King Lear Script r6

1
01 King Lear
02 6th Revised Script (November 17, 2023)
03
04 Written by William Shakespeare

05 Directed by Daniel Yogi
06
ACT I..................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
SCENE I. King Lear's palace.....................................................................................................................................5
SCENE II. The Earl of Gloucester's castle...........................................................................................................15
SCENE III. The Duke of Albany's palace............................................................................................................21
SCENE IV. A hall in the same.................................................................................................................................22
SCENE V. Court before the same.........................................................................................................................33
ACT II.................................................................................................................................................................................. 35
SCENE I. GLOUCESTER's castle..........................................................................................................................35
SCENE II. Before Gloucester's castle....................................................................................................................40
SCENE III. A wood.................................................................................................................................................... 46
SCENE IV. Before GLOUCESTER's castle.........................................................................................................47
ACT III................................................................................................................................................................................ 58
SCENE I. A heath....................................................................................................................................................... 58
SCENE II. Another part of the heath. Storm still.............................................................................................60
SCENE III. Gloucester's castle................................................................................................................................63
SCENE IV. The heath. Before a hovel.................................................................................................................64
SCENE V. Gloucester's castle..................................................................................................................................70
SCENE VI. A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle..........................................................................71
SCENE VII. Gloucester's castle...............................................................................................................................75
ACT IV................................................................................................................................................................................ 80
SCENE I. The heath.................................................................................................................................................. 80
SCENE II. Before ALBANY's palace.....................................................................................................................83
SCENE III. The French camp near Dover..........................................................................................................87
SCENE IV. The same. A tent...................................................................................................................................90
SCENE V. Gloucester's castle..................................................................................................................................91
SCENE VI. Fields near Dover.................................................................................................................................93
SCENE VII. A tent in the French camp.............................................................................................................103
ACT V................................................................................................................................................................................ 107
SCENE I. The British camp, near Dover...........................................................................................................107
SCENE II. A field between the two camps........................................................................................................110
SCENE III. The British camp near Dover.........................................................................................................111
07
08 Intermissions following Act II Scene IV and following Act IV Scene III
01
2
01 Cast list
02 King Lear Myra Roberts
03 Regan Moon Chow
04 Goneril Melanie LeDrew
05 Cordelia Molly Brownson
06
07 Earl of Gloucester Joaquin Pellegrin-Alvarez
08 Edgar/Duke of Burgundy Sterling Kennedy
09 Edmund Callalily Olcott
10 Earl of Kent Zachary Hegwer
11 Oswald Kate Stalp
12 Fool Katie Kapustka
13
14 Duke of Cornwall Yuri Garcia
15 Duke of Albany Ezra Gearhart
16 Lear’s Gentleman Tate Beech
17 King of France Cassie Minicucci
18
19
20
21 Director Daniel Yogi
22 Stage manager Tucker R. Twomey
23 Costume designer Liz Organ
King Lear—Revision 6 3
01 Notes
4
01 Notes
01 King Lear
02 ACT I
03 SCENE I. King Lear's palace.
04 [Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND]
05
06 KENT
07 I thought the king had more affected the Duke of
08 Albany than Cornwall.
09
10 GLOUCESTER
11 It did always seem so to us: but now, in the
12 division of the kingdom, it appears not which of
13 the dukes he values most; for equalities are so
14 weighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice
15 of either's moiety.
16
17 KENT
18 Is not this your son, my lord?
19
20 GLOUCESTER
21 His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have
22 so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am
23 brazed to it.
24
25 KENT
26 I cannot conceive you.
27
28
29 GLOUCESTER
30 Sir, this young fellow's mother could: whereupon
31 she grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a son
32 for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed.
33 Do you smell a fault?
34
35 KENT
36 I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it
37 being so proper.
38
39 GLOUCESTER
40 But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year
41 elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account:
42 though this knave came something saucily into the
43 world before he was sent for, yet was his mother
44 fair; there was good sport at his making, and the
45 whoreson must be acknowledged. Do you know this
46 noble gentleman, Edmund?
47
48 EDMUND
49 No, my lord.
50
51 GLOUCESTER
52 My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my
53 honourable friend.
6
01 EDMUND
02 My services to your lordship.
03
04 KENT
05 I must love you, and sue to know you better.
06 EDMUND
07 Sir, I shall study deserving.
08
09
10 GLOUCESTER
11 He hath been out nine years, and away he shall
12 again. The king is coming.
13
14 [Sennet. Enter KING LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA, and Attendants]
15
16 KING LEAR
17 Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.
18
19 GLOUCESTER
20 I shall, my liege.
21
22 [Exeunt GLOUCESTER and EDMUND]
23
24 KING LEAR
25 Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.
26 Give me the map there. Know that we have divided
27 In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent
28 To shake all cares and business from our age;
29 Conferring them on younger strengths, while we
30 Unburthen'd crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall,
31 And you, our no less loving son of Albany,
32 We have this hour a constant will to publish
33 Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife
34 May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy,
35 Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,
36 Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,
37 And here are to be answer'd. Tell me, my daughters,—
38 Since now we will divest us both of rule,
39 Interest of territory, cares of state,—
40 Which of you shall we say doth love us most?
41 That we our largest bounty may extend
42 Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,
43 Our eldest-born, speak first.
44
45
46 GONERIL
47 Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;
48 Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;
49 Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;
50 No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;
51 As much as child e'er loved, or father found;
52 A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
53 Beyond all manner of so much I love you.
54
55 CORDELIA
56 [Aside] What shall Cordelia do?
57 Love, and be silent.
58
01 KING LEAR
02 Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
03 With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd,
04 With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
05 We make thee lady: to thine and Albany's issue
06 Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,
07 Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.
08
09 REGAN
10 Sir, I am made
11 Of the self-same metal that my sister is,
12 And prize me at her worth. In my true heart
13 I find she names my very deed of love;
14 Only she comes too short: that I profess
15 Myself an enemy to all other joys,
16 Which the most precious square of sense possesses;
17 And find I am alone felicitate
18 In your dear highness' love.
19
20 CORDELIA
21 [Aside] Then poor Cordelia!
22 And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's
23 More richer than my tongue.
24
25
26 KING LEAR
27 To thee and thine hereditary ever
28 Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom;
29 No less in space, validity, and pleasure,
30 Than that conferr'd on Goneril. Now, our joy,
31 Although the last, not least; to whose young love
32 The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
33 Strive to be interess'd; what can you say to draw
34 A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.
35
36 CORDELIA
37 Nothing, my lord.
38
39 KING LEAR
40 Nothing!
41
42 CORDELIA
43 Nothing.
44
45
46 KING LEAR
47 Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
48
49 CORDELIA
50 Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
51 My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
52 According to my bond; nor more nor less.
53
54 KING LEAR
55 How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little,
56 Lest it may mar your fortunes.
57
58
8
01 CORDELIA
02 Good my lord,
03 You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
04 Return those duties back as are right fit,
05 Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
06 Why have my sisters husbands, if they say
07 They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
08 That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
09 Half my love with him, half my care and duty:
10 Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,
11 To love my father all.
12
13 KING LEAR
14 But goes thy heart with this?
15
16 CORDELIA
17 Ay, good my lord.
18
19 KING LEAR
20 So young, and so untender?
21
22 CORDELIA
23 So young, my lord, and true.
24
25 KING LEAR
26 Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy dower:
27 For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
28 The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;
29 By all the operation of the orbs
30 From whom we do exist, and cease to be;
31 Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
32 Propinquity and property of blood,
33 And as a stranger to my heart and me
34 Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian,
35 Or he that makes his generation messes
36 To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
37 Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and relieved,
38 As thou my sometime daughter.
39
40 KENT
41 Good my liege,—
42
43 KING LEAR
44 Peace, Kent!
45 Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
46 I loved her most, and thought to set my rest
47 On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight!
48 So be my grave my peace, as here I give
49 Her father's heart from her! Call France; who stirs?
50 Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,
51 With my two daughters' dowers digest this third:
52 Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
53 I do invest you jointly with my power,
54 Pre-eminence, and all the large effects
55 That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,
56 With reservation of an hundred knights,
57 By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode
58 Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain
01 The name, and all the additions to a king;

02 The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
03 Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,
04 This coronet part betwixt you.
05 Giving the crown
06
07 KENT
08 Royal Lear,
09 Whom I have ever honour'd as my king,
10 Loved as my father, as my master follow'd,
11 As my great patron thought on in my prayers,—
12
13 KING LEAR
14 The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft.
15
16 KENT
17 Let it fall rather, though the fork invade
18 The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly,
19 When Lear is mad. What wilt thou do, old man?
20 Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak,
21 When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound,
22 When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom;
23 And, in thy best consideration, cheque
24 This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgment,
25 Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least;
26 Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound
27 Reverbs no hollowness.
28
29 KING LEAR
30 Kent, on thy life, no more.
31
32
33 KENT
34 My life I never held but as a pawn
35 To wage against thy enemies; nor fear to lose it,
36 Thy safety being the motive.
37 KING LEAR
38 Out of my sight!
39
40 KENT
41 See better, Lear; and let me still remain
42 The true blank of thine eye.
43
44 KING LEAR
45 Now, by Apollo,—
46
47 KENT
48 Now, by Apollo, king,
49 Thou swear'st thy gods in vain.
50
51 KING LEAR
52 O, vassal! miscreant!
53 Laying his hand on his sword
54
55 ALBANY & CORNWALL
56 Dear sir, forbear.
57
58
10
01 KENT
02 Do:
03 Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow
04 Upon thy foul disease. Revoke thy doom;
05 Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,
06 I'll tell thee thou dost evil.
07
08 KING LEAR
09 Hear me, recreant!
10 On thine allegiance, hear me!
11 Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow,
12 Which we durst never yet, and with strain'd pride
13 To come between our sentence and our power,
14 Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,
15 Our potency made good, take thy reward.
16 Five days we do allot thee, for provision
17 To shield thee from diseases of the world;
18 And on the sixth to turn thy hated back
19 Upon our kingdom: if, on the tenth day following,
20 Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,
21 The moment is thy death. Away! by Jupiter,
22 This shall not be revoked.
23
24
25 KENT
26 Fare thee well, king: sith thus thou wilt appear,
27 Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.
28
29 [To CORDELIA]
30 The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid,
31 That justly think'st, and hast most rightly said!
32
33 [To REGAN and GONERIL]
34 And your large speeches may your deeds approve,
35 That good effects may spring from words of love.
36 Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu;
37 He'll shape his old course in a country new.
38 [Exit]
39
40
41 [Flourish. Re-enter GLOUCESTER, with KING OF FRANCE, BURGUNDY, and Attendants]
42
43
44 GLOUCESTER
45 Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord.
46
47 KING LEAR
48 My lord of Burgundy.
49 We first address towards you, who with this king
50 Hath rivall'd for our daughter: what, in the least,
51 Will you require in present dower with her,
52 Or cease your quest of love?
53
54 BURGUNDY
55 Most royal majesty,
56 I crave no more than what your highness offer'd,
57 Nor will you tender less.
58
01 KING LEAR
02 Right noble Burgundy,
03 When she was dear to us, we did hold her so;
04 But now her price is fall'n. Sir, there she stands:
05 If aught within that little seeming substance,
06 Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced,
07 And nothing more, may fitly like your grace,
08 She's there, and she is yours.
09
10 BURGUNDY
11 I know no answer.
12 KING LEAR
13 Will you, with those infirmities she owes,
14 Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate,
15 Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath,
16 Take her, or leave her?
17 BURGUNDY
18 Pardon me, royal sir;
19 Election makes not up on such conditions.
20
21 KING LEAR
22 Then leave her, sir; for, by the power that made me,
23 I tell you all her wealth.
24
25 [To KING OF FRANCE]
26 For you, great king,
27 I would not from your love make such a stray,
28 To match you where I hate; therefore beseech you
29 To avert your liking a more worthier way
30 Than on a wretch whom nature is ashamed
31 Almost to acknowledge hers.
32
33 KING OF FRANCE
34 This is most strange,
35 That she, that even but now was your best object,
36 The argument of your praise, balm of your age,
37 Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time
38 Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle
39 So many folds of favour. Sure, her offence
40 Must be of such unnatural degree,
41 That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection
42 Fall'n into taint: which to believe of her,
43 Must be a faith that reason without miracle
44 Could never plant in me.
45
46 CORDELIA
47 I yet beseech your majesty,—
48 If for I want that glib and oily art,
49 To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend,
50 I'll do't before I speak,—that you make known
51 It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,
52 No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step,
53 That hath deprived me of your grace and favour;
54 But even for want of that for which I am richer,
55 A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue
56 As I am glad I have not, though not to have it
57 Hath lost me in your liking.
58
12
01 KING LEAR
02 Better thou
03 Hadst not been born than not to have pleased me better.
04
05 KING OF FRANCE
06 Is it but this,—a tardiness in nature
07 Which often leaves the history unspoke
08 That it intends to do? My lord of Burgundy,
09 What say you to the lady? Love's not love
10 When it is mingled with regards that stand
11 Aloof from the entire point. Will you have her?
12 She is herself a dowry.
13
14 BURGUNDY
15 Royal Lear,
16 Give but that portion which yourself proposed,
17 And here I take Cordelia by the hand,
18 Duchess of Burgundy.
19
20 KING LEAR
21 Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm.
22
23 BURGUNDY
24 I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father
25 That you must lose a husband.
26
27
28 CORDELIA
29 Peace be with Burgundy!
30 Since that respects of fortune are his love,
31 I shall not be his wife.
32
33 KING OF FRANCE
34 Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor;
35 Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!
36 Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon:
37 Be it lawful I take up what's cast away.
38 Gods, gods! 'tis strange that from their cold'st neglect
39 My love should kindle to inflamed respect.
40 Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my chance,
41 Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France:
42 Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy
43 Can buy this unprized precious maid of me.
44 Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind:
45 Thou losest here, a better where to find.
46 KING LEAR
47 Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we
48 Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see
49 That face of hers again. Therefore be gone
50 Without our grace, our love, our benison.
51 Come, noble Burgundy.
52
53 [Flourish. Exeunt all but KING OF FRANCE, GONERIL, REGAN, and CORDELIA]
54
55 KING OF FRANCE
56 Bid farewell to your sisters.
57
58
01 CORDELIA
02 The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes
03 Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are;
04 And like a sister am most loath to call
05 Your faults as they are named. Use well our father:
06 To your professed bosoms I commit him
07 But yet, alas, stood I within his grace,
08 I would prefer him to a better place.
09 So, farewell to you both.
10
11 REGAN
12 Prescribe not us our duties.
13
14 GONERIL
15 Let your study
16 Be to content your lord, who hath received you
17 At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted,
18 And well are worth the want that you have wanted.
19
20 CORDELIA
21 Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides:
22 Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.
23 Well may you prosper!
24
25 KING OF FRANCE
26 Come, my fair Cordelia.
27
28 [Exeunt KING OF FRANCE and CORDELIA]
29
30 GONERIL
31 Sister, it is not a little I have to say of what
32 most nearly appertains to us both. I think our
33 father will hence to-night.
34
35 REGAN
36 That's most certain, and with you; next month with us.
37
38 GONERIL
39 You see how full of changes his age is; the
40 observation we have made of it hath not been
41 little: he always loved our sister most; and
42 with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off
43 appears too grossly.
44
45 REGAN
46 'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever
47 but slenderly known himself.
48
49 GONERIL
50 The best and soundest of his time hath been but
51 rash; then must we look to receive from his age,
52 not alone the imperfections of long-engraffed
53 condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness
54 that infirm and choleric years bring with them.
55
56 REGAN
57 Such unconstant starts are we like to have from
58 him as this of Kent's banishment.
14
01 GONERIL
02 There is further compliment of leavetaking
03 between France and him. Pray you, let's hit
04 together: if our father carry authority with
05 such dispositions as he bears, this last
06 surrender of his will but offend us.
07 REGAN
08 We shall further think on't.
09
10 GONERIL
11 We must do something, and i' the heat.
12 [Exeunt]
01 SCENE II. The Earl of Gloucester's castle.

02 [Enter EDMUND, with a letter]
03
04 EDMUND
05 Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law
06 My services are bound. Wherefore should I
07 Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
08 The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
09 For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines
10 Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?
11 When my dimensions are as well compact,
12 My mind as generous, and my shape as true,
13 As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us
14 With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?
15 Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
16 More composition and fierce quality
17 Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
18 Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,
19 Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well, then,
20 Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
21 Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
22 As to the legitimate: fine word,—legitimate!
23 Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
24 And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
25 Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:
26 Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
27
28 [Enter GLOUCESTER]
29
30 GLOUCESTER
31 Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted!
32 And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power!
33 Confined to exhibition! All this done
34 Upon the gad! Edmund, how now! what news?
35
36 EDMUND
37 So please your lordship, none.
38 [Putting up the letter]
39
40 GLOUCESTER
41 Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?
42
43 EDMUND
44 I know no news, my lord.
45 GLOUCESTER
46 What paper were you reading?
47
48 EDMUND
49 Nothing, my lord.
50
51 GLOUCESTER
52 No? What needed, then, that terrible dispatch of
53 it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath
54 not such need to hide itself. Let's see: come,
55 if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles.
56
57
16
01 EDMUND
02 I beseech you, sir, pardon me: it is a letter
03 from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read;
04 and for so much as I have perused, I find it not
05 fit for your o'er-looking.
06
07 GLOUCESTER
08 Give me the letter, sir.
09 EDMUND
10 I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The
11 contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame.
12
13 GLOUCESTER
14 Let's see, let's see.
15
16 EDMUND
17 I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote
18 this but as an essay or taste of my virtue.
19
20 GLOUCESTER
21 [Reads] 'This policy and reverence of age makes
22 the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps
23 our fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish
24 them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage
25 in the oppression of aged tyranny; who sways, not
26 as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to
27 me, that of this I may speak more. If our father
28 would sleep till I waked him, you should half his
29 revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your
30 brother, Edgar.'
31 Hum—conspiracy!—'Sleep till I waked him,—you
32 should enjoy half his revenue,'—My son Edgar!
33 Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain
34 to breed it in?—When came this to you? who
35 brought it?
36
37 EDMUND
38 It was not brought me, my lord; there's the
39 cunning of it; I found it thrown in at the
40 casement of my closet.
41
42 GLOUCESTER
43 You know the character to be your brother's?
44
45 EDMUND
46 If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear
47 it were his; but, in respect of that, I would
48 fain think it were not.
49
50 GLOUCESTER
51 It is his.
52
53 EDMUND
54 It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is
55 not in the contents.
56
57 GLOUCESTER
58 Hath he never heretofore sounded you in this business?
01 EDMUND
02 Never, my lord: but I have heard him oft
03 maintain it to be fit, that, sons at perfect age,
04 and fathers declining, the father should be as
05 ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue.
06
07 GLOUCESTER
08 O villain, villain! His very opinion in the
09 letter! Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested,
10 brutish villain! worse than brutish! Go, sirrah,
11 seek him; I'll apprehend him: abominable villain!
12 Where is he?
13
14 EDMUND
15 I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please
16 you to suspend your indignation against my
17 brother till you can derive from him better
18 testimony of his intent, you shall run a certain
19 course; where, if you violently proceed against
20 him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great
21 gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the
22 heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life
23 for him, that he hath wrote this to feel my
24 affection to your honour, and to no further
25 pretence of danger.
26
27 GLOUCESTER
28 Think you so?
29
30 EDMUND
31 If your honour judge it meet, I will place you
32 where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an
33 auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and
34 that without any further delay than this very evening.
35
36 GLOUCESTER
37 He cannot be such a monster–
38
39 EDMUND
40 Nor is not, sure.
41
42 GLOUCESTER
43 To his father, that so tenderly and entirely
44 loves him. Heaven and earth! Edmund, seek him
45 out: wind me into him, I pray you: frame the
46 business after your own wisdom. I would unstate
47 myself, to be in a due resolution.
48
49 EDMUND
50 I will seek him, sir, presently: convey the
51 business as I shall find means and acquaint you withal.
52
53 GLOUCESTER
54 These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend
55 no good to us: though the wisdom of nature can
56 reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself
57 scourged by the sequent effects: love cools,
58 friendship falls off, brothers divide: in
18
01 cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in

