diff --git "a/ai_makerspace.ipynb" "b/ai_makerspace.ipynb" --- "a/ai_makerspace.ipynb" +++ "b/ai_makerspace.ipynb" @@ -1,8 +1,30 @@ { "cells": [ + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "# Your First RAQA Application\n", + "\n", + "In this notebook, we'll walk you through each of the components that are involved in a simple RAQA application. \n", + "\n", + "We won't be leveraging any fancy tools, just the OpenAI Python SDK, Numpy, and some classic Python.\n", + "\n", + "This was done with Python 3.11.4." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "### Imports and Utility \n", + "\n", + "We're just doing some imports and enabling `async` to work within the Jupyter environment here, nothing too crazy!" + ] + }, { "cell_type": "code", - "execution_count": 4, + "execution_count": 1, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ @@ -13,7 +35,7 @@ }, { "cell_type": "code", - "execution_count": 5, + "execution_count": 2, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ @@ -21,9 +43,4330 @@ "nest_asyncio.apply()" ] }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "### Documents\n", + "\n", + "So, first things first, we need some documents to work with. \n", + "\n", + "While we could work directly with the `.txt` files (or whatever file-types you wanted to extend this to) we can instead do some batch processing of those documents at the beginning in order to store them in a more machine compatible format. \n", + "\n", + "In this case, we're going to parse our text file into a single document in memory." + ] + }, { "cell_type": "code", - "execution_count": 6, + "execution_count": 13, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [ + { + "name": "stdout", + "output_type": "stream", + "text": [ + "1606\n", + "THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR\n", + "\n", + "by William Shakespeare\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Dramatis Personae\n", + "\n", + " Lear, King of Britain.\n", + " King of France.\n", + " Duke of Burgundy.\n", + " Duke of Cornwall.\n", + " Duke of Albany.\n", + " Earl of Kent.\n", + " Earl of Gloucester.\n", + " Edgar, son of Gloucester.\n", + " Edmund, bastard son to Gloucester.\n", + " Curan, a courtier.\n", + " Old Man, tenant to Gloucester.\n", + " Doctor.\n", + " Lear's Fool.\n", + " Oswald, steward to Goneril.\n", + " A Captain under Edmund's command.\n", + " Gentlemen.\n", + " A Herald.\n", + " Servants to Cornwall.\n", + "\n", + " Goneril, daughter to Lear.\n", + " Regan, daughter to Lear.\n", + " Cordelia, daughter to Lear.\n", + "\n", + " Knights attending on Lear, Officers, Messengers, Soldiers,\n", + " Attendants.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "<>\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene: - Britain.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "ACT I. Scene I.\n", + "[King Lear's Palace.]\n", + "\n", + "Enter Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund. [Kent and Glouceste converse.\n", + "Edmund stands back.]\n", + "\n", + " Kent. I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany\n", + "than\n", + " Cornwall.\n", + " Glou. It did always seem so to us; but now, in the division of\n", + "the\n", + " kingdom, it appears not which of the Dukes he values most,\n", + "for\n", + " equalities are so weigh'd that curiosity in neither can make\n", + " choice of either's moiety.\n", + " Kent. Is not this your son, my lord?\n", + " Glou. His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so\n", + "often\n", + " blush'd to acknowledge him that now I am braz'd to't.\n", + " Kent. I cannot conceive you.\n", + " Glou. Sir, this young fellow's mother could; whereupon she grew\n", + " round-womb'd, and had indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere\n", + "she\n", + " had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault?\n", + " Kent. I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so\n", + " proper.\n", + " Glou. But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year elder\n", + "than\n", + " this, who yet is no dearer in my account. Though this knave\n", + "came\n", + " something saucily into the world before he was sent for, yet\n", + "was \n", + " his mother fair, there was good sport at his making, and the\n", + " whoreson must be acknowledged.- Do you know this noble\n", + "gentleman,\n", + " Edmund?\n", + " Edm. [comes forward] No, my lord.\n", + " Glou. My Lord of Kent. Remember him hereafter as my honourable\n", + " friend.\n", + " Edm. My services to your lordship.\n", + " Kent. I must love you, and sue to know you better.\n", + " Edm. Sir, I shall study deserving.\n", + " Glou. He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again.\n", + " Sound a sennet.\n", + " The King is coming.\n", + "\n", + " Enter one bearing a coronet; then Lear; then the Dukes of\n", + " Albany and Cornwall; next, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia, with\n", + " Followers.\n", + "\n", + " Lear. Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.\n", + " Glou. I shall, my liege.\n", + " Exeunt [Gloucester and Edmund].\n", + " Lear. Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.\n", + " Give me the map there. Know we have divided \n", + " In three our kingdom; and 'tis our fast intent\n", + " To shake all cares and business from our age,\n", + " Conferring them on younger strengths while we\n", + " Unburthen'd crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall,\n", + " And you, our no less loving son of Albany,\n", + " We have this hour a constant will to publish\n", + " Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife\n", + " May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy,\n", + " Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,\n", + " Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,\n", + " And here are to be answer'd. Tell me, my daughters\n", + " (Since now we will divest us both of rule,\n", + " Interest of territory, cares of state),\n", + " Which of you shall we say doth love us most?\n", + " That we our largest bounty may extend\n", + " Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,\n", + " Our eldest-born, speak first.\n", + " Gon. Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;\n", + " Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty;\n", + " Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare; \n", + " No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;\n", + " As much as child e'er lov'd, or father found;\n", + " A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable.\n", + " Beyond all manner of so much I love you.\n", + " Cor. [aside] What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent.\n", + " Lear. Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,\n", + " With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd,\n", + " With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,\n", + " We make thee lady. To thine and Albany's issue\n", + " Be this perpetual.- What says our second daughter,\n", + " Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.\n", + " Reg. Sir, I am made\n", + " Of the selfsame metal that my sister is,\n", + " And prize me at her worth. In my true heart\n", + " I find she names my very deed of love;\n", + " Only she comes too short, that I profess\n", + " Myself an enemy to all other joys\n", + " Which the most precious square of sense possesses,\n", + " And find I am alone felicitate\n", + " In your dear Highness' love. \n", + " Cor. [aside] Then poor Cordelia!\n", + " And yet not so; since I am sure my love's\n", + " More richer than my tongue.\n", + " Lear. To thee and thine hereditary ever\n", + " Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom,\n", + " No less in space, validity, and pleasure\n", + " Than that conferr'd on Goneril.- Now, our joy,\n", + " Although the last, not least; to whose young love\n", + " The vines of France and milk of Burgundy\n", + " Strive to be interest; what can you say to draw\n", + " A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.\n", + " Cor. Nothing, my lord.\n", + " Lear. Nothing?\n", + " Cor. Nothing.\n", + " Lear. Nothing can come of nothing. Speak again.\n", + " Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave\n", + " My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty\n", + " According to my bond; no more nor less.\n", + " Lear. How, how, Cordelia? Mend your speech a little,\n", + " Lest it may mar your fortunes. \n", + " Cor. Good my lord,\n", + " You have begot me, bred me, lov'd me; I\n", + " Return those duties back as are right fit,\n", + " Obey you, love you, and most honour you.\n", + " Why have my sisters husbands, if they say\n", + " They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,\n", + " That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry\n", + " Half my love with him, half my care and duty.\n", + " Sure I shall never marry like my sisters,\n", + " To love my father all.\n", + " Lear. But goes thy heart with this?\n", + " Cor. Ay, good my lord.\n", + " Lear. So young, and so untender?\n", + " Cor. So young, my lord, and true.\n", + " Lear. Let it be so! thy truth then be thy dower!\n", + " For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,\n", + " The mysteries of Hecate and the night;\n", + " By all the operation of the orbs\n", + " From whom we do exist and cease to be;\n", + " Here I disclaim all my paternal care, \n", + " Propinquity and property of blood,\n", + " And as a stranger to my heart and me\n", + " Hold thee from this for ever. The barbarous Scythian,\n", + " Or he that makes his generation messes\n", + " To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom\n", + " Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and reliev'd,\n", + " As thou my sometime daughter.\n", + " Kent. Good my liege-\n", + " Lear. Peace, Kent!\n", + " Come not between the dragon and his wrath.\n", + " I lov'd her most, and thought to set my rest\n", + " On her kind nursery.- Hence and avoid my sight!-\n", + " So be my grave my peace as here I give\n", + " Her father's heart from her! Call France! Who stirs?\n", + " Call Burgundy! Cornwall and Albany,\n", + " With my two daughters' dowers digest this third;\n", + " Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.\n", + " I do invest you jointly in my power,\n", + " Preeminence, and all the large effects\n", + " That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course, \n", + " With reservation of an hundred knights,\n", + " By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode\n", + " Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain\n", + " The name, and all th' additions to a king. The sway,\n", + " Revenue, execution of the rest,\n", + " Beloved sons, be yours; which to confirm,\n", + " This coronet part betwixt you.\n", + " Kent. Royal Lear,\n", + " Whom I have ever honour'd as my king,\n", + " Lov'd as my father, as my master follow'd,\n", + " As my great patron thought on in my prayers-\n", + " Lear. The bow is bent and drawn; make from the shaft.\n", + " Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade\n", + " The region of my heart! Be Kent unmannerly\n", + " When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man?\n", + " Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak\n", + " When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound\n", + " When majesty falls to folly. Reverse thy doom;\n", + " And in thy best consideration check\n", + " This hideous rashness. Answer my life my judgment, \n", + " Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least,\n", + " Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound\n", + " Reverbs no hollowness.\n", + " Lear. Kent, on thy life, no more!\n", + " Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn\n", + " To wage against thine enemies; nor fear to lose it,\n", + " Thy safety being the motive.\n", + " Lear. Out of my sight!\n", + " Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain\n", + " The true blank of thine eye.\n", + " Lear. Now by Apollo-\n", + " Kent. Now by Apollo, King,\n", + " Thou swear'st thy gods in vain.\n", + " Lear. O vassal! miscreant!\n", + " [Lays his hand on his sword.]\n", + " Alb., Corn. Dear sir, forbear!\n", + " Kent. Do!\n", + " Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow\n", + " Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy gift,\n", + " Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat, \n", + " I'll tell thee thou dost evil.\n", + " Lear. Hear me, recreant!\n", + " On thine allegiance, hear me!\n", + " Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow-\n", + " Which we durst never yet- and with strain'd pride\n", + " To come between our sentence and our power,-\n", + " Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,-\n", + " Our potency made good, take thy reward.\n", + " Five days we do allot thee for provision\n", + " To shield thee from diseases of the world,\n", + " And on the sixth to turn thy hated back\n", + " Upon our kingdom. If, on the tenth day following,\n", + " Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,\n", + " The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter,\n", + " This shall not be revok'd.\n", + " Kent. Fare thee well, King. Since thus thou wilt appear,\n", + " Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.\n", + " [To Cordelia] The gods to their dear shelter take thee,\n", + "maid,\n", + " That justly think'st and hast most rightly said!\n", + " [To Regan and Goneril] And your large speeches may your\n", + "deeds \n", + " approve,\n", + " That good effects may spring from words of love.\n", + " Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu;\n", + " He'll shape his old course in a country new.\n", + "Exit.\n", + "\n", + " Flourish. Enter Gloucester, with France and Burgundy;\n", + "Attendants.\n", + "\n", + " Glou. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord.\n", + " Lear. My Lord of Burgundy,\n", + " We first address toward you, who with this king\n", + " Hath rivall'd for our daughter. What in the least\n", + " Will you require in present dower with her,\n", + " Or cease your quest of love?\n", + " Bur. Most royal Majesty,\n", + " I crave no more than hath your Highness offer'd,\n", + " Nor will you tender less.\n", + " Lear. Right noble Burgundy,\n", + " When she was dear to us, we did hold her so;\n", + " But now her price is fall'n. Sir, there she stands.\n", + " If aught within that little seeming substance,\n", + " Or all of it, with our displeasure piec'd, \n", + " And nothing more, may fitly like your Grace,\n", + " She's there, and she is yours.\n", + " Bur. I know no answer.\n", + " Lear. Will you, with those infirmities she owes,\n", + " Unfriended, new adopted to our hate,\n", + " Dow'r'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath,\n", + " Take her, or leave her?\n", + " Bur. Pardon me, royal sir.\n", + " Election makes not up on such conditions.\n", + " Lear. Then leave her, sir; for, by the pow'r that made me,\n", + " I tell you all her wealth. [To France] For you, great King,\n", + " I would not from your love make such a stray\n", + " To match you where I hate; therefore beseech you\n", + " T' avert your liking a more worthier way\n", + " Than on a wretch whom nature is asham'd\n", + " Almost t' acknowledge hers.\n", + " France. This is most strange,\n", + " That she that even but now was your best object,\n", + " The argument of your praise, balm of your age,\n", + " Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time \n", + " Commit a thing so monstrous to dismantle\n", + " So many folds of favour. Sure her offence\n", + " Must be of such unnatural degree\n", + " That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection\n", + " Fall'n into taint; which to believe of her\n", + " Must be a faith that reason without miracle\n", + " Should never plant in me.\n", + " Cor. I yet beseech your Majesty,\n", + " If for I want that glib and oily art\n", + " To speak and purpose not, since what I well intend,\n", + " I'll do't before I speak- that you make known\n", + " It is no vicious blot, murther, or foulness,\n", + " No unchaste action or dishonoured step,\n", + " That hath depriv'd me of your grace and favour;\n", + " But even for want of that for which I am richer-\n", + " A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue\n", + " As I am glad I have not, though not to have it\n", + " Hath lost me in your liking.\n", + " Lear. Better thou\n", + " Hadst not been born than not t' have pleas'd me better. \n", + " France. Is it but this- a tardiness in nature\n", + " Which often leaves the history unspoke\n", + " That it intends to do? My Lord of Burgundy,\n", + " What say you to the lady? Love's not love\n", + " When it is mingled with regards that stands\n", + " Aloof from th' entire point. Will you have her?\n", + " She is herself a dowry.\n", + " Bur. Royal Lear,\n", + " Give but that portion which yourself propos'd,\n", + " And here I take Cordelia by the hand,\n", + " Duchess of Burgundy.\n", + " Lear. Nothing! I have sworn; I am firm.\n", + " Bur. I am sorry then you have so lost a father\n", + " That you must lose a husband.\n", + " Cor. Peace be with Burgundy!\n", + " Since that respects of fortune are his love,\n", + " I shall not be his wife.\n", + " France. Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor;\n", + " Most choice, forsaken; and most lov'd, despis'd!\n", + " Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon. \n", + " Be it lawful I take up what's cast away.\n", + " Gods, gods! 'tis strange that from their cold'st neglect\n", + " My love should kindle to inflam'd respect.\n", + " Thy dow'rless daughter, King, thrown to my chance,\n", + " Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France.\n", + " Not all the dukes in wat'rish Burgundy\n", + " Can buy this unpriz'd precious maid of me.\n", + " Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind.\n", + " Thou losest here, a better where to find.\n", + " Lear. Thou hast her, France; let her be thine; for we\n", + " Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see\n", + " That face of hers again. Therefore be gone\n", + " Without our grace, our love, our benison.\n", + " Come, noble Burgundy.\n", + " Flourish. Exeunt Lear, Burgundy, [Cornwall, Albany,\n", + " Gloucester, and Attendants].\n", + " France. Bid farewell to your sisters.\n", + " Cor. The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes\n", + " Cordelia leaves you. I know you what you are;\n", + " And, like a sister, am most loath to call \n", + " Your faults as they are nam'd. Use well our father.\n", + " To your professed bosoms I commit him;\n", + " But yet, alas, stood I within his grace,\n", + " I would prefer him to a better place!\n", + " So farewell to you both.\n", + " Gon. Prescribe not us our duties.\n", + " Reg. Let your study\n", + " Be to content your lord, who hath receiv'd you\n", + " At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted,\n", + " And well are worth the want that you have wanted.\n", + " Cor. Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides.\n", + " Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.\n", + " Well may you prosper!\n", + " France. Come, my fair Cordelia.\n", + " Exeunt France and Cordelia.\n", + " Gon. Sister, it is not little I have to say of what most nearly\n", + " appertains to us both. I think our father will hence\n", + "to-night.\n", + " Reg. That's most certain, and with you; next month with us.\n", + " Gon. You see how full of changes his age is. The observation we\n", + " have made of it hath not been little. He always lov'd our \n", + " sister most, and with what poor judgment he hath now cast\n", + "her\n", + " off appears too grossly.\n", + " Reg. 'Tis the infirmity of his age; yet he hath ever but\n", + "slenderly\n", + " known himself.\n", + " Gon. The best and soundest of his time hath been but rash; then\n", + " must we look to receive from his age, not alone the\n", + " imperfections of long-ingraffed condition, but therewithal\n", + " the unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring\n", + "with\n", + " them.\n", + " Reg. Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him as\n", + "this\n", + " of Kent's banishment.\n", + " Gon. There is further compliment of leave-taking between France\n", + "and\n", + " him. Pray you let's hit together. If our father carry\n", + "authority\n", + " with such dispositions as he bears, this last surrender of\n", + "his\n", + " will but offend us.\n", + " Reg. We shall further think on't.\n", + " Gon. We must do something, and i' th' heat.\n", + " Exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene II.\n", + "The Earl of Gloucester's Castle.\n", + "\n", + "Enter [Edmund the] Bastard solus, [with a letter].\n", + "\n", + " Edm. Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law\n", + " My services are bound. Wherefore should I\n", + " Stand in the plague of custom, and permit\n", + " The curiosity of nations to deprive me,\n", + " For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines\n", + " Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?\n", + " When my dimensions are as well compact,\n", + " My mind as generous, and my shape as true,\n", + " As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us\n", + " With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?\n", + " Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take\n", + " More composition and fierce quality\n", + " Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,\n", + " Go to th' creating a whole tribe of fops\n", + " Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well then,\n", + " Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land.\n", + " Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund\n", + " As to th' legitimate. Fine word- 'legitimate'!\n", + " Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed, \n", + " And my invention thrive, Edmund the base\n", + " Shall top th' legitimate. I grow; I prosper.\n", + " Now, gods, stand up for bastards!\n", + "\n", + " Enter Gloucester.\n", + "\n", + " Glou. Kent banish'd thus? and France in choler parted?\n", + " And the King gone to-night? subscrib'd his pow'r?\n", + " Confin'd to exhibition? All this done\n", + " Upon the gad? Edmund, how now? What news?\n", + " Edm. So please your lordship, none.\n", + " [Puts up the letter.]\n", + " Glou. Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?\n", + " Edm. I know no news, my lord.\n", + " Glou. What paper were you reading?\n", + " Edm. Nothing, my lord.\n", + " Glou. No? What needed then that terrible dispatch of it into\n", + "your\n", + " pocket? The quality of nothing hath not such need to hide\n", + " itself. Let's see. Come, if it be nothing, I shall not need\n", + " spectacles.\n", + " Edm. I beseech you, sir, pardon me. It is a letter from my\n", + "brother\n", + " that I have not all o'er-read; and for so much as I have \n", + " perus'd, I find it not fit for your o'erlooking.\n", + " Glou. Give me the letter, sir.\n", + " Edm. I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The contents,\n", + "as\n", + " in part I understand them, are to blame.\n", + " Glou. Let's see, let's see!\n", + " Edm. I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but\n", + "as\n", + " an essay or taste of my virtue.\n", + "\n", + " Glou. (reads) 'This policy and reverence of age makes the world\n", + " bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us\n", + " till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle\n", + " and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny, who\n", + "sways,\n", + " not as it hath power, but as it is suffer'd. Come to me,\n", + "that\n", + " of this I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I\n", + " wak'd him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and\n", + "live\n", + " the beloved of your brother,\n", + " 'EDGAR.'\n", + "\n", + " Hum! Conspiracy? 'Sleep till I wak'd him, you should enjoy\n", + "half\n", + " his revenue.' My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? a\n", + "heart\n", + " and brain to breed it in? When came this to you? Who brought\n", + "it?\n", + " Edm. It was not brought me, my lord: there's the cunning of it.