes and eliminated the Edgar-Edmund subplot. Welles played Lear again at the New York Civic Center in 1958, breaking his ankle during previews and playing most of the performances in a wheelchair.
• Donald Wolfit was considered one of the great Lears, keeping the role in his repertory for over ten years and playing it on Broadway and for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
• Ian Holm won a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance of Lear at the Royal National Theatre and an Emmy nomination for the 1997 television version. Minimalist sets put the focus on the acting.
• James Earl Jones played Lear in the New York Shakespeare Festival, with Raúl Juliá as Edmund, Paul Sorvino as Gloucester, and Rene Auberjonois as Edgar. This production was videotaped and telecast in 1974 by PBS.
• Michael Hordern played Lear in the BBC Television Shakespeare series.
• William Devlin starred in a drastically shortened live television version in 1948, directed by Royston Morley.

21st Century

The first great 21st century Lear may be Christopher Plummer, who became the first actor to receive a Tony Award nomination for playing Lear in the 2004 Broadway production at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.

Ian McKellen (who had previously appeared as Edgar and Kent, winning a Drama Desk Award for the former) was triumphant as Lear in April 2007, with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon. This production was taken on a world tour with a cast that included Romola Garai as Cordelia, Sylvester McCoy as the Fool, Frances Barber as Goneril, Monica Dolan as Regan, William Gaunt as Gloucester, and Jonathan Hyde as Kent. It continued at the New London Theatre, Drury Lane, where it ended its run on 12 January 2008 and netted McKellen a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. The production, which was directed by Trevor Nunn and was alternated with The Seagull, was later videotaped and broadcast on Great Performances on PBS, garnering McKellen an Emmy Award nomination.

Other recent Lears were:

• David Warner starred as Lear in a 2005 production at Minerva Studio, Sussex, UK.
• Pete Postlethwaite as Lear at the Young Vic, London, UK. 29 January 2009–28 March 2009.
• Stacy Keach in a production at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC in 2009
• Kevin Kline in a production at the New York Shakespeare Festival.

Points of debate

Opening

Act I, Scene I features a ceremony in which King Lear divides his kingdom among his daughters. Lear seemingly partitions his kingdom according to the verbal expressions of his daughters' love for him. If this were a test, it would make most sense for Lear to hear out all three daughters before starting to divide the kingdom. David Ball posits an alternate interpretation.^[23] He bases this analysis on the conversation between Kent and Gloucester which are the first seven lines of the play and serve to help the audience understand the context of the drama about to unfold.

“	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.	”
—King Lear, Act I, Scene I

Ball interprets this statement to mean that the court already knows how the King is going to divide his kingdom; that the outcome of the ceremony is already decided and publicly known.

Alternatively, it has been suggested that the King's "contest" has more to do with his control over the unmarried Cordelia.^[24]

Tragic ending

The adaptations that Shakespeare made to the legend of King Lear to produce his tragic version are quite telling of the effect they would have had on his contemporary audience. The story of King Lear was familiar to the average English Renaissance theatre goer (as were many of Shakespeare's sources) and any discrepancies between versions would have been immediately apparent.

Shakespeare's tragic conclusion gains its sting from such a discrepancy. The traditional legend and all adaptations preceding Shakespeare's have it that after Lear is restored to the throne, he remains there until "made ripe for death" (Edmund Spenser). Cordelia, her sisters also dead, takes the throne as rightful heir, but after a few years is overthrown and imprisoned by nephews, leading to her suicide.

Shakespeare shocks his audience by bringing the worn and haggard Lear onto the stage, carrying his dead youngest daughter. He taunts them with the possibility that she may live yet with Lear saying, "This feather stirs; she lives!" But Cordelia's death is soon confirmed.

This was indeed too bleak for some to take, even many years later. King Lear was at first unsuccessful on the Restoration stage, and it was only with Nahum Tate's happy-ending version of 1681 that it became part of the repertory. Tate's Lear, where Lear survives and triumphs, and Edgar and Cordelia get married, held the stage until 1838. Samuel Johnson endorsed the use of Tate's version in his edition of Shakespeare's plays (1765): "Cordelia, from the time of Tate, has always retired with victory and felicity. And, if my sensations could add anything to the general suffrage, I might relate that I was many years ago so shocked by Cordelia's death, that I know not whether I ever endured to read again the last scenes of the play till I undertook to revise them as an editor."

Cordelia and the Fool

The Fool, important in the first act, disappears without explanation in the third act. He appears in Act I, scene four, and disappears in Act III, scene six. His final line is "And I'll to bed at noon", a line that many think might mean that he is to die at the highest point of his life, when he lies in prison separated from his friends.

A popular explanation for the Fool's disappearance is that the actor playing the Fool also played Cordelia. The two characters are never on stage simultaneously, and dual-roling was common in Shakespeare's time. However, the Fool would have been played by Robert Armin, the regular clown actor of Shakespeare's company, who is unlikely to have been cast as a tragic heroine. Even so, the play does ask us to at least compare the two; Lear chides Cordelia for foolishness in Act I; chides himself as equal in folly in Act V; and as he holds the dead Cordelia in the final scene, says "And my poor fool is hanged" ("fool" could be taken as either a direct reference to the Fool, or an affectionate reference to Cordelia herself, or it could refer to both the fool and Cordelia).

In the Trevor Nunn production of King Lear, which was shown on PBS and stars Ian McKellen, the play is slightly revised so that the Fool (portrayed by Sylvester McCoy) is hanged on stage, just after Gloucester is captured by Cornwall's men.^[25]

In Elizabethan English, "fool" was a term used to mean "child" (cf. foal). For example, in Hamlet, Polonius warns Ophelia that if she does not keep her distance from Hamlet, she'll "tender me a fool," i.e. present him with a child. As Lear holds the dead body of Cordelia, he remembers holding her in his arms as a baby.

Adaptations and cultural references

• Portions of a radio performance of the play on BBC Radio 3 in the UK were used by John Lennon in The Beatles' song "I Am the Walrus", starting at about the halfway point, but most audible towards the end and during the long fadeout. Lennon added the BBC audio (live as it was being broadcast) during mixing of the track. The character Oswald's exhortation, "bury my body", as well as his lament, "O, untimely death!" (Act IV, Scene VI) were interpreted by fans as further pieces of evidence that band member Paul McCartney was dead.
• A lake in Watermead Country Park, Leicestershire is named King Lear's Lake, owing to its proximity of the legendary burial tomb of King Leir. A statue in the lake depicts the final scene of Shakespeare's play.
• The Liverpool based band The Wombats make reference to the play in their song "Lost in the Post."
• At the beginning of the video game Final Fantasy IX, the play 'I Want To Be Your Canary' played in front of Queen Brahne is heavily inspired from King Lear (the two plays share both the characters' names and the plot) .
• Canadian band The Tragically Hip have a song called "Cordelia" inspired by King Lear on their album Road Apples

Adaptations

A number of significant and diverse readings have emerged from eras and societies since the play was first written; evidence of the ability of Shakespeare to encompass many human experiences. The play was poorly received in the 17th century because the theme of fallen royalty was too close to the events of the period; the exile of the court to France. In 1681 Nahum Tate rewrote King Lear to suit a 17th century audience: Tate's The History of King Lear changed Shakespeare's tragedy into a love story with a happy ending. The King of France and the Fool are omitted; Edgar saves Cordelia from ruffians on the heath; Lear defeats the assassins sent to kill him and Cordelia, and Edgar and Cordelia are betrothed in a final scene, where Edgar declares that "Truth and Virtue shall at last succeed."^[26]

As society and time changed, especially in the nineteenth century, Shakespeare's tragic ending was reinstalled, first, briefly, by Edmund Kean in 1823, then by William Charles Macready in 1834. Macready removed all traces of Tate in an abridged version of Shakespeare's text in 1838, and Samuel Phelps restored the complete Shakespearean version in 1845.

The only recent production of Tate's version was staged by the Riverside Shakespeare Company in 1985, directed by W. Stuart McDowell, at The Shakespeare Center in New York City.^[27]

Critical analysis

The twentieth century saw a number of diverse and rich readings of the play emerge as a result of the turbulent social changes of the century. A. C. Bradley saw this play as an individual coming to terms with his personality; that Lear was a great man and therefore the play is almost unfathomable.

The Family Drama reading has also become prevalent in the 20th century. King Lear can be read as being about the dynamics in the relationship between parent and children.^[28] Key issues include the relationship between Lear and Goneril/Regan, between Lear and Cordelia and the relationship between Gloucester and his sons.

The play has been interpreted by many societies. Communist Russia emphasised the suffering of the common people and the oppressive nature of the monarch in the film Korol Lear (Король Лир 1970).

Lear's suffering as a form of purgatory, within a shifting religious landscape in contemporary England, has also been put forward and has been extended onto other Shakespeare dramas like Hamlet.^[29]

Reworkings

Since the 1950s, there have been various "reworkings" of King Lear. These include:

Novels

• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, set on a large American farm
• Fool by Christopher Moore, a reworking of the story told from the fool's point of view.

Graphic Novels

• Ian Pollock's King Lear, 1984 Black Dog & Leventhal publishing Google Books link
• Manga Shakespeare's King Lear, 2009 Amulet / SelfMadeHero. Adapted by R. Appignanesi, Illustrated by ILYA link
• Gareth Hinds' King Lear, 2008 TheComic.com link and 2009 Candlewick Press link

Plays

• The play Lear by Edward Bond
• The play Lear's Daughters by W. T. G. and Elaine Feinstein
• The play Seven Lears by Howard Barker
• The play Lear Reloaded by Scot Lahaie
• The play Aspects of Lear directed by Joseph Timko
• The Play The Fool, by Christopher Moore, retells the story of King Lear from the perspective of The Black Fool.

Films

• The film The King is Alive, directed by Kristian Levring
• The film Ran, directed by Akira Kurosawa, set in Sengoku period Japan
• The film The Last Lear, directed by Rituparno Ghosh, based on the life of an aging thespian, set in modern Bollywood

Film adaptations

• 1909 – A silent, black and white film directed by J. Stuart Blackton and William V. Ranous, with William V. Ranous as Lear.
• 1916 – Directed by Ernest C. Warde, with Frederick Warde as Lear.
• 1934 – Der Yidisher Kenig Lear (The Yiddish King Lear) is an adaptation of Jacob Gordin's play set in Vilna, Lithuania, directed by Harry Thomashefsky.
• 1949 – Gunasundari Katha, a Telugu film directed by Kadiri Venkata Reddy. The pivotal role of Cordelia was played by Sriranjani.
• 1954 – Broken Lance, a western adaptation by Richard Murphy (screenplay) and Philip Yordan (story).
• 1969 – Directed by Grigori Kozintsev, with Jüri Järvet as Lear. Russian version; original title Korol Lir.
• 1971 – Directed by Peter Brook, with Paul Scofield as Lear, Alan Webb as Duke of Gloucester, Irene Worth as Goneril, Susan Engel as Regan, Anne-Lise Gabold as Cordelia, Jack MacGowran as Fool. The text has been severely cut and the remainder has been reassembled. All is bleak in this black-and-white, existential experience.
• 1974 – A Thames Television production, directed by Tony Davenall, with Patrick Magee as Lear.
• 1975 – Directed by Jonathan Miller for BBC television, as part of the "Play for the Month" series, with Michael Hordern as Lear.
• 1982 – Directed by Jonathan Miller for BBC television, with Michael Hordern once again cast as Lear. Part of the Shakespeare Plays series, this version follows the text closely.
• 1984 – Directed by Michael Elliott, with Laurence Olivier as Lear. The film begins and ends at Stonehenge, and features Dorothy Tutin as Goneril, Diana Rigg as Regan, Anna Calder-Marshall as Cordelia, John Hurt as the Fool, Colin Blakely as Kent, Leo McKern as Gloucester, and Robert Lindsay as Edmund. [1]. Olivier won the Emmy Award for his performance.
• 1985 – The film Ran by Akira Kurosawa is loosely based on King Lear, setting the story in Sengoku-period Japan and replacing the three daughters with three sons.
• 1987 – Jean-Luc Godard directed his own heavily altered and re-imagined adaptation of King Lear.
• 1997 – A Thousand Acres, a film version of Jane Smiley's novel, directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and starring Jason Robards, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Colin Firth.
• 1998 – Directed by Richard Eyre and starring Ian Holm as Lear. Aired on BBC television and later on PBS as a part of the Masterpiece Theatre series.
• 1999 – Directed by and starring Brian Blessed as Lear.
• 2001 – My Kingdom stars Richard Harris and Lynn Redgrave. A modern, gangland version of King Lear.
• 2002 – King of Texas, a television adaptation set in frontier Texas, directed by Uli Edel, with Patrick Stewart as John Lear.
• 2007 – Baby Cakes Sees a Play, Brad Neely's retelling of King Lear through the eyes of Baby Cakes.
• 2009 – A videotaped version of the 2007 Royal Shakespeare Company production was shown on PBS, featuring Ian McKellen as Lear.
• 2010 – King Lear – To be directed by Michael Radford, with Al Pacino as Lear.

