| ACT I SCENE IV | A hall in the same. | |
| [Enter KENT, disguised] |
| KENT | If but as well I other accents borrow, |
| That can my speech defuse, my good intent |
| May carry through itself to that full issue |
| For which I razed my likeness. Now, banish'd Kent, |
| If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd, | 5 |
| So may it come, thy master, whom thou lovest, |
| Shall find thee full of labours. |
| [
Horns within. Enter KING LEAR, Knights, and
Attendants
] |
| KING LEAR | Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go get it ready. |
[Exit an Attendant] |
| How now! what art thou? |
| KENT | A man, sir. | 10 |
| KING LEAR | What dost thou profess? what wouldst thou with us? |
| KENT | I do profess to be no less than I seem; 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 | 15 |
| cannot choose; and to eat no fish. |
| KING LEAR | What art thou? |
| KENT | A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the king. |
| KING LEAR | If thou be as poor for a subject as he is for a |
| king, thou art poor enough. What wouldst thou? | 20 |
| KENT | Service. |
| KING LEAR | Who wouldst thou serve? |
| KENT | You. |
| KING LEAR | Dost thou know me, fellow? |
| KENT | No, sir; but you have that in your countenance | 25 |
| which I would fain call master. |
| KING LEAR | What's that? |
| KENT | Authority. |
| KING LEAR | What services canst thou do? |
| KENT | I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious | 30 |
| 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. |
| KING LEAR | How old art thou? |
| KENT | Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor | 35 |
| so old to dote on her for any thing: I have years |
| on my back forty eight. |
| KING 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? | 40 |
| Go you, and call my fool hither. |
[Exit an Attendant] |
[Enter OSWALD] |
| You, you, sirrah, where's my daughter? |
| OSWALD | So please you,-- |
| [Exit] |
| KING LEAR | What says the fellow there? Call the clotpoll back. |
[Exit a Knight] |
| Where's my fool, ho? I think the world's asleep. | 45 |
[Re-enter Knight] |
| How now! where's that mongrel? |
| Knight | He says, my lord, your daughter is not well. |
| KING LEAR | Why came not the slave back to me when I called him. |
| Knight | Sir, he answered me in the roundest manner, he would |
| not. | 50 |
| KING 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 | 55 |
| general dependants as in the duke himself also and |
| your daughter. |
| KING 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 | 60 |
| highness wronged. |
| KING 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 purpose of unkindness: | 65 |
| I will look further into't. 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. |
| KING LEAR | No more of that; I have noted it well. Go you, and | 70 |
| tell my daughter I would speak with her. |
[Exit an Attendant] |
| Go you, call hither my fool. |
[Exit an Attendant] |
[Re-enter OSWALD] |
| O, you sir, you, come you hither, sir: who am I, |
| sir? |
| OSWALD | My lady's father. | 75 |
| KING LEAR | 'My lady's father'! my lord's knave: your |
| whoreson dog! you slave! you cur! |
| OSWALD | I am none of these, my lord; I beseech your pardon. |
| KING LEAR | Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal? |
| [Striking him] |
| OSWALD | I'll not be struck, my lord. | 80 |
| KENT | Nor tripped neither, you base football player. |
| [Tripping up his heels] |
| KING 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 lubber's | 85 |
| length again, tarry: but away! go to; have you |
| wisdom? so. |
| [Pushes OSWALD out] |
| KING 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. | 90 |
| [Offering KENT his cap] |
| KING 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's out of favour: |
| nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits, | 95 |
| thou'lt catch cold shortly: there, take my coxcomb: |
| why, this fellow has banished two on's 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! | 100 |
| KING LEAR | Why, my boy? |
| Fool | If I gave them all my living, I'ld keep my coxcombs |
| myself. There's mine; beg another of thy daughters. |
| KING LEAR | Take heed, sirrah; the whip. |
| Fool | Truth's a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped | 105 |
| out, when Lady the brach may stand by the fire and stink. |
| KING LEAR | A pestilent gall to me! |
| Fool | Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech. |
| KING LEAR | Do. |
| Fool | Mark it, nuncle: | 110 |
| Have more than thou showest, |
| Speak less than thou knowest, |
| Lend less than thou owest, |
| Ride more than thou goest, |
| Learn more than thou trowest, | 115 |
| Set less than thou throwest; |
| Leave thy drink and thy whore, |
| And keep in-a-door, |
| And thou shalt have more |
| Than two tens to a score. | 120 |
| KENT | This is nothing, fool. |
| Fool | Then 'tis like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer; you |
| gave me nothing for't. Can you make no use of |
| nothing, nuncle? |
| KING LEAR | Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing. | 125 |
| Fool | [To KENT] Prithee, tell him, so much the rent of
|
| his land comes to: he will not believe a fool. |
| KING LEAR | A bitter fool! |
| Fool | Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a |
| bitter fool and a sweet fool? | 130 |
| KING LEAR | No, lad; teach me. |
| Fool | That lord that counsell'd thee |
| To give away thy land, |
| Come place him here by me, |