02 palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son
03 and father. This villain of mine comes under the
04 prediction; there's son against father: the king
05 falls from bias of nature; there's father against
06 child. We have seen the best of our time:
07 machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all
08 ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our
09 graves. Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall
10 lose thee nothing; do it carefully. And the
11 noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his
12 offence, honesty! 'Tis strange.
13 [Exit]
14
15 EDMUND
16 This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,
17 when we are sick in fortune,—often the surfeit
18 of our own behavior,—we make guilty of our
19 disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as
20 if we were villains by necessity; fools by
21 heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
22 treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,
23 liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of
24 planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,
25 by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion
26 of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish
27 disposition to the charge of a star! My
28 father compounded with my mother under the
29 dragon's tail; and my nativity was under Ursa
30 major; so that it follows, I am rough and
31 lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am,
32 had the maidenliest star in the firmament
33 twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar—
34
35 [Enter EDGAR]
36
37 And pat he comes like the catastrophe of the old
38 comedy: my cue is villanous melancholy, with a
39 sigh like Tom o' Bedlam. O, these eclipses do
40 portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi.
41
42 EDGAR
43 How now, brother Edmund! what serious
44 contemplation are you in?
45
46 EDMUND
47 I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read
48 this other day, what should follow these eclipses.
49
50 EDGAR
51 Do you busy yourself about that?
52
53 EDMUND
54 I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed
55 unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child
56 and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of
57 ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and
58 maledictions against king and nobles; needless
01 diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation

02 of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.
03
04 EDGAR
05 How long have you been a sectary astronomical?
06
07 EDMUND
08 Come, come; when saw you my father last?
09
10 EDGAR
11 Why, the night gone by.
12
13 EDMUND
14 Spake you with him?
15
16 EDGAR
17 Ay, two hours together.
18
19 EDMUND
20 Parted you in good terms? Found you no
21 displeasure in him by word or countenance?
22
23 EDGAR
24 None at all.
25
26 EDMUND
27 Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended
28 him: and at my entreaty forbear his presence
29 till some little time hath qualified the heat of
30 his displeasure; which at this instant so rageth
31 in him, that with the mischief of your person it
32 would scarcely allay.
33
34 EDGAR
35 Some villain hath done me wrong.
36
37 EDMUND
38 That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent
39 forbearance till the spied of his rage goes
40 slower; and, as I say, retire with me to my
41 lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to
42 hear my lord speak: pray ye, go; there's my key:
43 if you do stir abroad, go armed.
44
45 EDGAR
46 Armed, brother!
47
48 EDMUND
49 Brother, I advise you to the best; go armed: I
50 am no honest man if there be any good meaning
51 towards you: I have told you what I have seen
52 and heard; but faintly, nothing like the image
53 and horror of it: pray you, away.
54
55 EDGAR
56 Shall I hear from you anon?
57
58
20
01 EDMUND
02 I do serve you in this business.
03
04 [Exit EDGAR]
05
06 A credulous father! and a brother noble,
07 Whose nature is so far from doing harms,
08 That he suspects none: on whose foolish honesty
09 My practises ride easy! I see the business.
10 Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit:
11 All with me's meet that I can fashion fit.
12 [Exit]
13
01 SCENE III. The Duke of Albany's palace.

02 [Enter GONERIL, and OSWALD, her steward]
03
04 GONERIL
05 Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool?
06
07 OSWALD
08 Yes, madam.
09
10 GONERIL
11 By day and night he wrongs me; every hour
12 He flashes into one gross crime or other,
13 That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it:
14 His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us
15 On every trifle. When he returns from hunting,
16 I will not speak with him; say I am sick:
17 If you come slack of former services,
18 You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer.
19
20 OSWALD
21 He's coming, madam; I hear him.
22
23 [Horns within]
24
25 GONERIL
26 Put on what weary negligence you please,
27 You and your fellows; I'll have it come to question:
28 If he dislike it, let him to our sister,
29 Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one,
30 Not to be over-ruled. Idle old man,
31 That still would manage those authorities
32 That he hath given away! Now, by my life,
33 Old fools are babes again; and must be used
34 With cheques as flatteries,—when they are seen abused.
35 Remember what I tell you.
36
37 OSWALD
38 Well, madam.
39
40
41 GONERIL
42 And let his knights have colder looks among you;
43 What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows so:
44 I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall,
45 That I may speak: I'll write straight to my sister,
46 To hold my very course. Prepare for dinner.
47
48 [Exeunt]
49
50
22
01 SCENE IV. A hall in the same.

02 [Enter KENT, disguised]
03
04 KENT
05 If but as well I other accents borrow,
06 That can my speech defuse, my good intent
07 May carry through itself to that full issue
08 For which I razed my likeness. Now, banish'd Kent,
09 If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd,
10 So may it come, thy master, whom thou lovest,
11 Shall find thee full of labours.
12
13 [Horns within. Enter KING LEAR, Knights, and Attendants]
14
15 KING LEAR
16 Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go get it ready.
17
18 [Exit an Attendant]
19
20 How now! what art thou?
21
22 KENT
23 A man, sir.
24
25 KING LEAR
26 What dost thou profess? what wouldst thou with us?
27
28 KENT
29 I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve
30 him truly that will put me in trust: to love him
31 that is honest; to converse with him that is wise,
32 and says little; to fear judgment; to fight when I
33 cannot choose; and to eat no fish.
34
35 KING LEAR
36 What art thou?
37
38 KENT
39 A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the king.
40
41 KING LEAR
42 If thou be as poor for a subject as he is for a
43 king, thou art poor enough. What wouldst thou?
44
45 KENT
46 Service.
47
48 KING LEAR
49 Who wouldst thou serve?
50
51 KENT
52 You.
53
54 KING LEAR
55 Dost thou know me, fellow?
56
57
01 KENT
02 No, sir; but you have that in your countenance
03 which I would fain call master.
04
05 KING LEAR
06 What's that?
07
08 KENT
09 Authority.
10
11 KING LEAR
12 What services canst thou do?
13
14 KENT
15 I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious
16 tale in telling it, and deliver a plain message
17 bluntly: that which ordinary men are fit for, I am
18 qualified in; and the best of me is diligence.
19
20 KING LEAR
21 How old art thou?
22
23 KENT
24 Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor
25 so old to dote on her for any thing: I have years
26 on my back forty eight.
27
28 KING LEAR
29 Follow me; thou shalt serve me: if I like thee no
30 worse after dinner, I will not part from thee yet.
31 Dinner, ho, dinner! Where's my knave? my fool?
32 Go you, and call my fool hither.
33
35
36 [Enter OSWALD]
37
38 You, you, sirrah, where's my daughter?
39
40 OSWALD
41 So please you,—
42
43 [Exit]
44
45 KING LEAR
46 What says the fellow there? Call the clotpoll back.
47
48 [Exit a KNIGHT]
49
50 Where's my fool, ho? I think the world's asleep.
51
52 [Re-enter KNIGHT]
53
54 How now! where's that mongrel?
55
56 KNIGHT
57 He says, my lord, your daughter is not well.
58
24
01 KING LEAR
02 Why came not the slave back to me when I called him.
03
04 KNIGHT
05 Sir, he answered me in the roundest manner, he would
06 not.
07
08 KING LEAR
09 He would not!
10
11 KNIGHT
12 My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my
13 judgment, your highness is not entertained with that
14 ceremonious affection as you were wont; there's a
15 great abatement of kindness appears as well in the
16 general dependants as in the duke himself also and
17 your daughter.
18
19 KING LEAR
20 Ha! sayest thou so?
21
22 KNIGHT
23 I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken;
24 for my duty cannot be silent when I think your
25 highness wronged.
26
27 KING LEAR
28 Thou but rememberest me of mine own conception: I
29 have perceived a most faint neglect of late; which I
30 have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity
31 than as a very pretence and purpose of unkindness:
32 I will look further into't. But where's my fool? I
33 have not seen him this two days.
34
35 KNIGHT
36 Since my young lady's going into France, sir, the
37 fool hath much pined away.
38
39 KING LEAR
40 No more of that; I have noted it well. Go you, and
41 tell my daughter I would speak with her.
42
44
45 Go you, call hither my fool.
46
48 [Re-enter OSWALD]
49
50 O, you sir, you, come you hither, sir: who am I,
51 sir?
52
53 OSWALD
54 My lady's father.
55
56 KING LEAR
57 'My lady's father'! my lord's knave: your
58 whoreson dog! you slave! you cur!
01 OSWALD
02 I am none of these, my lord; I beseech your pardon.
03
04 KING LEAR
05 Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal?
06 [Striking him]
07
08 OSWALD
09 I'll not be struck, my lord.
10
11 KENT
12 Nor tripped neither, you base football player.
13 [Tripping up his heels]
14
15 KING LEAR
16 I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and I'll
17 love thee.
18
19 KENT
20 Come, sir, arise, away! I'll teach you differences:
21 away, away! if you will measure your lubber's
22 length again, tarry: but away! go to; have you
23 wisdom? So.
24
25 [Pushes OSWALD out]
26
27 KING LEAR
28 Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee: there's
29 earnest of thy service.
30 [Giving KENT money]
31
32 [Enter FOOL]
33
34 FOOL
35 Let me hire him too: here's my coxcomb.
36 [Offering KENT his cap]
37
38 KING LEAR
39 How now, my pretty knave! how dost thou?
40
41 FOOL
42 Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb.
43
44 KENT
45 Why, fool?
46
47 FOOL
48 Why, for taking one's part that's out of favour:
49 nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits,
50 thou'lt catch cold shortly: there, take my coxcomb:
51 why, this fellow has banished two on's daughters,
52 and did the third a blessing against his will; if
53 thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb.
54 How now, nuncle! Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters!
55
56 KING LEAR
57 Why, my boy?
58
26
01 FOOL
02 If I gave them all my living, I'ld keep my coxcombs
03 myself. There's mine; beg another of thy daughters.
04
05 KING LEAR
06 Take heed, sirrah; the whip.
07
08 FOOL
09 Truth's a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped
10 out, when Lady the brach may stand by the fire and stink.
11
12 KING LEAR
13 A pestilent gall to me!
14
15 FOOL
16 Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech.
17
18 KING LEAR
19 Do.
20
21 FOOL
22 Mark it, nuncle:
23 Have more than thou showest,
24 Speak less than thou knowest,
25 Lend less than thou owest,
26 Ride more than thou goest,
27 Learn more than thou trowest,
28 Set less than thou throwest;
29 Leave thy drink and thy whore,
30 And keep in-a-door,
31 And thou shalt have more
32 Than two tens to a score.
33
34 KENT
35 This is nothing, fool.
36
37 FOOL
38 Then 'tis like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer; you
39 gave me nothing for't. Can you make no use of
40 nothing, nuncle?
41
42 KING LEAR
43 Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing.
44
45 FOOL
46 [To KENT] Prithee, tell him, so much the rent of
47 his land comes to: he will not believe a fool.
48
49 KING LEAR
50 A bitter fool!
51
52 FOOL
53 Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a
54 bitter fool and a sweet fool?
55
56 KING LEAR
57 No, lad; teach me.
58
01 FOOL
02 That lord that counsell'd thee
03 To give away thy land,
04 Come place him here by me,
05 Do thou for him stand:
06 The sweet and bitter fool
07 Will presently appear;
08 The one in motley here,
09 The other found out there.
10
11 KING LEAR
12 Dost thou call me fool, boy?
13
14 FOOL
15 All thy other titles thou hast given away; that
16 thou wast born with.
17
18 KENT
19 This is not altogether fool, my lord.
20
21 FOOL
22 No, faith, lords and great men will not let me; if
23 I had a monopoly out, they would have part on't:
24 and ladies too, they will not let me have all fool
25 to myself; they'll be snatching. Give me an egg,
26 nuncle, and I'll give thee two crowns.
27
28 KING LEAR
29 What two crowns shall they be?
30
31 FOOL
32 Why, after I have cut the egg i' the middle, and eat
33 up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou
34 clovest thy crown i' the middle, and gavest away
35 both parts, thou borest thy ass on thy back o'er
36 the dirt: thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown,
37 when thou gavest thy golden one away. If I speak
38 like myself in this, let him be whipped that first
39 finds it so.
40
41 [Singing]
42 Fools had ne'er less wit in a year;
43 For wise men are grown foppish,
44 They know not how their wits to wear,
45 Their manners are so apish.
46
47 KING LEAR
48 When were you wont to be so full of songs, sirrah?
49
50 FOOL
51 I have used it, nuncle, ever since thou madest thy
52 daughters thy mothers: for when thou gavest them
53 the rod, and put'st down thine own breeches,
54
55 [Singing]
56 Then they for sudden joy did weep,
57 And I for sorrow sung,
58 That such a king should play bo-peep,
28
01 And go the fools among.

02 Prithee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach
03 thy fool to lie: I would fain learn to lie.
04
05 KING LEAR
06 An you lie, sirrah, we'll have you whipped.
07
08 FOOL
09 I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are:
10 they'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'lt
11 have me whipped for lying; and sometimes I am
12 whipped for holding my peace. I had rather be any
13 kind o' thing than a fool: and yet I would not be
14 thee, nuncle; thou hast pared thy wit o' both sides,
15 and left nothing i' the middle: here comes one o'
16 the parings.
17
18 [Enter GONERIL]
19
20 KING LEAR
21 How now, daughter! what makes that frontlet on?
22 Methinks you are too much of late i' the frown.
23
24 FOOL
25 Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to
26 care for her frowning; now thou art an O without a
27 figure: I am better than thou art now; I am a fool,
28 thou art nothing.
29
30 [To GONERIL]
31 Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue; so your face
32 bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum,
33 He that keeps nor crust nor crum,
34 Weary of all, shall want some.
35 [Pointing to KING LEAR]
36 That's a shealed peascod.
37
38 GONERIL
39 Not only, sir, this your all-licensed fool,
40 But other of your insolent retinue
41 Do hourly carp and quarrel; breaking forth
42 In rank and not-to-be endured riots. Sir,
43 I had thought, by making this well known unto you,
44 To have found a safe redress; but now grow fearful,
45 By what yourself too late have spoke and done.
46 That you protect this course, and put it on
47 By your allowance; which if you should, the fault
48 Would not 'scape censure, nor the redresses sleep,
49 Which, in the tender of a wholesome weal,
50 Might in their working do you that offence,
51 Which else were shame, that then necessity
52 Will call discreet proceeding.
53
54 FOOL
55 For, you trow, nuncle,
56 The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,
57 That it's had it head bit off by it young.
58 So, out went the candle, and we were left darkling.
01 KING LEAR
02 Are you our daughter?
03
04 GONERIL
05 Come, sir,
06 I would you would make use of that good wisdom,
07 Whereof I know you are fraught; and put away
08 These dispositions, that of late transform you
09 From what you rightly are.
10
11 FOOL
12 May not an ass know when the cart
13 draws the horse? Whoop, Jug! I love thee.
14
15 KING LEAR
16 Doth any here know me? This is not Lear:
17 Doth Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes?
18 Either his notion weakens, his discernings
19 Are lethargied—Ha! waking? 'tis not so.
20 Who is it that can tell me who I am?
21
22 FOOL
23 Lear's shadow.
24
25 KING LEAR
26 I would learn that; for, by the
27 marks of sovereignty, knowledge, and reason,
28 I should be false persuaded I had daughters.
29
30 FOOL
31 Which they will make an obedient father.
32
33 KING LEAR
34 Your name, fair gentlewoman?
35
36 GONERIL
37 This admiration, sir, is much o' the savour
38 Of other your new pranks. I do beseech you
39 To understand my purposes aright:
40 As you are old and reverend, you should be wise.
41 Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires;
42 Men so disorder'd, so debosh'd and bold,
43 That this our court, infected with their manners,
44 Shows like a riotous inn: epicurism and lust
45 Make it more like a tavern or a brothel
46 Than a graced palace. The shame itself doth speak
47 For instant remedy: be then desired
48 By her, that else will take the thing she begs,
49 A little to disquantity your train;
50 And the remainder, that shall still depend,
51 To be such men as may besort your age,
52 And know themselves and you.
53
54 KING LEAR
55 Darkness and devils!
56 Saddle my horses; call my train together:
57 Degenerate bastard! I'll not trouble thee.
58 Yet have I left a daughter.
30
01 GONERIL
02 You strike my people; and your disorder'd rabble
03 Make servants of their betters.
04
05 [Enter ALBANY]
06
07 KING LEAR
08 Woe, that too late repents,—
09
10 [To ALBANY]
11 O, sir, are you come?
12 Is it your will? Speak, sir. Prepare my horses.
13 Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,
14 More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child
15 Than the sea-monster!
16
17 ALBANY
18 Pray, sir, be patient.
19
20 KING LEAR
21 [To GONERIL] Detested kite! thou liest.
22 My train are men of choice and rarest parts,
23 That all particulars of duty know,
24 And in the most exact regard support
25 The worships of their name. O most small fault,
26 How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show!
27 That, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature
28 From the fix'd place; drew from heart all love,
29 And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear!
30 Beat at this gate, that let thy folly in,
31
32 [Striking his head]
33
34 And thy dear judgment out! Go, go, my people.
35
36 ALBANY
37 My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant
38 Of what hath moved you.
39
40 KING LEAR
41 It may be so, my lord.
42 Hear, nature, hear; dear goddess, hear!
43 Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend
44 To make this creature fruitful!
45 Into her womb convey sterility!
46 Dry up in her the organs of increase;
47 And from her derogate body never spring
48 A babe to honour her! If she must teem,
49 Create her child of spleen; that it may live,
50 And be a thwart disnatured torment to her!
51 Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth;
52 With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks;
53 Turn all her mother's pains and benefits
54 To laughter and contempt; that she may feel
55 How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
56 To have a thankless child! Away, away!
57 [Exit]
58
01 ALBANY
02 Now, gods that we adore, whereof comes this?
03
04 GONERIL
05 Never afflict yourself to know the cause;
06 But let his disposition have that scope
07 That dotage gives it.
08
09 [Re-enter KING LEAR]
10
11 KING LEAR
12 What, fifty of my followers at a clap!
13 Within a fortnight!
14
15 ALBANY
16 What's the matter, sir?
17
18 KING LEAR
19 I'll tell thee:
20
21 [To GONERIL]
22 Life and death! I am ashamed
23 That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus;
24 That these hot tears, which break from me perforce,
25 Should make thee worth them. Blasts and fogs upon thee!
26 The untented woundings of a father's curse
27 Pierce every sense about thee! Old fond eyes,
28 Beweep this cause again, I'll pluck ye out,
29 And cast you, with the waters that you lose,
30 To temper clay. Yea, it is come to this?
31 Let is be so: yet have I left a daughter,
32 Who, I am sure, is kind and comfortable:
33 When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails
34 She'll flay thy wolvish visage. Thou shalt find
35 That I'll resume the shape which thou dost think
36 I have cast off for ever: thou shalt,
37 I warrant thee.
38
39 [Exeunt KING LEAR, KENT, and Attendants]
40
41 GONERIL
42 Do you mark that, my lord?
43
44 ALBANY
45 I cannot be so partial, Goneril,
46 To the great love I bear you,—
47
48 GONERIL
49 Pray you, content. What, Oswald, ho!
50
51 [To the FOOL]
52 You, sir, more knave than fool, after your master.
53
54 FOOL
55 Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry and take the fool
56 with thee.
57 A fox, when one has caught her,
58 And such a daughter,
32
01 Should sure to the slaughter,

02 If my cap would buy a halter:
03 So the fool follows after.
04 [Exit]
05
06 GONERIL
07 This man hath had good counsel:—a hundred knights!
08 'Tis politic and safe to let him keep
09 At point a hundred knights: yes, that, on every dream,
10 Each buzz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike,
11 He may enguard his dotage with their powers,
12 And hold our lives in mercy. Oswald, I say!
13
14 ALBANY
15 Well, you may fear too far.
16
17 GONERIL
18 Safer than trust too far:
19 Let me still take away the harms I fear,
20 Not fear still to be taken: I know his heart.
21 What he hath utter'd I have writ my sister
22 If she sustain him and his hundred knights
23 When I have show'd the unfitness,—
24
25 [Re-enter OSWALD]
26
27 How now, Oswald!
28 What, have you writ that letter to my sister?
29
30 OSWALD
31 Yes, madam.
32
33 GONERIL
34 Take you some company, and away to horse:
35 Inform her full of my particular fear;
36 And thereto add such reasons of your own
37 As may compact it more. Get you gone;
38 And hasten your return.
39
40 [Exit OSWALD]
41
42 No, no, my lord,
43 This milky gentleness and course of yours
44 Though I condemn not, yet, under pardon,
45 You are much more attask'd for want of wisdom
46 Than praised for harmful mildness.
47
48 ALBANY
49 How far your eyes may pierce I can not tell:
50 Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.
51
52 GONERIL
53 Nay, then–
54
55 ALBANY
56 Well, well; the event.
57
58 [Exeunt]
01 SCENE V. Court before the same.

