King Lear
| ACT IV SCENE VI | Fields near Dover. | |
| [Enter GLOUCESTER, and EDGAR dressed like a peasant] | ||
| GLOUCESTER | When shall we come to the top of that same hill? | |
| EDGAR | You do climb up it now: look, how we labour. | |
| GLOUCESTER | Methinks the ground is even. | |
| EDGAR | Horrible steep. | |
| Hark, do you hear the sea? | 5 | |
| GLOUCESTER | No, truly. | |
| EDGAR | Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect | |
| By your eyes’ anguish. | ||
| GLOUCESTER | So may it be, indeed: | |
| Methinks thy voice is alter’d; and thou speak’st | 10 | |
| In better phrase and matter than thou didst. | ||
| EDGAR | You’re much deceived: in nothing am I changed | |
| But in my garments. | ||
| GLOUCESTER | Methinks you’re better spoken. | |
| EDGAR | Come on, sir; here’s the place: stand still. How fearful | 15 |
| And dizzy ’tis, to cast one’s eyes so low! | ||
| The crows and choughs that wing the midway air | ||
| Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down | ||
| Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade! | ||
| Methinks he seems no bigger than his head: | 20 | |
| The fishermen, that walk upon the beach, | ||
| Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark, | ||
| Diminish’d to her cock; her cock, a buoy | ||
| Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge, | ||
| That on the unnumber’d idle pebbles chafes, | 25 | |
| Cannot be heard so high. I’ll look no more; | ||
| Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight | ||
| Topple down headlong. | ||
| GLOUCESTER | Set me where you stand. | |
| EDGAR | Give me your hand: you are now within a foot | 30 |
| Of the extreme verge: for all beneath the moon | ||
| Would I not leap upright. | ||
| GLOUCESTER | Let go my hand. | |
| Here, friend, ‘s another purse; in it a jewel | ||
| Well worth a poor man’s taking: fairies and gods | 35 | |
| Prosper it with thee! Go thou farther off; | ||
| Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going. | ||
| EDGAR | Now fare you well, good sir. | |
| GLOUCESTER | With all my heart. | |
| EDGAR | Why I do trifle thus with his despair | 40 |
| Is done to cure it. | ||
| GLOUCESTER | [Kneeling] O you mighty gods! | |
| This world I do renounce, and, in your sights, | ||
| Shake patiently my great affliction off: | ||
| If I could bear it longer, and not fall | 45 | |
| To quarrel with your great opposeless wills, | ||
| My snuff and loathed part of nature should | ||
| Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him! | ||
| Now, fellow, fare thee well. | ||
| [He falls forward] | ||
| EDGAR | Gone, sir: farewell. | 50 |
| And yet I know not how conceit may rob | ||
| The treasury of life, when life itself | ||
| Yields to the theft: had he been where he thought, | ||
| By this, had thought been past. Alive or dead? | ||
| Ho, you sir! friend! Hear you, sir! speak! | 55 | |
| Thus might he pass indeed: yet he revives. | ||
| What are you, sir? | ||
| GLOUCESTER | Away, and let me die. | |
| EDGAR | Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air, | |
| So many fathom down precipitating, | 60 | |
| 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. | 65 | |
| 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. | 70 |
| 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: | 75 |
| 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? | 80 | |
| 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, | 85 | |
| 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, | 90 | |
| 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. | 95 | |
| 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 | 100 | |
| 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! | 105 | |
| Give the word. | ||
| EDGAR | Sweet marjoram. | |
| KING LEAR | Pass. | |
| GLOUCESTER | I know that voice. | |
| KING LEAR | Ha! Goneril, with a white beard! They flattered | 110 |
| 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 | 115 | |
| 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: | 120 |
| 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: | 125 | |
| 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. | 130 | |
| 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; | 135 | |
| 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, | 140 | |
| 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, | 145 | |
| 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 | 150 |
| 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. | 155 | |
| 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? | 160 |
| 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. | 165 |