Notable performers as King Lear

• Brian Bedford
• Richard Briers, with Emma Thompson as his fool
• Richard Burbage
• Lee J. Cobb
• Brian Cox
• John Cullum
• Yehia El-Fakharany in an Arabic translation of the play.
• Michael Gambon, with Antony Sher as his fool
• John Gielgud
• Hal Holbrook
• Ian Holm
• Anthony Hopkins
• Michael Hordern in two separate television productions
• William Hutt
• James Earl Jones
• Stacey Keach
• Kevin Kline
• Ian McKellen, with Romola Garai as Cordelia, Frances Barber as Goneril, and Monica Dolan as Regan
• Tatsuya Nakadai in Akira Kurosawa's Ran
• Laurence Olivier, with Alec Guinness as the Fool in one production, and John Hurt in a televised production
• Samuel Phelps
• Christopher Plummer
• Pete Postlethwaite
• Paul Scofield
• Robert Stephens
• Orson Welles
• Donald Wolfit
• Daniel Davis
• Alfredo Alcón

See also

• Illegitimacy in fiction
• Shakespearian fool

References

External links

• King Lear – plaintext file at Project Gutenberg.
• King Lear – Searchable, online version of the text.
• In Our Time: KING LEAR – BBC Radio 4 programme on the Shakespeare play – streaming audio
• Photos of a production of King Lear
• King Lear study guide, themes, quotes, character analyses, multimedia, teaching guide

William Shakespeare's King Lear Characters King Lear • Cordelia • Goneril • Regan • Edmund • Edgar Earl of Kent • Earl of Gloucester • The Fool • The Duke of Albany • The Duke of Cornwall Adaptations Lear • A Thousand Acres • Ran • King of Texas King Lear in film 1971 USSR film • 1971 UK film • 1984 film • 1987 film

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From Wikiquote

King Lear (1608) is a play by William Shakespeare that is generally regarded as one of his greatest tragedies. It is based on the legend of Leir, a king of pre-Roman Britain.

Contents 1 Act I 2 Act II 3 Act III 4 Act IV 5 Act V 6 External links

Act I

• Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
  • Lear, scene i

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

• Mend your speech a little,
  Lest you may mar your fortunes.
  • Lear, scene i

• Lear: So young, and so untender?
  Cordelia: So young, my lord, and true.
  Lear: Let it be so; — thy truth, then, be thy dower.
  • Scene I

• Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
  • Lear, scene i

• Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow
  Upon the foul disease.
  • Kent, scene i

• Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides:
  Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.
  • Cordelia, scene i

• Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself.
  • Regan, scene i

• 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?
  • Edmund, scene ii

• Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
  • Edmund, scene ii

• We have seen the best of our time: machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves.
  • Gloucester, scene ii

• This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, 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 whore-master man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star!
  • Edmund, scene ii

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

• 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 shall have more
  Than two tens to a score.
  • The Fool, scene iv

• The hedge sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,
  That it had it head bit off by it young.
  • The Fool, scene IV

• Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,
  More hideous, when thou show'st thee in a child
  Than the sea-monster!
  • Lear, scene iv

• How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
  To have a thankless child!
  • Lear, scene iv

• Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.
  • Albany, scene iv

Act II

• 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 whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, 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, pander, 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.
  • Scene ii

• I have seen better faces in my time,
  Than stands on any shoulder that I see
  Before me at this instant.
  • Kent, scene ii

• Fortune, good-night: smile once more; turn thy wheel!
  • Kent, scene ii

• 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.
  • The Fool, scene iv

• O, sir, you are old;
  Nature in you stands on the very verge
  Of her confine: you should be rul'd and led
  By some discretion, that discerns your state
  Better than you yourself.
  • Regan, scene iv

• Our basest beggars
  Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
  Allow not nature more than nature needs,
  Man's life is cheap as beast's.
  • Lear, scene iv

• 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!
  • Lear, scene iv

• 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!
  • Lear, scene iv

Act III

• Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
  You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
  Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!
  You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
  Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
  Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
  Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
  Crack nature's molds, all germens spill at once
  That make ingrateful man!
  • Lear, scene ii

• I am a man,
  More sinn'd against than sinning.
  • Lear, scene ii

• The art of our necessities is strange,
  And can make vile things precious.
  • Lear, scene ii

• He that has and a little tiny wit,
  With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
  Must make content with his fortunes fit,
  Though the rain it raineth every day.
  • The Fool, scene ii

• O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
  No more of that.
  • Lear, scene iv

• Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'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.
  • Lear, scene iv

• 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; unaccomodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.
  • Lear, scene iv

• The prince of darkness is a gentleman.
  • Edgar, scene iv

• Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
  His word was still, —Fie, foh, and fum,
  I smell the blood of a British man.
  • Edgar, scene iv

• He's mad, that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath.
  • The Fool, scene vi

• Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.
  • Fool, scene vi

• Go, thrust him out at gates, and let him smell
  His way to Dover.
  • Regan, scene vii

Act IV

• 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.
  • Gloucester, scene i

• And worse I may be yet: the worst is not,
  So long as we can say, This is the worst.
  • Edgar, scene i

• As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods, —
  They kill us for their sport.
  • Gloucester, scene i

• You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
  Blows in your face.
  • Albany, scene ii

• She that herself will sliver and disbranch
  From her material sap, perforce must wither
  And come to deadly use.
  • Albany, scene ii

• Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile:
  Filths savour but themselves.
  • Albany, scene ii

• How fearful
  And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!
  The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air
  Show scarce so gross as beetles; halfway down
  Hangs one that gathers samphire, — dreadful trade!
  Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.
  The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
  Appear like mice, and yond tall anchoring bark
  Diminished to her cock; her cock, a buoy
  Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge,
  That on the unnumber'ed idle pebbles chafes,
  Cannot be heard so high.
  • Edgar, scene vi

• Ay, every inch a king:
  When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.
  I pardon that man's life. — What was thy cause? —
  Adultery? —
  Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No:
  The wren goes to't, and the small gilded fly
  Does lecher in my sight.
  Let copulation thrive; for Gloster's bastard son
  Was kinder to his father than my daughters
  Got 'tween the lawful sheets.
  To't, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers. —
  Behold yond simpering dame,
  Whose face between her forks presages snow;
  That minces virtue, and does shake the head
  To hear of pleasure's name; —
  The fitchew nor the soiled horse goes to't
  With a more riotous appetite
  Down from the waist they are centaurs,
  Though women all above.
  But to the girdle do the gods inherit,
  Beneath is all the fiend's; there's hell, there's darkness,
  There is the sulphurous pit; burning, scalding, stench, consumption! — fie, fie, fie! pah, pah! Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination: there's money for thee.
  • Lear, scene vi

• Gloucester: O! let me kiss that hand!
  Lear: Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.
  • Scene vi

• A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?
  • Lear, scene vi

• There thou mightst behold the great image of authority: a dog's obeyed in office.
  • Lear, scene vi

• Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear;
  Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
  And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;
  Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it.
  • Lear, scene vi

• When we are born, we cry that we are come
  To this great stage of fools — This' a good block: —
  It were a delicate strategem to shoe
  A troop of horse with felt: I'll put 't in proof;
  And when I have stol'n upon these sons-in-law,
  Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!
  • Lear, scene vi

• You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave: —
  Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound
  Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears
  Do scald like molten lead.
  • Lear, scene vii

• I am a very foolish fond old man,
  Fourscore and upward, not an hour more or less;
  And, to deal plainly,
  I fear I am not in my perfect mind.
  • Lear, scene vii

• You must bear with me:
  Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old and foolish.
  • Lear, scene vii

Act V

• Men must endure
  Their going hence, even as their coming hither:
  Ripeness is all.
  • Edgar, scene ii

• Come, let's away to prison;
  We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:
  When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
  And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,
  And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
  At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
  Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,
  Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out; —
  And take upon's the mystery of things,
  As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out,
  In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones
  That ebb and flow by the moon.
  • Lear, scene iii

• The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
  Make instruments to plague us.
  • Edgar, scene iii

• The wheel is come full circle: I am here.
  • Edmund, scene iii

• Howl, howl, howl, howl! O! you are men of stones:
  Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so
  That heaven's vaults should crack. — She's gone for ever! —
  I know when one is dead, and when one lives;
  She's dead as earth.
  • Lear, scene iii

• And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!
  Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
  And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
  Never, never, never, never, never!
  Pray you, undo this button: thank you sir.
  Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,
  Look there, look there!
  • Lear, scene iii

• Vex not his ghost: O! let him pass; he hates him
  That would upon the rack of this tough world
  Stretch him out longer.
  • Kent, scene iii

• I have a journey, sir, shortly to go.
  My master calls me; I must not say no.
  • Kent, scene iii

• The weight of this sad time we must obey;
  Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
  The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
  Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
  • Edgar, scene iii

External links

• The complete text of King Lear with Quarto and Folio Variations, Annotations, and Commentary
• King Lear - Project Gutenberg e-text
• The Tragedie of King Lear - HTML version of this title.
• Cordelia, King Lear and His Fool Free online book.
• King Lear quotes analyzed; study guide with themes, character analyses, literary devices, multimedia, teaching resources

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From Wikisource

The source document of this text is not known. Please see this document's talk page page for details.

THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR by William Shakespeare

King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606, and is considered one of his greatest works. The play is based on the legend of King Leir of Britain. It has been widely adapted for stage and screen, with the part of Lear being played by many of the world's most accomplished actors. — Excerpted from King Lear on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. See also: Quotations from King Lear at Wikiquote.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE (Persons Represented):

Lear, King of Britain.

King of France.

Duke of Burgundy.

Duke of Cornwall.

Duke of Albany.

Earl of Kent.

Earl of Gloucester.

Edgar, Son to Gloucester.

Edmund, Bastard Son to Gloucester.

Curan, a Courtier.

Old Man, Tenant to Gloucester.

Physician.

Fool.

Oswald, steward to Goneril.

An Officer employed by Edmund.

Gentleman, attendant on Cordelia.

A Herald.

Servants to Cornwall.

Goneril, daughter to Lear.

Regan, daughter to Lear.

Cordelia, daughter to Lear.

Knights attending on the King, Officers, Messengers, Soldiers, and Attendants.

Scene: Britain.

Contents 1 ACT I. 1.1 Scene I. A Room of State in King Lear's Palace. 1.2 Scene II. A Hall in the Earl of Gloucester's Castle. 1.3 Scene III. A Room in the Duke of Albany's Palace. 1.4 Scene IV. A Hall in Albany's Palace. 1.5 Scene V. Court before the Duke of Albany's Palace. 2 ACT II. 2.1 Scene I. A court within the Castle of the Earl of Gloucester. 2.2 Scene II. Before Gloucester's Castle. 2.3 Scene III. The open Country. 2.4 Scene IV. Before Gloucester's Castle; Kent in the stocks. 3 ACT III. 3.1 Scene I. A Heath. 3.2 Scene II. Another part of the heath. Storm continues. 3.3 Scene III. A Room in Gloucester's Castle. 3.4 Scene IV. A part of the Heath with a Hovel. Storm continues. 3.5 Scene V. A Room in Gloucester's Castle. 3.6 Scene VI. A Chamber in a Farmhouse adjoining the Castle. 3.7 Scene VII. A Room in Gloucester's Castle. 4 ACT IV. 4.1 Scene I. The heath. 4.2 Scene II. Before the Duke of Albany's Palace. 4.3 Scene III. The French camp near Dover. 4.4 Scene IV. The French camp. A Tent. 4.5 Scene V. A Room in Gloucester's Castle. 4.6 Scene VI. The country near Dover. 4.7 Scene VII. A Tent in the French Camp. 5 ACT V. 5.1 Scene I. The Camp of the British Forces near Dover. 5.2 Scene II. A field between the two Camps. 5.3 Scene III. The British Camp near Dover.

ACT I.

Scene I. A Room of State in King Lear's Palace.

[Enter Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund.]

Kent.

I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany than

Cornwall.

Glou.

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?

Glou.

His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have so often

blush'd to acknowledge him that now I am braz'd to't.

Kent.

I cannot conceive you.

Glou.

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.

Glou.

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?

Edm.

No, my lord.

Glou.

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

Edm.

My services to your lordship.

Kent.

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

Edm.

Sir, I shall study deserving.

Glou.

He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again.—The king

is coming.

[Sennet within.]

[Enter Lear, Cornwall, Albany, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia, and

Attendants.]

Lear.

Attend the lords of France and Burgundy,

Gloucester.

Glou.

I shall, my liege.

[Exeunt Gloucester and Edmund.]

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

Unburden'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.

Gon.

Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;

Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty;

Beyond what can be valu'd, rich or rare;

No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;

As much as child e'er lov'd, or father found;

A love that makes breath poor and speech unable;

Beyond all manner of so much I love you.

