King Lear, William Shakespeare [good book recommendations TXT] 📗

philosopher. Kent Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow. Gloucester Take him you on. Kent Sirrah, come on; go along with us. King Lear Come, good Athenian. Gloucester No words, no words: hush. Edgar

Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
His word was still⁠—Fie, foh, and fum,
I smell the blood of a British man.

Exeunt. Scene V

Gloucester’s castle.

Enter Cornwall and Edmund. Cornwall I will have my revenge ere I depart his house. Edmund How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think of. Cornwall I now perceive, it was not altogether your brother’s evil disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reprovable badness in himself. Edmund How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to be just! This is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an intelligent party to the advantages of France: O heavens! that this treason were not, or not I the detector! Cornwall Go with me to the duchess. Edmund If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business in hand. Cornwall True or false, it hath made thee earl of Gloucester. Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension. Edmund Aside. If I find him comforting the king, it will stuff his suspicion more fully.⁠—I will persevere in my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore between that and my blood. Cornwall I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a dearer father in my love. Exeunt. 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! 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? 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
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.
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—

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 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.
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.

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.
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? 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!
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,
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,
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:
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 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. 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?

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
Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master:
If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life,
With thine, and all that offer