02 [Enter KING LEAR, KENT, and FOOL]
03
04 KING LEAR
05 Go you before to Gloucester with these letters.
06 Acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you
07 know than comes from her demand out of the letter.
08 If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there afore you.
09
10 KENT
11 I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered
12 your letter.
13 [Exit]
14
15 FOOL
16 If a man's brains were in's heels, were't not in
17 danger of kibes?
18
19 KING LEAR
20 Ay, boy.
21
22 FOOL
23 Then, I prithee, be merry; thy wit shall ne'er go
24 slip-shod.
25
26 KING LEAR
27 Ha, ha, ha!
28
29 FOOL
30 Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly;
31 for though she's as like this as a crab's like an
32 apple, yet I can tell what I can tell.
33
34 KING LEAR
35 Why, what canst thou tell, my boy?
36
37 FOOL
38 She will taste as like this as a crab does to a
39 crab. Thou canst tell why one's nose stands i'
40 the middle on's face?
41
42 KING LEAR
43 No.
44
45 FOOL
46 Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose; that
47 what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into.
48
49 KING LEAR
50 I did her wrong–
51
52 FOOL
53 Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?
54
55 KING LEAR
56 No.
57
34
01 FOOL
02 Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.
03
04 KING LEAR
05 Why?
06
07 FOOL
08 Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his
09 daughters, and leave his horns without a case.
10
11 KING LEAR
12 I will forget my nature. So kind a father! Be my
13 horses ready?
14
15 FOOL
16 Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the
17 seven stars are no more than seven is a pretty reason.
18
19 KING LEAR
20 Because they are not eight?
21
22 FOOL
23 Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool.
24
25 KING LEAR
26 To take 't again perforce! Monster ingratitude!
27
28 FOOL
29 If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'ld have thee beaten
30 for being old before thy time.
31
32 KING LEAR
33 How's that?
34
35 FOOL
36 Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst
37 been wise.
38
39 KING LEAR
40 O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven
41 Keep me in temper: I would not be mad!
42
43 [Enter Gentleman]
44
45 How now! are the horses ready?
46
47 GENTLEMAN
48 Ready, my lord.
49
50 KING LEAR
51 Come, boy.
52
53 FOOL
54 She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure,
55 Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter.
56
57 [Exeunt all]
58
01 ACT II
02 SCENE I. GLOUCESTER's castle.
03 [Enter EDMUND, and CURAN meets him]
04
05 EDMUND
06 Save thee, Curan.
07
08 CURAN
09 And you, sir. I have been with your father, and
10 given him notice that the Duke of Cornwall and Regan
11 his duchess will be here with him this night.
12
13 EDMUND
14 How comes that?
15
16 CURAN
17 Nay, I know not. You have heard of the news abroad;
18 I mean the whispered ones, for they are yet but
19 ear-kissing arguments?
20
21 EDMUND
22 Not I pray you, what are they?
23
24 CURAN
25 Have you heard of no likely wars toward, 'twixt the
26 Dukes of Cornwall and Albany?
27
28 EDMUND
29 Not a word.
30
31 CURAN
32 You may do, then, in time. Fare you well, sir.
33
34 [Exit]
35
36 EDMUND
37 The duke be here to-night? The better! best!
38 This weaves itself perforce into my business.
39 My father hath set guard to take my brother;
40 And I have one thing, of a queasy question,
41 Which I must act: briefness and fortune, work!
42 Brother, a word; descend: brother, I say!
43
44 [Enter EDGAR]
45
46 My father watches: O sir, fly this place;
47 Intelligence is given where you are hid;
48 You have now the good advantage of the night:
49 Have you not spoken 'gainst the Duke of Cornwall?
50 He's coming hither: now, i' the night, i' the haste,
51 And Regan with him: have you nothing said
52 Upon his party 'gainst the Duke of Albany?
53 Advise yourself.
54
55 EDGAR
56 I am sure on't, not a word.
36
01 EDMUND
02 I hear my father coming: pardon me:
03 In cunning I must draw my sword upon you
04 Draw; seem to defend yourself; now quit you well.
05 Yield: come before my father. Light, ho, here!
06 Fly, brother. Torches, torches! So, farewell.
07
08 [Exit EDGAR]
09
10 Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion.
11 [Wounds his arm]
12 Of my more fierce endeavour: I have seen drunkards
13 Do more than this in sport. Father, father!
14 Stop, stop! No help?
15
16 [Enter GLOUCESTER, and Servants with torches]
17
18 GLOUCESTER
19 Now, Edmund, where's the villain?
20
21 EDMUND
22 Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out,
23 Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon
24 To stand auspicious mistress,—
25
26 GLOUCESTER
27 But where is he?
28
29 EDMUND
30 Look, sir, I bleed.
31 GLOUCESTER
32 Where is the villain, Edmund?
33
34 EDMUND
35 Fled this way, sir. When by no means he could–
36
37 GLOUCESTER
38 Pursue him, ho! Go after.
39
40 [Exeunt some Servants]
41
42 By no means what?
43
44 EDMUND
45 Persuade me to the murder of your lordship;
46 But that I told him, the revenging gods
47 'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend;
48 Spoke, with how manifold and strong a bond
49 The child was bound to the father; sir, in fine,
50 Seeing how loathly opposite I stood
51 To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion,
52 With his prepared sword, he charges home
53 My unprovided body, lanced mine arm:
54 But when he saw my best alarum'd spirits,
55 Bold in the quarrel's right, roused to the encounter,
56 Or whether gasted by the noise I made,
57 Full suddenly he fled.
58
01 GLOUCESTER
02 Let him fly far:
03 Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;
04 And found—dispatch. The noble duke my master,
05 My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night:

06 By his authority I will proclaim it,
07 That he which finds him shall deserve our thanks,
08 Bringing the murderous coward to the stake;
09 He that conceals him, death.
10
11 EDMUND
12 When I dissuaded him from his intent,
13 And found him pight to do it, with curst speech
14 I threaten'd to discover him: he replied,
15 'Thou unpossessing bastard! dost thou think,
16 If I would stand against thee, would the reposal
17 Of any trust, virtue, or worth in thee
18 Make thy words faith'd? No: what I should deny,—
19 As this I would: ay, though thou didst produce
20 My very character,—I'ld turn it all
21 To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practise:
22 And thou must make a dullard of the world,
23 If they not thought the profits of my death
24 Were very pregnant and potential spurs
25 To make thee seek it.'
26
27 GLOUCESTER
28 Strong and fasten'd villain
29 Would he deny his letter? I never got him.
30
31 [Tucket within]1
32
33 Hark, the duke's trumpets! I know not why he comes.
34 All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not 'scape;
35 The duke must grant me that: besides, his picture
36 I will send far and near, that all the kingdom
37 May have the due note of him; and of my land,
38 Loyal and natural boy, I'll work the means
39 To make thee capable.
40
41 [Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, and Attendants]
42
43 CORNWALL
44 How now, my noble friend! since I came hither,
45 Which I can call but now, I have heard strange news.
46
47 REGAN
48 If it be true, all vengeance comes too short
49 Which can pursue the offender. How dost, my lord?
50
51 GLOUCESTER
52 O, madam, my old heart is crack'd, it's crack'd!
53
54 REGAN
55 What, did my father's godson seek your life?
56 He whom my father named? your Edgar?
1. Trumpet offstage
38
01 GLOUCESTER
02 O, lady, lady, shame would have it hid!
03
04 REGAN
05 Was he not companion with the riotous knights
06 That tend upon my father?
07
08 GLOUCESTER
09 I know not, madam: 'tis too bad, too bad.
10
11 EDMUND
12 Yes, madam, he was of that consort.
13
14 REGAN
15 No marvel, then, though he were ill affected:
16 'Tis they have put him on the old man's death,
17 To have the expense and waste of his revenues.
18 I have this present evening from my sister
19 Been well inform'd of them; and with such cautions,
20 That if they come to sojourn at my house,
21 I'll not be there.
22
23 CORNWALL
24 Nor I, assure thee, Regan.
25 Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father
26 A child-like office.
27
28 EDMUND
29 'Twas my duty, sir.
30
31 GLOUCESTER
32 He did bewray his practise; and received
33 This hurt you see, striving to apprehend him.
34
35 CORNWALL
36 Is he pursued?
37
38 GLOUCESTER
39 Ay, my good lord.
40
41 CORNWALL
42 If he be taken, he shall never more
43 Be fear'd of doing harm: make your own purpose,
44 How in my strength you please. For you, Edmund,
45 Whose virtue and obedience doth this instant
46 So much commend itself, you shall be ours:
47 Natures of such deep trust we shall much need;
48 You we first seize on.
49
50 EDMUND
51 I shall serve you, sir,
52 Truly, however else.
53
54 GLOUCESTER
55 For him I thank your grace.
56
57 CORNWALL
58 You know not why we came to visit you,—
01 REGAN
02 Thus out of season, threading dark-eyed night:
03 Occasions, noble Gloucester, of some poise,
04 Wherein we must have use of your advice:
05 Our father he hath writ, so hath our sister,
06 Of differences, which I least thought it fit
07 To answer from our home; the several messengers
08 From hence attend dispatch. Our good old friend,
09 Lay comforts to your bosom; and bestow
10 Your needful counsel to our business,
11 Which craves the instant use.
12
13 GLOUCESTER
14 I serve you, madam:
15 Your graces are right welcome.
16
17 [Exeunt]
18
40
01 SCENE II. Before Gloucester's castle.

02 [Enter KENT and OSWALD, severally]
03
04 OSWALD
05 Good dawning to thee, friend: art of this house?
06
07 KENT
08 Ay.
09
10
11 OSWALD
12 Where may we set our horses?
13
14 KENT
15 I' the mire.
16
17 OSWALD
18 Prithee, if thou lovest me, tell me.
19
20 KENT
21 I love thee not.
22
23 OSWALD
24 Why, then, I care not for thee.
25
26 KENT
27 If I had thee in Lipsbury pinfold, I would make thee
28 care for me.
29
30 OSWALD
31 Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not.
32
33
34 KENT
35 Fellow, I know thee.
36
37 OSWALD
38 What dost thou know me for?
39
40 KENT
41 A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a
42 base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited,
43 hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a
44 lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,
45 glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue;
46 one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a
47 bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but
48 the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar,
49 and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I
50 will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest
51 the least syllable of thy addition.
52
53 OSWALD
54 Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail
55 on one that is neither known of thee nor knows thee!
56
57
01 KENT
02 What a brazen-faced varlet art thou, to deny thou
03 knowest me! Is it two days ago since I tripped up
04 thy heels, and beat thee before the king? Draw, you
05 rogue: for, though it be night, yet the moon
06 shines; I'll make a sop o' the moonshine of you:
07 draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw.
08 [Drawing his sword]
09
10 OSWALD
11 Away! I have nothing to do with thee.
12
13 KENT
14 Draw, you rascal: you come with letters against the
15 king; and take vanity the puppet's part against the
16 royalty of her father: draw, you rogue, or I'll so
17 carbonado your shanks: draw, you rascal; come your ways.
18
19 OSWALD
20 Help, ho! murder! Help!
21
22 KENT
23 Strike, you slave; stand, rogue, stand; you neat
24 slave, strike.
25 [Beating him]
26
27 OSWALD
28 Help, ho! murder! Murder!
29
30 [Enter EDMUND, with his rapier drawn, CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOUCESTER, and Servants]
31
32 EDMUND
33 How now! What's the matter?
34
35 KENT
36 With you, goodman boy, an you please: come, I'll
37 flesh ye; come on, young master.
38
39 GLOUCESTER
40 Weapons! arms! What's the matter here?
41
42 CORNWALL
43 Keep peace, upon your lives:
44 He dies that strikes again. What is the matter?
45
46 REGAN
47 The messengers from our sister and the king.
48
49 CORNWALL
50 What is your difference? speak.
51
52 OSWALD
53 I am scarce in breath, my lord.
54
55 KENT
56 No marvel, you have so bestirred your valour. You
57 cowardly rascal, nature disclaims in thee: a
58 tailor made thee.
42
01 CORNWALL
02 Thou art a strange fellow: a tailor make a man?
03
04 KENT
05 Ay, a tailor, sir: a stone-cutter or painter could
06 not have made him so ill, though he had been but two
07 hours at the trade.
08
09 CORNWALL
10 Speak yet, how grew your quarrel?
11
12 OSWALD
13 This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spared
14 at suit of his gray beard,—
15
16
17 KENT
18 Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter! My
19 lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this
20 unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the wall of
21 a jakes with him. Spare my gray beard, you wagtail?
22
23 CORNWALL
24 Peace, sirrah!
25 You beastly knave, know you no reverence?
26
27 KENT
28 Yes, sir; but anger hath a privilege.
29
30 CORNWALL
31 Why art thou angry?
32
33 KENT
34 That such a slave as this should wear a sword,
35 Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these,
36 Like rats, oft bite the holy cords a-twain
37 Which are too intrinse t' unloose; smooth every passion
38 That in the natures of their lords rebel;
39 Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods;
40 Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks
41 With every gale and vary of their masters,
42 Knowing nought, like dogs, but following.
43 A plague upon your epileptic visage!
44 Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool?
45 Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain,
46 I'ld drive ye cackling home to Camelot.
47
48 CORNWALL
49 Why, art thou mad, old fellow?
50
51 GLOUCESTER
52 How fell you out? say that.
53
54 KENT
55 No contraries hold more antipathy
56 Than I and such a knave.
57
58
01 CORNWALL
02 Why dost thou call him a knave? What's his offence?
03
04 KENT
05 His countenance likes me not.
06
07 CORNWALL
08 No more, perchance, does mine, nor his, nor hers.
09
10 KENT
11 Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain:
12 I have seen better faces in my time
13 Than stands on any shoulder that I see
14 Before me at this instant.
15
16 CORNWALL
17 This is some fellow,
18 Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect
19 A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb
20 Quite from his nature: he cannot flatter, he,
21 An honest mind and plain, he must speak truth!
22 An they will take it, so; if not, he's plain.
23 These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness
24 Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends
25 Than twenty silly ducking observants
26 That stretch their duties nicely.
27
28 KENT
29 Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity,
30 Under the allowance of your great aspect,
31 Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire
32 On flickering Phoebus' front,—
33
34 CORNWALL
35 What mean'st by this?
36
37 KENT
38 To go out of my dialect, which you
39 discommend so much. I know, sir, I am no
40 flatterer: he that beguiled you in a plain
41 accent was a plain knave; which for my part
42 I will not be, though I should win your displeasure
43 to entreat me to 't.
44
45 CORNWALL
46 What was the offence you gave him?
47
48 OSWALD
49 I never gave him any:
50 It pleased the king his master very late
51 To strike at me, upon his misconstruction;
52 When he, conjunct and flattering his displeasure,
53 Tripp'd me behind; being down, insulted, rail'd,
54 And put upon him such a deal of man,
55 That worthied him, got praises of the king
56 For him attempting who was self-subdued;
57 And, in the fleshment of this dread exploit,
58 Drew on me here again.
44
01 KENT
02 None of these rogues and cowards
03 But Ajax is their fool.
04
05 CORNWALL
06 Fetch forth the stocks!
07 You stubborn ancient knave, you reverend braggart,
08 We'll teach you–
09
10 KENT
11 Sir, I am too old to learn:
12 Call not your stocks for me: I serve the king;
13 On whose employment I was sent to you:
14 You shall do small respect, show too bold malice
15 Against the grace and person of my master,
16 Stocking his messenger.
17
18 CORNWALL
19 Fetch forth the stocks! As I have life and honour,
20 There shall he sit till noon.
21
22 REGAN
23 Till noon! till night, my lord; and all night too.
24
25 KENT
26 Why, madam, if I were your father's dog,
27 You should not use me so.
28
29 REGAN
30 Sir, being his knave, I will.
31
32 CORNWALL
33 This is a fellow of the self-same colour
34 Our sister speaks of. Come, bring away the stocks!
35
36 [Stocks brought out]
37
38 GLOUCESTER
39 Let me beseech your grace not to do so:
40 His fault is much, and the good king his master
41 Will cheque him for 't: your purposed low correction
42 Is such as basest and contemned'st wretches
43 For pilferings and most common trespasses
44 Are punish'd with: the king must take it ill,
45 That he's so slightly valued in his messenger,
46 Should have him thus restrain'd.
47
48 CORNWALL
49 I'll answer that.
50
51 REGAN
52 My sister may receive it much more worse,
53 To have her gentleman abused, assaulted,
54 For following her affairs. Put in his legs.
55
56 [KENT is put in the stocks]
57
58 Come, my good lord, away.
01 [Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER and KENT]

02
03 GLOUCESTER
04 I am sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure,
05 Whose disposition, all the world well knows,
06 Will not be rubb'd nor stopp'd: I'll entreat for thee.
07
08 KENT
09 Pray, do not, sir: I have watched and travell'd hard;
10 Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle.
11 A good man's fortune may grow out at heels:
12 Give you good morrow!
13
14 GLOUCESTER
15 The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill taken.
16 [Exit]
17
18 KENT
19 Good king, that must approve the common saw,
20 Thou out of heaven's benediction comest
21 To the warm sun!
22 Approach, thou beacon to this under globe,
23 That by thy comfortable beams I may
24 Peruse this letter! Nothing almost sees miracles
25 But misery: I know 'tis from Cordelia,
26 Who hath most fortunately been inform'd
27 Of my obscured course; and shall find time
28 From this enormous state, seeking to give
29 Losses their remedies. All weary and o'erwatch'd,
30 Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold
31 This shameful lodging.
32 Fortune, good night: smile once more: turn thy wheel!
33 [Sleeps]
46
01 SCENE III. A wood.

02 [Enter EDGAR]
03
04 EDGAR
05 I heard myself proclaim'd;
06 And by the happy hollow of a tree
07 Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place,
08 That guard, and most unusual vigilance,
09 Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may 'scape,
10 I will preserve myself: and am bethought
11 To take the basest and most poorest shape
12 That ever penury, in contempt of man,
13 Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth;
14 Blanket my loins: elf all my hair in knots;
15 And with presented nakedness out-face
16 The winds and persecutions of the sky.
17 The country gives me proof and precedent
18 Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
19 Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms
20 Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
21 And with this horrible object, from low farms,
22 Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills,
23 Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
24 Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod! poor Tom!
25 That's something yet: Edgar I nothing am.
26 [Exit]
27
01 SCENE IV. Before GLOUCESTER's castle.