Cor.

[Aside.] What shall Cordelia speak? 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.

Reg.

Sir, I am made of the selfsame 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.

Cor.

[Aside.] Then poor Cordelia!

And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's

More richer than my tongue.

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.

Cor.

Nothing, my lord.

Lear.

Nothing!

Cor.

Nothing.

Lear.

Nothing can come of nothing: speak again.

Cor.

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave

My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty

According to my bond; no more nor less.

Lear.

How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little,

Lest you may mar your fortunes.

Cor.

Good my lord,

You have begot me, bred me, lov'd 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.

Lear.

But goes thy heart with this?

Cor.

Ay, good my lord.

Lear.

So young, and so untender?

Cor.

So young, my lord, and true.

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 reliev'd,

As thou my sometime daughter.

Kent.

Good my liege,—

Lear.

Peace, Kent!

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.

I lov'd her most, and thought to set my rest

On her kind nursery.—Hence, and avoid my sight!—[To Cordelia.]

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 in 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,

Lov'd as my father, as my master follow'd,

As my great patron thought on in my prayers.—

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 wouldst 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 falls to folly. Reverse thy state;

And in thy best consideration check

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.

Lear.

Kent, on thy life, no more.

Kent.

My life I never held but as a pawn

To wage against thine enemies; nor fear to lose it,

Thy safety being the motive.

Lear.

Out of my sight!

Kent.

See better, Lear; and let me still remain

The true blank of thine eye.

Lear.

Now, by Apollo,—

Kent.

Now by Apollo, king,

Thou swear'st thy gods in vain.

Lear.

O vassal! miscreant!

[Laying his hand on his sword.]

Alb. and Corn.

Dear sir, forbear!

Kent.

Do;

Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow

Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy gift,

Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,

I'll tell thee thou dost evil.

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 revok'd.

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 France, Burgundy, and

Attendants.]

Glou.

Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord.

Lear.

My Lord of Burgundy,

We first address toward 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?

Bur.

Most royal majesty,

I crave no more than hath your highness offer'd,

Nor will you tender less.

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 piec'd,

And nothing more, may fitly like your grace,

She's there, and she is yours.

Bur.

I know no answer.

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?

Bur.

Pardon me, royal sir;

Election makes not up on such conditions.

Lear.

Then leave her, sir; for, by the power that made me,

I tell you all her wealth.—[To 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 asham'd

Almost to acknowledge hers.

France.

This is most strange,

That she, who 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

Should never plant in me.

Cor.

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 depriv'd 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.

Lear.

Better thou

Hadst not been born than not to have pleas'd me better.

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 stands

Aloof from the entire point. Will you have her?

She is herself a dowry.

Bur.

Royal king,

Give but that portion which yourself propos'd,

And here I take Cordelia by the hand,

Duchess of Burgundy.

Lear.

Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm.

Bur.

I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father

That you must lose a husband.

Cor.

Peace be with Burgundy!

Since that respects of fortune are his love,

I shall not be his wife.

France.

Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor;

Most choice, forsaken; and most lov'd, despis'd!

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 inflam'd 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 unpriz'd precious maid of me.—

Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind:

Thou losest here, a better where to find.

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 Lear, Burgundy, Cornwall, Albany, Gloucester,

and Attendants.]

France.

Bid farewell to your sisters.

Cor.

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 nam'd. Love 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.

Reg.

Prescribe not us our duties.

Gon.

Let your study

Be to content your lord, who hath receiv'd you

At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted,

And well are worth the want that you have wanted.

Cor.

Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides:

Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.

Well may you prosper!

France.

Come, my fair Cordelia.

[Exeunt France and Cordelia.]

Gon.

Sister, it is not little I have to say of what most nearly

appertains to us both. I think our father will hence to-night.

Reg.

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

Gon.

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.

Reg.

'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever but slenderly

known himself.

Gon.

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-ingraffed condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness

that infirm and choleric years bring with them.

Reg.

Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him as this of

Kent's banishment.

Gon.

There is further compliment of leave-taking between France and

him. Pray you let us hit together: if our father carry authority

with such dispositions as he bears, this last surrender of his

will but offend us.

Reg.

We shall further think of it.

Gon.

We must do something, and i' th' heat.

[Exeunt.]

Scene II. A Hall in the Earl of Gloucester's Castle.

[Enter Edmund with a letter.]

Edm.

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 moonshines

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.]

Glou.

Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted!

And the king gone to-night! subscrib'd his pow'r!

Confin'd to exhibition! All this done

Upon the gad!—Edmund, how now! What news?

Edm.

So please your lordship, none.

[Putting up the letter.]

Glou.

Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?

Edm.

I know no news, my lord.

Glou.

What paper were you reading?

Edm.

Nothing, my lord.

Glou.

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.

Edm.

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 perus'd,

I find it not fit for your o'erlooking.

Glou.

Give me the letter, sir.

Edm.

I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The contents, as in

part I understand them, are to blame.

Glou.

Let's see, let's see!

Edm.

I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as an

essay or taste of my virtue.

Glou.

[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 enjoy 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?

Edm.

It was not brought me, my lord, there's the cunning of it; I

found it thrown in at the casement of my closet.

Glou.

You know the character to be your brother's?

Edm.

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.

Glou.

It is his.

Edm.

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

contents.

Glou.

Hath he never before sounded you in this business?

Edm.

Never, my lord: but I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit

that, sons at perfect age, and fathers declined, the father

should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue.

Glou.

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?

Edm.

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 should 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 writ this to feel my affection to your

honour, and to no other pretence of danger.

Glou.

Think you so?

Edm.

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.

Glou.

He cannot be such a monster.

Edm.

Nor is not, sure.

Glou.

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.

Edm.

I will seek him, sir, presently; convey the business as I shall

find means, and acquaint you withal.

Glou.

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.]

Edm.

This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are

sick in fortune,—often the surfeit of our own behaviour,—we

make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as

if we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion;

knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical pre-dominance;

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.

[Enter Edgar.]

Pat!—he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy: my cue

is villainous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o' Bedlam.—O,

these eclipses do portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi.

Edg.

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

Edm.

I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day,

what should follow these eclipses.

Edg.

Do you busy yourself with that?

Edm.

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.

Edg.

How long have you been a sectary astronomical?

Edm.

Come, come! when saw you my father last?

Edg.

The night gone by.

Edm.

Spake you with him?

Edg.

Ay, two hours together.

Edm.

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

or countenance?

Edg.

None at all.

Edm.

Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended him: and at my

entreaty forbear his presence until 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.

Edg.

Some villain hath done me wrong.

Edm.

That's my fear. I pray you have a continent forbearance till the

speed 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 you, go; there's my key.—If you do stir abroad, go

armed.

Edg.

Armed, brother!

Edm.

Brother, I advise you to the best; I am no honest man

if there be any good meaning toward you: I have told you what I

have seen and heard but faintly; nothing like the image and

horror of it: pray you, away!

Edg.

Shall I hear from you anon?

Edm.

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 practices 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.]

Scene III. A Room in the Duke of Albany's Palace.

[Enter Goneril and Oswald.]

Gon.

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

Osw. Ay, madam.

Gon.

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.

Osw.

He's coming, madam; I hear him.

[Horns within.]

Gon.

Put on what weary negligence you please,

You and your fellows; I'd have it come to question:

If he distaste it, let him to our sister,

Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one,

Not to be overruled. 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 us'd

With checks as flatteries,—when they are seen abus'd.

Remember what I have said.

Osw.

Very well, madam.

Gon.

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.]

Scene IV. A Hall in Albany's Palace.

[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 rais'd my likeness.—Now, banish'd Kent,

If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd,

So may it come, thy master, whom thou lov'st,

Shall find thee full of labours.

[Horns within. Enter King Lear, Knights, and Attendants.]

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.

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.

Lear.

What art thou?

Kent.

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

Lear.

If thou be'st as poor for a subject as he's for a king, thou art

poor enough. What wouldst thou?

Kent.

Service.

Lear.

Who wouldst thou serve?

Kent.

You.

Lear.

Dost thou know me, fellow?

Kent.

No, sir; but you have that in your countenance which I would fain

call master.

Lear.

What's that?

Kent.

Authority.

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.

Lear.

How old art thou?

Kent.

Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing; nor so old to

dote on her for anything: I have years on my back forty-eight.

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?

Osw.

So please you,—

[Exit.]

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.

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.

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.

Lear.

Ha! say'st 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.

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.

Lear.

No more of that; I have noted it well.—Go you and tell my

daughter I would speak with her.—

[Exit Attendant.]

Go you, call hither my fool.

[Exit another Attendant.]

[Re-enter Oswald.]

O, you, sir, you, come you hither, sir: who am I, sir?

Osw.

My lady's father.

Lear.

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

you cur!

Osw.

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

Lear.

Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal?

[Striking him.]

Osw.

I'll not be struck, my lord.

Kent.

Nor tripp'd neither, you base football player.

[Tripping up his heels.]

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.]

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.

[Giving Kent his cap.]

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 hath banish'd 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!

Lear.

Why, my boy?

Fool.

If I gave them all my living, I'd keep my coxcombs myself.

There's mine; beg another of thy daughters.

Lear.

Take heed, sirrah,—the whip.

Fool.

Truth's a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped out, when

the lady brach may stand by the fire and stink.

Lear.

A pestilent gall to me!

Fool.

Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech.

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?

Lear.

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

Fool.

[to Kent] Pr'ythee tell him, so much the rent of his land

comes to: he will not believe a fool.

Lear.

A bitter fool!

Fool.

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

a sweet one?

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.

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 loads too: they

will not let me have all the fool to myself; they'll be

snatching.—Nuncle, give me an egg, and I'll give thee two

crowns.

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 gav'st away both parts, thou borest thine 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,

And know not how their wits to wear,

Their manners are so apish.

Lear.

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

Fool.

I have used it, nuncle, e'er since thou mad'st thy daughters thy

mothers; for when thou gav'st them the rod, and puttest 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.

Pr'ythee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool to

lie; I would fain learn to lie.

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.]

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; I am a fool, thou art nothing.—Yes, forsooth, I

will hold my tongue. So your face [To Goneril.] bids me, though

you say nothing. Mum, mum,

He that keeps nor crust nor crum,

Weary of all, shall want some.—

[Pointing to Lear.] That's a shealed peascod.

Gon.

Not only, sir, this your all-licens'd 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 know, nuncle,

The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long

That it had it head bit off by it young.

So out went the candle, and we were left darkling.

Lear.

Are you our daughter?

Gon.

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!

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.

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.

Lear.

Your name, fair gentlewoman?

Gon.

This admiration, sir, is much o' the favour

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 grac'd palace. The shame itself doth speak

For instant remedy: be, then, desir'd

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,

Which know themselves, and you.

Lear.

Darkness and devils!—

Saddle my horses; call my train together.—

Degenerate bastard! I'll not trouble thee:

Yet have I left a daughter.

Gon.

You strike my people; and your disorder'd rabble

Make servants of their betters.

[Enter Albany.]

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!

Alb.

Pray, sir, be patient.

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!

Which, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature

From the fix'd place; drew from my 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.

Alb.

My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant

Of what hath mov'd you.

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 disnatur'd 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.]

Alb.

Now, gods that we adore, whereof comes this?

Gon.

Never afflict yourself to know more of it;

But let his disposition have that scope

That dotage gives it.

[Re-enter Lear.]

Lear.

What, fifty of my followers at a clap!

Within a fortnight!

Alb.

What's the matter, sir?

Lear.

I'll tell thee.—Life and death!—[To Goneril] I am asham'd

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!

Th' untented woundings of a father's curse

Pierce every sense about thee!—Old fond eyes,

Beweep this cause again, I'll pluck you out,

And cast you, with the waters that you lose,

To temper clay. Ha!

Let it be so: I have another 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.

[Exeunt Lear, Kent, and Attendants.]

Gon.

Do you mark that?

Alb.

I cannot be so partial, Goneril,

To the great love I bear you,—

Gon.

Pray you, content.—What, Oswald, ho!

[To the Fool] You, sir, more knave than fool, after your master.

Fool.

Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry,—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.]

Gon.

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!—

Alb.

Well, you may fear too far.

Gon.

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 th' unfitness,—

[Re-enter Oswald.]

How now, Oswald!

What, have you writ that letter to my sister?

Osw.

Ay, madam.

Gon.

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 it not, yet, under pardon,

You are much more attask'd for want of wisdom

Than prais'd for harmful mildness.

Alb.

How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell:

Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.

Gon.

Nay then,—

Alb.

Well, well; the event.

[Exeunt.]

Scene V. Court before the Duke of Albany's Palace.

[Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool.]

Lear.

Go you before to Gloucester with these letters: acquaint my

daughter no further with anything 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?

Lear.

Ay, boy.

Fool.

