The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 281
The knave turns fool that runs away,
[81]
The fool no knave perdy.
KENT Where learned you this, fool?
FOOL Not i’the stocks, Ffool.F
Enter LEAR and GLOUCESTER
LEAR
Deny to speak with me? They are sick, they are weary,
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They FhaveF travelled all the night? – mere fetches QayQ,
The images of revolt and flying off.
Fetch me a better answer.
GLOUCESTER My dear lord,
You know the fiery quality of the Duke,
How unremovable and fixed he is
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In his own course.
[91]
LEAR Vengeance, plague, death, confusion!
Fiery? What quality? Why, Gloucester, Gloucester,
I’d speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.
FGLOUCESTER
Well, my good lord, I have informed them so.
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LEAR
‘Informed them’? Dost thou understand me, man?F
GLOUCESTER Ay, my good lord.
LEAR
The King would speak with Cornwall, the dear father
Would with his daughter speak, commands – tends – service.
FAre they informed of this? My breath and blood!
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‘Fiery’?F The fiery Duke, tell the hot Duke that
Q LearQ –
[101]
No, but not yet, maybe he is not well;
Infirmity doth still neglect all office
Whereto our health is bound. We are not ourselves
When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind
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To suffer with the body. I’ll forbear,
And am fallen out with my more headier will
To take the indisposed and sickly fit
For the sound man.
[Notices Kent.] Death on my state! Wherefore
Should he sit here? This act persuades me
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That this remotion of the Duke and her
[111]
Is practice only. Give me my servant forth.
FGoF tell the Duke and’s wife I’d speak with them,
Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,
Or at their chamber door I’ll beat the drum
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Till it cry sleep to death.
GLOUCESTER I would have all well betwixt you.FExit.F
LEAR O Fme,F my heart! My FrisingF heart! FBut down!
FOOL Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels
when she put ’em i’the paste alive: she knapped ‘em
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o’the coxcombs with a stick, and cried ‘Down,
[121]
wantons, down!’ ’Twas her brother that in pure
kindness to his horse buttered his hay.
Enter CORNWALL, REGAN,FGLOUCESTER [and] servants.F
LEAR Good morrow to you both.
CORNWALL Hail to your grace.
[FKent here set at liberty.F]
REGAN I am glad to see your highness.
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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,
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Thy sister’s naught. O, Regan, she hath tied
[131]
Sharp-toothed unkindness, like a vulture, here.
[Lays his hand on his heart.]
I can scarce speak to thee; thou’lt not believe
With how depraved a quality – O, Regan!
REGAN I pray FyouF, sir, take patience. I have hope
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You less know how to value her desert
Than she to scant her duty.
FLEAR Say? how is that?
REGAN I cannot think my sister in the least
Would fail her obligation. If, sir, perchance
She have restrained the riots of your followers,
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’Tis on such ground and to such wholesome end
[141]
As clears her from all blame.F
LEAR My curses on her.
REGAN O, sir, you are old:
Nature in you stands on the very verge
Of her confine. You should be ruled and led
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By some discretion that discerns your state
Better than you yourself. Therefore I pray FyouF
That to our sister you do make return;
Say you have wronged her, Q sir.Q
LEAR Ask her forgiveness?
Do you FbutF mark how this becomes the house?
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[Kneels.] Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;
[151]
Age is unnecessary. On my knees I beg
That you’ll vouchsafe me raiment, bed and food.
REGAN Good sir, no more. These are unsightly tricks.
Return you to my sister.
LEAR [Rises.] Never, Regan:
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She hath abated me of half my train,
Looked black upon me, struck me with her tongue
Most serpent-like, upon the very heart.
All the stored vengeances of heaven fall
On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,
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You taking airs, with lameness!
CORNWALL Fie, sir, fie!
[161]
FLEARF
You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames
Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,
You fen-sucked fogs, drawn by the powerful sun
To fall and blister!
REGAN O, the blest gods!
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So will you wish on me when the rash mood Fis on.F
LEAR No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse.