\n", + "I \n", + " found it thrown in at the casement of my closet.\n", + " Glou. You know the character to be your brother's?\n", + " Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were\n", + "his;\n", + " but in respect of that, I would fain think it were not.\n", + " Glou. It is his.\n", + " Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is not in\n", + "the\n", + " contents.\n", + " Glou. Hath he never before sounded you in this business?\n", + " Edm. Never, my lord. But I have heard him oft maintain it to be\n", + "fit\n", + " that, sons at perfect age, and fathers declining, the father\n", + " should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his\n", + "revenue.\n", + " Glou. O villain, villain! His very opinion in the letter!\n", + "Abhorred\n", + " villain! Unnatural, detested, brutish villain! worse than\n", + " brutish! Go, sirrah, seek him. I'll apprehend him.\n", + "Abominable\n", + " villain! Where is he?\n", + " Edm. I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please you to\n", + "suspend\n", + " your indignation against my brother till you can derive from\n", + "him\n", + " better testimony of his intent, you should run a certain\n", + "course;\n", + " where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his\n", + " purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour and\n", + "shake \n", + " in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my\n", + "life\n", + " for him that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your\n", + " honour, and to no other pretence of danger.\n", + " Glou. Think you so?\n", + " Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you\n", + "shall\n", + " hear us confer of this and by an auricular assurance have\n", + "your\n", + " satisfaction, and that without any further delay than this\n", + "very\n", + " evening.\n", + " Glou. He cannot be such a monster.\n", + " Edm. Nor is not, sure.\n", + " Glou. To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him.\n", + " Heaven and earth! Edmund, seek him out; wind me into him, I\n", + "pray\n", + " you; frame the business after your own wisdom. I would\n", + "unstate\n", + " myself to be in a due resolution.\n", + " Edm. I will seek him, sir, presently; convey the business as I\n", + " shall find means, and acquaint you withal.\n", + " Glou. These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good\n", + "to\n", + " us. Though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus,\n", + "yet\n", + " nature finds itself scourg'd by the sequent effects. Love\n", + "cools,\n", + " friendship falls off, brothers divide. In cities, mutinies;\n", + "in \n", + " countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond\n", + "crack'd\n", + " 'twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the\n", + " prediction; there's son against father: the King falls from\n", + "bias\n", + " of nature; there's father against child. We have seen the\n", + "best\n", + " of our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all\n", + " ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves. Find\n", + "out\n", + " this villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it\n", + " carefully. And the noble and true-hearted Kent banish'd! his\n", + " offence, honesty! 'Tis strange. Exit.\n", + " Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we\n", + "are\n", + " sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, we\n", + "make\n", + " guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as\n", + "if\n", + " we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion;\n", + " knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical pre-dominance;\n", + " drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforc'd obedience of\n", + " planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a\n", + "divine\n", + " thrusting on. An admirable evasion of whore-master man, to\n", + "lay\n", + " his goatish disposition to the charge of a star! My father\n", + " compounded with my mother under the Dragon's Tail, and my\n", + " nativity was under Ursa Major, so that it follows I am rough\n", + "and \n", + " lecherous. Fut! I should have been that I am, had the\n", + " maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my\n", + "bastardizing.\n", + " Edgar-\n", + "\n", + " Enter Edgar.\n", + "\n", + " and pat! he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy.\n", + "My\n", + " cue is villainous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o'\n", + "Bedlam.\n", + " O, these eclipses do portend these divisions! Fa, sol, la,\n", + "mi.\n", + " Edg. How now, brother Edmund? What serious contemplation are\n", + "you\n", + " in?\n", + " Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other\n", + "day,\n", + " what should follow these eclipses.\n", + " Edg. Do you busy yourself with that?\n", + " Edm. I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily:\n", + "as\n", + " of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death,\n", + " dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state,\n", + " menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless\n", + " diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts,\n", + " nuptial breaches, and I know not what.\n", + " Edg. How long have you been a sectary astronomical?\n", + " Edm. Come, come! When saw you my father last? \n", + " Edg. The night gone by.\n", + " Edm. Spake you with him?\n", + " Edg. Ay, two hours together.\n", + " Edm. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him\n", + "by\n", + " word or countenance\n", + " Edg. None at all.\n", + " Edm. Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended him; and at\n", + "my\n", + " entreaty forbear his presence until some little time hath\n", + " qualified the heat of his displeasure, which at this instant\n", + "so\n", + " rageth in him that with the mischief of your person it would\n", + " scarcely allay.\n", + " Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong.\n", + " Edm. That's my fear. I pray you have a continent forbearance\n", + "till\n", + " the speed of his rage goes slower; and, as I say, retire\n", + "with me\n", + " to my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my\n", + " lord speak. Pray ye, go! There's my key. If you do stir\n", + "abroad,\n", + " go arm'd.\n", + " Edg. Arm'd, brother?\n", + " Edm. Brother, I advise you to the best. Go arm'd. I am no\n", + "honest man\n", + " if there be any good meaning toward you. I have told you\n", + "what I \n", + " have seen and heard; but faintly, nothing like the image and\n", + " horror of it. Pray you, away!\n", + " Edg. Shall I hear from you anon?\n", + " Edm. I do serve you in this business.\n", + " Exit Edgar.\n", + " A credulous father! and a brother noble,\n", + " Whose nature is so far from doing harms\n", + " That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty\n", + " My practices ride easy! I see the business.\n", + " Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit;\n", + " All with me's meet that I can fashion fit.\n", + "Exit.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene III.\n", + "The Duke of Albany's Palace.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Goneril and [her] Steward [Oswald].\n", + "\n", + " Gon. Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool?\n", + " Osw. Ay, madam.\n", + " Gon. By day and night, he wrongs me! Every hour\n", + " He flashes into one gross crime or other\n", + " That sets us all at odds. I'll not endure it.\n", + " His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us\n", + " On every trifle. When he returns from hunting,\n", + " I will not speak with him. Say I am sick.\n", + " If you come slack of former services,\n", + " You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer.\n", + " [Horns within.]\n", + " Osw. He's coming, madam; I hear him.\n", + " Gon. Put on what weary negligence you please,\n", + " You and your fellows. I'd have it come to question.\n", + " If he distaste it, let him to our sister,\n", + " Whose mind and mine I know in that are one,\n", + " Not to be overrul'd. Idle old man, \n", + " That still would manage those authorities\n", + " That he hath given away! Now, by my life,\n", + " Old fools are babes again, and must be us'd\n", + " With checks as flatteries, when they are seen abus'd.\n", + " Remember what I have said.\n", + " Osw. Very well, madam.\n", + " Gon. And let his knights have colder looks among you.\n", + " What grows of it, no matter. Advise your fellows so.\n", + " I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall,\n", + " That I may speak. I'll write straight to my sister\n", + " To hold my very course. Prepare for dinner.\n", + " Exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene IV.\n", + "The Duke of Albany's Palace.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Kent, [disguised].\n", + "\n", + " Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow,\n", + " That can my speech defuse, my good intent\n", + " May carry through itself to that full issue\n", + " For which I raz'd my likeness. Now, banish'd Kent,\n", + " If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd,\n", + " So may it come, thy master, whom thou lov'st,\n", + " Shall find thee full of labours.\n", + "\n", + " Horns within. Enter Lear, [Knights,] and Attendants.\n", + "\n", + " Lear. Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go get it ready. [Exit\n", + " an Attendant.] How now? What art thou?\n", + " Kent. A man, sir.\n", + " Lear. What dost thou profess? What wouldst thou with us?\n", + " Kent. I do profess to be no less than I seem, to serve him\n", + "truly\n", + " that will put me in trust, to love him that is honest, to\n", + " converse with him that is wise and says little, to fear \n", + " judgment, to fight when I cannot choose, and to eat no fish.\n", + " Lear. What art thou?\n", + " Kent. A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the King.\n", + " Lear. If thou be'st as poor for a subject as he's for a king,\n", + "thou\n", + " art poor enough. What wouldst thou?\n", + " Kent. Service.\n", + " Lear. Who wouldst thou serve?\n", + " Kent. You.\n", + " Lear. Dost thou know me, fellow?\n", + " Kent. No, sir; but you have that in your countenance which I\n", + "would\n", + " fain call master.\n", + " Lear. What's that?\n", + " Kent. Authority.\n", + " Lear. What services canst thou do?\n", + " Kent. I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious tale\n", + "in\n", + " telling it and deliver a plain message bluntly. That which\n", + " ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in, and the best of\n", + "me\n", + " is diligence.\n", + " Lear. How old art thou?\n", + " Kent. Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor so\n", + "old to \n", + " dote on her for anything. I have years on my back\n", + "forty-eight.\n", + " Lear. Follow me; thou shalt serve me. If I like thee no worse\n", + "after\n", + " dinner, I will not part from thee yet. Dinner, ho, dinner!\n", + " Where's my knave? my fool? Go you and call my fool hither.\n", + "\n", + " [Exit an attendant.]\n", + "\n", + " Enter [Oswald the] Steward.\n", + "\n", + " You, you, sirrah, where's my daughter?\n", + " Osw. So please you- Exit.\n", + " Lear. What says the fellow there? Call the clotpoll back.\n", + " [Exit a Knight.] Where's my fool, ho? I think the world's\n", + " asleep.\n", + "\n", + " [Enter Knight]\n", + "\n", + " How now? Where's that mongrel?\n", + " Knight. He says, my lord, your daughter is not well.\n", + " Lear. Why came not the slave back to me when I call'd him? \n", + " Knight. Sir, he answered me in the roundest manner, he would\n", + "not.\n", + " Lear. He would not?\n", + " Knight. My lord, I know not what the matter is; but to my\n", + "judgment\n", + " your Highness is not entertain'd with that ceremonious\n", + "affection\n", + " as you were wont. There's a great abatement of kindness\n", + "appears\n", + " as well in the general dependants as in the Duke himself\n", + "also\n", + " and your daughter.\n", + " Lear. Ha! say'st thou so?\n", + " Knight. I beseech you pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken; for\n", + " my duty cannot be silent when I think your Highness wrong'd.\n", + " Lear. Thou but rememb'rest me of mine own conception. I have\n", + " perceived a most faint neglect of late, which I have rather\n", + " blamed as mine own jealous curiosity than as a very pretence\n", + " and purpose of unkindness. I will look further into't. But\n", + " where's my fool? I have not seen him this two days.\n", + " Knight. Since my young lady's going into France, sir, the fool\n", + " hath much pined away.\n", + " Lear. No more of that; I have noted it well. Go you and tell my\n", + " daughter I would speak with her. [Exit Knight.] Go you, call\n", + " hither my fool. \n", + " [Exit an Attendant.]\n", + "\n", + " Enter [Oswald the] Steward.\n", + "\n", + " O, you, sir, you! Come you hither, sir. Who am I, sir?\n", + " Osw. My lady's father.\n", + " Lear. 'My lady's father'? My lord's knave! You whoreson dog!\n", + "you\n", + " slave! you cur!\n", + " Osw. I am none of these, my lord; I beseech your pardon.\n", + " Lear. Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal?\n", + " [Strikes him.]\n", + " Osw. I'll not be strucken, my lord.\n", + " Kent. Nor tripp'd neither, you base football player?\n", + " [Trips up his heels.\n", + " Lear. I thank thee, fellow. Thou serv'st me, and I'll love\n", + "thee.\n", + " Kent. Come, sir, arise, away! I'll teach you differences. Away,\n", + " away! If you will measure your lubber's length again, tarry;\n", + "but\n", + " away! Go to! Have you wisdom? So.\n", + " [Pushes him out.]\n", + " Lear. Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee. There's earnest of\n", + "thy \n", + " service. [Gives money.]\n", + "\n", + " Enter Fool.\n", + "\n", + " Fool. Let me hire him too. Here's my coxcomb.\n", + " [Offers Kent his cap.]\n", + " Lear. How now, my pretty knave? How dost thou?\n", + " Fool. Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb.\n", + " Kent. Why, fool?\n", + " Fool. Why? For taking one's part that's out of favour. Nay, an\n", + "thou\n", + " canst not smile as the wind sits, thou'lt catch cold\n", + "shortly.\n", + " There, take my coxcomb! Why, this fellow hath banish'd two\n", + "on's\n", + " daughters, and did the third a blessing against his will. If\n", + " thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb.- How now,\n", + " nuncle? Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters!\n", + " Lear. Why, my boy?\n", + " Fool. If I gave them all my living, I'ld keep my coxcombs\n", + "myself.\n", + " There's mine! beg another of thy daughters.\n", + " Lear. Take heed, sirrah- the whip.\n", + " Fool. Truth's a dog must to kennel; he must be whipp'd out,\n", + "when \n", + " Lady the brach may stand by th' fire and stink.\n", + " Lear. A pestilent gall to me!\n", + " Fool. Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech.\n", + " Lear. Do.\n", + " Fool. Mark it, nuncle.\n", + " Have more than thou showest,\n", + " Speak less than thou knowest,\n", + " Lend less than thou owest,\n", + " Ride more than thou goest,\n", + " Learn more than thou trowest,\n", + " Set less than thou throwest;\n", + " Leave thy drink and thy whore,\n", + " And keep in-a-door,\n", + " And thou shalt have more\n", + " Than two tens to a score.\n", + " Kent. This is nothing, fool.\n", + " Fool. Then 'tis like the breath of an unfeed lawyer- you gave\n", + "me\n", + " nothing for't. Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle?\n", + " Lear. Why, no, boy. Nothing can be made out of nothing.\n", + " Fool. [to Kent] Prithee tell him, so much the rent of his land \n", + " comes to. He will not believe a fool.\n", + " Lear. A bitter fool!\n", + " Fool. Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a bitter\n", + " fool and a sweet fool?\n", + " Lear. No, lad; teach me.\n", + " Fool. That lord that counsell'd thee\n", + " To give away thy land,\n", + " Come place him here by me-\n", + " Do thou for him stand.\n", + " The sweet and bitter fool\n", + " Will presently appear;\n", + " The one in motley here,\n", + " The other found out there.\n", + " Lear. Dost thou call me fool, boy?\n", + " Fool. All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast\n", + " born with.\n", + " Kent. This is not altogether fool, my lord.\n", + " Fool. No, faith; lords and great men will not let me. If I had\n", + "a\n", + " monopoly out, they would have part on't. And ladies too,\n", + "they\n", + " will not let me have all the fool to myself; they'll be \n", + " snatching. Give me an egg, nuncle, and I'll give thee two\n", + " crowns.\n", + " Lear. What two crowns shall they be?\n", + " Fool. Why, after I have cut the egg i' th' middle and eat up\n", + "the\n", + " meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou clovest thy crown\n", + "i'\n", + " th' middle and gav'st away both parts, thou bor'st thine ass\n", + "on\n", + " thy back o'er the dirt. Thou hadst little wit in thy bald\n", + "crown\n", + " when thou gav'st thy golden one away. If I speak like myself\n", + "in\n", + " this, let him be whipp'd that first finds it so.\n", + "\n", + " [Sings] Fools had ne'er less grace in a year,\n", + " For wise men are grown foppish;\n", + " They know not how their wits to wear,\n", + " Their manners are so apish.\n", + "\n", + " Lear. When were you wont to be so full of songs, sirrah?\n", + " Fool. I have us'd it, nuncle, ever since thou mad'st thy\n", + "daughters\n", + " thy mother; for when thou gav'st them the rod, and put'st\n", + "down\n", + " thine own breeches,\n", + " \n", + " [Sings] Then they for sudden joy did weep,\n", + " And I for sorrow sung,\n", + " That such a king should play bo-peep\n", + " And go the fools among.\n", + "\n", + " Prithee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool\n", + "to\n", + " lie. I would fain learn to lie.\n", + " Lear. An you lie, sirrah, we'll have you whipp'd.\n", + " Fool. I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are. They'll\n", + "have me\n", + " whipp'd for speaking true; thou'lt have me whipp'd for\n", + "lying;\n", + " and sometimes I am whipp'd for holding my peace. I had\n", + "rather be\n", + " any kind o' thing than a fool! And yet I would not be thee,\n", + " nuncle. Thou hast pared thy wit o' both sides and left\n", + "nothing\n", + " i' th' middle. Here comes one o' the parings.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Goneril.\n", + "\n", + " Lear. How now, daughter? What makes that frontlet on? Methinks\n", + "you\n", + " are too much o' late i' th' frown.\n", + " Fool. Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to care\n", + "for \n", + " her frowning. Now thou art an O without a figure. I am\n", + "better\n", + " than thou art now: I am a fool, thou art nothing.\n", + " [To Goneril] Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue. So your\n", + "face\n", + " bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum!\n", + "\n", + " He that keeps nor crust nor crum,\n", + " Weary of all, shall want some.-\n", + "\n", + " [Points at Lear] That's a sheal'd peascod.\n", + " Gon. Not only, sir, this your all-licens'd fool,\n", + " But other of your insolent retinue\n", + " Do hourly carp and quarrel, breaking forth\n", + " In rank and not-to-be-endured riots. Sir,\n", + " I had thought, by making this well known unto you,\n", + " To have found a safe redress, but now grow fearful,\n", + " By what yourself, too, late have spoke and done,\n", + " That you protect this course, and put it on\n", + " By your allowance; which if you should, the fault\n", + " Would not scape censure, nor the redresses sleep,\n", + " Which, in the tender of a wholesome weal, \n", + " Might in their working do you that offence\n", + " Which else were shame, that then necessity\n", + " Must call discreet proceeding.\n", + " Fool. For you know, nuncle,\n", + "\n", + " The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long\n", + " That it had it head bit off by it young.\n", + "\n", + " So out went the candle, and we were left darkling.\n", + " Lear. Are you our daughter?\n", + " Gon. Come, sir,\n", + " I would you would make use of that good wisdom\n", + " Whereof I know you are fraught, and put away\n", + " These dispositions that of late transform you\n", + " From what you rightly are.\n", + " Fool. May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse?\n", + " Whoop, Jug, I love thee!\n", + " Lear. Doth any here know me? This is not Lear.\n", + " Doth Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes?\n", + " Either his notion weakens, his discernings \n", + " Are lethargied- Ha! waking? 'Tis not so!\n", + " Who is it that can tell me who I am?\n", + " Fool. Lear's shadow.\n", + " Lear. I would learn that; for, by the marks of sovereignty,\n", + " Knowledge, and reason, I should be false persuaded\n", + " I had daughters.\n", + " Fool. Which they will make an obedient father.\n", + " Lear. Your name, fair gentlewoman?\n", + " Gon. This admiration, sir, is much o' th' savour\n", + " Of other your new pranks. I do beseech you\n", + " To understand my purposes aright.\n", + " As you are old and reverend, you should be wise.\n", + " Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires;\n", + " Men so disorder'd, so debosh'd, and bold\n", + " That this our court, infected with their manners,\n", + " Shows like a riotous inn. Epicurism and lust\n", + " Make it more like a tavern or a brothel\n", + " Than a grac'd palace. The shame itself doth speak\n", + " For instant remedy. Be then desir'd\n", + " By her that else will take the thing she begs \n", + " A little to disquantity your train,\n", + " And the remainder that shall still depend\n", + " To be such men as may besort your age,\n", + " Which know themselves, and you.\n", + " Lear. Darkness and devils!\n", + " Saddle my horses! Call my train together!\n", + " Degenerate bastard, I'll not trouble thee;\n", + " Yet have I left a daughter.\n", + " Gon. You strike my people, and your disorder'd rabble\n", + " Make servants of their betters.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Albany.\n", + "\n", + " Lear. Woe that too late repents!- O, sir, are you come?\n", + " Is it your will? Speak, sir!- Prepare my horses.\n", + " Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,\n", + " More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child\n", + " Than the sea-monster!\n", + " Alb. Pray, sir, be patient.\n", + " Lear. [to Goneril] Detested kite, thou liest! \n", + " My train are men of choice and rarest parts,\n", + " That all particulars of duty know\n", + " And in the most exact regard support\n", + " The worships of their name.- O most small fault,\n", + " How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show!\n", + " Which, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature\n", + " From the fix'd place; drew from my heart all love\n", + " And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear!\n", + " Beat at this gate that let thy folly in [Strikes his head.]\n", + " And thy dear judgment out! Go, go, my people.\n", + " Alb. My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant\n", + " Of what hath mov'd you.\n", + " Lear. It may be so, my lord.\n", + " Hear, Nature, hear! dear goddess, hear!\n", + " Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend\n", + " To make this creature fruitful.\n", + " Into her womb convey sterility;\n", + " Dry up in her the organs of increase;\n", + " And from her derogate body never spring\n", + " A babe to honour her! If she must teem, \n", + " Create her child of spleen, that it may live\n", + " And be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her.\n", + " Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,\n", + " With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,\n", + " Turn all her mother's pains and benefits\n", + " To laughter and contempt, that she may feel\n", + " How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is\n", + " To have a thankless child! Away, away! Exit.\n", + " Alb. Now, gods that we adore, whereof comes this?