Then I pr'ythee be merry; thy wit shall not go slipshod.

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.

Lear.

What canst tell, boy?

Fool.

She'll 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?

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.

Lear.

I did her wrong,—

Fool.

Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?

Lear.

No.

Fool.

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

Lear.

Why?

Fool.

Why, to put's head in; not to give it away to his daughters, and

leave his horns without a case.

Lear.

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

Fool.

Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the seven stars are

no more than seven is a pretty reason.

Lear.

Because they are not eight?

Fool.

Yes indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool.

Lear.

To tak't again perforce!—Monster ingratitude!

Fool.

If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'ld have thee beaten for being

old before thy time.

Lear.

How's that?

Fool.

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

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?

Gent.

Ready, my lord.

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.]

ACT II.

Scene I. A court within the Castle of the Earl of Gloucester.

[Enter Edmund and Curan, meeting.]

Edm.

Save thee, Curan.

Cur.

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.

Edm.

How comes that?

Cur.

Nay, I know not.—You have heard of the news abroad; I mean the

whispered ones, for they are yet but ear-kissing arguments?

Edm.

Not I: pray you, what are they?

Cur.

Have you heard of no likely wars toward, 'twixt the two dukes

of Cornwall and Albany?

Edm.

Not a word.

Cur.

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

[Exit.]

Edm.

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:—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.

Edg.

I am sure on't, not a word.

Edm.

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

Of my more fierce endeavour: [Wounds his arm.]

I have seen drunkards

Do more than this in sport.—Father, father!

Stop, stop! No help?

[Enter Gloucester, and Servants with torches.]

Glou.

Now, Edmund, where's the villain?

Edm.

Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out,

Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon

To stand auspicious mistress,—

Glou.

But where is he?

Edm.

Look, sir, I bleed.

Glou.

Where is the villain, Edmund?

Edm.

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

Glou.

Pursue him, ho!—Go after.

[Exeunt Servants.]

—By no means what?

Edm.

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, lanc'd mine arm;

But when he saw my best alarum'd spirits,

Bold in the quarrel's right, rous'd to the encounter,

Or whether gasted by the noise I made,

Full suddenly he fled.

Glou.

Let him fly far;

Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;

And found—dispatch'd.—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.

Edm.

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'd turn it all

To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practice:

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.

Glou.

Strong and fast'ned villain!

Would he deny his letter?—I never got him.

[Trumpets 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 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.]

Corn.

How now, my noble friend! since I came hither,—

Which I can call but now,—I have heard strange news.

Reg.

If it be true, all vengeance comes too short

Which can pursue the offender. How dost, my lord?

Glou.

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

Reg.

What, did my father's godson seek your life?

He whom my father nam'd? your Edgar?

Glou.

O lady, lady, shame would have it hid!

Reg.

Was he not companion with the riotous knights

That tend upon my father?

Glou.

I know not, madam:—

It is too bad, too bad.

Edm.

Yes, madam, he was of that consort.

Reg.

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.

Corn.

Nor I, assure thee, Regan.—

Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father

A childlike office.

Edm.

'Twas my duty, sir.

Glou.

He did bewray his practice; and receiv'd

This hurt you see, striving to apprehend him.

Corn.

Is he pursu'd?

Glou.

Ay, my good lord.

Corn.

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.

Edm.

I shall serve you, sir,

Truly, however else.

Glou.

For him I thank your grace.

Corn.

You know not why we came to visit you,—

Reg.

Thus out of season, threading dark-ey'd 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 best thought it fit

To answer from our home; the several messengers

From hence attend despatch. Our good old friend,

Lay comforts to your bosom; and bestow

Your needful counsel to our business,

Which craves the instant use.

Glou.

I serve you, madam:

Your graces are right welcome.

[Exeunt.]

Scene II. Before Gloucester's Castle.

[Enter Kent and Oswald, severally.]

Osw.

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

Kent.

Ay.

Osw.

Where may we set our horses?

Kent.

I' the mire.

Osw.

Pr'ythee, if thou lov'st me, tell me.

Kent.

I love thee not.

Osw.

Why then, I care not for thee.

Kent.

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

Osw.

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

Kent.

Fellow, I know thee.

Osw.

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, whoreson,

glass-gazing, superserviceable, 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, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel

bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou

denyest the least syllable of thy addition.

Osw.

Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail on one that's

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 beat thee and tripped up thy heels 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 barbermonger, draw!

[Drawing his sword.]

Osw.

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!

Osw.

Help, ho! murder! help!

Kent.

Strike, you slave; stand, rogue, stand; you neat slave, strike!

[Beating him.]

Osw.

Help, ho! murder! murder!

[Enter Edmund, Cornwall, Regan, Gloucester, and Servants.]

Edm.

How now! What's the matter?

Kent.

With you, goodman boy, an you please: come, I'll flesh you; come

on, young master.

Glou.

Weapons! arms! What's the matter here?

Corn.

Keep peace, upon your lives;

He dies that strikes again. What is the matter?

Reg.

The messengers from our sister and the king.

Corn.

What is your difference? speak.

Osw.

I am scarce in breath, my lord.

Kent.

No marvel, you have so bestirr'd your valour. You cowardly

rascal, nature disclaims in thee; a tailor made thee.

Corn.

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

Kent.

Ay, a tailor, sir: a stonecutter or a painter could not have

made him so ill, though he had been but two hours at the trade.

Corn.

Speak yet, how grew your quarrel?

Osw.

This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spared at suit of

his grey

beard,—

Kent.

Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter!—My lord, if you'll

give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar and

daub the walls of a jakes with him.—Spare my grey beard, you

wagtail?

Corn.

Peace, sirrah!

You beastly knave, know you no reverence?

Kent.

Yes, sir; but anger hath a privilege.

Corn.

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 naught, like dogs, but following.—

A plague upon your epileptic visage!

Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool?

Goose, an I had you upon Sarum plain,

I'd drive ye cackling home to Camelot.

Corn.

What, art thou mad, old fellow?

Glou.

How fell you out?

Say that.

Kent.

No contraries hold more antipathy

Than I and such a knave.

Corn.

Why dost thou call him knave? What is his fault?

Kent.

His countenance likes me not.

Corn.

No more perchance does mine, or his, or 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.

Corn.

This is some fellow

Who, having been prais'd 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 faith, in sincere verity,

Under the allowance of your great aspect,

Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire

On flickering Phoebus' front,—

Corn.

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.

Corn.

What was the offence you gave him?

Osw.

I never gave him any:

It pleas'd the king his master very late

To strike at me, upon his misconstruction;

When he, compact, 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-subdu'd;

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.

Corn.

Fetch forth the stocks!—

You stubborn ancient knave, you reverent 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.

Corn.

Fetch forth the stocks!—As I have life and honour,

there shall he sit till noon.

Reg.

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.

Reg.

Sir, being his knave, I will.

Corn.

This is a fellow of the self-same colour

Our sister speaks of.—Come, bring away the stocks!

[Stocks brought out.]

Glou.

Let me beseech your grace not to do so:

His fault is much, and the good king his master

Will check him for't: your purpos'd 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, so slightly valu'd in his messenger,

Should have him thus restrain'd.

Corn.

I'll answer that.

Reg.

My sister may receive it much more worse,

To have her gentleman abus'd, 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.]

Glou.

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 watch'd, 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!

Glou.

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 com'st

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!

[He sleeps.]

Scene III. The open Country.

[Enter Edgar.]

Edg.

I heard myself proclaim'd;

And by the happy hollow of a tree

Escap'd the hunt. No port is free; no place

That guard and most unusual vigilance

Does not attend my taking. While 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 outface

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.]

Scene IV. Before Gloucester's Castle; Kent in the stocks.

[Enter Lear, Fool, and Gentleman.]

Lear.

'Tis strange that they should so depart from home,

And not send back my messenger.

Gent.

As I learn'd,

The night before there was no purpose in them

Of this remove.

Kent.

Hail to thee, noble master!

Lear.

Ha!

Mak'st thou this shame thy pastime?

Kent.

No, my lord.

Fool.

Ha, ha! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied by the

head; dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys by the loins, and

men by the legs: when a man is over-lusty at legs, then he

wears wooden nether-stocks.

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.

Lear.

No.

Kent.

Yes.

Lear.

No, I say.

Kent.

I say, yea.

Lear.

No, no; they would not.

Kent.

Yes, they have.

Lear.

By Jupiter, I swear no.

Kent.

By Juno, I swear ay.

Lear.

They durst not do't.

They would not, could 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 perceiv'd had poison'd mine,—

Being the very fellow which of late

Display'd so saucily against your highness,—

Having more man than wit about me, drew:

He rais'd 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 th' poor.

But for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours for thy

daughters as thou canst tell in a year.

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.

Lear.

Follow me not;

Stay here.

[Exit.]

Gent.

Made you no more offence but what you speak of?

Kent.

None.

How chance the king comes with so small a number?

Fool.

An 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 in 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 learn'd you this, fool?

Fool.

Not i' the stocks, fool.

[Re-enter Lear, with Gloucester.]

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.

Glou.

My dear lord,

You know the fiery quality of the duke;

How unremovable and fix'd he is

In his own course.

Lear.

Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!—

Fiery? What quality? why, Gloucester, Gloucester,

I'd speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.

Glou.

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

Lear.

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

Glou.

Ay, my good lord.

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 fallen out with my more headier will,

To take the indispos'd 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 practice only. Give me my servant forth.

Go tell the duke and's wife I'd 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.'

Glou.

I would have all well betwixt you.

[Exit.]

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.]

Lear.

Good-morrow to you both.

Corn.

Hail to your grace!

[Kent is set at liberty.]

Reg.

I am glad to see your highness.

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 deprav'd a quality—O Regan!

Reg.

I pray you, sir, take patience: I have hope

You less know how to value her desert

Than she to scant her duty.

Lear.

Say, how is that?

Reg.

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.

Lear.

My curses on her!

Reg.

O, sir, you are old;

Nature in you stands on the very verge

Of her confine: you should be rul'd 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.

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.'

Reg.

Good sir, no more! These are unsightly tricks:

Return you to my sister.

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 stor'd vengeances of heaven fall

On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,

You taking airs, with lameness!

Corn.

Fie, sir, fie!

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!

Reg.

O the blest gods!

So will you wish on me when the rash mood is on.

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.

Reg.

Good sir, to the purpose.

Lear.

Who put my man i' the stocks?

[Tucket within.]

Corn.

What trumpet's that?

Reg.

I know't—my sister's: this approves her letter,

That she would soon be here.

[Enter Oswald.]

Is your lady come?

Lear.

This is a slave, whose easy-borrowed pride

Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows.—

Out, varlet, from my sight!

Corn.

What means your grace?

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 asham'd to look upon this beard?—

O Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand?

Gon.

Why not by the hand, sir? How have I offended?

All's not offence that indiscretion finds

And dotage terms so.

Lear.

O sides, you are too tough!

Will you yet hold?—How came my man i' the stocks?

Corn.

I set him there, sir: but his own disorders

Deserv'd much less advancement.

Lear.

You? did you?

Reg.

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.

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 to Oswald.]

Gon.

At your choice, sir.

Lear.

I pr'ythee, 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.

Reg.

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.

Lear.

Is this well spoken?

Reg.

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.

Gon.

Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance

From those that she calls servants, or from mine?

Reg.

Why not, my lord? If then they chanc'd 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.

Lear.

I gave you all,—

Reg.

And in good time you gave it.

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?

Reg.

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

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.

Gon.

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?

Reg.

What need one?

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 is 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 stirs 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 Lear, Gloucester, Kent, and Fool. Storm heard at a distance.]

Corn.

Let us withdraw; 'twill be a storm.

Reg.

This house is little: the old man and his people

Cannot be well bestow'd.

Gon.

'Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest

And must needs taste his folly.

Reg.

For his particular, I'll receive him gladly,

But not one follower.

Gon.

So am I purpos'd.

Where is my lord of Gloucester?

Corn.

Followed the old man forth:—he is return'd.

[Re-enter Gloucester.]

Glou.

The king is in high rage.

Corn.

Whither is he going?

Glou.

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

Corn.

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

Gon.

My lord, entreat him by no means to stay.

Glou.

Alack, the night comes on, and the high winds

Do sorely ruffle; for many miles about

There's scarce a bush.

Reg.

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 abus'd, wisdom bids fear.

Corn.

Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night:

My Regan counsels well: come out o' the storm.

[Exeunt.]

ACT III.

Scene I. A Heath.

[A storm with thunder and lightning. Enter Kent and a Gentleman,

meeting.]

Kent.

Who's there, besides foul weather?

Gent.

One minded like the weather, most unquietly.

Kent.

I know you. Where's the king?

Gent.

Contending with the fretful elements;

Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea,

Or swell the curled waters '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 outscorn

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?

Gent.

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

Throne 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.

Gent.

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.

Gent.

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.]

Scene II. Another part of the heath. Storm continues.

