From e882a72db31fddb6cbf4582f0810567587ce37a8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Danny McClanahan <1305167+cosmicexplorer@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2024 15:09:26 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] document how the benchmark was produced and add python script used --- benches/decompress_sink.rs | 19 +- tests/data/folder/king-lear.txt | 6491 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ tests/data/generate-king-lear-zip.py | 23 + 3 files changed, 6527 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) create mode 100644 tests/data/folder/king-lear.txt create mode 100755 tests/data/generate-king-lear-zip.py diff --git a/benches/decompress_sink.rs b/benches/decompress_sink.rs index 351e81da7..5f3715be5 100755 --- a/benches/decompress_sink.rs +++ b/benches/decompress_sink.rs @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ use bencher::{benchmark_group, benchmark_main}; use std::fs; -use std::io::prelude::*; +use std::io::{self, prelude::*}; use std::path::Path; use bencher::Bencher; @@ -13,7 +13,14 @@ use zip::read::ZipFile; use zip::unstable::read::streaming::StreamingArchive; use zip::{result::ZipResult, ZipArchive}; -/* This contains the compressed text of King Lear from Project Gutenberg, in the public domain. */ +/* This contains the compressed text of King Lear from Project Gutenberg, in the public domain. + * It contains the text of King Lear in multiple formats: + * 1. Stored (uncompressed) + * 2. Deflated (compresslevel=9) + * 3. Bzip2 (compresslevel=9) + * It contains 50 of each, with 150 entries total. This is generated by the script + * tests/data/generate-king-lear-zip.py. + */ fn get_test_data() -> ZipResult> { let path = Path::new(env!("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR")).join("tests/data/king-lear-compressed.zip"); let file = fs::File::open(path)?; @@ -29,7 +36,7 @@ fn write_entry_to_sink_generic(bench: &mut Bencher) { bench.iter(|| { for i in 0..archive.len() { let mut f = archive.by_index_generic(i).unwrap(); - std::io::copy(&mut f, &mut std::io::sink()).unwrap(); + io::copy(&mut f, &mut io::sink()).unwrap(); } }) }); @@ -44,7 +51,7 @@ fn write_entry_to_sink_standard(bench: &mut Bencher) { bench.iter(|| { for i in 0..archive.len() { let mut f = archive.by_index(i).unwrap(); - std::io::copy(&mut f, &mut std::io::sink()).unwrap(); + io::copy(&mut f, &mut io::sink()).unwrap(); } }) }); @@ -63,7 +70,7 @@ fn write_stream_to_sink_generic(bench: &mut Bencher) { let mut stream_zip = StreamingArchive::new(&mut reader); while let Some(mut file) = stream_zip.next_entry().unwrap() { - std::io::copy(&mut file, &mut std::io::sink()).unwrap(); + io::copy(&mut file, &mut io::sink()).unwrap(); } while stream_zip.next_metadata_entry().unwrap().is_some() {} }) @@ -77,7 +84,7 @@ fn write_stream_to_sink_standard(bench: &mut Bencher) { struct V; impl ZipStreamVisitor for V { fn visit_file(&mut self, file: &mut ZipFile) -> ZipResult<()> { - std::io::copy(file, &mut std::io::sink())?; + io::copy(file, &mut io::sink())?; Ok(()) } fn visit_additional_metadata( diff --git a/tests/data/folder/king-lear.txt b/tests/data/folder/king-lear.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e35119502 --- /dev/null +++ b/tests/data/folder/king-lear.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6491 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Tragedy of King Lear + +This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online +at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, +you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located +before using this eBook. + +Title: The Tragedy of King Lear + +Author: William Shakespeare + +Release date: November 1, 1998 [eBook #1532] + Most recently updated: June 2, 2023 + +Language: English + +Credits: the PG Shakespeare Team, a team of about twenty Project Gutenberg volunteers + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR *** + + + + +THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR + +by William Shakespeare + + + + +Contents + +ACT I +Scene I. A Room of State in King Lear’s Palace +Scene II. A Hall in the Earl of Gloucester’s Castle +Scene III. A Room in the Duke of Albany’s Palace +Scene IV. A Hall in Albany’s Palace +Scene V. Court before the Duke of Albany’s Palace + +ACT II +Scene I. A court within the Castle of the Earl of Gloucester +Scene II. Before Gloucester’s Castle +Scene III. The open Country +Scene IV. Before Gloucester’s Castle + +ACT III +Scene I. A Heath +Scene II. Another part of the heath +Scene III. A Room in Gloucester’s Castle +Scene IV. A part of the Heath with a Hovel +Scene V. A Room in Gloucester’s Castle +Scene VI. A Chamber in a Farmhouse adjoining the Castle +Scene VII. A Room in Gloucester’s Castle + +ACT IV +Scene I. The heath +Scene II. Before the Duke of Albany’s Palace +Scene III. The French camp near Dover +Scene IV. The French camp. A Tent +Scene V. A Room in Gloucester’s Castle +Scene VI. The country near Dover +Scene VII. A Tent in the French Camp + +ACT V +Scene I. The Camp of the British Forces near Dover +Scene II. A field between the two Camps +Scene III. The British Camp near Dover + + + + + Dramatis Personæ + +LEAR, King of Britain. +GONERIL, eldest daughter to Lear. +REGAN, second daughter to Lear. +CORDELIA, youngest daughter to Lear. +DUKE of ALBANY, married to Goneril. +DUKE of CORNWALL, married to Regan. +KING of FRANCE. +DUKE of BURGUNDY. +EARL of GLOUCESTER. +EDGAR, elder son to Gloucester. +EDMUND, younger bastard son to Gloucester. +EARL of KENT. +FOOL. +OSWALD, steward to Goneril. +CURAN, a Courtier. +OLD MAN, Tenant to Gloucester. +Physician. +An Officer employed by Edmund. +Gentleman, attendant on Cordelia. +A Herald. +Servants to Cornwall. + +Knights attending on the King, Officers, Messengers, Soldiers and +Attendants. + +SCENE: Britain + + + + +ACT I + +SCENE I. A Room of State in King Lear’s Palace + + + Enter Kent, Gloucester and Edmund. + +KENT. +I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall. + +GLOUCESTER. +It did always seem so to us; but now, in the division of the kingdom, +it appears not which of the Dukes he values most, for qualities are so +weighed that curiosity in neither can make choice of either’s moiety. + +KENT. +Is not this your son, my lord? + +GLOUCESTER. +His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have so often +blush’d to acknowledge him that now I am braz’d to’t. + +KENT. +I cannot conceive you. + +GLOUCESTER. +Sir, this young fellow’s mother could; whereupon she grew +round-wombed, and had indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she +had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault? + +KENT. +I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper. + +GLOUCESTER. +But I have a son, sir, by order of law, some year elder than +this, who yet is no dearer in my account: though this knave came +something saucily to the world before he was sent for, yet was +his mother fair; there was good sport at his making, and the +whoreson must be acknowledged. Do you know this noble gentleman, +Edmund? + +EDMUND. +No, my lord. + +GLOUCESTER. +My Lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my honourable friend. + +EDMUND. +My services to your lordship. + +KENT. +I must love you, and sue to know you better. + +EDMUND. +Sir, I shall study deserving. + +GLOUCESTER. +He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again. The King +is coming. + + [_Sennet within._] + + Enter Lear, Cornwall, Albany, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia and Attendants. + +LEAR. +Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, +Gloucester. + +GLOUCESTER. +I shall, my lord. + + [_Exeunt Gloucester and Edmund._] + +LEAR. +Meantime we shall express our darker purpose. +Give me the map there. Know that we have divided +In three our kingdom: and ’tis our fast intent +To shake all cares and business from our age; +Conferring them on younger strengths, while we +Unburden’d crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall, +And you, our no less loving son of Albany, +We have this hour a constant will to publish +Our daughters’ several dowers, that future strife +May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy, +Great rivals in our youngest daughter’s love, +Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn, +And here are to be answer’d. Tell me, my daughters,— +Since now we will divest us both of rule, +Interest of territory, cares of state,— +Which of you shall we say doth love us most? +That we our largest bounty may extend +Where nature doth with merit challenge.—Goneril, +Our eldest born, speak first. + +GONERIL. +Sir, I love you more than word can wield the matter; +Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty; +Beyond what can be valu’d, rich or rare; +No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour; +As much as child e’er lov’d, or father found; +A love that makes breath poor and speech unable; +Beyond all manner of so much I love you. + +CORDELIA. +[_Aside._] What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent. + +LEAR. +Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, +With shadowy forests and with champains rich’d, +With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads, +We make thee lady: to thine and Albany’s issue +Be this perpetual.—What says our second daughter, +Our dearest Regan, wife of Cornwall? Speak. + +REGAN. +Sir, I am made of the self mettle as my sister, +And prize me at her worth. In my true heart +I find she names my very deed of love; +Only she comes too short, that I profess +Myself an enemy to all other joys +Which the most precious square of sense possesses, +And find I am alone felicitate +In your dear highness’ love. + +CORDELIA. +[_Aside._] Then poor Cordelia, +And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love’s +More ponderous than my tongue. + +LEAR. +To thee and thine hereditary ever +Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom; +No less in space, validity, and pleasure +Than that conferr’d on Goneril.—Now, our joy, +Although the last and least; to whose young love +The vines of France and milk of Burgundy +Strive to be interess’d; what can you say to draw +A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak. + +CORDELIA. +Nothing, my lord. + +LEAR. +Nothing? + +CORDELIA. +Nothing. + +LEAR. +Nothing will come of nothing: speak again. + +CORDELIA. +Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave +My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty +According to my bond; no more nor less. + +LEAR. +How, how, Cordelia? Mend your speech a little, +Lest you may mar your fortunes. + +CORDELIA. +Good my lord, +You have begot me, bred me, lov’d me: I +Return those duties back as are right fit, +Obey you, love you, and most honour you. +Why have my sisters husbands if they say +They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed, +That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry +Half my love with him, half my care and duty: +Sure I shall never marry like my sisters, +To love my father all. + +LEAR. +But goes thy heart with this? + +CORDELIA. +Ay, my good lord. + +LEAR. +So young, and so untender? + +CORDELIA. +So young, my lord, and true. + +LEAR. +Let it be so, thy truth then be thy dower: +For, by the sacred radiance of the sun, +The mysteries of Hecate and the night; +By all the operation of the orbs, +From whom we do exist and cease to be; +Here I disclaim all my paternal care, +Propinquity and property of blood, +And as a stranger to my heart and me +Hold thee from this for ever. The barbarous Scythian, +Or he that makes his generation messes +To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom +Be as well neighbour’d, pitied, and reliev’d, +As thou my sometime daughter. + +KENT. +Good my liege,— + +LEAR. +Peace, Kent! +Come not between the dragon and his wrath. +I lov’d her most, and thought to set my rest +On her kind nursery. [_To Cordelia._] Hence and avoid my sight! +So be my grave my peace, as here I give +Her father’s heart from her! Call France. Who stirs? +Call Burgundy! Cornwall and Albany, +With my two daughters’ dowers digest this third: +Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her. +I do invest you jointly with my power, +Pre-eminence, and all the large effects +That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course, +With reservation of an hundred knights, +By you to be sustain’d, shall our abode +Make with you by due turn. Only we shall retain +The name, and all the addition to a king; the sway, +Revenue, execution of the rest, +Beloved sons, be yours; which to confirm, +This coronet part between you. + [_Giving the crown._] + +KENT. +Royal Lear, +Whom I have ever honour’d as my king, +Lov’d as my father, as my master follow’d, +As my great patron thought on in my prayers.— + +LEAR. +The bow is bent and drawn; make from the shaft. + +KENT. +Let it fall rather, though the fork invade +The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly +When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man? +Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak, +When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour’s bound +When majesty falls to folly. Reverse thy state; +And in thy best consideration check +This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgement, +Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least; +Nor are those empty-hearted, whose low sounds +Reverb no hollowness. + +LEAR. +Kent, on thy life, no more. + +KENT. +My life I never held but as a pawn +To wage against thine enemies; ne’er fear to lose it, +Thy safety being the motive. + +LEAR. +Out of my sight! + +KENT. +See better, Lear; and let me still remain +The true blank of thine eye. + +LEAR. +Now, by Apollo,— + +KENT. +Now by Apollo, King, +Thou swear’st thy gods in vain. + +LEAR. +O vassal! Miscreant! + + [_Laying his hand on his sword._] + +ALBANY and CORNWALL. +Dear sir, forbear! + +KENT. +Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow +Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy gift, +Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat, +I’ll tell thee thou dost evil. + +LEAR. +Hear me, recreant! on thine allegiance, hear me! +Since thou hast sought to make us break our vows, +Which we durst never yet, and with strain’d pride +To come betwixt our sentences and our power, +Which nor our nature, nor our place can bear, +Our potency made good, take thy reward. +Five days we do allot thee for provision, +To shield thee from disasters of the world; +And on the sixth to turn thy hated back +Upon our kingdom: if, on the next day following, +Thy banish’d trunk be found in our dominions, +The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter, +This shall not be revok’d. + +KENT. +Fare thee well, King: sith thus thou wilt appear, +Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here. +[_To Cordelia._] The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid, +That justly think’st and hast most rightly said! +[_To Goneril and Regan._] And your large speeches may your deeds +approve, +That good effects may spring from words of love. +Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu; +He’ll shape his old course in a country new. + + [_Exit._] + + Flourish. Re-enter Gloucester, with France, Burgundy and Attendants. + +CORDELIA. +Here’s France and Burgundy, my noble lord. + +LEAR. +My Lord of Burgundy, +We first address toward you, who with this king +Hath rivall’d for our daughter: what in the least +Will you require in present dower with her, +Or cease your quest of love? + +BURGUNDY. +Most royal majesty, +I crave no more than hath your highness offer’d, +Nor will you tender less. + +LEAR. +Right noble Burgundy, +When she was dear to us, we did hold her so; +But now her price is fall’n. Sir, there she stands: +If aught within that little-seeming substance, +Or all of it, with our displeasure piec’d, +And nothing more, may fitly like your grace, +She’s there, and she is yours. + +BURGUNDY. +I know no answer. + +LEAR. +Will you, with those infirmities she owes, +Unfriended, new adopted to our hate, +Dower’d with our curse, and stranger’d with our oath, +Take her or leave her? + +BURGUNDY. +Pardon me, royal sir; +Election makes not up in such conditions. + +LEAR. +Then leave her, sir; for, by the power that made me, +I tell you all her wealth. [_To France_] For you, great king, +I would not from your love make such a stray +To match you where I hate; therefore beseech you +T’avert your liking a more worthier way +Than on a wretch whom nature is asham’d +Almost t’acknowledge hers. + +FRANCE. +This is most strange, +That she, who even but now was your best object, +The argument of your praise, balm of your age, +The best, the dearest, should in this trice of time +Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle +So many folds of favour. Sure her offence +Must be of such unnatural degree +That monsters it, or your fore-vouch’d affection +Fall into taint; which to believe of her +Must be a faith that reason without miracle +Should never plant in me. + +CORDELIA. +I yet beseech your majesty, +If for I want that glib and oily art +To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend, +I’ll do’t before I speak,—that you make known +It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness, +No unchaste action or dishonour’d step, +That hath depriv’d me of your grace and favour; +But even for want of that for which I am richer, +A still soliciting eye, and such a tongue +As I am glad I have not, though not to have it +Hath lost me in your liking. + +LEAR. +Better thou hadst +Not been born than not to have pleas’d me better. + +FRANCE. +Is it but this?—a tardiness in nature +Which often leaves the history unspoke +That it intends to do? My lord of Burgundy, +What say you to the lady? Love’s not love +When it is mingled with regards that stands +Aloof from the entire point. Will you have her? +She is herself a dowry. + +BURGUNDY. +Royal King, +Give but that portion which yourself propos’d, +And here I take Cordelia by the hand, +Duchess of Burgundy. + +LEAR. +Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm. + +BURGUNDY. +I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father +That you must lose a husband. + +CORDELIA. +Peace be with Burgundy! +Since that respects of fortunes are his love, +I shall not be his wife. + +FRANCE. +Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor; +Most choice forsaken; and most lov’d, despis’d! +Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon: +Be it lawful, I take up what’s cast away. +Gods, gods! ’Tis strange that from their cold’st neglect +My love should kindle to inflam’d respect. +Thy dowerless daughter, King, thrown to my chance, +Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France: +Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy +Can buy this unpriz’d precious maid of me. +Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind: +Thou losest here, a better where to find. + +LEAR. +Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we +Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see +That face of hers again. Therefore be gone +Without our grace, our love, our benison. +Come, noble Burgundy. + + [_Flourish. Exeunt Lear, Burgundy, Cornwall, Albany, Gloucester and + Attendants._] + +FRANCE. +Bid farewell to your sisters. + +CORDELIA. +The jewels of our father, with wash’d eyes +Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are; +And like a sister am most loath to call +Your faults as they are nam’d. Love well our father: +To your professed bosoms I commit him: +But yet, alas, stood I within his grace, +I would prefer him to a better place. +So farewell to you both. + +REGAN. +Prescribe not us our duties. + +GONERIL. +Let your study +Be to content your lord, who hath receiv’d you +At fortune’s alms. You have obedience scanted, +And well are worth the want that you have wanted. + +CORDELIA. +Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides: +Who covers faults, at last shame derides. +Well may you prosper. + +FRANCE. +Come, my fair Cordelia. + + [_Exeunt France and Cordelia._] + +GONERIL. +Sister, it is not little I have to say of what most nearly +appertains to us both. I think our father will hence tonight. + +REGAN. +That’s most certain, and with you; next month with us. + +GONERIL. +You see how full of changes his age is; the observation we +have made of it hath not been little: he always loved our +sister most; and with what poor judgement he hath now cast her +off appears too grossly. + +REGAN. +’Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever but slenderly +known himself. + +GONERIL. +The best and soundest of his time hath been but rash; then must +we look from his age to receive not alone the imperfections of +long-engrafted condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness +that infirm and choleric years bring with them. + +REGAN. +Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him as this of Kent’s +banishment. + +GONERIL. +There is further compliment of leave-taking between France and +him. Pray you let us hit together: if our father carry authority +with such disposition as he bears, this last surrender of his +will but offend us. + +REGAN. +We shall further think of it. + +GONERIL. +We must do something, and i’ th’ heat. + + [_Exeunt._] + +SCENE II. A Hall in the Earl of Gloucester’s Castle + + Enter Edmund with a +letter. + +EDMUND. +Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law +My services are bound. Wherefore should I +Stand in the plague of custom, and permit +The curiosity of nations to deprive me? +For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines +Lag of a brother? Why bastard? Wherefore base? +When my dimensions are as well compact, +My mind as generous, and my shape as true +As honest madam’s issue? Why brand they us +With base? With baseness? bastardy? Base, base? +Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take +More composition and fierce quality +Than doth within a dull stale tired bed +Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops +Got ’tween asleep and wake? Well then, +Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land: +Our father’s love is to the bastard Edmund +As to the legitimate: fine word: legitimate! +Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed, +And my invention thrive, Edmund the base +Shall top the legitimate. I grow, I prosper. +Now, gods, stand up for bastards! + + Enter Gloucester. + +GLOUCESTER. +Kent banish’d thus! and France in choler parted! +And the King gone tonight! Prescrib’d his pow’r! +Confin’d to exhibition! All this done +Upon the gad!