King Lear
ACT III SCENE VI | 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! | 5 | |
[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? | 10 | |
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 | 15 |
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. | 20 |
[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,– | 25 | |
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 | 30 | |
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. | 35 |
[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. | 40 | |
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. | 45 | |
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? | 50 |
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! | 55 | |
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, | 60 |
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, | 65 | |
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: | 70 | |
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 | 75 |
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. | 80 | |
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? | 85 |
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 | 90 | |
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 | 95 | |
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. | 100 | |
[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. | 105 | |
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, | 110 | |
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. | 115 | |
What will hap more to-night, safe ‘scape the king! | ||
Lurk, lurk. | ||
[Exit] |
King Lear, Act 3, Scene 7