[Enter Lear and Fool.]

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,

Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world!

Crack nature's moulds, all 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 nether wise men nor fools.

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 despis'd old man:—

But yet I call you servile ministers,

That will with two pernicious daughters join

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 codpiece 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.

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 codpiece; 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

Th' affliction nor the fear.

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 perjur'd, and thou simular man of virtue

That art incestuous: caitiff, to pieces shake

That under covert and convenient seeming

Hast practis'd 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, bareheaded!

Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel;

Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest:

Repose you there, whilst I to this hard house,—

More harder than the stones whereof 'tis rais'd;

Which even but now, demanding after you,

Denied me to come in,—return, and force

Their scanted courtesy.

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.

Lear.

True, boy.—Come, bring us to this hovel.

[Exeunt 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 us'd with feet.

This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time.

[Exit.]

Scene III. A Room in Gloucester's Castle.

[Enter Gloucester and Edmund.]

Glou.

Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing. When I

desired their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the

use of mine own house; charged me on pain of perpetual displeasure,

neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him.

Edm.

Most savage and unnatural!

Glou.

Go to; say you nothing. There is 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. If 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.]

Edm.

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.]

Scene IV. A part of the Heath with a Hovel. Storm continues.

[Enter 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.

Lear.

Let me alone.

Kent.

Good my lord, enter here.

Lear.

Wilt break my heart?

Kent.

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

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'dst shun a bear;

But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,

Thou'dst 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.

Lear.

Pr'ythee 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, wheresoe'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.

Edg.

[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 madman.]

Edg.

Away! the foul fiend follows me!—

Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.—

Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.

Lear.

Didst thou give all to thy two daughters?

And art thou come to this?

Edg.

Who gives anything to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led

through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, o'er

bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow and

halters in his pew, set ratsbane by his porridge; made him 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 continues.]

Lear.

What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?—

Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give 'em all?

Fool.

Nay, he reserv'd a blanket, else we had been all shamed.

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.

Lear.

Death, traitor! nothing could have subdu'd 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.

Edg.

Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:—

Halloo, halloo, loo loo!

Fool.

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

Edg.

Take heed o' th' 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.

Lear.

What hast thou been?

Edg.

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-paramour'd 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 brothel, thy hand

out of placket, thy pen from lender's book, and defy the foul

fiend.—Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind: says

suum, mun, nonny. Dolphin my boy, boy, sessa! let him trot by.

[Storm still continues.]

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.

[Tears off his clothes.]

Fool.

Pr'ythee, 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.

Edg.

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 harelip; mildews the white wheat,

and hurts the poor creature of earth.

Swithold footed thrice the old;

He met the nightmare, and her nine-fold;

Bid her alight

And her troth plight,

And aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!

Kent.

How fares your grace?

[Enter Gloucester with a torch.]

Lear.

What's he?

Kent.

Who's there? What is't you seek?

Glou.

What are you there? Your names?

Edg.

Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the todpole, 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 stocked, punished,

and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts

to his body, horse to ride, and weapons 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!

Glou.

What, hath your grace no better company?

Edg.

The prince of darkness is a gentleman:

Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.

Glou.

Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile

That it doth hate what gets it.

Edg.

Poor Tom's a-cold.

Glou.

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 ventur'd to come seek you out

And bring you where both fire and food is ready.

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.

Lear.

I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.—

What is your study?

Edg.

How to prevent the fiend and to kill vermin.

Lear.

Let me ask you one word in private.

Kent.

Importune him once more to go, my lord;

His wits begin to unsettle.

Glou.

Canst thou blame him?

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 lov'd him, friend,—

No father his son dearer: true to tell thee,

[Storm continues.]

The grief hath craz'd my wits.—What a night's this!—

I do beseech your grace,—

Lear.

O, cry you mercy, sir.—

Noble philosopher, your company.

Edg.

Tom's a-cold.

Glou.

In, fellow, there, into the hovel; keep thee warm.

Lear.

Come, let's in all.

Kent.

This way, my lord.

Lear.

With him;

I will keep still with my philosopher.

Kent.

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

Glou.

Take him you on.

Kent.

Sirrah, come on; go along with us.

Lear.

Come, good Athenian.

Glou.

No words, no words: hush.

Edg.

Child Rowland to the dark tower came,

His word was still—Fie, foh, and fum,

I smell the blood of a British man.

[Exeunt.]

Scene V. A Room in Gloucester's Castle.

[Enter Cornwall and Edmund.]

Corn.

I will have my revenge ere I depart his house.

Edm.

How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to

loyalty, something fears me to think of.

Corn.

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 reproveable badness in himself.

Edm.

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!

Corn.

Go with me to the duchess.

Edm.

If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business

in hand.

Corn.

True or false, it hath made thee earl of Gloucester. Seek out

where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension.

Edm.

[Aside.] If I find him comforting the king, it will stuff his

suspicion more fully.—I will persever in my course of loyalty,

though the conflict be sore between that and my blood.

Corn.

I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a dearer father

in my love.

[Exeunt.]

Scene VI. A Chamber in a Farmhouse adjoining the Castle.

[Enter Gloucester, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar.]

Glou.

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.]

Edg.

Frateretto calls me; and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake

of darkness.—Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.

Fool.

Pr'ythee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a gentleman or a

yeoman.

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.

Lear.

To have a thousand with red burning spits

Come hissing in upon 'em,—

Edg.

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.

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!—

Edg.

Look, where he stands and glares!—Want'st 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.

Edg.

The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale.

Hoppedance 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 amaz'd;

Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?

Lear.

I'll see their trial first.—Bring in their evidence.

[To Edgar.] Thou, robed man of justice, take thy place;—

[To the Fool.] And thou, his yokefellow of equity,

Bench by his side:—[To Kent.] you are o' the commission,

Sit you too.

Edg.

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.

Purr! the cat is gray.

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?

Lear.

She cannot deny it.

Fool.

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

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?

Edg.

Bless thy five wits!

Kent.

O pity!—Sir, where is the patience now

That you so oft have boasted to retain?

Edg.

[Aside.] My tears begin to take his part so much

They'll mar my counterfeiting.

Lear.

The little dogs and all,

Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me.

Edg.

Tom will throw his head at them.—Avaunt, you curs!

Be thy mouth or black or white,

Tooth that poisons if it bite;

Mastiff, greyhound, 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.

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 you for one of my

hundred; only I do not like the fashion of your garments: you'll

say they are Persian; but let them be changed.

Kent.

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

Lear.

Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains:

So, so. We'll go to supper i' the morning.

Fool.

And I'll go to bed at noon.

[Re-enter Gloucester.]

Glou.

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

Kent.

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

Glou.

Good friend, I pr'ythee, 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 sinews,

Which, if convenience will not allow,

Stand in hard cure.—Come, help to bear thy master;

[To the Fool.] Thou must not stay behind.

Glou.

Come, come, away!

[Exeunt Kent, Gloucester, and the Fool, bearing off Lear.]

Edg.

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'erskip

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 fathered!—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.]

Scene VII. A Room in Gloucester's Castle.

[Enter Cornwall, Regan, Goneril, Edmund, and Servants.]

Corn.

Post speedily to my lord your husband, show him this letter:—

the army of France is landed.—Seek out the traitor Gloucester.

[Exeunt some of the Servants.]

Reg.

Hang him instantly.

Gon.

Pluck out his eyes.

Corn.

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?

Osw.

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 lord's dependants,

Are gone with him towards Dover: where they boast

To have well-armed friends.

Corn.

Get horses for your mistress.

Gon.

Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.

Corn.

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?

[Re-enter servants, with Gloucester.]

Reg.

Ingrateful fox! 'tis he.

Corn.

Bind fast his corky arms.

Glou.

What mean your graces?—Good my friends, consider

You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends.

Corn.

Bind him, I say.

[Servants bind him.]

Reg.

Hard, hard.—O filthy traitor!

Glou.

Unmerciful lady as you are, I'm none.

Corn.

To this chair bind him.—Villain, thou shalt find,—

[Regan plucks his beard.]

Glou.

By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done

To pluck me by the beard.

Reg.

So white, and such a traitor!

Glou.

Naughty lady,

These hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin

Will quicken, and accuse thee: I am your host:

With robber's hands my hospitable favours

You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?

Corn.

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

Reg.

Be simple-answer'd, for we know the truth.

Corn.

And what confederacy have you with the traitors

Late footed in the kingdom?

Reg.

To whose hands have you sent the lunatic king?

Speak.

Glou.

I have a letter guessingly set down,

Which came from one that's of a neutral heart,

And not from one oppos'd.

Corn.

Cunning.

Reg.

And false.

Corn.

Where hast thou sent the king?

Glou.

To Dover.

Reg.

Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not charg'd at peril,—

Corn.

Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that.

Glou.

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

Reg.

Wherefore to Dover, sir?

Glou.

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 endur'd, 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 subscrib'd:—but I shall see

The winged vengeance overtake such children.

Corn.

See't shalt thou never.—Fellows, hold the chair.

Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot.

[Gloucester is held down in his chair, while Cornwall plucks out one

of his eyes and sets his foot on it.]

Glou.

He that will think to live till he be old,

Give me some help!—O cruel!—O ye gods!

Reg.

One side will mock another; the other too!

Corn.

If you see vengeance,—

First Serv.

Hold your hand, my lord:

I have serv'd you ever since I was a child;

But better service have I never done you

Than now to bid you hold.

Reg.

How now, you dog!

First Serv.

If you did wear a beard upon your chin,

I'd shake it on this quarrel. What do you mean?

Corn.

My villain!

[Draws, and runs at him.]

First Serv.

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

[Draws. They fight. Cornwall is wounded.]

Reg.

Give me thy sword [to another servant.]—A peasant stand up thus?

[Snatches a sword, comes behind, and stabs him.]

First Serv.

O, I am slain!—My lord, you have one eye left

To see some mischief on thim. O!

[Dies.]

Corn.

Lest it see more, prevent it.—Out, vile jelly!

Where is thy lustre now?

[Tears out Gloucester's other eye and throws it on the ground.]

Glou.

All dark and comfortless.—Where's my son Edmund?

Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature

To quit this horrid act.

Reg.

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.

Glou.

O my follies! Then Edgar was abus'd.—

Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!

Reg.

Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell

His way to Dover.—How is't, my lord? How look you?

Corn.

I have receiv'd 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; Servants unbind Gloucester and lead

him out.]

Second Serv.

I'll never care what wickedness I do,

If this man come to good.

Third Serv.

If she live long,

And in the end meet the old course of death,

Women will all turn monsters.

Second Serv.

Let's follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam

To lead him where he would: his roguish madness

Allows itself to anything.

Third Serv.

Go thou: I'll fetch some flax and whites of eggs

To apply to his bleeding face. Now heaven help him!

[Exeunt severally.]

ACT IV.

Scene I. The heath.

[Enter Edgar.]

Edg.

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,

Life would not yield to age.

Old Man.

O my good lord,

I have been your tenant, and your father's tenant,

These fourscore years.

Glou.

Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone:

Thy comforts can do me no good at all;

Thee they may hurt.

Old Man.

You cannot see your way.

Glou.

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'd say I had eyes again!

Old Man.

How now! Who's there?

Edg.

[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.

Edg.

[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?

Glou.

Is it a beggar-man?

Old Man.

Madman and beggar too.

Glou.

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.

Edg.

[Aside.] How should this be?—

Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow,

Angering itself and others.—Bless thee, master!

Glou.

Is that the naked fellow?

Old Man.

Ay, my lord.

Glou.

Then pr'ythee 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,

Which I'll entreat to lead me.

Old Man.

Alack, sir, he is mad.

Glou.

'Tis the time's 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.]

Glou.

Sirrah naked fellow,—

Edg.

Poor Tom's a-cold.

[Aside.] I cannot daub it further.

Glou.

Come hither, fellow.

Edg.

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

Glou.

Know'st thou the way to Dover?

Edg.

Both stile and gate, horseway and footpath. 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!

Glou.

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 does not feel, feel your power quickly;

So distribution should undo excess,

And each man have enough.—Dost thou know Dover?

Edg.

Ay, master.

Glou.

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.

Edg.

Give me thy arm:

Poor Tom shall lead thee.

[Exeunt.]

Scene II. Before the Duke of Albany's Palace.

[Enter Goneril and Edmund; Oswald meeting them.]

Gon.

Welcome, my lord: I marvel our mild husband

Not met us on the way.—Now, where's your master?

Osw.

Madam, within; but never man so chang'd.

I told him of the army that was landed;

He smil'd 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.

Gon.

[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. [Giving a favour.]

Wear this; spare speech;

Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak,

Would stretch thy spirits up into the air:—

Conceive, and fare thee well.

Edm.

Yours in the ranks of death!

[Exit Edmund.]

Gon.

My most dear Gloucester.

O, the difference of man and man!

To thee a woman's services are due:

My fool usurps my body.

