King Lear (24 page)

Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once: of lust, as

Obidicut, Hobbididence, prince of dumbness, Mahu of
¹³⁰

stealing, Modo of murder, Flibbertigibbet of
mopping and
¹³¹

mowing, who since possesses chambermaids and waiting-

women. So, bless thee, master.

I fear your disposition:

That nature, which
contemns i’th’origin
¹³⁵

Cannot be
bordered certain
¹³⁶
in itself.

She that herself will
sliver and disbranch
¹³⁷

From her
material
sap
perforce
¹³⁸
must wither

And
come to deadly use
¹³⁹
.

GONERIL
    No more, the
text
¹⁴⁰
is foolish.

ALBANY
    Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile:

Filths
savour but
¹⁴²
themselves. What have you done?

Tigers, not daughters, what have you performed?

A father, and a
gracious
¹⁴⁴
agèd man,

Whose
reverence
even the
head-lugged
¹⁴⁵
bear would lick,

Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you
madded
¹⁴⁶
. Could

my good
brother
suffer
¹⁴⁷
you to do it?

A man, a prince, by him so benefited!

If that the heavens do not their
visible spirits
¹⁴⁹

Send quickly down to
tame
¹⁵⁰
the vile offences, it will come,

Humanity must perforce prey on itself,

Like monsters of the deep.

that not know’st

Fools do those villains pity who are punished
¹⁵⁴

Ere they have done their mischief. Where’s thy drum?

France
spreads his banners in our
noiseless
¹⁵⁶
land,

With
plumèd helm
,
thy state begins threat
¹⁵⁷
,

Whilst thou, a
moral
¹⁵⁸
fool, sits still and cries

‘Alack, why does he so?’

ALBANY
    Thou changèd and
self-covered
¹⁶⁰
thing, for shame

Bemonster not thy feature
.
Were’t my fitness
¹⁶¹

To let these hands obey my
blood
¹⁶²
,

They are apt enough to dislocate and tear

Thy flesh and bones:
howe’er
¹⁶⁴
thou art a fiend,

A woman’s shape doth shield thee.

GONERIL
    
Marry
, your manhood
mew
¹⁶⁶
—

ALBANY
    What news?

KENT
    Why the King of France is so suddenly gone
back
¹⁶⁸
,

know you no reason?

GENTLEMAN
    Something he left
imperfect
¹⁷⁰
in the state, which

since his coming forth is thought of, which
imports
¹⁷¹
to the

kingdom so much fear and danger that his personal return

was most required and necessary.

KENT
    Who hath he left behind him general?

GENTLEMAN
    The Marshal of France, Monsieur La Far.

KENT
    Did your letters pierce the queen to any

demonstration of grief?

GENTLEMAN
    Ay, sir, she took them, read them in my presence,

And now and then an ample tear
trilled
¹⁷⁹
down

Her delicate cheek: it seemed she was a queen over

Her
passion
¹⁸¹
, who, most rebel-like,

Sought to be king o’er her.

KENT
    O, then it moved her.

GENTLEMAN
    Not to a rage: patience and sorrow strove

Who should express her
goodliest
¹⁸⁵
. You have seen

Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears

Were like a better way: those happy
smilets
¹⁸⁷
,

That played on her ripe lip seem not to know

What guests were in her eyes, which, parted thence,

As pearls from diamonds dropped. In brief,

Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved,

If all could
so become it
¹⁹²
.

KENT
    Made she no verbal question?

GENTLEMAN
    Faith, once or twice she heaved the name of ‘father’

Pantingly forth, as if it pressed her heart:

Cried ‘Sisters, sisters! Shame of ladies, sisters!

Kent, father, sisters! What, i’th’storm, i’th’night?

Let pity not be believed
¹⁹⁸
!’ There she shook

The holy water from her heavenly eyes,

And
clamour moistened her
: then away she
started
²⁰⁰

To deal with grief alone.

