Gen. You see how full of changes his age is; for so much as I have perused, I find it not fit for the observation we have made of it hath not been your over-looking. little he always loved our sister most; and with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off, appears too grossly. Reg. 'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself. Gon. The best and soundest of his time hath been but rash; then must we look to receive from his age, not alone the imperfections of long-engrafted condition, but therewithal, the unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with them. Reg. Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him, as this of Kent's banishment. Gon. There is further compliment of leavetaking between France and him. Pray you, let us hit together: If our father carry authority with such dispositions as he bears, this last surrender of his will but offend us. Reg. We shall further think of it. Gon. We must do something, and i'the heat. [Exeunt. SCENE II-A hall in the Earl of Gloster's castle. Enter Edmund, with a letter. Edm. Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines Enter Gloster. Glo. Kent banish'd thus! And France in choler And the king gone to-night! subscrib'd' his power! Putting up the letter. Glo. Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter? Edm. I know no news, my lord. Glo. No? What needed then that terrible dee patch 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. Edm. I beseech you, sir, pardon me: it is a letter from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read; (1) Qualities of mind. (2) Strike while the iron is hot. (5) The injustice. (4) The nicety of civil institution. (5) Fielded, surrendered. (6) Allowance, Glo. Give me the letter, sir. Edm. I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame. Glo. Let's see, let's see. Edm. I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as an essay or taste of my virtue. Glo. [Reads.] This policy and reverence of age, makes the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps mer fortunes from us, till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyrrany; who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, Edgar.-Humph-Conspiracy-Sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue,-My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain to breed it in ?— When came this to you? Who brought it? Edm. It was not brought me, my lord, there's the cunning of it; I found it thrown in at the casement of my closet. Glo. You know the character to be your bro ther's? Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his; but, in respect of that, I would fain think it were not. Glo. It is his. Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but, I hope, his heart is not in the contents. Glo. Hath he never heretofore sounded you in this business? Edm. Never, my lord: But I have often heard him maintain it to be fit, that, sons at perfect age, and fathers declining, the father should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue. Glo. O viilain, villain!-His very opinion in the letter-Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested, brutish villain! worse than brutish!-Go, sirrah, seek him; I'll apprehend him;-Abominable villain!-Where is he? Edin. I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please you to suspend your indignation against my brother, till you can derive from him better testimony of his intent, you shall run a certain course; where," if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pewn down my life for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your honour,11 and to no other pretence” of danger." Glo. Think you so? Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us conter of this, and by an auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and that without any further delay than this very evening. Gla. He cannot be such a monster. Gle. To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him.-Heaven and earth!-Edmund, seck him out; wind me into him, I pray you: frame the business after your own wisdom: I would unstate myself, to be in a due resolution.1 Edm. I will seek him, sir, presently; convey' in him, that with the mischief of your person it the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you would scarcely allay. withal. Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong. Glo. These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us: Though the wisdom of nature nent forbearance, till the speed of his rage goes can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself slower; and, as I say, retire with ine to my lodging, scourged by the sequent effects: love cools, friend- from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my lord ship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in speak: Pray you, go; there's my key:-If you do Countries, discord; in palaces, treason: and the stir abroad, go armed. ond cracked between son and father. This villain Edg. Armed, brother? of mine comes under the prediction; there's son Edm. Brother, I advise you to the best: go against father: the king falls from bias of nature; armed; I am no honest man, if there be any good there's father against child. We have seen the best meaning towards you: I have told you what I have of our time: Machinations, hollowness, treachery, seen and heard but faintly; nothing like the image and all ruinous disorders, follow us quietly to our and horror of it: Pray you, away. graves!-Find out this villain, Edmund, it shall Edg. Shall I hear from you anon? ose thee nothing; do it carefully:-And the nobie Edm. I do serve you in this business.and true-hearted Kent banished! his offence, hon[Exit Edgar. esty!-Strange! strange! [Exit. A credulous father, and a brother noble, Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world! Whose nature is so far from doing harms, that, when we are sick in fortune (often the surfeit That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty of our behaviour,) we make guilty of our disasters, My practices ride easy!-I see the business.— the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were vil- Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit: lains by necessity; fools, by heavenly compulsion; All with me's meet, that I can fashion fit. knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical pre- SCENE III-A room in the duke of Albany's dominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and palace. Enter Goneril and Steward. all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star! My father compounded with my mother under the dragon's tail; and my nativity was under ursa major so that it follows, I am rough and leche-He flashes into one gross crime or other, rous.