\n", + " Gon. Never afflict yourself to know the cause;\n", + " But let his disposition have that scope\n", + " That dotage gives it.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Lear.\n", + "\n", + " Lear. What, fifty of my followers at a clap?\n", + " Within a fortnight?\n", + " Alb. What's the matter, sir?\n", + " Lear. I'll tell thee. [To Goneril] Life and death! I am asham'd\n", + " That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus; \n", + " That these hot tears, which break from me perforce,\n", + " Should make thee worth them. Blasts and fogs upon thee!\n", + " Th' untented woundings of a father's curse\n", + " Pierce every sense about thee!- Old fond eyes,\n", + " Beweep this cause again, I'll pluck ye out,\n", + " And cast you, with the waters that you lose,\n", + " To temper clay. Yea, is it come to this?\n", + " Let it be so. Yet have I left a daughter,\n", + " Who I am sure is kind and comfortable.\n", + " When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails\n", + " She'll flay thy wolvish visage. Thou shalt find\n", + " That I'll resume the shape which thou dost think\n", + " I have cast off for ever; thou shalt, I warrant thee.\n", + " Exeunt [Lear, Kent, and Attendants].\n", + " Gon. Do you mark that, my lord?\n", + " Alb. I cannot be so partial, Goneril,\n", + " To the great love I bear you -\n", + " Gon. Pray you, content.- What, Oswald, ho!\n", + " [To the Fool] You, sir, more knave than fool, after your\n", + "master!\n", + " Fool. Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry! Take the fool with thee.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + " A fox when one has caught her,\n", + " And such a daughter,\n", + " Should sure to the slaughter,\n", + " If my cap would buy a halter.\n", + " So the fool follows after. Exit.\n", + " Gon. This man hath had good counsel! A hundred knights?\n", + " 'Tis politic and safe to let him keep\n", + " At point a hundred knights; yes, that on every dream,\n", + " Each buzz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike,\n", + " He may enguard his dotage with their pow'rs\n", + " And hold our lives in mercy.- Oswald, I say!\n", + " Alb. Well, you may fear too far.\n", + " Gon. Safer than trust too far.\n", + " Let me still take away the harms I fear,\n", + " Not fear still to be taken. I know his heart.\n", + " What he hath utter'd I have writ my sister.\n", + " If she sustain him and his hundred knights,\n", + " When I have show'd th' unfitness-\n", + " \n", + " Enter [Oswald the] Steward.\n", + "\n", + " How now, Oswald?\n", + " What, have you writ that letter to my sister?\n", + " Osw. Yes, madam.\n", + " Gon. Take you some company, and away to horse!\n", + " Inform her full of my particular fear,\n", + " And thereto add such reasons of your own\n", + " As may compact it more. Get you gone,\n", + " And hasten your return. [Exit Oswald.] No, no, my lord!\n", + " This milky gentleness and course of yours,\n", + " Though I condemn it not, yet, under pardon,\n", + " You are much more at task for want of wisdom\n", + " Than prais'd for harmful mildness.\n", + " Alb. How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell.\n", + " Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.\n", + " Gon. Nay then-\n", + " Alb. Well, well; th' event. Exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene V.\n", + "Court before the Duke of Albany's Palace.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool.\n", + "\n", + " Lear. Go you before to Gloucester with these letters. Acquaint\n", + "my\n", + " daughter no further with anything you know than comes from\n", + "her\n", + " demand out of the letter. If your diligence be not speedy, I\n", + " shall be there afore you.\n", + " Kent. I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered your\n", + "letter.\n", + "Exit.\n", + " Fool. If a man's brains were in's heels, were't not in danger\n", + "of\n", + " kibes?\n", + " Lear. Ay, boy.\n", + " Fool. Then I prithee be merry. Thy wit shall ne'er go\n", + "slip-shod.\n", + " Lear. Ha, ha, ha!\n", + " Fool. Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly; for\n", + "though\n", + " she's as like this as a crab's like an apple, yet I can tell\n", + " what I can tell.\n", + " Lear. What canst tell, boy?\n", + " Fool. She'll taste as like this as a crab does to a crab. Thou\n", + " canst tell why one's nose stands i' th' middle on's face? \n", + " Lear. No.\n", + " Fool. Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose, that what\n", + "a\n", + " man cannot smell out, 'a may spy into.\n", + " Lear. I did her wrong.\n", + " Fool. Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?\n", + " Lear. No.\n", + " Fool. Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.\n", + " Lear. Why?\n", + " Fool. Why, to put's head in; not to give it away to his\n", + "daughters,\n", + " and leave his horns without a case.\n", + " Lear. I will forget my nature. So kind a father!- Be my horses\n", + " ready?\n", + " Fool. Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the seven\n", + "stars\n", + " are no moe than seven is a pretty reason.\n", + " Lear. Because they are not eight?\n", + " Fool. Yes indeed. Thou wouldst make a good fool.\n", + " Lear. To tak't again perforce! Monster ingratitude!\n", + " Fool. If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'ld have thee beaten for\n", + "being\n", + " old before thy time.\n", + " Lear. How's that? \n", + " Fool. Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been\n", + "wise.\n", + " Lear. O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!\n", + " Keep me in temper; I would not be mad!\n", + "\n", + " [Enter a Gentleman.]\n", + "\n", + " How now? Are the horses ready?\n", + " Gent. Ready, my lord.\n", + " Lear. Come, boy.\n", + " Fool. She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure,\n", + " Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter\n", + " Exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "<>\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "ACT II. Scene I.\n", + "A court within the Castle of the Earl of Gloucester.\n", + "\n", + "Enter [Edmund the] Bastard and Curan, meeting.\n", + "\n", + " Edm. Save thee, Curan.\n", + " Cur. And you, sir. I have been with your father, and given him\n", + " notice that the Duke of Cornwall and Regan his Duchess will\n", + "be\n", + " here with him this night.\n", + " Edm. How comes that?\n", + " Cur. Nay, I know not. You have heard of the news abroad- I mean\n", + "the\n", + " whisper'd ones, for they are yet but ear-kissing arguments?\n", + " Edm. Not I. Pray you, what are they?\n", + " Cur. Have you heard of no likely wars toward 'twixt the two\n", + "Dukes\n", + " of Cornwall and Albany?\n", + " Edm. Not a word.\n", + " Cur. You may do, then, in time. Fare you well, sir. Exit.\n", + " Edm. The Duke be here to-night? The better! best!\n", + " This weaves itself perforce into my business.\n", + " My father hath set guard to take my brother;\n", + " And I have one thing, of a queasy question,\n", + " Which I must act. Briefness and fortune, work! \n", + " Brother, a word! Descend! Brother, I say!\n", + "\n", + " Enter Edgar.\n", + "\n", + " My father watches. O sir, fly this place!\n", + " Intelligence is given where you are hid.\n", + " You have now the good advantage of the night.\n", + " Have you not spoken 'gainst the Duke of Cornwall?\n", + " He's coming hither; now, i' th' night, i' th' haste,\n", + " And Regan with him. Have you nothing said\n", + " Upon his party 'gainst the Duke of Albany?\n", + " Advise yourself.\n", + " Edg. I am sure on't, not a word.\n", + " Edm. I hear my father coming. Pardon me!\n", + " In cunning I must draw my sword upon you.\n", + " Draw, seem to defend yourself; now quit you well.-\n", + " Yield! Come before my father. Light, ho, here!\n", + " Fly, brother.- Torches, torches!- So farewell.\n", + " Exit Edgar.\n", + " Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion \n", + " Of my more fierce endeavour. [Stabs his arm.] I have seen\n", + " drunkards\n", + " Do more than this in sport.- Father, father!-\n", + " Stop, stop! No help?\n", + "\n", + " Enter Gloucester, and Servants with torches.\n", + "\n", + " Glou. Now, Edmund, where's the villain?\n", + " Edm. Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out,\n", + " Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon\n", + " To stand 's auspicious mistress.\n", + " Glou. But where is he?\n", + " Edm. Look, sir, I bleed.\n", + " Glou. Where is the villain, Edmund?\n", + " Edm. Fled this way, sir. When by no means he could-\n", + " Glou. Pursue him, ho! Go after. [Exeunt some Servants].\n", + " By no means what?\n", + " Edm. Persuade me to the murther of your lordship;\n", + " But that I told him the revenging gods\n", + " 'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend; \n", + " Spoke with how manifold and strong a bond\n", + " The child was bound to th' father- sir, in fine,\n", + " Seeing how loathly opposite I stood\n", + " To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion\n", + " With his prepared sword he charges home\n", + " My unprovided body, lanch'd mine arm;\n", + " But when he saw my best alarum'd spirits,\n", + " Bold in the quarrel's right, rous'd to th' encounter,\n", + " Or whether gasted by the noise I made,\n", + " Full suddenly he fled.\n", + " Glou. Let him fly far.\n", + " Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;\n", + " And found- dispatch. The noble Duke my master,\n", + " My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night.\n", + " By his authority I will proclaim it\n", + " That he which find, him shall deserve our thanks,\n", + " Bringing the murderous caitiff to the stake;\n", + " He that conceals him, death.\n", + " Edm. When I dissuaded him from his intent\n", + " And found him pight to do it, with curst speech \n", + " I threaten'd to discover him. He replied,\n", + " 'Thou unpossessing bastard, dost thou think,\n", + " If I would stand against thee, would the reposal\n", + " Of any trust, virtue, or worth in thee\n", + " Make thy words faith'd? No. What I should deny\n", + " (As this I would; ay, though thou didst produce\n", + " My very character), I'ld turn it all\n", + " To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practice;\n", + " And thou must make a dullard of the world,\n", + " If they not thought the profits of my death\n", + " Were very pregnant and potential spurs\n", + " To make thee seek it.'\n", + " Glou. Strong and fast'ned villain!\n", + " Would he deny his letter? I never got him.\n", + " Tucket within.\n", + " Hark, the Duke's trumpets! I know not why he comes.\n", + " All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not scape;\n", + " The Duke must grant me that. Besides, his picture\n", + " I will send far and near, that all the kingdom\n", + " May have due note of him, and of my land, \n", + " Loyal and natural boy, I'll work the means\n", + " To make thee capable.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Cornwall, Regan, and Attendants.\n", + "\n", + " Corn. How now, my noble friend? Since I came hither\n", + " (Which I can call but now) I have heard strange news.\n", + " Reg. If it be true, all vengeance comes too short\n", + " Which can pursue th' offender. How dost, my lord?\n", + " Glou. O madam, my old heart is crack'd, it's crack'd!\n", + " Reg. What, did my father's godson seek your life?\n", + " He whom my father nam'd? Your Edgar?\n", + " Glou. O lady, lady, shame would have it hid!\n", + " Reg. Was he not companion with the riotous knights\n", + " That tend upon my father?\n", + " Glou. I know not, madam. 'Tis too bad, too bad!\n", + " Edm. Yes, madam, he was of that consort.\n", + " Reg. No marvel then though he were ill affected.\n", + " 'Tis they have put him on the old man's death,\n", + " To have th' expense and waste of his revenues. \n", + " I have this present evening from my sister\n", + " Been well inform'd of them, and with such cautions\n", + " That, if they come to sojourn at my house,\n", + " I'll not be there.\n", + " Corn. Nor I, assure thee, Regan.\n", + " Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father\n", + " A childlike office.\n", + " Edm. 'Twas my duty, sir.\n", + " Glou. He did bewray his practice, and receiv'd\n", + " This hurt you see, striving to apprehend him.\n", + " Corn. Is he pursued?\n", + " Glou. Ay, my good lord.\n", + " Corn. If he be taken, he shall never more\n", + " Be fear'd of doing harm. Make your own purpose,\n", + " How in my strength you please. For you, Edmund,\n", + " Whose virtue and obedience doth this instant\n", + " So much commend itself, you shall be ours.\n", + " Natures of such deep trust we shall much need;\n", + " You we first seize on.\n", + " Edm. I shall serve you, sir, \n", + " Truly, however else.\n", + " Glou. For him I thank your Grace.\n", + " Corn. You know not why we came to visit you-\n", + " Reg. Thus out of season, threading dark-ey'd night.\n", + " Occasions, noble Gloucester, of some poise,\n", + " Wherein we must have use of your advice.\n", + " Our father he hath writ, so hath our sister,\n", + " Of differences, which I best thought it fit\n", + " To answer from our home. The several messengers\n", + " From hence attend dispatch. Our good old friend,\n", + " Lay comforts to your bosom, and bestow\n", + " Your needful counsel to our business,\n", + " Which craves the instant use.\n", + " Glou. I serve you, madam.\n", + " Your Graces are right welcome.\n", + " Exeunt. Flourish.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene II.\n", + "Before Gloucester's Castle.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Kent and [Oswald the] Steward, severally.\n", + "\n", + " Osw. Good dawning to thee, friend. Art of this house?\n", + " Kent. Ay.\n", + " Osw. Where may we set our horses?\n", + " Kent. I' th' mire.\n", + " Osw. Prithee, if thou lov'st me, tell me.\n", + " Kent. I love thee not.\n", + " Osw. Why then, I care not for thee.\n", + " Kent. If I had thee in Lipsbury Pinfold, I would make thee care\n", + "for\n", + " me.\n", + " Osw. Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not.\n", + " Kent. Fellow, I know thee.\n", + " Osw. What dost thou know me for?\n", + " Kent. A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base,\n", + "proud,\n", + " shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy,\n", + " worsted-stocking knave; a lily-liver'd, action-taking,\n", + "whoreson,\n", + " glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue;\n", + " one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in\n", + "way of\n", + " good service, and art nothing but the composition of a\n", + "knave, \n", + " beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel\n", + "bitch;\n", + " one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deny\n", + "the\n", + " least syllable of thy addition.\n", + " Osw. Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail on one\n", + " that's neither known of thee nor knows thee!\n", + " Kent. What a brazen-fac'd varlet art thou, to deny thou knowest\n", + "me!\n", + " Is it two days ago since I beat thee and tripp'd up thy\n", + "heels\n", + " before the King? [Draws his sword.] Draw, you rogue! for,\n", + "though\n", + " it be night, yet the moon shines. I'll make a sop o' th'\n", + " moonshine o' you. Draw, you whoreson cullionly barbermonger!\n", + " draw!\n", + " Osw. Away! I have nothing to do with thee.\n", + " Kent. Draw, you rascal! You come with letters against the King,\n", + "and\n", + " take Vanity the puppet's part against the royalty of her\n", + "father.\n", + " Draw, you rogue, or I'll so carbonado your shanks! Draw, you\n", + " rascal! Come your ways!\n", + " Osw. Help, ho! murther! help!\n", + " Kent. Strike, you slave! Stand, rogue! Stand, you neat slave!\n", + " Strike! [Beats him.] \n", + " Osw. Help, ho! murther! murther!\n", + "\n", + " Enter Edmund, with his rapier drawn, Gloucester, Cornwall,\n", + " Regan, Servants.\n", + "\n", + " Edm. How now? What's the matter? Parts [them].\n", + " Kent. With you, goodman boy, an you please! Come, I'll flesh\n", + "ye!\n", + " Come on, young master!\n", + " Glou. Weapons? arms? What's the matter here?\n", + " Corn. Keep peace, upon your lives!\n", + " He dies that strikes again. What is the matter?\n", + " Reg. The messengers from our sister and the King\n", + " Corn. What is your difference? Speak.\n", + " Osw. I am scarce in breath, my lord.\n", + " Kent. No marvel, you have so bestirr'd your valour. You\n", + "cowardly\n", + " rascal, nature disclaims in thee; a tailor made thee.\n", + " Corn. Thou art a strange fellow. A tailor make a man?\n", + " Kent. Ay, a tailor, sir. A stonecutter or a painter could not\n", + "have\n", + " made him so ill, though he had been but two hours at the\n", + "trade.\n", + " Corn. Speak yet, how grew your quarrel? \n", + " Osw. This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spar'd\n", + " At suit of his grey beard-\n", + " Kent. Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter! My lord, if\n", + " you'll give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain\n", + "into\n", + " mortar and daub the walls of a jakes with him. 'Spare my\n", + "grey\n", + " beard,' you wagtail?\n", + " Corn. Peace, sirrah!\n", + " You beastly knave, know you no reverence?\n", + " Kent. Yes, sir, but anger hath a privilege.\n", + " Corn. Why art thou angry?\n", + " Kent. That such a slave as this should wear a sword,\n", + " Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these,\n", + " Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwain\n", + " Which are too intrinse t' unloose; smooth every passion\n", + " That in the natures of their lords rebel,\n", + " Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods;\n", + " Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks\n", + " With every gale and vary of their masters,\n", + " Knowing naught (like dogs) but following.\n", + " A plague upon your epileptic visage! \n", + " Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool?\n", + " Goose, an I had you upon Sarum Plain,\n", + " I'ld drive ye cackling home to Camelot.\n", + " Corn. What, art thou mad, old fellow?\n", + " Glou. How fell you out? Say that.\n", + " Kent. No contraries hold more antipathy\n", + " Than I and such a knave.\n", + " Corn. Why dost thou call him knave? What is his fault?\n", + " Kent. His countenance likes me not.\n", + " Corn. No more perchance does mine, or his, or hers.\n", + " Kent. Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain.\n", + " I have seen better faces in my time\n", + " Than stands on any shoulder that I see\n", + " Before me at this instant.\n", + " Corn. This is some fellow\n", + " Who, having been prais'd for bluntness, doth affect\n", + " A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb\n", + " Quite from his nature. He cannot flatter, he!\n", + " An honest mind and plain- he must speak truth!\n", + " An they will take it, so; if not, he's plain. \n", + " These kind of knaves I know which in this plainness\n", + " Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends\n", + " Than twenty silly-ducking observants\n", + " That stretch their duties nicely.\n", + " Kent. Sir, in good faith, in sincere verity,\n", + " Under th' allowance of your great aspect,\n", + " Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire\n", + " On flickering Phoebus' front-\n", + " Corn. What mean'st by this?\n", + " Kent. To go out of my dialect, which you discommend so much. I\n", + " know, sir, I am no flatterer. He that beguil'd you in a\n", + "plain\n", + " accent was a plain knave, which, for my part, I will not be,\n", + " though I should win your displeasure to entreat me to't.\n", + " Corn. What was th' offence you gave him?\n", + " Osw. I never gave him any.\n", + " It pleas'd the King his master very late\n", + " To strike at me, upon his misconstruction;\n", + " When he, conjunct, and flattering his displeasure,\n", + " Tripp'd me behind; being down, insulted, rail'd\n", + " And put upon him such a deal of man \n", + " That worthied him, got praises of the King\n", + " For him attempting who was self-subdu'd;\n", + " And, in the fleshment of this dread exploit,\n", + " Drew on me here again.\n", + " Kent. None of these rogues and cowards\n", + " But Ajax is their fool.\n", + " Corn. Fetch forth the stocks!\n", + " You stubborn ancient knave, you reverent braggart,\n", + " We'll teach you-\n", + " Kent. Sir, I am too old to learn.\n", + " Call not your stocks for me. I serve the King;\n", + " On whose employment I was sent to you.\n", + " You shall do small respect, show too bold malice\n", + " Against the grace and person of my master,\n", + " Stocking his messenger.\n", + " Corn. Fetch forth the stocks! As I have life and honour,\n", + " There shall he sit till noon.\n", + " Reg. Till noon? Till night, my lord, and all night too!\n", + " Kent. Why, madam, if I were your father's dog,\n", + " You should not use me so. \n", + " Reg. Sir, being his knave, I will.\n", + " Corn. This is a fellow of the selfsame colour\n", + " Our sister speaks of. Come, bring away the stocks!\n", + " Stocks brought out.\n", + " Glou. Let me beseech your Grace not to do so.\n", + " His fault is much, and the good King his master\n", + " Will check him for't. Your purpos'd low correction\n", + " Is such as basest and contemn'dest wretches\n", + " For pilf'rings and most common trespasses\n", + " Are punish'd with. The King must take it ill\n", + " That he, so slightly valued in his messenger,\n", + " Should have him thus restrain'd.\n", + " Corn. I'll answer that.\n", + " Reg. My sister may receive it much more worse,\n", + " To have her gentleman abus'd, assaulted,\n", + " For following her affairs. Put in his legs.-\n", + " [Kent is put in the stocks.]\n", + " Come, my good lord, away.\n", + " Exeunt [all but Gloucester and Kent].\n", + " Glou. I am sorry for thee, friend. 'Tis the Duke's pleasure, \n", + " Whose disposition, all the world well knows,\n", + " Will not be rubb'd nor stopp'd. I'll entreat for thee.\n", + " Kent. Pray do not, sir. I have watch'd and travell'd hard.\n", + " Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle.\n", + " A good man's fortune may grow out at heels.\n", + " Give you good morrow!\n", + " Glou. The Duke 's to blame in this; 'twill be ill taken.\n", + "Exit.\n", + " Kent. Good King, that must approve the common saw,\n", + " Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st\n", + " To the warm sun!\n", + " Approach, thou beacon to this under globe,\n", + " That by thy comfortable beams I may\n", + " Peruse this letter. Nothing almost sees miracles\n", + " But misery. I know 'tis from Cordelia,\n", + " Who hath most fortunately been inform'd\n", + " Of my obscured course- and [reads] 'shall find time\n", + " From this enormous state, seeking to give\n", + " Losses their remedies'- All weary and o'erwatch'd,\n", + " Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold \n", + " This shameful lodging.\n", + " Fortune, good night; smile once more, turn thy wheel.\n", + " Sleeps.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene III.\n", + "The open country.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Edgar.\n", + "\n", + " Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd,\n", + " And by the happy hollow of a tree\n", + " Escap'd the hunt. No port is free, no place\n", + " That guard and most unusual vigilance\n", + " Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may scape,\n", + " I will preserve myself; and am bethought\n", + " To take the basest and most poorest shape\n", + " That ever penury, in contempt of man,\n", + " Brought near to beast. My face I'll grime with filth,\n", + " Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots,\n", + " And with presented nakedness outface\n", + " The winds and persecutions of the sky.\n", + " The country gives me proof and precedent\n", + " Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,\n", + " Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms\n", + " Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;\n", + " And with this horrible object, from low farms, \n", + " Poor pelting villages, sheepcotes, and mills,\n", + " Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,\n", + " Enforce their charity. 