—Edmund, how now! What news? + +EDMUND. +So please your lordship, none. + + [_Putting up the letter._] + +GLOUCESTER. +Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter? + +EDMUND. +I know no news, my lord. + +GLOUCESTER. +What paper were you reading? + +EDMUND. +Nothing, my lord. + +GLOUCESTER. +No? What needed then that terrible dispatch of it into your pocket? The +quality of nothing hath not such need to hide itself. Let’s see. Come, +if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles. + +EDMUND. +I beseech you, sir, pardon me. It is a letter from my brother that I +have not all o’er-read; and for so much as I have perus’d, I find it +not fit for your o’er-looking. + +GLOUCESTER. +Give me the letter, sir. + +EDMUND. +I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The contents, as in +part I understand them, are to blame. + +GLOUCESTER. +Let’s see, let’s see! + +EDMUND. +I hope, for my brother’s justification, he wrote this but as an +essay, or taste of my virtue. + +GLOUCESTER. +[_Reads._] ‘This policy and reverence of age makes the world +bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us +till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle +and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny; who sways +not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to me, that +of this I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I +waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live +the beloved of your brother EDGAR.’ +Hum! Conspiracy? ‘Sleep till I wake him, you should enjoy half +his revenue.’—My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? A heart +and brain to breed it in? When came this to you? Who brought it? + +EDMUND. +It was not brought me, my lord, there’s the cunning of it. I +found it thrown in at the casement of my closet. + +GLOUCESTER. +You know the character to be your brother’s? + +EDMUND. +If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his; but +in respect of that, I would fain think it were not. + +GLOUCESTER. +It is his. + +EDMUND. +It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is not in the +contents. + +GLOUCESTER. +Has he never before sounded you in this business? + +EDMUND. +Never, my lord. But I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit +that, sons at perfect age, and fathers declined, the father +should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue. + +GLOUCESTER. +O villain, villain! His very opinion in the letter! Abhorred +villain! Unnatural, detested, brutish villain! worse than +brutish! Go, sirrah, seek him; I’ll apprehend him. Abominable +villain, Where is he? + +EDMUND. +I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please you to suspend +your indignation against my brother till you can derive from him +better testimony of his intent, you should run a certain course; +where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his +purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour, and shake +in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life +for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your +honour, and to no other pretence of danger. + +GLOUCESTER. +Think you so? + +EDMUND. +If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us +confer of this, and by an auricular assurance have your satisfaction, +and that without any further delay than this very evening. + +GLOUCESTER. +He cannot be such a monster. + +EDMUND. +Nor is not, sure. + +GLOUCESTER. +To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him. Heaven +and earth! Edmund, seek him out; wind me into him, I pray you: +frame the business after your own wisdom. I would unstate myself +to be in a due resolution. + +EDMUND. +I will seek him, sir, presently; convey the business as I shall +find means, and acquaint you withal. + +GLOUCESTER. +These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us: +though the wisdom of Nature can reason it thus and thus, yet +nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects. Love cools, +friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in +countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked +’twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the +prediction; there’s son against father: the King falls from +bias of nature; there’s father against child. We have seen the +best of our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all +ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves. Find out +this villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it +carefully.—And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his +offence, honesty! ’Tis strange. + + [_Exit._] + +EDMUND. +This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are +sick in fortune, often the surfeits of our own behaviour, we +make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as +if we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; +knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance; +drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of +planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine +thrusting on. An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his +goatish disposition to the charge of a star. My father compounded +with my mother under the dragon’s tail, and my nativity was under +Ursa Major, so that it follows I am rough and lecherous. Fut! I +should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the +firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. + + Enter Edgar. + +Pat! he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy: my cue +is villainous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o’Bedlam.—O, +these eclipses do portend these divisions! Fa, sol, la, mi. + +EDGAR. +How now, brother Edmund, what serious contemplation are you in? + +EDMUND. +I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, +what should follow these eclipses. + +EDGAR. +Do you busy yourself with that? + +EDMUND. +I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily: as of +unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, +dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and +maledictions against King and nobles; needless diffidences, +banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, +and I know not what. + +EDGAR. +How long have you been a sectary astronomical? + +EDMUND. +Come, come! when saw you my father last? + +EDGAR. +The night gone by. + +EDMUND. +Spake you with him? + +EDGAR. +Ay, two hours together. + +EDMUND. +Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him, by word +nor countenance? + +EDGAR. +None at all. + +EDMUND. +Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended him: and at my +entreaty forbear his presence until some little time hath +qualified the heat of his displeasure; which at this instant so +rageth in him that with the mischief of your person it would +scarcely allay. + +EDGAR. +Some villain hath done me wrong. + +EDMUND. +That’s my fear. I pray you have a continent forbearance till the +speed of his rage goes slower; and, as I say, retire with me to +my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my lord +speak: pray ye, go; there’s my key. If you do stir abroad, go +armed. + +EDGAR. +Armed, brother? + +EDMUND. +Brother, I advise you to the best; I am no honest man +if there be any good meaning toward you: I have told you what I +have seen and heard. But faintly; nothing like the image and +horror of it: pray you, away! + +EDGAR. +Shall I hear from you anon? + +EDMUND. +I do serve you in this business. + + [_Exit Edgar._] + +A credulous father! and a brother noble, +Whose nature is so far from doing harms +That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty +My practices ride easy! I see the business. +Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit; +All with me’s meet that I can fashion fit. + + [_Exit._] + +SCENE III. A Room in the Duke of Albany’s Palace + + Enter Goneril and Oswald. + +GONERIL. +Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool? + +OSWALD. +Ay, madam. + +GONERIL. +By day and night, he wrongs me; every hour +He flashes into one gross crime or other, +That sets us all at odds; I’ll not endure it: +His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us +On every trifle. When he returns from hunting, +I will not speak with him; say I am sick. +If you come slack of former services, +You shall do well; the fault of it I’ll answer. + + [_Horns within._] + +OSWALD. +He’s coming, madam; I hear him. + +GONERIL. +Put on what weary negligence you please, +You and your fellows; I’d have it come to question: +If he distaste it, let him to our sister, +Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one, +Not to be overruled. Idle old man, +That still would manage those authorities +That he hath given away! Now, by my life, +Old fools are babes again; and must be us’d +With checks as flatteries, when they are seen abus’d. +Remember what I have said. + +OSWALD. +Very well, madam. + +GONERIL. +And let his knights have colder looks among you; +What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows so; +I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall, +That I may speak. I’ll write straight to my sister +To hold my very course. Prepare for dinner. + + [_Exeunt._] + +SCENE IV. A Hall in Albany’s Palace + + Enter Kent, disguised. + +KENT. +If but as well I other accents borrow, +That can my speech defuse, my good intent +May carry through itself to that full issue +For which I rais’d my likeness. Now, banish’d Kent, +If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn’d, +So may it come, thy master, whom thou lov’st, +Shall find thee full of labours. + + Horns within. Enter King +Lear, Knights and Attendants. + +LEAR. +Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go get it ready. + + [_Exit an Attendant._] + +How now! what art thou? + +KENT. +A man, sir. + +LEAR. +What dost thou profess? What wouldst thou with us? + +KENT. +I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve him truly that +will put me in trust; to love him that is honest; to converse +with him that is wise and says little; to fear judgement; to fight +when I cannot choose; and to eat no fish. + +LEAR. +What art thou? + +KENT. +A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the King. + +LEAR. +If thou be’st as poor for a subject as he’s for a king, thou art +poor enough. What wouldst thou? + +KENT. +Service. + +LEAR. +Who wouldst thou serve? + +KENT. +You. + +LEAR. +Dost thou know me, fellow? + +KENT. +No, sir; but you have that in your countenance which I would fain +call master. + +LEAR. +What’s that? + +KENT. +Authority. + +LEAR. +What services canst thou do? + +KENT. +I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious tale in +telling it and deliver a plain message bluntly. That which +ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in, and the best of +me is diligence. + +LEAR. +How old art thou? + +KENT. +Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing; nor so old to +dote on her for anything: I have years on my back forty-eight. + +LEAR. +Follow me; thou shalt serve me. If I like thee no worse after dinner, I +will not part from thee yet. Dinner, ho, dinner! Where’s my knave? my +fool? Go you and call my fool hither. + + [_Exit an Attendant._] + + Enter Oswald. + +You, you, sirrah, where’s my daughter? + +OSWALD. +So please you,— + + [_Exit._] + +LEAR. +What says the fellow there? Call the clotpoll back. + + [_Exit a Knight._] + +Where’s my fool? Ho, I think the world’s asleep. + + Re-enter Knight. + +How now! where’s that mongrel? + +KNIGHT. +He says, my lord, your daughter is not well. + +LEAR. +Why came not the slave back to me when I called him? + +KNIGHT. +Sir, he answered me in the roundest manner, he would not. + +LEAR. +He would not? + +KNIGHT. +My lord, I know not what the matter is; but to my judgement your +highness is not entertained with that ceremonious affection as +you were wont; there’s a great abatement of kindness appears as +well in the general dependants as in the Duke himself also, and +your daughter. + +LEAR. +Ha! say’st thou so? + +KNIGHT. +I beseech you pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken; for my duty +cannot be silent when I think your highness wronged. + +LEAR. +Thou but rememberest me of mine own conception: I have perceived +a most faint neglect of late; which I have rather blamed as mine +own jealous curiosity than as a very pretence and purpose of +unkindness: I will look further into’t. But where’s my fool? I +have not seen him this two days. + +KNIGHT. +Since my young lady’s going into France, sir, the fool hath much +pined away. + +LEAR. +No more of that; I have noted it well. Go you and tell my +daughter I would speak with her. + + [_Exit Attendant._] + +Go you, call hither my fool. + + [_Exit another Attendant._] + + Re-enter Oswald. + +O, you, sir, you, come you hither, sir: who am I, sir? + +OSWALD. +My lady’s father. + +LEAR. +My lady’s father! my lord’s knave: you whoreson dog! you slave! you +cur! + +OSWALD. +I am none of these, my lord; I beseech your pardon. + +LEAR. +Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal? + + [_Striking him._] + +OSWALD. +I’ll not be struck, my lord. + +KENT. +Nor tripp’d neither, you base football player. + + [_Tripping up his heels._] + +LEAR. +I thank thee, fellow. Thou serv’st me, and I’ll love thee. + +KENT. +Come, sir, arise, away! I’ll teach you differences: away, away! If you +will measure your lubber’s length again, tarry; but away! go to; have +you wisdom? So. + + [_Pushes Oswald out._] + +LEAR. +Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee: there’s earnest of thy service. + + [_Giving Kent money._] + + Enter Fool. + +FOOL. +Let me hire him too; here’s my coxcomb. + + [_Giving Kent his cap._] + +LEAR. +How now, my pretty knave, how dost thou? + +FOOL. +Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb. + +KENT. +Why, fool? + +FOOL. +Why, for taking one’s part that’s out of favour. Nay, an thou +canst not smile as the wind sits, thou’lt catch cold shortly: +there, take my coxcomb: why, this fellow has banish’d two on’s +daughters, and did the third a blessing against his will; if +thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb. How now, +nuncle! Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters! + +LEAR. +Why, my boy? + +FOOL. +If I gave them all my living, I’d keep my coxcombs myself. There’s +mine; beg another of thy daughters. + +LEAR. +Take heed, sirrah, the whip. + +FOOL. +Truth’s a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped out, when +the Lady Brach may stand by the fire and stink. + +LEAR. +A pestilent gall to me! + +FOOL. +Sirrah, I’ll teach thee a speech. + +LEAR. +Do. + +FOOL. +Mark it, nuncle: + Have more than thou showest, + Speak less than thou knowest, + Lend less than thou owest, + Ride more than thou goest, + Learn more than thou trowest, + Set less than thou throwest; + Leave thy drink and thy whore, + And keep in-a-door, + And thou shalt have more + Than two tens to a score. + +KENT. +This is nothing, fool. + +FOOL. +Then ’tis like the breath of an unfee’d lawyer, you gave me +nothing for’t. Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle? + +LEAR. +Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing. + +FOOL. +[_to Kent._] Prythee tell him, so much the rent of his land +comes to: he will not believe a fool. + +LEAR. +A bitter fool. + +FOOL. +Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a bitter fool and +a sweet one? + +LEAR. +No, lad; teach me. + +FOOL. + That lord that counsell’d thee + To give away thy land, + Come place him here by me, + Do thou for him stand. + The sweet and bitter fool + Will presently appear; + The one in motley here, + The other found out there. + +LEAR. +Dost thou call me fool, boy? + +FOOL. +All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born +with. + +KENT. +This is not altogether fool, my lord. + +FOOL. +No, faith; lords and great men will not let me; if I had a +monopoly out, they would have part on’t and ladies too, they +will not let me have all the fool to myself; they’ll be +snatching. Nuncle, give me an egg, and I’ll give thee two +crowns. + +LEAR. +What two crowns shall they be? + +FOOL. +Why, after I have cut the egg i’ the middle and eat up the +meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou clovest thy crown i’ +the middle and gav’st away both parts, thou bor’st thine ass on +thy back o’er the dirt: thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown +when thou gav’st thy golden one away. If I speak like myself in +this, let him be whipped that first finds it so. +[_Singing._] + Fools had ne’er less grace in a year; + For wise men are grown foppish, + And know not how their wits to wear, + Their manners are so apish. + +LEAR. +When were you wont to be so full of songs, sirrah? + +FOOL. +I have used it, nuncle, e’er since thou mad’st thy daughters thy +mothers; for when thou gav’st them the rod, and put’st down thine +own breeches, +[_Singing._] + Then they for sudden joy did weep, + And I for sorrow sung, + That such a king should play bo-peep, + And go the fools among. +Prythee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool to +lie; I would fain learn to lie. + +LEAR. +An you lie, sirrah, we’ll have you whipped. + +FOOL. +I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are: they’ll have me +whipped for speaking true; thou’lt have me whipped for lying; +and sometimes I am whipped for holding my peace. I had rather be +any kind o’thing than a fool: and yet I would not be thee, +nuncle: thou hast pared thy wit o’both sides, and left nothing +i’ the middle: here comes one o’ the parings. + + Enter Goneril. + +LEAR. +How now, daughter? What makes that frontlet on? Methinks you +are too much of late i’ the frown. + +FOOL. +Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to care for +her frowning. Now thou art an O without a figure: I am better +than thou art now. I am a fool, thou art nothing. [_To Goneril._] +Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue. So your face bids me, though +you say nothing. Mum, mum, + He that keeps nor crust nor crum, + Weary of all, shall want some. +[_Pointing to Lear_.] That’s a shealed peascod. + +GONERIL. +Not only, sir, this your all-licens’d fool, +But other of your insolent retinue +Do hourly carp and quarrel; breaking forth +In rank and not-to-be-endured riots. Sir, +I had thought, by making this well known unto you, +To have found a safe redress; but now grow fearful, +By what yourself too late have spoke and done, +That you protect this course, and put it on +By your allowance; which if you should, the fault +Would not scape censure, nor the redresses sleep, +Which, in the tender of a wholesome weal, +Might in their working do you that offence +Which else were shame, that then necessity +Will call discreet proceeding. + +FOOL. +For you know, nuncle, + The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long + That it’s had it head bit off by it young. +So out went the candle, and we were left darkling. + +LEAR. +Are you our daughter? + +GONERIL. +Come, sir, +I would you would make use of that good wisdom, +Whereof I know you are fraught; and put away +These dispositions, which of late transform you +From what you rightly are. + +FOOL. +May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse? Whoop, Jug! I +love thee! + +LEAR. +Doth any here know me? This is not Lear; +Doth Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes? +Either his notion weakens, his discernings +Are lethargied. Ha! waking? ’Tis not so! +Who is it that can tell me who I am? + +FOOL. +Lear’s shadow. + +LEAR. +I would learn that; for by the marks of sovereignty, knowledge and +reason, I should be false persuaded I had daughters. + +FOOL. +Which they will make an obedient father. + +LEAR. +Your name, fair gentlewoman? + +GONERIL. +This admiration, sir, is much o’ the favour +Of other your new pranks. I do beseech you +To understand my purposes aright: +As you are old and reverend, you should be wise. +Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires; +Men so disorder’d, so debosh’d and bold +That this our court, infected with their manners, +Shows like a riotous inn. Epicurism and lust +Makes it more like a tavern or a brothel +Than a grac’d palace. The shame itself doth speak +For instant remedy. Be, then, desir’d +By her that else will take the thing she begs +A little to disquantity your train; +And the remainder that shall still depend, +To be such men as may besort your age, +Which know themselves, and you. + +LEAR. +Darkness and devils! +Saddle my horses; call my train together. +Degenerate bastard! I’ll not trouble thee: +Yet have I left a daughter. + +GONERIL. +You strike my people; and your disorder’d rabble +Make servants of their betters. + + Enter Albany. + +LEAR. +Woe that too late repents!