Complete Plays, The (131 page)

King Lear

What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?
Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all?

Fool

Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed.

King Lear

Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air
Hang fated o’er men’s faults light on thy daughters!

Kent

He hath no daughters, sir.

King Lear

Death, traitor! nothing could have subdued nature
To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.
Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers
Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?
Judicious punishment! ’twas this flesh begot
Those pelican daughters.

Edgar

Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:
Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!

Fool

This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.

Edgar

Take heed o’ the foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man’s sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array. Tom’s a-cold.

King Lear

What hast thou been?

Edgar

A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of my mistress’ heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it: wine loved I deeply, dice dearly: and in woman out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray thy poor heart to woman: keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen from lenders’ books, and defy the foul fiend.
Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind:
Says suum, mun, ha, no, nonny.
Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let him trot by.

Storm still

King Lear

Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here’s three on ’s are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor bare, forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings! come unbutton here.

Tearing off his clothes

Fool

Prithee, nuncle, be contented; ’tis a naughty night to swim in. Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher’s heart; a small spark, all the rest on’s body cold. Look, here comes a walking fire.

Enter Gloucester, with a torch

Edgar

This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth.
Swithold footed thrice the old;
He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;
Bid her alight,
And her troth plight,
And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!

Kent

How fares your grace?

King Lear

What’s he?

Kent

Who’s there? What is’t you seek?

Gloucester

What are you there? Your names?

Edgar

Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the tadpole, the wall-newt and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; who is whipped from tithing to tithing, and stock- punished, and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his body, horse to ride, and weapon to wear; But mice and rats, and such small deer, Have been Tom’s food for seven long year. Beware my follower. Peace, Smulkin; peace, thou fiend!

Gloucester

What, hath your grace no better company?

Edgar

The prince of darkness is a gentleman:
Modo he’s call’d, and Mahu.

Gloucester

Our flesh and blood is grown so vile, my lord,
That it doth hate what gets it.

Edgar

Poor Tom’s a-cold.

Gloucester

Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer
To obey in all your daughters’ hard commands:
Though their injunction be to bar my doors,
And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,
Yet have I ventured to come seek you out,
And bring you where both fire and food is ready.

King Lear

First let me talk with this philosopher.
What is the cause of thunder?

Kent

Good my lord, take his offer; go into the house.

King Lear

I’ll talk a word with this same learned Theban.
What is your study?

Edgar

How to prevent the fiend, and to kill vermin.

King Lear

Let me ask you one word in private.

Kent

Importune him once more to go, my lord;
His wits begin to unsettle.

Gloucester

Canst thou blame him?

Storm still

His daughters seek his death: ah, that good Kent!
He said it would be thus, poor banish’d man!
Thou say’st the king grows mad; I’ll tell thee, friend,
I am almost mad myself: I had a son,
Now outlaw’d from my blood; he sought my life,
But lately, very late: I loved him, friend;
No father his son dearer: truth to tell thee,
The grief hath crazed my wits. What a night’s this!
I do beseech your grace,—

King Lear

O, cry your mercy, sir.
Noble philosopher, your company.

Edgar

Tom’s a-cold.

Gloucester

In, fellow, there, into the hovel: keep thee warm.

King Lear

Come let’s in all.

Kent

 
This way, my lord.

King Lear

With him;
I will keep still with my philosopher.

Kent

Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.

Gloucester

Take him you on.

Kent

Sirrah, come on; go along with us.

King Lear

Come, good Athenian.

Gloucester

No words, no words: hush.

Edgar

 
Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
His word was still,— Fie, foh, and fum,
I smell the blood of a British man.

Exeunt

S
CENE
V. G
LOUCESTER
’
S
CASTLE
.

Enter Cornwall and Edmund

Cornwall

I will have my revenge ere I depart his house.

Edmund

How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think of.

Cornwall

I now perceive, it was not altogether your brother’s evil disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reprovable badness in himself.