-Tut, I should have been that I am, had the That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it: maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us bastardizing. EdgarOn every triffe:-When he returns from hunting, .4 Enter Edgar. and pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy: My cue is villanous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o'Bedlam.-O, these eclipses do portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi. Edg. How now, brother Edmund? What serious contemplation are you in? Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what should follow these eclipses. Edg. Do you busy yourself with that? [Exit. Gon. Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool? Stew. Ay, madam. Gon. By day and night! he wrongs me; every hour I will not speak with him; say, I am sick :- [Horns within. Stew. Very well, madam. Gon. And let his knights have colder looks among Edm. I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces Remember what I have said. and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what. Edg. How long have you been a sectary astro-What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows so: nomical? I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall, That I may speak :-I'll write straight to my sister, To hold my very course :-Prepare for dinner. Edm. Come, come; when saw you my father last? Edg. Why, the night gone by. Edm. Parted you in good terms! Found you no Edm. Bethink yourself, wherein you may have offended him and at my entreaty, forbear his presence, till some little time hath qualified the heat of his displeasure; which at this instant so rageth (1) Manage. (2) Following. (3) Traitors. (4) Great Bear, the constellation so named. (5) These sounds are unnatural and offensive in music. you; [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-A hall in the same. Enter Kent, Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow, If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd (6) For cohorts some editors read courts. (9) Effaced. 860 Shall find thee full of labours. Lear. What dost thou profess? What wouldest thou with us? Kent. I do profess to be no less than I scem; 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 judgment; 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 as poor for a subject, as he is for a king, thou art poor enough. What wouldest thou? Kent. Service. Lear. Who wouldst thou serve? Kent. You. Lear. Dost thou know me, fellow? But where's my fool? I have not seen him these two days. Knight. Since my young lady's going into France, sir, the fool hath much pined away. Lear. No more of that; I have noted it well.Go you, and tell my daughter, I would speak with her.-Go you, call hither my fool. Re-enter Steward. O, you sir, you sir, come you hither: Who am I, sir? Stew. My lady's father. Lear. My lady's father! my lord's knave: you whoreson dog! you slave! you cur! Stew. I am none of this, my lord; I beseech you, pardon me. Lear. Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal? [Striking him. Stew. I'll not be struck, my lord. Kent. Nor tripped neither; you base foot-ball player. [Tripping up his heels. Lear. I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and I'll love thee. Kent. Come, sir, arise, away: I'll teach you differences; away, away: If you will measure your Kent. No, sir; but you have that in your coun- lubber's length again, tarry: but away: go to. tenance, which I would fain call master. Lear. What's that? Kent. Authority. Lear. What services canst thou do? Kent. I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious tale in telling it, and deliver a plain message bluntly that which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in; and the best of me is diligence. Lear. How old art thou? Kent. Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing; nor so old, to dote on her for any thing: I have years on my back forty-eight. Lear. Follow me; thou shalt serve me; if I like thee no worse after dinner, I will not part from thee yet.-Dinner, ho, dinner!-Where's my knave? my fool? Go you, and call my fool hither: Lear. What says the fellew there? Call the clotpoll back.-Where's my fool, ho?-I think the world's asleep.-How now? where's that mongrel? Knight. He says, my lord, your daughter is not well. Lear. Why came not the slave back to me, when I call'd him? Knight. Sir, he answer'd me in the roundest manner, he would not. Lear. He would not! Knight. My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my judgment, your highness is not entertained with that ceremonious affection as you were wont; there's a great abatement of kindness appears, as well in the general dependants, as in the duke himself also, and your daughter. Lear. Ha! sayest thou so? Knight. I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken; for my duty cannot be silent, when I think your highness is wronged. Lear. Thou but rememberest me of mine own conception; I have perceived a most faint neglect of late; which I have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity,2 than as a very pretence and purpose of unkindness; I will look further into't.— Fool. Let me hire him too ;--Here's my coxcomb. [Giring Kent his cap. Lear. How now, my pretty knave? how dost thou? Fool. Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb. Fool. Why? For taking one's part that is out of favour: Nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits, thou'lt catch cold shortly: There, take my coxcomb: Why, this fellow has banished two of his daughters, and did the third a blessing against his will; if thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb-How now, nuncle? 'Would I had two coxcombs, and two daughters! Lear. Why, my boy? Fool. If I gave them all my living, I'd keep my coxcombs myself: There's mine; beg another of thy daughters. Lear. Take heed, sirrah; the whip. Fool. Truth's a dog that must to kennel; he must be whipped out, when Lady, the brach,' may stand by the fire, and stink. Lear. A pestilent gall to me! Fool. Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech. Fool. Mark it, nuncle: Have more than thou showest, And thou shalt have more Than two tens to a score. Lear. This is nothing, fool. Fool. Then 'tis like the breath of an unfee'd (4) Estate or property. (1) Keep company. (3) Design. (6) Ownest, possessest. (5) Bitch hound. (7) Believest. I lawyer; you gave me nothing for't: Can you make no need to care for her frowning; now thou art an Lear. Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing. Fool. Pr'ythee, tell him, so much the rent of his land comes to; he will not believe a fool. [To Kent. Lear. A bitter fool! Fool. Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a bitter fool and a sweet fool? Fool. That lord, that counsel'd thee The sweet and bitter fool The other found out there. that thou wast born with. Kent. This is not altogether fool, my lord. Fool. No, 'faith, lords and great men will not let me; if I had a monopoly out, they would have part on't and ladies too, they will not let me have all fool to myself; they'll be snatching.-Give me an egg, nuncle, and I'll give thee two crowns. Lear. What two crowns shall they be? Fool. Why, after I have cut the egg i'the middle, Fools had ne'er less grace' in a year; [Singing. Fool. I have used it, nuncle, ever since thou Then they for sudden joy did weep, And go the fools among. He that keeps nor crust nor crumb, [Pointing to Lear. Gon. Not only, sir, this your all-licens'd fool, But other of your insolent retinue Do hourly carp and quarrel; breaking forth I had thought, by making this well known unto you, The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long, So out went the candle, and we were left darkling. Gon. Come, sir, I would, you would make use of that good wisdom whereof I know you are fraught; and put away these dispositions, which of late transform you from what you rightly are. Fool. May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse ?-Whoop, Jug! I love thee. Lear. Does any here know me?-Why this is not Lear: does Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes? Either his notion weakens, or his discernings are lethargied.-Sleeping or waking? -Ha! 'sure "tis not so.-Who is it that can tell me who I am?-Lear's shadow? I would learn that for by the marks of sovereignty, knowledge, and reason, I should be false persuaded I had daugh ters. Fool. Which they will make an obedient father. This admiration is much o'the favours As you are old and reverend, you should be wise: Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires ; Men so disorder'd, so debauch'd, and bold, Pr'ythee, nuncle, keep a school-master that can That this our court, infected with their manners, teach thy fool to lie; I would fain learn to lie. Lear. If you lie, sirrah, we'll have you whipp'd. Make it more like a tavern or a brothel, Shows like a riotous inn: epicurism and lust Fool. I marvel, what kin thou and thy daughters Than a grac'd palace. The shame itself doth speak are: they'll have me whipp'd for speaking true, For instant remedy: Be then desired thou'lt have me whipp'd for Iving; and, sometimes, By her, that else will take the thing she begs, I am whipp'd for holding my peace. I had rather A little to disquantity your train; be any kind of thing, on a fool; and yet I would not be thee, nuncle; hast pared thy wit o'both To be such men as may besort your age, And the remainder, that shall still depend," sides, and left nothing 'the middle: Here comes And know themselves and you. one of the paris. Lear. Gon. You strike my people; and your disorder'd Make servants of their betters. (4) A mere husk which contains nothing. (8) Complexion. (9) Continue in service. nature From the fix'd place; drew from my heart all love, And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear! beat at this gate that let thy folly in, [Striking his head. And thy dear judgment out!-Go, go, my people. Alb. My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant Of what hath mov'd you. Lear. It may be so, my lord.-Hear, nature, hear; Dear goddess, hear! Suspend thy purpose, if Thou didst intend to make this creature fruitful! Into her womb convey sterility! Dry up in her the organs of increase; And from her derogate' body never spring A babe to honour her! If she must teem, Create her child of spleen: that it may live, And be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her! Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth; With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks; Turn all her mother's pains, and benefits, To laughter and contempt; that she may feel How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child!-Away, away! [Exit. Alb. Now, gods, that we adore, whereof comes this? Gon. Never afflict yourself to know the cause; But let his disposition have that scope That dotage gives it. Re-enter Lear. Lear. What, fifty of my followers, at a clap! Within a fortnight? Alb. What's the matter, sir! Lear. I'll tell thee;-Life and death! I am asham'd That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus: The untented woundings of a father's curs Gon. Do you mark that, my lord? To the great love I bear you, (1) The rack. (2) Degraded. (3) Falling. (4) Undressed. 'Tis politic, and safe, to let him keep Each buzz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike, Safer than trust: Let me still take away the harms I fear, What, have you writ that letter to my sister? Gon. Take you some company and away to horse: Inform her full of my particular fear; This milky gentleness, and course of yours, Alb. How far your eyes may pierce, I cannot tell; Striving to better, oft we mar what's well. Gon. Nay, then Alb. Well, well; the event. [Exeunt. SCENE V.-Court before the same. Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool. Lear. Go you before to Gloster with these letters: acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you know, than comes from her demand out the letter: If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there before you. Kent. I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered your letter. [Exit. Fool. If a man's brains were in his heels, were't not in danger of kibes ? Lear. Ay, boy. Fool. Then, I pr'ythee, be merry; thy wit shall not go slip-shod. Lear. Ha, ha, ha! Fool. Shalt see, thy other daughter will use thee kindly for though she's as like this as a crab is like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell. Lear. Why, what canst thou tell, my boy? Fool. She will taste as like this, as a crab does to a crab. Thou canst tell, why one's nose stands i'the middle of his face? |