the observation we have made of it hath not been | read; for so much as I have perused, I find is little he always loved our sister most; and with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off, appears too grossly. not fit for your over-looking. Glo. Give me the letter, sir. Edm. I shall offend, either to detain or give it. Reg. 'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath The contents, as in part I understand them, are 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 brings Enter Edmund, with a letter. 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! Glo. No? What needed then that 'terrible despatch 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 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. the world bitter, to the best of our times; keeps our forGlo. [reads.] This policy, and reverence of age, makes tunes from us, till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny; who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suf fered. 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, 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? EDGAR 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. Gl. You know the character to be your brother'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 villain, 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? If it shall Edm. I do not well know, my lord. 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 pawn down my life for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your honour, 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 confer of this, and by an auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and that without any further delay than this very evening. Glo. He cannot be such a monster. Glo. To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him.-Heaven and earth!-Edmund, seek 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. T I Edm. I will seek him, sir, presently; convey | presence, till some little time hath qualified the the business as I shall find means, and acquaint heat of his displeasure; which at this instant so you withal. rageth in him, that with the mischief of your person it would scarcely allay. Glo. These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us: Though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects: love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord: in palaces, treason: and the bond cracked between son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's son against father: the king falls from bias of nature; there's father against child. have seen the best of our time: Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves! Find out this villain, Edmund, it shall lose thee nothing; do it carefully :-And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his offence, honesty!-Strange, strange! We [exit. Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world! that, when we are sick in fortune (often the surfeit of our own behaviour), we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity; fools, by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: An admirable evasion of whore-master 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 lecherous.-Tut, I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar-Enter Edgar. and pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy: My cue is villainous 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? Edm. I promise you, the effects he writes of, succeed unhappily: as, of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolations of antient amities; divisions in state, menaces 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 astronomical? Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong. Edm. That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent forbearance, till the speed of his rage goes slower; and, as I say, retire with me to my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to. hear my lord speak; Pray you, go; there's my key :-If you do stir abroad, go armed. Edg. Armed, brother? Edm. Brother, I advise you to the best: go armed; I am no honest man, if there be any good meaning towards you: I have told you what I have seen and heard, but faintly; nothing like the image and horror of it: Pray you, away. Edg. Shall I hear from you anon? Edm. I do serve you in this business.[exit Edgar. A credulous father, and a brother noble, PALACE. Enter Goneril and Steward. Gon. Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool? [hour Stew. Ay, madam. Gon. By day and night! he wrongs me; every He flashes into one gross crime or other, That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it: His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us On every trifle-When he returns from hunting, I will not speak with him; say, I am sick:If you come slack of former services, You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer. Stew. He's coming, madam; I hear him. [horns. That still would manage those authorities Stew. Very well, madam. Gon. And let his knights have colder looks What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellowa [last? To hold my very course :-Prepare for dinner. Edm. Come, come; when saw you my father Found you no displeasure in him, by word, or countenance? Edg. Nene at all. Edm. Bethink yourself, wherein you may have offended him and at my entreaty, forbear his 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, than as a very pretence and pur pose of unkindness. I will look further into it.But where's my fool? I have not seen him this 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 wellGo you, and tell my daughter I would speak with her.-Go you, call hither my foolRe-enter Steward. O, you sir, you sir, come you hither; Who am I, Kent. A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor sir? 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 wouldest thou serve Kent. You. Lear. Dost thou know me, fellow? Kent. No, sir; but you have that in your countenance, 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 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'H love thee. Kent. Come, sir, arise, away: I'll teach you differences; away, away: If you will measure your lubber's length again, tarry: but away: go to; have you wisdom? so. [pushes the Steward out. Lear. Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee: there's earnest of thy service. [giving Kent money. Enter Fool. Fool. Let me hire him too. Here's my coxcomb. [giving Kent his cap. Lear. How now, my pretty knave? how dost thou? Fool. Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb. Kent. Why, fool? 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, nunale? Would I had two coxcombs, and two daughters! Lear. Why, my boy? Fool. If I gave them all my living, Fd 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, inay 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, Speak less than thou knowest. Lend less than thou owest, 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 lawyer; you gave me nothing for't: can you make zo use of nothing, nuncle ? 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. Lear. A bitter fool! [to Kent. I times, I am whipped for holding my peace. Lear. How now, daughter? what makes that frontlet on? Methinks, you are too much of late i'the frown. Fool. Thou wast a pretty fellow, when thou hadst no need to care for her frowning; now thou art an O without a figure: I am better than thou art now; I am a fool, thou art nothing.-Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue; so your face [to Goneril] bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum, He that keeps nor crust nor crum, Fool. Dost thou know the difference, my boy, That's a sheal'd peascod. between a bitter fool, and a sweet fool? Lear. No, lad; teach me. Fool. That lord, that counsell'd thee To give away thy land, Or do thou for him stand: Will presently appear; The one in motley here, The other found out there. Lear. Dost thou call me fool, boy? [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 makingthis well known unto you, Fool. All thy other titles thou hast given away; Might in their working do you that offence, 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? Which else were shame, that then necessity Fool. For you trow, nuncle, The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long, Gon. Come, sir, I would, you would make use of that good wisdom whereof I know you are Fool. Why, after I have cut the egg fthe mid-fraught; and put away these dispositions, which dle, and eat up the meat, the two crowns of the of late transform you from what you rightly are. egg. When thou clovest thy crown i'the middle, Fool. May not an ass know when the cart draws and gavest away both parts, thou borest thine ass the horse ?-Whoop, Jug! I love thee. on thy back over the dirt: thou had'st little wit in thy bald crown, when thou gavest thy golden If I speak like myself in this, let him be whipped that first finds it so. one away. Lear. Does any here know me ?-Why this is not Lear: does Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes? Either his notion weakeris, or his discernings are lethargied.-Sleeping of 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, knowLear. When were you wont to be so full of ledge, and reason, I should be false persuaded I songs, sirrah? Fools had ne'er less grace in a year; And know not how their wits to wear Eanging Fool. I have used it, nuncle, ever since thou madest thy daughters thy mother: for when thou gavest them the rod, and put'st down thine own breeches, Then they for sudden joy did weep, had daughters.— Fool. Which they will make an obedient father This admiration is much o'the favour That such a king should play bo-peep And go the fools among. Pr'ythee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool to lie; I would fain learn to lie. Lear. If you lie, sirrah, we'll have you whipped. Fool. I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are: they'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou❜lt have me whipped for lying; and, some As you are old and reverend, you should be wise Lear. Woe, that too late repents,-O, sir, are you come? [my horses. Is it your will? [to Albany] Speak, sir.-Prepare Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend, More hideous, when thou show'st thee in a child, Than the sea-monster! Alb. Pray, sir, be patient. Lear. Detested kite! thou liest: [to Goneril. My train are men of choice and rarest parts, That all particulars of duty know; And in the most exact regard support The worships of their name.-O most small fault, How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show! Which, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of [love, From the fix'd place: drew from my heart all And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear! Beat at this gate, that let thy folly in, nature [strikes 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. [hear! Lear. It may be so, my lord.-Hear, Nature, 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 asbam'd That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus: [to Goneril. That these hot tears, which break from me perforce, Should make thee worth them.-Blasts and fogs upon thee! The untented woundings of a father's curse Gon. Pray you, content.What, Oswald, ho!You, sir, more knave than fool, after your master. Fool. Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry, and take the fool with thee. A fox, when one has caught her, Should sure to the slaughter, If my cap would buy a halter; So the fool follows after. Lexit. Gon. This man hath had good counsel;-A hundred knights! 'Tis politic, and safe, to let him keep [dream, Let me still take away the harms I fear, Enter Steward. What, have you writ that letter to my sister? Alb. How far your eyes may pierce, I cannot Striving to better, oft we mar what's well. [tell; Gon. Nay, then Alb. Well, well; the event. SCENE V. COURT BEFORE THE SAME. [exeunt. Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool. Lear. Go you before to Gloster with these let ters: acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you know, than comes from her demand out of the letter: If your diligence be not speedy, L shall be there before you. Kent. I will not sleep, my lord, till I have de [exit. livered your letter. Fool. If a man's brains were in his heels, weret not in danger of kibes? |
