King Lear
Page 19
36 come to deadly use i.e., be as a dead branch for the burning
37 text i.e., on which your sermon is based
39 Filths savor but themselves the filthy relish only the taste of filth
42 head-lugged bear bear-baited by the dogs, and hence enraged
43 madded made mad
46 visible spirits avenging spirits in material form
50 Milk-livered lily-livered (hence cowardly, the liver being regarded as the seat of courage)
52-53 discerning ... suffering able to distinguish between insults that ought to be resented, and ordinary pain that is to be borne
54-55 Fools ... mischief only fools are sorry for criminals whose intended criminality is prevented by punishment
56 noiseless i.e., the drum, signifying preparation for war, is silent
57 helm helmet 7 thy ... threat France begins to threaten Albany’s realm
Whilst thou, a moral° fool, sits still and cries
“Alack, why does he so?”
Albany. See thyself, devil!Proper° deformity seems not in the fiend
So horrid as in woman.
Goneril. O vain fool!
Albany. Thou changed and self covered° thing, for shame,Be-monster not thy feature.° Were ’t my fitness°
To let these hands obey my blood,°
They are apt enough to dislocate and tear
Thy flesh and bones: howe‘er° thou art a fiend,
A woman’s shape doth shield thee.
Goneril. Marry,° your manhood mew°—
Enter a Messenger.
Albany. What news?
Messenger. O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall’s dead,Slain by his servant, going to° put out
The other eye of Gloucester.
Albany. Gloucester’s eyes!
Messenger. A servant that he bred,° thrilled with remorse,°Opposed against the act, bending his sword
To his great master, who thereat enraged
Flew on him, and amongst them felled° him dead,
But not without that harmful stroke which since58 moral moralizing; but also with the implication that morality and folly are one
60 Proper (1) natural (to a fiend) (2) fair-appearing
62 changèd and self-covered i.e., transformed, by the contorting of her woman’s face, on which appears the fiendish behavior she has allowed herself. (Goneril has disguised nature by wickedness)
63 Be-monster not thy feature do not change your appearance into a fiend’s
63 my fitness appropriate for me
64 blood passion 66 howe‘er but even if
68 Marry by the Virgin Mary
68 your manhood mew (1) coop up or confine your (pretended) manhood (2) molt or shed it, if that is what is supposed to “shield” me from you
71 going to as he was about to
73 bred reared
73 thrilled with remorse pierced by compassion
76 amongst them felled others assisting, they felled
Hath plucked him after.°
Albany. This shows you are above,You justicers,° that these our nether° crimes
So speedily can venge.° But, O poor Gloucester!
Lost he his other eye?
Messenger. Both, both, my lord.This letter, madam, craves° a speedy answer; ‘Tis from your sister.
Goneril. [Aside] One way I like this well;But being widow, and my Gloucester with her,
May all the building in my fancy pluck
Upon my hateful life.° Another way,°
The news is not so tart.°—I’ll read, and answer.
Exit.
Albany. Where was his son when they did take his eyes?
Messenger. Come with my lady hither.
Albany. He is not here.
Messenger. No, my good lord; I met him back° again.
Albany. Knows he the wickedness?
Messenger. Ay, my good lord; ‘twas he informed against him,And quit the house on purpose, that their punish
ment
Might have the freer course.
Albany. Gloucester, I liveTo thank thee for the love thou showed‘st the
King,
And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend:
Tell me what more thou know’st. Exeunt.
78 plucked him after i.e., brought Cornwall to death with his servant
79 justicers judges
79 nether committed below (on earth)
80 venge avenge
82 craves demands
85-86 May ... life these things (1.84) may send my future hopes, my castles in air, crashing down upon the hateful (married) life I lead now
86 Another way looked at another way
87 tart sour
90 back going back
[Scene 3. The French camp near Dover.]
Enter Kent and a Gentleman.
Kent. Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back, know you no reason?
Gentleman. Something he left imperfect in the state,° which since his coming forth is thought of, which imports° to the kingdom so much fear and danger that his personal return was most required and necessary.
Kent. Who hath he left behind him general?
Gentleman. The Marshal of France, Monsieur La Far.
Kent. Did your letters pierce° the queen to any demonstration of grief?