| 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 | 170 | |
| 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. | 175 | |
| 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; | 180 | |
| 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 | 185 | |
| 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! | 190 |
| 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. | 195 | |
| 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; | 200 | |
| 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 | 205 |
| 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? | 210 |
| 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! | 215 |
| 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. | 220 | |
| [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. | 225 |
| 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, | 230 |
| 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, | 235 |
| 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! | 240 | |
| 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, | 245 | |
| I’ll lead you to some biding. | ||
| GLOUCESTER | Hearty thanks: | |
| The bounty and the benison of heaven | ||
| To boot, and boot! | ||
| [Enter OSWALD] | ||
| OSWALD | A proclaim’d prize! Most happy! | 250 |
| That eyeless head of thine was first framed flesh | ||
| To raise my fortunes. Thou old unhappy traitor, | ||
| Briefly thyself remember: the sword is out | ||
| That must destroy thee. | ||
| GLOUCESTER | Now let thy friendly hand | 255 |
| Put strength enough to’t. | ||
| [EDGAR interposes] | ||
| OSWALD | Wherefore, bold peasant, | |
| Darest thou support a publish’d traitor? Hence; | ||
| Lest that the infection of his fortune take | ||
| Like hold on thee. Let go his arm. | 260 | |
| EDGAR | Ch’ill not let go, zir, without vurther ‘casion. | |
| OSWALD | Let go, slave, or thou diest! | |
| EDGAR | Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor volk | |
| pass. An chud ha’ bin zwaggered out of my life, | ||
| ‘twould not ha’ bin zo long as ’tis by a vortnight. | 265 | |
| Nay, come not near th’ old man; keep out, che vor | ||
| ye, or ise try whether your costard or my ballow be | ||
| the harder: ch’ill be plain with you. | ||
| OSWALD | Out, dunghill! | |
| EDGAR | Ch’ill pick your teeth, zir: come; no matter vor | 270 |
| your foins. | ||
| [They fight, and EDGAR knocks him down] | ||
| OSWALD | Slave, thou hast slain me: villain, take my purse: | |
| If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body; | ||
| And give the letters which thou find’st about me | ||
| To Edmund earl of Gloucester; seek him out | 275 | |
| Upon the British party: O, untimely death! | ||
| [Dies] | ||
| EDGAR | I know thee well: a serviceable villain; | |
| As duteous to the vices of thy mistress | ||
| As badness would desire. | ||
| GLOUCESTER | What, is he dead? | 280 |
| EDGAR | Sit you down, father; rest you | |
| Let’s see these pockets: the letters that he speaks of | ||
| May be my friends. He’s dead; I am only sorry | ||
| He had no other death’s-man. Let us see: | ||
| Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not: | 285 | |
| To know our enemies’ minds, we’ld rip their hearts; | ||
| Their papers, is more lawful. | ||
| [Reads] | ||
| ‘Let our reciprocal vows be remembered. You have | ||
| many opportunities to cut him off: if your will | ||
| want not, time and place will be fruitfully offered. | 290 | |
| There is nothing done, if he return the conqueror: | ||
| then am I the prisoner, and his bed my goal; from | ||
| the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply | ||
| the place for your labour. | ||
| ‘Your–wife, so I would say– | 295 | |
| ‘Affectionate servant, | ||
| ‘GONERIL.’ | ||
| O undistinguish’d space of woman’s will! | ||
| A plot upon her virtuous husband’s life; | ||
| And the exchange my brother! Here, in the sands, | 300 | |
| Thee I’ll rake up, the post unsanctified | ||
| Of murderous lechers: and in the mature time | ||
| With this ungracious paper strike the sight | ||
| Of the death practised duke: for him ’tis well | ||
| That of thy death and business I can tell. | 305 | |
| GLOUCESTER | The king is mad: how stiff is my vile sense, | |
| That I stand up, and have ingenious feeling | ||
| Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract: | ||
| So should my thoughts be sever’d from my griefs, | ||
| And woes by wrong imaginations lose | 310 | |
| The knowledge of themselves. | ||
| EDGAR | Give me your hand: | |
| [Drum afar off] | ||
| Far off, methinks, I hear the beaten drum: | ||
| Come, father, I’ll bestow you with a friend. | ||
| [Exeunt] | ||
King Lear, Act 4, Scene 7