The First Web Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Works
A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle. |
[Enter GLOUCESTER, KING LEAR, KENT, Fool, and EDGAR] |
GLOUCESTER | Here is better than the open air; take it | ||
thankfully. I will piece out the comfort with what | |||
addition I can: I will not be long from you. |
KENT | All the power of his wits have given way to his | ||
impatience: the gods reward your kindness! | 5 | ||
[Exit GLOUCESTER] |
EDGAR | Frateretto calls me; and tells me | ||
Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. | |||
Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend. |
Fool | Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a | ||
gentleman or a yeoman? | 10 |
KING LEAR | A king, a king! |
Fool | No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son; | ||
for he's a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman | |||
before him. |
KING LEAR | To have a thousand with red burning spits | 15 | |
Come hissing in upon 'em,-- |
EDGAR | The foul fiend bites my back. |
Fool | He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a | ||
horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath. |
KING LEAR | It shall be done; I will arraign them straight. | 20 | |
[To EDGAR] | |||
Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer; | |||
[To the Fool] | |||
Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she foxes! |
EDGAR | Look, where he stands and glares! | ||
Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam? | |||
Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me,-- |
Fool | Her boat hath a leak, | ||
And she must not speak | 25 | ||
Why she dares not come over to thee. |
EDGAR | The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a | ||
nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two | |||
white herring. Croak not, black angel; I have no | |||
food for thee. | 30 |
KENT | How do you, sir? Stand you not so amazed: | ||
Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions? |
KING LEAR | I'll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence. | ||
[To EDGAR] | |||
Thou robed man of justice, take thy place; | |||
[To the Fool] | |||
And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity, | 35 | ||
Bench by his side: | |||
[To KENT] | |||
you are o' the commission, | |||
Sit you too. |
EDGAR | Let us deal justly. | ||
Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd? | 40 | ||
Thy sheep be in the corn; | |||
And for one blast of thy minikin mouth, | |||
Thy sheep shall take no harm. | |||
Pur! the cat is gray. |
KING LEAR | Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my | 45 | |
oath before this honourable assembly, she kicked the | |||
poor king her father. |
Fool | Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril? |
KING LEAR | She cannot deny it. |
Fool | Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool. | 50 |
KING LEAR | And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim | ||
What store her heart is made on. Stop her there! | |||
Arms, arms, sword, fire! Corruption in the place! | |||
False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape? |
EDGAR | Bless thy five wits! | 55 |
KENT | O pity! Sir, where is the patience now, | ||
That thou so oft have boasted to retain? |
EDGAR | [Aside] My tears begin to take his part so much, | ||
They'll mar my counterfeiting. |
KING LEAR | The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and | 60 | |
Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me. |
EDGAR | Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs! | ||
Be thy mouth or black or white, | |||
Tooth that poisons if it bite; | |||
Mastiff, grey-hound, mongrel grim, | 65 | ||
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. | 70 | ||
Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and | |||
fairs and market-towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry. |
KING LEAR | Then let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds | ||
about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that | |||
makes these hard hearts? | 75 | ||
[To EDGAR] | |||
You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred; only I | |||
do not like the fashion of your garments: you will | |||
say they are Persian attire: but let them be changed. |
KENT | Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile. |
KING LEAR | Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains: | 80 | |
so, so, so. We'll go to supper i' he morning. So, so, so. |
Fool | And I'll go to bed at noon. | ||
[Re-enter GLOUCESTER] |
GLOUCESTER | Come hither, friend: where is the king my master? |
KENT | Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits are gone. |
GLOUCESTER | Good friend, I prithee, take him in thy arms; | 85 | |
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, | 90 | ||
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: | 95 | |
This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses, | |||
Which, if convenience will not allow, | |||
Stand in hard cure. | |||
[To the Fool] | |||
Come, help to bear thy master; | |||
Thou must not stay behind. | 100 |
GLOUCESTER | Come, come, away. | ||
[Exeunt all but EDGAR] |
EDGAR | When we our betters see bearing our woes, | ||
We scarcely think our miseries our foes. | |||
Who alone suffers suffers most i' the mind, | |||
Leaving free things and happy shows behind: | 105 | ||
But then the mind much sufferance doth o'er skip, | |||
When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship. | |||
How light and portable my pain seems now, | |||
When that which makes me bend makes the king bow, | |||
He childed as I father'd! Tom, away! | 110 | ||
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. | 115 | ||
[Exit] |
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