— +[_To Albany._] O, sir, are you come? +Is it your will? Speak, sir.—Prepare my horses. +Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend, +More hideous when thou show’st thee in a child +Than the sea-monster! + +ALBANY. +Pray, sir, be patient. + +LEAR. +[_to Goneril._] Detested kite, thou liest. +My train are men of choice and rarest parts, +That all particulars of duty know; +And in the most exact regard support +The worships of their name. O most small fault, +How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show! +Which, like an engine, wrench’d my frame of nature +From the fix’d place; drew from my heart all love, +And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear! +[_Striking his head._] Beat at this gate that let thy folly in +And thy dear judgement out! Go, go, my people. + +ALBANY. +My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant +Of what hath moved you. + +LEAR. +It may be so, my lord. +Hear, nature, hear; dear goddess, hear! +Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend +To make this creature fruitful! +Into her womb convey sterility! +Dry up in her the organs of increase; +And from her derogate body never spring +A babe to honour her! If she must teem, +Create her child of spleen, that it may live +And be a thwart disnatur’d torment to her! +Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth; +With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks; +Turn all her mother’s pains and benefits +To laughter and contempt; that she may feel +How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is +To have a thankless child! Away, away! + + [_Exit._] + +ALBANY. +Now, gods that we adore, whereof comes this? + +GONERIL. +Never afflict yourself to know more of it; +But let his disposition have that scope +That dotage gives it. + + Re-enter Lear. + +LEAR. +What, fifty of my followers at a clap? +Within a fortnight? + +ALBANY. +What’s the matter, sir? + +LEAR. +I’ll tell thee. [_To Goneril._] Life and death! I am +asham’d +That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus; +That these hot tears, which break from me perforce, +Should make thee worth them. Blasts and fogs upon thee! +Th’untented woundings of a father’s curse +Pierce every sense about thee! Old fond eyes, +Beweep this cause again, I’ll pluck ye out, +And cast you with the waters that you lose +To temper clay. Ha! Let it be so. +I have another daughter, +Who, I am sure, is kind and comfortable: +When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails +She’ll flay thy wolvish visage. Thou shalt find +That I’ll resume the shape which thou dost think +I have cast off for ever. + + [_Exeunt Lear, Kent and Attendants._] + +GONERIL. +Do you mark that? + +ALBANY. +I cannot be so partial, Goneril, +To the great love I bear you,— + +GONERIL. +Pray you, content. What, Oswald, ho! +[_To the Fool._] You, sir, more knave than fool, after your master. + +FOOL. +Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry and take the fool with thee. + A fox when one has caught her, + And such a daughter, + Should sure to the slaughter, + If my cap would buy a halter; + So the fool follows after. + + [_Exit._] + +GONERIL. +This man hath had good counsel.—A hundred knights! +’Tis politic and safe to let him keep +At point a hundred knights: yes, that on every dream, +Each buzz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike, +He may enguard his dotage with their powers, +And hold our lives in mercy. Oswald, I say! + +ALBANY. +Well, you may fear too far. + +GONERIL. +Safer than trust too far: +Let me still take away the harms I fear, +Not fear still to be taken: I know his heart. +What he hath utter’d I have writ my sister: +If she sustain him and his hundred knights, +When I have show’d th’unfitness,— + + Re-enter Oswald. + +How now, Oswald! +What, have you writ that letter to my sister? + +OSWALD. +Ay, madam. + +GONERIL. +Take you some company, and away to horse: +Inform her full of my particular fear; +And thereto add such reasons of your own +As may compact it more. Get you gone; +And hasten your return. + + [_Exit Oswald._] + +No, no, my lord! +This milky gentleness and course of yours, +Though I condemn not, yet, under pardon, +You are much more attask’d for want of wisdom +Than prais’d for harmful mildness. + +ALBANY. +How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell: +Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well. + +GONERIL. +Nay then,— + +ALBANY. +Well, well; the event. + + [_Exeunt._] + +SCENE V. Court before the Duke of Albany’s Palace + + Enter Lear, Kent and Fool. + +LEAR. +Go you before to Gloucester with these letters: acquaint my +daughter no further with anything you know than comes from her +demand out of the letter. If your diligence be not speedy, I +shall be there afore you. + +KENT. +I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered your letter. + + [_Exit._] + +FOOL. +If a man’s brains were in’s heels, were’t not in danger of +kibes? + +LEAR. +Ay, boy. + +FOOL. +Then I prythee be merry; thy wit shall not go slipshod. + +LEAR. +Ha, ha, ha! + +FOOL. +Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly, for though +she’s as like this as a crab’s like an apple, yet I can tell +what I can tell. + +LEAR. +What canst tell, boy? + +FOOL. +She’ll taste as like this as a crab does to a crab. Thou +canst tell why one’s nose stands i’the middle on’s face? + +LEAR. +No. + +FOOL. +Why, to keep one’s eyes of either side’s nose, that what a man +cannot smell out, he may spy into. + +LEAR. +I did her wrong. + +FOOL. +Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell? + +LEAR. +No. + +FOOL. +Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house. + +LEAR. +Why? + +FOOL. +Why, to put’s head in; not to give it away to his daughters, and +leave his horns without a case. + +LEAR. +I will forget my nature. So kind a father! Be my horses ready? + +FOOL. +Thy asses are gone about ’em. The reason why the seven stars are +no more than seven is a pretty reason. + +LEAR. +Because they are not eight? + +FOOL. +Yes indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool. + +LEAR. +To tak’t again perforce!—Monster ingratitude! + +FOOL. +If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I’d have thee beaten for being +old before thy time. + +LEAR. +How’s that? + +FOOL. +Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise. + +LEAR. +O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! +Keep me in temper; I would not be mad! + + Enter Gentleman. + +How now? are the horses ready? + +GENTLEMAN. +Ready, my lord. + +LEAR. +Come, boy. + +FOOL. +She that’s a maid now, and laughs at my departure, +Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter. + + [_Exeunt._] + + + + +ACT II + +SCENE I. A court within the Castle of the Earl of Gloucester + + + Enter Edmund and Curan, meeting. + +EDMUND. +Save thee, Curan. + +CURAN. +And you, sir. I have been with your father, and given him +notice that the Duke of Cornwall and Regan his Duchess will be +here with him this night. + +EDMUND. +How comes that? + +CURAN. +Nay, I know not. You have heard of the news abroad; I mean the +whispered ones, for they are yet but ear-kissing arguments? + +EDMUND. +Not I: pray you, what are they? + +CURAN. +Have you heard of no likely wars toward, ’twixt the two dukes +of Cornwall and Albany? + +EDMUND. +Not a word. + +CURAN. +You may do, then, in time. Fare you well, sir. + + [_Exit._] + +EDMUND. +The Duke be here tonight? The better! best! +This weaves itself perforce into my business. +My father hath set guard to take my brother; +And I have one thing, of a queasy question, +Which I must act. Briefness and fortune work! +Brother, a word, descend, brother, I say! + + Enter Edgar. + +My father watches: O sir, fly this place; +Intelligence is given where you are hid; +You have now the good advantage of the night. +Have you not spoken ’gainst the Duke of Cornwall? +He’s coming hither; now, i’ the night, i’ the haste, +And Regan with him: have you nothing said +Upon his party ’gainst the Duke of Albany? +Advise yourself. + +EDGAR. +I am sure on’t, not a word. + +EDMUND. +I hear my father coming:—pardon me; +In cunning I must draw my sword upon you: +Draw: seem to defend yourself: now quit you well. +Yield: come before my father. Light, ho, here! +Fly, brother. Torches, torches!—So farewell. + + [_Exit Edgar._] + +Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion +Of my more fierce endeavour: [_Wounds his arm._] +I have seen drunkards +Do more than this in sport. Father, father! +Stop, stop! No help? + + Enter Gloucester and +Servants with torches. + +GLOUCESTER. +Now, Edmund, where’s the villain? + +EDMUND. +Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out, +Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon +To stand auspicious mistress. + +GLOUCESTER. +But where is he? + +EDMUND. +Look, sir, I bleed. + +GLOUCESTER. +Where is the villain, Edmund? + +EDMUND. +Fled this way, sir. When by no means he could,— + +GLOUCESTER. +Pursue him, ho! Go after. + + [_Exeunt Servants._] + +—By no means what? + +EDMUND. +Persuade me to the murder of your lordship; +But that I told him the revenging gods +’Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend; +Spoke with how manifold and strong a bond +The child was bound to the father; sir, in fine, +Seeing how loathly opposite I stood +To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion +With his prepared sword, he charges home +My unprovided body, latch’d mine arm; +But when he saw my best alarum’d spirits, +Bold in the quarrel’s right, rous’d to th’encounter, +Or whether gasted by the noise I made, +Full suddenly he fled. + +GLOUCESTER. +Let him fly far; +Not in this land shall he remain uncaught; +And found—dispatch’d. The noble Duke my master, +My worthy arch and patron, comes tonight: +By his authority I will proclaim it, +That he which finds him shall deserve our thanks, +Bringing the murderous coward to the stake; +He that conceals him, death. + +EDMUND. +When I dissuaded him from his intent, +And found him pight to do it, with curst speech +I threaten’d to discover him: he replied, +‘Thou unpossessing bastard! dost thou think, +If I would stand against thee, would the reposal +Of any trust, virtue, or worth in thee +Make thy words faith’d? No: what I should deny +As this I would; ay, though thou didst produce +My very character, I’d turn it all +To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practice: +And thou must make a dullard of the world, +If they not thought the profits of my death +Were very pregnant and potential spurs +To make thee seek it. + +GLOUCESTER. +O strange and fast’ned villain! +Would he deny his letter, said he? I never got him. + + [_Tucket within._] + +Hark, the Duke’s trumpets! I know not why he comes. +All ports I’ll bar; the villain shall not scape; +The Duke must grant me that: besides, his picture +I will send far and near, that all the kingdom +May have due note of him; and of my land, +Loyal and natural boy, I’ll work the means +To make thee capable. + + Enter Cornwall, Regan and +Attendants. + +CORNWALL. +How now, my noble friend! since I came hither, +Which I can call but now, I have heard strange news. + +REGAN. +If it be true, all vengeance comes too short +Which can pursue th’offender. How dost, my lord? + +GLOUCESTER. +O madam, my old heart is crack’d, it’s crack’d! + +REGAN. +What, did my father’s godson seek your life? +He whom my father nam’d? your Edgar? + +GLOUCESTER. +O lady, lady, shame would have it hid! + +REGAN. +Was he not companion with the riotous knights +That tend upon my father? + +GLOUCESTER. +I know not, madam; ’tis too bad, too bad. + +EDMUND. +Yes, madam, he was of that consort. + +REGAN. +No marvel then though he were ill affected: +’Tis they have put him on the old man’s death, +To have the expense and waste of his revenues. +I have this present evening from my sister +Been well inform’d of them; and with such cautions +That if they come to sojourn at my house, +I’ll not be there. + +CORNWALL. +Nor I, assure thee, Regan. +Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father +A childlike office. + +EDMUND. +It was my duty, sir. + +GLOUCESTER. +He did bewray his practice; and receiv’d +This hurt you see, striving to apprehend him. + +CORNWALL. +Is he pursued? + +GLOUCESTER. +Ay, my good lord. + +CORNWALL. +If he be taken, he shall never more +Be fear’d of doing harm: make your own purpose, +How in my strength you please. For you, Edmund, +Whose virtue and obedience doth this instant +So much commend itself, you shall be ours: +Natures of such deep trust we shall much need; +You we first seize on. + +EDMUND. +I shall serve you, sir, truly, however else. + +GLOUCESTER. +For him I thank your grace. + +CORNWALL. +You know not why we came to visit you? + +REGAN. +Thus out of season, threading dark-ey’d night: +Occasions, noble Gloucester, of some poise, +Wherein we must have use of your advice. +Our father he hath writ, so hath our sister, +Of differences, which I best thought it fit +To answer from our home; the several messengers +From hence attend dispatch. Our good old friend, +Lay comforts to your bosom; and bestow +Your needful counsel to our business, +Which craves the instant use. + +GLOUCESTER. +I serve you, madam: +Your graces are right welcome. + + [_Exeunt. Flourish._] + +SCENE II. Before Gloucester’s Castle + + Enter Kent and Oswald, +severally. + +OSWALD. +Good dawning to thee, friend: art of this house? + +KENT. +Ay. + +OSWALD. +Where may we set our horses? + +KENT. +I’ the mire. + +OSWALD. +Prythee, if thou lov’st me, tell me. + +KENT. +I love thee not. + +OSWALD. +Why then, I care not for thee. + +KENT. +If I had thee in Lipsbury pinfold, I would make thee care for me. + +OSWALD. +Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not. + +KENT. +Fellow, I know thee. + +OSWALD. +What dost thou know me for? + +KENT. +A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, +shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, +worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, +glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; +one trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of +good service, and art nothing but the composition of a +knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel +bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou +deniest the least syllable of thy addition. + +OSWALD. +Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail on one that’s +neither known of thee nor knows thee? + +KENT. +What a brazen-faced varlet art thou, to deny thou knowest me! Is +it two days ago since I tripped up thy heels and beat thee before +the King? Draw, you rogue: for, though it be night, yet the moon +shines; I’ll make a sop o’ the moonshine of you: draw, you +whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw! + + [_Drawing his sword._] + +OSWALD. +Away! I have nothing to do with thee. + +KENT. +Draw, you rascal: you come with letters against the King; and +take vanity the puppet’s part against the royalty of her father: +draw, you rogue, or I’ll so carbonado your shanks:—draw, you rascal; +come your ways! + +OSWALD. +Help, ho! murder! help! + +KENT. +Strike, you slave; stand, rogue, stand; you neat slave, strike! + + [_Beating him._] + +OSWALD. +Help, ho! murder! murder! + + Enter Edmund, Cornwall, Regan, +Gloucester and Servants. + +EDMUND. +How now! What’s the matter? Part! + +KENT. +With you, goodman boy, if you please: come, I’ll flesh ye; come +on, young master. + +GLOUCESTER. +Weapons! arms! What’s the matter here? + +CORNWALL. +Keep peace, upon your lives, he dies that strikes again. What is the +matter? + +REGAN. +The messengers from our sister and the King. + +CORNWALL. +What is your difference? Speak. + +OSWALD. +I am scarce in breath, my lord. + +KENT. +No marvel, you have so bestirr’d your valour. You cowardly +rascal, nature disclaims in thee; a tailor made thee. + +CORNWALL. +Thou art a strange fellow: a tailor make a man? + +KENT. +Ay, a tailor, sir: a stonecutter or a painter could not have +made him so ill, though he had been but two years at the trade. + +CORNWALL. +Speak yet, how grew your quarrel? + +OSWALD. +This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spared at suit of his grey +beard,— + +KENT. +Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter! My lord, if you’ll +give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar and +daub the walls of a jakes with him. Spare my grey beard, you wagtail? + +CORNWALL. +Peace, sirrah! +You beastly knave, know you no reverence? + +KENT. +Yes, sir; but anger hath a privilege. + +CORNWALL. +Why art thou angry? + +KENT. +That such a slave as this should wear a sword, +Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these, +Like rats, oft bite the holy cords a-twain +Which are too intrince t’unloose; smooth every passion +That in the natures of their lords rebel; +Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods; +Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks +With every gale and vary of their masters, +Knowing naught, like dogs, but following. +A plague upon your epileptic visage! +Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool? +Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain, +I’d drive ye cackling home to Camelot. + +CORNWALL. +What, art thou mad, old fellow? + +GLOUCESTER. +How fell you out? Say that. + +KENT. +No contraries hold more antipathy +Than I and such a knave. + +CORNWALL. +Why dost thou call him knave? What is his fault? + +KENT. +His countenance likes me not. + +CORNWALL. +No more perchance does mine, or his, or hers. + +KENT. +Sir, ’tis my occupation to be plain: +I have seen better faces in my time +Than stands on any shoulder that I see +Before me at this instant. + +CORNWALL. +This is some fellow +Who, having been prais’d for bluntness, doth affect +A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb +Quite from his nature: he cannot flatter, he, +An honest mind and plain, he must speak truth! +An they will take it, so; if not, he’s plain. +These kind of knaves I know which in this plainness +Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends +Than twenty silly-ducking observants +That stretch their duties nicely. + +KENT. +Sir, in good faith, in sincere verity, +Under th’allowance of your great aspect, +Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire +On flickering Phoebus’ front,— + +CORNWALL. +What mean’st by this? + +KENT. +To go out of my dialect, which you discommend so much. I know, +sir, I am no flatterer: he that beguiled you in a plain accent +was a plain knave; which, for my part, I will not be, though I +should win your displeasure to entreat me to’t. + +CORNWALL. +What was the offence you gave him? + +OSWALD. +I never gave him any: +It pleas’d the King his master very late +To strike at me, upon his misconstruction; +When he, compact, and flattering his displeasure, +Tripp’d me behind; being down, insulted, rail’d +And put upon him such a deal of man, +That worthied him, got praises of the King +For him attempting who was self-subdu’d; +And, in the fleshment of this dread exploit, +Drew on me here again. + +KENT. +None of these rogues and cowards +But Ajax is their fool. + +CORNWALL. +Fetch forth the stocks! +You stubborn ancient knave, you reverent braggart, +We’ll teach you. + +KENT. +Sir, I am too old to learn: +Call not your stocks for me: I serve the King; +On whose employment I was sent to you: +You shall do small respect, show too bold malice +Against the grace and person of my master, +Stocking his messenger. + +CORNWALL. +Fetch forth the stocks! +As I have life and honour, there shall he sit till noon. + +REGAN. +Till noon! Till night, my lord; and all night too! + +KENT. +Why, madam, if I were your father’s dog, +You should not use me so. + +REGAN. +Sir, being his knave, I will. + + [_Stocks brought out._] + +CORNWALL. +This is a fellow of the selfsame colour +Our sister speaks of. Come, bring away the stocks! + +GLOUCESTER. +Let me beseech your grace not to do so: +His fault is much, and the good King his master +Will check him for’t: your purpos’d low correction +Is such as basest and contemned’st wretches +For pilferings and most common trespasses, +Are punish’d with. The King must take it ill +That he, so slightly valued in his messenger, +Should have him thus restrained. + +CORNWALL. +I’ll answer that. + +REGAN. +My sister may receive it much more worse, +To have her gentleman abus’d, assaulted, +For following her affairs. Put in his legs. + + [_Kent is put in the +stocks._] + +CORNWALL. +Come, my good lord, away. + + [_Exeunt all but Gloucester and Kent._] + +GLOUCESTER. +I am sorry for thee, friend; ’tis the Duke’s pleasure, +Whose disposition, all the world well knows, +Will not be rubb’d nor stopp’d; I’ll entreat for thee. + +KENT. +Pray do not, sir: I have watch’d, and travell’d hard; +Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I’ll whistle. +A good man’s fortune may grow out at heels: +Give you good morrow! + +GLOUCESTER. +The Duke’s to blame in this: ’twill be ill taken. + + [_Exit._] + +KENT. +Good King, that must approve the common saw, +Thou out of heaven’s benediction com’st +To the warm sun. +Approach, thou beacon to this under globe, +That by thy comfortable beams I may +Peruse this letter. Nothing almost sees miracles +But misery. I know ’tis from Cordelia, +Who hath most fortunately been inform’d +Of my obscured course. And shall find time +From this enormous state, seeking to give +Losses their remedies. All weary and o’erwatch’d, +Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold +This shameful lodging. +Fortune, good night: smile once more, turn thy wheel! + + [_He sleeps._] + +SCENE III. The open Country + + Enter Edgar. + +EDGAR. +I heard myself proclaim’d, +And by the happy hollow of a tree +Escap’d the hunt. No port is free, no place +That guard and most unusual vigilance +Does not attend my taking. While I may scape +I will preserve myself: and am bethought +To take the basest and most poorest shape +That ever penury in contempt of man, +Brought near to beast: my face I’ll grime with filth, +Blanket my loins; elf all my hair in knots, +And with presented nakedness outface +The winds and persecutions of the sky. +The country gives me proof and precedent +Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices, +Strike in their numb’d and mortified bare arms +Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary; +And with this horrible object, from low farms, +Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills, +Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers, +Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod! poor Tom, +That’s something yet: Edgar I nothing am. + + [_Exit._] + +SCENE IV. Before Gloucester’s Castle; Kent in the stocks + + Enter Lear, Fool and Gentleman. + +LEAR. +’Tis strange that they should so depart from home, +And not send back my messenger. + +GENTLEMAN. +As I learn’d, +The night before there was no purpose in them +Of this remove. + +KENT. +Hail to thee, noble master! + +LEAR. +Ha! Mak’st thou this shame thy pastime? + +KENT. +No, my lord. + +FOOL. +Ha, ha! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied by the +heads; dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys by the loins, and +men by the legs: when a man is overlusty at legs, then he +wears wooden nether-stocks. + +LEAR. +What’s he that hath so much thy place mistook +To set thee here? + +KENT. +It is both he and she, +Your son and daughter. + +LEAR. +No. + +KENT. +Yes. + +LEAR. +No, I say. + +KENT. +I say, yea. + +LEAR. +No, no; they would not. + +KENT. +Yes, they have. + +LEAR. +By Jupiter, I swear no. + +KENT. +By Juno, I swear ay. + +LEAR. +They durst not do’t. +They could not, would not do’t; ’tis worse than murder, +To do upon respect such violent outrage: +Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way +Thou mightst deserve or they impose this usage, +Coming from us. + +KENT. +My lord, when at their home +I did commend your highness’ letters to them, +Ere I was risen from the place that show’d +My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post, +Stew’d in his haste, half breathless, panting forth +From Goneril his mistress salutations; +Deliver’d letters, spite of intermission, +Which presently they read; on those contents, +They summon’d up their meiny, straight took horse; +Commanded me to follow and attend +The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks: +And meeting here the other messenger, +Whose welcome I perceiv’d had poison’d mine, +Being the very fellow which of late +Display’d so saucily against your highness, +Having more man than wit about me, drew; +He rais’d the house with loud and coward cries. +Your son and daughter found this trespass worth +The shame which here it suffers. + +FOOL. +Winter’s not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way. + Fathers that wear rags + Do make their children blind, + But fathers that bear bags + Shall see their children kind. + Fortune, that arrant whore, + Ne’er turns the key to th’ poor. +But for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours for thy +daughters as thou canst tell in a year. + +LEAR. +O, how this mother swells up toward my heart! +_Hysterica passio_, down, thou climbing sorrow, +Thy element’s below! Where is this daughter? + +KENT. +With the earl, sir, here within. + +LEAR. +Follow me not; stay here. + + [_Exit._] + +GENTLEMAN. +Made you no more offence but what you speak of? + +KENT. +None. +How chance the King comes with so small a number? + +FOOL. +An thou hadst been set i’ the stocks for that question, +thou hadst well deserved it. + +KENT. +Why, fool? + +FOOL. +We’ll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there’s no +labouring i’the winter. All that follow their noses are led by +their eyes but blind men; and there’s not a nose among twenty +but can smell him that’s stinking. Let go thy hold when a great +wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following +it; but the great one that goes upward, let him draw thee after. +When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I +would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it. + That sir which serves and seeks for gain, + And follows but for form, + Will pack when it begins to rain, + And leave thee in the storm. + But I will tarry; the fool will stay, + And let the wise man fly: + The knave turns fool that runs away; + The fool no knave perdy. + + +KENT. +Where learn’d you this, fool? + +FOOL. +Not i’ the stocks, fool. + + Enter Lear and Gloucester. + +LEAR. +Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary? +They have travell’d all the night? Mere fetches; +The images of revolt and flying off. +Fetch me a better answer. + +GLOUCESTER. +My dear lord, +You know the fiery quality of the Duke; +How unremovable and fix’d he is +In his own course. + +LEAR. +Vengeance! plague! death! confusion! +Fiery? What quality? Why, Gloucester, Gloucester, +I’d speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife. + +GLOUCESTER. +Well, my good lord, I have inform’d them so. + +LEAR. +Inform’d them! Dost thou understand me, man? + +GLOUCESTER. +Ay, my good lord. + +LEAR. +The King would speak with Cornwall; the dear father +Would with his daughter speak, commands, tends, service, +Are they inform’d of this? My breath and blood! +Fiery? The fiery Duke, tell the hot Duke that— +No, but not yet: maybe he is not well: +Infirmity doth still neglect all office +Whereto our health is bound: we are not ourselves +When nature, being oppress’d, commands the mind +To suffer with the body: I’ll forbear; +And am fallen out with my more headier will, +To take the indispos’d and sickly fit +For the sound man. [_Looking on Kent._] +Death on my state! Wherefore +Should he sit here? This act persuades me +That this remotion of the Duke and her +Is practice only. Give me my servant forth. +Go tell the Duke and’s wife I’d speak with them, +Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me, +Or at their chamber door I’ll beat the drum +Till it cry sleep to death. + +GLOUCESTER. +I would have all well betwixt you. + + [_Exit._] + +LEAR. +O me, my heart, my rising heart! But down! + +FOOL. +Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels when she put ’em +i’ the paste alive; she knapped ’em o’ the coxcombs +with a stick and cried ‘Down, wantons, down!’ ’Twas +her brother that, in pure kindness to his horse buttered his hay. + + Enter Cornwall, Regan, +Gloucester and Servants. + +LEAR. +Good morrow to you both. + +CORNWALL. +Hail to your grace! + + [_Kent here set at liberty._] + +REGAN. +I am glad to see your highness. + +LEAR. +Regan, I think you are; I know what reason +I have to think so: if thou shouldst not be glad, +I would divorce me from thy mother’s tomb, +Sepulchring an adultress. [_To Kent_] O, are you free? +Some other time for that.—Beloved Regan, +Thy sister’s naught: O Regan, she hath tied +Sharp-tooth’d unkindness, like a vulture, here. + + [_Points to his heart._] + +I can scarce speak to thee; thou’lt not believe +With how deprav’d a quality—O Regan! + +REGAN. +I pray you, sir, take patience. I have hope +You less know how to value her desert +Than she to scant her duty. + +LEAR. +Say, how is that? + +REGAN. +I cannot think my sister in the least +Would fail her obligation. If, sir, perchance +She have restrain’d the riots of your followers, +’Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end, +As clears her from all blame. + +LEAR. +My curses on her. + +REGAN. +O, sir, you are old; +Nature in you stands on the very verge +Of her confine: you should be rul’d and led +By some discretion, that discerns your state +Better than you yourself. Therefore I pray you, +That to our sister you do make return; +Say you have wrong’d her, sir. + +LEAR. +Ask her forgiveness? +Do you but mark how this becomes the house? +‘Dear daughter, I confess that I am old; +[_Kneeling._] +Age is unnecessary: on my knees I beg +That you’ll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.’ + +REGAN. +Good sir, no more! These are unsightly tricks: +Return you to my sister. + +LEAR. +[_Rising._] Never, Regan: +She hath abated me of half my train; +Look’d black upon me; struck me with her tongue, +Most serpent-like, upon the very heart. +All the stor’d vengeances of heaven fall +On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones, +You taking airs, with lameness! + +CORNWALL. +Fie, sir, fie! + +LEAR. +You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames +Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty, +You fen-suck’d fogs, drawn by the powerful sun, +To fall and blast her pride! + +REGAN. +O the blest gods! +So will you wish on me when the rash mood is on. + +LEAR. +No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse. +Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give +Thee o’er to harshness. Her eyes are fierce; but thine +Do comfort, and not burn. ’Tis not in thee +To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train, +To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes, +And, in conclusion, to oppose the bolt +Against my coming in. Thou better know’st +The offices of nature, bond of childhood, +Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude; +Thy half o’ the kingdom hast thou not forgot, +Wherein I thee endow’d. + +REGAN. +Good sir, to the purpose. + +LEAR. +Who put my man i’ the stocks? + + [_Tucket within._] + +CORNWALL. +What trumpet’s that? + +REGAN. +I know’t, my sister’s: this approves her letter, +That she would soon be here. + + Enter Oswald. + +Is your lady come? + +LEAR. +This is a slave, whose easy borrowed pride +Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows. +Out, varlet, from my sight! + +CORNWALL. +What means your grace? + +LEAR. +Who stock’d my servant? Regan, I have good hope +Thou didst not know on’t. Who comes here? O heavens! + + Enter Goneril. + +If you do love old men, if your sweet sway +Allow obedience, if yourselves are old, +Make it your cause; send down, and take my part! +[_To Goneril._] Art not asham’d to look upon this beard? +O Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand? + +GONERIL. +Why not by the hand, sir? How have I offended? +All’s not offence that indiscretion finds +And dotage terms so. + +LEAR. +O sides, you are too tough! +Will you yet hold? How came my man i’ the stocks? + +CORNWALL. +I set him there, sir: but his own disorders +Deserv’d much less advancement. + +LEAR. +You? Did you? + +REGAN. +I pray you, father, being weak, seem so. +If, till the expiration of your month, +You will return and sojourn with my sister, +Dismissing half your train, come then to me: +I am now from home, and out of that provision +Which shall be needful for your entertainment. + +LEAR. +Return to her, and fifty men dismiss’d? +No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose +To wage against the enmity o’ the air; +To be a comrade with the wolf and owl, +Necessity’s sharp pinch! Return with her? +Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took +Our youngest born, I could as well be brought +To knee his throne, and, squire-like, pension beg +To keep base life afoot. Return with her? +Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter +To this detested groom. + + [_Pointing to Oswald._] + +GONERIL. +At your choice, sir. + +LEAR. +I prythee, daughter, do not make me mad: +I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell: +We’ll no more meet, no more see one another. +But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter; +Or rather a disease that’s in my flesh, +Which I must needs call mine. Thou art a boil, +A plague sore, or embossed carbuncle +In my corrupted blood. But I’ll not chide thee; +Let shame come when it will, I do not call it: +I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot, +Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove: +Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure: +I can be patient; I can stay with Regan, +I and my hundred knights. + +REGAN. +Not altogether so, +I look’d not for you yet, nor am provided +For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister; +For those that mingle reason with your passion +Must be content to think you old, and so— +But she knows what she does. + +LEAR. +Is this well spoken? + +REGAN. +I dare avouch it, sir: what, fifty followers? +Is it not well? What should you need of more? +Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger +Speak ’gainst so great a number? How in one house +Should many people, under two commands, +Hold amity? ’Tis hard; almost impossible. + +GONERIL. +Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance +From those that she calls servants, or from mine? + +REGAN. +Why not, my lord? If then they chanc’d to slack ye, +We could control them. If you will come to me,— +For now I spy a danger,—I entreat you +To bring but five-and-twenty: to no more +Will I give place or notice. + +LEAR. +I gave you all,— + +REGAN. +And in good time you gave it. + +LEAR. +Made you my guardians, my depositaries; +But kept a reservation to be followed +With such a number. What, must I come to you +With five-and-twenty, Regan, said you so? + +REGAN. +And speak’t again my lord; no more with me. + +LEAR. +Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour’d +When others are more wicked; not being the worst +Stands in some rank of praise. +[_To Goneril._] I’ll go with thee: +Thy fifty yet doth double five-and-twenty, +And thou art twice her love. + +GONERIL. +Hear me, my lord: +What need you five-and-twenty? Ten? Or five? +To follow in a house where twice so many +Have a command to tend you? + +REGAN. +What need one? + +LEAR. +O, reason not the need: our basest beggars +Are in the poorest thing superfluous: +Allow not nature more than nature needs, +Man’s life is cheap as beast’s. Thou art a lady; +If only to go warm were gorgeous, +Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear’st +Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need,— +You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need! +You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, +As full of grief as age; wretched in both! +If it be you that stirs these daughters’ hearts +Against their father, fool me not so much +To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger, +And let not women’s weapons, water-drops, +Stain my man’s cheeks! No, you unnatural hags, +I will have such revenges on you both +That all the world shall,—I will do such things,— +What they are yet, I know not; but they shall be +The terrors of the earth. You think I’ll weep; +No, I’ll not weep:— [_Storm and tempest._] +I have full cause of weeping; but this heart +Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws +Or ere I’ll weep.—O fool, I shall go mad! + + [_Exeunt Lear, Gloucester, Kent and Fool._] + +CORNWALL. +Let us withdraw; ’twill be a storm. + +REGAN. +This house is little: the old man and his people +Cannot be well bestow’d. + +GONERIL. +’Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest +And must needs taste his folly. + +REGAN. +For his particular, I’ll receive him gladly, +But not one follower. + +GONERIL. +So am I purpos’d. +Where is my lord of Gloucester? + + Enter Gloucester. + +CORNWALL. +Followed the old man forth, he is return’d. + +GLOUCESTER. +The King is in high rage. + +CORNWALL. +Whither is he going? + +GLOUCESTER. +He calls to horse; but will I know not whither. + +CORNWALL. +’Tis best to give him way; he leads himself. + +GONERIL. +My lord, entreat him by no means to stay. + +GLOUCESTER. +Alack, the night comes on, and the high winds +Do sorely ruffle; for many miles about +There’s scarce a bush. + +REGAN. +O, sir, to wilful men +The injuries that they themselves procure +Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors. +He is attended with a desperate train, +And what they may incense him to, being apt +To have his ear abus’d, wisdom bids fear. + +CORNWALL. +Shut up your doors, my lord; ’tis a wild night. +My Regan counsels well: come out o’ the storm. + + [_Exeunt._] + + + + +ACT III + +SCENE I. A Heath + + + A storm with thunder and lightning. Enter Kent and a Gentleman, +severally. + +KENT. +Who’s there, besides foul weather? + +GENTLEMAN. +One minded like the weather, most unquietly. + +KENT. +I know you. Where’s the King? + +GENTLEMAN. +Contending with the fretful elements; +Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea, +Or swell the curled waters ’bove the main, +That things might change or cease; tears his white hair, +Which the impetuous blasts with eyeless rage, +Catch in their fury and make nothing of; +Strives in his little world of man to outscorn +The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain. +This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch, +The lion and the belly-pinched wolf +Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs, +And bids what will take all. + +KENT. +But who is with him? + +GENTLEMAN. +None but the fool, who labours to out-jest +His heart-struck injuries. + +KENT. +Sir, I do know you; +And dare, upon the warrant of my note +Commend a dear thing to you. There is division, +Although as yet the face of it be cover’d +With mutual cunning, ’twixt Albany and Cornwall; +Who have, as who have not, that their great stars +Throne’d and set high; servants, who seem no less, +Which are to France the spies and speculations +Intelligent of our state. What hath been seen, +Either in snuffs and packings of the Dukes; +Or the hard rein which both of them have borne +Against the old kind King; or something deeper, +Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings;— +But, true it is, from France there comes a power +Into this scatter’d kingdom; who already, +Wise in our negligence, have secret feet +In some of our best ports, and are at point +To show their open banner.