02 [KENT in the stocks.]
03
04 [Enter KING LEAR, FOOL, and GENTLEMAN]
05
06 KING LEAR
07 'Tis strange that they should so depart from home,
08 And not send back my messenger.
09
10 GENTLEMAN
11 As I learn'd,
12 The night before there was no purpose in them
13 Of this remove.
14
15 KENT
16 Hail to thee, noble master!
17
18 KING LEAR
19 Ha!
20 Makest thou this shame thy pastime?
21
22 KENT
23 No, my lord.
24
25 FOOL
26 Ha, ha! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied
27 by the heads, dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys by
28 the loins, and men by the legs: when a man's
29 over-lusty at legs, then he wears wooden
30 nether-stocks.
31
32 KING LEAR
33 What's he that hath so much thy place mistook
34 To set thee here?
35
36 KENT
37 It is both he and she;
38 Your son and daughter.
39
40 KING LEAR
41 No.
42
43 KENT
44 Yes.
45
46
47 KING LEAR
48 No, I say.
49
50 KENT
51 I say, yea.
52
53 KING LEAR
54 No, no, they would not.
55
56 KENT
57 Yes, they have.
48
01 KING LEAR
02 By Jupiter, I swear, no.
03
04 KENT
05 By Juno, I swear, ay.
06
07 KING LEAR
08 They durst not do 't;
09 They could not, would not do 't; 'tis worse than murder,
10 To do upon respect such violent outrage:
11 Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way
12 Thou mightst deserve, or they impose, this usage,
13 Coming from us.
14
15 KENT
16 My lord, when at their home
17 I did commend your highness' letters to them,
18 Ere I was risen from the place that show'd
19 My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,
20 Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth
21 From Goneril his mistress salutations;
22 Deliver'd letters, spite of intermission,
23 Which presently they read: on whose contents,
24 They summon'd up their meiny, straight took horse;
25 Commanded me to follow, and attend
26 The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks:
27 And meeting here the other messenger,
28 Whose welcome, I perceived, had poison'd mine,—
29 Being the very fellow that of late
30 Display'd so saucily against your highness,—
31 Having more man than wit about me, drew:
32 He raised the house with loud and coward cries.
33 Your son and daughter found this trespass worth
34 The shame which here it suffers.
35
36 FOOL
37 Winter's not gone yet, if the wild-geese fly that way.
38 Fathers that wear rags
39 Do make their children blind;
40 But fathers that bear bags
41 Shall see their children kind.
42 Fortune, that arrant whore,
43 Ne'er turns the key to the poor.
44 But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours
45 for thy daughters as thou canst tell in a year.
46
47 KING LEAR
48 O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!
49 Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow,
50 Thy element's below! Where is this daughter?
51
52 KENT
53 With the earl, sir, here within.
54
55 KING LEAR
56 Follow me not;
57 Stay here.
58 [Exit]
01 GENTLEMAN
02 Made you no more offence but what you speak of?
03
04 KENT
05 None.
06 How chance the king comes with so small a train?
07
08 FOOL
09 And thou hadst been set i' the stocks for that
10 question, thou hadst well deserved it.
11
12 KENT
13 Why, fool?
14
15 FOOL
16 We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee
17 there's no labouring i' the winter. All that follow
18 their noses are led by their eyes but blind men; and
19 there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him
20 that's stinking. Let go thy hold when a great wheel
21 runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with
22 following it: but the great one that goes up the
23 hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man
24 gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I
25 would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.
26 That sir which serves and seeks for gain,
27 And follows but for form,
28 Will pack when it begins to rain,
29 And leave thee in the storm,
30 But I will tarry; the fool will stay,
31 And let the wise man fly:
32 The knave turns fool that runs away;
33 The fool no knave, perdy.
34
35 KENT
36 Where learned you this, fool?
37
38 FOOL
39 Not i' the stocks, fool.
40
41 [Re-enter KING LEAR with GLOUCESTER]
42
43 KING LEAR
44 Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary?
45 They have travell'd all the night? Mere fetches;
46 The images of revolt and flying off.
47 Fetch me a better answer.
48
49 GLOUCESTER
50 My dear lord,
51 You know the fiery quality of the duke;
52 How unremoveable and fix'd he is
53 In his own course.
54
55 KING LEAR
56 Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!
57 Fiery? what quality? Why, Gloucester, Gloucester,
58 I'ld speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.
50
01 GLOUCESTER
02 Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so.
03 KING LEAR
04 Inform'd them! Dost thou understand me, man?
05
06 GLOUCESTER
07 Ay, my good lord.
08
09 KING LEAR
10 The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father
11 Would with his daughter speak, commands her service:
12 Are they inform'd of this? My breath and blood!
13 Fiery? the fiery duke? Tell the hot duke that—
14 No, but not yet: may be he is not well:
15 Infirmity doth still neglect all office
16 Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves
17 When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind
18 To suffer with the body: I'll forbear;
19 And am fall'n out with my more headier will,
20 To take the indisposed and sickly fit
21 For the sound man. Death on my state! wherefore
22 [Looking on KENT]
23 Should he sit here? This act persuades me
24 That this remotion of the duke and her
25 Is practise only. Give me my servant forth.
26 Go tell the duke and 's wife I'ld speak with them,
27 Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,
28 Or at their chamber-door I'll beat the drum
29 Till it cry sleep to death.
30
31 GLOUCESTER
32 I would have all well betwixt you.
33 [Exit]
34
35 KING LEAR
36 O me, my heart, my rising heart! but, down!
37
38 FOOL
39 Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels
40 when she put 'em i' the paste alive; she knapped 'em
41 o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cried 'Down,
42 wantons, down!' 'Twas her brother that, in pure
43 kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.
44
45 [Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOUCESTER, and Servants]
46
47 KING LEAR
48 Good morrow to you both.
49
50 CORNWALL
51 Hail to your grace!
52
53 [KENT is set at liberty]
54
55 REGAN
56 I am glad to see your highness.
57
58
01 KING LEAR
02 Regan, I think you are; I know what reason
03 I have to think so: if thou shouldst not be glad,
04 I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb,
05 Sepulchring an adultress.
06
07 [To KENT]
08 O, are you free?
09 Some other time for that. Beloved Regan,
10 Thy sister's naught: O Regan, she hath tied
11 Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here:
12 [Points to his heart]
13 I can scarce speak to thee; thou'lt not believe
14 With how depraved a quality—O Regan!
15
16 REGAN
17 I pray you, sir, take patience: I have hope.
18 You less know how to value her desert
19 Than she to scant her duty.
20
21 KING LEAR
22 Say, how is that?
23
24 REGAN
25 I cannot think my sister in the least
26 Would fail her obligation: if, sir, perchance
27 She have restrain'd the riots of your followers,
28 'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end,
29 As clears her from all blame.
30
31 KING LEAR
32 My curses on her!
33
34
35 REGAN
36 O, sir, you are old.
37 Nature in you stands on the very verge
38 Of her confine: you should be ruled and led
39 By some discretion, that discerns your state
40 Better than you yourself. Therefore, I pray you,
41 That to our sister you do make return;
42 Say you have wrong'd her, sir.
43
44
45 KING LEAR
46 Ask her forgiveness?
47 Do you but mark how this becomes the house:
48 'Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;
49 [Kneeling]
50 Age is unnecessary: on my knees I beg
51 That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.'
52
53
54 REGAN
55 Good sir, no more; these are unsightly tricks:
56 Return you to my sister.
57
58
52
01 KING LEAR
02 [Rising] Never, Regan:
03 She hath abated me of half my train;
04 Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue,
05 Most serpent-like, upon the very heart:
06 All the stored vengeances of heaven fall
07 On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,
08 You taking airs, with lameness!
09
10 CORNWALL
11 Fie, sir, fie!
12
13 KING LEAR
14 You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames
15 Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,
16 You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun,
17 To fall and blast her pride!
18
19 REGAN
20 O the blest gods! so will you wish on me,
21 When the rash mood is on.
22
23 KING LEAR
24 No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse:
25 Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give
26 Thee o'er to harshness: her eyes are fierce; but thine
27 Do comfort and not burn. 'Tis not in thee
28 To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
29 To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,
30 And in conclusion to oppose the bolt
31 Against my coming in: thou better know'st
32 The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
33 Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude;
34 Thy half o' the kingdom hast thou not forgot,
35 Wherein I thee endow'd.
36
37 REGAN
38 Good sir, to the purpose.
39
40 KING LEAR
41 Who put my man i' the stocks?
42
43 [Tucket within2]
44
45 CORNWALL
46 What trumpet's that?
47
48 REGAN
49 I know't, my sister's: this approves her letter,
50 That she would soon be here.
51
52 [Enter OSWALD]
53
54 REGAN
55 Is your lady come?
56 KING LEAR
57 This is a slave, whose easy-borrow'd pride
2. Trumpet offstage
01 Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows.

02 Out, varlet, from my sight!
03
04 CORNWALL
05 What means your grace?
06
07 KING LEAR
08 Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good hope
09 Thou didst not know on't. Who comes here? O heavens,
10
11 [Enter GONERIL]
12
13 If you do love old men, if your sweet sway
14 Allow obedience, if yourselves are old,
15 Make it your cause; send down, and take my part!
16
17 [To GONERIL]
18 Art not ashamed to look upon this beard?
19 O Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand?
20
21 GONERIL
22 Why not by the hand, sir? How have I offended?
23 All's not offence that indiscretion finds
24 And dotage terms so.
25
26 KING LEAR
27 O sides, you are too tough;
28 Will you yet hold? How came my man i' the stocks?
29
30 CORNWALL
31 I set him there, sir: but his own disorders
32 Deserved much less advancement.
33
34 KING LEAR
35 You! did you?
36
37
38 REGAN
39 I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.
40 If, till the expiration of your month,
41 You will return and sojourn with my sister,
42 Dismissing half your train, come then to me:
43 I am now from home, and out of that provision
44 Which shall be needful for your entertainment.
45
46
47 KING LEAR
48 Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd?
49 No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
50 To wage against the enmity o' the air;
51 To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,—
52 Necessity's sharp pinch! Return with her?
53 Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took
54 Our youngest born, I could as well be brought
55 To knee his throne, and, squire-like; pension beg
56 To keep base life afoot. Return with her?
57 Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter
58 To this detested groom.
54
01 [Pointing at OSWALD]
02
03 GONERIL
04 At your choice, sir.
05
06 KING LEAR
07 I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad:
08 I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell:
09 We'll no more meet, no more see one another:
10 But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;
11 Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,
12 Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,
13 A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,
14 In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee;
15 Let shame come when it will, I do not call it:
16 I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,
17 Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove:
18 Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure:
19 I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,
20 I and my hundred knights.
21
22 REGAN
23 Not altogether so:
24 I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided
25 For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister;
26 For those that mingle reason with your passion
27 Must be content to think you old, and so—
28 But she knows what she does.
29
30 KING LEAR
31 Is this well spoken?
32
33 REGAN
34 I dare avouch it, sir: what, fifty followers?
35 Is it not well? What should you need of more?
36 Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger
37 Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house,
38 Should many people, under two commands,
39 Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.
40
41 GONERIL
42 Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance
43 From those that she calls servants or from mine?
44
45 REGAN
46 Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack you,
47 We could control them. If you will come to me,—
48 For now I spy a danger,—I entreat you
49 To bring but five and twenty: to no more
50 Will I give place or notice.
51
52 KING LEAR
53 I gave you all–
54
55 REGAN
56 And in good time you gave it.
57 KING LEAR
58 Made you my guardians, my depositaries;
01 But kept a reservation to be follow'd

02 With such a number. What, must I come to you
03 With five and twenty, Regan? said you so?
04
05 REGAN
06 And speak't again, my lord; no more with me.
07
08 KING LEAR
09 Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,
10 When others are more wicked: not being the worst
11 Stands in some rank of praise.
12
13 [To GONERIL]
14 I'll go with thee:
15 Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,
16 And thou art twice her love.
17
18 GONERIL
19 Hear me, my lord;
20 What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,
21 To follow in a house where twice so many
22 Have a command to tend you?
23
24 REGAN
25 What need one?
26
27 KING LEAR
28 O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
29 Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
30 Allow not nature more than nature needs,
31 Man's life's as cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;
32 If only to go warm were gorgeous,
33 Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,
34 Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need,—
35 You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!
36 You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
37 As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
38 If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
39 Against their father, fool me not so much
40 To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
41 And let not women's weapons, water-drops,
42 Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,
43 I will have such revenges on you both,
44 That all the world shall—I will do such things,—
45 What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be
46 The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep
47 No, I'll not weep:
48 I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
49 Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
50 Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!
51
52 [Exeunt KING LEAR, GLOUCESTER, KENT, FOOL, and GENTLEMAN]
53
54 [Storm and tempest]
55
56
57 CORNWALL
58 Let us withdraw; 'twill be a storm.
56
01
02 REGAN
03 This house is little: the old man and his people
04 Cannot be well bestow'd.
05
06 GONERIL
07 'Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest,
08 And must needs taste his folly.
09
10
11 REGAN
12 For his particular, I'll receive him gladly,
13 But not one follower.
14
15 GONERIL
16 So am I purposed.
17 Where is my lord of Gloucester?
18
19 CORNWALL
20 Follow'd the old man forth: he is return'd.
21
22 [Re-enter GLOUCESTER]
23
24 GLOUCESTER
25 The king is in high rage.
26
27 CORNWALL
28 Whither is he going?
29
30 GLOUCESTER
31 He calls to horse; but will I know not whither.
32
33 CORNWALL
34 'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself.
35
36 GONERIL
37 My lord, entreat him by no means to stay.
38
39 GLOUCESTER
40 Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds
41 Do sorely ruffle; for many miles a bout
42 There's scarce a bush.
43
44 REGAN
45 O, sir, to wilful men,
46 The injuries that they themselves procure
47 Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors:
48 He is attended with a desperate train;
49 And what they may incense him to, being apt
50 To have his ear abused, wisdom bids fear.
51
52 CORNWALL
53 Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night:
54 My Regan counsels well; come out o' the storm.
55
56 [Exeunt]
01 Intermission 1
58
01 ACT III
02 SCENE I. A heath.
03 [Storm still. Enter KENT and GENTLEMAN, meeting]
04
05 KENT
06 Who's there, besides foul weather?
07
08 GENTLEMAN
09 One minded like the weather, most unquietly.
10
11 KENT
12 I know you. Where's the king?
13
14 GENTLEMAN
15 Contending with the fretful element:
16 Bids the winds blow the earth into the sea,
17 Or swell the curled water 'bove the main,
18 That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,
19 Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,
20 Catch in their fury, and make nothing of;
21 Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn
22 The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.
23 This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,
24 The lion and the belly-pinched wolf
25 Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,
26 And bids what will take all.
27
28 KENT
29 But who is with him?
30
31 GENTLEMAN
32 None but the fool; who labours to out-jest
33 His heart-struck injuries.
34
35 KENT
36 Sir, I do know you;
37 And dare, upon the warrant of my note,
38 Commend a dear thing to you. There is division,
39 Although as yet the face of it be cover'd
40 With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;
41 Who have—as who have not, that their great stars
42 Throned and set high?—servants, who seem no less,
43 Which are to France the spies and speculations
44 Intelligent of our state; what hath been seen,
45 Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes,
46 Or the hard rein which both of them have borne
47 Against the old kind king; or something deeper,
48 Whereof perchance these are but furnishings;
49 But, true it is, from France there comes a power
50 Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already,
51 Wise in our negligence, have secret feet
52 In some of our best ports, and are at point
53 To show their open banner. Now to you:
54 If on my credit you dare build so far
55 To make your speed to Dover, you shall find
56 Some that will thank you, making just report
01 Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow

02 The king hath cause to plain.
03 I am a gentleman of blood and breeding;
04 And, from some knowledge and assurance, offer
05 This office to you.
06
07 GENTLEMAN
08 I will talk further with you.
09
10 KENT
11 No, do not.
12 For confirmation that I am much more
13 Than my out-wall, open this purse, and take
14 What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia,—
15 As fear not but you shall,—show her this ring;
16 And she will tell you who your fellow is
17 That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm!
18 I will go seek the king.
19
20 GENTLEMAN
21 Give me your hand: have you no more to say?
22
23 KENT
24 Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet;
25 That, when we have found the king,—in which your pain
26 That way, I'll this,—he that first lights on him
27 Holla the other.
28
29 [Exeunt severally]
60
01 SCENE II. Another part of the heath. Storm still.

02 [Enter KING LEAR and FOOL]
03
04 KING LEAR
05 Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
06 You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
07 Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
08 You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
09 Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
10 Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
11 Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
12 Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill at once,
13 That make ingrateful man!
14
15 FOOL
16 O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry
17 house is better than this rain-water out o' door.
18 Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters' blessing:
19 here's a night pities neither wise man nor fool.
20
21 KING LEAR
22 Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain!
23 Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:
24 I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;
25 I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children,
26 You owe me no subscription: then let fall
27 Your horrible pleasure: here I stand, your slave,
28 A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man:
29 But yet I call you servile ministers,
30 That have with two pernicious daughters join'd
31 Your high engender'd battles 'gainst a head
32 So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul!
33
34 FOOL
35 He that has a house to put's head in has a good
36 Head-piece.
37
38 The cod-piece that will house
39 Before the head has any,
40 The head and he shall louse;
41 So beggars marry many.
42 The man that makes his toe
43 What he his heart should make
44 Shall of a corn cry woe,
45 And turn his sleep to wake.
46
47 For there was never yet fair woman but she made
48 mouths in a glass.
49
50 KING LEAR
51 No, I will be the pattern of all patience;
52 I will say nothing.
53
54 [Enter KENT]
55
56 KENT
57 Who's there?
01 FOOL
02 Marry, here's grace and a cod-piece; that's a wise
03 man and a fool.
04
05 KENT
06 Alas, sir, are you here? things that love night
07 Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies
08 Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,
09 And make them keep their caves: since I was man,
10 Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
11 Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
12 Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot carry
13 The affliction nor the fear.
14
15 KING LEAR
16 Let the great gods,
17 That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads,
18 Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,
19 That hast within thee undivulged crimes,
20 Unwhipp'd of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand;
21 Thou perjured, and thou simular man of virtue
22 That art incestuous: caitiff, to pieces shake,
23 That under covert and convenient seeming
24 Hast practised on man's life: close pent-up guilts,
25 Rive your concealing continents, and cry
26 These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man
27 More sinn'd against than sinning.
28
29 KENT
30 Alack, bare-headed!
31 Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel;
32 Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest:
33 Repose you there; while I to this hard house—
34 More harder than the stones whereof 'tis raised;
35 Which even but now, demanding after you,
36 Denied me to come in—return, and force
37 Their scanted courtesy.
38
39 KING LEAR
40 My wits begin to turn.
41 Come on, my boy: how dost, my boy? art cold?
42 I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow?
43 The art of our necessities is strange,
44 That can make vile things precious. Come,
45 your hovel.
46 Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart
47 That's sorry yet for thee.
48
49 FOOL
50 [Singing]
51 He that has and a little tiny wit—
52 With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,—
53 Must make content with his fortunes fit,
54 For the rain it raineth every day.
55
56 KING LEAR
57 True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this hovel.
62
01 [Exeunt KING LEAR and KENT]

02
03 FOOL
04 This is a brave night to cool a courtezan.
05 I'll speak a prophecy ere I go:
06
07 When priests are more in word than matter;
08 When brewers mar their malt with water;
09 When nobles are their tailors' tutors;
10 No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;
11 When every case in law is right;
12 No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
13 When slanders do not live in tongues;
14 Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;
15 When usurers tell their gold i' the field;
16 And bawds and whores do churches build;
17 Then shall the realm of Albion
18 Come to great confusion:
19 Then comes the time, who lives to see't,
20 That going shall be used with feet.
21 This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time.
22 [Exit]
23
24
01 SCENE III. Gloucester's castle.

02 [Enter GLOUCESTER and EDMUND]
03
04 GLOUCESTER
05 Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural
06 dealing. When I desire their leave that I might
07 pity him, they took from me the use of mine own
08 house; charged me, on pain of their perpetual
09 displeasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for
10 him, nor any way sustain him.
11
12 EDMUND
13 Most savage and unnatural!
14
15 GLOUCESTER
16 Go to; say you nothing. There's a division betwixt
17 the dukes; and a worse matter than that: I have
18 received a letter this night; 'tis dangerous to be
19 spoken; I have locked the letter in my closet:
20 these injuries the king now bears will be revenged
21 home; there's part of a power already footed: we
22 must incline to the king. I will seek him, and
23 privily relieve him: go you and maintain talk with
24 the duke, that my charity be not of him perceived:
25 if he ask for me. I am ill, and gone to bed.
26 Though I die for it, as no less is threatened me,
27 the king my old master must be relieved. There is
28 some strange thing toward, Edmund; pray you, be careful.
29 [Exit]
30
31 EDMUND
32 This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke
33 Instantly know; and of that letter too:
34 This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me
35 That which my father loses; no less than all:
36 The younger rises when the old doth fall.
37 [Exit]
38
39
64
01 SCENE IV. The heath. Before a hovel.

