| ACT III SCENE VI | A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle. | |
| [Enter GLOUCESTER, KING LEAR, KENT, Fool, and EDGAR] |
| GLOUCESTER | Here is better than the open air; take it |
| thankfully. I will piece out the comfort with what |
| addition I can: I will not be long from you. |
| KENT | All the power of his wits have given way to his |
| impatience: the gods reward your kindness! | 5 |
| [Exit GLOUCESTER] |
| EDGAR | Frateretto calls me; and tells me |
| Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. |
| Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend. |
| Fool | Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a |
| gentleman or a yeoman? | 10 |
| KING LEAR | A king, a king! |
| Fool | No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son; |
| for he's a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman |
| before him. |
| KING LEAR | To have a thousand with red burning spits | 15 |
| Come hissing in upon 'em,-- |
| EDGAR | The foul fiend bites my back. |
| Fool | He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a |
| horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath. |
| KING LEAR | It shall be done; I will arraign them straight. | 20 |
[To EDGAR] |
| Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer; |
[To the Fool] |
| Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she foxes! |
| EDGAR | Look, where he stands and glares! |
| Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam? |
| Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me,-- | 25 |
| Fool | Her boat hath a leak, |
| And she must not speak |
| Why she dares not come over to thee. |
| EDGAR | The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a |
| nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two | 30 |
| white herring. Croak not, black angel; I have no |
| food for thee. |
| KENT | How do you, sir? Stand you not so amazed: |
| Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions? |
| KING LEAR | I'll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence. | 35 |
[To EDGAR] |
| Thou robed man of justice, take thy place; |
[To the Fool] |
| And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity, |
| Bench by his side: |
[To KENT] |
| you are o' the commission, |
| Sit you too. | 40 |
| EDGAR | Let us deal justly. |
| Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd? |
| Thy sheep be in the corn; |
| And for one blast of thy minikin mouth, |
| Thy sheep shall take no harm. | 45 |
| Pur! the cat is gray. |
| KING LEAR | Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my |
| oath before this honourable assembly, she kicked the |
| poor king her father. |
| Fool | Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril? | 50 |
| KING LEAR | She cannot deny it. |
| Fool | Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool. |
| KING LEAR | And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim |
| What store her heart is made on. Stop her there! |
| Arms, arms, sword, fire! Corruption in the place! | 55 |
| False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape? |
| EDGAR | Bless thy five wits! |
| KENT | O pity! Sir, where is the patience now, |
| That thou so oft have boasted to retain? |
| EDGAR | [Aside] My tears begin to take his part so much,
| 60 |
| They'll mar my counterfeiting. |
| KING LEAR | The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and |
| Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me. |
| EDGAR | Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs! |
| Be thy mouth or black or white, | 65 |
| Tooth that poisons if it bite; |
| Mastiff, grey-hound, mongrel grim, |
| Hound or spaniel, brach or lym, |
| Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail, |
| Tom will make them weep and wail: | 70 |
| For, with throwing thus my head, |
| Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled. |
| Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and |
| fairs and market-towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry. |
| KING LEAR | Then let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds | 75 |
| about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that |
| makes these hard hearts? |
[To EDGAR] |
| You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred; only I |
| do not like the fashion of your garments: you will |
| say they are Persian attire: but let them be changed. | 80 |
| KENT | Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile. |
| KING LEAR | Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains: |
| so, so, so. We'll go to supper i' he morning. So, so, so. |
| Fool | And I'll go to bed at noon. |
| [Re-enter GLOUCESTER] |
| GLOUCESTER | Come hither, friend: where is the king my master? | 85 |
| KENT | Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits are gone. |
| GLOUCESTER | Good friend, I prithee, take him in thy arms; |
| I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him: |
| There is a litter ready; lay him in 't, |
| And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet | 90 |
| Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master: |
| If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life, |
| With thine, and all that offer to defend him, |
| Stand in assured loss: take up, take up; |
| And follow me, that will to some provision | 95 |
| Give thee quick conduct. |
| KENT | Oppressed nature sleeps: |
| This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses, |
| Which, if convenience will not allow, |
| Stand in hard cure. | 100 |
[To the Fool] |
| Come, help to bear thy master; |
| Thou must not stay behind. |
| GLOUCESTER | Come, come, away. |
| [Exeunt all but EDGAR] |
| EDGAR | When we our betters see bearing our woes, |
| We scarcely think our miseries our foes. | 105 |
| Who alone suffers suffers most i' the mind, |
| Leaving free things and happy shows behind: |
| But then the mind much sufferance doth o'er skip, |
| When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship. |
| How light and portable my pain seems now, | 110 |
| When that which makes me bend makes the king bow, |
| He childed as I father'd! Tom, away! |
| Mark the high noises; and thyself bewray, |
| When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee, |
| In thy just proof, repeals and reconciles thee. | 115 |
| What will hap more to-night, safe 'scape the king! |
| Lurk, lurk. |
| [Exit] |
King Lear Overview