—Now to you: +If on my credit you dare build so far +To make your speed to Dover, you shall find +Some that will thank you making just report +Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow +The King hath cause to plain. +I am a gentleman of blood and breeding; +And from some knowledge and assurance +Offer this office to you. + +GENTLEMAN. +I will talk further with you. + +KENT. +No, do not. +For confirmation that I am much more +Than my out-wall, open this purse, and take +What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia, +As fear not but you shall, show her this ring; +And she will tell you who your fellow is +That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm! +I will go seek the King. + +GENTLEMAN. +Give me your hand: have you no more to say? + +KENT. +Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet: +That, when we have found the King, in which your pain +That way, I’ll this; he that first lights on him +Holla the other. + + [_Exeunt._] + +SCENE II. Another part of the heath + + Storm continues. Enter Lear +and Fool. + +LEAR. +Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! blow! +You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout +Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks! +You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, +Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, +Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, +Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ the world! +Crack nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once, +That make ingrateful man! + +FOOL. +O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry house is better than this +rain-water out o’ door. Good nuncle, in; and ask thy daughters +blessing: here’s a night pities neither wise men nor fools. + +LEAR. +Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain! +Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters; +I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness. +I never gave you kingdom, call’d you children; +You owe me no subscription: then let fall +Your horrible pleasure. Here I stand your slave, +A poor, infirm, weak, and despis’d old man: +But yet I call you servile ministers, +That will with two pernicious daughters join +Your high-engender’d battles ’gainst a head +So old and white as this! O! O! ’tis foul! + +FOOL. +He that has a house to put’s head in has a good head-piece. + The codpiece that will house + Before the head has any, + The head and he shall louse: + So beggars marry many. + The man that makes his toe + What he his heart should make + Shall of a corn cry woe, + And turn his sleep to wake. +For there was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass. + +LEAR. +No, I will be the pattern of all patience; +I will say nothing. + + Enter Kent. + +KENT. +Who’s there? + +FOOL. +Marry, here’s grace and a codpiece; that’s a wise man and a +fool. + +KENT. +Alas, sir, are you here? Things that love night +Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies +Gallow the very wanderers of the dark, +And make them keep their caves. Since I was man, +Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder, +Such groans of roaring wind and rain I never +Remember to have heard. Man’s nature cannot carry +Th’affliction, nor the fear. + +LEAR. +Let the great gods, +That keep this dreadful pudder o’er our heads, +Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch, +That hast within thee undivulged crimes +Unwhipp’d of justice. Hide thee, thou bloody hand; +Thou perjur’d, and thou simular of virtue +That art incestuous. Caitiff, to pieces shake +That under covert and convenient seeming +Hast practis’d on man’s life: close pent-up guilts, +Rive your concealing continents, and cry +These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man +More sinn’d against than sinning. + +KENT. +Alack, bareheaded! +Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel; +Some friendship will it lend you ’gainst the tempest: +Repose you there, whilst I to this hard house,— +More harder than the stones whereof ’tis rais’d; +Which even but now, demanding after you, +Denied me to come in,—return, and force +Their scanted courtesy. + +LEAR. +My wits begin to turn. +Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold? +I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow? +The art of our necessities is strange, +That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel. +Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart +That’s sorry yet for thee. + +FOOL. +[_Singing._] + He that has and a little tiny wit, + With heigh-ho, the wind and the rain, + Must make content with his fortunes fit, + Though the rain it raineth every day. + +LEAR. +True, boy. Come, bring us to this hovel. + + [_Exeunt Lear and Kent._] + +FOOL. +This is a brave night to cool a courtezan. I’ll speak a prophecy +ere I go: + When priests are more in word than matter; + When brewers mar their malt with water; + When nobles are their tailors’ tutors; + No heretics burn’d, but wenches’ suitors; + When every case in law is right; + No squire in debt, nor no poor knight; + When slanders do not live in tongues; + Nor cut-purses come not to throngs; + When usurers tell their gold i’ the field; + And bawds and whores do churches build, + Then shall the realm of Albion + Come to great confusion: + Then comes the time, who lives to see’t, + That going shall be us’d with feet. +This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time. + + [_Exit._] + +SCENE III. A Room in Gloucester’s Castle + + Enter Gloucester and Edmund. + +GLOUCESTER. +Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing. When I +desired their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the +use of mine own house; charged me on pain of perpetual displeasure, +neither to speak of him, entreat for him, or any way sustain him. + +EDMUND. +Most savage and unnatural! + +GLOUCESTER. +Go to; say you nothing. There is division between the Dukes, +and a worse matter than that: I have received a letter this +night;—’tis dangerous to be spoken;—I have locked the letter +in my closet: these injuries the King now bears will be revenged +home; there’s part of a power already footed: we must incline to +the King. I will look him, and privily relieve him: go you and +maintain talk with the Duke, that my charity be not of him +perceived: if he ask for me, I am ill, and gone to bed. If I +die for it, as no less is threatened me, the King my old master +must be relieved. There is some strange thing toward, Edmund; +pray you be careful. + + [_Exit._] + +EDMUND. +This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the Duke +Instantly know; and of that letter too. +This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me +That which my father loses, no less than all: +The younger rises when the old doth fall. + + [_Exit._] + +SCENE IV. A part of the Heath with a Hovel + + Storm continues. Enter Lear, +Kent and Fool. + +KENT. +Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter: +The tyranny of the open night’s too rough +For nature to endure. + +LEAR. +Let me alone. + +KENT. +Good my lord, enter here. + +LEAR. +Wilt break my heart? + +KENT. +I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter. + +LEAR. +Thou think’st ’tis much that this contentious storm +Invades us to the skin: so ’tis to thee, +But where the greater malady is fix’d, +The lesser is scarce felt. Thou’dst shun a bear; +But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea, +Thou’dst meet the bear i’ the mouth. When the mind’s +free, +The body’s delicate: the tempest in my mind +Doth from my senses take all feeling else +Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude! +Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand +For lifting food to’t? But I will punish home; +No, I will weep no more. In such a night +To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure: +In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril! +Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all, +O, that way madness lies; let me shun that; +No more of that. + +KENT. +Good my lord, enter here. + +LEAR. +Prythee go in thyself; seek thine own ease: +This tempest will not give me leave to ponder +On things would hurt me more. But I’ll go in. +[_To the Fool._] In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty, +Nay, get thee in. I’ll pray, and then I’ll sleep. + + [_Fool goes in._] + +Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are, +That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, +How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, +Your loop’d and window’d raggedness, defend you +From seasons such as these? O, I have ta’en +Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp; +Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, +That thou mayst shake the superflux to them +And show the heavens more just. + +EDGAR. +[_Within._] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom! + + [_The Fool runs out from the hovel._] + +FOOL. +Come not in here, nuncle, here’s a spirit. +Help me, help me! + +KENT. +Give me thy hand. Who’s there? + +FOOL. +A spirit, a spirit: he says his name’s poor Tom. + +KENT. +What art thou that dost grumble there i’ the straw? +Come forth. + + Enter Edgar, disguised as a +madman. + +EDGAR. +Away! the foul fiend follows me! Through the sharp hawthorn blows the +cold wind. Humh! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee. + +LEAR. +Didst thou give all to thy two daughters? +And art thou come to this? + +EDGAR. +Who gives anything to poor Tom? Whom the foul fiend hath led +through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, o’er +bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow and +halters in his pew, set ratsbane by his porridge; made him proud +of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inched +bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor. Bless thy five +wits! Tom’s a-cold. O, do, de, do, de, do, de. Bless thee from +whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, +whom the foul fiend vexes. There could I have him now, and +there,—and there again, and there. + + [_Storm continues._] + +LEAR. +What, have his daughters brought him to this pass? +Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give ’em all? + +FOOL. +Nay, he reserv’d a blanket, else we had been all shamed. + +LEAR. +Now all the plagues that in the pendulous air +Hang fated o’er men’s faults light on thy daughters! + +KENT. +He hath no daughters, sir. + +LEAR. +Death, traitor! nothing could have subdu’d nature +To such a lowness but his unkind daughters. +Is it the fashion that discarded fathers +Should have thus little mercy on their flesh? +Judicious punishment! ’twas this flesh begot +Those pelican daughters. + +EDGAR. + Pillicock sat on Pillicock hill, + Alow, alow, loo loo! + +FOOL. +This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen. + +EDGAR. +Take heed o’ th’ foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep thy word +justly; swear not; commit not with man’s sworn spouse; set not +thy sweet-heart on proud array. Tom’s a-cold. + +LEAR. +What hast thou been? + +EDGAR. +A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair; +wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of my mistress’ heart, and +did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake +words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven. One that +slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it. Wine loved +I deeply, dice dearly; and in woman out-paramour’d the Turk. +False of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox +in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. +Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray +thy poor heart to woman. Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand +out of plackets, thy pen from lender’s book, and defy the foul +fiend. Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind: says +suum, mun, nonny. Dolphin my boy, boy, sessa! let him trot by. + + [_Storm still continues._] + +LEAR. +Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy uncovered +body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than this? Consider +him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no +wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here’s three on’s are +sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more +but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you +lendings! Come, unbutton here. + + [_Tears off his clothes._] + +FOOL. +Prythee, nuncle, be contented; ’tis a naughty night to swim +in. Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher’s +heart, a small spark, all the rest on’s body cold. Look, here +comes a walking fire. + +EDGAR. +This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks +till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and +makes the harelip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature +of earth. + Swithold footed thrice the old; + He met the nightmare, and her nine-fold; + Bid her alight and her troth plight, + And aroint thee, witch, aroint thee! + +KENT. +How fares your grace? + + Enter Gloucester with a +torch. + +LEAR. +What’s he? + +KENT. +Who’s there? What is’t you seek? + +GLOUCESTER. +What are you there? Your names? + +EDGAR. +Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the todpole, the +wall-newt and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when the +foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat +and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; +who is whipped from tithing to tithing, and stocked, punished, +and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts +to his body, + Horse to ride, and weapon to wear. + But mice and rats and such small deer, + Have been Tom’s food for seven long year. +Beware my follower. Peace, Smulkin; peace, thou fiend! + +GLOUCESTER. +What, hath your grace no better company? + +EDGAR. +The prince of darkness is a gentleman: +Modo he’s call’d, and Mahu. + +GLOUCESTER. +Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile +That it doth hate what gets it. + +EDGAR. +Poor Tom’s a-cold. + +GLOUCESTER. +Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer +T’obey in all your daughters’ hard commands; +Though their injunction be to bar my doors, +And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you, +Yet have I ventur’d to come seek you out, +And bring you where both fire and food is ready. + +LEAR. +First let me talk with this philosopher. +What is the cause of thunder? + +KENT. +Good my lord, take his offer; go into the house. + +LEAR. +I’ll talk a word with this same learned Theban. +What is your study? + +EDGAR. +How to prevent the fiend and to kill vermin. + +LEAR. +Let me ask you one word in private. + +KENT. +Importune him once more to go, my lord; +His wits begin t’unsettle. + +GLOUCESTER. +Canst thou blame him? +His daughters seek his death. Ah, that good Kent! +He said it would be thus, poor banish’d man! +Thou sayest the King grows mad; I’ll tell thee, friend, +I am almost mad myself. I had a son, +Now outlaw’d from my blood; he sought my life +But lately, very late: I lov’d him, friend, +No father his son dearer: true to tell thee, + + [_Storm continues._] + +The grief hath craz’d my wits. What a night’s this! +I do beseech your grace. + +LEAR. +O, cry you mercy, sir. +Noble philosopher, your company. + +EDGAR. +Tom’s a-cold. + +GLOUCESTER. +In, fellow, there, into the hovel; keep thee warm. + +LEAR. +Come, let’s in all. + +KENT. +This way, my lord. + +LEAR. +With him; +I will keep still with my philosopher. + +KENT. +Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow. + +GLOUCESTER. +Take him you on. + +KENT. +Sirrah, come on; go along with us. + +LEAR. +Come, good Athenian. + +GLOUCESTER. +No words, no words, hush. + +EDGAR. + Child Rowland to the dark tower came, + His word was still—Fie, foh, and fum, + I smell the blood of a British man. + + [_Exeunt._] + +SCENE V. A Room in Gloucester’s Castle + + Enter Cornwall and Edmund. + +CORNWALL. +I will have my revenge ere I depart his house. + +EDMUND. +How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to +loyalty, something fears me to think of. + +CORNWALL. +I now perceive it was not altogether your brother’s evil +disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set +a-work by a reproveable badness in himself. + +EDMUND. +How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to be just! This +is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an intelligent +party to the advantages of France. O heavens! that this treason +were not; or not I the detector! + +CORNWALL. +Go with me to the Duchess. + +EDMUND. +If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business +in hand. + +CORNWALL. +True or false, it hath made thee Earl of Gloucester. Seek out +where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension. + +EDMUND. +[_Aside._] If I find him comforting the King, it will stuff his +suspicion more fully. I will persever in my course of loyalty, +though the conflict be sore between that and my blood. + +CORNWALL. +I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a dearer father +in my love. + + [_Exeunt._] + +SCENE VI. A Chamber in a Farmhouse adjoining the Castle + + Enter Gloucester, Lear, Kent, +Fool and Edgar. + +GLOUCESTER. +Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully. I will +piece out the comfort with what addition I can: I will not be +long from you. + +KENT. +All the power of his wits have given way to his impatience:— +the gods reward your kindness! + + [_Exit Gloucester._] + +EDGAR. +Frateretto calls me; and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake +of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend. + +FOOL. +Prythee, 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. +[_To Edgar._] Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer; +[_To the Fool._] Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she-foxes!— + +EDGAR. +Look, where he stands and glares! Want’st thou eyes at trial, madam? + Come o’er the bourn, Bessy, to me. + +FOOL. + Her boat hath a leak, + And she must not speak + Why she dares not come over to thee. + +EDGAR. +The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale. +Hoppedance cries in Tom’s belly for two white herring. Croak not, black +angel; I have no food for thee. + +KENT. +How do you, sir? Stand you not so amaz’d; +Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions? + +LEAR. +I’ll see their trial first. Bring in their evidence. +[_To Edgar._] Thou, robed man of justice, take thy place. +[_To the Fool._] And thou, his yokefellow of equity, +Bench by his side. [_To Kent._] You are o’ the commission, +Sit you too. + +EDGAR. + Let us deal justly. + Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd? + Thy sheep be in the corn; + And for one blast of thy minikin mouth + Thy sheep shall take no harm. +Purr! the cat is grey. + +LEAR. +Arraign her first; ’tis Goneril. I here take my oath before +this honourable assembly, she kicked the poor King her father. + +FOOL. +Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril? + +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 hast thou let her ’scape? + +EDGAR. +Bless thy five wits! + +KENT. +O pity! Sir, where is the patience now +That you so oft have boasted to retain? + +EDGAR. +[_Aside._] 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 thy 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, thy 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? [_To Edgar._] 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. + + Enter Gloucester. + +GLOUCESTER. +Come hither, friend; +Where is the King my master? + +KENT. +Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits are gone. + +GLOUCESTER. +Good friend, I prythee, take him in thy arms; +I have o’erheard a plot of death upon him; +There is a litter ready; lay him in’t +And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet +Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master; +If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life, +With thine, and all that offer to defend him, +Stand in assured loss. Take up, take up; +And follow me, that will to some provision +Give thee quick conduct. + +KENT. +Oppressed nature sleeps. +This rest might yet have balm’d thy broken sinews, +Which, if convenience will not allow, +Stand in hard cure. Come, help to bear thy master; +[_To the Fool._] Thou must not stay behind. + +GLOUCESTER. +Come, come, away! + + [_Exeunt Kent, Gloucester and the Fool bearing off Lear._] + +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 doth o’erskip +When grief hath 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 thee, +In thy just proof repeals and reconciles thee. +What will hap more tonight, safe ’scape the King! +Lurk, lurk. + + [_Exit._] + +SCENE VII. A Room in Gloucester’s Castle + + Enter Cornwall, Regan, Goneril, +Edmund and Servants. + +CORNWALL. +Post speedily to my lord your husband, show him this letter: the army +of France is landed. Seek out the traitor Gloucester. + + [_Exeunt some of the Servants._] + +REGAN. +Hang him instantly. + +GONERIL. +Pluck out his eyes. + +CORNWALL. +Leave him to my displeasure. Edmund, keep you our sister +company: the revenges we are bound to take upon your traitorous +father are not fit for your beholding. Advise the Duke where you +are going, to a most festinate preparation: we are bound to the +like. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent betwixt us. +Farewell, dear sister, farewell, my lord of Gloucester. + + Enter Oswald. + +How now! Where’s the King? + +OSWALD. +My lord of Gloucester hath convey’d him hence: +Some five or six and thirty of his knights, +Hot questrists after him, met him at gate; +Who, with some other of the lord’s dependants, +Are gone with him toward Dover: where they boast +To have well-armed friends. + +CORNWALL. +Get horses for your mistress. + +GONERIL. +Farewell, sweet lord, and sister. + +CORNWALL. +Edmund, farewell. + + [_Exeunt Goneril, Edmund and Oswald._] + +Go seek the traitor Gloucester, +Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us. + + [_Exeunt other Servants._] + +Though well we may not pass upon his life +Without the form of justice, yet our power +Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men +May blame, but not control. Who’s there? The traitor? + + Enter Gloucester +and Servants. + +REGAN. +Ingrateful fox! ’tis he. + +CORNWALL. +Bind fast his corky arms. + +GLOUCESTER. +What mean your graces? +Good my friends, consider you are my guests. +Do me no foul play, friends. + +CORNWALL. +Bind him, I say. + + [_Servants bind him._] + +REGAN. +Hard, hard. O filthy traitor! + +GLOUCESTER. +Unmerciful lady as you are, I’m none. + +CORNWALL. +To this chair bind him. Villain, thou shalt find— + + [_Regan plucks his beard._] + +GLOUCESTER. +By the kind gods, ’tis most ignobly done +To pluck me by the beard. + +REGAN. +So white, and such a traitor! + +GLOUCESTER. +Naughty lady, +These hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin +Will quicken, and accuse thee. I am your host: +With robber’s hands my hospitable favours +You should not ruffle thus. What will you do? + +CORNWALL. +Come, sir, what letters had you late from France? + +REGAN. +Be simple answer’d, for we know the truth. + +CORNWALL. +And what confederacy have you with the traitors, +Late footed in the kingdom? + +REGAN. +To whose hands have you sent the lunatic King? +Speak. + +GLOUCESTER. +I have a letter guessingly set down, +Which came from one that’s of a neutral heart, +And not from one oppos’d. + +CORNWALL. +Cunning. + +REGAN. +And false. + +CORNWALL. +Where hast thou sent the King? + +GLOUCESTER. +To Dover. + +REGAN. +Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not charg’d at peril,— + +CORNWALL. +Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that. + +GLOUCESTER. +I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course. + +REGAN. +Wherefore to Dover, sir? + +GLOUCESTER. +Because I would not see thy cruel nails +Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister +In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs. +The sea, with such a storm as his bare head +In hell-black night endur’d, would have buoy’d up, +And quench’d the stelled fires; +Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain. +If wolves had at thy gate howl’d that stern time, +Thou shouldst have said, ‘Good porter, turn the key.’ +All cruels else subscrib’d: but I shall see +The winged vengeance overtake such children. + +CORNWALL. +See’t shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair. +Upon these eyes of thine I’ll set my foot. + + [_Gloucester is held down in his chair, while Cornwall plucks out one + of his eyes and sets his foot on it._] + +GLOUCESTER. +He that will think to live till he be old, +Give me some help!—O cruel! O you gods! + +REGAN. +One side will mock another; the other too! + +CORNWALL. +If you see vengeance— + +FIRST SERVANT. +Hold your hand, my lord: +I have serv’d you ever since I was a child; +But better service have I never done you +Than now to bid you hold. + +REGAN. +How now, you dog! + +FIRST SERVANT. +If you did wear a beard upon your chin, +I’d shake it on this quarrel. What do you mean? + +CORNWALL. +My villain? + + [_Draws, and runs at him._] + +FIRST SERVANT. +Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of anger. + + [_Draws. They fight. Cornwall is wounded._] + +REGAN. +[_To another servant._] Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus? + + [_Snatches a sword, comes behind, and stabs him._] + +FIRST SERVANT. +O, I am slain! My lord, you have one eye left +To see some mischief on him. O! + + [_Dies._] + +CORNWALL. +Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly! +Where is thy lustre now? + + [_Tears out Gloucester’s other eye and throws it on the ground._] + +GLOUCESTER. +All dark and comfortless. Where’s my son Edmund? +Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature +To quit this horrid act. + +REGAN. +Out, treacherous villain! +Thou call’st on him that hates thee: it was he +That made the overture of thy treasons to us; +Who is too good to pity thee. + +GLOUCESTER. +O my follies! Then Edgar was abus’d. +Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him! + +REGAN. +Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell +His way to Dover. How is’t, my lord? How look you? + +CORNWALL. +I have receiv’d a hurt: follow me, lady. +Turn out that eyeless villain. Throw this slave +Upon the dunghill. Regan, I bleed apace: +Untimely comes this hurt: give me your arm. + + [_Exit Cornwall, led by Regan; Servants unbind Gloucester and lead + him out._] + +SECOND SERVANT. +I’ll never care what wickedness I do, +If this man come to good. + +THIRD SERVANT. +If she live long, +And in the end meet the old course of death, +Women will all turn monsters. + +SECOND SERVANT. +Let’s follow the old Earl, and get the bedlam +To lead him where he would: his roguish madness +Allows itself to anything. + +THIRD SERVANT. +Go thou: I’ll fetch some flax and whites of eggs +To apply to his bleeding face. Now heaven help him! + + [_Exeunt._] + + + + +ACT IV + +SCENE I. The heath + + + Enter Edgar. + +EDGAR. +Yet better thus, and known to be contemn’d, +Than still contemn’d and flatter’d. To be worst, +The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune, +Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear: +The lamentable change is from the best; +The worst returns to laughter. Welcome then, +Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace; +The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst +Owes nothing to thy blasts. + + Enter Gloucester, led by an +Old Man. + +But who comes here? My father, poorly led? +World, world, O world! +But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee, +Life would not yield to age. + +OLD MAN. +O my good lord, I have been your tenant, and your father’s tenant +these fourscore years. + +GLOUCESTER. +Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone. +Thy comforts can do me no good at all; +Thee they may hurt. + +OLD MAN. +You cannot see your way. + +GLOUCESTER. +I have no way, and therefore want no eyes; +I stumbled when I saw. Full oft ’tis seen +Our means secure us, and our mere defects +Prove our commodities. O dear son Edgar, +The food of thy abused father’s wrath! +Might I but live to see thee in my touch, +I’d say I had eyes again! + +OLD MAN. +How now! Who’s there? + +EDGAR. +[_Aside._] O gods! Who is’t can say ‘I am at the +worst’? +I am worse than e’er I was. + +OLD MAN. +’Tis poor mad Tom. + +EDGAR. +[_Aside._] And worse I may be yet. The worst is not +So long as we can say ‘This is the worst.’ + +OLD MAN. +Fellow, where goest? + +GLOUCESTER. +Is it a beggar-man? + +OLD MAN. +Madman, and beggar too. + +GLOUCESTER. +He has some reason, else he could not beg. +I’ the last night’s storm I such a fellow saw; +Which made me think a man a worm. My son +Came then into my mind, and yet my mind +Was then scarce friends with him. +I have heard more since. +As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, +They kill us for their sport. + +EDGAR. +[_Aside._] How should this be? +Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow, +Angering itself and others. Bless thee, master! + +GLOUCESTER. +Is that the naked fellow? + +OLD MAN. +Ay, my lord. + +GLOUCESTER. +Then prythee get thee away. If for my sake +Thou wilt o’ertake us hence a mile or twain, +I’ the way toward Dover, do it for ancient love, +And bring some covering for this naked soul, +Which I’ll entreat to lead me. + +OLD MAN. +Alack, sir, he is mad. + +GLOUCESTER. +’Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind. +Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure; +Above the rest, be gone. + +OLD MAN. +I’ll bring him the best ’parel that I have, +Come on’t what will. + + [_Exit._] + +GLOUCESTER. +Sirrah naked fellow. + +EDGAR. +Poor Tom’s a-cold. +[_Aside._] I cannot daub it further. + +GLOUCESTER. +Come hither, fellow. + +EDGAR. +[_Aside._] And yet I must. Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed. + +GLOUCESTER. +Know’st thou the way to Dover? + +EDGAR. +Both stile and gate, horseway and footpath. Poor Tom hath been +scared out of his good wits. Bless thee, good man’s son, from +the foul fiend! Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of +lust, as Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of darkness; Mahu, of +stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and +mowing, who since possesses chambermaids and waiting women. So, +bless thee, master! + +GLOUCESTER. +Here, take this purse, thou whom the heaven’s plagues +Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched +Makes thee the happier. Heavens deal so still! +Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man, +That slaves your ordinance, that will not see +Because he does not feel, feel your power quickly; +So distribution should undo excess, +And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover? + +EDGAR. +Ay, master. + +GLOUCESTER. +There is a cliff, whose high and bending head +Looks fearfully in the confined deep: +Bring me but to the very brim of it, +And I’ll repair the misery thou dost bear +With something rich about me: from that place +I shall no leading need. + +EDGAR. +Give me thy arm: +Poor Tom shall lead thee. + + [_Exeunt._] + +SCENE II. Before the Duke of Albany’s Palace + + Enter Goneril, Edmund; +Oswald meeting them. + +GONERIL. +Welcome, my lord. I marvel our mild husband +Not met us on the way. Now, where’s your master? + +OSWALD. +Madam, within; but never man so chang’d. +I told him of the army that was landed; +He smil’d at it: I told him you were coming; +His answer was, ‘The worse.’ Of Gloucester’s treachery +And of the loyal service of his son +When I inform’d him, then he call’d me sot, +And told me I had turn’d the wrong side out. +What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him; +What like, offensive. + +GONERIL. +[_To Edmund._] Then shall you go no further. +It is the cowish terror of his spirit, +That dares not undertake. He’ll not feel wrongs +Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way +May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother; +Hasten his musters and conduct his powers. +I must change names at home, and give the distaff +Into my husband’s hands. This trusty servant +Shall pass between us. Ere long you are like to hear, +If you dare venture in your own behalf, +A mistress’s command. [_Giving a favour._] +Wear this; spare speech; +Decline your head. This kiss, if it durst speak, +Would stretch thy spirits up into the air. +Conceive, and fare thee well. + +EDMUND. +Yours in the ranks of death. + + [_Exit Edmund._] + +GONERIL. +My most dear Gloucester. +O, the difference of man and man! +To thee a woman’s services are due; +My fool usurps my body. + +OSWALD. +Madam, here comes my lord. + + [_Exit._] + + Enter Albany. + +GONERIL. +I have been worth the whistle. + +ALBANY. +O Goneril! +You are not worth the dust which the rude wind +Blows in your face! I fear your disposition; +That nature which contemns its origin +Cannot be bordered certain in itself. +She that herself will sliver and disbranch +From her material sap, perforce must wither +And come to deadly use. + +GONERIL. +No more; the text is foolish. + +ALBANY. +Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile; +Filths savour but themselves. What have you done? +Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform’d? +A father, and a gracious aged man, +Whose reverence even the head-lugg’d bear would lick, +Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you madded. +Could my good brother suffer you to do it? +A man, a prince, by him so benefitted! +If that the heavens do not their visible spirits +Send quickly down to tame these vile offences, +It will come, +Humanity must perforce prey on itself, +Like monsters of the deep. + +GONERIL. +Milk-liver’d man! +That bear’st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs; +Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning +Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know’st +Fools do those villains pity who are punish’d +Ere they have done their mischief. Where’s thy drum? +France spreads his banners in our noiseless land; +With plumed helm thy state begins to threat, +Whilst thou, a moral fool, sitt’st still, and criest +‘Alack, why does he so?’ + +ALBANY. +See thyself, devil! +Proper deformity seems not in the fiend +So horrid as in woman. + +GONERIL. +O vain fool! + +ALBANY. +Thou changed and self-cover’d thing, for shame! +Be-monster not thy feature! Were’t my fitness +To let these hands obey my blood, +They are apt enough to dislocate and tear +Thy flesh and bones. Howe’er thou art a fiend, +A woman’s shape doth shield thee. + +GONERIL. +Marry, your manhood, mew! + + Enter a Messenger. + +ALBANY. +What news? + +MESSENGER. +O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall’s dead; +Slain by his servant, going to put out +The other eye of Gloucester. + +ALBANY. +Gloucester’s eyes! + +MESSENGER. +A servant that he bred, thrill’d with remorse, +Oppos’d against the act, bending his sword +To his great master; who, thereat enrag’d, +Flew on him, and amongst them fell’d him dead; +But not without that harmful stroke which since +Hath pluck’d him after. + +ALBANY. +This shows you are above, +You justicers, that these our nether crimes +So speedily can venge! But, O poor Gloucester! +Lost he his other eye? + +MESSENGER. +Both, both, my lord. +This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer; +’Tis from your sister. + +GONERIL. +[_Aside._] One way I like this well; +But being widow, and my Gloucester with her, +May all the building in my fancy pluck +Upon my hateful life. Another way +The news is not so tart. I’ll read, and answer. + + [_Exit._] + +ALBANY. +Where was his son when they did take his eyes? + +MESSENGER. +Come with my lady hither. + +ALBANY. +He is not here. + +MESSENGER. +No, my good lord; I met him back again. + +ALBANY. +Knows he the wickedness? + +MESSENGER. +Ay, my good lord. ’Twas he inform’d against him; +And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment +Might have the freer course. + +ALBANY. +Gloucester, I live +To thank thee for the love thou show’dst the King, +And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend, +Tell me what more thou know’st. + + [_Exeunt._] + +SCENE III. The French camp near Dover + + Enter Kent and a Gentleman. + +KENT. +Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back, know you no +reason? + +GENTLEMAN. +Something he left imperfect in the state, which since his coming +forth is thought of, which imports to the kingdom so much fear +and danger that his personal return was most required and +necessary. + +KENT. +Who hath he left behind him general? + +GENTLEMAN. +The Mareschal of France, Monsieur La Far. + +KENT. +Did your letters pierce the queen to any demonstration of grief? + +GENTLEMAN. +Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence; +And now and then an ample tear trill’d down +Her delicate cheek. It seem’d she was a queen +Over her passion; who, most rebel-like, +Sought to be king o’er her. + +KENT. +O, then it mov’d her. + +GENTLEMAN. +Not to a rage: patience and sorrow strove +Who should express her goodliest. You have seen +Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears +Were like a better day. Those happy smilets +That play’d on her ripe lip seem’d not to know +What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence +As pearls from diamonds dropp’d. In brief, +Sorrow would be a rarity most belov’d, +If all could so become it. + +KENT. +Made she no verbal question? + +GENTLEMAN. +Faith, once or twice she heav’d the name of ‘father’ +Pantingly forth, as if it press’d her heart; +Cried ‘Sisters, sisters! Shame of ladies! sisters! +Kent! father! sisters! What, i’ the storm? i’ the night? +Let pity not be believ’d!’ There she shook +The holy water from her heavenly eyes, +And clamour master’d her: then away she started +To deal with grief alone. + +KENT. +It is the stars, +The stars above us govern our conditions; +Else one self mate and make could not beget +Such different issues. You spoke not with her since? + +GENTLEMAN. +No. + +KENT. +Was this before the King return’d? + +GENTLEMAN. +No, since. + +KENT. +Well, sir, the poor distressed Lear’s i’ the town; +Who sometime, in his better tune, remembers +What we are come about, and by no means +Will yield to see his daughter. + +GENTLEMAN. +Why, good sir? + +KENT. +A sovereign shame so elbows him. His own unkindness, +That stripp’d her from his benediction, turn’d her +To foreign casualties, gave her dear rights +To his dog-hearted daughters, these things sting +His mind so venomously that burning shame +Detains him from Cordelia. + +GENTLEMAN. +Alack, poor gentleman! + +KENT. +Of Albany’s and Cornwall’s powers you heard not? + +GENTLEMAN. +’Tis so; they are afoot. + +KENT. +Well, sir, I’ll bring you to our master Lear +And leave you to attend him. Some dear cause +Will in concealment wrap me up awhile; +When I am known aright, you shall not grieve +Lending me this acquaintance. +I pray you, go along with me. + + [_Exeunt._] + +SCENE IV. The French camp. A Tent + + Enter with drum and colours, Cordelia, Physician +and Soldiers. + +CORDELIA. +Alack, ’tis he: why, he was met even now +As mad as the vex’d sea; singing aloud; +Crown’d with rank fumiter and furrow weeds, +With harlocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, +Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow +In our sustaining corn. A century send forth; +Search every acre in the high-grown field, +And bring him to our eye. + + [_Exit an Officer._] + +What can man’s wisdom +In the restoring his bereaved sense, +He that helps him take all my outward worth. + +PHYSICIAN. +There is means, madam: +Our foster nurse of nature is repose, +The which he lacks; that to provoke in him +Are many simples operative, whose power +Will close the eye of anguish. + +CORDELIA. +All bless’d secrets, +All you unpublish’d virtues of the earth, +Spring with my tears! Be aidant and remediate +In the good man’s distress! Seek, seek for him; +Lest his ungovern’d rage dissolve the life +That wants the means to lead it. + + Enter a Messenger. + +MESSENGER. +News, madam; +The British powers are marching hitherward. + +CORDELIA. +’Tis known before. Our preparation stands +In expectation of them. O dear father, +It is thy business that I go about; +Therefore great France +My mourning and important tears hath pitied. +No blown ambition doth our arms incite, +But love, dear love, and our ag’d father’s right: +Soon may I hear and see him! + + [_Exeunt._] + +SCENE V. A Room in Gloucester’s Castle + + Enter Regan and Oswald. + +REGAN. +But are my brother’s powers set forth? + +OSWALD. +Ay, madam. + +REGAN. +Himself in person there? + +OSWALD. +Madam, with much ado. +Your sister is the better soldier. + +REGAN. +Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home? + +OSWALD. +No, madam. + +REGAN. +What might import my sister’s letter to him? + +OSWALD. +I know not, lady. + +REGAN. +Faith, he is posted hence on serious matter. +It was great ignorance, Gloucester’s eyes being out, +To let him live. Where he arrives he moves +All hearts against us. Edmund, I think, is gone +In pity of his misery, to dispatch +His nighted life; moreover to descry +The strength o’ th’enemy. + +OSWALD. +I must needs after him, madam, with my letter. + +REGAN. +Our troops set forth tomorrow; stay with us; +The ways are dangerous. + +OSWALD. +I may not, madam: +My lady charg’d my duty in this business. + +REGAN. +Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you +Transport her purposes by word? Belike, +Somethings, I know not what, I’ll love thee much. +Let me unseal the letter. + +OSWALD. +Madam, I had rather— + +REGAN. +I know your lady does not love her husband; +I am sure of that; and at her late being here +She gave strange oeillades and most speaking looks +To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom. + +OSWALD. +I, madam? + +REGAN. +I speak in understanding; y’are, I know’t: +Therefore I do advise you take this note: +My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk’d, +And more convenient is he for my hand +Than for your lady’s. You may gather more. +If you do find him, pray you give him this; +And when your mistress hears thus much from you, +I pray desire her call her wisdom to her. +So, fare you well. +If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor, +Preferment falls on him that cuts him off. + +OSWALD. +Would I could meet him, madam! I should show +What party I do follow. + +REGAN. +Fare thee well. + + [_Exeunt._] + +SCENE VI. The country near Dover + + Enter Gloucester, and Edgar dressed like a peasant. + +GLOUCESTER. +When shall I come to the top of that same hill? + +EDGAR. +You do climb up it now. Look how we labour. + +GLOUCESTER. +Methinks the ground is even. + +EDGAR. +Horrible steep. +Hark, do you hear the sea? + +GLOUCESTER. +No, truly. + +EDGAR. +Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect +By your eyes’ anguish. + +GLOUCESTER. +So may it be indeed. +Methinks thy voice is alter’d; and thou speak’st +In better phrase and matter than thou didst. + +EDGAR. +Y’are much deceiv’d: in nothing am I chang’d +But in my garments. + +GLOUCESTER. +Methinks you’re better spoken. + +EDGAR. +Come on, sir; here’s the place. Stand still. How fearful +And dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes so low! +The crows and choughs that wing the midway air +Show scarce so gross as beetles. Half way down +Hangs one that gathers samphire—dreadful trade! +Methinks he seems no bigger than his head. +The fishermen that walk upon the beach +Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark, +Diminish’d to her cock; her cock a buoy +Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge +That on th’unnumber’d idle pebble chafes +Cannot be heard so high. I’ll look no more; +Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight +Topple down headlong. + +GLOUCESTER. +Set me where you stand. + +EDGAR. +Give me your hand. +You are now within a foot of th’extreme verge. +For all beneath the moon would I not leap upright. + +GLOUCESTER. +Let go my hand. +Here, friend, ’s another purse; in it a jewel +Well worth a poor man’s taking. Fairies and gods +Prosper it with thee! Go thou further off; +Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going. + +EDGAR. +Now fare ye well, good sir. + + [_Seems to go._] + +GLOUCESTER. +With all my heart. + +EDGAR. +[_Aside._] Why I do trifle thus with his despair +Is done to cure it. + +GLOUCESTER. +O you mighty gods! +This world I do renounce, and in your sights, +Shake patiently my great affliction off: +If I could bear it longer, and not fall +To quarrel with your great opposeless wills, +My snuff and loathed part of nature should +Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him! +Now, fellow, fare thee well. + +EDGAR. +Gone, sir, farewell. + + [_Gloucester leaps, and falls along_] + +And yet I know not how conceit may rob +The treasury of life when life itself +Yields to the theft. Had he been where he thought, +By this had thought been past. Alive or dead? +Ho you, sir! friend! Hear you, sir? speak! +Thus might he pass indeed: yet he revives. +What are you, sir? + +GLOUCESTER. +Away, and let me die. + +EDGAR. +Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air, +So many fathom down precipitating, +Thou’dst shiver’d like an egg: but thou dost breathe; +Hast heavy substance; bleed’st not; speak’st; art sound. +Ten masts at each make not the altitude +Which thou hast perpendicularly fell. +Thy life is a miracle. Speak yet again. + +GLOUCESTER. +But have I fall’n, or no? + +EDGAR. +From the dread summit of this chalky bourn. +Look up a-height, the shrill-gorg’d lark so far +Cannot be seen or heard. Do but look up. + +GLOUCESTER. +Alack, I have no eyes. +Is wretchedness depriv’d that benefit +To end itself by death? ’Twas yet some comfort +When misery could beguile the tyrant’s rage +And frustrate his proud will. + +EDGAR. +Give me your arm. +Up, so. How is’t? Feel you your legs? You stand. + +GLOUCESTER. +Too well, too well. + +EDGAR. +This is above all strangeness. +Upon the crown o’ the cliff what thing was that +Which parted from you? + +GLOUCESTER. +A poor unfortunate beggar. + +EDGAR. +As I stood here below, methought his eyes +Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses, +Horns whelk’d and waved like the enraged sea. +It was some fiend. Therefore, thou happy father, +Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours +Of men’s impossibilities, have preserv’d thee. + +GLOUCESTER. +I do remember now: henceforth I’ll bear +Affliction till it do cry out itself +‘Enough, enough,’ and die. That thing you speak of, +I took it for a man; often ’twould say, +‘The fiend, the fiend’; he led me to that place. + +EDGAR. +Bear free and patient thoughts. But who comes here? + + Enter Lear, fantastically +dressed up with flowers. + +The safer sense will ne’er accommodate +His master thus. + +LEAR. +No, they cannot touch me for coining. I am the King himself. + +EDGAR. +O thou side-piercing sight! + +LEAR. +Nature’s above art in that respect. There’s your press money. +That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper: draw me a clothier’s +yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace, this piece of toasted cheese +will do’t. There’s my gauntlet; I’ll prove it on a giant. +Bring up the brown bills. O, well flown, bird! i’ the clout, i’ +the clout. Hewgh! Give the word. + +EDGAR. +Sweet marjoram. + +LEAR. +Pass. + +GLOUCESTER. +I know that voice. + +LEAR. +Ha! Goneril with a white beard! They flattered me like a dog; and told +me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there. To say +‘ay’ and ‘no’ to everything I said ‘ay’ +and ‘no’ to was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet +me once, and the wind to make me chatter; when the thunder would not +peace at my bidding; there I found ’em, there I smelt ’em out. +Go to, they are not men o’ their words: they told me I was everything; +’tis a lie, I am not ague-proof. + +GLOUCESTER. +The trick of that voice I do well remember: +Is’t not the King? + +LEAR. +Ay, every inch a king. +When I do stare, see how the subject quakes. +I pardon that man’s life. What was thy cause? +Adultery? Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No: +The wren goes to’t, and the small gilded fly +Does lecher in my sight. Let copulation thrive; +For Gloucester’s bastard son was kinder to his father +Than my daughters got ’tween the lawful sheets. +To’t, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers. +Behold yond simp’ring dame, +Whose face between her forks presages snow; +That minces virtue, and does shake the head +To hear of pleasure’s name. +The fitchew nor the soiled horse goes to’t with a more riotous +appetite. Down from the waist they are centaurs, though women all +above. But to the girdle do the gods inherit, beneath is all the +fiend’s; there’s hell, there’s darkness, there is the sulphurous pit; +burning, scalding, stench, +consumption. Fie, fie, fie! pah, pah! Give me an ounce of civet, good +apothecary, to sweeten my imagination. There’s money for thee. + +GLOUCESTER. +O, let me kiss that hand! + +LEAR. +Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality. + +GLOUCESTER. +O ruin’d piece of nature, this great world +Shall so wear out to naught. Dost thou know me? + +LEAR. +I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny at me? +No, do thy worst, blind Cupid; I’ll not love. +Read thou this challenge; mark but the penning of it. + +GLOUCESTER. +Were all the letters suns, I could not see one. + +EDGAR. +I would not take this from report, +It is, and my heart breaks at it. + +LEAR. +Read. + +GLOUCESTER. +What, with the case of eyes? + +LEAR. +O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your head, nor no money +in your purse? Your eyes are in a heavy case, your purse in a +light, yet you see how this world goes. + +GLOUCESTER. +I see it feelingly. + +LEAR. +What, art mad? A man may see how the world goes with no eyes. +Look with thine ears. See how yon justice rails upon yon simple +thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which +is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen a farmer’s +dog bark at a beggar? + +GLOUCESTER. +Ay, sir. + +LEAR. +And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst behold +the great image of authority: a dog’s obeyed in office. +Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand! +Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back; +Thou hotly lusts to use her in that kind +For which thou whipp’st her. The usurer hangs the cozener. +Through tatter’d clothes great vices do appear; +Robes and furr’d gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, +And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; +Arm it in rags, a pygmy’s straw does pierce it. +None does offend, none, I say none; I’ll able ’em; +Take that of me, my friend, who have the power +To seal the accuser’s lips. Get thee glass eyes, +And like a scurvy politician, seem +To see the things thou dost not. Now, now, now, now: +Pull off my boots: harder, harder, so. + +EDGAR. +O, matter and impertinency mix’d! +Reason in madness! + +LEAR. +If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes. +I know thee well enough, thy name is Gloucester. +Thou must be patient; we came crying hither: +Thou know’st the first time that we smell the air +We wawl and cry. I will preach to thee: mark. + +GLOUCESTER. +Alack, alack the day! + +LEAR. +When we are born, we cry that we are come +To this great stage of fools. This a good block: +It were a delicate stratagem to shoe +A troop of horse with felt. I’ll put’t in proof +And when I have stol’n upon these son-in-laws, +Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill! + + Enter a Gentleman with +Attendants. + +GENTLEMAN. +O, here he is: lay hand upon him. Sir, +Your most dear daughter— + +LEAR. +No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even +The natural fool of fortune. Use me well; +You shall have ransom. Let me have surgeons; +I am cut to the brains. + +GENTLEMAN. +You shall have anything. + +LEAR. +No seconds? All myself? +Why, this would make a man a man of salt, +To use his eyes for garden water-pots, +Ay, and for laying autumn’s dust. + +GENTLEMAN. +Good sir. + +LEAR. +I will die bravely, like a smug bridegroom. +What! I will be jovial. Come, come, +I am a king, my masters, know you that. + +GENTLEMAN. +You are a royal one, and we obey you. + +LEAR. +Then there’s life in’t. Come, and you get it, +You shall get it by running. Sa, sa, sa, sa! + + [_Exit running. Attendants follow._] + +GENTLEMAN. +A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch, +Past speaking of in a king! Thou hast one daughter +Who redeems nature from the general curse +Which twain have brought her to. + +EDGAR. +Hail, gentle sir. + +GENTLEMAN. +Sir, speed you. What’s your will? + +EDGAR. +Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward? + +GENTLEMAN. +Most sure and vulgar. +Everyone hears that, which can distinguish sound. + +EDGAR. +But, by your favour, +How near’s the other army? + +GENTLEMAN. +Near and on speedy foot; the main descry +Stands on the hourly thought. + +EDGAR. +I thank you sir, that’s all. + +GENTLEMAN. +Though that the queen on special cause is here, +Her army is mov’d on. + +EDGAR. +I thank you, sir. + + [_Exit Gentleman._] + +GLOUCESTER. +You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me; +Let not my worser spirit tempt me again +To die before you please. + +EDGAR. +Well pray you, father. + +GLOUCESTER. +Now, good sir, what are you? + +EDGAR. +A most poor man, made tame to fortune’s blows; +Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows, +Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand, +I’ll lead you to some biding. + +GLOUCESTER. +Hearty thanks: +The bounty and the benison of heaven +To boot, and boot. + + Enter Oswald. + +OSWALD. +A proclaim’d prize! Most happy! +That eyeless head of thine was first fram’d flesh +To raise my fortunes. Thou old unhappy traitor, +Briefly thyself remember. The sword is out +That must destroy thee. + +GLOUCESTER. +Now let thy friendly hand +Put strength enough to’t. + + [_Edgar interposes._] + +OSWALD. +Wherefore, bold peasant, +Dar’st thou support a publish’d traitor? Hence; +Lest that th’infection of his fortune take +Like hold on thee. Let go his arm. + +EDGAR. +Chill not let go, zir, without vurther ’casion. + +OSWALD. +Let go, slave, or thou diest! + +EDGAR. +Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor volke pass. An chud ha’ +bin zwaggered out of my life, ’twould not ha’ bin zo long +as ’tis by a vortnight. Nay, come not near th’old man; keep +out, che vor ye, or ise try whether your costard or my ballow be the +harder: chill be plain with you. + +OSWALD. +Out, dunghill! + +EDGAR. +Chill pick your teeth, zir. Come! No matter vor your foins. + + [_They fight, and Edgar knocks him down._] + +OSWALD. +Slave, thou hast slain me. Villain, take my purse. +If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body; +And give the letters which thou find’st about me +To Edmund, Earl of Gloucester. Seek him out +Upon the British party. O, untimely death! + + [_Dies._] + +EDGAR. +I know thee well. A serviceable villain, +As duteous to the vices of thy mistress +As badness would desire. + +GLOUCESTER. +What, is he dead? + +EDGAR. +Sit you down, father; rest you. +Let’s see these pockets; the letters that he speaks of +May be my friends. He’s dead; I am only sorry +He had no other deathsman. Let us see: +Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not. +To know our enemies’ minds, we rip their hearts, +Their papers is more lawful. +[_Reads._] ‘Let our reciprocal vows be remembered. You have many +opportunities to cut him off: if your will want not, time and place +will be fruitfully offered. There is nothing done if he return the +conqueror: then am I the prisoner, and his bed my gaol; from the +loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply the place for your +labour. ‘Your (wife, so I would say) affectionate servant, ‘Goneril.’ +O indistinguish’d space of woman’s will! +A plot upon her virtuous husband’s life, +And the exchange my brother! Here in the sands +Thee I’ll rake up, the post unsanctified +Of murderous lechers: and in the mature time, +With this ungracious paper strike the sight +Of the death-practis’d Duke: for him ’tis well +That of thy death and business I can tell. + + [_Exit Edgar, dragging out the body._] + +GLOUCESTER. +The King is mad: how stiff is my vile sense, +That I stand up, and have ingenious feeling +Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract: +So should my thoughts be sever’d from my griefs, +And woes by wrong imaginations lose +The knowledge of themselves. + + [_A drum afar off._] + +EDGAR. +Give me your hand. +Far off methinks I hear the beaten drum. +Come, father, I’ll bestow you with a friend. + + [_Exeunt._] + +SCENE VII. A Tent in the French Camp + +Lear on a bed, asleep, soft +music playing; Physician, Gentleman and others +attending. + + Enter Cordelia and Kent. + +CORDELIA. +O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work +To match thy goodness? My life will be too short, +And every measure fail me. + +KENT. +To be acknowledg’d, madam, is o’erpaid. +All my reports go with the modest truth; +Nor more, nor clipp’d, but so. + +CORDELIA. +Be better suited, +These weeds are memories of those worser hours: +I prythee put them off. + +KENT. +Pardon, dear madam; +Yet to be known shortens my made intent. +My boon I make it that you know me not +Till time and I think meet. + +CORDELIA. +Then be’t so, my good lord. [_To the Physician._] How does the King? + +PHYSICIAN. +Madam, sleeps still. + +CORDELIA. +O you kind gods, +Cure this great breach in his abused nature! +The untun’d and jarring senses, O, wind up +Of this child-changed father. + +PHYSICIAN. +So please your majesty +That we may wake the King: he hath slept long. + +CORDELIA. +Be govern’d by your knowledge, and proceed +I’ the sway of your own will. Is he array’d? + +PHYSICIAN. +Ay, madam. In the heaviness of sleep +We put fresh garments on him. +Be by, good madam, when we do awake him; +I doubt not of his temperance. + +CORDELIA. +Very well. + +PHYSICIAN. +Please you draw near. Louder the music there! + +CORDELIA. +O my dear father! Restoration hang +Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss +Repair those violent harms that my two sisters +Have in thy reverence made! + +KENT. +Kind and dear princess! + +CORDELIA. +Had you not been their father, these white flakes +Did challenge pity of them. Was this a face +To be oppos’d against the warring winds? +To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder? +In the most terrible and nimble stroke +Of quick cross lightning? to watch, poor perdu! +With this thin helm? Mine enemy’s dog, +Though he had bit me, should have stood that night +Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father, +To hovel thee with swine and rogues forlorn +In short and musty straw? Alack, alack! +’Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once +Had not concluded all. He wakes; speak to him. + +PHYSICIAN. +Madam, do you; ’tis fittest. + +CORDELIA. +How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty? + +LEAR. +You do me wrong to take me out o’ the grave. +Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound +Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears +Do scald like molten lead. + +CORDELIA. +Sir, do you know me? + +LEAR. +You are a spirit, I know: when did you die? + +CORDELIA. +Still, still, far wide! + +PHYSICIAN. +He’s scarce awake: let him alone awhile. + +LEAR. +Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight? +I am mightily abus’d. I should e’en die with pity, +To see another thus. I know not what to say. +I will not swear these are my hands: let’s see; +I feel this pin prick. Would I were assur’d +Of my condition! + +CORDELIA. +O, look upon me, sir, +And hold your hands in benediction o’er me. +No, sir, you must not kneel. + +LEAR. +Pray, do not mock me: +I am a very foolish fond old man, +Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less; +And to deal plainly, +I fear I am not in my perfect mind. +Methinks I should know you, and know this man; +Yet I am doubtful: for I am mainly ignorant +What place this is; and all the skill I have +Remembers not these garments; nor I know not +Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me; +For, as I am a man, I think this lady +To be my child Cordelia. + +CORDELIA. +And so I am. I am. + +LEAR. +Be your tears wet? Yes, faith. I pray weep not: +If you have poison for me, I will drink it. +I know you do not love me; for your sisters +Have, as I do remember, done me wrong. +You have some cause, they have not. + +CORDELIA. +No cause, no cause. + +LEAR. +Am I in France? + +KENT. +In your own kingdom, sir. + +LEAR. +Do not abuse me. + +PHYSICIAN. +Be comforted, good madam, the great rage, +You see, is kill’d in him: and yet it is danger +To make him even o’er the time he has lost. +Desire him to go in; trouble him no more +Till further settling. + +CORDELIA. +Will’t please your highness walk? + +LEAR. +You must bear with me: +Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old and foolish. + + [_Exeunt Lear, Cordelia, Physician and Attendants._] + +GENTLEMAN. +Holds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so slain? + +KENT. +Most certain, sir. + +GENTLEMAN. +Who is conductor of his people? + +KENT. +As ’tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester. + +GENTLEMAN. +They say Edgar, his banished son, is with the Earl of Kent +in Germany. + +KENT. +Report is changeable. ’Tis time to look about; the powers of +the kingdom approach apace. + +GENTLEMAN. +The arbitrement is like to be bloody. +Fare you well, sir. + + [_Exit._] + +KENT. +My point and period will be throughly wrought, +Or well or ill, as this day’s battle’s fought. + + [_Exit._] + + + + +ACT V + +SCENE I. The Camp of the British Forces near Dover + + + Enter, with drum and colours Edmund, Regan, Officers, Soldiers and + others. + +EDMUND. +Know of the Duke if his last purpose hold, +Or whether since he is advis’d by aught +To change the course, he’s full of alteration +And self-reproving, bring his constant pleasure. + + [_To an Officer, who goes out._] + +REGAN. +Our sister’s man is certainly miscarried. + +EDMUND. +’Tis to be doubted, madam. + +REGAN. +Now, sweet lord, +You know the goodness I intend upon you: +Tell me but truly, but then speak the truth, +Do you not love my sister? + +EDMUND. +In honour’d love. + +REGAN. +But have you never found my brother’s way +To the forfended place? + +EDMUND. +That thought abuses you. + +REGAN. +I am doubtful that you have been conjunct +And bosom’d with her, as far as we call hers. + +EDMUND. +No, by mine honour, madam. + +REGAN. +I never shall endure her, dear my lord, +Be not familiar with her. + +EDMUND. +Fear not, +She and the Duke her husband! + + Enter with drum and colours Albany, Goneril and Soldiers. + +GONERIL. +[_Aside._] I had rather lose the battle than that sister +Should loosen him and me. + +ALBANY. +Our very loving sister, well be-met. +Sir, this I heard: the King is come to his daughter, +With others whom the rigour of our state +Forc’d to cry out. Where I could not be honest, +I never yet was valiant. For this business, +It toucheth us as France invades our land, +Not bolds the King, with others whom I fear +Most just and heavy causes make oppose. + +EDMUND. +Sir, you speak nobly. + +REGAN. +Why is this reason’d? + +GONERIL. +Combine together ’gainst the enemy; +For these domestic and particular broils +Are not the question here. + +ALBANY. +Let’s, then, determine with the ancient of war +On our proceeding. + +EDMUND. +I shall attend you presently at your tent. + +REGAN. +Sister, you’ll go with us? + +GONERIL. +No. + +REGAN. +’Tis most convenient; pray you, go with us. + +GONERIL. +[_Aside_.] O, ho, I know the riddle. I will go. + + [_Exeunt Edmund, Regan, Goneril, Officers, Soldiers and Attendants._] + + As they are going out, enter Edgar disguised. + +EDGAR. +If e’er your grace had speech with man so poor, +Hear me one word. + +ALBANY. +I’ll overtake you. Speak. + +EDGAR. +Before you fight the battle, ope this letter. +If you have victory, let the trumpet sound +For him that brought it: wretched though I seem, +I can produce a champion that will prove +What is avouched there. If you miscarry, +Your business of the world hath so an end, +And machination ceases. Fortune love you! + +ALBANY. +Stay till I have read the letter. + +EDGAR. +I was forbid it. +When time shall serve, let but the herald cry, +And I’ll appear again. + +ALBANY. +Why, fare thee well. I will o’erlook thy paper. + + [_Exit Edgar._] + + Enter Edmund. + +EDMUND. +The enemy’s in view; draw up your powers. +Here is the guess of their true strength and forces +By diligent discovery; but your haste +Is now urg’d on you. + +ALBANY. +We will greet the time. + + [_Exit._] + +EDMUND. +To both these sisters have I sworn my love; +Each