02 [Enter KING LEAR, KENT, and FOOL]
03
04 KENT
05 Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter:
06 The tyranny of the open night's too rough
07 For nature to endure.
08
09 [Storm still]
10
11 KING LEAR
12 Let me alone.
13
14 KENT
15 Good my lord, enter here.
16
17 KING LEAR
18 Wilt break my heart?
19
20 KENT
21 I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.
22
23 KING LEAR
24 Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm
25 Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee;
26 But where the greater malady is fix'd,
27 The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'ldst shun a bear;
28 But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,
29 Thou'ldst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the
30 mind's free,
31 The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
32 Doth from my senses take all feeling else
33 Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!
34 Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand
35 For lifting food to't? But I will punish home:
36 No, I will weep no more. In such a night
37 To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure.
38 In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!
39 Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all,—
40 O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
41 No more of that.
42
43 KENT
44 Good my lord, enter here.
45
46 KING LEAR
47 Prithee, go in thyself: seek thine own ease:
48 This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
49 On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in.
50
51 [To the FOOL]
52 In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty,—
53 Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.
54
55 [FOOL goes in]
56
57 Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
01 That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,

02 How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
03 Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
04 From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
05 Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
06 Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
07 That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
08 And show the heavens more just.
09
10 EDGAR
11 [Within] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom!
12
13 [The Fool runs out from the hovel]
14
15 FOOL
16 Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit
17 Help me, help me!
18
19 KENT
20 Give me thy hand. Who's there?
21
22 FOOL
23 A spirit, a spirit: he says his name's poor Tom.
24
25 KENT
26 What art thou that dost grumble there i' the straw?
27 Come forth.
28
29 [Enter EDGAR disguised as a mad man]
30
31 EDGAR
32 Away! the foul fiend follows me!
33 Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.
34 Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.
35
36 KING LEAR
37 Hast thou given all to thy two daughters?
38 And art thou come to this?
39
40 EDGAR
41 Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul
42 fiend hath led through fire and through flame, and
43 through ford and whirlipool e'er bog and quagmire;
44 that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters
45 in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made film
46 proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over
47 four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a
48 traitor. Bless thy five wits! Tom's a-cold,—O, do
49 de, do de, do de. Bless thee from whirlwinds,
50 star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some
51 charity, whom the foul fiend vexes: there could I
52 have him now,—and there,—and there again, and there.
53
54 [Storm still]
55
56 KING LEAR
57 What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?
58 Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all?
66
01 FOOL
02 Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed.
03
04 KING LEAR
05 Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air
06 Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters!
07
08 KENT
09 He hath no daughters, sir.
10
11 KING LEAR
12 Death, traitor! nothing could have subdued nature
13 To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.
14 Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers
15 Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?
16 Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot
17 Those pelican daughters.
18
19 EDGAR
20 Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:
21 Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!
22
23 FOOL
24 This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.
25
26 EDGAR
27 Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy parents;
28 keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with
29 man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud
30 array. Tom's a-cold.
31
32 KING LEAR
33 What hast thou been?
34
35 EDGAR
36 A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled
37 my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of
38 my mistress' heart, and did the act of darkness with
39 her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and
40 broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one that
41 slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it:
42 wine loved I deeply, dice dearly: and in woman
43 out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of
44 ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth,
45 wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey.
46 Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of
47 silks betray thy poor heart to woman: keep thy foot
48 out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen
49 from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend.
50 Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind:
51 Says suum, mun, ha, no, nonny.
52 Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let him trot by.
53
54 [Storm still]
55
56
57
58
01 KING LEAR
02 Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer
03 with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies.
04 Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou
05 owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep
06 no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three on's
07 are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself:
08 unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor bare,
09 forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings!
10 come unbutton here.
11 [Tearing off his clothes]
12
13 FOOL
14 Prithee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis a naughty night
15 to swim in. Now a little fire in a wild field were
16 like an old lecher's heart; a small spark, all the
17 rest on's body cold. Look, here comes a walking fire.
18
19 [Enter GLOUCESTER, with a torch]
20
21 EDGAR
22 This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins
23 at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives
24 the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the
25 hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the
26 poor creature of earth.
27 Swithold footed thrice the old;
28 He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;
29 Bid her alight,
30 And her troth plight,
31 And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!
32
33 KENT
34 How fares your grace?
35
36 KING LEAR
37 What's he?
38
39 KENT
40 Who's there? What is't you seek?
41
42 GLOUCESTER
43 What are you there? Your names?
44
45 EDGAR
46 Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad,
47 the tadpole, the wall-newt and the water; that in
48 the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages,
49 eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat and
50 the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the
51 standing pool; who is whipped from tithing to
52 tithing, and stock- punished, and imprisoned; who
53 hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his
54 body, horse to ride, and weapon to wear;
55 But mice and rats, and such small deer,
56 Have been Tom's food for seven long year.
57 Beware my follower. Peace, Smulkin; peace, thou fiend!
58
68
01 GLOUCESTER
02 What, hath your grace no better company?
03
04 EDGAR
05 The prince of darkness is a gentleman:
06 Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.
07
08 GLOUCESTER
09 Our flesh and blood is grown so vile, my lord,
10 That it doth hate what gets it.
11
12
13 EDGAR
14 Poor Tom's a-cold.
15
16
17 GLOUCESTER
18 Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer
19 To obey in all your daughters' hard commands:
20 Though their injunction be to bar my doors,
21 And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,
22 Yet have I ventured to come seek you out,
23 And bring you where both fire and food is ready.
24
25 KING LEAR
26 First let me talk with this philosopher.
27 What is the cause of thunder?
28
29 KENT
30 Good my lord, take his offer; go into the house.
31
32 KING LEAR
33 I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.
34 What is your study?
35
36 EDGAR
37 How to prevent the fiend, and to kill vermin.
38
39 KING LEAR
40 Let me ask you one word in private.
41
42 KENT
43 Importune him once more to go, my lord;
44 His wits begin to unsettle.
45
46 GLOUCESTER
47 Canst thou blame him?
48 [Storm still]
49 His daughters seek his death: ah, that good Kent!
50 He said it would be thus, poor banish'd man!
51 Thou say'st the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend,
52 I am almost mad myself: I had a son,
53 Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life,
54 But lately, very late: I loved him, friend;
55 No father his son dearer: truth to tell thee,
56 The grief hath crazed my wits. What a night's this!
57 I do beseech your grace,—
58
01 KING LEAR
02 O, cry your mercy, sir.
03 Noble philosopher, your company.
04
05 EDGAR
06 Tom's a-cold.
07
08 GLOUCESTER
09 In, fellow, there, into the hovel: keep thee warm.
10
11 KING LEAR
12 Come let's in all.
13
14 KENT
15 This way, my lord.
16
17 KING LEAR
18 With him;
19 I will keep still with my philosopher.
20
21 KENT
22 Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.
23
24 GLOUCESTER
25 Take him you on.
26
27 KENT
28 Sirrah, come on; go along with us.
29
30 KING LEAR
31 Come, good Athenian.
32
33 GLOUCESTER
34 No words, no words: hush.
35
36 EDGAR
37 Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
38 His word was still,—Fie, foh, and fum,
39 I smell the blood of a British man.
40
41 [Exeunt]
42
43
70
01 SCENE V. Gloucester's castle.

02 [Enter CORNWALL and EDMUND]
03
04 CORNWALL
05 I will have my revenge ere I depart his house.
06
07 EDMUND
08 How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus
09 gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think
10 of.
11
12 CORNWALL
13 I now perceive, it was not altogether your
14 brother's evil disposition made him seek his death;
15 but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reprovable
16 badness in himself.
17
18 EDMUND
19 How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to
20 be just! This is the letter he spoke of, which
21 approves him an intelligent party to the advantages
22 of France: O heavens! that this treason were not,
23 or not I the detector!
24
25 CORNWALL
26 o with me to the duchess.
27
28 EDMUND
29 If the matter of this paper be certain, you have
30 mighty business in hand.
31
32 CORNWALL
33 True or false, it hath made thee earl of
34 Gloucester. Seek out where thy father is, that he
35 may be ready for our apprehension.
36
37 EDMUND
38 [Aside] If I find him comforting the king, it will
39 stuff his suspicion more fully.—I will persevere in
40 my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore
41 between that and my blood.
42
43
44
45 CORNWALL
46 I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a
47 dearer father in my love.
48
49 [Exeunt]
50
51
01 SCENE VI. A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle.

02 [Enter GLOUCESTER, KING LEAR, KENT, FOOL, and EDGAR]
03
04 GLOUCESTER
05 Here is better than the open air; take it
06 thankfully. I will piece out the comfort with what
07 addition I can: I will not be long from you.
08
09 KENT
10 All the power of his wits have given way to his
11 impatience: the gods reward your kindness!
12
13 [Exit GLOUCESTER]
14
15 EDGAR
16 Frateretto calls me; and tells me
17 Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness.
18 Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.
19
20 FOOL
21 Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a
22 gentleman or a yeoman?
23
24 KING LEAR
25 A king, a king!
26
27
28 FOOL
29 No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son;
30 for he's a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman
31 before him.
32
33 KING LEAR
34 To have a thousand with red burning spits
35 Come hissing in upon 'em,—
36
37 EDGAR
38 The foul fiend bites my back.
39
40 FOOL
41 He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a
42 horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath.
43
44 KING LEAR
45 It shall be done; I will arraign them straight.
46
47 [To EDGAR]
48 Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer;
49
50 [To the FOOL]
51 Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she foxes!
52
53 EDGAR
54 Look, where he stands and glares!
55 Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?
56 Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me,—
57
72
01 FOOL
02 Her boat hath a leak,
03 And she must not speak
04 Why she dares not come over to thee.
05
06 EDGAR
07 The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a
08 nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two
09 white herring. Croak not, black angel; I have no
10 food for thee.
11
12 KENT
13 How do you, sir? Stand you not so amazed:
14 Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?
15
16 KING LEAR
17 I'll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence.
18
19 [To EDGAR]
20 Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;
21
22 [To FOOLl]
23 And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity,
24 Bench by his side:
25
26 [To KENT]
27 you are o' the commission,
28 Sit you too.
29
30
31 EDGAR
32 Let us deal justly.
33 Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?
34 Thy sheep be in the corn;
35 And for one blast of thy minikin mouth,
36 Thy sheep shall take no harm.
37 Pur! the cat is gray.
38
39 KING LEAR
40 Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my
41 oath before this honourable assembly, she kicked the
42 poor king her father.
43
44 FOOL
45 Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril?
46
47 KING LEAR
48 She cannot deny it.
49
50 FOOL
51 Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.
52
53 KING LEAR
54 And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim
55 What store her heart is made on. Stop her there!
56 Arms, arms, sword, fire! Corruption in the place!
57 False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape?
58
01 EDGAR
02 Bless thy five wits!
03
04 KENT
05 O pity! Sir, where is the patience now,
06 That thou so oft have boasted to retain?
07
08 EDGAR
09 [Aside] My tears begin to take his part so much,
10 They'll mar my counterfeiting.
11
12 KING LEAR
13 The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and
14 Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me.
15
16
17 EDGAR
18 Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs!
19 Be thy mouth or black or white,
20 Tooth that poisons if it bite;
21 Mastiff, grey-hound, mongrel grim,
22 Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,
23 Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail,
24 Tom will make them weep and wail:
25 For, with throwing thus my head,
26 Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.
27 Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and
28 fairs and market-towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.
29
30
31 KING LEAR
32 Then let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds
33 about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that
34 makes these hard hearts?
35
36 [To EDGAR]
37 You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred; only I
38 do not like the fashion of your garments: you will
39 say they are Persian attire: but let them be changed.
40
41 KENT
42 Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile.
43
44 KING LEAR
45 Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains:
46 so, so, so. We'll go to supper i' he morning. So, so, so.
47
48 FOOL
49 And I'll go to bed at noon.
50
51 [Re-enter GLOUCESTER]
52
53 GLOUCESTER
54 Come hither, friend: where is the king my master?
55
56 KENT
57 Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits are gone.
58
74
01 GLOUCESTER
02 Good friend, I prithee, take him in thy arms;
03 I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him:
04 There is a litter ready; lay him in 't,
05 And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet
06 Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master:
07 If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life,
08 With thine, and all that offer to defend him,
09 Stand in assured loss: take up, take up;
10 And follow me, that will to some provision
11 Give thee quick conduct.
12
13 KENT
14 Oppressed nature sleeps:
15 This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses,
16 Which, if convenience will not allow,
17 Stand in hard cure.
18
19 [To the FOOL]
20 Come, help to bear thy master;
21 Thou must not stay behind.
22
23 GLOUCESTER
24 Come, come, away.
25
26 [Exeunt all but EDGAR]
27
28 EDGAR
29 When we our betters see bearing our woes,
30 We scarcely think our miseries our foes.
31 Who alone suffers suffers most i' the mind,
32 Leaving free things and happy shows behind:
33 But then the mind much sufferance doth o'er skip,
34 When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.
35 How light and portable my pain seems now,
36 When that which makes me bend makes the king bow,
37 He childed as I father'd! Tom, away!
38 Mark the high noises; and thyself bewray,
39 When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee,
40 In thy just proof, repeals and reconciles thee.
41 What will hap more to-night, safe 'scape the king!
42 Lurk, lurk.
43 [Exit]
44
01 SCENE VII. Gloucester's castle.

02 [Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GONERIL, EDMUND, and Servants]
03
04 CORNWALL
05 Post speedily to my lord your husband; show him
06 this letter: the army of France is landed. Seek
07 out the villain Gloucester.
08
09 [Exeunt some of the Servants]
10
11 REGAN
12 Hang him instantly.
13
14 GONERIL
15 Pluck out his eyes.
16
17 CORNWALL
18 Leave him to my displeasure. Edmund, keep you our
19 sister company: the revenges we are bound to take
20 upon your traitorous father are not fit for your
21 beholding. Advise the duke, where you are going, to
22 a most festinate preparation: we are bound to the
23 like. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent
24 betwixt us. Farewell, dear sister: farewell, my
25 lord of Gloucester.
26
27 [Enter OSWALD]
28
29 How now! where's the king?
30
31
32 OSWALD
33 My lord of Gloucester hath convey'd him hence:
34 Some five or six and thirty of his knights,
35 Hot questrists after him, met him at gate;
36 Who, with some other of the lords dependants,
37 Are gone with him towards Dover; where they boast
38 To have well-armed friends.
39
40
41 CORNWALL
42 Get horses for your mistress.
43
44 GONERIL
45 Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.
46
47
48 CORNWALL
49 Edmund, farewell.
50
51 [Exeunt GONERIL, EDMUND, and OSWALD]
52
53 Go seek the traitor Gloucester,
54 Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us.
55
56 [Exeunt other Servants]
57
76
01 Though well we may not pass upon his life

02 Without the form of justice, yet our power
03 Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men
04 May blame, but not control. Who's there? the traitor?
05
06 [Enter GLOUCESTER, brought in by two or three]
07
08 REGAN
09 Ingrateful fox! 'tis he.
10
11 CORNWALL
12 Bind fast his corky arms.
13
14 GLOUCESTER
15 What mean your graces? Good my friends, consider
16 You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends.
17
18 CORNWALL
19 Bind him, I say.
20
21 [Servants bind him]
22
23 REGAN
24 Hard, hard. O filthy traitor!
25
26 GLOUCESTER
27 Unmerciful lady as you are, I'm none.
28
29 CORNWALL
30 To this chair bind him. Villain, thou shalt find–
31
32 [REGAN plucks his beard]
33
34
35 GLOUCESTER
36 By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done
37 To pluck me by the beard.
38
39 REGAN
40 So white, and such a traitor!
41
42 GLOUCESTER
43 Naughty lady,
44 These hairs, which thou dost ravish from my chin,
45 Will quicken, and accuse thee: I am your host:
46 With robbers' hands my hospitable favours
47 You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?
48
49 CORNWALL
50 Come, sir, what letters had you late from France?
51
52 REGAN
53 Be simple answerer, for we know the truth.
54
55 CORNWALL
56 And what confederacy have you with the traitors
57 Late footed in the kingdom?
58
01 REGAN
02 To whose hands have you sent the lunatic king? Speak.
03
04 GLOUCESTER
05 I have a letter guessingly set down,
06 Which came from one that's of a neutral heart,
07 And not from one opposed.
08
09 CORNWALL
10 Cunning.
11
12 REGAN
13 And false.
14
15 CORNWALL
16 Where hast thou sent the king?
17
18 GLOUCESTER
19 To Dover.
20
21 REGAN
22 Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not charged at peril–
23
24 CORNWALL
25 Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that.
26
27 GLOUCESTER
28 I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course.
29
30 REGAN
31 Wherefore to Dover, sir?
32
33 GLOUCESTER
34 Because I would not see thy cruel nails
35 Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister
36 In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.
37 The sea, with such a storm as his bare head
38 In hell-black night endured, would have buoy'd up,
39 And quench'd the stelled fires:
40 Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain.
41 If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time,
42 Thou shouldst have said 'Good porter, turn the key,'
43 All cruels else subscribed: but I shall see
44 The winged vengeance overtake such children.
45
46 CORNWALL
47 See't shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair.
48 Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot.
49
50 GLOUCESTER
51 He that will think to live till he be old,
52 Give me some help! O cruel! O you gods!
53
54 REGAN
55 One side will mock another; the other too.
56
57 CORNWALL
58 If you see vengeance,—
78
01 FIRST SERVANT
02 Hold your hand, my lord:
03 I have served you ever since I was a child;
04 But better service have I never done you
05 Than now to bid you hold.
06
07 REGAN
08 How now, you dog!
09
10 FIRST SERVANT
11 If you did wear a beard upon your chin,
12 I'd shake it on this quarrel. What do you mean?
13
14 CORNWALL
15 My villain!
16
17 [They draw and fight]
18
19 FIRST SERVANT
20 Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of anger.
21
22 REGAN
23 Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus!
24
25 [Takes a sword, and runs at him behind]
26
27 FIRST SERVANT
28 O, I am slain! My lord, you have one eye left
29 To see some mischief on him. O!
30 [Dies]
31
32 CORNWALL
33 Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly!
34 Where is thy lustre now?
35
36 GLOUCESTER
37 All dark and comfortless. Where's my son Edmund?
38 Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature,
39 To quit this horrid act.
40
41 REGAN
42 Out, treacherous villain!
43 Thou call'st on him that hates thee: it was he
44 That made the overture of thy treasons to us;
45 Who is too good to pity thee.
46
47 GLOUCESTER
48 O my follies! then Edgar was abused.
49 Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!
50
51 REGAN
52 Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell
53 His way to Dover.
54
55 [Exit one with GLOUCESTER]
56
57 How is't, my lord? how look you?
58
01 CORNWALL
02 I have received a hurt: follow me, lady.
03 Turn out that eyeless villain; throw this slave
04 Upon the dunghill. Regan, I bleed apace:
05 Untimely comes this hurt: give me your arm.
06
07 [Exit CORNWALL, led by REGAN]
08
09 SECOND SERVANT
10 I'll never care what wickedness I do,
11 If this man come to good.
12
13 THIRD SERVANT
14 If she live long,
15 And in the end meet the old course of death,
16 Women will all turn monsters.
17
18 SECOND SERVANT
19 Let's follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam
20 To lead him where he would: his roguish madness
21 Allows itself to any thing.
22
23 THIRD SERVANT
24 Go thou: I'll fetch some flax and whites of eggs
25 To apply to his bleeding face. Now, heaven help him!
26
27 [Exeunt severally]
28
29
80
01 ACT IV
02 SCENE I. The heath.
03 [Enter EDGAR]
04
05 EDGAR
06 Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd,
07 Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst,
08 The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,
09 Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear:
10 The lamentable change is from the best;
11 The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then,
12 Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace!
13 The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst
14 Owes nothing to thy blasts. But who comes here?
15
16 [Enter GLOUCESTER, led by an OLD MAN]
17
18 My father, poorly led? World, world, O world!
19 But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,
20 Lie would not yield to age.
21
22 OLD MAN
23 O, my good lord, I have been your tenant, and
24 your father's tenant, these fourscore years.
25
26 GLOUCESTER
27 Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone:
28 Thy comforts can do me no good at all;
29 Thee they may hurt.
30
31 OLD MAN
32 Alack, sir, you cannot see your way.
33
34 GLOUCESTER
35 I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;
36 I stumbled when I saw: full oft 'tis seen,
37 Our means secure us, and our mere defects
38 Prove our commodities. O dear son Edgar,
39 The food of thy abused father's wrath!
40 Might I but live to see thee in my touch,
41 I'ld say I had eyes again!
42
43 OLD MAN
44 How now! Who's there?
45
46 EDGAR
47 [Aside] O gods! Who is't can say 'I am at
48 the worst'?
49 I am worse than e'er I was.
50
51 OLD MAN
52 'Tis poor mad Tom.
53
54 EDGAR
55 [Aside] And worse I may be yet: the worst is not
56 So long as we can say 'This is the worst.'
01 OLD MAN
02 Fellow, where goest?
03
04 GLOUCESTER
05 Is it a beggar-man?
06
07 OLD MAN
08 Madman and beggar too.
09
10 GLOUCESTER
11 He has some reason, else he could not beg.
12 I' the last night's storm I such a fellow saw;
13 Which made me think a man a worm: my son
14 Came then into my mind; and yet my mind
15 Was then scarce friends with him: I have heard
16 more since.
17 As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods.
18 They kill us for their sport.
19
20 EDGAR
21 [Aside] How should this be?
22 Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow,
23 Angering itself and others.—Bless thee, master!
24
25 GLOUCESTER
26 Is that the naked fellow?
27
28 OLD MAN
29 Ay, my lord.
30
31 GLOUCESTER
32 Then, prithee, get thee gone: if, for my sake,
33 Thou wilt o'ertake us, hence a mile or twain,
34 I' the way toward Dover, do it for ancient love;
35 And bring some covering for this naked soul,
36 Who I'll entreat to lead me.
37
38 OLD MAN
39 Alack, sir, he is mad.
40
41 GLOUCESTER
42 'Tis the times' plague, when madmen lead the blind.
43 Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure;
44 Above the rest, be gone.
45
46 OLD MAN
47 I'll bring him the best 'parel that I have,
48 Come on't what will.
49 [Exit]
50
51 GLOUCESTER
52 Sirrah, naked fellow,—
53
54 EDGAR
55 Poor Tom's a-cold.
56
57 [Aside]
58 I cannot daub it further.
82
01 GLOUCESTER
02 Come hither, fellow.
03
04 EDGAR
05 [Aside] And yet I must.—Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed.
06
07 GLOUCESTER
08 Know'st thou the way to Dover?
09
10 EDGAR
11 Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path. Poor
12 Tom hath been scared out of his good wits: bless
13 thee, good man's son, from the foul fiend! five
14 fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as
15 Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of
16 stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, of
17 mopping and mowing, who since possesses chambermaids
18 and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master!
19
20 GLOUCESTER
21 Here, take this purse, thou whom the heavens' plagues
22 Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched
23 Makes thee the happier: heavens, deal so still!
24 Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man,
25 That slaves your ordinance, that will not see
26 Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly;
27 So distribution should undo excess,
28 And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover?
29
30 EDGAR
31 Ay, master.
32
33 GLOUCESTER
34 There is a cliff, whose high and bending head
35 Looks fearfully in the confined deep:
36 Bring me but to the very brim of it,
37 And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear
38 With something rich about me: from that place
39 I shall no leading need.
40
41 EDGAR
42 Give me thy arm:
43 Poor Tom shall lead thee.
44
45 [Exeunt]
46
47
01 SCENE II. Before ALBANY's palace.