Osw.

Madam, here comes my lord.

[Exit.]

[Enter Albany.]

Gon.

I have been worth the whistle.

Alb.

O Goneril!

You are not worth the dust which the rude wind

Blows in your face! I fear your disposition:

That nature which contemns it origin

Cannot be bordered certain in itself;

She that herself will sliver and disbranch

From her material sap, perforce must wither

And come to deadly use.

Gon.

No more; the text is foolish.

Alb.

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.

Gon.

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, sitt'st still, and criest

'Alack, why does he so?'

Alb.

See thyself, devil!

Proper deformity seems not in the fiend

So horrid as in woman.

Gon.

O vain fool!

Alb.

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.

Gon.

Marry, your manhood now!

[Enter a Messenger.]

Alb.

What news?

Mess.

O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall's dead;

Slain by his servant, going to put out

The other eye of Gloucester.

Alb.

Gloucester's eyes!

Mess.

A servant that he bred, thrill'd with remorse,

Oppos'd against the act, bending his sword

To his great master; who, thereat enrag'd,

Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead;

But not without that harmful stroke which since

Hath pluck'd him after.

Alb.

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?

Mess.

Both, both, my lord.—

This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer;

'Tis from your sister.

Gon.

[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.]

Alb.

Where was his son when they did take his eyes?

Mess.

Come with my lady hither.

Alb.

He is not here.

Mess.

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

Alb.

Knows he the wickedness?

Mess.

Ay, my good lord. 'Twas he inform'd against him;

And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment

Might have the freer course.

Alb.

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.]

Scene III. The French camp near Dover.

[Enter Kent and a Gentleman.]

Kent.

Why the king of France is so suddenly gone back know you the

reason?

Gent.

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?

Gent.

The Mareschal of France, Monsieur La Far.

Kent.

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

Gent.

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 mov'd her.

Gent.

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 day: 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 belov'd, if all

Could so become it.

Kent.

Made she no verbal question?

Gent.

Faith, once or twice she heav'd 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 believ'd!'—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?

Gent.

No.

Kent.

Was this before the king return'd?

Gent.

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.

Gent.

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.

Gent.

Alack, poor gentleman!

Kent.

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

Gent.

'Tis so; they are a-foot.

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.]

Scene IV. The French camp. A Tent.

[Enter Cordelia, Physician, and Soldiers.]

Cor.

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 harlocks, 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.

Phys.

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.

Cor.

All bless'd 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.]

Mess.

News, madam;

The British powers are marching hitherward.

Cor.

'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 ag'd father's right:

Soon may I hear and see him!

[Exeunt.]

Scene V. A Room in Gloucester's Castle.

[Enter Regan and Oswald.]

Reg.

But are my brother's powers set forth?

Osw.

Ay, madam.

Reg.

Himself in person there?

Osw.

Madam, with much ado.

Your sister is the better soldier.

Reg.

Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home?

Osw.

No, madam.

Reg.

What might import my sister's letter to him?

Osw.

I know not, lady.

Reg.

Faith, he is posted hence on serious matter.

It was great ignorance, Gloucester's eyes being out,

To let him live: where he arrives he moves

All hearts against us: Edmund, I think, is gone,

In pity of his misery, to despatch

His nighted life; moreover, to descry

The strength o' the enemy.

Osw.

I must needs after him, madam, with my letter.

Reg.

Our troops set forth to-morrow: stay with us;

The ways are dangerous.

Osw.

I may not, madam:

My lady charg'd my duty in this business.

Reg.

Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you

Transport her purposes by word? Belike,

Something,—I know not what:—I'll love thee much—

Let me unseal the letter.

Osw.

Madam, I had rather,—

Reg.

I know your lady does not love her husband;

I am sure of that: and at her late being here

She gave strange eyeliads and most speaking looks

To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom.

Osw.

I, madam?

Reg.

I speak in understanding; you are, I know't:

Therefore I do advise you, take this note:

My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd;

And more convenient is he for my hand

Than for your lady's.—You may gather more.

If you do find him, pray you give him this;

And when your mistress hears thus much from you,

I pray desire her call her wisdom to her

So, fare you well.

If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,

Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.

Osw.

Would I could meet him, madam! I should show

What party I do follow.

Reg.

Fare thee well.

[Exeunt.]

Scene VI. The country near Dover.

[Enter Gloucester, and Edgar dressed like a peasant.]

Glou.

When shall I come to the top of that same hill?

Edg.

You do climb up it now: look, how we labour.

Glou.

Methinks the ground is even.

Edg.

Horrible steep.

Hark, do you hear the sea?

Glou.

No, truly.

Edg.

Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect

By your eyes' anguish.

Glou.

So may it be indeed:

Methinks thy voice is alter'd; and thou speak'st

In better phrase and matter than thou didst.

Edg.

You are much deceiv'd: in nothing am I chang'd

But in my garments.

Glou.

Methinks you're better spoken.

Edg.

Come on, sir; here's the place:—stand still.—How fearful

And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!

The crows and choughs that wing the midway air

Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down

Hangs one that gathers samphire—dreadful trade!

Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:

The fishermen that walk upon the beach

Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,

Diminish'd to her cock; her cock a buoy

Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge

That on the unnumber'd idle pebble chafes

Cannot be heard so high.—I'll look no more;

Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight

Topple down headlong.

Glou.

Set me where you stand.

Edg.

Give me your hand:—you are now within a foot

Of th' extreme verge: for all beneath the moon

Would I not leap upright.

Glou.

Let go my hand.

Here, friend, 's another purse; in it a jewel

Well worth a poor man's taking: fairies and gods

Prosper it with thee! Go thou further off;

Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.

Edg.

Now fare ye well, good sir.

[Seems to go.]

Glou.

With all my heart.

Edg.

[Aside.] Why I do trifle thus with his despair

Is done to cure it.

Glou.

O you mighty gods!

This world I do renounce, and, in your sights,

Shake patiently my great affliction off:

If I could bear it longer, and not fall

To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,

My snuff and loathed part of nature should

Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!—

Now, fellow, fare thee well.

Edg.

Gone, sir:—farewell.—

[Gloucester leaps, and falls along.]

And yet I know not how conceit may rob

The treasury of life when life itself

Yields to the theft: had he been where he thought,

By this had thought been past.—Alive or dead?

Ho you, sir! friend! Hear you, sir?—speak!—

Thus might he pass indeed:—yet he revives.—

What are you, sir?

Glou.

Away, and let me die.

Edg.

Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,

So many fathom down precipitating,

Thou'dst shiver'd like an egg: but thou dost breathe;

Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound.

Ten masts at each make not the altitude

Which thou hast perpendicularly fell:

Thy life is a miracle.—Speak yet again.

Glou.

But have I fall'n, or no?

Edg.

From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.

Look up a-height;—the shrill-gorg'd lark so far

Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.

Glou.

Alack, I have no eyes.—

Is wretchedness depriv'd that benefit

To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort

When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage

And frustrate his proud will.

Edg.

Give me your arm:

Up:—so.—How is't? Feel you your legs? You stand.

Glou.

Too well, too well.

Edg.

This is above all strangeness.

Upon the crown o' the cliff what thing was that

Which parted from you?

Glou.

A poor unfortunate beggar.

Edg.

As I stood here below, methought his eyes

Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses,

Horns whelk'd and wav'd like the enridged sea:

It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father,

Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours

Of men's impossibility, have preserv'd thee.

Glou.

I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear

Affliction till it do cry out itself,

'Enough, enough,' and die. That thing you speak of,

I took it for a man; often 'twould say,

'The fiend, the fiend':—he led me to that place.

Edg.

Bear free and patient thoughts.—But who comes here?

[Enter Lear, fantastically dressed up with flowers.]

The safer sense will ne'er accommodate

His master thus.

Lear.

No, they cannot touch me for coining;

I am the king himself.

Edg.

O thou side-piercing sight!

Lear.

Nature 's above art in that respect.—There's your press money.

That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper: draw me a

clothier's yard.—Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace;—this piece

of toasted cheese will do't. There's my gauntlet; I'll prove it

on a giant.—Bring up the brown bills. O, well flown, bird!—i'

the clout, i' the clout: hewgh!—Give the word.

Edg.

Sweet marjoram.

Lear.

Pass.

Glou.

I know that voice.

Lear.

Ha! Goneril with a white beard!—They flattered me like a dog;

and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were

there. To say 'ay' and 'no' to everything I said!—'Ay' and 'no',

too, was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me once, and

the wind to make me chatter; when the thunder would not peace at

my bidding; there I found 'em, there I smelt 'em out. Go to, they

are not men o' their words: they told me I was everything; 'tis a

lie—I am not ague-proof.

Glou.

The trick of that voice I do well remember:

Is't not the king?

Lear.

Ay, every inch a king:

When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.

I pardon that man's life.—What was thy cause?—

Adultery?—

Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No:

The wren goes to't, and the small gilded fly

Does lecher in my sight.

Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son

Was kinder to his father than my daughters

Got 'tween the lawful sheets.

To't, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers.—

Behold yond simpering dame,

Whose face between her forks presages snow;

That minces virtue, and does shake the head

To hear of pleasure's name;—

The fitchew nor the soiled horse goes to't

With a more riotous appetite.

Down from the waist they are centaurs,

Though women all above:

But to the girdle do the gods inherit,

Beneath is all the fiend's; there's hell, there's darkness,

There is the sulphurous pit; burning, scalding, stench,

consumption; fie, fie, fie! pah, pah!

Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my

imagination: there's money for thee.

Glou.

O, let me kiss that hand!

Lear.

Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.

Glou.

O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world

Shall so wear out to naught.—Dost thou know me?

Lear.

I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny at me?

No, do thy worst, blind Cupid; I'll not love.—Read thou this

challenge; mark but the penning of it.

Glou.

Were all the letters suns, I could not see one.

Edg.

I would not take this from report;—it is,

And my heart breaks at it.

Lear.

Read.

Glou.

What, with the case of eyes?

Lear.

O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your head, nor no money

in your purse? Your eyes are in a heavy case, your purse in a

light: yet you see how this world goes.

Glou.

I see it feelingly.

Lear.

What, art mad? A man may see how the world goes with no eyes.

Look with thine ears: see how yond justice rails upon yond simple

thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which

is the justice, which is the thief?—Thou hast seen a farmer's

dog bark at a beggar?

Glou.

Ay, sir.

Lear.

And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst behold

the great image of authority: a dog's obeyed in office.—

Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand!

Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back;

Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind

For which thou whipp'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener.

Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear;

Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,

And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;

Arm it in rags, a pygmy's straw does pierce it.

None does offend, none.—I say none; I'll able 'em:

Take that of me, my friend, who have the power

To seal the accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes;

And, like a scurvy politician, seem

To see the things thou dost not.—Now, now, now, now:

Pull off my boots: harder, harder:—so.

Edg.

O, matter and impertinency mix'd!

Reason, in madness!

Lear.

If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes.

I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester:

Thou must be patient; we came crying hither:

Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air

We wawl and cry.—I will preach to thee: mark.

Glou.

Alack, alack the day!

Lear.

When we are born, we cry that we are come

To this great stage of fools—This' a good block:—

It were a delicate stratagem to shoe

A troop of horse with felt: I'll put't in proof,;

And when I have stol'n upon these sons-in-law,

Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!

[Enter a Gentleman, with Attendants].

Gent.

O, here he is: lay hand upon him.—Sir,

Your most dear daughter,—

Lear.

No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even

The natural fool of fortune.—Use me well;

You shall have ransom. Let me have surgeons;

I am cut to the brains.

Gent.

You shall have anything.

Lear.

No seconds? all myself?

Why, this would make a man a man of salt,

To use his eyes for garden water-pots,

Ay, and for laying Autumn's dust.

Gent.

Good sir,—

Lear.

I will die bravely, like a smug bridegroom. What!

I will be jovial: come, come, I am a king,

My masters, know you that.

Gent.

You are a royal one, and we obey you.

Lear.

Then there's life in't. Nay, an you get it, you shall get it

by running. Sa, sa, sa, sa!

[Exit running. Attendants follow.]

Gent.

A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch,

Past speaking of in a king!—Thou hast one daughter

Who redeems nature from the general curse

Which twain have brought her to.

Edg.

Hail, gentle sir.

Gent.

Sir, speed you. What's your will?

Edg.

Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward?

Gent.

Most sure and vulgar: every one hears that

Which can distinguish sound.

Edg.

But, by your favour,

How near's the other army?

Gent.

Near and on speedy foot; the main descry

Stands on the hourly thought.

Edg.

I thank you sir: that's all.

Gent.

Though that the queen on special cause is here,

Her army is mov'd on.

Edg.

I thank you, sir.

[Exit Gentleman.]

Glou.

You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me;

Let not my worser spirit tempt me again

To die before you please!

Edg.

Well pray you, father.

Glou.

Now, good sir, what are you?

Edg.

