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