Read King Lear Online

Authors: William Shakespeare

King Lear (24 page)

BOOK: King Lear
10.23Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Following 4.1.66:

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.

Following 4.2.35:

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.

Following 4.2.39:

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?’

Following 4.2.43:

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

Enter a Gentleman

ALBANY
    What news?

Following 4.2.77:

Enter Kent and a Gentleman

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.

Exeunt

Following 4.6.27:

CORDELIA
    Very well.

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

Following 4.6.35:

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
?

Following 4.6.89:

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.

Exit

Following 5.1.13:

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

Following 5.1.17:

GONERIL
    I had rather lose the battle than that sister

Should loosen him and me.

Following 5.1.21:

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.

Following 5.3.55:

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.

Following 5.3.220:

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.

TEXTUAL NOTES

Q = First Quarto text of 1608

Q2 = a correction introduced in the Second Quarto text of 1619

Ed = a correction introduced by a later editor

SH = Speech heading (i.e. speaker’s name)

1 SH EDMUND
= Ed. Q =
Bast. (throughout)
25 on’t
= Q. Q2 = an’t
ladies
= Q
(corrected)
. Q
(uncorrected)
= lodes
34 basest and ’temnest
= Q
(corrected)
. Q
(uncorrected)
= belest and contaned
67 Want’st
= Q2. Q = wanst
69 bourn
= Ed. Q = broome
91 she kicked
= Ed. Q = kickt
95 joint-stool
= Q2. Q = ioyne stoole
97 on
= Ed. Q = an
125 madness
= Q
(corrected)
. Q
(uncorrected)
= rogish madnes
131 Flibbertigibbet
spelled Stiberdigebit in
Q
131–32 mopping and mowing
= Ed. Q = Mobing, &
Mohing
151 Humanity
= Q
(corrected)
. Q
(uncorrected)
= Humanly
157 threat
spelled
thereat
in
Q
(corrected)
state begins threat
= Q (corrected). Q
(uncorrected)
= slayer begin threats
166 mew
= Q
(corrected)
. Q
(uncorrected)
= now
178 Ay, sir
, = Ed. Q = I say
184 strove
= Ed. Q = streme

SCENE-BY-SCENE ANALYSIS
ACT 1 SCENE 1

Relationships between key characters are established. Several themes are introduced: power/authority, deception, nature, kinship, sanity, and sight.

Lines 1–33:
Kent and Gloucester discuss Lear. Edmund is introduced. Gloucester insists that Edmund is as dear to him as his older, legitimate, son, Edgar, and claims that “the whoreson must be acknowledged.” The bawdy language used to describe Edmund’s conception undermines the good intentions behind this.

Lines 34–193:
A trumpet flourish emphasizes the ceremonial, public nature of events from this point. Instructing Gloucester to fetch France and Burgundy, Lear reveals his “darker purpose”—to allocate a piece of kingdom to each of his three daughters, intending the “largest bounty” to whoever “doth love [him] most.” This reveals Lear’s inability to separate public and domestic and highlights his perception of emotions as subject to pecuniary measurement. Tensions exist between his love of power and his portrayal of himself as an old man who wishes to “Unburdened crawl toward death.”

BOOK: King Lear
10.23Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Shtum by Jem Lester
Byrd by Kim Church
A Good and Happy Child by Justin Evans
Winter's Light by Mj Hearle
A Night to Remember by Adrienne Basso