A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows;

Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows,

Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand,

I'll lead you to some biding.

Glou.

Hearty thanks:

The bounty and the benison of heaven

To boot, and boot!

[Enter Oswald.]

Osw.

A proclaim'd prize! Most happy!

That eyeless head of thine was first fram'd flesh

To raise my fortunes.—Thou old unhappy traitor,

Briefly thyself remember:—the sword is out

That must destroy thee.

Glou.

Now let thy friendly hand

Put strength enough to it.

[Edgar interposes.]

Osw.

Wherefore, bold peasant,

Dar'st thou support a publish'd traitor? Hence;

Lest that the infection of his fortune take

Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.

Edg.

Chill not let go, zir, without vurther 'casion.

Osw.

Let go, slave, or thou diest!

Edg.

Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor voke pass. An chud

ha' bin zwaggered out of my life, 'twould not ha' bin zo long as

'tis by a vortnight. Nay, come not near the old man; keep out,

che vore ye, or ise try whether your costard or my bat be the

harder: chill be plain with you.

Osw.

Out, dunghill!

Edg.

Chill pick your teeth, zir. Come! No matter vor your foins.

[They fight, and Edgar knocks him down.]

Osw.

Slave, thou hast slain me:—villain, take my purse:

If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body;

And give the letters which thou find'st about me

To Edmund Earl of Gloucester; seek him out

Upon the British party: O, untimely death!

[Dies.]

Edg.

I know thee well: a serviceable villain;

As duteous to the vices of thy mistress

As badness would desire.

Glou.

What, is he dead?

Edg.

Sit you down, father; rest you.—

Let's see these pockets; the letters that he speaks of

May be my friends.—He's dead; I am only sorry

He had no other death's-man. Let us see:—

Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not:

To know our enemies' minds, we'd rip their hearts;

Their papers is more lawful.

[Reads.] 'Let our reciprocal vows be remembered. You have many

opportunities to cut him off: if your will want not, time and

place will be fruitfully offered. There is nothing done if he

return the conqueror: then am I the prisoner, and his bed my

gaol; from the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply the

place for your labour.

'Your (wife, so I would say) affectionate servant,

'Goneril.'

O indistinguish'd space of woman's will!

A plot upon her virtuous husband's life;

And the exchange my brother!—Here in the sands

Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified

Of murderous lechers: and in the mature time

With this ungracious paper strike the sight

Of the death-practis'd duke: for him 'tis well

That of thy death and business I can tell.

[Exit Edgar, dragging out the body.]

Glou.

The king is mad: how stiff is my vile sense,

That I stand up, and have ingenious feeling

Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract:

So should my thoughts be sever'd from my griefs,

And woes by wrong imaginations lose

The knowledge of themselves.

Edg.

Give me your hand:

[A drum afar off.]

Far off methinks I hear the beaten drum:

Come, father, I'll bestow you with a friend.

[Exeunt.]

Scene VII. A Tent in the French Camp.

[Lear on a bed, asleep, soft music playing; Physician, Gentleman, and others attending.]

[Enter Cordelia, and Kent.]

Cor.

O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work

To match thy goodness? My life will be too short

And every measure fail me.

Kent.

To be acknowledg'd, madam, is o'erpaid.

All my reports go with the modest truth;

Nor more nor clipp'd, but so.

Cor.

Be better suited:

These weeds are memories of those worser hours:

I pr'ythee, put them off.

Kent.

Pardon, dear madam;

Yet to be known shortens my made intent:

My boon I make it that you know me not

Till time and I think meet.

Cor.

Then be't so, my good lord. [To the Physician.] How, does the

king?

Phys.

Madam, sleeps still.

Cor.

O you kind gods,

Cure this great breach in his abused nature!

The untun'd and jarring senses, O, wind up

Of this child-changed father!

Phys.

So please your majesty

That we may wake the king: he hath slept long.

Cor.

Be govern'd by your knowledge, and proceed

I' the sway of your own will. Is he array'd?

Gent.

Ay, madam. In the heaviness of sleep

We put fresh garments on him.

Phys.

Be by, good madam, when we do awake him;

I doubt not of his temperance.

Cor.

Very well.

Phys.

Please you draw near.—Louder the music there!

Cor.

O my dear father! Restoration hang

Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss

Repair those violent harms that my two sisters

Have in thy reverence made!

Kent.

Kind and dear princess!

Cor.

Had you not been their father, these white flakes

Had challeng'd pity of them. Was this a face

To be oppos'd against the warring winds?

To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?

In the most terrible and nimble stroke

Of quick cross lightning? to watch—,poor perdu!—

With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog,

Though he had bit me, should have stood that night

Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father,

To hovel thee with swine and rogues forlorn,

In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!

'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once

Had not concluded all.—He wakes; speak to him.

Doct.

Madam, do you; 'tis fittest.

Cor.

How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty?

Lear.

You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave:—

Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound

Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears

Do scald like molten lead.

Cor.

Sir, do you know me?

Lear.

You are a spirit, I know: when did you die?

Cor.

Still, still, far wide!

Phys.

He's scarce awake: let him alone awhile.

Lear.

Where have I been? Where am I?—Fair daylight,—

I am mightily abus'd.—I should e'en die with pity,

To see another thus.—I know not what to say.—

I will not swear these are my hands:—let's see;

I feel this pin prick. Would I were assur'd

Of my condition!

Cor.

O, look upon me, sir,

And hold your hands in benediction o'er me.—

No, sir, you must not kneel.

Lear.

Pray, do not mock me:

I am a very foolish fond old man,

Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;

And, to deal plainly,

I fear I am not in my perfect mind.

Methinks I should know you, and know this man;

Yet I am doubtful: for I am mainly ignorant

What place this is; and all the skill I have

Remembers not these garments; nor I know not

Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me;

For, as I am a man, I think this lady

To be my child Cordelia.

Cor.

And so I am. I am.

Lear.

Be your tears wet? yes, faith. I pray, weep not:

If you have poison for me, I will drink it.

I know you do not love me; for your sisters

Have, as I do remember, done me wrong:

You have some cause, they have not.

Cor.

No cause, no cause.

Lear.

Am I in France?

Kent.

In your own kingdom, sir.

Lear.

Do not abuse me.

Phys.

Be comforted, good madam: the great rage,

You see, is kill'd in him: and yet it is danger

To make him even o'er the time he has lost.

Desire him to go in; trouble him no more

Till further settling.

Cor.

Will't please your highness walk?

Lear.

You must bear with me:

Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old and foolish.

[Exeunt Lear, Cordelia, Physician, and Attendants.]

Gent.

Holds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so slain?

Kent.

Most certain, sir.

Gent.

Who is conductor of his people?

Kent.

As 'tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester.

Gent.

They say Edgar, his banished son, is with the Earl of Kent

in Germany.

Kent.

Report is changeable. 'Tis time to look about; the powers of

the kingdom approach apace.

Gent.

The arbitrement is like to be bloody.

Fare you well, sir.

[Exit.]

Kent.

My point and period will be throughly wrought,

Or well or ill, as this day's battle's fought.

[Exit.]

ACT V.

Scene I. The Camp of the British Forces near Dover.

[Enter, with drum and colours, Edmund, Regan, Officers, Soldiers,

and others.]

Edm.

Know of the duke if his last purpose hold,

Or whether since he is advis'd by aught

To change the course: he's full of alteration

And self-reproving:—bring his constant pleasure.

[To an Officer, who goes out.]

Reg.

Our sister's man is certainly miscarried.

Edm.

Tis to be doubted, madam.

Reg.

Now, sweet lord,

You know the goodness I intend upon you:

Tell me,—but truly,—but then speak the truth,

Do you not love my sister?

Edm.

In honour'd love.

Reg.

But have you never found my brother's way

To the forfended place?

Edm.

That thought abuses you.

Reg.

I am doubtful that you have been conjunct

And bosom'd with her, as far as we call hers.

Edm.

No, by mine honour, madam.

Reg.

I never shall endure her: dear my lord,

Be not familiar with her.

Edm.

Fear me not:—

She and the duke her husband!

[Enter, with drum and colours, Albany, Goneril, and Soldiers.]

Gon.

[Aside.] I had rather lose the battle than that sister

Should loosen him and me.

Alb.

Our very loving sister, well be-met.—

Sir, this I heard,—the king is come to his daughter,

With others whom the rigour of our state

Forc'd to cry out. Where I could not be honest,

I never yet was valiant: for this business,

It toucheth us, as France invades our land,

Not bolds the king, with others whom, I fear,

Most just and heavy causes make oppose.

Edm.

Sir, you speak nobly.

Reg.

Why is this reason'd?

Gon.

Combine together 'gainst the enemy;

For these domestic and particular broils

Are not the question here.

Alb.

Let's, then, determine

With the ancient of war on our proceeding.

Edm.

I shall attend you presently at your tent.

Reg.

Sister, you'll go with us?

Gon.

No.

Reg.

'Tis most convenient; pray you, go with us.

Gon.

[Aside.] O, ho, I know the riddle.—I will go.

[As they are going out, enter Edgar disguised.]

Edg.

If e'er your grace had speech with man so poor,

Hear me one word.

Alb.

I'll overtake you.—Speak.

[Exeunt Edmund, Regan, Goneril, Officers, Soldiers, and

Attendants.]

Edg.

Before you fight the battle, ope this letter.

If you have victory, let the trumpet sound

For him that brought it: wretched though I seem,

I can produce a champion that will prove

What is avouched there. If you miscarry,

Your business of the world hath so an end,

And machination ceases. Fortune love you!

Alb.

Stay till I have read the letter.

Edg.

I was forbid it.

When time shall serve, let but the herald cry,

And I'll appear again.

Alb.

Why, fare thee well: I will o'erlook thy paper.

[Exit Edgar.]

[Re-enter Edmund.]

Edm.

The enemy's in view; draw up your powers.

Here is the guess of their true strength and forces

By diligent discovery;—but your haste

Is now urg'd on you.

Alb.

We will greet the time.

[Exit.]

Edm.

To both these sisters have I sworn my love;

Each jealous of the other, as the stung

Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take?

Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd,

If both remain alive: to take the widow

Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril;

And hardly shall I carry out my side,

Her husband being alive. Now, then, we'll use

His countenance for the battle; which being done,

Let her who would be rid of him devise

His speedy taking off. As for the mercy

Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia,—

The battle done, and they within our power,

Shall never see his pardon: for my state

Stands on me to defend, not to debate.

[Exit.]

Scene II. A field between the two Camps.

[Alarum within. Enter, with drum and colours, Lear, Cordelia, and

their Forces, and exeunt.]

[Enter Edgar and Gloucester.]

Edg.

Here, father, take the shadow of this tree

For your good host; pray that the right may thrive:

If ever I return to you again,

I'll bring you comfort.

Glou.

Grace go with you, sir!

[Exit Edgar].

[Alarum and retreat within. R-enter Edgar.]

Edg.

Away, old man,—give me thy hand,—away!

King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en:

Give me thy hand; come on!

Glou.

No further, sir; a man may rot even here.

Edg.

What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure

Their going hence, even as their coming hither;

Ripeness is all:—come on.

Glou.

And that's true too.

[Exeunt.]

Scene III. The British Camp near Dover.

[Enter, in conquest, with drum and colours, Edmund; Lear and

Cordelia prisoners; Officers, Soldiers, &c.]

Edm.

Some officers take them away: good guard

Until their greater pleasures first be known

That are to censure them.

Cor.

We are not the first

Who with best meaning have incurr'd the worst.

For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down;

Myself could else out-frown false fortune's frown.—

Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?

Lear.

No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison:

We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:

When thou dost ask me blessing I'll kneel down

And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,

And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh

At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues

Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,—

Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;—

And take upon's the mystery of things,

As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out,

In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones

That ebb and flow by the moon.

Edm.

Take them away.

Lear.

Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,

The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee?

He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven

And fire us hence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes;

The goodyears shall devour them, flesh and fell,

Ere they shall make us weep: we'll see 'em starve first.

Come.

[Exeunt Lear and Cordelia, guarded.]

Edm.

Come hither, captain; hark.

Take thou this note [giving a paper]; go follow them to prison:

One step I have advanc'd thee; if thou dost

As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way

To noble fortunes: know thou this,—that men

Are as the time is: to be tender-minded

Does not become a sword:—thy great employment

Will not bear question; either say thou'lt do't,

Or thrive by other means.

Capt.

I'll do't, my lord.

Edm.

About it; and write happy when thou hast done.

Mark,—I say, instantly; and carry it so

As I have set it down.

Capt.

I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats;

If it be man's work, I'll do't.

[Exit.]

[Flourish. Enter Albany, Goneril, Regan, Officers, and

Attendants.]

Alb.

Sir, you have show'd to-day your valiant strain,

And fortune led you well: you have the captives

Who were the opposites of this day's strife:

We do require them of you, so to use them

As we shall find their merits and our safety

May equally determine.

Edm.