02 [Enter GONERIL and EDMUND]
03
04 GONERIL
05 Welcome, my lord: I marvel our mild husband
06 Not met us on the way.
07
08 [Enter OSWALD]
09
10 Now, where's your master'?
11
12 OSWALD
13 Madam, within; but never man so changed.
14 I told him of the army that was landed;
15 He smiled at it: I told him you were coming:
16 His answer was 'The worse:' of Gloucester's treachery,
17 And of the loyal service of his son,
18 When I inform'd him, then he call'd me sot,
19 And told me I had turn'd the wrong side out:
20 What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him;
21 What like, offensive.
22
23 GONERIL
24 [To EDMUND] Then shall you go no further.
25 It is the cowish terror of his spirit,
26 That dares not undertake: he'll not feel wrongs
27 Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way
28 May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother;
29 Hasten his musters and conduct his powers:
30 I must change arms at home, and give the distaff
31 Into my husband's hands. This trusty servant
32 Shall pass between us: ere long you are like to hear,
33 If you dare venture in your own behalf,
34 A mistress's command. Wear this; spare speech;
35
36 [Giving a favour]
37
38 Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak,
39 Would stretch thy spirits up into the air:
40 Conceive, and fare thee well.
41
42 EDMUND
43 Yours in the ranks of death.
44
45 GONERIL
46 My most dear Gloucester!
47
48 [Exit EDMUND]
49
50 O, the difference of man and man!
51 To thee a woman's services are due:
52 My fool usurps my body.
53
54 OSWALD
55 Madam, here comes my lord.
56 [Exit]
57
84
01 [Enter ALBANY]
02
03 GONERIL
04 I have been worth the whistle.
05
06 ALBANY
07 O Goneril!
08 You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
09 Blows in your face. I fear your disposition:
10 That nature, which contemns its origin,
11 Cannot be border'd certain in itself;
12 She that herself will sliver and disbranch
13 From her material sap, perforce must wither
14 And come to deadly use.
15
16 GONERIL
17 No more; the text is foolish.
18
19
20 ALBANY
21 Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile:
22 Filths savour but themselves. What have you done?
23 Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd?
24 A father, and a gracious aged man,
25 Whose reverence even the head-lugg'd bear would lick,
26 Most barbarous, most degenerate! have you madded.
27 Could my good brother suffer you to do it?
28 A man, a prince, by him so benefited!
29 If that the heavens do not their visible spirits
30 Send quickly down to tame these vile offences,
31 It will come,
32 Humanity must perforce prey on itself,
33 Like monsters of the deep.
34
35
36 GONERIL
37 Milk-liver'd man!
38 That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;
39 Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning
40 Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know'st
41 Fools do those villains pity who are punish'd
42 Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum?
43 France spreads his banners in our noiseless land;
44 With plumed helm thy slayer begins threats;
45 Whiles thou, a moral fool, sit'st still, and criest
46 'Alack, why does he so?'
47
48
49 ALBANY
50 See thyself, devil!
51 Proper deformity seems not in the fiend
52 So horrid as in woman.
53
54
55 GONERIL
56 O vain fool!
57
58
01 ALBANY
02 Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame,
03 Be-monster not thy feature. Were't my fitness
04 To let these hands obey my blood,
05 They are apt enough to dislocate and tear
06 Thy flesh and bones: howe'er thou art a fiend,
07 A woman's shape doth shield thee.
08
09 GONERIL
10 Marry, your manhood now–
11
12 [Enter a MESSENGER]
13
14 ALBANY
15 What news?
16
17 MESSENGER
18 O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall's dead:
19 Slain by his servant, going to put out
20 The other eye of Gloucester.
21
22
23 ALBANY
24 Gloucester's eye!
25
26 MESSENGER
27 A servant that he bred, thrill'd with remorse,
28 Opposed against the act, bending his sword
29 To his great master; who, thereat enraged,
30 Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead;
31 But not without that harmful stroke, which since
32 Hath pluck'd him after.
33
34 ALBANY
35 This shows you are above,
36 You justicers, that these our nether crimes
37 So speedily can venge! But, O poor Gloucester!
38 Lost he his other eye?
39
40 MESSENGER
41 Both, both, my lord.
42 This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer;
43 'Tis from your sister.
44
45 GONERIL
46 [Aside] One way I like this well;
47 But being widow, and my Gloucester with her,
48 May all the building in my fancy pluck
49 Upon my hateful life: another way,
50 The news is not so tart.—I'll read, and answer.
51 [Exit]
52
53 ALBANY
54 Where was his son when they did take his eyes?
55
56 MESSENGER
57 Come with my lady hither.
58
86
01 ALBANY
02 He is not here.
03
04 MESSENGER
05 No, my good lord; I met him back again.
06
07 ALBANY
08 Knows he the wickedness?
09
10 MESSENGER
11 Ay, my good lord; 'twas he inform'd against him;
12 And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment
13 Might have the freer course.
14
15 ALBANY
16 Gloucester, I live
17 To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king,
18 And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend:
19 Tell me what more thou know'st.
20
21 [Exeunt]
22
23
01 SCENE III. The French camp near Dover.

02 [Enter KENT and GENTLEMAN]
03
04 KENT
05 Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back
06 know you the reason?
07
08 GENTLEMAN
09 Something he left imperfect in the
10 state, which since his coming forth is thought
11 of; which imports to the kingdom so much
12 fear and danger, that his personal return was
13 most required and necessary.
14
15 KENT
16 Who hath he left behind him general?
17
18 GENTLEMAN
19 The Marshal of France, Monsieur La Far.
20
21 KENT
22 Did your letters pierce the queen to any
23 demonstration of grief?
24
25 GENTLEMAN
26 Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence;
27 And now and then an ample tear trill'd down
28 Her delicate cheek: it seem'd she was a queen
29 Over her passion; who, most rebel-like,
30 Sought to be king o'er her.
31
32 KENT
33 O, then it moved her.
34
35 GENTLEMAN
36 Not to a rage: patience and sorrow strove
37 Who should express her goodliest. You have seen
38 Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears
39 Were like a better way: those happy smilets,
40 That play'd on her ripe lip, seem'd not to know
41 What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence,
42 As pearls from diamonds dropp'd. In brief,
43 Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved,
44 If all could so become it.
45
46 KENT
47 Made she no verbal question?
48
49 GENTLEMAN
50 'Faith, once or twice she heaved the name of 'father'
51 Pantingly forth, as if it press'd her heart:
52 Cried 'Sisters! sisters! Shame of ladies! sisters!
53 Kent! father! sisters! What, i' the storm? i' the night?
54 Let pity not be believed!' There she shook
55 The holy water from her heavenly eyes,
56 And clamour moisten'd: then away she started
57 To deal with grief alone.
88
01 KENT
02 It is the stars,
03 The stars above us, govern our conditions;
04 Else one self mate and mate could not beget
05 Such different issues. You spoke not with her since?
06
07 GENTLEMAN
08 No.
09
10 KENT
11 Was this before the king return'd?
12
13 GENTLEMAN
14 No, since.
15
16 KENT
17 Well, sir, the poor distressed Lear's i' the town;
18 Who sometime, in his better tune, remembers
19 What we are come about, and by no means
20 Will yield to see his daughter.
21
22 GENTLEMAN
23 Why, good sir?
24
25 KENT
26 A sovereign shame so elbows him: his own unkindness,
27 That stripp'd her from his benediction, turn'd her
28 To foreign casualties, gave her dear rights
29 To his dog-hearted daughters, these things sting
30 His mind so venomously, that burning shame
31 Detains him from Cordelia.
32
33 GENTLEMAN
34 Alack, poor gentleman!
35
36 KENT
37 Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard not?
38
39 GENTLEMAN
40 'Tis so, they are afoot.
41
42 KENT
43 Well, sir, I'll bring you to our master Lear,
44 And leave you to attend him: some dear cause
45 Will in concealment wrap me up awhile;
46 When I am known aright, you shall not grieve
47 Lending me this acquaintance. I pray you, go
48 Along with me.
49
50 [Exeunt]
51
52
01 Intermission 2
90
01 SCENE IV. The same. A tent.

02 [Enter, with drum and colours, CORDELIA, DOCTOR, and Soldiers]
03
04 CORDELIA
05 Alack, 'tis he: why, he was met even now
06 As mad as the vex'd sea; singing aloud;
07 Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds,
08 With bur-docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,
09 Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
10 In our sustaining corn. A century send forth;
11 Search every acre in the high-grown field,
12 And bring him to our eye.
13
14 [Exit an Officer]
15
16 What can man's wisdom
17 In the restoring his bereaved sense?
18 He that helps him take all my outward worth.
19
20 DOCTOR
21 There is means, madam:
22 Our foster-nurse of nature is repose,
23 The which he lacks; that to provoke in him,
24 Are many simples operative, whose power
25 Will close the eye of anguish.
26
27 CORDELIA
28 All blest secrets,
29 All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth,
30 Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate
31 In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him;
32 Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life
33 That wants the means to lead it.
34
35 [Enter a Messenger]
36
37 MESSENGER
38 News, madam;
39 The British powers are marching hitherward.
40
41 CORDELIA
42 'Tis known before; our preparation stands
43 In expectation of them. O dear father,
44 It is thy business that I go about;
45 Therefore great France
46 My mourning and important tears hath pitied.
47 No blown ambition doth our arms incite,
48 But love, dear love, and our aged father's right:
49 Soon may I hear and see him!
50
51 [Exeunt]
52
53
01 SCENE V. Gloucester's castle.

02 [Enter REGAN and OSWALD]
03
04 REGAN
05 But are my brother's powers set forth?
06
07 OSWALD
08 Ay, madam.
09
10 REGAN
11 Himself in person there?
12
13 OSWALD
14 Madam, with much ado:
15 Your sister is the better soldier.
16
17 REGAN
18 Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home?
19
20 OSWALD
21 No, madam.
22
23 REGAN
24 What might import my sister's letter to him?
25
26 OSWALD
27 I know not, lady.
28
29 REGAN
30 'Faith, he is posted hence on serious matter.
31 It was great ignorance, Gloucester's eyes being out,
32 To let him live: where he arrives he moves
33 All hearts against us: Edmund, I think, is gone,
34 In pity of his misery, to dispatch
35 His nighted life: moreover, to descry
36 The strength o' the enemy.
37
38 OSWALD
39 I must needs after him, madam, with my letter.
40
41 REGAN
42 Our troops set forth to-morrow: stay with us;
43 The ways are dangerous.
44
45 OSWALD
46 I may not, madam:
47 My lady charged my duty in this business.
48
49 REGAN
50 Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you
51 Transport her purposes by word? Belike,
52 Something—I know not what: I'll love thee much,
53 Let me unseal the letter.
54
55 OSWALD
56 Madam, I had rather–
57
92
01 REGAN
02 I know your lady does not love her husband;
03 I am sure of that: and at her late being here
04 She gave strange oeillades3 and most speaking looks
05 To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom.
06
07 OSWALD
08 I, madam?
09
10 REGAN
11 I speak in understanding; you are; I know't:
12 Therefore I do advise you, take this note:
13 My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd;
14 And more convenient is he for my hand
15 Than for your lady's: you may gather more.
16 If you do find him, pray you, give him this;
17
18 [REGAN gives OSWALD a letter]
19
20 And when your mistress hears thus much from you,
21 I pray, desire her call her wisdom to her.
22 So, fare you well.
23 If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,
24 Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.
25
26 OSWALD
27 Would I could meet him, madam! I should show
28 What party I do follow.
29
30 REGAN
31 Fare thee well.
32
33 [Exeunt]
3. Oeillade, n: A glance, especially an amorous one; an ogle (from Wiktionary)

Pronounced "OY-yohd" (IPA: /əːˈjɑːd/)
01 SCENE VI. Fields near Dover.

02 [Enter GLOUCESTER, and EDGAR dressed like a peasant]
03
04 GLOUCESTER
05 When shall we come to the top of that same hill?
06
07 EDGAR
08 You do climb up it now: look, how we labour.
09
10
11 GLOUCESTER
12 Methinks the ground is even.
13
14 EDGAR
15 Horrible steep.
16 Hark, do you hear the sea?
17
18 GLOUCESTER
19 No, truly.
20
21 EDGAR
22 Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect
23 By your eyes' anguish.
24
25
26 GLOUCESTER
27 So may it be, indeed:
28 Methinks thy voice is alter'd; and thou speak'st
29 In better phrase and matter than thou didst.
30
31 EDGAR
32 You're much deceived: in nothing am I changed
33 But in my garments.
34
35 GLOUCESTER
36 Methinks you're better spoken.
37
38
39 EDGAR
40 Come on, sir; here's the place: stand still. How fearful
41 And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low!
42 The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
43 Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down
44 Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!
45 Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:
46 The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
47 Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,
48 Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy
49 Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge,
50 That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,
51 Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more;
52 Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
53 Topple down headlong.
54
55 GLOUCESTER
56 Set me where you stand.
57
94
01 EDGAR
02 Give me your hand: you are now within a foot
03 Of the extreme verge: for all beneath the moon
04 Would I not leap upright.
05
06 GLOUCESTER
07 Let go my hand.
08 Here, friend, 's another purse; in it a jewel
09 Well worth a poor man's taking: fairies and gods
10 Prosper it with thee! Go thou farther off;
11 Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.
12
13 EDGAR
14 Now fare you well, good sir.
15
16 GLOUCESTER
17 With all my heart.
18
19 EDGAR
20 Why I do trifle thus with his despair
21 Is done to cure it.
22
23 GLOUCESTER
24 [Kneeling] O you mighty gods!
25 This world I do renounce, and, in your sights,
26 Shake patiently my great affliction off:
27 If I could bear it longer, and not fall
28 To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
29 My snuff and loathed part of nature should
30 Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!
31 Now, fellow, fare thee well.
32 [He falls forward]
33
34 EDGAR
35 Gone, sir: farewell.
36 And yet I know not how conceit may rob
37 The treasury of life, when life itself
38 Yields to the theft: had he been where he thought,
39 By this, had thought been past. Alive or dead?
40 Ho, you sir! friend! Hear you, sir! speak!
41 Thus might he pass indeed: yet he revives.
42 What are you, sir?
43
44 GLOUCESTER
45 Away, and let me die.
46
47 EDGAR
48 Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,
49 So many fathom down precipitating,
50 Thou'dst shiver'd like an egg: but thou dost breathe;
51 Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound.
52 Ten masts at each make not the altitude
53 Which thou hast perpendicularly fell:
54 Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again.
55
56 GLOUCESTER
57 But have I fall'n, or no?
58
01 EDGAR
02 From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.
03 Look up a-height; the shrill-gorged lark so far
04 Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.
05
06 GLOUCESTER
07 Alack, I have no eyes.
08 Is wretchedness deprived that benefit,
09 To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort,
10 When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage,
11 And frustrate his proud will.
12
13 EDGAR
14 Give me your arm:
15 Up: so. How is 't? Feel you your legs? You stand.
16
17
18 GLOUCESTER
19 Too well, too well.
20
21 EDGAR
22 This is above all strangeness.
23 Upon the crown o' the cliff, what thing was that
24 Which parted from you?
25
26 GLOUCESTER
27 A poor unfortunate beggar.
28
29 EDGAR
30 As I stood here below, methought his eyes
31 Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses,
32 Horns whelk'd and waved like the enridged sea:
33 It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father,
34 Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours
35 Of men's impossibilities, have preserved thee.
36
37 GLOUCESTER
38 I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear
39 Affliction till it do cry out itself
40 'Enough, enough,' and die. That thing you speak of,
41 I took it for a man; often 'twould say
42 'The fiend, the fiend:' he led me to that place.
43
44 EDGAR
45 Bear free and patient thoughts. But who comes here?
46
47 [Enter KING LEAR, fantastically dressed with wild flowers]
48
49 The safer sense will ne'er accommodate
50 His master thus.
51
52 KING LEAR
53 No, they cannot touch me for coining; I am the
54 king himself.
55
56 EDGAR
57 O thou side-piercing sight!
58
96
01 KING LEAR
02 Nature's above art in that respect. There's your
03 press-money. That fellow handles his bow like a
04 crow-keeper: draw me a clothier's yard. Look,
05 look, a mouse! Peace, peace; this piece of toasted
06 cheese will do 't. There's my gauntlet; I'll prove
07 it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O, well
08 flown, bird! i' the clout, i' the clout: hewgh!
09 Give the word.
10
11 EDGAR
12 Sweet marjoram.
13
14 KING LEAR
15 Pass.
16
17 GLOUCESTER
18 I know that voice.
19
20 KING LEAR
21 Ha! Goneril, with a white beard! They flattered
22 me like a dog; and told me I had white hairs in my
23 beard ere the black ones were there. To say 'ay'
24 and 'no' to every thing that I said!—'Ay' and 'no'
25 too was no good divinity. When the rain came to
26 wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter; when
27 the thunder would not peace at my bidding; there I
28 found 'em, there I smelt 'em out. Go to, they are
29 not men o' their words: they told me I was every
30 thing; 'tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.
31
32 GLOUCESTER
33 The trick of that voice I do well remember:
34 Is 't not the king?
35
36 KING LEAR
37 Ay, every inch a king:
38 When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.
39 I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause? Adultery?
40 Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No:
41 The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly
42 Does lecher in my sight.
43 Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son
44 Was kinder to his father than my daughters
45 Got 'tween the lawful sheets.
46 To 't, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers.
47 Behold yond simpering dame,
48 Whose face between her forks presages snow;
49 That minces virtue, and does shake the head
50 To hear of pleasure's name;
51 The fitchew, nor the soiled horse, goes to 't
52 With a more riotous appetite.
53 Down from the waist they are Centaurs,
54 Though women all above:
55 But to the girdle do the gods inherit,
56 Beneath is all the fiends';
57 There's hell, there's darkness, there's the
58 sulphurous pit,
01 Burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie,

