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The First Web Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Works
KING LEAR 1.5
| |
| | [Enter KING LEAR, KENT, and Fool] |
| KING LEAR | |
Go you before to Gloucester with these letters. | |
| | Acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you | |
| | know than comes from her demand out of the letter. | |
| | If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there afore you. | |
| KENT | |
I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered | 5 |
| | your letter. | |
| | [Exit] |
| Fool | |
If a man's brains were in's heels, were't not in | |
| | danger of kibes? | |
| Fool | |
Then, I prithee, be merry; thy wit shall ne'er go | 10 |
| | slip-shod. | |
| 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. | 15 |
| KING LEAR | |
Why, what canst thou tell, my boy? | |
| Fool | |
She will taste as like this as a crab does to a | |
| | crab. Thou canst tell why one's nose stands i' | |
| | the middle on's face? | |
| Fool | |
Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose; that | |
| | what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into. | |
| KING LEAR | |
I did her wrong-- | |
| Fool | |
Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell? | |
| Fool | |
Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house. | |
| Fool | |
Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his | |
| | daughters, and leave his horns without a case. | |
| KING LEAR | |
I will forget my nature. So kind a father! Be my | 30 |
| | horses ready? | |
| Fool | |
Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the | |
| | seven stars are no more than seven is a pretty reason. | |
| KING LEAR | |
Because they are not eight? | |
| Fool | |
Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool. | 35 |
| KING LEAR | |
To take 't again perforce! Monster ingratitude! | |
| Fool | |
If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'ld have thee beaten | |
| | for being old before thy time. | |
| Fool | |
Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst | 40 |
| | been wise. | |
| KING LEAR | |
O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven | |
| | Keep me in temper: I would not be mad! | |
| | [Enter Gentleman] |
| | How now! are the horses ready? | |
| Gentleman | |
Ready, my lord. | 45 |
| Fool | |
She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure, | |
| | Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter. | |
| | [Exeunt] |
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