Edmund

How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to be just! This is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an intelligent party to the advantages of France: O heavens! that this treason were not, or not I the detector!

Cornwall

o with me to the duchess.

Edmund

If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business in hand.

Cornwall

True or false, it hath made thee earl of Gloucester. Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension.

Edmund

[Aside]
 
If I find him comforting the king, it will stuff his suspicion more fully.— I will persevere in my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore between that and my blood.

Cornwall

I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a dearer father in my love.

Exeunt

S
CENE
V
I
. A
CHAMBER
IN
A
FARMHOUSE
ADJOINING
THE
CASTLE
.

Enter Gloucester, King Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar

Gloucester

Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully. I will piece out the comfort with what addition I can: I will not be long from you.

Kent

All the power of his wits have given way to his impatience: the gods reward your kindness!

Exit Gloucester

Edgar

Frateretto calls me; and tells me
Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness.
Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.

Fool

Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a gentleman or a yeoman?

King Lear

A king, a king!

Fool

No, he’s a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son; for he’s a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman before him.

King Lear

To have a thousand with red burning spits
Come hissing in upon ’em,—

Edgar

The foul fiend bites my back.

Fool

He’s mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse’s health, a boy’s love, or a whore’s oath.

King Lear

It shall be done; I will arraign them straight.

To Edgar

Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer;

To the Fool

Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she foxes!

Edgar

 
Look, where he stands and glares!
Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?
Come o’er the bourn, Bessy, to me,—

Fool

 
Her boat hath a leak,
And she must not speak
Why she dares not come over to thee.

Edgar

The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom’s belly for two white herring. Croak not, black angel; I have no food for thee.

Kent

How do you, sir? Stand you not so amazed:
Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?

King Lear

I’ll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence.

To Edgar

Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;

To the Fool

And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity,
Bench by his side:

To Kent

you are o’ the commission,
Sit you too.

Edgar

Let us deal justly.
Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?
Thy sheep be in the corn;
And for one blast of thy minikin mouth,
Thy sheep shall take no harm.
Pur! the cat is gray.

King Lear

Arraign her first; ’tis Goneril. I here take my oath before this honourable assembly, she kicked the poor king her father.

Fool

Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril?

King Lear

She cannot deny it.

Fool

Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.

King Lear

And here’s another, whose warp’d looks proclaim
What store her heart is made on. Stop her there!
Arms, arms, sword, fire! Corruption in the place!
False justicer, why hast thou let her ’scape?

Edgar

Bless thy five wits!

Kent

O pity! Sir, where is the patience now,
That thou so oft have boasted to retain?

Edgar

[Aside]
 
My tears begin to take his part so much,
They’ll mar my counterfeiting.

King Lear

The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and
Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me.

Edgar

Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs!
Be thy mouth or black or white,
Tooth that poisons if it bite;
Mastiff, grey-hound, mongrel grim,
Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,
Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail,
Tom will make them weep and wail:
For, with throwing thus my head,
Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.
Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and fairs and market-towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.

King Lear

Then let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard hearts?

To Edgar

You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred; only I do not like the fashion of your garments: you will say they are Persian attire: but let them be changed.

Kent

Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile.

King Lear

Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains: so, so, so. We’ll go to supper i’ he morning. So, so, so.

Fool

And I’ll go to bed at noon.

Re-enter Gloucester

Gloucester

Come hither, friend: where is the king my master?

Kent

Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits are gone.

Gloucester

Good friend, I prithee, take him in thy arms;
I have o’erheard a plot of death upon him:
There is a litter ready; lay him in ’t,
And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet
Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master:
If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life,
With thine, and all that offer to defend him,
Stand in assured loss: take up, take up;
And follow me, that will to some provision
Give thee quick conduct.

Kent

Oppressed nature sleeps:
This rest might yet have balm’d thy broken senses,
Which, if convenience will not allow,
Stand in hard cure.

To the Fool

Come, help to bear thy master;
Thou must not stay behind.

Gloucester