02 fie, fie! pah, pah! Give me an ounce of civet,
03 good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination:
04 there's money for thee.
05
06 GLOUCESTER
07 O, let me kiss that hand!
08
09 KING LEAR
10 Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.
11
12 GLOUCESTER
13 O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world
14 Shall so wear out to nought. Dost thou know me?
15
16 KING LEAR
17 I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny
18 at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid! I'll not
19 love. Read thou this challenge; mark but the
20 penning of it.
21
22 GLOUCESTER
23 Were all the letters suns, I could not see one.
24
25 EDGAR
26 I would not take this from report; it is,
27 And my heart breaks at it.
28
29 KING LEAR
30 Read.
31
32 GLOUCESTER
33 What, with the case of eyes?
34
35 KING LEAR
36 O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your
37 head, nor no money in your purse? Your eyes are in
38 a heavy case, your purse in a light; yet you see how
39 this world goes.
40
41 GLOUCESTER
42 I see it feelingly.
43
44 KING LEAR
45 What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes
46 with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond
47 justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in
48 thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which
49 is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen
50 a farmer's dog bark at a beggar?
51
52 GLOUCESTER
53 Ay, sir.
54
55 KING LEAR
56 And the creature run from the cur? There thou
57 mightst behold the great image of authority: a
58 dog's obeyed in office.
98
01 Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand!

02 Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back;
03 Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind
04 For which thou whipp'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener.
05 Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear;
06 Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
07 And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks:
08 Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it.
09 None does offend, none, I say, none; I'll able 'em:
10 Take that of me, my friend, who have the power
11 To seal the accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes;
12 And like a scurvy politician, seem
13 To see the things thou dost not. Now, now, now, now:
14 Pull off my boots: harder, harder: so.
15
16 EDGAR
17 O, matter and impertinency mix'd! Reason in madness!
18
19
20 KING LEAR
21 If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes.
22 I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester:
23 Thou must be patient; we came crying hither:
24 Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air,
25 We wawl and cry. I will preach to thee: mark.
26
27 GLOUCESTER
28 Alack, alack the day!
29
30 KING LEAR
31 When we are born, we cry that we are come
32 To this great stage of fools: this a good block;
33 It were a delicate stratagem, to shoe
34 A troop of horse with felt: I'll put 't in proof;
35 And when I have stol'n upon these sons-in-law,
36 Then, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!
37
38 [Enter GENTLEMAN, with Attendants]
39
40 GENTLEMAN
41 O, here he is: lay hand upon him. Sir,
42 Your most dear daughter–
43
44 KING LEAR
45 No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even
46 The natural fool of fortune. Use me well;
47 You shall have ransom. Let me have surgeons;
48 I am cut to the brains.
49
50 GENTLEMAN
51 You shall have any thing.
52
53 KING LEAR
54 No seconds? all myself?
55 Why, this would make a man a man of salt,
56 To use his eyes for garden water-pots,
57 Ay, and laying autumn's dust.
58
01 GENTLEMAN
02 Good sir,—
03
04 KING LEAR
05 I will die bravely, like a bridegroom. What!
06 I will be jovial: come, come; I am a king,
07 My masters, know you that.
08
09 GENTLEMAN
10 You are a royal one, and we obey you.
11
12 KING LEAR
13 Then there's life in't. Nay, if you get it, you
14 shall get it with running. Sa, sa, sa, sa.
15 [Exit running; Attendants follow]
16
17 GENTLEMAN
18 A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch,
19 Past speaking of in a king! Thou hast one daughter,
20 Who redeems nature from the general curse
21 Which twain have brought her to.
22
23 EDGAR
24 Hail, gentle sir.
25
26 GENTLEMAN
27 Sir, speed you: what's your will?
28
29
30 EDGAR
31 Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward?
32
33
34 GENTLEMAN
35 Most sure and vulgar: every one hears that,
36 Which can distinguish sound.
37
38 EDGAR
39 But, by your favour,
40 How near's the other army?
41
42
43 GENTLEMAN
44 Near and on speedy foot; the main descry
45 Stands on the hourly thought.
46
47 EDGAR
48 I thank you, sir: that's all.
49
50 GENTLEMAN
51 Though that the queen on special cause is here,
52 Her army is moved on.
53
54 EDGAR
55 I thank you, sir.
56
57 [Exit GENTLEMAN]
58
100
01 GLOUCESTER
02 You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me:
03 Let not my worser spirit tempt me again
04 To die before you please!
05
06 EDGAR
07 Well pray you, father.
08
09 GLOUCESTER
10 Now, good sir, what are you?
11
12 EDGAR
13 A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows;
14 Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows,
15 Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand,
16 I'll lead you to some biding.
17
18 GLOUCESTER
19 Hearty thanks:
20 The bounty and the benison of heaven
21 To boot, and boot!
22
23 [Enter OSWALD]
24
25 OSWALD
26 A proclaim'd prize! Most happy!
27 That eyeless head of thine was first framed flesh
28 To raise my fortunes. Thou old unhappy traitor,
29 Briefly thyself remember: the sword is out
30 That must destroy thee.
31
32 GLOUCESTER
33 Now let thy friendly hand
34 Put strength enough to't.
35
36 [EDGAR interposes]
37
38
39 OSWALD
40 Wherefore, bold peasant,
41 Darest thou support a publish'd traitor? Hence;
42 Lest that the infection of his fortune take
43 Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.
44
45 EDGAR
46 Ch'ill not let go, zir, without vurther 'casion.
47
48 OSWALD
49 Let go, slave, or thou diest!
50
51 EDGAR
52 Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor volk
53 pass. An chud ha' bin zwaggered out of my life,
54 'twould not ha' bin zo long as 'tis by a vortnight.
55 Nay, come not near th' old man; keep out, che vor
56 ye, or ise try whether your costard or my ballow be
57 the harder: ch'ill be plain with you.
58
01 OSWALD
02 Out, dunghill!
03
04 EDGAR
05 Ch'ill pick your teeth, zir: come; no matter vor
06 your foins.
07
08 [They fight, and EDGAR knocks him down]
09
10 OSWALD
11 Slave, thou hast slain me: villain, take my purse:
12 If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body;
13 And give the letters which thou find'st about me
14 To Edmund earl of Gloucester; seek him out
15 Upon the British party: O, untimely death!
16 [Dies]
17
18 EDGAR
19 I know thee well: a serviceable villain;
20 As duteous to the vices of thy mistress
21 As badness would desire.
22
23
24 GLOUCESTER
25 What, is he dead?
26
27
28 EDGAR
29 Sit you down, father; rest you
30 Let's see these pockets: the letters that he speaks of
31 May be my friends. He's dead; I am only sorry
32 He had no other death's-man. Let us see:
33 Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not:
34 To know our enemies' minds, we'ld rip their hearts;
35 Their papers, is more lawful.
36
37 [Reads]
38 'Let our reciprocal vows be remembered. You have
39 many opportunities to cut him off: if your will
40 want not, time and place will be fruitfully offered.
41 There is nothing done, if he return the conqueror:
42 then am I the prisoner, and his bed my goal; from
43 the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply
44 the place for your labour.
45 'Your—wife, so I would say—
46 'Affectionate servant,
47 ‘Goneril.'
48
49 O undistinguish'd space of woman's will!
50 A plot upon her virtuous husband's life;
51 And the exchange my brother! Here, in the sands,
52 Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified
53 Of murderous lechers: and in the mature time
54 With this ungracious paper strike the sight
55 Of the death practised duke: for him 'tis well
56 That of thy death and business I can tell.
57
58
102
01 GLOUCESTER
02 The king is mad: how stiff is my vile sense,
03 That I stand up, and have ingenious feeling
04 Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract:
05 So should my thoughts be sever'd from my griefs,
06 And woes by wrong imaginations lose
07 The knowledge of themselves.
08
09 EDGAR
10 Give me your hand:
11
12 [Drum afar off]
13
14 Far off, methinks, I hear the beaten drum:
15 Come, father, I'll bestow you with a friend.
16
17 [Exeunt]
18
19
01 SCENE VII. A tent in the French camp

02 [LEAR on a bed asleep, soft music playing; GENTLEMAN, and others attending.]
03
04 [Enter CORDELIA, KENT, and DOCTOR]
05
06 CORDELIA
07 O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work,
08 To match thy goodness? My life will be too short,
09 And every measure fail me.
10
11 KENT
12 To be acknowledged, madam, is o'erpaid.
13 All my reports go with the modest truth;
14 Nor more nor clipp'd, but so.
15
16 CORDELIA
17 Be better suited:
18 These weeds are memories of those worser hours:
19 I prithee, put them off.
20
21 KENT
22 Pardon me, dear madam;
23 Yet to be known shortens my made intent:
24 My boon I make it, that you know me not
25 Till time and I think meet.
26
27 CORDELIA
28 Then be't so, my good lord.
29
30 [To the DOCTOR]
31 How does the king?
32
33 DOCTOR
34 Madam, sleeps still.
35
36 CORDELIA
37 O you kind gods,
38 Cure this great breach in his abused nature!
39 The untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up
40 Of this child-changed father!
41
42 DOCTOR
43 So please your majesty
44 That we may wake the king: he hath slept long.
45
46 CORDELIA
47 Be govern'd by your knowledge, and proceed
48 I' the sway of your own will. Is he array'd?
49
50 GENTLEMAN
51 Ay, madam; in the heaviness of his sleep
52 We put fresh garments on him.
53
54 DOCTOR
55 Be by, good madam, when we do awake him;
56 I doubt not of his temperance.
57
104
01 CORDELIA
02 Very well.
03
04 DOCTOR
05 Please you, draw near. Louder the music there!
06
07 CORDELIA
08 O my dear father! Restoration hang
09 Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss
10 Repair those violent harms that my two sisters
11 Have in thy reverence made!
12
13 KENT
14 Kind and dear princess!
15
16 CORDELIA
17 Had you not been their father, these white flakes
18 Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face
19 To be opposed against the warring winds?
20 To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?
21 In the most terrible and nimble stroke
22 Of quick, cross lightning? to watch—poor perdu!—
23 With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog,
24 Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
25 Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father,
26 To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn,
27 In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!
28 'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once
29 Had not concluded all. He wakes; speak to him.
30
31
32 DOCTOR
33 Madam, do you; 'tis fittest.
34
35 CORDELIA
36 How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty?
37
38 KING LEAR
39 You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave:
40 Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound
41 Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears
42 Do scald like moulten lead.
43
44 CORDELIA
45 Sir, do you know me?
46
47 KING LEAR
48 You are a spirit, I know: when did you die?
49
50
51 CORDELIA
52 Still, still, far wide!
53
54
55 DOCTOR
56 He's scarce awake: let him alone awhile.
57
58
01 KING LEAR
02 Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight?
03 I am mightily abused. I should e'en die with pity,
04 To see another thus. I know not what to say.
05 I will not swear these are my hands: let's see;
06 I feel this pin prick. Would I were assured
07 Of my condition!
08
09 CORDELIA
10 O, look upon me, sir,
11 And hold your hands in benediction o'er me:
12 No, sir, you must not kneel.
13
14 KING LEAR
15 Pray, do not mock me:
16 I am a very foolish fond old man,
17 Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;
18 And, to deal plainly,
19 I fear I am not in my perfect mind.
20 Methinks I should know you, and know this man;
21 Yet I am doubtful for I am mainly ignorant
22 What place this is; and all the skill I have
23 Remembers not these garments; nor I know not
24 Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me;
25 For, as I am a man, I think this lady
26 To be my child Cordelia.
27
28 CORDELIA
29 And so I am, I am.
30
31 KING LEAR
32 Be your tears wet? yes, 'faith. I pray, weep not:
33 If you have poison for me, I will drink it.
34 I know you do not love me; for your sisters
35 Have, as I do remember, done me wrong:
36 You have some cause, they have not.
37
38 CORDELIA
39 No cause, no cause.
40
41 KING LEAR
42 Am I in France?
43
44
45 KENT
46 In your own kingdom, sir.
47
48
49 KING LEAR
50 Do not abuse me.
51
52 DOCTOR
53 Be comforted, good madam: the great rage,
54 You see, is kill'd in him: and yet it is danger
55 To make him even o'er the time he has lost.
56 Desire him to go in; trouble him no more
57 Till further settling.
58
106
01 CORDELIA
02 Will't please your highness walk?
03
04 KING LEAR
05 You must bear with me:
06 Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old and foolish.
07
08 [Exeunt all but KENT and GENTLEMA]
09
10 GENTLEMAN
11 Holds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so slain?
12
13 KENT
14 Most certain, sir.
15
16 GENTLEMAN
17 Who is conductor of his people?
18
19 KENT
20 As 'tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester.
21
22 GENTLEMAN
23 They say Edgar, his banished son, is with the Earl
24 of Kent in Germany.
25
26 KENT
27 Report is changeable. 'Tis time to look about; the
28 powers of the kingdom approach apace.
29
30 GENTLEMAN
31 The arbitrement is like to be bloody. Fare you
32 well, sir.
33 [Exit]
34
35 KENT
36 My point and period will be throughly wrought,
37 Or well or ill, as this day's battle's fought.
38 [Exit]
39
40
01 ACT V
02 SCENE I. The British camp, near Dover.
03 [Enter, with drum and colours, EDMUND, REGAN, GENTLEMAN, and Soldiers.]
04
05 EDMUND
06 Know of the duke if his last purpose hold,
07 Or whether since he is advised by aught
08 To change the course: he's full of alteration
09 And self-reproving: bring his constant pleasure.
10 To a Gentleman, who goes out
11
12 REGAN
13 Our sister's man is certainly miscarried.
14
15 EDMUND
16 'Tis to be doubted, madam.
17
18 REGAN
19 Now, sweet lord,
20 You know the goodness I intend upon you:
21 Tell me—but truly—but then speak the truth,
22 Do you not love my sister?
23
24 EDMUND
25 In honour'd love.
26
27
28 REGAN
29 But have you never found my brother's way
30 To the forfended place?
31
32 EDMUND
33 That thought abuses you.
34
35 REGAN
36 I am doubtful that you have been conjunct
37 And bosom'd with her, as far as we call hers.
38
39 EDMUND
40 No, by mine honour, madam.
41
42
43 REGAN
44 I never shall endure her: dear my lord,
45 Be not familiar with her.
46
47 EDMUND
48 Fear me not:
49 She and the duke her husband!
50
51 [Enter, with drum and colours, ALBANY, GONERIL, and Soldiers]
52
53 GONERIL
54 [Aside] I had rather lose the battle than that sister
55 Should loosen him and me.
56
108
01 ALBANY
02 Our very loving sister, well be-met.
03 Sir, this I hear; the king is come to his daughter,
04 With others whom the rigor of our state
05 Forced to cry out. Where I could not be honest,
06 I never yet was valiant: for this business,
07 It toucheth us, as France invades our land,
08 Not bolds the king, with others, whom, I fear,
09 Most just and heavy causes make oppose.
10
11 EDMUND
12 Sir, you speak nobly.
13
14 REGAN
15 Why is this reason'd?
16
17 GONERIL
18 Combine together 'gainst the enemy;
19 For these domestic and particular broils
20 Are not the question here.
21
22 ALBANY
23 Let's then determine
24 With the ancient of war on our proceedings.
25
26 EDMUND
27 I shall attend you presently at your tent.
28
29 REGAN
30 Sister, you'll go with us?
31
32 GONERIL
33 No.
34
35
36 REGAN
37 'Tis most convenient; pray you, go with us.
38
39
40 GONERIL
41 [Aside] O, ho, I know the riddle.—I will go.
42
43
44 [As they are going out, enter EDGAR disguised]
45
46
47 EDGAR
48 If e'er your grace had speech with man so poor,
49 Hear me one word.
50
51
52 ALBANY
53 I'll overtake you. Speak.
54
55
56 [Exeunt all but ALBANY and EDGAR]
57
58
01 EDGAR
02 Before you fight the battle, ope this letter.
03 If you have victory, let the trumpet sound
04 For him that brought it: wretched though I seem,
05 I can produce a champion that will prove
06 What is avouched there. If you miscarry,
07 Your business of the world hath so an end,
08 And machination ceases. Fortune love you.
09
10 ALBANY
11 Stay till I have read the letter.
12
13 EDGAR
14 I was forbid it.
15 When time shall serve, let but the herald cry,
16 And I'll appear again.
17
18 ALBANY
19 Why, fare thee well: I will o'erlook thy paper.
20
21 [Exit EDGAR]
22
23 [Re-enter EDMUND]
24
25 EDMUND
26 The enemy's in view; draw up your powers.
27 Here is the guess of their true strength and forces
28 By diligent discovery; but your haste
29 Is now urged on you.
30
31 ALBANY
32 We will greet the time.
33 [Exit]
34
35 EDMUND
36 To both these sisters have I sworn my love;
37 Each jealous of the other, as the stung
38 Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take?
39 Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd,
40 If both remain alive: to take the widow
41 Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril;
42 And hardly shall I carry out my side,
43 Her husband being alive. Now then we'll use
44 His countenance for the battle; which being done,
45 Let her who would be rid of him devise
46 His speedy taking off. As for the mercy
47 Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia,
48 The battle done, and they within our power,
49 Shall never see his pardon; for my state
50 Stands on me to defend, not to debate.
51 [Exit]
52
53
110
01 SCENE II. A field between the two camps.

02 [Alarum within. Enter, with drum and colours, KING LEAR, CORDELIA, and Soldiers, over the stage; and
03 exeunt]
04
05 [Enter EDGAR and GLOUCESTER]
06
07 EDGAR
08 Here, father, take the shadow of this tree
09 For your good host; pray that the right may thrive:
10 If ever I return to you again,
11 I'll bring you comfort.
12
13 GLOUCESTER
14 Grace go with you, sir!
15
16 [Exit EDGAR]
17
18 [Alarum and retreat within. Re-enter EDGAR]
19
20 EDGAR
21 Away, old man; give me thy hand; away!
22 King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en:
23 Give me thy hand; come on.
24
25 GLOUCESTER
26 No farther, sir; a man may rot even here.
27
28 EDGAR
29 What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure
30 Their going hence, even as their coming hither;
31 Ripeness is all: come on.
32
33 GLOUCESTER
34 And that's true too.
35
36 [Exeunt]
37
38
01 SCENE III. The British camp near Dover.

