King Lear (15 page)

Read King Lear Online

Authors: William Shakespeare

Enter Oswald

How now? Where’s the king?

OSWALD
    My lord of Gloucester hath conveyed him hence:

Some five- or six-and-thirty of his knights,

Hot
questrists
17
after him, met him at gate,

Who, with some other of
the lord’s
18
dependants,

Are gone with him toward Dover, where they boast

To have well-armèd friends.

CORNWALL
    Get horses for your mistress.

GONERIL
    Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.

Exeunt
[
Goneril, Edmund and Oswald
]

CORNWALL
    Edmund, farewell.—

Go seek the traitor Gloucester,

Pinion him
25
like a thief, bring him before us.

[Exeunt other Servants]

Though well we may not
pass upon his life
26

Without the form of justice, yet our power

Shall
do a court’sy
28
to our wrath, which men

May blame but not control.

Enter Gloucester and Servants

Who’s there? The traitor?

REGAN
    Ingrateful fox! ’Tis he.

CORNWALL
    Bind fast his
corky
31
arms.

GLOUCESTER
    What means your graces?

Good my friends, consider you are my guests:

Do me no foul play, friends.

CORNWALL
    Bind him, I say.

Servants bind him

REGAN
    Hard, hard. O, filthy traitor!

GLOUCESTER
    Unmerciful lady as you are, I’m none.

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

Regan
plucks his beard

GLOUCESTER
    By the kind gods, ’tis most ignobly done

To pluck me by the beard.

REGAN
    So
white
41
, and such a traitor?

GLOUCESTER
    
Naughty
42
lady,

These hairs which thou dost
ravish
43
from my chin

Will
quicken
44
and accuse thee. I am your host:

With robbers’ hands my
hospitable favours
45

You should not
ruffle
46
thus. What will you do?

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

REGAN
    
Be simple answered
48
, for we know the truth.

CORNWALL
    And what confederacy have you with the traitors

Late footed
50
in the kingdom?

REGAN
    To whose hands you have sent the lunatic king? Speak.

GLOUCESTER
    I have a letter
guessingly
52
set down,

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

And not from one
opposed
54
.

CORNWALL
    Cunning.

REGAN
    And false.

CORNWALL
    Where hast thou sent the king?

GLOUCESTER
    To Dover.

REGAN
    Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not
charged at peril
59

CORNWALL
    Wherefore to Dover? Let him answer that.

GLOUCESTER
    I am
tied to th’stake
and I must
stand
the
course
61
.

REGAN
    Wherefore to Dover?

GLOUCESTER
    Because I would not see thy cruel nails

Pluck out his poor old eyes, nor thy fierce sister

In his
anointed
65
flesh stick boarish fangs.

The sea, with such a storm as his bare head

In hell-black night endured, would have
buoyed
67
up

And quenched the
stellèd
68
fires:

Yet, poor old heart, he
holp
the heavens to rain
69
.

If wolves had at thy gate howled that
stern
70
time,

Thou shouldst have said ‘Good porter,
turn the key
71
.’

All cruels else subscribe
72
: but I shall see

The
wingèd vengeance
73
overtake such children.

CORNWALL
    See’t shalt thou never.
Fellows
74
, hold the chair.—

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

GLOUCESTER
    He that will think to live till he be old,

Cornwall grinds out his eye

Give me some help! O cruel! O you gods!

REGAN
    One side will mock another: th’other too.

CORNWALL
    If you see vengeance—

SERVANT
    Hold your hand, my lord:

I have served you ever since I was a child,

But better service have I never done you

Than now to bid you hold.

REGAN
    How now, you dog?

To Regan

SERVANT
    If you did wear a beard upon your chin,

I’d
shake it on this quarrel
.—
What do you mean
86
?

They draw and fight

CORNWALL
    My
villain
87
?

SERVANT
    Nay, then, come on, and take the
chance of anger
88
.

To a Servant

REGAN
    Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus?

Kills him

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

To see some
mischief on him
91
. O!

Dies

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

Puts out

Gloucester’s other eye

Where is thy lustre now?

GLOUCESTER
    All dark and comfortless. Where’s my son Edmund?

Edmund, enkindle all the
sparks of nature
95

To
quit
96
this horrid act.

REGAN
    
Out
97
, treacherous villain!

Thou call’st on him that hates thee: it was he

That made the
overture
99
of thy treasons to us,

Who is too good to pity thee.

GLOUCESTER
    O, my follies! Then Edgar was
abused
101
.

Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!

REGAN
    Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell

His way to Dover.

Exit [a Servant] with Gloucester

How is’t, my lord?
How look you?
105

CORNWALL
    I have received a hurt: follow me, lady.—

Turn out that eyeless villain: throw this slave

Upon the dunghill.— Regan, I bleed
apace
108
:

Untimely
109
comes this hurt. Give me your arm.

