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 Come, come, away.
Exeunt all but EDGAR
EDGAR When we our betters see bearing our woes,
We scarcely think our miseries our foes.
Who alone suffers suffers most i’ the mind,
Leaving free things and happy shows behind:
But then the mind much sufferance doth o’er skip,
When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.
How light and portable my pain seems now,
When that which makes me bend makes the king bow,
He childed as I father’d! Tom, away!
Mark the high noises; and thyself bewray,
When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee,
In thy just proof, repeals and reconciles thee.
What will hap more to-night, safe ‘scape the king!
Lurk, lurk.
Exit
Scene 7
Gloucester’s castle.
Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GONERIL, EDMUND, and Servants
CORNWALL Post speedily to my lord your husband; show him
this letter: the army of France is landed. Seek
out the villain Gloucester.
Exeunt some of the Servants
REGAN Hang him instantly.
GONERIL Pluck out his eyes.
CORNWALL Leave him to my displeasure. Edmund, keep you our
sister company: the revenges we are bound to take
upon your traitorous father are not fit for your
beholding. Advise the duke, where you are going, to
a most festinate preparation: we are bound to the
like. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent
betwixt us. Farewell, dear sister: farewell, my
lord of Gloucester.
Enter OSWALD
How now! where’s the king?
OSWALD My lord of Gloucester hath convey’d him hence:
Some five or six and thirty of his knights,
Hot questrists after him, met him at gate;
Who, with some other of the lords dependants,
Are gone with him towards Dover; where they boast
To have well-armed friends.
CORNWALL Get horses for your mistress.
GONERIL Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.
CORNWALL Edmund, farewell.
Exeunt GONERIL, EDMUND, and OSWALD
Go seek the traitor Gloucester,
Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us.
Exeunt other Servants
Though well we may not pass upon his life
Without the form of justice, yet our power
Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men
May blame, but not control. Who’s there? the traitor?
Enter GLOUCESTER, brought in by two or three
REGAN Ingrateful fox! ’tis he.
CORNWALL Bind fast his corky arms.
GLOUCESTER What mean 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, and such a traitor!
GLOUCESTER Naughty lady,
These hairs, which thou dost ravish from my chin,
Will quicken, and accuse thee: I am your host:
With robbers’ hands my hospitable favours
You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?
CORNWALL Come, sir, what letters had you late from France?
REGAN Be simple answerer, for we know the truth.
CORNWALL And what confederacy have you with the traitors
Late footed in the kingdom?
REGAN To whose hands have you sent the lunatic king? Speak.
GLOUCESTER I have a letter guessingly set down,
Which came from one that’s of a neutral heart,
And not from one opposed.
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–
CORNWALL Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that.
GLOUCESTER I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course.
REGAN Wherefore to Dover, sir?
GLOUCESTER Because I would not see thy cruel nails
Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister
In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.
The sea, with such a storm as his bare head
In hell-black night endured, would have buoy’d up,
And quench’d the stelled fires:
Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain.
If wolves had at thy gate howl’d that stern time,
Thou shouldst have said ‘Good porter, turn the key,’
All cruels else subscribed: but I shall see
The winged vengeance overtake such children.
CORNWALL See’t shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair.
Upon these eyes of thine I’ll set my foot.
GLOUCESTER He that will think to live till he be old,
Give me some help! O cruel! O you gods!
REGAN One side will mock another; the other too.
CORNWALL If you see vengeance,–
First 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!
First Servant If you did wear a beard upon your chin,
I’d shake it on this quarrel. What do you mean?
CORNWALL My villain!
They draw and fight
First Servant Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of anger.
REGAN Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus!
Takes a sword, and runs at him behind
First Servant O, I am slain! My lord, you have one eye left
To see some mischief on him. O!
Dies
CORNWALL Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly!
Where is thy lustre now?
GLOUCESTER All dark and comfortless. Where’s my son Edmund?
Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature,
To quit this horrid act.
REGAN Out, treacherous villain!
Thou call’st on him that hates thee: it was he
That made the overture of thy treasons to us;
Who is too good to pity thee.
GLOUCESTER O my follies! then Edgar was abused.
Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!
REGAN Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell
His way to Dover.
Exit one with GLOUCESTER
How is’t, my lord? how look you?
CORNWALL I have received a hurt: follow me, lady.
Turn out that eyeless villain; throw this slave
Upon the dunghill. Regan, I bleed apace:
Untimely comes this hurt: give me your arm.
Exit CORNWALL, led by REGAN
Second Servant I’ll never care what wickedness I do,
If this man come to good.
Third Servant If she live long,
And in the end meet the old course of death,
Women will all turn monsters.
Second Servant Let’s follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam
To lead him where he would: his roguish madness
Allows itself to any thing.