The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 287

by William Shakespeare


  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!

  40

  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.

  60

  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.

  65

  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,

  70

  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

  75

  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?

  80

  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!

  85

  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.

  90

  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.

  95

  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

  100

  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:

  105

  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!

  110

  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.

  115

  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

  120

  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!

  125

  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

  130

  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.

  135

  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?

  140

  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.

  145

  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.

  155

  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;

  160

  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,

  170

  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

  175

  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

  180

  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

  185

  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?

  190

  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,

  195

  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,

  200

  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.

  205

  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.

  210

  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.

  215

  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.

  220

  The bounty and the benison of heaven

  To boot, to boot.

  Enter OSWALD.

 

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