Sir, I thought it fit

To send the old and miserable king

To some retention and appointed guard;

Whose age has charms in it, whose title more,

To pluck the common bosom on his side,

And turn our impress'd lances in our eyes

Which do command them. With him I sent the queen;

My reason all the same; and they are ready

To-morrow, or at further space, to appear

Where you shall hold your session. At this time

We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend;

And the best quarrels, in the heat, are curs'd

By those that feel their sharpness:—

The question of Cordelia and her father

Requires a fitter place.

Alb.

Sir, by your patience,

I hold you but a subject of this war,

Not as a brother.

Reg.

That's as we list to grace him.

Methinks our pleasure might have been demanded

Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers;

Bore the commission of my place and person;

The which immediacy may well stand up

And call itself your brother.

Gon.

Not so hot:

In his own grace he doth exalt himself,

More than in your addition.

Reg.

In my rights

By me invested, he compeers the best.

Gon.

That were the most if he should husband you.

Reg.

Jesters do oft prove prophets.

Gon.

Holla, holla!

That eye that told you so look'd but asquint.

Reg.

Lady, I am not well; else I should answer

From a full-flowing stomach.—General,

Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony;

Dispose of them, of me; the walls are thine:

Witness the world that I create thee here

My lord and master.

Gon.

Mean you to enjoy him?

Alb.

The let-alone lies not in your good will.

Edm.

Nor in thine, lord.

Alb.

Half-blooded fellow, yes.

Reg.

[To Edmund.] Let the drum strike, and prove my title thine.

Alb.

Stay yet; hear reason.—Edmund, I arrest thee

On capital treason; and, in thine arrest,

This gilded serpent [pointing to Goneril.],—For your claim, fair

sister,

I bar it in the interest of my wife;

'Tis she is subcontracted to this lord,

And I, her husband, contradict your bans.

If you will marry, make your loves to me,—

My lady is bespoke.

Gon.

An interlude!

Alb.

Thou art arm'd, Gloucester:—let the trumpet sound:

If none appear to prove upon thy person

Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,

There is my pledge [throwing down a glove]; I'll prove it on thy

heart,

Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less

Than I have here proclaim'd thee.

Reg.

Sick, O, sick!

Gon.

[Aside.] If not, I'll ne'er trust medicine.

Edm.

There's my exchange [throwing down a glove]: what in the world he

is

That names me traitor, villain-like he lies:

Call by thy trumpet: he that dares approach,

On him, on you, who not? I will maintain

My truth and honour firmly.

Alb.

A herald, ho!

Edm.

A herald, ho, a herald!

Alb.

Trust to thy single virtue; for thy soldiers,

All levied in my name, have in my name

Took their discharge.

Reg.

My sickness grows upon me.

Alb.

She is not well. Convey her to my tent.

[Exit Regan, led.]

[Enter a Herald.]

Come hither, herald.—Let the trumpet sound,—

And read out this.

Officer.

Sound, trumpet!

[A trumpet sounds.]

Her.

[Reads.] 'If any man of quality or degree within the lists of

the army will maintain upon Edmund, supposed Earl of Gloucester,

that he is a manifold traitor, let him appear by the third sound

of the trumpet. He is bold in his defence.'

Edm.

Sound!

[First trumpet.]

Her.

Again!

[Second trumpet.]

Her.

Again!

[Third trumpet. Trumpet answers within. Enter Edgar, armed,

preceded by a trumpet.]

Alb.

Ask him his purposes, why he appears

Upon this call o' the trumpet.

Her.

What are you?

Your name, your quality? and why you answer

This present summons?

Edg.

Know, my name is lost;

By treason's tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit.

Yet am I noble as the adversary

I come to cope.

Alb.

Which is that adversary?

Edg.

What's he that speaks for Edmund Earl of Gloucester?

Edm.

Himself:—what say'st thou to him?

Edg.

Draw thy sword,

That, if my speech offend a noble heart,

Thy arm may do thee justice: here is mine.

Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours,

My oath, and my profession: I protest,—

Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence,

Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,

Thy valour and thy heart,—thou art a traitor;

False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father;

Conspirant 'gainst this high illustrious prince;

And, from the extremest upward of thy head

To the descent and dust beneath thy foot,

A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou 'No,'

This sword, this arm, and my best spirits are bent

To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,

Thou liest.

Edm.

In wisdom I should ask thy name;

But since thy outside looks so fair and warlike,

And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes,

What safe and nicely I might well delay

By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn:

Back do I toss those treasons to thy head;

With the hell-hated lie o'erwhelm thy heart;

Which,—for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise,—

This sword of mine shall give them instant way,

Where they shall rest for ever.—Trumpets, speak!

[Alarums. They fight. Edmund falls.]

Alb.

Save him, save him!

Gon.

This is mere practice, Gloucester:

By the law of arms thou wast not bound to answer

An unknown opposite; thou art not vanquish'd,

But cozen'd and beguil'd.

Alb.

Shut your mouth, dame,

Or with this paper shall I stop it:—Hold, sir;

Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil:—

No tearing, lady; I perceive you know it.

[Gives the letter to Edmund.]

Gon.

Say if I do,—the laws are mine, not thine:

Who can arraign me for't?

Alb.

Most monstrous!

Know'st thou this paper?

Gon.

Ask me not what I know.

[Exit.]

Alb.

Go after her: she's desperate; govern her.

[To an Officer, who goes out.]

Edm.

What, you have charg'd me with, that have I done;

And more, much more; the time will bring it out:

'Tis past, and so am I.—But what art thou

That hast this fortune on me? If thou'rt noble,

I do forgive thee.

Edg.

Let's exchange charity.

I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;

If more, the more thou hast wrong'd me.

My name is Edgar, and thy father's son.

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices

Make instruments to plague us:

The dark and vicious place where thee he got

Cost him his eyes.

Edm.

Thou hast spoken right; 'tis true;

The wheel is come full circle; I am here.

Alb.

Methought thy very gait did prophesy

A royal nobleness:—I must embrace thee:

Let sorrow split my heart if ever I

Did hate thee or thy father!

Edg.

Worthy prince, I know't.

Alb.

Where have you hid yourself?

How have you known the miseries of your father?

Edg.

By nursing them, my lord.—List a brief tale;—

And when 'tis told, O that my heart would burst!—

The bloody proclamation to escape,

That follow'd me so near,—O, our lives' sweetness!

That with the pain of death we'd hourly die

Rather than die at once!)—taught me to shift

Into a madman's rags; to assume a semblance

That very dogs disdain'd; and in this habit

Met I my father with his bleeding rings,

Their precious stones new lost; became his guide,

Led him, begg'd for him, sav'd him from despair;

Never,—O fault!—reveal'd myself unto him

Until some half hour past, when I was arm'd;

Not sure, though hoping of this good success,

I ask'd his blessing, and from first to last

Told him my pilgrimage: but his flaw'd heart,—

Alack, too weak the conflict to support!—

'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,

Burst smilingly.

Edm.

This speech of yours hath mov'd me,

And shall perchance do good: but speak you on;

You look as you had something more to say.

Alb.

If there be more, more woeful, hold it in;

For I am almost ready to dissolve,

Hearing of this.

Edg.

This would have seem'd a period

To such as love not sorrow; but another,

To amplify too much, would make much more,

And top extremity.

Whilst I was big in clamour, came there a man

Who, having seen me in my worst estate,

Shunn'd my abhorr'd society; but then, finding

Who 'twas that so endur'd, with his strong arms

He fastened on my neck, and bellow'd out

As he'd burst heaven; threw him on my father;

Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him

That ever ear receiv'd: which in recounting

His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life

Began to crack: twice then the trumpets sounded,

And there I left him tranc'd.

Alb.

But who was this?

Edg.

Kent, sir, the banish'd Kent; who in disguise

Follow'd his enemy king and did him service

Improper for a slave.

[Enter a Gentleman hastily, with a bloody knife.]

Gent.

Help, help! O, help!

Edg.

What kind of help?

Alb.

Speak, man.

Edg.

What means that bloody knife?

Gent.

'Tis hot, it smokes;

It came even from the heart of—O! she's dead!

Alb.

Who dead? speak, man.

Gent.

Your lady, sir, your lady: and her sister

By her is poisoned; she hath confess'd it.

Edm.

I was contracted to them both: all three

Now marry in an instant.

Edg.

Here comes Kent.

Alb.

Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead:—

This judgement of the heavens, that makes us tremble

Touches us not with pity. [Exit Gentleman.]

[Enter Kent.]

O, is this he?

The time will not allow the compliment

That very manners urges.

Kent.

I am come

To bid my king and master aye good night:

Is he not here?

Alb.

Great thing of us forgot!

Speak, Edmund, where's the king? and where's Cordelia?

[The bodies of Goneril and Regan are brought in.]

Seest thou this object, Kent?

Kent.

Alack, why thus?

Edm.

Yet Edmund was belov'd.

The one the other poisoned for my sake,

And after slew herself.

Alb.

Even so.—Cover their faces.

Edm.

I pant for life:—some good I mean to do,

Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send,—

Be brief in it,—to the castle; for my writ

Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia:—

Nay, send in time.

Alb.

Run, run, O, run!

Edg.

To who, my lord?—Who has the office? send

Thy token of reprieve.

Edm.

Well thought on: take my sword,

Give it the Captain.

Alb.

Haste thee for thy life.

[Exit Edgar.]

Edm.

He hath commission from thy wife and me

To hang Cordelia in the prison, and

To lay the blame upon her own despair,

That she fordid herself.

Alb.

The gods defend her!—Bear him hence awhile.

[Edmund is borne off.]

[Re-enter Lear, with Cordelia dead in his arms; Edgar, Officer, and others following.]

Lear.

Howl, howl, howl, howl!—O, you are men of stone.

Had I your tongues and eyes, I'ld use them so

That heaven's vault should crack.—She's gone for ever!—

I know when one is dead, and when one lives;

She's dead as earth.—Lend me a looking glass;

If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,

Why, then she lives.

Kent.

Is this the promis'd end?

Edg.

Or image of that horror?

Alb.

Fall, and cease!

Lear.

This feather stirs; she lives! If it be so,

It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows

That ever I have felt.

Kent.

O my good master! [Kneeling.]

Lear.

Pr'ythee, away!

Edg.

'Tis noble Kent, your friend.

Lear.

A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!

I might have sav'd her; now she's gone for ever!—

Cordelia, Cordelia! stay a little. Ha!

What is't thou say'st?—Her voice was ever soft,

Gentle, and low,—an excellent thing in woman.—

I kill'd the slave that was a-hanging thee.

Off.

'Tis true, my lords, he did.

Lear.

Did I not, fellow?

I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion

I would have made them skip: I am old now,

And these same crosses spoil me.—Who are you?

Mine eyes are not o' the best:—I'll tell you straight.

Kent.

If fortune brag of two she lov'd and hated,

One of them we behold.

Lear.

This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent?

Kent.

The same,

Your servant Kent.—Where is your servant Caius?

Lear.

He's a good fellow, I can tell you that;

He'll strike, and quickly too:—he's dead and rotten.

Kent.

No, my good lord; I am the very man,—

Lear.

I'll see that straight.

Kent.

That from your first of difference and decay

Have follow'd your sad steps.

Lear.

You are welcome hither.

Kent.

Nor no man else:—All's cheerless, dark, and deadly.—

Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves,

And desperately are dead.

Lear.

Ay, so I think.

Alb.

He knows not what he says; and vain is it

That we present us to him.

Edg.

Very bootless.

[Enter a Officer.]

Off.

Edmund is dead, my lord.

Alb.

That's but a trifle here.—

You lords and noble friends, know our intent.

What comfort to this great decay may come

Shall be applied: for us, we will resign,

During the life of this old majesty,

To him our absolute power:—[to Edgar and Kent] you to your

rights;

With boot, and such addition as your honours

Have more than merited.—All friends shall taste

The wages of their virtue, and all foes

The cup of their deservings.—O, see, see!

Lear.

And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,

And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,

Never, never, never, never, never!—

Pray you undo this button:—thank you, sir.—

Do you see this? Look on her!—look!—her lips!—

Look there, look there!—

[He dies.]

Edg.

He faints!—My lord, my lord!—

Kent.

Break, heart; I pr'ythee break!

Edg.

Look up, my lord.

Kent.

Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! he hates him

That would upon the rack of this rough world

Stretch him out longer.

Edg.

He is gone indeed.

Kent.

The wonder is, he hath endur'd so long:

He but usurp'd his life.

Alb.

Bear them from hence.—Our present business

Is general woe.—[To Kent and Edgar.] Friends of my soul, you

twain

Rule in this realm, and the gor'd state sustain.

Kent.

I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;

My master calls me,—I must not say no.

Edg.

The weight of this sad time we must obey;

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.

The oldest have borne most: we that are young

Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

[Exeunt, with a dead march.]

This work published before January 1, 1923 is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.