'Poor Turlygod! poor Tom!'\n", + " That's something yet! Edgar I nothing am. Exit.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene IV.\n", + "Before Gloucester's Castle; Kent in the stocks.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Lear, Fool, and Gentleman.\n", + "\n", + " Lear. 'Tis strange that they should so depart from home,\n", + " And not send back my messenger.\n", + " Gent. As I learn'd,\n", + " The night before there was no purpose in them\n", + " Of this remove.\n", + " Kent. Hail to thee, noble master!\n", + " Lear. Ha!\n", + " Mak'st thou this shame thy pastime?\n", + " Kent. No, my lord.\n", + " Fool. Ha, ha! look! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied by\n", + "the\n", + " head, dogs and bears by th' neck, monkeys by th' loins, and\n", + "men\n", + " by th' legs. When a man's over-lusty at legs, then he wears\n", + " wooden nether-stocks.\n", + " Lear. What's he that hath so much thy place mistook\n", + " To set thee here?\n", + " Kent. It is both he and she-\n", + " Your son and daughter. \n", + " Lear. No.\n", + " Kent. Yes.\n", + " Lear. No, I say.\n", + " Kent. I say yea.\n", + " Lear. No, no, they would not!\n", + " Kent. Yes, they have.\n", + " Lear. By Jupiter, I swear no!\n", + " Kent. By Juno, I swear ay!\n", + " Lear. They durst not do't;\n", + " They would not, could not do't. 'Tis worse than murther\n", + " To do upon respect such violent outrage.\n", + " Resolve me with all modest haste which way\n", + " Thou mightst deserve or they impose this usage,\n", + " Coming from us.\n", + " Kent. My lord, when at their home\n", + " I did commend your Highness' letters to them,\n", + " Ere I was risen from the place that show'd\n", + " My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,\n", + " Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth\n", + " From Goneril his mistress salutations; \n", + " Deliver'd letters, spite of intermission,\n", + " Which presently they read; on whose contents,\n", + " They summon'd up their meiny, straight took horse,\n", + " Commanded me to follow and attend\n", + " The leisure of their answer, gave me cold looks,\n", + " And meeting here the other messenger,\n", + " Whose welcome I perceiv'd had poison'd mine-\n", + " Being the very fellow which of late\n", + " Display'd so saucily against your Highness-\n", + " Having more man than wit about me, drew.\n", + " He rais'd the house with loud and coward cries.\n", + " Your son and daughter found this trespass worth\n", + " The shame which here it suffers.\n", + " Fool. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way.\n", + "\n", + " Fathers that wear rags\n", + " Do make their children blind;\n", + " But fathers that bear bags\n", + " Shall see their children kind.\n", + " Fortune, that arrant whore, \n", + " Ne'er turns the key to th' poor.\n", + "\n", + " But for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours for thy\n", + " daughters as thou canst tell in a year.\n", + " Lear. O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!\n", + " Hysterica passio! Down, thou climbing sorrow!\n", + " Thy element's below! Where is this daughter?\n", + " Kent. With the Earl, sir, here within.\n", + " Lear. Follow me not;\n", + " Stay here. Exit.\n", + " Gent. Made you no more offence but what you speak of?\n", + " Kent. None.\n", + " How chance the King comes with so small a number?\n", + " Fool. An thou hadst been set i' th' stocks for that question,\n", + " thou'dst well deserv'd it.\n", + " Kent. Why, fool?\n", + " Fool. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's\n", + "no\n", + " labouring i' th' winter. All that follow their noses are led\n", + "by\n", + " their eyes but blind men, and there's not a nose among\n", + "twenty\n", + " but can smell him that's stinking. Let go thy hold when a\n", + "great \n", + " wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with\n", + "following\n", + " it; but the great one that goes upward, let him draw thee\n", + "after.\n", + " When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine\n", + "again. I\n", + " would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.\n", + " That sir which serves and seeks for gain,\n", + " And follows but for form,\n", + " Will pack when it begins to rain\n", + " And leave thee in the storm.\n", + " But I will tarry; the fool will stay,\n", + " And let the wise man fly.\n", + " The knave turns fool that runs away;\n", + " The fool no knave, perdy.\n", + " Kent. Where learn'd you this, fool?\n", + " Fool. Not i' th' stocks, fool.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Lear and Gloucester\n", + "\n", + " Lear. Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary?\n", + " They have travell'd all the night? Mere fetches-\n", + " The images of revolt and flying off! \n", + " Fetch me a better answer.\n", + " Glou. My dear lord,\n", + " You know the fiery quality of the Duke,\n", + " How unremovable and fix'd he is\n", + " In his own course.\n", + " Lear. Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!\n", + " Fiery? What quality? Why, Gloucester, Gloucester,\n", + " I'ld speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.\n", + " Glou. Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so.\n", + " Lear. Inform'd them? Dost thou understand me, man?\n", + " Glou. Ay, my good lord.\n", + " Lear. The King would speak with Cornwall; the dear father\n", + " Would with his daughter speak, commands her service.\n", + " Are they inform'd of this? My breath and blood!\n", + " Fiery? the fiery Duke? Tell the hot Duke that-\n", + " No, but not yet! May be he is not well.\n", + " Infirmity doth still neglect all office\n", + " Whereto our health is bound. We are not ourselves\n", + " When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind\n", + " To suffer with the body. I'll forbear; \n", + " And am fallen out with my more headier will,\n", + " To take the indispos'd and sickly fit\n", + " For the sound man.- Death on my state! Wherefore\n", + " Should be sit here? This act persuades me\n", + " That this remotion of the Duke and her\n", + " Is practice only. Give me my servant forth.\n", + " Go tell the Duke and 's wife I'ld speak with them-\n", + " Now, presently. Bid them come forth and hear me,\n", + " Or at their chamber door I'll beat the drum\n", + " Till it cry sleep to death.\n", + " Glou. I would have all well betwixt you. Exit.\n", + " Lear. O me, my heart, my rising heart! But down!\n", + " Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels when\n", + "she\n", + " put 'em i' th' paste alive. She knapp'd 'em o' th' coxcombs\n", + "with\n", + " a stick and cried 'Down, wantons, down!' 'Twas her brother\n", + "that,\n", + " in pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Cornwall, Regan, Gloucester, Servants.\n", + "\n", + " Lear. Good morrow to you both. \n", + " Corn. Hail to your Grace!\n", + " Kent here set at liberty.\n", + " Reg. I am glad to see your Highness.\n", + " Lear. Regan, I think you are; I know what reason\n", + " I have to think so. If thou shouldst not be glad,\n", + " I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb,\n", + " Sepulchring an adultress. [To Kent] O, are you free?\n", + " Some other time for that.- Beloved Regan,\n", + " Thy sister's naught. O Regan, she hath tied\n", + " Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here!\n", + " [Lays his hand on his heart.]\n", + " I can scarce speak to thee. Thou'lt not believe\n", + " With how deprav'd a quality- O Regan!\n", + " Reg. I pray you, sir, take patience. I have hope\n", + " You less know how to value her desert\n", + " Than she to scant her duty.\n", + " Lear. Say, how is that?\n", + " Reg. I cannot think my sister in the least\n", + " Would fail her obligation. If, sir, perchance\n", + " She have restrain'd the riots of your followers, \n", + " 'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end,\n", + " As clears her from all blame.\n", + " Lear. My curses on her!\n", + " Reg. O, sir, you are old!\n", + " Nature in you stands on the very verge\n", + " Of her confine. You should be rul'd, and led\n", + " By some discretion that discerns your state\n", + " Better than you yourself. Therefore I pray you\n", + " That to our sister you do make return;\n", + " Say you have wrong'd her, sir.\n", + " Lear. Ask her forgiveness?\n", + " Do you but mark how this becomes the house:\n", + " 'Dear daughter, I confess that I am old. [Kneels.]\n", + " Age is unnecessary. On my knees I beg\n", + " That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.'\n", + " Reg. Good sir, no more! These are unsightly tricks.\n", + " Return you to my sister.\n", + " Lear. [rises] Never, Regan!\n", + " She hath abated me of half my train;\n", + " Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue, \n", + " Most serpent-like, upon the very heart.\n", + " All the stor'd vengeances of heaven fall\n", + " On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,\n", + " You taking airs, with lameness!\n", + " Corn. Fie, sir, fie!\n", + " Lear. You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames\n", + " Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,\n", + " You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the pow'rful sun,\n", + " To fall and blast her pride!\n", + " Reg. O the blest gods! so will you wish on me\n", + " When the rash mood is on.\n", + " Lear. No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse.\n", + " Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give\n", + " Thee o'er to harshness. Her eyes are fierce; but thine\n", + " Do comfort, and not burn. 'Tis not in thee\n", + " To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,\n", + " To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,\n", + " And, in conclusion, to oppose the bolt\n", + " Against my coming in. Thou better know'st\n", + " The offices of nature, bond of childhood, \n", + " Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude.\n", + " Thy half o' th' kingdom hast thou not forgot,\n", + " Wherein I thee endow'd.\n", + " Reg. Good sir, to th' purpose.\n", + " Tucket within.\n", + " Lear. Who put my man i' th' stocks?\n", + " Corn. What trumpet's that?\n", + " Reg. I know't- my sister's. This approves her letter,\n", + " That she would soon be here.\n", + "\n", + " Enter [Oswald the] Steward.\n", + "\n", + " Is your lady come?\n", + " Lear. This is a slave, whose easy-borrowed pride\n", + " Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows.\n", + " Out, varlet, from my sight!\n", + " Corn. What means your Grace?\n", + "\n", + " Enter Goneril.\n", + " \n", + " Lear. Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good hope\n", + " Thou didst not know on't.- Who comes here? O heavens!\n", + " If you do love old men, if your sweet sway\n", + " Allow obedience- if yourselves are old,\n", + " Make it your cause! Send down, and take my part!\n", + " [To Goneril] Art not asham'd to look upon this beard?-\n", + " O Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand?\n", + " Gon. Why not by th' hand, sir? How have I offended?\n", + " All's not offence that indiscretion finds\n", + " And dotage terms so.\n", + " Lear. O sides, you are too tough!\n", + " Will you yet hold? How came my man i' th' stocks?\n", + " Corn. I set him there, sir; but his own disorders\n", + " Deserv'd much less advancement.\n", + " Lear. You? Did you?\n", + " Reg. I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.\n", + " If, till the expiration of your month,\n", + " You will return and sojourn with my sister,\n", + " Dismissing half your train, come then to me.\n", + " I am now from home, and out of that provision \n", + " Which shall be needful for your entertainment.\n", + " Lear. Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd?\n", + " No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose\n", + " To wage against the enmity o' th' air,\n", + " To be a comrade with the wolf and owl-\n", + " Necessity's sharp pinch! Return with her?\n", + " Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took\n", + " Our youngest born, I could as well be brought\n", + " To knee his throne, and, squire-like, pension beg\n", + " To keep base life afoot. Return with her?\n", + " Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter\n", + " To this detested groom. [Points at Oswald.]\n", + " Gon. At your choice, sir.\n", + " Lear. I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad.\n", + " I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell.\n", + " We'll no more meet, no more see one another.\n", + " But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;\n", + " Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,\n", + " Which I must needs call mine. Thou art a boil,\n", + " A plague sore, an embossed carbuncle \n", + " In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee.\n", + " Let shame come when it will, I do not call it.\n", + " I do not bid the Thunder-bearer shoot\n", + " Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove.\n", + " Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure;\n", + " I can be patient, I can stay with Regan,\n", + " I and my hundred knights.\n", + " Reg. Not altogether so.\n", + " I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided\n", + " For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister;\n", + " For those that mingle reason with your passion\n", + " Must be content to think you old, and so-\n", + " But she knows what she does.\n", + " Lear. Is this well spoken?\n", + " Reg. I dare avouch it, sir. What, fifty followers?\n", + " Is it not well? What should you need of more?\n", + " Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger\n", + " Speak 'gainst so great a number? How in one house\n", + " Should many people, under two commands,\n", + " Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible. \n", + " Gon. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance\n", + " From those that she calls servants, or from mine?\n", + " Reg. Why not, my lord? If then they chanc'd to slack ye,\n", + " We could control them. If you will come to me\n", + " (For now I spy a danger), I entreat you\n", + " To bring but five-and-twenty. To no more\n", + " Will I give place or notice.\n", + " Lear. I gave you all-\n", + " Reg. And in good time you gave it!\n", + " Lear. Made you my guardians, my depositaries;\n", + " But kept a reservation to be followed\n", + " With such a number. What, must I come to you\n", + " With five-and-twenty, Regan? Said you so?\n", + " Reg. And speak't again my lord. No more with me.\n", + " Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd\n", + " When others are more wicked; not being the worst\n", + " Stands in some rank of praise. [To Goneril] I'll go with\n", + "thee.\n", + " Thy fifty yet doth double five-and-twenty,\n", + " And thou art twice her love.\n", + " Gon. Hear, me, my lord. \n", + " What need you five-and-twenty, ten, or five,\n", + " To follow in a house where twice so many\n", + " Have a command to tend you?\n", + " Reg. What need one?\n", + " Lear. O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars\n", + " Are in the poorest thing superfluous.\n", + " Allow not nature more than nature needs,\n", + " Man's life is cheap as beast's. Thou art a lady:\n", + " If only to go warm were gorgeous,\n", + " Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st\n", + " Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need-\n", + " You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!\n", + " You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,\n", + " As full of grief as age; wretched in both.\n", + " If it be you that stirs these daughters' hearts\n", + " Against their father, fool me not so much\n", + " To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,\n", + " And let not women's weapons, water drops,\n", + " Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags!\n", + " I will have such revenges on you both \n", + " That all the world shall- I will do such things-\n", + " What they are yet, I know not; but they shall be\n", + " The terrors of the earth! You think I'll weep.\n", + " No, I'll not weep.\n", + " I have full cause of weeping, but this heart\n", + " Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws\n", + " Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!\n", + " Exeunt Lear, Gloucester, Kent, and Fool. Storm and\n", + " tempest.\n", + " Corn. Let us withdraw; 'twill be a storm.\n", + " Reg. This house is little; the old man and 's people\n", + " Cannot be well bestow'd.\n", + " Gon. 'Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest\n", + " And must needs taste his folly.\n", + " Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly,\n", + " But not one follower.\n", + " Gon. So am I purpos'd.\n", + " Where is my Lord of Gloucester?\n", + " Corn. Followed the old man forth.\n", + " \n", + " Enter Gloucester.\n", + "\n", + " He is return'd.\n", + " Glou. The King is in high rage.\n", + " Corn. Whither is he going?\n", + " Glou. He calls to horse, but will I know not whither.\n", + " Corn. 'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself.\n", + " Gon. My lord, entreat him by no means to stay.\n", + " Glou. Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds\n", + " Do sorely ruffle. For many miles about\n", + " There's scarce a bush.\n", + " Reg. O, sir, to wilful men\n", + " The injuries that they themselves procure\n", + " Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors.\n", + " He is attended with a desperate train,\n", + " And what they may incense him to, being apt\n", + " To have his ear abus'd, wisdom bids fear.\n", + " Corn. Shut up your doors, my lord: 'tis a wild night.\n", + " My Regan counsels well. Come out o' th' storm. \n", + "[Exeunt.]\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "<>\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "ACT III. Scene I.\n", + "A heath.\n", + "\n", + "Storm still. Enter Kent and a Gentleman at several doors.\n", + "\n", + " Kent. Who's there, besides foul weather?\n", + " Gent. One minded like the weather, most unquietly.\n", + " Kent. I know you. Where's the King?\n", + " Gent. Contending with the fretful elements;\n", + " Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea,\n", + " Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main,\n", + " That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,\n", + " Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,\n", + " Catch in their fury and make nothing of;\n", + " Strives in his little world of man to outscorn\n", + " The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.\n", + " This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,\n", + " The lion and the belly-pinched wolf\n", + " Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,\n", + " And bids what will take all.\n", + " Kent. But who is with him?\n", + " Gent. None but the fool, who labours to outjest \n", + " His heart-struck injuries.\n", + " Kent. Sir, I do know you,\n", + " And dare upon the warrant of my note\n", + " Commend a dear thing to you. There is division\n", + " (Although as yet the face of it be cover'd\n", + " With mutual cunning) 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;\n", + " Who have (as who have not, that their great stars\n", + " Thron'd and set high?) servants, who seem no less,\n", + " Which are to France the spies and speculations\n", + " Intelligent of our state. What hath been seen,\n", + " Either in snuffs and packings of the Dukes,\n", + " Or the hard rein which both of them have borne\n", + " Against the old kind King, or something deeper,\n", + " Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings-\n", + " But, true it is, from France there comes a power\n", + " Into this scattered kingdom, who already,\n", + " Wise in our negligence, have secret feet\n", + " In some of our best ports and are at point\n", + " To show their open banner. Now to you:\n", + " If on my credit you dare build so far \n", + " To make your speed to Dover, you shall find\n", + " Some that will thank you, making just report\n", + " Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow\n", + " The King hath cause to plain.\n", + " I am a gentleman of blood and breeding,\n", + " And from some knowledge and assurance offer\n", + " This office to you.\n", + " Gent. I will talk further with you.\n", + " Kent. No, do not.\n", + " For confirmation that I am much more\n", + " Than my out-wall, open this purse and take\n", + " What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia\n", + " (As fear not but you shall), show her this ring,\n", + " And she will tell you who your fellow is\n", + " That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm!\n", + " I will go seek the King.\n", + " Gent. Give me your hand. Have you no more to say?\n", + " Kent. Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet:\n", + " That, when we have found the King (in which your pain\n", + " That way, I'll this), he that first lights on him \n", + " Holla the other.\n", + " Exeunt [severally].\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene II.\n", + "Another part of the heath.\n", + "\n", + "Storm still. Enter Lear and Fool.\n", + "\n", + " Lear. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!\n", + " You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout\n", + " Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!\n", + " You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires,\n", + " Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,\n", + " Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,\n", + " Strike flat the thick rotundity o' th' world,\n", + " Crack Nature's moulds, all germains spill at once,\n", + " That makes ingrateful man!\n", + " Fool. O nuncle, court holy water in a dry house is better than\n", + "this\n", + " rain water out o' door. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy\n", + "daughters\n", + " blessing! Here's a night pities nether wise men nor fools.\n", + " Lear. Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain!\n", + " Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters.\n", + " I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness.\n", + " I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children,\n", + " You owe me no subscription. Then let fall \n", + " Your horrible pleasure. Here I stand your slave,\n", + " A poor, infirm, weak, and despis'd old man.\n", + " But yet I call you servile ministers,\n", + " That will with two pernicious daughters join\n", + " Your high-engender'd battles 'gainst a head\n", + " So old and white as this! O! O! 'tis foul!\n", + " Fool. He that has a house to put 's head in has a good\n", + "head-piece.\n", + " The codpiece that will house\n", + " Before the head has any,\n", + " The head and he shall louse:\n", + " So beggars marry many.\n", + " The man that makes his toe\n", + " What he his heart should make\n", + " Shall of a corn cry woe,\n", + " And turn his sleep to wake.\n", + " For there was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a\n", + " glass.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Kent.\n", + " \n", + " Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience;\n", + " I will say nothing.\n", + " Kent. Who's there?\n", + " Fool. Marry, here's grace and a codpiece; that's a wise man and\n", + "a\n", + " fool.\n", + " Kent. Alas, sir, are you here? Things that love night\n", + " Love not such nights as these. The wrathful skies\n", + " Gallow the very wanderers of the dark\n", + " And make them keep their caves. Since I was man,\n", + " Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,\n", + " Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never\n", + " Remember to have heard. Man's nature cannot carry\n", + " Th' affliction nor the fear.