William Shakespeare

“ Enter Kent.
KENT.
Who’s there?
FOOL.
Marry, here’s grace and a codpiece; that’s a wise man and a fool.
KENT.
Alas, sir, are you here? Things that love night
Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies
Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,
And make them keep their caves. Since I was man,
Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain I never
Remember to have heard. Man’s nature cannot carry
Th’affliction, nor the fear.
LEAR.
Let the great gods,
That keep this dreadful pudder o’er our heads,
Find out their enemies now. ”

“ EDMUND.
I will seek him, sir, presently; convey the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal.
GLOUCESTER.
These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us: though the wisdom of Nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects. Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked ’twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there’s son against father: the King falls from bias of nature ”

“ Enter Gloucester with a torch.
LEAR.
What’s he?
KENT.
Who’s there? What is’t you seek?
GLOUCESTER.
What are you there? Your names?
EDGAR.
Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the todpole, the wall-newt and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; who is whipped from tithing to tithing, and stocked, punished, and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his body,
Horse to ride, and weapon to wear. ”

“ GLOUCESTER.
Ay, sir.
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 lusts to use her in that kind
For which thou whipp’st her. The usurer hangs the cozener.
Through tatter’d clothes great 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 pygmy’s straw does pierce it.
None does offend, none, I say none; I’ll able ’em ”

“ And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover?
EDGAR.
Ay, master.
GLOUCESTER.
There is a cliff, whose high and bending head
Looks fearfully in the confined deep:
Bring me but to the very brim of it,
And I’ll repair the misery thou dost bear
With something rich about me: from that place
I shall no leading need.
EDGAR.
Give me thy arm:
Poor Tom shall lead thee.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE II. Before the Duke of Albany’s Palace Enter Goneril, Edmund; Oswald meeting them.
GONERIL.
Welcome, my lord. I marvel our mild husband
Not met us on the way. Now, where’s your master? ”

“ KENT.
But who is with him?
GENTLEMAN.
None but the fool, who labours to out-jest
His heart-struck injuries.
KENT.
Sir, I do know you;
And dare, upon the warrant of my note
Commend a dear thing to you. There is division,
Although as yet the face of it be cover’d
With mutual cunning, ’twixt Albany and Cornwall;
Who have, as who have not, that their great stars
Throne’d and set high; servants, who seem no less,
Which are to France the spies and speculations
Intelligent of our state. What hath been seen,
Either in snuffs and packings of the Dukes ”

“ KENT.
Sir, ’tis my occupation to be plain:
I have seen better faces in my time
Than stands on any shoulder that I see
Before me at this instant.
CORNWALL.
This is some fellow
Who, having been prais’d for bluntness, doth affect
A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb
Quite from his nature: he cannot flatter, he,
An honest mind and plain, he must speak truth!
An they will take it, so; if not, he’s plain.
These kind of knaves I know which in this plainness
Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends
Than twenty silly-ducking observants
That stretch their duties nicely. ”

“ KENT.
Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.
GLOUCESTER.
Take him you on.
KENT.
Sirrah, come on; go along with us.
LEAR.
Come, good Athenian.
GLOUCESTER.
No words, no words, hush.
EDGAR.
Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
His word was still—Fie, foh, and fum,
I smell the blood of a British man.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE V. A Room in Gloucester’s Castle Enter Cornwall and Edmund.
CORNWALL.
I will have my revenge ere I depart his house.
EDMUND.
How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think of. ”

“ KENT.
Oppressed nature sleeps.
This rest might yet have balm’d thy broken sinews,
Which, if convenience will not allow,
Stand in hard cure. Come, help to bear thy master;
[To the Fool.] Thou must not stay behind.
GLOUCESTER.
Come, come, away!
[Exeunt Kent, Gloucester and the Fool bearing off Lear.]
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’erskip
When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship. ”

“ FOOL.
This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.
EDGAR.
Take heed o’ th’ foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man’s sworn spouse; set not thy sweet-heart on proud array. Tom’s a-cold.
LEAR.
What hast thou been?
EDGAR.
A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of my mistress’ heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven. One that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it. ”

“ Enter Cornwall, Regan, Gloucester and Servants.
LEAR.
Good morrow to you both.
CORNWALL.
Hail to your grace!
[Kent here set at liberty.]
REGAN.
I am glad to see your highness.
LEAR.
Regan, I think you are; I know what reason
I have to think so: if thou shouldst not be glad,
I would divorce me from thy mother’s tomb,
Sepulchring an adultress. [To Kent] O, are you free?
Some other time for that.—Beloved Regan,
Thy sister’s naught: O Regan, she hath tied
Sharp-tooth’d unkindness, like a vulture, here. ”

“ It will come,
Humanity must perforce prey on itself,
Like monsters of the deep.
GONERIL.
Milk-liver’d man!
That bear’st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;
Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning
Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know’st
Fools do those villains pity who are punish’d
Ere they have done their mischief. Where’s thy drum?
France spreads his banners in our noiseless land;
With plumed helm thy state begins to threat,
Whilst thou, a moral fool, sitt’st still, and criest
‘Alack, why does he so?’
ALBANY.
See thyself, devil! ”

“ Who, with some other of the lord’s dependants,
Are gone with him toward 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? ”

“ 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?
LEAR.
She cannot deny it.
FOOL.
Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.
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 you so oft have boasted to retain? ”

“ KENT.
Good my liege,—
LEAR.
Peace, Kent!
Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
I lov’d her most, and thought to set my rest
On her kind nursery. [To Cordelia.] Hence and avoid my sight!
So be my grave my peace, as here I give
Her father’s heart from her! Call France. Who stirs?
Call Burgundy! Cornwall and Albany,
With my two daughters’ dowers digest this third:
Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her. ”

“ CURAN.
Have you heard of no likely wars toward, ’twixt the two dukes of Cornwall and Albany?
EDMUND.
Not a word.
CURAN.
You may do, then, in time. Fare you well, sir.
[Exit.]
EDMUND.
The Duke be here tonight? The better! best!
This weaves itself perforce into my business.
My father hath set guard to take my brother;
And I have one thing, of a queasy question,
Which I must act. Briefness and fortune work!
Brother, a word, descend, brother, I say!
Enter Edgar.
My father watches: O sir, fly this place;
Intelligence is given where you are hid ”

“ KENT.
A man, sir.
LEAR.
What dost thou profess? What wouldst thou with us?
KENT.
I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve him truly that will put me in trust; to love him that is honest; to converse with him that is wise and says little; to fear judgement; to fight when I cannot choose; and to eat no fish.
LEAR.
What art thou?
KENT.
A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the King.
LEAR.
If thou be’st as poor for a subject as he’s for a king, thou art poor enough. What wouldst thou? ”

“ KENT.
All the power of his wits have given way to his impatience:— the gods reward your kindness!
[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.
Prythee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a gentleman or a yeoman.
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. ”

“ EDMUND.
I know no news, my lord.
GLOUCESTER.
What paper were you reading?
EDMUND.
Nothing, my lord.
GLOUCESTER.
No? What needed then that terrible dispatch of it into your pocket? The quality of nothing hath not such need to hide itself. Let’s see. Come, if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles.
EDMUND.
I beseech you, sir, pardon me. It is a letter from my brother that I have not all o’er-read; and for so much as I have perus’d, I find it not fit for your o’er-looking. ”

“ EDGAR.
Who gives anything to poor Tom? Whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, o’er bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow and halters in his pew, set ratsbane by his porridge; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor. Bless thy five wits! Tom’s a-cold. O, do, de, do, de, do, de. Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes. ”