KENT
    It is the stars,

The stars above us, govern our conditions,

Else one self
mate and make
²⁰⁴
could not beget

Such different
issues
²⁰⁵
. You spoke not with her since?

GENTLEMAN
    No.

KENT
    Was this before the king returned?

GENTLEMAN
    No, since.

KENT
    Well, sir, the poor distressèd Lear’s i’th’town;

Who
sometime
, in his better
tune
²¹⁰
, remembers

What we are come about, and by no means

Will yield to see his daughter.

GENTLEMAN
    Why, good sir?

KENT
    A
sovereign
shame so
elbows
²¹⁴
him: his own unkindness,

That stripped her from his benediction, turned her

To foreign
casualties
²¹⁶
, gave her dear rights

To his dog-hearted daughters: these things sting

His mind so venomously, that burning shame

Detains him from Cordelia.

GENTLEMAN
    Alack, poor gentleman!

KENT
    Of Albany’s and Cornwall’s powers you heard not?

GENTLEMAN
    ’Tis so, they are
afoot
²²²
.

KENT
    Well, sir, I’ll bring you to our master Lear,

And leave you to
attend
him: some
dear cause
²²⁴

Will in concealment wrap me up awhile.

When I am known
aright
, you shall not
grieve
²²⁶

Lending me this acquaintance. I pray you go

Along with me.

CORDELIA
    Very well.

DOCTOR
    Please you, draw near.— Louder the music there!

To stand against the
deep
dread-bolted
²³¹
thunder,

In the most terrible and nimble stroke

Of quick
cross
lightning? To
watch
— poor
perdu
²³⁴
!—

With this thin
helm
²³⁴
?

GENTLEMAN
    Holds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so

slain?

KENT
    Most certain, sir.

GENTLEMAN
    Who is
conductor of his people
²³⁸
?

KENT
    As ’tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester.

GENTLEMAN
    They say Edgar, his banished son, is with the Earl of

Kent in Germany.

KENT
    
Report
²⁴²
is changeable. ’Tis time to look about: the

powers of the kingdom
approach
apace
²⁴³
.

GENTLEMAN
    The
arbitrament
²⁴⁴
is like to be bloody. Fare you well,

sir.

KENT
    My
point and period will be throughly wrought
²⁴⁶
,

Or
²⁴⁷
well or ill, as this day’s battle’s fought.

EDMUND
    That thought
abuses
²⁴⁸
you.

REGAN
    I am
doubtful
that you have been
conjunct
²⁴⁹

And bosomed with her,
as far as we call hers
²⁵⁰

GONERIL
    I had rather lose the battle than that sister

Should loosen him and me.

Where I could not be
honest
²⁵³
,

I never yet was valiant.
For
²⁵⁴
this business,

It
touches us as
²⁵⁵
France invades our land,

Not
bolds
the king,
with
²⁵⁶
others whom I fear,

Most just and heavy causes make oppose
²⁵⁷
.

EDMUND
    Sir, you speak nobly.

At this time

We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend;

And the best quarrels, in
the heat, are cursed
²⁶¹

By those that feel their sharpness:

The question of Cordelia and her father

Requires a fitter place.

EDGAR
    This would have seemed a
period
²⁶⁵

To
such as love not
sorrow, but
another,
²⁶⁶

To amplify too much, would make much more,

And top extremity.

Whilst I was
big in clamour
²⁶⁹
, came there in a man,

Who, having seen me in my worst
estate
²⁷⁰
,

Shunned my abhorred society, but then finding

Who ’twas that so endured, with his strong arms

He
fastened on my neck
²⁷³
and bellowed out

As
²⁷⁴
he’d burst heaven, threw me on my father,

Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him

That ever ear received, which in recounting

His grief grew
puissant
and the
strings of life
²⁷⁷

Began to crack: twice then the trumpets sounded,

And there I left him
’tranced
²⁷⁹
.

ALBANY
    But who was this?

EDGAR
    Kent, sir, the banished Kent, who in disguise

Followed his
enemy king
²⁸²
and did him service

Improper for
²⁸³
a slave.