| Do thou for him stand: | 135 |
| The sweet and bitter fool |
| Will presently appear; |
| The one in motley here, |
| The other found out there. |
| KING LEAR | Dost thou call me fool, boy? | 140 |
| Fool | All thy other titles thou hast given away; 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: | 145 |
| 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. |
| KING LEAR | What two crowns shall they be? |
| Fool | Why, after I have cut the egg i' the middle, and eat | 150 |
| up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou |
| clovest thy crown i' the middle, and gavest away |
| both parts, thou borest thy ass on thy back o'er |
| the dirt: thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown, |
| when thou gavest thy golden one away. If I speak | 155 |
| like myself in this, let him be whipped that first |
| finds it so. |
[Singing] |
| Fools had ne'er less wit in a year; |
| For wise men are grown foppish, |
| They know not how their wits to wear, | 160 |
| Their manners are so apish. |
| KING LEAR | When were you wont to be so full of songs, sirrah? |
| Fool | I have used it, nuncle, ever since thou madest thy |
| daughters thy mothers: for when thou gavest them |
| the rod, and put'st down thine own breeches, | 165 |
[Singing] |
| Then they for sudden joy did weep, |
| And I for sorrow sung, |
| That such a king should play bo-peep, |
| And go the fools among. |
| Prithee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach | 170 |
| thy fool to lie: I would fain learn to lie. |
| KING LEAR | An 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 sometimes I am | 175 |
| whipped for holding my peace. I had rather be any |
| kind o' thing than a fool: and yet I would not be |
| thee, nuncle; thou hast pared thy wit o' both sides, |
| and left nothing i' the middle: here comes one o' |
| the parings. | 180 |
| [Enter GONERIL] |
| KING 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, | 185 |
| thou art nothing. |
[To GONERIL] |
| Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue; so your face |
| bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum, |
| He that keeps nor crust nor crum, |
| Weary of all, shall want some. | 190 |
[Pointing to KING LEAR] |
| That's a shealed peascod. |
| GONERIL | Not only, sir, this your all-licensed fool, |
| But other of your insolent retinue |
| Do hourly carp and quarrel; breaking forth |
| In rank and not-to-be endured riots. Sir, | 195 |
| I had thought, by making this well known unto you, |
| To have found a safe redress; but now grow fearful, |
| By what yourself too late have spoke and done. |
| That you protect this course, and put it on |
| By your allowance; which if you should, the fault | 200 |
| Would not 'scape censure, nor the redresses sleep, |
| Which, in the tender of a wholesome weal, |
| Might in their working do you that offence, |
| Which else were shame, that then necessity |
| Will call discreet proceeding. | 205 |
| Fool | For, you trow, nuncle, |
| The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long, |
| That it's had it head bit off by it young. |
| So, out went the candle, and we were left darkling. |
| KING LEAR | Are you our daughter? | 210 |
| GONERIL | Come, sir, |
| I would you would make use of that good wisdom, |
| Whereof I know you are fraught; and put away |
| These dispositions, that of late transform you |
| From what you rightly are. | 215 |
| Fool | May not an ass know when the cart |
| draws the horse? Whoop, Jug! I love thee. |
| KING LEAR | Doth any here know me? This is not Lear: |
| Doth Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes? |
| Either his notion weakens, his discernings | 220 |
| Are lethargied--Ha! waking? 'tis not so. |
| Who is it that can tell me who I am? |
| Fool | Lear's shadow. |
| KING LEAR | I would learn that; for, by the |
| marks of sovereignty, knowledge, and reason, | 225 |
| I should be false persuaded I had daughters. |
| Fool | Which they will make an obedient father. |
| KING LEAR | Your name, fair gentlewoman? |
| GONERIL | This admiration, sir, is much o' the savour |
| Of other your new pranks. I do beseech you | 230 |
| To understand my purposes aright: |
| As you are old and reverend, you should be wise. |
| Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires; |
| Men so disorder'd, so debosh'd and bold, |
| That this our court, infected with their manners, | 235 |
| Shows like a riotous inn: epicurism and lust |
| Make it more like a tavern or a brothel |
| Than a graced palace. The shame itself doth speak |
| For instant remedy: be then desired |
| By her, that else will take the thing she begs, | 240 |
| A little to disquantity your train; |
| And the remainder, that shall still depend, |
| To be such men as may besort your age, |
| And know themselves and you. |
| KING LEAR | Darkness and devils! | 245 |
| Saddle my horses; call my train together: |
| Degenerate bastard! I'll not trouble thee. |
| Yet have I left a daughter. |
| GONERIL | You strike my people; and your disorder'd rabble |
| Make servants of their betters. | 250 |
| [Enter ALBANY] |
| KING LEAR | Woe, that too late repents,-- |
[To ALBANY] |
| O, sir, are you come? |
| Is it your will? Speak, sir. Prepare my horses. |
| Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend, |
| More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child | 255 |
| Than the sea-monster! |
| ALBANY | Pray, sir, be patient. |
| KING LEAR | [To GONERIL] Detested kite! thou liest.
