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; | 35 |
| | 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: | 40 |
| | And meeting here the other messenger, | |
| | Whose welcome, I perceived, had poison'd mine,-- | |
| | Being the very fellow that of late | |
| | Display'd so saucily against your highness,-- | |
| | Having more man than wit about me, drew: | 45 |
| | He raised the house with loud and coward cries. | |
| | Your son and daughter found this trespass worth | |
| | The shame which here it suffers. | |
Fool | |
Winter's not gone yet, if the wild-geese fly that way. | |
| | Fathers that wear rags | 50 |
| | Do make their children blind; | |
| | But fathers that bear bags | |
| | Shall see their children kind. | |
| | Fortune, that arrant whore, | |
| | Ne'er turns the key to the poor. | 55 |
| | But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours | |
| | for thy daughters as thou canst tell in a year. | |
Fool | |
We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee | 70 |
| | there's no labouring i' the winter. All that follow | |
| | their noses are led by their eyes but blind men; and | |
| | there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him | |
| | that's stinking. Let go thy hold when a great wheel | |
| | runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with | 75 |
| | 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, | 80 |
| | 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: | 85 |
| | The knave turns fool that runs away; | |
| | The fool no knave, perdy. | |
KING LEAR | |
The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father | |
| | Would with his daughter speak, commands her service: | 105 |
| | 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 | 110 |
| | When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind | |
| | To suffer with the body: I'll forbear; | |
| | And am fall'n out with my more headier will, | |
| | To take the indisposed and sickly fit | |
| | For the sound man. Death on my state! wherefore | 115 |
| | [Looking on KENT] |
| | Should he sit here? This act persuades me | |
| | That this remotion of the duke and her | |
| | Is practise only. Give me my servant forth. | |
| | Go tell the duke and 's wife I'ld speak with them, | |
| | Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me, | 120 |
| | Or at their chamber-door I'll beat the drum | |
| | Till it cry sleep to death. | |
Fool | |
Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels | 125 |
| | when she put 'em i' the paste alive; she knapped 'em | |
| | o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cried 'Down, | |
| | wantons, down!' 'Twas her brother that, in pure | |
| | kindness to his horse, buttered his hay. | |
| | [Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOUCESTER, and Servants] |
KING LEAR | |
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, | 135 |
| | 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: | 140 |
| | [Points to his heart] |
| | I can scarce speak to thee; thou'lt not believe | |
| | With how depraved a quality--O Regan! | |
KING LEAR | |
No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse: | 180 |
| | 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, | 185 |
| | 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, | 190 |
| | Wherein I thee endow'd. | |
KING LEAR | |
Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good hope | |
| | Thou didst not know on't. Who comes here? O heavens, | |
| | [Enter GONERIL] |
| | If you do love old men, if your sweet sway | |
| | Allow obedience, if yourselves are old, | 205 |
| | Make it your cause; send down, and take my part! | |
| | [To GONERIL] |
| | Art not ashamed to look upon this beard? | |
| | O Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand? | |
REGAN | |
I pray you, father, being weak, seem so. | |
| | If, till the expiration of your month, | |
| | You will return and sojourn with my sister, | |
| | Dismissing half your train, come then to me: | 220 |
| | I am now from home, and out of that provision | |
| | Which shall be needful for your entertainment. | |
KING LEAR | |
Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd? | |
| | No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose | |
| | To wage against the enmity o' the air; | 225 |
| | 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 | 230 |
| | To keep base life afoot. Return with her? | |
| | Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter | |
| | To this detested groom. | |
| | [Pointing at OSWALD] |
KING LEAR | |
I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad: | 235 |
| | 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, | 240 |
| | 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: | 245 |
| | Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure: | |
| | I can be patient; I can stay with Regan, | |
| | I and my hundred knights. | |
REGAN | |
I dare avouch it, sir: what, fifty followers? | |
| | Is it not well? What should you need of more? | |
| | Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger | |
| | Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house, | |
| | Should many people, under two commands, | 260 |
| | Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible. | |
KING LEAR | |
O, reason not the need: our basest beggars | |
| | Are in the poorest thing superfluous: | |
| | Allow not nature more than nature needs, | |
| | Man's life's as cheap as beast's: thou art a lady; | |
| | If only to go warm were gorgeous, | 290 |
| | 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! | 295 |
| | If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts | |
| | Against their father, fool me not so much | |
| | To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger, | |
| | And let not women's weapons, water-drops, | |
| | Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags, | 300 |
| | 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: | 305 |
| | I have full cause of weeping; but this heart | |
| | Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws, | |
| | Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad! | |
| | [Exeunt KING LEAR, GLOUCESTER, KENT, and Fool] |
| | [Storm and tempest] |
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