\n", + " Lear. Let the great gods,\n", + " That keep this dreadful pudder o'er our heads,\n", + " Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,\n", + " That hast within thee undivulged crimes\n", + " Unwhipp'd of justice. Hide thee, thou bloody hand;\n", + " Thou perjur'd, and thou simular man of virtue\n", + " That art incestuous. Caitiff, in pieces shake \n", + " That under covert and convenient seeming\n", + " Hast practis'd on man's life. Close pent-up guilts,\n", + " Rive your concealing continents, and cry\n", + " These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man\n", + " More sinn'd against than sinning.\n", + " Kent. Alack, bareheaded?\n", + " Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel;\n", + " Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest.\n", + " Repose you there, whilst I to this hard house\n", + " (More harder than the stones whereof 'tis rais'd,\n", + " Which even but now, demanding after you,\n", + " Denied me to come in) return, and force\n", + " Their scanted courtesy.\n", + " Lear. My wits begin to turn.\n", + " Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold?\n", + " I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow?\n", + " The art of our necessities is strange,\n", + " That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel.\n", + " Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart\n", + " That's sorry yet for thee. \n", + " Fool. [sings]\n", + "\n", + " He that has and a little tiny wit-\n", + " With hey, ho, the wind and the rain-\n", + " Must make content with his fortunes fit,\n", + " For the rain it raineth every day.\n", + "\n", + " Lear. True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this hovel.\n", + " Exeunt [Lear and Kent].\n", + " Fool. This is a brave night to cool a courtesan. I'll speak a\n", + " prophecy ere I go:\n", + " When priests are more in word than matter;\n", + " When brewers mar their malt with water;\n", + " When nobles are their tailors' tutors,\n", + " No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;\n", + " When every case in law is right,\n", + " No squire in debt nor no poor knight;\n", + " When slanders do not live in tongues,\n", + " Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;\n", + " When usurers tell their gold i' th' field, \n", + " And bawds and whores do churches build:\n", + " Then shall the realm of Albion\n", + " Come to great confusion.\n", + " Then comes the time, who lives to see't,\n", + " That going shall be us'd with feet.\n", + " This prophecy Merlin shall make, for I live before his time.\n", + "Exit.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene III.\n", + "Gloucester's Castle.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Gloucester and Edmund.\n", + "\n", + " Glou. Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing!\n", + "When\n", + " I desir'd their leave that I might pity him, they took from\n", + "me\n", + " the use of mine own house, charg'd me on pain of perpetual\n", + " displeasure neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor\n", + "any\n", + " way sustain him.\n", + " Edm. Most savage and unnatural!\n", + " Glou. Go to; say you nothing. There is division betwixt the\n", + "Dukes,\n", + " and a worse matter than that. I have received a letter this\n", + " night- 'tis dangerous to be spoken- I have lock'd the letter\n", + "in\n", + " my closet. These injuries the King now bears will be\n", + "revenged\n", + " home; there's part of a power already footed; we must\n", + "incline to\n", + " the King. I will seek him and privily relieve him. Go you\n", + "and\n", + " maintain talk with the Duke, that my charity be not of him\n", + " perceived. If he ask for me, I am ill and gone to bed.\n", + "Though I\n", + " die for't, as no less is threat'ned me, the King my old\n", + "master\n", + " must be relieved. There is some strange thing toward,\n", + "Edmund.\n", + " Pray you be careful. Exit. \n", + " Edm. This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the Duke\n", + " Instantly know, and of that letter too.\n", + " This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me\n", + " That which my father loses- no less than all.\n", + " The younger rises when the old doth fall. Exit.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene IV.\n", + "The heath. Before a hovel.\n", + "\n", + "Storm still. Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool.\n", + "\n", + " Kent. Here is the place, my lord. Good my lord, enter.\n", + " The tyranny of the open night 's too rough\n", + " For nature to endure.\n", + " Lear. Let me alone.\n", + " Kent. Good my lord, enter here.\n", + " Lear. Wilt break my heart?\n", + " Kent. I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.\n", + " Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm\n", + " Invades us to the skin. So 'tis to thee;\n", + " But where the greater malady is fix'd,\n", + " The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear;\n", + " But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,\n", + " Thou'dst meet the bear i' th' mouth. When the mind's free,\n", + " The body's delicate. The tempest in my mind\n", + " Doth from my senses take all feeling else\n", + " Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!\n", + " Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand \n", + " For lifting food to't? But I will punish home!\n", + " No, I will weep no more. In such a night\n", + " 'To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure.\n", + " In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!\n", + " Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all!\n", + " O, that way madness lies; let me shun that!\n", + " No more of that.\n", + " Kent. Good my lord, enter here.\n", + " Lear. Prithee go in thyself; seek thine own ease.\n", + " This tempest will not give me leave to ponder\n", + " On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in.\n", + " [To the Fool] In, boy; go first.- You houseless poverty-\n", + " Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.\n", + " Exit [Fool].\n", + " Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,\n", + " That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,\n", + " How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,\n", + " Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you\n", + " From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en\n", + " Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp; \n", + " Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,\n", + " That thou mayst shake the superflux to them\n", + " And show the heavens more just.\n", + " Edg. [within] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom!\n", + "\n", + " Enter Fool [from the hovel].\n", + "\n", + " Fool. Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit. Help me, help\n", + "me!\n", + " Kent. Give me thy hand. Who's there?\n", + " Fool. A spirit, a spirit! He says his name's poor Tom.\n", + " Kent. What art thou that dost grumble there i' th' straw?\n", + " Come forth.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Edgar [disguised as a madman].\n", + "\n", + " Edg. Away! the foul fiend follows me! Through the sharp\n", + "hawthorn\n", + " blows the cold wind. Humh! go to thy cold bed, and warm\n", + "thee.\n", + " Lear. Hast thou given all to thy two daughters, and art thou\n", + "come\n", + " to this?\n", + " Edg. Who gives anything to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath\n", + "led \n", + " through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool,\n", + "o'er\n", + " bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow and\n", + " halters in his pew, set ratsbane by his porridge, made him\n", + "proud\n", + " of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inch'd\n", + " bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor. Bless thy\n", + "five\n", + " wits! Tom 's acold. O, do de, do de, do de. Bless thee from\n", + " whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some\n", + "charity,\n", + " whom the foul fiend vexes. There could I have him now- and\n", + "there-\n", + " and there again- and there!\n", + " Storm still.\n", + " Lear. What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?\n", + " Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give 'em all?\n", + " Fool. Nay, he reserv'd a blanket, else we had been all sham'd.\n", + " Lear. Now all the plagues that in the pendulous air\n", + " Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters!\n", + " Kent. He hath no daughters, sir.\n", + " Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have subdu'd nature\n", + " To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.\n", + " Is it the fashion that discarded fathers\n", + " Should have thus little mercy on their flesh? \n", + " Judicious punishment! 'Twas this flesh begot\n", + " Those pelican daughters.\n", + " Edg. Pillicock sat on Pillicock's Hill. 'Allow, 'allow, loo,\n", + "loo!\n", + " Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.\n", + " Edg. Take heed o' th' foul fiend; obey thy parents: keep thy\n", + "word\n", + " justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set\n", + "not\n", + " thy sweet heart on proud array. Tom 's acold.\n", + " Lear. What hast thou been?\n", + " Edg. A servingman, proud in heart and mind; that curl'd my\n", + "hair,\n", + " wore gloves in my cap; serv'd the lust of my mistress' heart\n", + "and\n", + " did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I\n", + "spake\n", + " words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven; one that\n", + " slept in the contriving of lust, and wak'd to do it. Wine\n", + "lov'd\n", + " I deeply, dice dearly; and in woman out-paramour'd the Turk.\n", + " False of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth,\n", + "fox\n", + " in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in\n", + "prey.\n", + " Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks\n", + "betray\n", + " thy poor heart to woman. Keep thy foot out of brothel, thy\n", + "hand\n", + " out of placket, thy pen from lender's book, and defy the\n", + "foul\n", + " fiend. Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind; says \n", + " suum, mun, hey, no, nonny. Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa!\n", + "let\n", + " him trot by.\n", + " Storm still.\n", + " Lear. Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with\n", + "thy\n", + " uncover'd body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more\n", + "than\n", + " this? Consider him well. Thou ow'st the worm no silk, the\n", + "beast\n", + " no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! Here's\n", + "three\n", + " on's are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself;\n", + " unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked\n", + " animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings! Come, unbutton\n", + " here.\n", + " [Tears at his clothes.]\n", + " Fool. Prithee, nuncle, be contented! 'Tis a naughty night to\n", + "swim\n", + " in. Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old\n", + "lecher's\n", + " heart- a small spark, all the rest on's body cold. Look,\n", + "here\n", + " comes a walking fire.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Gloucester with a torch.\n", + "\n", + " Edg. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet. He begins at\n", + "curfew, \n", + " and walks till the first cock. He gives the web and the pin,\n", + " squints the eye, and makes the harelip; mildews the white\n", + "wheat,\n", + " and hurts the poor creature of earth.\n", + "\n", + " Saint Withold footed thrice the 'old;\n", + " He met the nightmare, and her nine fold;\n", + " Bid her alight\n", + " And her troth plight,\n", + " And aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!\n", + "\n", + " Kent. How fares your Grace?\n", + " Lear. What's he?\n", + " Kent. Who's there? What is't you seek?\n", + " Glou. What are you there? Your names?\n", + " Edg. Poor Tom, that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the\n", + "todpole,\n", + " the wall-newt and the water; that in the fury of his heart,\n", + "when\n", + " the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets, swallows\n", + "the\n", + " old rat and the ditch-dog, drinks the green mantle of the\n", + " standing pool; who is whipp'd from tithing to tithing, and\n", + " stock-punish'd and imprison'd; who hath had three suits to\n", + "his \n", + " back, six shirts to his body, horse to ride, and weapons to\n", + " wear;\n", + "\n", + " But mice and rats, and such small deer,\n", + " Have been Tom's food for seven long year.\n", + "\n", + " Beware my follower. Peace, Smulkin! peace, thou fiend!\n", + " Glou. What, hath your Grace no better company?\n", + " Edg. The prince of darkness is a gentleman!\n", + " Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.\n", + " Glou. Our flesh and blood is grown so vile, my lord,\n", + " That it doth hate what gets it.\n", + " Edg. Poor Tom 's acold.\n", + " Glou. Go in with me. My duty cannot suffer\n", + " T' obey in all your daughters' hard commands.\n", + " Though their injunction be to bar my doors\n", + " And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,\n", + " Yet have I ventur'd to come seek you out\n", + " And bring you where both fire and food is ready.\n", + " Lear. First let me talk with this philosopher. \n", + " What is the cause of thunder?\n", + " Kent. Good my lord, take his offer; go into th' house.\n", + " Lear. I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.\n", + " What is your study?\n", + " Edg. How to prevent the fiend and to kill vermin.\n", + " Lear. Let me ask you one word in private.\n", + " Kent. Importune him once more to go, my lord.\n", + " His wits begin t' unsettle.\n", + " Glou. Canst thou blame him?\n", + " Storm still.\n", + " His daughters seek his death. Ah, that good Kent!\n", + " He said it would be thus- poor banish'd man!\n", + " Thou say'st the King grows mad: I'll tell thee, friend,\n", + " I am almost mad myself. I had a son,\n", + " Now outlaw'd from my blood. He sought my life\n", + " But lately, very late. I lov'd him, friend-\n", + " No father his son dearer. True to tell thee,\n", + " The grief hath craz'd my wits. What a night 's this!\n", + " I do beseech your Grace-\n", + " Lear. O, cry you mercy, sir. \n", + " Noble philosopher, your company.\n", + " Edg. Tom's acold.\n", + " Glou. In, fellow, there, into th' hovel; keep thee warm.\n", + " Lear. Come, let's in all.\n", + " Kent. This way, my lord.\n", + " Lear. With him!\n", + " I will keep still with my philosopher.\n", + " Kent. Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.\n", + " Glou. Take him you on.\n", + " Kent. Sirrah, come on; go along with us.\n", + " Lear. Come, good Athenian.\n", + " Glou. No words, no words! hush.\n", + " Edg. Child Rowland to the dark tower came;\n", + " His word was still\n", + "\n", + " Fie, foh, and fum!\n", + " I smell the blood of a British man.\n", + " Exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "Scene V.\n", + "Gloucester's Castle.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Cornwall and Edmund.\n", + "\n", + " Corn. I will have my revenge ere I depart his house.\n", + " Edm. How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives\n", + "way to\n", + " loyalty, something fears me to think of.\n", + " Corn. I now perceive it was not altogether your brother's evil\n", + " disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit,\n", + "set\n", + " awork by a reproveable badness in himself.\n", + " Edm. How malicious is my fortune that I must repent to be just!\n", + " This is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an\n", + " intelligent party to the advantages of France. O heavens!\n", + "that\n", + " this treason were not- or not I the detector!\n", + " Corn. Go with me to the Duchess.\n", + " Edm. If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty\n", + " business in hand.\n", + " Corn. True or false, it hath made thee Earl of Gloucester.\n", + " Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our\n", + " apprehension.\n", + " Edm. [aside] If I find him comforting the King, it will stuff\n", + "his \n", + " suspicion more fully.- I will persever in my course of\n", + "loyalty,\n", + " though the conflict be sore between that and my blood.\n", + " Corn. I will lay trust upon thee, and thou shalt find a dearer\n", + " father in my love.\n", + " Exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene VI.\n", + "A farmhouse near Gloucester's Castle.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Gloucester, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar.\n", + "\n", + " Glou. Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully. I\n", + "will\n", + " piece out the comfort with what addition I can. I will not\n", + "be\n", + " long from you.\n", + " Kent. All the power of his wits have given way to his\n", + "impatience.\n", + " The gods reward your kindness!\n", + " Exit [Gloucester].\n", + " Edg. Frateretto calls me, and tells me Nero is an angler in the\n", + " lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.\n", + " Fool. Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a gentleman\n", + "or a\n", + " yeoman.\n", + " Lear. A king, a king!\n", + " Fool. No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son; for\n", + "he's a\n", + " mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman before him.\n", + " Lear. To have a thousand with red burning spits\n", + " Come hizzing in upon 'em-\n", + " Edg. The foul fiend bites my back.\n", + " Fool. He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's\n", + " health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath. \n", + " Lear. It shall be done; I will arraign them straight.\n", + " [To Edgar] Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer.\n", + " [To the Fool] Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you\n", + "she-foxes!\n", + " Edg. Look, where he stands and glares! Want'st thou eyes at\n", + "trial,\n", + " madam?\n", + "\n", + " Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me.\n", + "\n", + " Fool. Her boat hath a leak,\n", + " And she must not speak\n", + " Why she dares not come over to thee.\n", + "\n", + " Edg. The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a\n", + "nightingale.\n", + " Hoppedance cries in Tom's belly for two white herring. Croak\n", + " not, black angel; I have no food for thee.\n", + " Kent. How do you, sir? Stand you not so amaz'd.\n", + " Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?\n", + " Lear. I'll see their trial first. Bring in their evidence.\n", + " [To Edgar] Thou, robed man of justice, take thy place.\n", + " [To the Fool] And thou, his yokefellow of equity, \n", + " Bench by his side. [To Kent] You are o' th' commission,\n", + " Sit you too.\n", + " Edg. Let us deal justly.\n", + "\n", + " Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?\n", + " Thy sheep be in the corn;\n", + " And for one blast of thy minikin mouth\n", + " Thy sheep shall take no harm.\n", + "\n", + " Purr! the cat is gray.\n", + " Lear. Arraign her first. 'Tis Goneril. I here take my oath\n", + "before\n", + " this honourable assembly, she kicked the poor King her\n", + "father.\n", + " Fool. Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril?\n", + " Lear. She cannot deny it.\n", + " Fool. Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.\n", + " Lear. And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim\n", + " What store her heart is made on. Stop her there!\n", + " Arms, arms! sword! fire! Corruption in the place!\n", + " False justicer, why hast thou let her scape?\n", + " Edg. Bless thy five wits! \n", + " Kent. O pity! Sir, where is the patience now\n", + " That you so oft have boasted to retain?\n", + " Edg. [aside] My tears begin to take his part so much\n", + " They'll mar my counterfeiting.\n", + " Lear. The little dogs and all,\n", + " Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me.\n", + " Edg. Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs!\n", + " Be thy mouth or black or white,\n", + " Tooth that poisons if it bite;\n", + " Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim,\n", + " Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,\n", + " Bobtail tyke or trundle-tall-\n", + " Tom will make them weep and wail;\n", + " For, with throwing thus my head,\n", + " Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.\n", + " Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and fairs and\n", + "market\n", + " towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.\n", + " Lear. Then let them anatomize Regan. See what breeds about her\n", + " heart. Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard\n", + " hearts? [To Edgar] You, sir- I entertain you for one of my \n", + " hundred; only I do not like the fashion of your garments.\n", + "You'll\n", + " say they are Persian attire; but let them be chang'd.\n", + " Kent. Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile.\n", + " Lear. Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains.\n", + " So, so, so. We'll go to supper i' th' morning. So, so, so.\n", + " Fool. And I'll go to bed at noon.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Gloucester.\n", + "\n", + " Glou. Come hither, friend. Where is the King my master?\n", + " Kent. Here, sir; but trouble him not; his wits are gone.\n", + " Glou. Good friend, I prithee take him in thy arms.\n", + " I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him.\n", + " There is a litter ready; lay him in't\n", + " And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet\n", + " Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master.\n", + " If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life,\n", + " With thine, and all that offer to defend him,\n", + " Stand in assured loss. Take up, take up!\n", + " And follow me, that will to some provision \n", + " Give thee quick conduct.\n", + " Kent. Oppressed nature sleeps.\n", + " This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses,\n", + " Which, if convenience will not allow,\n", + " Stand in hard cure. [To the Fool] Come, help to bear thy\n", + "master.\n", + " Thou must not stay behind.\n", + " Glou. Come, come, away!\n", + " Exeunt [all but Edgar].\n", + " Edg. When we our betters see bearing our woes,\n", + " We scarcely think our miseries our foes.\n", + " Who alone suffers suffers most i' th' mind,\n", + " Leaving free things and happy shows behind;\n", + " But then the mind much sufferance doth o'erskip\n", + " When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.\n", + " How light and portable my pain seems now,\n", + " When that which makes me bend makes the King bow,\n", + " He childed as I fathered! Tom, away!\n", + " Mark the high noises, and thyself bewray\n", + " When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee,\n", + " In thy just proof repeals and reconciles thee. \n", + " What will hap more to-night, safe scape the King!\n", + " Lurk, lurk. [Exit.]\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene VII.\n", + "Gloucester's Castle.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Cornwall, Regan, Goneril, [Edmund the] Bastard, and\n", + "Servants.\n", + "\n", + " Corn. [to Goneril] Post speedily to my lord your husband, show\n", + "him\n", + " this letter. The army of France is landed.- Seek out the\n", + "traitor\n", + " Gloucester.\n", + " [Exeunt some of the Servants.]\n", + " Reg. Hang him instantly.\n", + " Gon. Pluck out his eyes.\n", + " Corn. Leave him to my displeasure. Edmund, keep you our sister\n", + " company. The revenges we are bound to take upon your\n", + "traitorous\n", + " father are not fit for your beholding. Advise the Duke where\n", + "you\n", + " are going, to a most festinate preparation. We are bound to\n", + "the\n", + " like. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent betwixt us.\n", + " Farewell, dear sister; farewell, my Lord of Gloucester.\n", + "\n", + " Enter [Oswald the] Steward.\n", + "\n", + " How now? Where's the King? \n", + " Osw. My Lord of Gloucester hath convey'd him hence.\n", + " Some five or six and thirty of his knights,\n", + " Hot questrists after him, met him at gate;\n", + " Who, with some other of the lord's dependants,\n", + " Are gone with him towards Dover, where they boast\n", + " To have well-armed friends.