What are you, sir?
GLOUCESTER Away, and let me die.
EDGAR Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,
So many fathom down precipitating,
Thou’dst shiver’d like an egg: but thou dost breathe;
Hast heavy substance; bleed’st not; speak’st; art sound.
Ten masts at each make not the altitude
Which thou hast perpendicularly fell:
Thy life’s a miracle. Speak yet again.
GLOUCESTER But have I fall’n, or no?
EDGAR From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.
Look up a-height; the shrill-gorged lark so far
Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.
GLOUCESTER Alack, I have no eyes.
Is wretchedness deprived that benefit,
To end itself by death? ‘Twas yet some comfort,
When misery could beguile the tyrant’s rage,
And frustrate his proud will.
EDGAR Give me your arm:
Up: so. How is ‘t? Feel you your legs? You stand.
GLOUCESTER Too well, too well.
EDGAR This is above all strangeness.
Upon the crown o’ the cliff, what thing was that
Which parted from you?
GLOUCESTER A poor unfortunate beggar.
EDGAR As I stood here below, methought his eyes
Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses,
Horns whelk’d and waved like the enridged sea:
It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father,
Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours
Of men’s impossibilities, have preserved thee.
GLOUCESTER I do remember now: henceforth I’ll bear
Affliction till it do cry out itself
‘Enough, enough,’ and die. That thing you speak of,
I took it for a man; often ‘twould say
‘The fiend, the fiend:’ he led me to that place.
EDGAR Bear free and patient thoughts. But who comes here?
Enter KING LEAR, fantastically dressed with wild flowers
The safer sense will ne’er accommodate
His master thus.
KING LEAR No, they cannot touch me for coining; I am the
king himself.
EDGAR O thou side-piercing sight!
KING LEAR Nature’s above art in that respect. There’s your
press-money. That fellow handles his bow like a
crow-keeper: draw me a clothier’s yard. Look,
look, a mouse! Peace, peace; this piece of toasted
cheese will do ‘t. There’s my gauntlet; I’ll prove
it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O, well
flown, bird! i’ the clout, i’ the clout: hewgh!
Give the word.
EDGAR Sweet marjoram.
KING LEAR Pass.
GLOUCESTER I know that voice.
KING LEAR Ha! Goneril, with a white beard! They flattered
me like a dog; and told me I had white hairs in my
beard ere the black ones were there. To say ‘ay’
and ‘no’ to every thing that I said!–‘Ay’ and ‘no’
too was no good divinity. When the rain came to
wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter; when
the thunder would not peace at my bidding; there I
found ’em, there I smelt ’em out. Go to, they are
not men o’ their words: they told me I was every
thing; ’tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.
GLOUCESTER The trick of that voice I do well remember:
Is ‘t not the king?
KING LEAR Ay, every inch a king:
When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.
I pardon that man’s life. What was thy cause? Adultery?
Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No:
The wren goes to ‘t, and the small gilded fly
Does lecher in my sight.
Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester’s bastard son
Was kinder to his father than my daughters
Got ‘tween the lawful sheets.
To ‘t, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers.
Behold yond simpering dame,
Whose face between her forks presages snow;
That minces virtue, and does shake the head
To hear of pleasure’s name;
The fitchew, nor the soiled horse, goes to ‘t
With a more riotous appetite.
Down from the waist they are Centaurs,
Though women all above:
But to the girdle do the gods inherit,
Beneath is all the fiends’;
There’s hell, there’s darkness, there’s the
sulphurous pit,
Burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie,
fie, fie! pah, pah! Give me an ounce of civet,
good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination:
there’s money for thee.
GLOUCESTER O, let me kiss that hand!
KING LEAR Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.
GLOUCESTER O ruin’d piece of nature! This great world
Shall so wear out to nought. Dost thou know me?
KING LEAR I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny
at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid! I’ll not
love. Read thou this challenge; mark but the
penning of it.
GLOUCESTER Were all the letters suns, I could not see one.
EDGAR I would not take this from report; it is,
And my heart breaks at it.
KING LEAR Read.
GLOUCESTER What, with the case of eyes?
KING LEAR O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your
head, nor no money in your purse? Your eyes are in
a heavy case, your purse in a light; yet you see how
this world goes.
GLOUCESTER I see it feelingly.
KING LEAR What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes
with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond
justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in
thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which
is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen
a farmer’s dog bark at a beggar?
GLOUCESTER Ay, sir.
KING LEAR And the creature run from the cur? There thou
mightst behold the great image of authority: a
dog’s obeyed in office.
Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand!
Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back;
Thou hotly lust’st to use her in that kind
For which thou whipp’st her. The usurer hangs the cozener.
Through tatter’d clothes small vices do appear;
Robes and furr’d gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks:
Arm it in rags, a pigmy’s straw does pierce it.
None does offend, none, I say, none; I’ll able ’em:
Take that of me, my friend, who have the power
To seal the accuser’s lips. Get thee glass eyes;
And like a scurvy politician, seem
To see the things thou dost not. Now, now, now, now:
Pull off my boots: harder, harder: so.
EDGAR O, matter and impertinency mix’d! Reason in madness!
KING LEAR If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes.
I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester:
Thou must be patient; we came crying hither:
Thou know’st, the first time that we smell the air,
We wawl and cry. I will preach to thee: mark.
GLOUCESTER Alack, alack the day!
KING LEAR When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools: this a good block;
It were a delicate stratagem, to shoe
A troop of horse with felt: I’ll put ‘t in proof;
And when I have stol’n upon these sons-in-law,
Then, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!
Enter a Gentleman, with Attendants
Gentleman O, here he is: lay hand upon him. Sir,
Your most dear daughter–
KING LEAR No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even
The natural fool of fortune. Use me well;
You shall have ransom. Let me have surgeons;
I am cut to the brains.
Gentleman You shall have any thing.
KING LEAR No seconds? all myself?
Why, this would make a man a man of salt,
To use his eyes for garden water-pots,
Ay, and laying autumn’s dust.
Gentleman Good sir,–
KING LEAR I will die bravely, like a bridegroom. What!
I will be jovial: come, come; I am a king,
My masters, know you that.
Gentleman You are a royal one, and we obey you.
KING LEAR Then there’s life in’t. Nay, if you get it, you
shall get it with running. Sa, sa, sa, sa.
Exit running; Attendants follow
Gentleman A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch,
Past speaking of in a king! Thou hast one daughter,
Who redeems nature from the general curse
Which twain have brought her to.
EDGAR Hail, gentle sir.
Gentleman Sir, speed you: what’s your will?
EDGAR Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward?
Gentleman Most sure and vulgar: every one hears that,
Which can distinguish sound.
EDGAR But, by your favour,
How near’s the other army?
Gentleman Near and on speedy foot; the main descry
Stands on the hourly thought.
EDGAR I thank you, sir: that’s all.
Gentleman Though that the queen on special cause is here,
Her army is moved on.
EDGAR I thank you, sir.
Exit Gentleman
GLOUCESTER You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me:
Let not my worser spirit tempt me again
To die before you please!
EDGAR Well pray you, father.
GLOUCESTER Now, good sir, what are you?
EDGAR A most poor man, made tame to fortune’s blows;
Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows,
Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand,
I’ll lead you to some biding.
GLOUCESTER Hearty thanks:
The bounty and the benison of heaven
To boot, and boot!
Enter OSWALD