|
| My train are men of choice and rarest parts, |
| That all particulars of duty know, | 260 |
| And in the most exact regard support |
| The worships of their name. O most small fault, |
| How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show! |
| That, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature |
| From the fix'd place; drew from heart all love, | 265 |
| 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. |
| ALBANY | My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant |
| Of what hath moved you. | 270 |
| KING 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! | 275 |
| 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 disnatured torment to her! | 280 |
| 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 | 285 |
| To have a thankless child! Away, away! |
| [Exit] |
| ALBANY | Now, gods that we adore, whereof comes this? |
| GONERIL | Never afflict yourself to know the cause; |
| But let his disposition have that scope |
| That dotage gives it. | 290 |
| [Re-enter KING LEAR] |
| KING LEAR | What, fifty of my followers at a clap! |
| Within a fortnight! |
| ALBANY | What's the matter, sir? |
| KING LEAR | I'll tell thee: |
[To GONERIL] |
| Life and death! I am ashamed | 295 |
| That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus; |
| 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 |
| Pierce every sense about thee! Old fond eyes, | 300 |
| Beweep this cause again, I'll pluck ye out, |
| And cast you, with the waters that you lose, |
| To temper clay. Yea, it is come to this? |
| Let is be so: yet have I left a daughter, |
| Who, I am sure, is kind and comfortable: | 305 |
| When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails |
| She'll flay thy wolvish visage. Thou shalt find |
| That I'll resume the shape which thou dost think |
| I have cast off for ever: thou shalt, |
| I warrant thee. | 310 |
| [Exeunt KING LEAR, KENT, and Attendants] |
| GONERIL | Do you mark that, my lord? |
| ALBANY | I cannot be so partial, Goneril, |
| To the great love I bear you,-- |
| GONERIL | Pray you, content. What, Oswald, ho! |
[To the Fool] |
| You, sir, more knave than fool, after your master. | 315 |
| Fool | Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry and take the fool |
| with thee. |
| A fox, when one has caught her, |
| And such a daughter, |
| Should sure to the slaughter, | 320 |
| If my cap would buy a halter: |
| So the fool follows after. |
| [Exit] |
| GONERIL | This man hath had good counsel:--a hundred knights! |
| 'Tis politic and safe to let him keep |
| At point a hundred knights: yes, that, on every dream, | 325 |
| Each buzz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike, |
| He may enguard his dotage with their powers, |
| And hold our lives in mercy. Oswald, I say! |
| ALBANY | Well, you may fear too far. |
| GONERIL | Safer than trust too far: | 330 |
| Let me still take away the harms I fear, |
| Not fear still to be taken: I know his heart. |
| What he hath utter'd I have writ my sister |
| If she sustain him and his hundred knights |
| When I have show'd the unfitness,-- | 335 |
[Re-enter OSWALD] |
| How now, Oswald! |
| What, have you writ that letter to my sister? |
| OSWALD | Yes, madam. |
| GONERIL | Take you some company, and away to horse: |
| Inform her full of my particular fear; | 340 |
| And thereto add such reasons of your own |
| As may compact it more. Get you gone; |
| And hasten your return. |
[Exit OSWALD] |
| No, no, my lord, |
| This milky gentleness and course of yours | 345 |
| Though I condemn not, yet, under pardon, |
| You are much more attask'd for want of wisdom |
| Than praised for harmful mildness. |
| ALBANY | How far your eyes may pierce I can not tell: |
| Striving to better, oft we mar what's well. | 350 |
| GONERIL | Nay, then-- |
| ALBANY | Well, well; the event. |
| [Exeunt] |
King Lear Overview