\n", + " Corn. Get horses for your mistress.\n", + " Gon. Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.\n", + " Corn. Edmund, farewell.\n", + " Exeunt Goneril, [Edmund, and Oswald].\n", + " Go seek the traitor Gloucester,\n", + " Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us.\n", + " [Exeunt other Servants.]\n", + " Though well we may not pass upon his life\n", + " Without the form of justice, yet our power\n", + " Shall do a court'sy to our wrath, which men\n", + " May blame, but not control.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Gloucester, brought in by two or three.\n", + " \n", + " Who's there? the traitor?\n", + " Reg. Ingrateful fox! 'tis he.\n", + " Corn. Bind fast his corky arms.\n", + " Glou. What mean, your Graces? Good my friends, consider\n", + " You are my guests. Do me no foul play, friends.\n", + " Corn. Bind him, I say.\n", + " [Servants bind him.]\n", + " Reg. Hard, hard. O filthy traitor!\n", + " Glou. Unmerciful lady as you are, I am none.\n", + " Corn. To this chair bind him. Villain, thou shalt find-\n", + " [Regan plucks his beard.]\n", + " Glou. By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done\n", + " To pluck me by the beard.\n", + " Reg. So white, and such a traitor!\n", + " Glou. Naughty lady,\n", + " These hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin\n", + " Will quicken, and accuse thee. I am your host.\n", + " With robber's hands my hospitable favours\n", + " You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?\n", + " Corn. Come, sir, what letters had you late from France? \n", + " Reg. Be simple-answer'd, for we know the truth.\n", + " Corn. And what confederacy have you with the traitors\n", + " Late footed in the kingdom?\n", + " Reg. To whose hands have you sent the lunatic King?\n", + " Speak.\n", + " Glou. I have a letter guessingly set down,\n", + " Which came from one that's of a neutral heart,\n", + " And not from one oppos'd.\n", + " Corn. Cunning.\n", + " Reg. And false.\n", + " Corn. Where hast thou sent the King?\n", + " Glou. To Dover.\n", + " Reg. Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not charg'd at peril-\n", + " Corn. Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that.\n", + " Glou. I am tied to th' stake, and I must stand the course.\n", + " Reg. Wherefore to Dover, sir?\n", + " Glou. Because I would not see thy cruel nails\n", + " Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister\n", + " In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.\n", + " The sea, with such a storm as his bare head \n", + " In hell-black night endur'd, would have buoy'd up\n", + " And quench'd the steeled fires.\n", + " Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain.\n", + " If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time,\n", + " Thou shouldst have said, 'Good porter, turn the key.'\n", + " All cruels else subscrib'd. But I shall see\n", + " The winged vengeance overtake such children.\n", + " Corn. See't shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair.\n", + " Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot.\n", + " Glou. He that will think to live till he be old,\n", + " Give me some help!- O cruel! O ye gods!\n", + " Reg. One side will mock another. Th' other too!\n", + " Corn. If you see vengeance-\n", + " 1. Serv. Hold your hand, my lord!\n", + " I have serv'd you ever since I was a child;\n", + " But better service have I never done you\n", + " Than now to bid you hold.\n", + " Reg. How now, you dog?\n", + " 1. Serv. If you did wear a beard upon your chin,\n", + " I'ld shake it on this quarrel. \n", + " Reg. What do you mean?\n", + " Corn. My villain! Draw and fight.\n", + " 1. Serv. Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of anger.\n", + " Reg. Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus?\n", + " She takes a sword and runs at him behind.\n", + " 1. Serv. O, I am slain! My lord, you have one eye left\n", + " To see some mischief on him. O! He dies.\n", + " Corn. Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly!\n", + " Where is thy lustre now?\n", + " Glou. All dark and comfortless! Where's my son Edmund?\n", + " Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature\n", + " To quit this horrid act.\n", + " Reg. Out, treacherous villain!\n", + " Thou call'st on him that hates thee. It was he\n", + " That made the overture of thy treasons to us;\n", + " Who is too good to pity thee.\n", + " Glou. O my follies! Then Edgar was abus'd.\n", + " Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!\n", + " Reg. Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell\n", + " His way to Dover. \n", + " Exit [one] with Gloucester.\n", + " How is't, my lord? How look you?\n", + " Corn. I have receiv'd a hurt. Follow me, lady.\n", + " Turn out that eyeless villain. Throw this slave\n", + " Upon the dunghill. Regan, I bleed apace.\n", + " Untimely comes this hurt. Give me your arm.\n", + " Exit [Cornwall, led by Regan].\n", + " 2. Serv. I'll never care what wickedness I do,\n", + " If this man come to good.\n", + " 3. Serv. If she live long,\n", + " And in the end meet the old course of death,\n", + " Women will all turn monsters.\n", + " 2. Serv. Let's follow the old Earl, and get the bedlam\n", + " To lead him where he would. His roguish madness\n", + " Allows itself to anything.\n", + " 3. Serv. Go thou. I'll fetch some flax and whites of eggs\n", + " To apply to his bleeding face. Now heaven help him!\n", + " Exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "<>\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "ACT IV. Scene I.\n", + "The heath.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Edgar.\n", + "\n", + " Edg. Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd,\n", + " Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst,\n", + " The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,\n", + " Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear.\n", + " The lamentable change is from the best;\n", + " The worst returns to laughter. Welcome then,\n", + " Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace!\n", + " The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst\n", + " Owes nothing to thy blasts.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Gloucester, led by an Old Man.\n", + "\n", + " But who comes here?\n", + " My father, poorly led? World, world, O world!\n", + " But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,\n", + " Life would not yield to age.\n", + " Old Man. O my good lord, \n", + " I have been your tenant, and your father's tenant,\n", + " These fourscore years.\n", + " Glou. Away, get thee away! Good friend, be gone.\n", + " Thy comforts can do me no good at all;\n", + " Thee they may hurt.\n", + " Old Man. You cannot see your way.\n", + " Glou. I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;\n", + " I stumbled when I saw. Full oft 'tis seen\n", + " Our means secure us, and our mere defects\n", + " Prove our commodities. Ah dear son Edgar,\n", + " The food of thy abused father's wrath!\n", + " Might I but live to see thee in my touch,\n", + " I'ld say I had eyes again!\n", + " Old Man. How now? Who's there?\n", + " Edg. [aside] O gods! Who is't can say 'I am at the worst'?\n", + " I am worse than e'er I was.\n", + " Old Man. 'Tis poor mad Tom.\n", + " Edg. [aside] And worse I may be yet. The worst is not\n", + " So long as we can say 'This is the worst.'\n", + " Old Man. Fellow, where goest? \n", + " Glou. Is it a beggarman?\n", + " Old Man. Madman and beggar too.\n", + " Glou. He has some reason, else he could not beg.\n", + " I' th' last night's storm I such a fellow saw,\n", + " Which made me think a man a worm. My son\n", + " Came then into my mind, and yet my mind\n", + " Was then scarce friends with him. I have heard more since.\n", + " As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods.\n", + " They kill us for their sport.\n", + " Edg. [aside] How should this be?\n", + " Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow,\n", + " Ang'ring itself and others.- Bless thee, master!\n", + " Glou. Is that the naked fellow?\n", + " Old Man. Ay, my lord.\n", + " Glou. Then prithee get thee gone. If for my sake\n", + " Thou wilt o'ertake us hence a mile or twain\n", + " I' th' way toward Dover, do it for ancient love;\n", + " And bring some covering for this naked soul,\n", + " Who I'll entreat to lead me.\n", + " Old Man. Alack, sir, he is mad! \n", + " Glou. 'Tis the time's plague when madmen lead the blind.\n", + " Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure.\n", + " Above the rest, be gone.\n", + " Old Man. I'll bring him the best 'parel that I have,\n", + " Come on't what will. Exit.\n", + " Glou. Sirrah naked fellow-\n", + " Edg. Poor Tom's acold. [Aside] I cannot daub it further.\n", + " Glou. Come hither, fellow.\n", + " Edg. [aside] And yet I must.- Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed.\n", + " Glou. Know'st thou the way to Dover?\n", + " Edg. Both stile and gate, horseway and footpath. Poor Tom hath\n", + "been\n", + " scar'd out of his good wits. Bless thee, good man's son,\n", + "from\n", + " the foul fiend! Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once:\n", + "of\n", + " lust, as Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness; Mahu,\n", + "of\n", + " stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and\n", + " mowing, who since possesses chambermaids and waiting women.\n", + "So,\n", + " bless thee, master!\n", + " Glou. Here, take this Purse, thou whom the heavens' plagues\n", + " Have humbled to all strokes. That I am wretched\n", + " Makes thee the happier. Heavens, deal so still! \n", + " Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man,\n", + " That slaves your ordinance, that will not see\n", + " Because he does not feel, feel your pow'r quickly;\n", + " So distribution should undo excess,\n", + " And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover?\n", + " Edg. Ay, master.\n", + " Glou. There is a cliff, whose high and bending head\n", + " Looks fearfully in the confined deep.\n", + " Bring me but to the very brim of it,\n", + " And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear\n", + " With something rich about me. From that place\n", + " I shall no leading need.\n", + " Edg. Give me thy arm.\n", + " Poor Tom shall lead thee.\n", + " Exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene II.\n", + "Before the Duke of Albany's Palace.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Goneril and [Edmund the] Bastard.\n", + "\n", + " Gon. Welcome, my lord. I marvel our mild husband\n", + " Not met us on the way.\n", + "\n", + " Enter [Oswald the] Steward.\n", + "\n", + " Now, where's your master?\n", + " Osw. Madam, within, but never man so chang'd.\n", + " I told him of the army that was landed:\n", + " He smil'd at it. I told him you were coming:\n", + " His answer was, 'The worse.' Of Gloucester's treachery\n", + " And of the loyal service of his son\n", + " When I inform'd him, then he call'd me sot\n", + " And told me I had turn'd the wrong side out.\n", + " What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him;\n", + " What like, offensive.\n", + " Gon. [to Edmund] Then shall you go no further.\n", + " It is the cowish terror of his spirit, \n", + " That dares not undertake. He'll not feel wrongs\n", + " Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way\n", + " May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother.\n", + " Hasten his musters and conduct his pow'rs.\n", + " I must change arms at home and give the distaff\n", + " Into my husband's hands. This trusty servant\n", + " Shall pass between us. Ere long you are like to hear\n", + " (If you dare venture in your own behalf)\n", + " A mistress's command. Wear this. [Gives a favour.]\n", + " Spare speech.\n", + " Decline your head. This kiss, if it durst speak,\n", + " Would stretch thy spirits up into the air.\n", + " Conceive, and fare thee well.\n", + " Edm. Yours in the ranks of death! Exit.\n", + " Gon. My most dear Gloucester!\n", + " O, the difference of man and man!\n", + " To thee a woman's services are due;\n", + " My fool usurps my body.\n", + " Osw. Madam, here comes my lord. Exit.\n", + " \n", + " Enter Albany.\n", + "\n", + " Gon. I have been worth the whistle.\n", + " Alb. O Goneril,\n", + " You are not worth the dust which the rude wind\n", + " Blows in your face! I fear your disposition.\n", + " That nature which contemns it origin\n", + " Cannot be bordered certain in itself.\n", + " She that herself will sliver and disbranch\n", + " From her material sap, perforce must wither\n", + " And come to deadly use.\n", + " Gon. No more! The text is foolish.\n", + " Alb. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile;\n", + " Filths savour but themselves. What have you done?\n", + " Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd?\n", + " A father, and a gracious aged man,\n", + " Whose reverence even the head-lugg'd bear would lick,\n", + " Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you madded.\n", + " Could my good brother suffer you to do it?\n", + " A man, a prince, by him so benefited! \n", + " If that the heavens do not their visible spirits\n", + " Send quickly down to tame these vile offences,\n", + " It will come,\n", + " Humanity must perforce prey on itself,\n", + " Like monsters of the deep.\n", + " Gon. Milk-liver'd man!\n", + " That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;\n", + " Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning\n", + " Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know'st\n", + " Fools do those villains pity who are punish'd\n", + " Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum?\n", + " France spreads his banners in our noiseless land,\n", + " With plumed helm thy state begins to threat,\n", + " Whiles thou, a moral fool, sit'st still, and criest\n", + " 'Alack, why does he so?'\n", + " Alb. See thyself, devil!\n", + " Proper deformity seems not in the fiend\n", + " So horrid as in woman.\n", + " Gon. O vain fool!\n", + " Alb. Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame! \n", + " Bemonster not thy feature! Were't my fitness\n", + " To let these hands obey my blood,\n", + " They are apt enough to dislocate and tear\n", + " Thy flesh and bones. Howe'er thou art a fiend,\n", + " A woman's shape doth shield thee.\n", + " Gon. Marry, your manhood mew!\n", + "\n", + " Enter a Gentleman.\n", + "\n", + " Alb. What news?\n", + " Gent. O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall 's dead,\n", + " Slain by his servant, going to put out\n", + " The other eye of Gloucester.\n", + " Alb. Gloucester's eyes?\n", + " Gent. A servant that he bred, thrill'd with remorse,\n", + " Oppos'd against the act, bending his sword\n", + " To his great master; who, thereat enrag'd,\n", + " Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead;\n", + " But not without that harmful stroke which since\n", + " Hath pluck'd him after. \n", + " Alb. This shows you are above,\n", + " You justicers, that these our nether crimes\n", + " So speedily can venge! But O poor Gloucester!\n", + " Lose he his other eye?\n", + " Gent. Both, both, my lord.\n", + " This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer.\n", + " 'Tis from your sister.\n", + " Gon. [aside] One way I like this well;\n", + " But being widow, and my Gloucester with her,\n", + " May all the building in my fancy pluck\n", + " Upon my hateful life. Another way\n", + " The news is not so tart.- I'll read, and answer.\n", + "Exit.\n", + " Alb. Where was his son when they did take his eyes?\n", + " Gent. Come with my lady hither.\n", + " Alb. He is not here.\n", + " Gent. No, my good lord; I met him back again.\n", + " Alb. Knows he the wickedness?\n", + " Gent. Ay, my good lord. 'Twas he inform'd against him,\n", + " And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment \n", + " Might have the freer course.\n", + " Alb. Gloucester, I live\n", + " To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the King,\n", + " And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend.\n", + " Tell me what more thou know'st.\n", + " Exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene III.\n", + "The French camp near Dover.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Kent and a Gentleman.\n", + "\n", + " Kent. Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back know you\n", + "the\n", + " reason?\n", + " Gent. Something he left imperfect in the state, which since his\n", + " coming forth is thought of, which imports to the kingdom so\n", + "much\n", + " fear and danger that his personal return was most required\n", + "and\n", + " necessary.\n", + " Kent. Who hath he left behind him general?\n", + " Gent. The Marshal of France, Monsieur La Far.\n", + " Kent. Did your letters pierce the Queen to any demonstration of\n", + " grief?\n", + " Gent. Ay, sir. She took them, read them in my presence,\n", + " And now and then an ample tear trill'd down\n", + " Her delicate cheek. It seem'd she was a queen\n", + " Over her passion, who, most rebel-like,\n", + " Sought to be king o'er her.\n", + " Kent. O, then it mov'd her?\n", + " Gent. Not to a rage. Patience and sorrow strove \n", + " Who should express her goodliest. You have seen\n", + " Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears\n", + " Were like, a better way. Those happy smilets\n", + " That play'd on her ripe lip seem'd not to know\n", + " What guests were in her eyes, which parted thence\n", + " As pearls from diamonds dropp'd. In brief,\n", + " Sorrow would be a rarity most belov'd,\n", + " If all could so become it.\n", + " Kent. Made she no verbal question?\n", + " Gent. Faith, once or twice she heav'd the name of father\n", + " Pantingly forth, as if it press'd her heart;\n", + " Cried 'Sisters, sisters! Shame of ladies! Sisters!\n", + " Kent! father! sisters! What, i' th' storm? i' th' night?\n", + " Let pity not be believ'd!' There she shook\n", + " The holy water from her heavenly eyes,\n", + " And clamour moisten'd. Then away she started\n", + " To deal with grief alone.\n", + " Kent. It is the stars,\n", + " The stars above us, govern our conditions;\n", + " Else one self mate and mate could not beget \n", + " Such different issues. You spoke not with her since?\n", + " Gent. No.\n", + " Kent. Was this before the King return'd?\n", + " Gent. No, since.\n", + " Kent. Well, sir, the poor distressed Lear's i' th' town;\n", + " Who sometime, in his better tune, remembers\n", + " What we are come about, and by no means\n", + " Will yield to see his daughter.\n", + " Gent. Why, good sir?\n", + " Kent. A sovereign shame so elbows him; his own unkindness,\n", + " That stripp'd her from his benediction, turn'd her\n", + " To foreign casualties, gave her dear rights\n", + " To his dog-hearted daughters- these things sting\n", + " His mind so venomously that burning shame\n", + " Detains him from Cordelia.\n", + " Gent. Alack, poor gentleman!\n", + " Kent. Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard not?\n", + " Gent. 'Tis so; they are afoot.\n", + " Kent. Well, sir, I'll bring you to our master Lear\n", + " And leave you to attend him. Some dear cause \n", + " Will in concealment wrap me up awhile.\n", + " When I am known aright, you shall not grieve\n", + " Lending me this acquaintance. I pray you go\n", + " Along with me. Exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene IV.\n", + "The French camp.\n", + "\n", + "Enter, with Drum and Colours, Cordelia, Doctor, and Soldiers.\n", + "\n", + " Cor. Alack, 'tis he! Why, he was met even now\n", + " As mad as the vex'd sea, singing aloud,\n", + " Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow weeds,\n", + " With hardocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo flow'rs,\n", + " Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow\n", + " In our sustaining corn. A century send forth.\n", + " Search every acre in the high-grown field\n", + " And bring him to our eye. [Exit an Officer.] What can man's\n", + " wisdom\n", + " In the restoring his bereaved sense?\n", + " He that helps him take all my outward worth.\n", + " Doct. There is means, madam.\n", + " Our foster nurse of nature is repose,\n", + " The which he lacks. That to provoke in him\n", + " Are many simples operative, whose power\n", + " Will close the eye of anguish.\n", + " Cor. All blest secrets, \n", + " All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth,\n", + " Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate\n", + " In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him!\n", + " Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life\n", + " That wants the means to lead it.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Messenger.\n", + "\n", + " Mess. News, madam.\n", + " The British pow'rs are marching hitherward.\n", + " Cor. 'Tis known before. Our preparation stands\n", + " In expectation of them. O dear father,\n", + " It is thy business that I go about.\n", + " Therefore great France\n", + " My mourning and important tears hath pitied.\n", + " No blown ambition doth our arms incite,\n", + " But love, dear love, and our ag'd father's right.\n", + " Soon may I hear and see him!\n", + " Exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene V.\n", + "Gloucester's Castle.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Regan and [Oswald the] Steward.\n", + "\n", + " Reg. But are my brother's pow'rs set forth?\n", + " Osw. Ay, madam.\n", + " Reg. Himself in person there?\n", + " Osw. Madam, with much ado.\n", + " Your sister is the better soldier.\n", + " Reg. Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home?\n", + " Osw. No, madam.\n", + " Reg. What might import my sister's letter to him?\n", + " Osw. I know not, lady.\n", + " Reg. Faith, he is posted hence on serious matter.\n", + " It was great ignorance, Gloucester's eyes being out,\n", + " To let him live. Where he arrives he moves\n", + " All hearts against us. Edmund, I think, is gone,\n", + " In pity of his misery, to dispatch\n", + " His nighted life; moreover, to descry\n", + " The strength o' th' enemy.\n", + " Osw. I must needs after him, madam, with my letter. \n", + " Reg. Our troops set forth to-morrow. Stay with us.\n", + " The ways are dangerous.\n", + " Osw. I may not, madam.\n", + " My lady charg'd my duty in this business.\n", + " Reg. Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you\n", + " Transport her purposes by word? Belike,\n", + " Something- I know not what- I'll love thee much-\n", + " Let me unseal the letter.\n", + " Osw. Madam, I had rather-\n", + " Reg. I know your lady does not love her husband;\n", + " I am sure of that; and at her late being here\n", + " She gave strange eliads and most speaking looks\n", + " To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom.\n", + " Osw. I, madam?\n", + " Reg. I speak in understanding. Y'are! I know't.\n", + " Therefore I do advise you take this note.\n", + " My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd,\n", + " And more convenient is he for my hand\n", + " Than for your lady's. You may gather more.\n", + " If you do find him, pray you give him this; \n", + " And when your mistress hears thus much from you,\n", + " I pray desire her call her wisdom to her.\n", + " So farewell.\n", + " If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,\n", + " Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.\n", + " Osw. Would I could meet him, madam! I should show\n", + " What party I do follow.\n", + " Reg. Fare thee well. Exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene VI.\n", + "The country near Dover.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Gloucester, and Edgar [like a Peasant].\n", + "\n", + " Glou. When shall I come to th' top of that same hill?\n", + " Edg. You do climb up it now. Look how we labour.\n", + " Glou. Methinks the ground is even.\n", + " Edg. Horrible steep.\n", + " Hark, do you hear the sea?\n", + " Glou. No, truly.\n", + " Edg. Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect\n", + " By your eyes' anguish.\n", + " Glou. So may it be indeed.