Well worth a poor man’s taking. Fairies and gods
Prosper it with thee. Go thou further off;
30
Bid me farewell and let me hear thee going.
EDGAR Now fare ye well, good sir.
GLOUCESTER With all my heart.
EDGAR [aside] Why I do trifle thus with his despair
Is done to cure it.
GLOUCESTER [QHe kneels.Q] O you mighty gods,
This world I do renounce and in your sights
35
Shake patiently my great affliction off.
If I could bear it longer and not fall
To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
My snuff and loathed part of nature should
Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless FhimF!
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Now, fellow, fare thee well. [QHe falls.Q]
EDGAR Gone, sir; farewell.
[aside] 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.
[to Gloucester] Alive or dead?
45
Ho, you, sir! FFriend,F hear you, sir? Speak! –
[aside] 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,
50
Thou’dst shivered 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.
55
GLOUCESTER But have I fallen, 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.
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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.
Up, so. How Fis’tF? Feel you your legs? You stand.
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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?
GLOUCESTER A poor unfortunate beggar.
EDGAR As I stood here below methought his eyes
Were two full moons. He had a thousand noses,
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Horns whelked and waved like the enraged sea.
It was some fiend. Therefore, thou happy father,
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
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Affliction till it do cry out itself
‘Enough, enough’ and die. That thing you speak of,
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.
Enter LEARQmad Q[, crowned with wild flowers].
But who comes here?
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The safer sense will ne’er accommodate
His master thus.
LEAR No, they cannot touch me for coining. I am the
King himself.
EDGAR O thou side-piercing sight!
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LEAR Nature’s above art in that respect. There’s your
press-money. That fellow handles his bow like a crow-
keeper: draw me a clothier’s yard. Look, look, a
mouse: peace, peace, this Fpiece ofF toasted cheese will
do’t. There’s my gauntlet, I’ll prove it on a giant.
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Bring up the brown bills. O well flown, bird, i’the
clout, i’the clout! Hewgh! Give the word.
EDGAR Sweet marjoram.
LEAR Pass.
GLOUCESTER I know that voice.
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LEAR Ha! Goneril Fwith a white beard?F They flattered
me like a dog and told me I had FtheF white hairs in my
beard ere the black ones were there. To say ‘ay’ and ‘no’
to everything FthatF I said ‘ay’ and ‘no’ to was no good
divinity. When the rain came to wet me once and the
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wind to make me chatter; when 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 everything; ’tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.
GLOUCESTER
The trick of that voice I do well remember:
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Is’t not the 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!
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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 were my daughters got ’tween the lawful sheets.
To’t, luxury, pell-mell, for I lack soldiers.
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Behold yon simp’ring dame,
Whose face between her forks presages snow,
That minces virtue and does shake the head
FToF hear of pleasure’s name –F
The fitchew, nor the soiled horse, goes to’t with a
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more riotous appetite. Down from the waist they are
centaurs, though women all above. But to the girdle do
the gods inherit, beneath is all the fiend’s: there’s hell,
there’s darkness, there is the sulphurous pit, burning,
scalding, stench, consumption! Fie, fie, fie! Pah, pah!
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Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, Q toQ
sweeten my imagination. There’s money for thee.
GLOUCESTER O, let me kiss that hand!
LEAR Let me wipe it first, it smells of mortality.
GLOUCESTER
O ruined piece of nature, this great world
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Shall so wear out to naught. Dost thou know me?
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 FbutF the penning of it.
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GLOUCESTER
Were all thy letters suns, I could not see Q oneQ.
EDGAR [aside] I would not take this from report: it is,
And my heart breaks at it.
LEAR Read.
GLOUCESTER What? With the case of eyes?
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LEAR Oh 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.
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LEAR What, art mad? A man may see how this world
goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears. See how yon
justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark in thine ear:
Fchange places andF handy-dandy, which is the justice,
which is the thief? Thou hast seen a farmer’s dog bark
150
at
a beggar?
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.
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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 tattered clothes great vices do appear;
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Robes and furred gowns hide all. FPlate 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
165
To seal th’accuser’s lips.F Get thee glass eyes,
And like a scurvy politician seem
To see the things thou dost not. Now, Fnow, now, now,F
pull off my boots; harder, harder, so.
EDGAR [aside] O matter and impertinency mixed,
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Reason in madness.
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 knowst the first time that we smell the air
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We wawl and cry. I will preach to thee: mark QmeQ.
GLOUCESTER Alack, alack the day!
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
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A troop of horse with felt. FI’ll put it in proofF
And when I have stolen upon these son-in-laws,
Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!
Enter a Gentleman[, and two attendants].
GENTLEMAN O, here he is: lay hand upon him. Sir,
Your most dear Fdaughter – F
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LEAR No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even
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 anything.
LEAR No seconds? All myself?
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Why, this would make a man Fa manF of salt,
To use his eyes for garden water-pots.
QAy, and laying autumn’s dust.Q
Q2 GENTLEMAN Good sir.Q2
QLEARQ I will die bravely, like a FsmugF bridegroom.
What? I will be jovial. Come, come,
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I am a king, Q myQ masters, know you that?
GENTLEMAN You are a royal one and we obey you.
LEAR Then there’s life in’t. Come, an you get it,
You shall get it by running. FSa, sa, sa, sa.F
ExitQrunning Q [, followed by attendants].
GENTLEMAN
A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch,
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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.
GENTLEMAN Sir, speed you. What’s your will?
EDGAR Do you hear aught,
FSir,F of a battle toward?
GENTLEMAN Most sure and vulgar.
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Everyone hears that, which can distinguish sound.
EDGAR
But, by your favour, 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.
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GENTLEMAN
Though that the queen on special cause is here
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.
EDGAR Well pray you, father.
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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;
I’ll lead you to some biding.
GLOUCESTER Hearty thanks.
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The bounty and the benison of heaven
To boot, to boot.
Enter OSWALD.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 287