jealous of the other, as the stung +Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take? +Both? One? Or neither? Neither can be enjoy’d, +If both remain alive. To take the widow +Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril; +And hardly shall I carry out my side, +Her husband being alive. Now, then, we’ll use +His countenance for the battle; which being done, +Let her who would be rid of him devise +His speedy taking off. As for the mercy +Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia, +The battle done, and they within our power, +Shall never see his pardon: for my state +Stands on me to defend, not to debate. + + [_Exit._] + +SCENE II. A field between the two Camps + + Alarum within. Enter with drum and colours, Lear, Cordelia and their + Forces, and exeunt. + + Enter Edgar and Gloucester. + +EDGAR. +Here, father, take the shadow of this tree +For your good host; pray that the right may thrive: +If ever I return to you again, +I’ll bring you comfort. + +GLOUCESTER. +Grace go with you, sir! + + [_Exit Edgar._] + + Alarum and retreat within. Enter Edgar. + +EDGAR. +Away, old man, give me thy hand, away! +King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta’en: +Give me thy hand; come on! + +GLOUCESTER. +No further, sir; a man may rot even here. + +EDGAR. +What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure +Their going hence, even as their coming hither; +Ripeness is all. Come on. + +GLOUCESTER. +And that’s true too. + + [_Exeunt._] + +SCENE III. The British Camp near Dover + + Enter in conquest with drum and colours, Edmund, Lear and Cordelia +as prisoners; Officers, Soldiers, &c. + +EDMUND. +Some officers take them away: good guard +Until their greater pleasures first be known +That are to censure them. + +CORDELIA. +We are not the first +Who with best meaning have incurr’d the worst. +For thee, oppressed King, I am cast down; +Myself could else out-frown false fortune’s frown. +Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters? + +LEAR. +No, no, no, no. Come, let’s away to prison: +We two alone will sing like birds i’ the cage: +When thou dost ask me blessing I’ll kneel down +And ask of thee forgiveness. So we’ll live, +And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh +At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues +Talk of court news; and we’ll talk with them too, +Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out; +And take upon’s the mystery of things, +As if we were God’s spies. And we’ll wear out, +In a wall’d prison, packs and sects of great ones +That ebb and flow by the moon. + +EDMUND. +Take them away. + +LEAR. +Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, +The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee? +He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven, +And fire us hence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes; +The good years shall devour them, flesh and fell, +Ere they shall make us weep! +We’ll see ’em starve first: come. + + [_Exeunt Lear and Cordelia, guarded._] + +EDMUND. +Come hither, captain, hark. +Take thou this note [_giving a paper_]; go follow them to prison. +One step I have advanc’d thee; if thou dost +As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way +To noble fortunes: know thou this, that men +Are as the time is; to be tender-minded +Does not become a sword. Thy great employment +Will not bear question; either say thou’lt do’t, +Or thrive by other means. + +CAPTAIN. +I’ll do’t, my lord. + +EDMUND. +About it; and write happy when thou hast done. +Mark, I say, instantly; and carry it so +As I have set it down. + +CAPTAIN. +I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats; +If it be man’s work, I’ll do’t. + + [_Exit._] + + Flourish. Enter Albany, Goneril, +Regan, Officers and Attendants. + +ALBANY. +Sir, you have show’d today your valiant strain, +And fortune led you well: you have the captives +Who were the opposites of this day’s strife: +I do require them of you, so to use them +As we shall find their merits and our safety +May equally determine. + +EDMUND. +Sir, I thought it fit +To send the old and miserable King +To some retention and appointed guard; +Whose age has charms in it, whose title more, +To pluck the common bosom on his side, +And turn our impress’d lances in our eyes +Which do command them. With him I sent the queen; +My reason all the same; and they are ready +Tomorrow, or at further space, to appear +Where you shall hold your session. At this time +We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend; +And the best quarrels in the heat are curs’d +By those that feel their sharpness. +The question of Cordelia and her father +Requires a fitter place. + +ALBANY. +Sir, by your patience, +I hold you but a subject of this war, +Not as a brother. + +REGAN. +That’s as we list to grace him. +Methinks our pleasure might have been demanded +Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers; +Bore the commission of my place and person; +The which immediacy may well stand up +And call itself your brother. + +GONERIL. +Not so hot: +In his own grace he doth exalt himself, +More than in your addition. + +REGAN. +In my rights, +By me invested, he compeers the best. + +ALBANY. +That were the most, if he should husband you. + +REGAN. +Jesters do oft prove prophets. + +GONERIL. +Holla, holla! +That eye that told you so look’d but asquint. + +REGAN. +Lady, I am not well; else I should answer +From a full-flowing stomach. General, +Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony; +Dispose of them, of me; the walls are thine: +Witness the world that I create thee here +My lord and master. + +GONERIL. +Mean you to enjoy him? + +ALBANY. +The let-alone lies not in your good will. + +EDMUND. +Nor in thine, lord. + +ALBANY. +Half-blooded fellow, yes. + +REGAN. +[_To Edmund._] Let the drum strike, and prove my title thine. + +ALBANY. +Stay yet; hear reason: Edmund, I arrest thee +On capital treason; and, in thine arrest, +This gilded serpent. [_pointing to Goneril._] +For your claim, fair sister, +I bar it in the interest of my wife; +’Tis she is sub-contracted to this lord, +And I her husband contradict your bans. +If you will marry, make your loves to me, +My lady is bespoke. + +GONERIL. +An interlude! + +ALBANY. +Thou art arm’d, Gloucester. Let the trumpet sound: +If none appear to prove upon thy person +Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons, +There is my pledge. [_Throwing down a glove._] +I’ll make it on thy heart, +Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less +Than I have here proclaim’d thee. + +REGAN. +Sick, O, sick! + +GONERIL. +[_Aside._] If not, I’ll ne’er trust medicine. + +EDMUND. +There’s my exchange. [_Throwing down a glove._] +What in the world he is +That names me traitor, villain-like he lies. +Call by thy trumpet: he that dares approach, +On him, on you, who not? I will maintain +My truth and honour firmly. + +ALBANY. +A herald, ho! + + Enter a Herald. + +Trust to thy single virtue; for thy soldiers, +All levied in my name, have in my name +Took their discharge. + +REGAN. +My sickness grows upon me. + +ALBANY. +She is not well. Convey her to my tent. + + [_Exit Regan, led._] + +Come hither, herald. Let the trumpet sound +And read out this. + +OFFICER. +Sound, trumpet! + + [_A trumpet sounds._] + +HERALD. +[_Reads._] ‘If any man of quality or degree within the lists of +the army will maintain upon Edmund, supposed Earl of Gloucester, +that he is a manifold traitor, let him appear by the third sound +of the trumpet. He is bold in his defence.’ + +EDMUND. +Sound! + + [_First trumpet._] + +HERALD. +Again! + + [_Second trumpet._] + +HERALD. +Again! + + Third trumpet. Trumpet answers within. Enter Edgar, armed, preceded by + a trumpet. + +ALBANY. +Ask him his purposes, why he appears +Upon this call o’ the trumpet. + +HERALD. +What are you? +Your name, your quality? and why you answer +This present summons? + +EDGAR. +Know my name is lost; +By treason’s tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit. +Yet am I noble as the adversary +I come to cope. + +ALBANY. +Which is that adversary? + +EDGAR. +What’s he that speaks for Edmund, Earl of Gloucester? + +EDMUND. +Himself, what say’st thou to him? + +EDGAR. +Draw thy sword, +That if my speech offend a noble heart, +Thy arm may do thee justice: here is mine. +Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours, +My oath, and my profession: I protest, +Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence, +Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune, +Thy valour and thy heart, thou art a traitor; +False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father; +Conspirant ’gainst this high illustrious prince; +And, from the extremest upward of thy head +To the descent and dust beneath thy foot, +A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou ‘No,’ +This sword, this arm, and my best spirits are bent +To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak, +Thou liest. + +EDMUND. +In wisdom I should ask thy name; +But since thy outside looks so fair and warlike, +And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes, +What safe and nicely I might well delay +By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn. +Back do I toss those treasons to thy head, +With the hell-hated lie o’erwhelm thy heart; +Which for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise, +This sword of mine shall give them instant way, +Where they shall rest for ever. Trumpets, speak! + + [_Alarums. They fight. Edmund falls._] + +ALBANY. +Save him, save him! + +GONERIL. +This is mere practice, Gloucester: +By the law of arms thou wast not bound to answer +An unknown opposite; thou art not vanquish’d, +But cozen’d and beguil’d. + +ALBANY. +Shut your mouth, dame, +Or with this paper shall I stop it. Hold, sir; +Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil. +No tearing, lady; I perceive you know it. + + [_Gives the letter to Edmund._] + +GONERIL. +Say if I do, the laws are mine, not thine: +Who can arraign me for’t? + + [_Exit._] + +ALBANY. +Most monstrous! O! +Know’st thou this paper? + +EDMUND. +Ask me not what I know. + +ALBANY. +[_To an Officer, who goes out._] Go after her; she’s desperate; +govern her. + +EDMUND. +What you have charg’d me with, that have I done; +And more, much more; the time will bring it out. +’Tis past, and so am I. But what art thou +That hast this fortune on me? If thou’rt noble, +I do forgive thee. + +EDGAR. +Let’s exchange charity. +I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund; +If more, the more thou hast wrong’d me. +My name is Edgar and thy father’s son. +The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices +Make instruments to plague us: +The dark and vicious place where thee he got +Cost him his eyes. + +EDMUND. +Thou hast spoken right, ’tis true; +The wheel is come full circle; I am here. + +ALBANY. +Methought thy very gait did prophesy +A royal nobleness. I must embrace thee. +Let sorrow split my heart if ever I +Did hate thee or thy father. + +EDGAR. +Worthy prince, I know’t. + +ALBANY. +Where have you hid yourself? +How have you known the miseries of your father? + +EDGAR. +By nursing them, my lord. List a brief tale; +And when ’tis told, O that my heart would burst! +The bloody proclamation to escape +That follow’d me so near,—O, our lives’ sweetness! +That with the pain of death we’d hourly die +Rather than die at once!—taught me to shift +Into a madman’s rags; t’assume a semblance +That very dogs disdain’d; and in this habit +Met I my father with his bleeding rings, +Their precious stones new lost; became his guide, +Led him, begg’d for him, sav’d him from despair; +Never,—O fault!—reveal’d myself unto him +Until some half hour past, when I was arm’d; +Not sure, though hoping of this good success, +I ask’d his blessing, and from first to last +Told him my pilgrimage. But his flaw’d heart, +Alack, too weak the conflict to support! +’Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief, +Burst smilingly. + +EDMUND. +This speech of yours hath mov’d me, +And shall perchance do good, but speak you on; +You look as you had something more to say. + +ALBANY. +If there be more, more woeful, hold it in; +For I am almost ready to dissolve, +Hearing of this. + +EDGAR. +This would have seem’d a period +To such as love not sorrow; but another, +To amplify too much, would make much more, +And top extremity. +Whilst I was big in clamour, came there a man +Who, having seen me in my worst estate, +Shunn’d my abhorr’d society; but then finding +Who ’twas that so endur’d, with his strong arms +He fastened on my neck, and bellow’d out +As he’d burst heaven; threw him on my father; +Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him +That ever ear receiv’d, which in recounting +His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life +Began to crack. Twice then the trumpets sounded, +And there I left him tranc’d. + +ALBANY. +But who was this? + +EDGAR. +Kent, sir, the banish’d Kent; who in disguise +Follow’d his enemy king and did him service +Improper for a slave. + + Enter a Gentleman hastily, +with a bloody knife. + +GENTLEMAN. +Help, help! O, help! + +EDGAR. +What kind of help? + +ALBANY. +Speak, man. + +EDGAR. +What means this bloody knife? + +GENTLEMAN. +’Tis hot, it smokes; +It came even from the heart of—O! she’s dead! + +ALBANY. +Who dead? Speak, man. + +GENTLEMAN. +Your lady, sir, your lady; and her sister +By her is poisoned; she hath confesses it. + +EDMUND. +I was contracted to them both, all three +Now marry in an instant. + +EDGAR. +Here comes Kent. + + Enter Kent. + +ALBANY. +Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead. +This judgement of the heavens that makes us tremble +Touches us not with pity. O, is this he? +The time will not allow the compliment +Which very manners urges. + +KENT. +I am come +To bid my King and master aye good night: +Is he not here? + +ALBANY. +Great thing of us forgot! +Speak, Edmund, where’s the King? and where’s Cordelia? + + The bodies of Goneril and +Regan are brought in. + +Seest thou this object, Kent? + +KENT. +Alack, why thus? + +EDMUND. +Yet Edmund was belov’d. +The one the other poisoned for my sake, +And after slew herself. + +ALBANY. +Even so. Cover their faces. + +EDMUND. +I pant for life. Some good I mean to do, +Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send, +Be brief in it, to the castle; for my writ +Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia; +Nay, send in time. + +ALBANY. +Run, run, O, run! + +EDGAR. +To who, my lord? Who has the office? Send +Thy token of reprieve. + +EDMUND. +Well thought on: take my sword, +Give it the captain. + +EDGAR. +Haste thee for thy life. + + [_Exit Edgar._] + +EDMUND. +He hath commission from thy wife and me +To hang Cordelia in the prison, and +To lay the blame upon her own despair, +That she fordid herself. + +ALBANY. +The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile. + + [_Edmund is borne off._] + + Enter Lear with Cordelia dead in his arms; Edgar, +Officer and others following. + +LEAR. +Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stone. +Had I your tongues and eyes, I’ld use them so +That heaven’s vault should crack. She’s gone for ever! +I know when one is dead, and when one lives; +She’s dead as earth. Lend me a looking glass; +If that her breath will mist or stain the stone, +Why, then she lives. + +KENT. +Is this the promis’d end? + +EDGAR. +Or image of that horror? + +ALBANY. +Fall, and cease! + +LEAR. +This feather stirs; she lives! If it be so, +It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows +That ever I have felt. + +KENT. +O, my good master! [_Kneeling._] + +LEAR. +Prythee, away! + +EDGAR. +’Tis noble Kent, your friend. + +LEAR. +A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all! +I might have sav’d her; now she’s gone for ever! +Cordelia, Cordelia! stay a little. Ha! +What is’t thou say’st? Her voice was ever soft, +Gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman. +I kill’d the slave that was a-hanging thee. + +OFFICER. +’Tis true, my lords, he did. + +LEAR. +Did I not, fellow? +I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion +I would have made them skip. I am old now, +And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you? +Mine eyes are not o’ the best, I’ll tell you straight. + +KENT. +If Fortune brag of two she lov’d and hated, +One of them we behold. + +LEAR. +This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent? + +KENT. +The same, +Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius? + +LEAR. +He’s a good fellow, I can tell you that; +He’ll strike, and quickly too:. He’s dead and rotten. + +KENT. +No, my good lord; I am the very man. + +LEAR. +I’ll see that straight. + +KENT. +That from your first of difference and decay +Have follow’d your sad steps. + +LEAR. +You are welcome hither. + +KENT. +Nor no man else. All’s cheerless, dark and deadly. +Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves, +And desperately are dead. + +LEAR. +Ay, so I think. + +ALBANY. +He knows not what he says; and vain is it +That we present us to him. + +EDGAR. +Very bootless. + + Enter an Officer. + +OFFICER. +Edmund is dead, my lord. + +ALBANY. +That’s but a trifle here. +You lords and noble friends, know our intent. +What comfort to this great decay may come +Shall be applied. For us, we will resign, +During the life of this old majesty, +To him our absolute power; +[_to Edgar and Kent_] you to your rights; +With boot and such addition as your honours +Have more than merited. All friends shall taste +The wages of their virtue and all foes +The cup of their deservings. O, see, see! + +LEAR. +And my poor fool is hang’d! No, no, no life! +Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, +And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more, +Never, never, never, never, never! +Pray you undo this button. Thank you, sir. +Do you see this? Look on her: look, her lips, +Look there, look there! + + [_He dies._] + +EDGAR. +He faints! My lord, my lord! + +KENT. +Break, heart; I prythee break! + +EDGAR. +Look up, my lord. + +KENT. +Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! He hates him +That would upon the rack of this rough world +Stretch him out longer. + +EDGAR. +He is gone indeed. + +KENT. +The wonder is, he hath endur’d so long: +He but usurp’d his life. + +ALBANY. +Bear them from hence. Our present business +Is general woe. [_To Edgar and Kent._] Friends of my soul, you twain, +Rule in this realm and the gor’d state sustain. + +KENT. +I have a journey, sir, shortly to go; +My master calls me, I must not say no. + +EDGAR. +The weight of this sad time we must obey; +Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. +The oldest hath borne most; we that are young +Shall never see so much, nor live so long. + + [_Exeunt with a dead march._] + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR *** + + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. + + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE + +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person +or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the +Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work +on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most + other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions + whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms + of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online + at www.gutenberg.org. If you + are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws + of the country where you are located before using this eBook. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format +other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +provided that: + + • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation.” + + • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ + works. + + • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + + • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ + +Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. + +The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit www.gutenberg.org/donate. + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate. + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org. + +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + diff --git a/tests/data/generate-king-lear-zip.py b/tests/data/generate-king-lear-zip.py new file mode 100755 index 000000000..79dc81120 --- /dev/null +++ b/tests/data/generate-king-lear-zip.py @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +#!/usr/bin/env python + +import sys +from pathlib import Path +from zipfile import ZipFile, ZIP_STORED, ZIP_DEFLATED, ZIP_BZIP2 + +compressible_text_file = Path(__file__).parent / 'folder/king-lear.txt' + +def log(msg): + print(msg, file=sys.stderr) + +with ZipFile('out.zip', mode='w') as zf: + for i in range(50): + log(f"i={i}") + zf.write(compressible_text_file, arcname=f"stored-n{i}.txt", + compress_type=ZIP_STORED) + log('stored') + zf.write(compressible_text_file, arcname=f"deflated-n{i}.txt", + compress_type=ZIP_DEFLATED, compresslevel=9) + log('deflated') + zf.write(compressible_text_file, arcname=f"bzip2-n{i}.txt", + compress_type=ZIP_BZIP2, compresslevel=9) + log('bzip2')