\n", + " Methinks thy voice is alter'd, and thou speak'st\n", + " In better phrase and matter than thou didst.\n", + " Edg. Y'are much deceiv'd. In nothing am I chang'd\n", + " But in my garments.\n", + " Glou. Methinks y'are better spoken.\n", + " Edg. Come on, sir; here's the place. Stand still. How fearful\n", + " And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!\n", + " The crows and choughs that wing the midway air \n", + " Show scarce so gross as beetles. Halfway down\n", + " Hangs one that gathers sampire- dreadful trade!\n", + " Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.\n", + " The fishermen that walk upon the beach\n", + " Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,\n", + " Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy\n", + " Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge\n", + " That on th' unnumb'red idle pebble chafes\n", + " Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more,\n", + " Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight\n", + " Topple down headlong.\n", + " Glou. Set me where you stand.\n", + " Edg. Give me your hand. You are now within a foot\n", + " Of th' extreme verge. For all beneath the moon\n", + " Would I not leap upright.\n", + " Glou. Let go my hand.\n", + " Here, friend, is another purse; in it a jewel\n", + " Well worth a poor man's taking. Fairies and gods\n", + " Prosper it with thee! Go thou further off;\n", + " Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going. \n", + " Edg. Now fare ye well, good sir.\n", + " Glou. With all my heart.\n", + " Edg. [aside]. Why I do trifle thus with his despair\n", + " Is done to cure it.\n", + " Glou. O you mighty gods! He kneels.\n", + " This world I do renounce, and, in your sights,\n", + " Shake patiently my great affliction off.\n", + " If I could bear it longer and not fall\n", + " To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,\n", + " My snuff and loathed part of nature should\n", + " Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!\n", + " Now, fellow, fare thee well.\n", + " He falls [forward and swoons].\n", + " Edg. Gone, sir, farewell.-\n", + " And yet I know not how conceit may rob\n", + " The treasury of life when life itself\n", + " Yields to the theft. Had he been where he thought,\n", + " By this had thought been past.- Alive or dead?\n", + " Ho you, sir! friend! Hear you, sir? Speak!-\n", + " Thus might he pass indeed. Yet he revives. \n", + " What are you, sir?\n", + " Glou. Away, and let me die.\n", + " Edg. Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,\n", + " So many fadom down precipitating,\n", + " Thou'dst shiver'd like an egg; but thou dost breathe;\n", + " Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound.\n", + " Ten masts at each make not the altitude\n", + " Which thou hast perpendicularly fell.\n", + " Thy life is a miracle. Speak yet again.\n", + " Glou. But have I fall'n, or no?\n", + " Edg. From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.\n", + " Look up a-height. The shrill-gorg'd lark so far\n", + " Cannot be seen or heard. Do but look up.\n", + " Glou. Alack, I have no eyes!\n", + " Is wretchedness depriv'd that benefit\n", + " To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort\n", + " When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage\n", + " And frustrate his proud will.\n", + " Edg. Give me your arm.\n", + " Up- so. How is't? Feel you your legs? You stand. \n", + " Glou. Too well, too well.\n", + " Edg. This is above all strangeness.\n", + " Upon the crown o' th' cliff what thing was that\n", + " Which parted from you?\n", + " Glou. A poor unfortunate beggar.\n", + " Edg. As I stood here below, methought his eyes\n", + " Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses,\n", + " Horns whelk'd and wav'd like the enridged sea.\n", + " It was some fiend. Therefore, thou happy father,\n", + " Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours\n", + " Of men's impossibility, have preserv'd thee.\n", + " Glou. I do remember now. Henceforth I'll bear\n", + " Affliction till it do cry out itself\n", + " 'Enough, enough,' and die. That thing you speak of,\n", + " I took it for a man. Often 'twould say\n", + " 'The fiend, the fiend'- he led me to that place.\n", + " Edg. Bear free and patient thoughts.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Lear, mad, [fantastically dressed with weeds].\n", + " \n", + " But who comes here?\n", + " The safer sense will ne'er accommodate\n", + " His master thus.\n", + " Lear. No, they cannot touch me for coming;\n", + " I am the King himself.\n", + " Edg. O thou side-piercing sight!\n", + " Lear. Nature 's above art in that respect. There's your press\n", + " money. That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper. Draw\n", + "me\n", + " a clothier's yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace; this\n", + "piece\n", + " of toasted cheese will do't. There's my gauntlet; I'll prove\n", + "it\n", + " on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O, well flown, bird!\n", + "i'\n", + " th' clout, i' th' clout! Hewgh! Give the word.\n", + " Edg. Sweet marjoram.\n", + " Lear. Pass.\n", + " Glou. I know that voice.\n", + " Lear. Ha! Goneril with a white beard? They flatter'd me like a\n", + "dog,\n", + " and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones\n", + " were there. To say 'ay' and 'no' to everything I said! 'Ay'\n", + "and\n", + " 'no' too was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me\n", + " once, and the wind to make me chatter; when the thunder\n", + "would \n", + " not peace at my bidding; there I found 'em, there I smelt\n", + "'em\n", + " out. Go to, they are not men o' their words! They told me I\n", + "was\n", + " everything. 'Tis a lie- I am not ague-proof.\n", + " Glou. The trick of that voice I do well remember.\n", + " Is't not the King?\n", + " Lear. Ay, every inch a king!\n", + " When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.\n", + " I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause?\n", + " Adultery?\n", + " Thou shalt not die. Die for adultery? No.\n", + " The wren goes to't, and the small gilded fly\n", + " Does lecher in my sight.\n", + " Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son\n", + " Was kinder to his father than my daughters\n", + " Got 'tween the lawful sheets.\n", + " To't, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers.\n", + " Behold yond simp'ring dame,\n", + " Whose face between her forks presageth snow,\n", + " That minces virtue, and does shake the head\n", + " To hear of pleasure's name. \n", + " The fitchew nor the soiled horse goes to't\n", + " With a more riotous appetite.\n", + " Down from the waist they are Centaurs,\n", + " Though women all above.\n", + " But to the girdle do the gods inherit,\n", + " Beneath is all the fiend's.\n", + " There's hell, there's darkness, there's the sulphurous pit;\n", + " burning, scalding, stench, consumption. Fie, fie, fie! pah,\n", + "pah!\n", + " Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my\n", + " imagination. There's money for thee.\n", + " Glou. O, let me kiss that hand!\n", + " Lear. Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.\n", + " Glou. O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world\n", + " Shall so wear out to naught. Dost thou know me?\n", + " Lear. I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny at\n", + "me?\n", + " No, do thy worst, blind Cupid! I'll not love. Read thou this\n", + " challenge; mark but the penning of it.\n", + " Glou. Were all the letters suns, I could not see one.\n", + " Edg. [aside] I would not take this from report. It is,\n", + " And my heart breaks at it. \n", + " Lear. Read.\n", + " Glou. What, with the case of eyes?\n", + " Lear. O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your head, nor\n", + "no\n", + " money in your purse? Your eyes are in a heavy case, your\n", + "purse\n", + " in a light. Yet you see how this world goes.\n", + " Glou. I see it feelingly.\n", + " Lear. What, art mad? A man may see how the world goes with no\n", + "eyes.\n", + " Look with thine ears. See how yond justice rails upon yond\n", + " simple thief. Hark in thine ear. Change places and,\n", + "handy-dandy,\n", + " which is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen a\n", + " farmer's dog bark at a beggar?\n", + " Glou. Ay, sir.\n", + " Lear. And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst\n", + "behold\n", + " the great image of authority: a dog's obeyed in office.\n", + " Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand!\n", + " Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back.\n", + " Thou hotly lusts to use her in that kind\n", + " For which thou whip'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener.\n", + " Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear;\n", + " Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, \n", + " And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;\n", + " Arm it in rags, a pygmy's straw does pierce it.\n", + " None does offend, none- I say none! I'll able 'em.\n", + " Take that of me, my friend, who have the power\n", + " To seal th' accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes\n", + " And, like a scurvy politician, seem\n", + " To see the things thou dost not. Now, now, now, now!\n", + " Pull off my boots. Harder, harder! So.\n", + " Edg. O, matter and impertinency mix'd!\n", + " Reason, in madness!\n", + " Lear. If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes.\n", + " I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester.\n", + " Thou must be patient. We came crying hither;\n", + " Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air\n", + " We wawl and cry. I will preach to thee. Mark.\n", + " Glou. Alack, alack the day!\n", + " Lear. When we are born, we cry that we are come\n", + " To this great stage of fools. This' a good block.\n", + " It were a delicate stratagem to shoe\n", + " A troop of horse with felt. I'll put't in proof, \n", + " And when I have stol'n upon these sons-in-law,\n", + " Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!\n", + "\n", + " Enter a Gentleman [with Attendants].\n", + "\n", + " Gent. O, here he is! Lay hand upon him.- Sir,\n", + " Your most dear daughter-\n", + " Lear. No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even\n", + " The natural fool of fortune. Use me well;\n", + " You shall have ransom. Let me have a surgeon;\n", + " I am cut to th' brains.\n", + " Gent. You shall have anything.\n", + " Lear. No seconds? All myself?\n", + " Why, this would make a man a man of salt,\n", + " To use his eyes for garden waterpots,\n", + " Ay, and laying autumn's dust.\n", + " Gent. Good sir-\n", + " Lear. I will die bravely, like a smug bridegroom. What!\n", + " I will be jovial. Come, come, I am a king;\n", + " My masters, know you that? \n", + " Gent. You are a royal one, and we obey you.\n", + " Lear. Then there's life in't. Nay, an you get it, you shall get\n", + "it\n", + " by running. Sa, sa, sa, sa!\n", + " Exit running. [Attendants follow.]\n", + " Gent. A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch,\n", + " Past speaking of in a king! Thou hast one daughter\n", + " Who redeems nature from the general curse\n", + " Which twain have brought her to.\n", + " Edg. Hail, gentle sir.\n", + " Gent. Sir, speed you. What's your will?\n", + " Edg. Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward?\n", + " Gent. Most sure and vulgar. Every one hears that\n", + " Which can distinguish sound.\n", + " Edg. But, by your favour,\n", + " How near's the other army?\n", + " Gent. Near and on speedy foot. The main descry\n", + " Stands on the hourly thought.\n", + " Edg. I thank you sir. That's all.\n", + " Gent. Though that the Queen on special cause is here,\n", + " Her army is mov'd on. \n", + " Edg. I thank you, sir\n", + " Exit [Gentleman].\n", + " Glou. You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me;\n", + " Let not my worser spirit tempt me again\n", + " To die before you please!\n", + " Edg. Well pray you, father.\n", + " Glou. Now, good sir, what are you?\n", + " Edg. A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows,\n", + " Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows,\n", + " Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand;\n", + " I'll lead you to some biding.\n", + " Glou. Hearty thanks.\n", + " The bounty and the benison of heaven\n", + " To boot, and boot!\n", + "\n", + " Enter [Oswald the] Steward.\n", + "\n", + " Osw. A proclaim'd prize! Most happy!\n", + " That eyeless head of thine was first fram'd flesh\n", + " To raise my fortunes. Thou old unhappy traitor, \n", + " Briefly thyself remember. The sword is out\n", + " That must destroy thee.\n", + " Glou. Now let thy friendly hand\n", + " Put strength enough to't.\n", + " [Edgar interposes.]\n", + " Osw. Wherefore, bold peasant,\n", + " Dar'st thou support a publish'd traitor? Hence!\n", + " Lest that th' infection of his fortune take\n", + " Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.\n", + " Edg. Chill not let go, zir, without vurther 'cagion.\n", + " Osw. Let go, slave, or thou diest!\n", + " Edg. Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor voke pass. An\n", + "chud\n", + " ha' bin zwagger'd out of my life, 'twould not ha' bin zo\n", + "long as\n", + " 'tis by a vortnight. Nay, come not near th' old man. Keep\n", + "out,\n", + " che vore ye, or Ise try whether your costard or my ballow be\n", + "the\n", + " harder. Chill be plain with you.\n", + " Osw. Out, dunghill!\n", + " They fight.\n", + " Edg. Chill pick your teeth, zir. Come! No matter vor your\n", + "foins.\n", + " [Oswald falls.] \n", + " Osw. Slave, thou hast slain me. Villain, take my purse.\n", + " If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body,\n", + " And give the letters which thou find'st about me\n", + " To Edmund Earl of Gloucester. Seek him out\n", + " Upon the British party. O, untimely death! Death!\n", + " He dies.\n", + " Edg. I know thee well. A serviceable villain,\n", + " As duteous to the vices of thy mistress\n", + " As badness would desire.\n", + " Glou. What, is he dead?\n", + " Edg. Sit you down, father; rest you.\n", + " Let's see his pockets; these letters that he speaks of\n", + " May be my friends. He's dead. I am only sorry\n", + " He had no other deathsman. Let us see.\n", + " Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not.\n", + " To know our enemies' minds, we'ld rip their hearts;\n", + " Their papers, is more lawful. Reads the letter.\n", + "\n", + " 'Let our reciprocal vows be rememb'red. You have many\n", + " opportunities to cut him off. If your will want not, time\n", + "and\n", + " place will be fruitfully offer'd. There is nothing done, if\n", + "he \n", + " return the conqueror. Then am I the prisoner, and his bed my\n", + " jail; from the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply\n", + "the\n", + " place for your labour.\n", + " 'Your (wife, so I would say) affectionate servant,\n", + " \n", + "'Goneril.'\n", + "\n", + " O indistinguish'd space of woman's will!\n", + " A plot upon her virtuous husband's life,\n", + " And the exchange my brother! Here in the sands\n", + " Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified\n", + " Of murtherous lechers; and in the mature time\n", + " With this ungracious paper strike the sight\n", + " Of the death-practis'd Duke, For him 'tis well\n", + " That of thy death and business I can tell.\n", + " Glou. The King is mad. How stiff is my vile sense,\n", + " That I stand up, and have ingenious feeling\n", + " Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract.\n", + " So should my thoughts be sever'd from my griefs,\n", + " And woes by wrong imaginations lose \n", + " The knowledge of themselves.\n", + " A drum afar off.\n", + " Edg. Give me your hand.\n", + " Far off methinks I hear the beaten drum.\n", + " Come, father, I'll bestow you with a friend. Exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene VII.\n", + "A tent in the French camp.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Cordelia, Kent, Doctor, and Gentleman.\n", + "\n", + " Cor. O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work\n", + " To match thy goodness? My life will be too short\n", + " And every measure fail me.\n", + " Kent. To be acknowledg'd, madam, is o'erpaid.\n", + " All my reports go with the modest truth;\n", + " Nor more nor clipp'd, but so.\n", + " Cor. Be better suited.\n", + " These weeds are memories of those worser hours.\n", + " I prithee put them off.\n", + " Kent. Pardon, dear madam.\n", + " Yet to be known shortens my made intent.\n", + " My boon I make it that you know me not\n", + " Till time and I think meet.\n", + " Cor. Then be't so, my good lord. [To the Doctor] How, does the\n", + "King?\n", + " Doct. Madam, sleeps still.\n", + " Cor. O you kind gods,\n", + " Cure this great breach in his abused nature! \n", + " Th' untun'd and jarring senses, O, wind up\n", + " Of this child-changed father!\n", + " Doct. So please your Majesty\n", + " That we may wake the King? He hath slept long.\n", + " Cor. Be govern'd by your knowledge, and proceed\n", + " I' th' sway of your own will. Is he array'd?\n", + "\n", + " Enter Lear in a chair carried by Servants.\n", + "\n", + " Gent. Ay, madam. In the heaviness of sleep\n", + " We put fresh garments on him.\n", + " Doct. Be by, good madam, when we do awake him.\n", + " I doubt not of his temperance.\n", + " Cor. Very well.\n", + " Music.\n", + " Doct. Please you draw near. Louder the music there!\n", + " Cor. O my dear father, restoration hang\n", + " Thy medicine on my lips, and let this kiss\n", + " Repair those violent harms that my two sisters\n", + " Have in thy reverence made! \n", + " Kent. Kind and dear princess!\n", + " Cor. Had you not been their father, these white flakes\n", + " Had challeng'd pity of them. Was this a face\n", + " To be oppos'd against the warring winds?\n", + " To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?\n", + " In the most terrible and nimble stroke\n", + " Of quick cross lightning? to watch- poor perdu!-\n", + " With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog,\n", + " Though he had bit me, should have stood that night\n", + " Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father,\n", + " To hovel thee with swine and rogues forlorn,\n", + " In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!\n", + " 'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once\n", + " Had not concluded all.- He wakes. Speak to him.\n", + " Doct. Madam, do you; 'tis fittest.\n", + " Cor. How does my royal lord? How fares your Majesty?\n", + " Lear. You do me wrong to take me out o' th' grave.\n", + " Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound\n", + " Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears\n", + " Do scald like molten lead. \n", + " Cor. Sir, do you know me?\n", + " Lear. You are a spirit, I know. When did you die?\n", + " Cor. Still, still, far wide!\n", + " Doct. He's scarce awake. Let him alone awhile.\n", + " Lear. Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight,\n", + " I am mightily abus'd. I should e'en die with pity,\n", + " To see another thus. I know not what to say.\n", + " I will not swear these are my hands. Let's see.\n", + " I feel this pin prick. Would I were assur'd\n", + " Of my condition!\n", + " Cor. O, look upon me, sir,\n", + " And hold your hands in benediction o'er me.\n", + " No, sir, you must not kneel.\n", + " Lear. Pray, do not mock me.\n", + " I am a very foolish fond old man,\n", + " Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;\n", + " And, to deal plainly,\n", + " I fear I am not in my perfect mind.\n", + " Methinks I should know you, and know this man;\n", + " Yet I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant \n", + " What place this is; and all the skill I have\n", + " Remembers not these garments; nor I know not\n", + " Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me;\n", + " For (as I am a man) I think this lady\n", + " To be my child Cordelia.\n", + " Cor. And so I am! I am!\n", + " Lear. Be your tears wet? Yes, faith. I pray weep not.\n", + " If you have poison for me, I will drink it.\n", + " I know you do not love me; for your sisters\n", + " Have, as I do remember, done me wrong.\n", + " You have some cause, they have not.\n", + " Cor. No cause, no cause.\n", + " Lear. Am I in France?\n", + " Kent. In your own kingdom, sir.\n", + " Lear. Do not abuse me.\n", + " Doct. Be comforted, good madam. The great rage\n", + " You see is kill'd in him; and yet it is danger\n", + " To make him even o'er the time he has lost.\n", + " Desire him to go in. Trouble him no more\n", + " Till further settling. \n", + " Cor. Will't please your Highness walk?\n", + " Lear. You must bear with me.\n", + " Pray you now, forget and forgive. I am old and foolish.\n", + " Exeunt. Manent Kent and Gentleman.\n", + " Gent. Holds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so\n", + "slain?\n", + " Kent. Most certain, sir.\n", + " Gent. Who is conductor of his people?\n", + " Kent. As 'tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester.\n", + " Gent. They say Edgar, his banish'd son, is with the Earl of\n", + "Kent\n", + " in Germany.\n", + " Kent. Report is changeable. 'Tis time to look about; the powers\n", + "of\n", + " the kingdom approach apace.\n", + " Gent. The arbitrement is like to be bloody.\n", + " Fare you well, sir. [Exit.]\n", + " Kent. My point and period will be throughly wrought,\n", + " Or well or ill, as this day's battle's fought. Exit.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "<>\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "ACT V. Scene I.\n", + "The British camp near Dover.\n", + "\n", + "Enter, with Drum and Colours, Edmund, Regan, Gentleman, and\n", + "Soldiers.\n", + "\n", + " Edm. Know of the Duke if his last purpose hold,\n", + " Or whether since he is advis'd by aught\n", + " To change the course. He's full of alteration\n", + " And self-reproving. Bring his constant pleasure.\n", + " [Exit an Officer.]\n", + " Reg. Our sister's man is certainly miscarried.\n", + " Edm. Tis to be doubted, madam.\n", + " Reg. Now, sweet lord,\n", + " You know the goodness I intend upon you.\n", + " Tell me- but truly- but then speak the truth-\n", + " Do you not love my sister?\n", + " Edm. In honour'd love.\n", + " Reg. But have you never found my brother's way\n", + " To the forfended place?\n", + " Edm. That thought abuses you.\n", + " Reg. I am doubtful that you have been conjunct \n", + " And bosom'd with her, as far as we call hers.\n", + " Edm. No, by mine honour, madam.\n", + " Reg. I never shall endure her. Dear my lord,\n", + " Be not familiar with her.\n", + " Edm. Fear me not.\n", + " She and the Duke her husband!\n", + "\n", + " Enter, with Drum and Colours, Albany, Goneril, Soldiers.\n", + "\n", + " Gon. [aside] I had rather lose the battle than that sister\n", + " Should loosen him and me.\n", + " Alb. Our very loving sister, well bemet.\n", + " Sir, this I hear: the King is come to his daughter,\n", + " With others whom the rigour of our state\n", + " Forc'd to cry out. Where I could not be honest,\n", + " I never yet was valiant. For this business,\n", + " It toucheth us as France invades our land,\n", + " Not bolds the King, with others whom, I fear,\n", + " Most just and heavy causes make oppose.\n", + " Edm. Sir, you speak nobly. \n", + " Reg. Why is this reason'd?\n", + " Gon. Combine together 'gainst the enemy;\n", + " For these domestic and particular broils\n", + " Are not the question here.\n", + " Alb. Let's then determine\n", + " With th' ancient of war on our proceeding.\n", + " Edm. I shall attend you presently at your tent.\n", + " Reg. Sister, you'll go with us?\n", + " Gon. No.\n", + " Reg. 'Tis most convenient. Pray you go with us.\n", + " Gon. [aside] O, ho, I know the riddle.- I will go.\n", + "\n", + " [As they are going out,] enter Edgar [disguised].\n", + "\n", + " Edg. If e'er your Grace had speech with man so poor,\n", + " Hear me one word.\n", + " Alb. I'll overtake you.- Speak.\n", + " Exeunt [all but Albany and Edgar].