Thy tender-hafted nature shall not give
Thee o’er to harshness. Her eyes are fierce, but thine
Do comfort and not burn. ’Tis not in thee
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To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
[171]
To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes
And, in conclusion, to oppose the bolt
Against my coming in. Thou better knowst
The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
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Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude.
Thy half o’the kingdom hast thou not forgot,
Wherein I thee endowed.
REGAN Good sir, to the purpose
[FTucket within.F]
LEAR Who put my man i’the stocks?
Enter OSWALD.
CORNWALL What trumpet’s that?
REGAN I know’t, my sister’s. This approves her letter
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That she would soon be here.
[to Oswald] Is your lady come?
[181]
LEAR This is a slave whose easy borrowed pride
Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows.
Out, varlet, from my sight!
CORNWALL What means your grace?
Enter GONERIL.
LEAR
Who stocked my servant? Regan, I have good hope
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Thou didst not know on’t. Who comes here? O heavens!
If you do love old men, if your sweet sway
Allow obedience, if FyouF yourselves are old,
Make it your cause. Send down, and take my part!
[to Goneril] Art not ashamed to look upon this beard?
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O, Regan, will you take her by the hand?
[191]
GONERIL
Why not by the hand, sir? How have I offended?
All’s not offence that indiscretion finds
And dot
age terms so.
LEAR O sides, you are too tough!
Will you yet hold? How came my man i’the stocks?
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CORNWALL I set him there, sir; but his own disorders
Deserved much less advancement.
LEAR You? Did you?
REGAN I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.
If till the expiration of your month
You will return and sojourn with my sister,
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Dismissing half your train, come then to me.
[201]
I am now from home and out of that provision
Which shall be needful for your entertainment.
LEAR Return to her? And fifty men dismissed?
No! Rather I abjure all roofs and choose
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To wage against the enmity o’th’ air –
To be a comrade with the wolf and owl –
Necessity’s sharp pinch! Return with her?
Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took
Our youngest born, I could as well be brought
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To knee his throne and squire-like pension beg,
[211]
To keep base life afoot. Return with her?
Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter
To this detested groom. [Points at Oswald.]
GONERIL At your choice, sir.
LEAR
Q NowQ I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad:
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I will not trouble thee, my child. Farewell:
We’ll no more meet, no more see one another.
But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter,
Or rather a disease that’s in my flesh,
Which I must needs call mine. Thou art a boil,
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A plague sore, or embossed carbuncle
[221]
In my corrupted blood. But I’ll not chide thee:
Let shame come when it will; I do not call it,
I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,
Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove.
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Mend when thou canst, be better at thy leisure:
I can be patient, I can stay with Regan,
I and my hundred knights.
REGAN Not altogether so, Q sirQ.
I looked not for you yet, nor am provided
For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister;
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For those that mingle reason with your passion
[231]
Must be content to think you QareQ old, and so –
But she knows what she does.
LEAR Is this well spoken Q nowQ?
REGAN I dare avouch it, sir. What, fifty followers?
Is it not well? What should you need of more?
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Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger
Speak ‘gainst so great a number? How in one house
Should many people, under two commands,
Hold amity? ’Tis hard, almost impossible.
GONERIL
Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance
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From those that she calls servants or from mine?
[241]
REGAN
Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack ye
We could control them. If you will come to me –
For now I spy a danger – I entreat you
To bring but five and twenty: to no more
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Will I give place or notice.
LEAR I gave you all –
REGAN And in good time you gave it.
LEAR – Made you my guardians, my depositaries,
But kept a reservation to be followed
With such a number. What, must I come to you
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With five and twenty? Regan, said you so?
[251]
REGAN And speak’t again, my lord: no more with me.
LEAR
Those wicked creatures yet do look well favoured
When others are more wicked; not being the worst
Stands in some rank of praise.
[to Goneril] I’ll go with thee;
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Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,
And thou art twice her love.
GONERIL Hear me, my lord:
What need you five and twenty? Ten? Or five?
To follow in a house where twice so many
Have a command to tend you?
REGAN What need one?
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LEAR O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars
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Are in the poorest thing superfluous;
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man’s life is cheap as beast’s. Thou art a lady;
If only to go warm were gorgeous,
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Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear’st,
Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But for true need –
You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!