02 [Enter, in conquest, with drum and colours, EDMUND, KING LEAR and CORDELIA, prisoners; CAPTAIN 1,
03 Soldiers, & CAPTAIN 2]
04
05 EDMUND
06 Some officers take them away: good guard,
07 Until their greater pleasures first be known
08 That are to censure them.
09
10 CORDELIA
11 We are not the first
12 Who, with best meaning, have incurr'd the worst.
13 For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down;
14 Myself could else out-frown false fortune's frown.
15 Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?
16
17 KING LEAR
18 No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison:
19 We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:
20 When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
21 And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,
22 And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
23 At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
24 Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,
25 Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;
26 And take upon's the mystery of things,
27 As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out,
28 In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones,
29 That ebb and flow by the moon.
30
31 EDMUND
32 Take them away.
33
34 KING LEAR
35 Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,
36 The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee?
37 He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven,
38 And fire us hence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes;
39 The good-years shall devour them, flesh and fell,
40 Ere they shall make us weep: we'll see 'em starve
41 first. Come.
42
43 [Exeunt KING LEAR and CORDELIA, guarded]
44
45 EDMUND
46 Come hither, captain; hark.
47 Take thou this note;
48 [Giving a paper] note is to get cordelia hung?
49 go follow them to prison:

50 One step I have advanced thee; if thou dost
51 As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way
52 To noble fortunes: know thou this, that men
53 Are as the time is: to be tender-minded
54 Does not become a sword: thy great employment
55 Will not bear question; either say thou'lt do 't,
56 Or thrive by other means.
57
112
01 CAPTAIN 1
02 I'll do 't, my lord.
03
04 EDMUND
05 About it; and write happy when thou hast done.
06 Mark, I say, instantly; and carry it so
07 As I have set it down.
08
09 CAPTAIN 1
10 I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats;
11 If it be man's work, I'll do 't.
12 [Exit]
13
14 [Flourish. Enter ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, CAPTAIN 2, and Soldiers]
15
16 ALBANY talking to edmund here- still cold
17 Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain,
but not gonna do anything ab it yet
18 And fortune led you well: you have the captives
19 That were the opposites of this day's strife:
20 We do require them of you, so to use them
21 As we shall find their merits and our safety
22 May equally determine.
23
24 EDMUND
25 Sir, I thought it fit
26 To send the old and miserable king
27 To some retention and appointed guard;
28 Whose age has charms in it, whose title more,
29 To pluck the common bosom on his side,
30 An turn our impress'd lances in our eyes
31 Which do command them. With him I sent the queen;
32 My reason all the same; and they are ready
33 To-morrow, or at further space, to appear
34 Where you shall hold your session. At this time
35 We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend;
36 And the best quarrels, in the heat, are cursed
37 By those that feel their sharpness:
38 The question of Cordelia and her father
39 Requires a fitter place.
40
41 ALBANY cold- knows he’s fucking my wife
42 Sir, by your patience,
43 I hold you but a subject of this war,
44 Not as a brother.
45
46 REGAN
47 That's as we list to grace him.
48 Methinks our pleasure might have been demanded,
49 Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers;
50 Bore the commission of my place and person;
51 The which immediacy may well stand up,
52 And call itself your brother.
53
54 GONERIL
55 Not so hot:
56 In his own grace he doth exalt himself,
57 More than in your addition.
58
01 REGAN
02 In my rights,
03 By me invested, he compeers the best.
04
05 GONERIL
06 That were the most, if he should husband you.
07
08 REGAN
09 Jesters do oft prove prophets.
10
11 GONERIL
12 Holla, holla!
13 That eye that told you so look'd but a-squint.
14
15
16 REGAN
17 Lady, I am not well; else I should answer
18 From a full-flowing stomach. General,
19 Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony;
20 Dispose of them, of me; the walls are thine:
21 Witness the world, that I create thee here
22 My lord and master.
23
24 GONERIL
25 Mean you to enjoy him?
26
let alone- to not say anything- want him to answer
27 ALBANY
28 The let-alone lies not in your good will.
29
30 EDMUND
31 Nor in thine, lord.
32
33 ALBANY
34 Half-blooded fellow, yes.
35 beat- giving up- getting fully frustrated at half-blooded fellow
36 REGAN
37 [To EDMUND] Let the drum strike, and prove my title thine.
38
39 ALBANY
40 Stay yet; hear reason. Edmund, I arrest thee kinda giving up on the
relationship here
41 On capital treason; and, in thine attaint,
42 This gilded serpent
43
44 [Pointing to GONERIL]
45 For your claim, fair sister,
46 I bar it in the interest of my wife:
47 'Tis she is sub-contracted to this lord,
48 And I, her husband, contradict your bans.
49 If you will marry, make your loves to me,
50 My lady is bespoke.
51
52 GONERIL
53 An interlude!
54
55 ALBANY
56 Thou art arm'd, Gloucester: let the trumpet sound:
57 If none appear to prove upon thy head
58 Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,
114
01 There is my pledge;
02 [Throwing down a glove]
03
04 I'll prove it on thy heart,
05 Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less
06 Than I have here proclaim'd thee.
07
08 REGAN
09 Sick, O, sick!
10
11 GONERIL
12 [Aside] If not, I'll ne'er trust medicine.
13
14 EDMUND
15 There's my exchange:
16 [Throwing down a glove]
17 what in the world he is
18 That names me traitor, villain-like he lies:
19 Call by thy trumpet: he that dares approach,
20 On him, on you, who not? I will maintain
21 My truth and honour firmly.
22
23 ALBANY
24 A herald, ho!
25
26 EDMUND
27 A herald, ho, a herald!
28
29 ALBANY
30 Trust to thy single virtue; for thy soldiers,
31 All levied in my name, have in my name
32 Took their discharge.
33
34 REGAN
35 My sickness grows upon me.
36
37 ALBANY
38 She is not well; convey her to my tent.
39
40 [Exit Regan, led]
41
42 [Enter a HERALD]
43
44 Come hither, herald,—Let the trumpet sound,
45 And read out this.
46
47 CAPTAIN 2
48 Sound, trumpet!
49
50 [A trumpet sounds]
51
52 HERALD
53 [Reads] 'If any man of quality or degree within
54 the lists of the army will maintain upon Edmund,
55 supposed Earl of Gloucester, that he is a manifold
56 traitor, let him appear by the third sound of the
57 trumpet: he is bold in his defence.'
58
01 EDMUND
02 Sound!
03
04 [First trumpet]
05
06 HERALD
07 Again!
08
09 [Second trumpet]
10
11 HERALD
12 Again!
13
14 [Third trumpet]
15
16 [Trumpet answers within]
17
18 [Enter EDGAR, at the third sound, armed, with a trumpet before him]
19
20 ALBANY
21 Ask him his purposes, why he appears
22 Upon this call o' the trumpet.
23
24 HERALD
25 What are you?
26 Your name, your quality? and why you answer
27 This present summons?
28
29 EDGAR
30 Know, my name is lost;
31 By treason's tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit:
32 Yet am I noble as the adversary
33 I come to cope.
34
35 ALBANY
36 Which is that adversary?
37
38 EDGAR
39 What's he that speaks for Edmund Earl of Gloucester?
40
41
42 EDMUND
43 Himself: what say'st thou to him?
44
45
46 EDGAR
47 Draw thy sword,
48 That, if my speech offend a noble heart,
49 Thy arm may do thee justice: here is mine.
50 Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours,
51 My oath, and my profession: I protest,
52 Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence,
53 Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,
54 Thy valour and thy heart, thou art a traitor;
55 False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father;
56 Conspirant 'gainst this high-illustrious prince;
57 And, from the extremest upward of thy head
58 To the descent and dust below thy foot,
116
01 A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou 'No,'

02 This sword, this arm, and my best spirits, are bent
03 To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,
04 Thou liest.
05
06 EDMUND
07 In wisdom I should ask thy name;
08 But, since thy outside looks so fair and warlike,
09 And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes,
10 What safe and nicely I might well delay
11 By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn:
12 Back do I toss these treasons to thy head;
13 With the hell-hated lie o'erwhelm thy heart;
14 Which, for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise,
15 This sword of mine shall give them instant way,
16 Where they shall rest for ever. Trumpets, speak!
17
18 [Alarums. They fight. EDMUND falls]
19
20 ALBANY
21 Save him, save him!
am i actually worried about edmund dying??? i am batman
why am i saying this? i am batman
22
23 GONERIL
24 This is practise, Gloucester:
25 By the law of arms thou wast not bound to answer
26 An unknown opposite; thou art not vanquish'd,
27 But cozen'd and beguiled.
28
29 ALBANY
30 Shut your mouth, dame,
31 Or with this paper shall I stop it: Hold, sir:
32 Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil:
33 No tearing, lady: I perceive you know it.
34 [Gives the letter to EDMUND]
35
36 GONERIL
37 Say, if I do, the laws are mine, not thine:
38 Who can arraign me for't.
39
40
41 ALBANY
42 Most monstrous! oh!
43 Know'st thou this paper?
44
45 GONERIL
46 Ask me not what I know.
47 [Exit]
48
49 ALBANY
50 Go after her: she's desperate; govern her.
51
52 EDMUND
53 What you have charged me with, that have I done;
54 And more, much more; the time will bring it out:
55 'Tis past, and so am I. But what art thou
56 That hast this fortune on me? If thou'rt noble,
57 I do forgive thee.
58
01 EDGAR
02 Let's exchange charity.
03 I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;
04 If more, the more thou hast wrong'd me.
05 My name is Edgar, and thy father's son.
06 The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
07 Make instruments to plague us:
08 The dark and vicious place where thee he got
09 Cost him his eyes.
10
11 EDMUND
12 Thou hast spoken right, 'tis true;
13 The wheel is come full circle: I am here.
14
15 ALBANY
16 Methought thy very gait did prophesy
17 A royal nobleness: I must embrace thee:
18 Let sorrow split my heart, if ever I
19 Did hate thee or thy father!
20
21 EDGAR
22 Worthy prince, I know't.
23
24 ALBANY
25 Where have you hid yourself?
26 How have you known the miseries of your father?
27
28 EDGAR
29 By nursing them, my lord. List a brief tale;
30 And when 'tis told, O, that my heart would burst!
31 The bloody proclamation to escape,
32 That follow'd me so near,—O, our lives' sweetness!
33 That we the pain of death would hourly die
34 Rather than die at once!—taught me to shift
35 Into a madman's rags; to assume a semblance
36 That very dogs disdain'd: and in this habit
37 Met I my father with his bleeding rings,
38 Their precious stones new lost: became his guide,
39 Led him, begg'd for him, saved him from despair;
40 Never,—O fault!—reveal'd myself unto him,
41 Until some half-hour past, when I was arm'd:
42 Not sure, though hoping, of this good success,
43 I ask'd his blessing, and from first to last
44 Told him my pilgrimage: but his flaw'd heart,
45 Alack, too weak the conflict to support!
46 'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,
47 Burst smilingly.
48
49 EDMUND
50 This speech of yours hath moved me,
51 And shall perchance do good: but speak you on;
52 You look as you had something more to say.
53
54 ALBANY
55 If there be more, more woeful, hold it in;
56 For I am almost ready to dissolve,
sad fr fr
57 Hearing of this.
58
118
01 EDGAR
02 This would have seem'd a period
03 To such as love not sorrow; but another,
04 To amplify too much, would make much more,
05 And top extremity.
06 Whilst I was big in clamour came there in a man,
07 Who, having seen me in my worst estate,
08 Shunn'd my abhorr'd society; but then, finding
09 Who 'twas that so endured, with his strong arms
10 He fastened on my neck, and bellow'd out
11 As he'ld burst heaven; threw him on my father;
12 Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him
13 That ever ear received: which in recounting
14 His grief grew puissant and the strings of life
15 Began to crack: twice then the trumpets sounded,
16 And there I left him tranced.
17
18 ALBANY
19 But who was this?
20
21 EDGAR
22 Kent, sir, the banish'd Kent; who in disguise
23 Follow'd his enemy king, and did him service
24 Improper for a slave.
25
26 [Enter GENTLEMAN, with a bloody knife]
27
28 GENTLEMAN
29 Help, help, O, help!
30
31 EDGAR
32 What kind of help?
33
34
35 ALBANY
36 Speak, man.
37
38 EDGAR
39 What means that bloody knife?
40
41 GENTLEMAN
42 'Tis hot, it smokes;
43 It came even from the heart of—O, she's dead!
44
45 ALBANY
46 Who dead? speak, man.
47
48 GENTLEMAN
49 Your lady, sir, your lady: and her sister
50 By her is poisoned; she hath confess'd it.
51
52 EDMUND
53 I was contracted to them both: all three
54 Now marry in an instant.
55
56 EDGAR
57 Here comes Kent.
58
01 ALBANY
02 Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead:
03 This judgment of the heavens, that makes us tremble,
04 Touches us not with pity.
05
06 [Exit GENTLEMAN]
07
08 [Enter KENT]
09
10 O, is this he?
11 The time will not allow the compliment
12 Which very manners urges.
13
14 KENT
15 I am come
16 To bid my king and master aye good night:
17 Is he not here?
18
19 ALBANY
20 Great thing of us forgot!
21 Speak, Edmund, where's the king? and where's Cordelia?
22 See'st thou this object, Kent?
23
24 [The bodies of GONERIL and REGAN are brought in]
25
26 KENT
27 Alack, why thus?
28
29 EDMUND
30 Yet Edmund was beloved:
31 The one the other poison'd for my sake,
32 And after slew herself.
33
34 ALBANY
35 Even so. Cover their faces.
36
37 EDMUND
38 I pant for life: some good I mean to do,
39 Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send,
40 Be brief in it, to the castle; for my writ
41 Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia:
42 Nay, send in time.
43
44 ALBANY
45 Run, run, O, run!
46
47 EDGAR
48 To who, my lord? Who hath the office? send
49 Thy token of reprieve.
50
51 EDMUND
52 Well thought on: take my sword,
53 Give it the captain.
54
55 ALBANY
56 Haste thee, for thy life.
57
120
01 [Exit EDGAR]
02
03 EDMUND
04 He hath commission from thy wife and me
05 To hang Cordelia in the prison, and
06 To lay the blame upon her own despair,
07 That she fordid herself.
08
09 ALBANY
10 The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile.
11
12 [EDMUND is borne off]
13
14 [Re-enter KING LEAR, with CORDELIA dead in his arms; EDGAR, CAPTAIN 1, and others following]
15
16 KING LEAR
17 Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones:
18 Had I your tongues and eyes, I'ld use them so
19 That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone for ever!
20 I know when one is dead, and when one lives;
21 She's dead as earth. Lend me a looking-glass;
22 If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
23 Why, then she lives.
24
25 KENT
26 Is this the promised end
27
28 EDGAR
29 Or image of that horror?
30
31 ALBANY
32 Fall, and cease!
33
34 KING LEAR
35 This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so,
36 It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows
37 That ever I have felt.
38
39 KENT
40 [Kneeling] O my good master!
41
42 KING LEAR
43 Prithee, away.
44
45 EDGAR
46 'Tis noble Kent, your friend.
47
48 KING LEAR
49 A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!
50 I might have saved her; now she's gone for ever!
51 Cordelia, Cordelia! stay a little. Ha!
52 What is't thou say'st? Her voice was ever soft,
53 Gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman.
54 I kill'd the slave that was a-hanging thee.
55
56 CAPTAIN 1
57 'Tis true, my lords, he did.
58
01 KING LEAR
02 Did I not, fellow?
03 I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion
04 I would have made them skip: I am old now,
05 And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you?
06 Mine eyes are not o' the best: I'll tell you straight.
07
08 KENT
09 If fortune brag of two she loved and hated,
10 One of them we behold.
11
12 KING LEAR
13 This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent?
14
15 KENT
16 The same,
17 Your servant Kent: Where is your servant Caius?
18
19 KING LEAR
20 He's a good fellow, I can tell you that;
21 He'll strike, and quickly too: he's dead and rotten.
22
23 KENT
24 No, my good lord; I am the very man,—
25
26 KING LEAR
27 I'll see that straight.
28
29 KENT
30 That, from your first of difference and decay,
31 Have follow'd your sad steps.
32
33 KING LEAR
34 You are welcome hither.
35
36
37
38 KENT
39 Nor no man else: all's cheerless, dark, and deadly.
40 Your eldest daughters have fordone them selves,
41 And desperately are dead.
42
43 KING LEAR
44 Ay, so I think.
45
46 ALBANY
47 He knows not what he says: and vain it is
48 That we present us to him.
49
50
51 EDGAR
52 Very bootless.
53
54 [Enter CAPTAIN 2]
55
56 CAPTAIN 2
57 Edmund is dead, my lord.
58
122
01 ALBANY
02 That's but a trifle here.
03 You lords and noble friends, know our intent.
04 What comfort to this great decay may come
05 Shall be applied: for us we will resign,
06 During the life of this old majesty,
07 To him our absolute power:
08
09 [To EDGAR and KENT]
this meaning of boot- ???
10 you, to your rights:
11 With boot, and such addition as your honours
12 Have more than merited. All friends shall taste
13 The wages of their virtue, and all foes
14 The cup of their deservings. O, see, see!
idk how to do the “see see”- should test stuff
15
16 KING LEAR
17 And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!
18 Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
19 And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
20 Never, never, never, never, never!
21 Pray you, undo this button: thank you, sir.
22 Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,
23 Look there, look there!
24 [Dies]
25
26 EDGAR
27 He faints! My lord, my lord!
28
29 KENT
30 Break, heart; I prithee, break!
31
32 EDGAR
33 Look up, my lord.
34
35 KENT
36 Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! he hates him much
37 That would upon the rack of this tough world
38 Stretch him out longer.
39
40 EDGAR
41 He is gone, indeed.
42
43 KENT
44 The wonder is, he hath endured so long:
45 He but usurp'd his life.
46
47 ALBANY
48 Bear them from hence. Our present business
49 Is general woe.
50
51 [To KENT and EDGAR]
52 Friends of my soul, you twain
53 Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain.
54
55 KENT
56 I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
57 My master calls me, I must not say no.
58
01 ALBANY
02 The weight of this sad time we must obey;
03 Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. moral of the story??? maybe
04 The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
05 Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
06
07 [Exeunt, with a dead march]
08

King Lear Script r6

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1

04 Written by William Shakespeare

08 Intermissions following Act II Scene IV and following Act IV Scene III

01 The name, and all the additions to a king;

01 SCENE II. The Earl of Gloucester's castle.

01 cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in

01 diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation

01 SCENE III. The Duke of Albany's palace.

01 SCENE IV. A hall in the same.

01 And go the fools among.

01 Should sure to the slaughter,

01 SCENE V. Court before the same.

05 My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night:

01 SCENE II. Before Gloucester's castle.

01 [Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER and KENT]

01 SCENE III. A wood.

01 SCENE IV. Before GLOUCESTER's castle.

01 Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows.

01 But kept a reservation to be follow'd

01 Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow

01 SCENE II. Another part of the heath. Storm still.

01 [Exeunt KING LEAR and KENT]

01 SCENE III. Gloucester's castle.

01 SCENE IV. The heath. Before a hovel.

01 That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,

01 SCENE V. Gloucester's castle.

01 SCENE VI. A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle.

01 SCENE VII. Gloucester's castle.

01 Though well we may not pass upon his life

01 SCENE II. Before ALBANY's palace.

01 SCENE III. The French camp near Dover.

01 SCENE IV. The same. A tent.

01 SCENE V. Gloucester's castle.

3. Oeillade, n: A glance, especially an amorous one; an ogle (from Wiktionary)

01 SCENE VI. Fields near Dover.

01 Burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie,

01 Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand!

01 SCENE VII. A tent in the French camp

01 SCENE II. A field between the two camps.

01 SCENE III. The British camp near Dover.

49 go follow them to prison:

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

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