\n", + " Edg. Before you fight the battle, ope this letter.\n", + " If you have victory, let the trumpet sound \n", + " For him that brought it. Wretched though I seem,\n", + " I can produce a champion that will prove\n", + " What is avouched there. If you miscarry,\n", + " Your business of the world hath so an end,\n", + " And machination ceases. Fortune love you!\n", + " Alb. Stay till I have read the letter.\n", + " Edg. I was forbid it.\n", + " When time shall serve, let but the herald cry,\n", + " And I'll appear again.\n", + " Alb. Why, fare thee well. I will o'erlook thy paper.\n", + " Exit [Edgar].\n", + "\n", + " Enter Edmund.\n", + "\n", + " Edm. The enemy 's in view; draw up your powers.\n", + " Here is the guess of their true strength and forces\n", + " By diligent discovery; but your haste\n", + " Is now urg'd on you.\n", + " Alb. We will greet the time. Exit.\n", + " Edm. To both these sisters have I sworn my love; \n", + " Each jealous of the other, as the stung\n", + " Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take?\n", + " Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd,\n", + " If both remain alive. To take the widow\n", + " Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril;\n", + " And hardly shall I carry out my side,\n", + " Her husband being alive. Now then, we'll use\n", + " His countenance for the battle, which being done,\n", + " Let her who would be rid of him devise\n", + " His speedy taking off. As for the mercy\n", + " Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia-\n", + " The battle done, and they within our power,\n", + " Shall never see his pardon; for my state\n", + " Stands on me to defend, not to debate. Exit.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene II.\n", + "A field between the two camps.\n", + "\n", + "Alarum within. Enter, with Drum and Colours, the Powers of France\n", + "over the stage, Cordelia with her Father in her hand, and exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "Enter Edgar and Gloucester.\n", + "\n", + " Edg. Here, father, take the shadow of this tree\n", + " For your good host. Pray that the right may thrive.\n", + " If ever I return to you again,\n", + " I'll bring you comfort.\n", + " Glou. Grace go with you, sir!\n", + " Exit [Edgar].\n", + "\n", + " Alarum and retreat within. Enter Edgar,\n", + "\n", + " Edg. Away, old man! give me thy hand! away!\n", + " King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en.\n", + " Give me thy hand! come on!\n", + " Glou. No further, sir. A man may rot even here. \n", + " Edg. What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure\n", + " Their going hence, even as their coming hither;\n", + " Ripeness is all. Come on.\n", + " Glou. And that's true too. Exeunt.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Scene III.\n", + "The British camp, near Dover.\n", + "\n", + "Enter, in conquest, with Drum and Colours, Edmund; Lear and\n", + "Cordelia\n", + "as prisoners; Soldiers, Captain.\n", + "\n", + " Edm. Some officers take them away. Good guard\n", + " Until their greater pleasures first be known\n", + " That are to censure them.\n", + " Cor. We are not the first\n", + " Who with best meaning have incurr'd the worst.\n", + " For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down;\n", + " Myself could else outfrown false Fortune's frown.\n", + " Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?\n", + " Lear. No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison.\n", + " We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage.\n", + " When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down\n", + " And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live,\n", + " And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh\n", + " At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues\n", + " Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too-\n", + " Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out- \n", + " And take upon 's the mystery of things,\n", + " As if we were God's spies; and we'll wear out,\n", + " In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones\n", + " That ebb and flow by th' moon.\n", + " Edm. Take them away.\n", + " Lear. Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,\n", + " The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee?\n", + " He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven\n", + " And fire us hence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes.\n", + " The goodyears shall devour 'em, flesh and fell,\n", + " Ere they shall make us weep! We'll see 'em starv'd first.\n", + " Come. Exeunt [Lear and Cordelia, guarded].\n", + " Edm. Come hither, Captain; hark.\n", + " Take thou this note [gives a paper]. Go follow them to\n", + "prison.\n", + " One step I have advanc'd thee. If thou dost\n", + " As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way\n", + " To noble fortunes. Know thou this, that men\n", + " Are as the time is. To be tender-minded\n", + " Does not become a sword. Thy great employment\n", + " Will not bear question. Either say thou'lt do't, \n", + " Or thrive by other means.\n", + " Capt. I'll do't, my lord.\n", + " Edm. About it! and write happy when th' hast done.\n", + " Mark- I say, instantly; and carry it so\n", + " As I have set it down.\n", + " Capt. I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats;\n", + " If it be man's work, I'll do't. Exit.\n", + "\n", + " Flourish. Enter Albany, Goneril, Regan, Soldiers.\n", + "\n", + " Alb. Sir, you have show'd to-day your valiant strain,\n", + " And fortune led you well. You have the captives\n", + " Who were the opposites of this day's strife.\n", + " We do require them of you, so to use them\n", + " As we shall find their merits and our safety\n", + " May equally determine.\n", + " Edm. Sir, I thought it fit\n", + " To send the old and miserable King\n", + " To some retention and appointed guard;\n", + " Whose age has charms in it, whose title more, \n", + " To pluck the common bosom on his side\n", + " And turn our impress'd lances in our eyes\n", + " Which do command them. With him I sent the Queen,\n", + " My reason all the same; and they are ready\n", + " To-morrow, or at further space, t' appear\n", + " Where you shall hold your session. At this time\n", + " We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend;\n", + " And the best quarrels, in the heat, are curs'd\n", + " By those that feel their sharpness.\n", + " The question of Cordelia and her father\n", + " Requires a fitter place.\n", + " Alb. Sir, by your patience,\n", + " I hold you but a subject of this war,\n", + " Not as a brother.\n", + " Reg. That's as we list to grace him.\n", + " Methinks our pleasure might have been demanded\n", + " Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers,\n", + " Bore the commission of my place and person,\n", + " The which immediacy may well stand up\n", + " And call itself your brother. \n", + " Gon. Not so hot!\n", + " In his own grace he doth exalt himself\n", + " More than in your addition.\n", + " Reg. In my rights\n", + " By me invested, he compeers the best.\n", + " Gon. That were the most if he should husband you.\n", + " Reg. Jesters do oft prove prophets.\n", + " Gon. Holla, holla!\n", + " That eye that told you so look'd but asquint.\n", + " Reg. Lady, I am not well; else I should answer\n", + " From a full-flowing stomach. General,\n", + " Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony;\n", + " Dispose of them, of me; the walls are thine.\n", + " Witness the world that I create thee here\n", + " My lord and master.\n", + " Gon. Mean you to enjoy him?\n", + " Alb. The let-alone lies not in your good will.\n", + " Edm. Nor in thine, lord.\n", + " Alb. Half-blooded fellow, yes.\n", + " Reg. [to Edmund] Let the drum strike, and prove my title thine.\n", + "\n", + " Alb. Stay yet; hear reason. Edmund, I arrest thee\n", + " On capital treason; and, in thine attaint,\n", + " This gilded serpent [points to Goneril]. For your claim,\n", + "fair\n", + " sister,\n", + " I bar it in the interest of my wife.\n", + " 'Tis she is subcontracted to this lord,\n", + " And I, her husband, contradict your banes.\n", + " If you will marry, make your loves to me;\n", + " My lady is bespoke.\n", + " Gon. An interlude!\n", + " Alb. Thou art arm'd, Gloucester. Let the trumpet sound.\n", + " If none appear to prove upon thy person\n", + " Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,\n", + " There is my pledge [throws down a glove]! I'll prove it on\n", + "thy\n", + " heart,\n", + " Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less\n", + " Than I have here proclaim'd thee.\n", + " Reg. Sick, O, sick!\n", + " Gon. [aside] If not, I'll ne'er trust medicine.\n", + " Edm. There's my exchange [throws down a glove]. What in the\n", + "world \n", + " he is\n", + " That names me traitor, villain-like he lies.\n", + " Call by thy trumpet. He that dares approach,\n", + " On him, on you, who not? I will maintain\n", + " My truth and honour firmly.\n", + " Alb. A herald, ho!\n", + " Edm. A herald, ho, a herald!\n", + " Alb. Trust to thy single virtue; for thy soldiers,\n", + " All levied in my name, have in my name\n", + " Took their discharge.\n", + " Reg. My sickness grows upon me.\n", + " Alb. She is not well. Convey her to my tent.\n", + " [Exit Regan, led.]\n", + "\n", + " Enter a Herald.\n", + "\n", + " Come hither, herald. Let the trumpet sound,\n", + " And read out this.\n", + " Capt. Sound, trumpet! A trumpet sounds.\n", + " \n", + " Her. (reads) 'If any man of quality or degree within the lists\n", + "of\n", + " the army will maintain upon Edmund, supposed Earl of\n", + "Gloucester,\n", + " that he is a manifold traitor, let him appear by the third\n", + "sound\n", + " of the trumpet. He is bold in his defence.'\n", + "\n", + " Edm. Sound! First trumpet.\n", + " Her. Again! Second trumpet.\n", + " Her. Again! Third trumpet.\n", + " Trumpet answers within.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Edgar, armed, at the third sound, a Trumpet before him.\n", + "\n", + " Alb. Ask him his purposes, why he appears\n", + " Upon this call o' th' trumpet.\n", + " Her. What are you?\n", + " Your name, your quality? and why you answer\n", + " This present summons?\n", + " Edg. Know my name is lost;\n", + " By treason's tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit.\n", + " Yet am I noble as the adversary \n", + " I come to cope.\n", + " Alb. Which is that adversary?\n", + " Edg. What's he that speaks for Edmund Earl of Gloucester?\n", + " Edm. Himself. What say'st thou to him?\n", + " Edg. Draw thy sword,\n", + " That, if my speech offend a noble heart,\n", + " Thy arm may do thee justice. Here is mine.\n", + " Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours,\n", + " My oath, and my profession. I protest-\n", + " Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence,\n", + " Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,\n", + " Thy valour and thy heart- thou art a traitor;\n", + " False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father;\n", + " Conspirant 'gainst this high illustrious prince;\n", + " And from th' extremest upward of thy head\n", + " To the descent and dust beneath thy foot,\n", + " A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou 'no,'\n", + " This sword, this arm, and my best spirits are bent\n", + " To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,\n", + " Thou liest. \n", + " Edm. In wisdom I should ask thy name;\n", + " But since thy outside looks so fair and warlike,\n", + " And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes,\n", + " What safe and nicely I might well delay\n", + " By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn.\n", + " Back do I toss those treasons to thy head;\n", + " With the hell-hated lie o'erwhelm thy heart;\n", + " Which- for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise-\n", + " This sword of mine shall give them instant way\n", + " Where they shall rest for ever. Trumpets, speak!\n", + " Alarums. Fight. [Edmund falls.]\n", + " Alb. Save him, save him!\n", + " Gon. This is mere practice, Gloucester.\n", + " By th' law of arms thou wast not bound to answer\n", + " An unknown opposite. Thou art not vanquish'd,\n", + " But cozen'd and beguil'd.\n", + " Alb. Shut your mouth, dame,\n", + " Or with this paper shall I stop it. [Shows her her letter to\n", + " Edmund.]- [To Edmund]. Hold, sir.\n", + " [To Goneril] Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil. \n", + " No tearing, lady! I perceive you know it.\n", + " Gon. Say if I do- the laws are mine, not thine.\n", + " Who can arraign me for't?\n", + " Alb. Most monstrous!\n", + " Know'st thou this paper?\n", + " Gon. Ask me not what I know. Exit.\n", + " Alb. Go after her. She's desperate; govern her.\n", + " [Exit an Officer.]\n", + " Edm. What, you have charg'd me with, that have I done,\n", + " And more, much more. The time will bring it out.\n", + " 'Tis past, and so am I.- But what art thou\n", + " That hast this fortune on me? If thou'rt noble,\n", + " I do forgive thee.\n", + " Edg. Let's exchange charity.\n", + " I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;\n", + " If more, the more th' hast wrong'd me.\n", + " My name is Edgar and thy father's son.\n", + " The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices\n", + " Make instruments to scourge us.\n", + " The dark and vicious place where thee he got \n", + " Cost him his eyes.\n", + " Edm. Th' hast spoken right; 'tis true.\n", + " The wheel is come full circle; I am here.\n", + " Alb. Methought thy very gait did prophesy\n", + " A royal nobleness. I must embrace thee.\n", + " Let sorrow split my heart if ever I\n", + " Did hate thee, or thy father!\n", + " Edg. Worthy prince, I know't.\n", + " Alb. Where have you hid yourself?\n", + " How have you known the miseries of your father?\n", + " Edg. By nursing them, my lord. List a brief tale;\n", + " And when 'tis told, O that my heart would burst!\n", + " The bloody proclamation to escape\n", + " That follow'd me so near (O, our lives' sweetness!\n", + " That with the pain of death would hourly die\n", + " Rather than die at once!) taught me to shift\n", + " Into a madman's rags, t' assume a semblance\n", + " That very dogs disdain'd; and in this habit\n", + " Met I my father with his bleeding rings,\n", + " Their precious stones new lost; became his guide, \n", + " Led him, begg'd for him, sav'd him from despair;\n", + " Never (O fault!) reveal'd myself unto him\n", + " Until some half hour past, when I was arm'd,\n", + " Not sure, though hoping of this good success,\n", + " I ask'd his blessing, and from first to last\n", + " Told him my pilgrimage. But his flaw'd heart\n", + " (Alack, too weak the conflict to support!)\n", + " 'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,\n", + " Burst smilingly.\n", + " Edm. This speech of yours hath mov'd me,\n", + " And shall perchance do good; but speak you on;\n", + " You look as you had something more to say.\n", + " Alb. If there be more, more woful, hold it in;\n", + " For I am almost ready to dissolve,\n", + " Hearing of this.\n", + " Edg. This would have seem'd a period\n", + " To such as love not sorrow; but another,\n", + " To amplify too much, would make much more,\n", + " And top extremity.\n", + " Whilst I was big in clamour, came there a man, \n", + " Who, having seen me in my worst estate,\n", + " Shunn'd my abhorr'd society; but then, finding\n", + " Who 'twas that so endur'd, with his strong arms\n", + " He fastened on my neck, and bellowed out\n", + " As he'd burst heaven; threw him on my father;\n", + " Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him\n", + " That ever ear receiv'd; which in recounting\n", + " His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life\n", + " Began to crack. Twice then the trumpets sounded,\n", + " And there I left him tranc'd.\n", + " Alb. But who was this?\n", + " Edg. Kent, sir, the banish'd Kent; who in disguise\n", + " Followed his enemy king and did him service\n", + " Improper for a slave.\n", + "\n", + " Enter a Gentleman with a bloody knife.\n", + "\n", + " Gent. Help, help! O, help!\n", + " Edg. What kind of help?\n", + " Alb. Speak, man. \n", + " Edg. What means that bloody knife?\n", + " Gent. 'Tis hot, it smokes.\n", + " It came even from the heart of- O! she's dead!\n", + " Alb. Who dead? Speak, man.\n", + " Gent. Your lady, sir, your lady! and her sister\n", + " By her is poisoned; she hath confess'd it.\n", + " Edm. I was contracted to them both. All three\n", + " Now marry in an instant.\n", + "\n", + " Enter Kent.\n", + "\n", + " Edg. Here comes Kent.\n", + " Alb. Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead.\n", + " [Exit Gentleman.]\n", + " This judgement of the heavens, that makes us tremble\n", + " Touches us not with pity. O, is this he?\n", + " The time will not allow the compliment\n", + " That very manners urges.\n", + " Kent. I am come\n", + " To bid my king and master aye good night. \n", + " Is he not here?\n", + " Alb. Great thing of us forgot!\n", + " Speak, Edmund, where's the King? and where's Cordelia?\n", + " The bodies of Goneril and Regan are brought in.\n", + " Seest thou this object, Kent?\n", + " Kent. Alack, why thus?\n", + " Edm. Yet Edmund was belov'd.\n", + " The one the other poisoned for my sake,\n", + " And after slew herself.\n", + " Alb. Even so. Cover their faces.\n", + " Edm. I pant for life. Some good I mean to do,\n", + " Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send\n", + " (Be brief in't) to the castle; for my writ\n", + " Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia.\n", + " Nay, send in time.\n", + " Alb. Run, run, O, run!\n", + " Edg. To who, my lord? Who has the office? Send\n", + " Thy token of reprieve.\n", + " Edm. Well thought on. Take my sword;\n", + " Give it the Captain. \n", + " Alb. Haste thee for thy life. [Exit Edgar.]\n", + " Edm. He hath commission from thy wife and me\n", + " To hang Cordelia in the prison and\n", + " To lay the blame upon her own despair\n", + " That she fordid herself.\n", + " Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile.\n", + " [Edmund is borne off.]\n", + "\n", + " Enter Lear, with Cordelia [dead] in his arms, [Edgar,\n", + "Captain,\n", + " and others following].\n", + "\n", + " Lear. Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stone.\n", + " Had I your tongues and eyes, I'ld use them so\n", + " That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone for ever!\n", + " I know when one is dead, and when one lives.\n", + " She's dead as earth. Lend me a looking glass.\n", + " If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,\n", + " Why, then she lives.\n", + " Kent. Is this the promis'd end?\n", + " Edg. Or image of that horror? \n", + " Alb. Fall and cease!\n", + " Lear. This feather stirs; she lives! If it be so,\n", + " It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows\n", + " That ever I have felt.\n", + " Kent. O my good master!\n", + " Lear. Prithee away!\n", + " Edg. 'Tis noble Kent, your friend.\n", + " Lear. A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!\n", + " I might have sav'd her; now she's gone for ever!\n", + " Cordelia, Cordelia! stay a little. Ha!\n", + " What is't thou say'st, Her voice was ever soft,\n", + " Gentle, and low- an excellent thing in woman.\n", + " I kill'd the slave that was a-hanging thee.\n", + " Capt. 'Tis true, my lords, he did.\n", + " Lear. Did I not, fellow?\n", + " I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion\n", + " I would have made them skip. I am old now,\n", + " And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you?\n", + " Mine eyes are not o' th' best. I'll tell you straight.\n", + " Kent. If fortune brag of two she lov'd and hated, \n", + " One of them we behold.\n", + " Lear. This' a dull sight. Are you not Kent?\n", + " Kent. The same-\n", + " Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius?\n", + " Lear. He's a good fellow, I can tell you that.\n", + " He'll strike, and quickly too. He's dead and rotten.\n", + " Kent. No, my good lord; I am the very man-\n", + " Lear. I'll see that straight.\n", + " Kent. That from your first of difference and decay\n", + " Have followed your sad steps.\n", + " Lear. You're welcome hither.\n", + " Kent. Nor no man else! All's cheerless, dark, and deadly.\n", + " Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves,\n", + " And desperately are dead.\n", + " Lear. Ay, so I think.\n", + " Alb. He knows not what he says; and vain is it\n", + " That we present us to him.\n", + " Edg. Very bootless.\n", + "\n", + " Enter a Captain. \n", + "\n", + " Capt. Edmund is dead, my lord.\n", + " Alb. That's but a trifle here.\n", + " You lords and noble friends, know our intent.\n", + " What comfort to this great decay may come\n", + " Shall be applied. For us, we will resign,\n", + " During the life of this old Majesty,\n", + " To him our absolute power; [to Edgar and Kent] you to your\n", + " rights;\n", + " With boot, and Such addition as your honours\n", + " Have more than merited.- All friends shall taste\n", + " The wages of their virtue, and all foes\n", + " The cup of their deservings.- O, see, see!\n", + " Lear. And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!\n", + " Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,\n", + " And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,\n", + " Never, never, never, never, never!\n", + " Pray you undo this button. Thank you, sir.\n", + " Do you see this? Look on her! look! her lips!\n", + " Look there, look there! He dies. \n", + " Edg. He faints! My lord, my lord!\n", + " Kent. Break, heart; I prithee break!\n", + " Edg. Look up, my lord.\n", + " Kent. Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass! He hates him\n", + " That would upon the rack of this tough world\n", + " Stretch him out longer.\n", + " Edg. He is gone indeed.\n", + " Kent. The wonder is, he hath endur'd so long.\n", + " He but usurp'd his life.\n", + " Alb. Bear them from hence. Our present business\n", + " Is general woe. [To Kent and Edgar] Friends of my soul, you\n", + " twain\n", + " Rule in this realm, and the gor'd state sustain.\n", + " Kent. I have a journey, sir, shortly to go.\n", + " My master calls me; I must not say no.\n", + " Alb. The weight of this sad time we must obey,\n", + " Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.\n", + " The oldest have borne most; we that are young\n", + " Shall never see so much, nor live so long.\n", + " Exeunt with a dead march.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "THE END\n" + ] + } + ], + "source": [ + "# print the contents of the file with the special characters visible\n", + "\n", + "with open('data/KingLear.txt', 'r') as f:\n", + " for line in f:\n", + " print(line, end='')" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Let's look at the relevant bits of the `TextFileLoader` class:\n", + "\n", + "```python\n", + "def load_file(self):\n", + " with open(self.path, \"r\", encoding=self.encoding) as f:\n", + " self.documents.append(f.read())\n", + "```\n", + "\n", + "We're simply loading the document using the built in `open` method, and storing that output in our `self.documents` list.\n" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": 3, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [ { @@ -32,7 +4375,7 @@ "1" ] }, - "execution_count": 6, + "execution_count": 3, "metadata": {}, "output_type": "execute_result" } @@ -43,6 +4386,40 @@ "len(documents)" ] }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": 7, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [ + { + "name": "stdout", + "output_type": "stream", + "text": [ + "1606\n", + "THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR\n", + "\n", + "by William Shakespeare\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Dramatis Personae\n", + "\n", + " Lear, King of Br\n" + ] + } + ], + "source": [ + "print(documents[0][:100])" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "As we can see, there is one document - and it's the entire text of King Lear." + ] + }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 7,