Exeunt

Act 4
Scene 1

running scene 12

Enter Edgar Disguised as Poor Tom

EDGAR
    Yet better
thus
, and known to be
contemned
1
,

Than still
contemned and flattered
2
. To be worst,

The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,

Stands still in
esperance
4
, lives not in fear:

The lamentable change is from the best
5
,

The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then,

Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace!

The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst

Owes nothing to thy blasts.

Enter Gloucester and an Old Man

But who comes here? My father,
poorly led
10
?

World, world, O world!

But
that thy strange
mutations
12
make us hate thee,

Life would not yield to age
13
.

OLD MAN
    O, my good lord, I have been your tenant and your

father’s tenant these
fourscore
15
years.

GLOUCESTER
    Away, get thee away! Good friend, be gone:

Thy comforts can do me no good at all,

Thee they may hurt
18
.

OLD MAN
    You cannot see your way.

GLOUCESTER
    I have no way and therefore want no eyes:

I stumbled when I saw. Full oft ’tis seen

Our
means secure us
, and our
mere defects
22

Prove our commodities
23
. O dear son Edgar,

The food of thy
abusèd
24
father’s wrath!

Might I but live to see thee in my touch,

I’d say I had eyes again!

OLD MAN
    How now? Who’s there?

Aside

EDGAR
    O gods! Who is’t can say, ‘I am at the worst’?

I am worse than e’er I was.

OLD MAN
    ’Tis poor mad Tom.

Aside

EDGAR
    And worse I may be yet: the worst
is not
31

So long as we can say ‘This is the worst.’

OLD MAN
    Fellow, where goest?

GLOUCESTER
    Is it a beggar-man?

OLD MAN
    Madman and beggar too.

GLOUCESTER
    He has some
reason
36
, else he could not beg.

I’th’last night’s storm I such a fellow saw,

Which made me think a man a worm: my son

Came then into my mind and yet my mind

Was then scarce friends with him. I have heard more since.

As flies to
wanton
41
boys are we to th’gods:

They kill us for their sport.

Aside

EDGAR
    How should this be?

Bad is the
trade
44
that must play fool to sorrow,

Ang’ring itself and others.— Bless thee, master!

GLOUCESTER
    Is that the naked fellow?

OLD MAN
    Ay, my lord.

GLOUCESTER
    Get thee away: if for my sake

Thou wilt o’ertake us hence a mile or twain

I’th’way toward Dover, do it for
ancient love
50
,

And bring some covering for this naked soul,

Which I’ll entreat to lead me.

OLD MAN
    Alack, sir, he is mad.

GLOUCESTER
    ’Tis the time’s
plague
54
, when madmen lead the blind.

Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure:

Above
the rest
56
, be gone.

OLD MAN
    I’ll bring him the best
’pparel
57
that I have,

Come on’t what will
58
.

Exit

GLOUCESTER
    Sirrah, naked fellow—

Aside

EDGAR
    Poor Tom’s a-cold.— I cannot
daub it
60
further.

GLOUCESTER
    Come hither, fellow.

Aside

EDGAR
    And yet I must.— Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed.

GLOUCESTER
    Know’st thou the way to Dover?

EDGAR
    Both stile and gate, horseway and footpath. Poor

Tom hath been scared out of his good wits: bless thee, good

man’s son, from the foul fiend!

GLOUCESTER
    Here, take this purse, thou whom the heav’ns’ plagues

Gives a purse

Have humbled to all
strokes
68
: that I am wretched

Makes thee the
happier
69
: heavens, deal so still.

Let the
superfluous
and
lust-dieted
70
man,

That
slaves your ordinance
71
, that will not see

Because he does not
feel
, feel your pow’r
quickly
72
,

So distribution should undo excess,

And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover?

EDGAR
    Ay, master.

GLOUCESTER
    There is a cliff, whose high and
bending
76
head

Looks fearfully in the
confinèd
77
deep:

Bring me but to the very
brim
78
of it

And I’ll repair the misery thou dost bear

With something rich
about me
80
: from that place

I shall no leading need.

EDGAR
    Give me thy arm:

Poor Tom shall lead thee.

Exeunt

Act 4 Scene 2

running scene 13

Enter Goneril, Bastard [Edmund] and Steward [Oswald]

GONERIL
    Welcome,
my lord
1
: I marvel our mild husband

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

OSWALD
    Madam, within, but never man so changed.

I told him of the
army
4
that was landed,

He smiled at it: I told him you were coming,

His answer was ‘The worse’: of Gloucester’s treachery

And of the loyal service of his son

When I informed him, then he called me
‘sot’
8

And told me I had
turned the wrong side out
9
.

What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him;

What like, offensive.

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