Gentleman. Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence,And now and then an ample tear trilled° down
Her delicate cheek: it seemed she was a queen
Over her passion, who most rebel-like
Sought to be king o‘er her.
Kent. O, then it moved her.
Gentleman. Not to a rage: patience and sorrow stroveWho should express her goodliest.° You have seen
Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears
Were like a better way:° those happy smilets°
That played on her ripe lip seemed not to know
What guests were in her eyes, which parted thence4.3.3-4 imperfect in the state unsettled in his own kingdom
5 imports portends
10 pierce impel
13 trilled trickled
18 Who ... goodliest which should give her the most becoming expression
20 Were like a better way i.e., improved on that spectacle
20 smilets little smiles
As pearls from diamonds dropped. In brief,
Sorrow would be a rarity most belovèd,
If all could so become it.°
Kent. Made she no verbal question?
Gentleman. Faith, once or twice she heaved° the name of “father”Pantingly forth, as if it pressed her heart;
Cried “Sisters! Sisters! Shame of ladies! Sisters!
Kent! Father! Sisters! What, i’ th’ storm? i’ th’
night?
Let pity not be believed!”° There she shook
The holy water from her heavenly eyes,
And clamor moistened:° then away she started
To deal with grief alone.
Kent. It is the stars,The stars above us, govern our conditions;°
Else one self mate and make could not beget
Such different issues.° You spoke not with her
since?
Gentleman. No.
Kent. Was this before the King returned?
Gentleman. No, since.
Kent. Well, sir, the poor distressèd Lear’s i’ th’ town;Who sometime in his better tune° remembers
What we are come about, and by no means
Will yield to see his daughter.
Gentleman. Why, good sir?
Kent. A sovereign° shame so elbows° him: his own unkindness24-25 Sorrow ... it sorrow would be a coveted jewel if it became others as it does her
26 heaved expressed with difficulty
30 Let pity not be believed let it not be believed for pity
32 clamor moistened moistened clamor, i.e., mixed (and perhaps assuaged) her outcries with tears
34 govern our conditions determine what we are
/> 35-36 Else ... issues otherwise the same husband and wife could not produce such different children
40 better tune composed, less jangled intervals
43 sovereign overpowering
43 elbows jogs his elbow i.e., reminds him
That stripped her from his benediction, turned her
To foreign casualties,° gave her dear rights
To his dog-hearted daughters: these things sting
His mind so venomously that burning shame
Detains him from Cordelia.
Gentleman. Alack, poor gentleman!
Kent. Of Albany’s and Cornwall’s powers you heard not?
Gentleman. ‘Tis so;° they are afoot.
Kent. Well, sir, I’ll bring you to our master Lear,And leave you to attend him: some dear cause°
Will in concealment wrap me up awhile;
When I am known aright, you shall not grieve
Lending me this acquaintance. I pray you, go
Along with me. [Exeunt.]
[Scene 4. The same. A tent.]
Enter, with drum and colors, Cordelia, Doctor, and Soldiers.
Cordelia. Alack, ‘tis he: why, he was met even nowAs mad as the vexed sea; singing aloud;
Crowned with rank femiter and furrow-weeds,
With hardocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flow‘rs,
Darnel,° and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn.° A century° send forth;
Search every acre in the high-grown field,45 casualties chances
50 ‘Tis so i.e., I have heard of them
52 dear cause important reason
4.4.3-5 femiter ... Darnel: femiter fumitory, whose leaves and juice are bitter; furrow-weeds weeds that grow in the furrow; or plowed land; hardocks ? hoar or white docks, burdocks, harlocks; hemlock a poison; nettles plants which sting and burn; cuckoo-flow‘rs identified with a plant employed to remedy diseases of the brain; Darnel tares, noisome weeds
6 sustaining corn life-maintaining wheat
6 century ? sentry; troop of a hundred soldiers
And bring him to our eye [Exit an Officer.] What
can man’s wisdom°
In the restoring his bereavèd° sense?
He that helps him take all my outward° worth.
Doctor. There is means, madam:Our foster-nurse° of nature is repose,
The which he lacks: that to provoke° in him,
Are many simples operative,° whose power
Will close the eye of anguish.
Cordelia. All blest secrets,All you unpublished virtues° of the earth,
Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate°
In the good man’s distress! Seek, seek for him,
Lest his ungoverned rage dissolve the life
That wants the means to lead it.°
Enter Messenger.
Messenger. News, madam;The Brittish pow‘rs are marching hitherward.
Cordelia. ‘Tis known before. Our preparation standsIn expectation of them. O dear father,
It is thy business that I go about;
Therefore° great France
My mourning and importuned° tears hath pitied.
No blown° ambition doth our arms incite,
But love, dear love, and our aged father’s right:
Soon may I hear and see him! Exeunt.
8 What can man’s wisdom what can science accomplish
9 bereavèd impaired
10 outward material
12 foster-nurse fostering nurse
13 provoke induce
14 simples operative efficacious medicinal herbs
16 unpublished virtues i.e., secret remedial herbs
17 remediate remedial
20 wants ... it i.e., lacks the reason to control the rage
25 Therefore because of that
26 importuned importunate
27 blown puffed up
[Scene 5. Gloucester’s castle.]
Enter Regan and Oswald.
Regan. But are my brother’s pow‘rs set forth?
Oswald. Ay, madam.
Regan. Himself in person there?
Oswald. Madam, with much ado:° Your sister is the better soldier.
Regan. Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home?
Oswald. No, madam.
Regan. What might import° my sister’s letter to him? Oswald. I know not, lady.
Regan. Faith, he is posted° hence on serious matter.It was great ignorance,° Gloucester’s eyes being
out,
To let him live. Where he arrives he moves
All hearts against us: Edmund, I think, is gone,
In pity of his misery, to dispatch
His nighted° life; moreover, to descry
The strength o’ th’ enemy.
Oswald. I must needs after him, madam, with my letter.
Regan. Our troops set forth tomorrow: stay with us;The ways are dangerous.
Oswald. I may not, madam:My lady charged my duty° in this business.
4.5.2 ado bother and persuasion
6 import purport, carry as its message
8 is posted has ridden speedily
9 ignorance folly
13 nighted (1) darkened, because blinded (2) benighted
18 charged my duty ordered me as a solemn duty
Regan. Why should she write to Edmund? Might not youTransport her purposes° by word? Belike,°
Some things I know not what. I’ll love thee much,
Let me unseal the letter.
Oswald. Madam, I had rather—
Regan. I know your lady does not love her husband; I am sure of that: and at her late° being hereShe gave strange eliads° and most speaking looks
To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom.°
Oswald. I, madam?
Regan. I speak in understanding: y‘are; I know ’t:Therefore I do advise you, take this note:°
My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talked;
And more convenient° is he for my hand
Than for your lady’s: you may gather more.°
If you do find him, pray you, give him this;°
And when your mistress hears thus much from you,
I pray, desire her call° her wisdom to her.
So, fare you well.
If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,
Perferment° falls on him that cuts him off.
Oswald. Would I could meet him, madam! I should showWhat party I do follow.
Regan. Fare thee well.
Exeunt.
20 Transport her purposes convey her intentions
20 Belike probably
24 late recently 25 eliads amorous looks
26 of her bosom in her confidence
29 take this note take note of this
31 convenient fitting
32 gather more surmise more yourself
33 this this advice 35 call recall
38 Preferment promotion
[Scene 6. Fields near Dover.]
Enter Gloucester and Edgar.
Gloucester. When shall I come to th’ top of that same hill?
Edgar. You do climb up it now. Look, how we labor.
Gloucester. Methinks the ground is even.
Edgar. Horrible steep.Hark, do you hear the sea?
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 altered, and thou speak‘st
In better phrase and matter than thou didst.
Edgar. Y‘are much deceived: in nothing am I changed But in my garments.
Gloucester. Methinks y‘are better spoken.
Edgar. Come on, sir; here’s the place: stand still. How fearfulAnd 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 sampire,° dreadful trad
e!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.
The fishermen that walk upon the beach
Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring° bark
Diminished to her cock;° her cock, a buoy4.6.6 anguish pain
13 choughs a kind of crow
13 midway air i.e., halfway down the cliff
14 gross large
15 sampire samphire, an aromatic herb associated with Dover Cliffs
18 anchoring anchored
19 cock cock-boat, a small boat usually towed behind the ship
Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge
That on th’ unnumb‘red idle pebble° chafes
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 footOf th’ 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
Prosper it with thee! Go thou further off;
Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.
Edgar. Now fare ye well, good sir.