menu_book Chapter 1

the tragedy of king lear by william shakespeare recorded by librivox volunteers to mark the four hundredth anniversary of the first performance of the play which was on december twenty sixth sixteen o six 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 equalities are so weighed that curiosity in neither can make choice of either's moiety is not this your son my lord his breeding sir hath been at my charge i have so often blushed to acknowledge him that now i am braised to it i cannot conceive you sir this young fellow's mother could whereupon she grew round wound and had indeed sir a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed do you smell a fault

i cannot wish the fault undone the issue of it being so proper but i have sir a son by order of law some year elder than this who yet is no dearer in my account though this knave came something saucily into the world before he was sent for yet was his mother fair there was good sport at his making and the whore son must be acknowledged do you know this noble gentleman edmund no my lord lord my lord of kent remember him hereafter as my honourable friend my services to your lordship i must love you and sue to know you better sir i shall study deserving lord he hath been out nine years and away he shall again the king is coming sound a senate enter one bearing a coronet enter king lear cornwall albany gonorill regan cordelia and attendants lear

attend the lords of france and burgundy gloucester i shall my liege exeunt gloucester and edmund 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 unburdened 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 daughters love long in our court have made their amorous sojourn and here are to be answered 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 gonorill our eldest born speak first

Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter, dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty. Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare, no less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor, as much as child e'er loved or father found, a love that makes breath poor and speech unable. Beyond all manner of so much, I love you. Cordelia

What shall Cordelia speak? Love and be silent. Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, with shadowy forests and with champagnes riched, 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 to Cornwall? Speak. sir i am made of the selfsame metal that my sister is and brides me at her worth in my true art i find she names me very deed of love only she comes to 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's love then poor cordelia and yet not so since i am sure my love's more richer than my tongue to thee and thine hereditary ever remained this ample third of our fair kingdom no less in space validity and pleasure than that conferred on

Now, our joy, although the last, not least. To whose young love the vines of France and milk of Burgundy strive to be interested? What can you say to draw a third more opulent than your sisters? Speak. Nothing, my lord.

Nothing? Nothing. Nothing? Can come of nothing. Speak again. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave my heart into my mouth. I love your majesty according to my bond, no more, no less.

How, how, Cordelia? Mend your speech a little, lest you may mar your fortunes. Good my lord, you have begot me, bred me, loved 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. But goes thy heart with this? Ay, good my lord. So young, and so untender.

So young, my lord, and true. 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 for 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 pitied and relieved as thou my sometime daughter good my leash peace kent come not between the dragon and his wrath i loved her most and thought to set my rest on her kind nursery 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 in 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 sustained shall our abode make with you by due turns only we still retain the name and all the additions to a king the sway revenue execution of the rest beloved sons be yours which to confirm this coronet part betwixt you royal lear whom i have ever honored as my king loved as my father as my master followed as my great patron thought on in my prayers the bow is bent and drawn make from the shaft 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 honors bound when majesty falls to folly reverse thy state and in thy best consideration check this hideous rashness answer my life my judgment thy youngest daughter does not love thee least nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound reverbs no hollowness kent on thy life no more my life i never held but as a pawn to wage against thine enemies nor fear to lose it thy safety being the motive kent out of my sight see better lear and let me still remain the true blank of thine eye now by apollo now by apollo king

thou swart'st thy gods in vain o vassal miscreant he makes to strike him dear sir forbear do 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 hear me recreant on thine allegiance hear me since thou hast sought to make us break our vow which we durst never yet and with strained pride to come between our sentence and our power which nor our nature nor our place can bear our potency made good take thy reward five days do we allot thee for provision to shield thee from diseases of the world and on the sixth to turn thy hated back upon our kingdom if on the tenth day following thy banished trunk be found in our dominions the moment is thy death away by jupiter this shall not be revoked

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 bid you all adieu he'll shape his old course in a country new exit flourish enter gloucester with france and burgundy and attendants here's france and burgundy my noble lord my lord of burgundy we first address toward you who with this king hath rivalled for our daughter what in the least will you require in present dower with her or cease your quest of love

most royal majesty i crave no more than hath your highness offered nor will you tender less right noble burgundy when she was dear to us we did hold her so but now her price is fallen sir there she stands if aught within that little seeming substance or all of it with our displeasure pierced and nothing more may fitly like your grace she's there and she is yours i know no answer will you with those infirmities she owes unfriended new adopted to our hate dowered with our curse and strangered with our oath take her or leave her pardon me royal sir election makes not up on such conditions 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 to avert your liking a more worthier way than on a wretch whom nature is ashamed almost to acknowledge her this is most strange

that she who even but now was your best object the argument of your praise barm of your age most best most dearest should in this strice 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 forevouched affection falling into taint which to believe of her must be of faith that reason without miracle should never plant in me yet i 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 it before i speak that you make known it is no vicious blot murder or foulness no unchaste action or dishonoured step that hath deprived me of your grace and favour but even for want of that 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 sir better thou hadst not been born not to have pleased me better is it but this

a tardiness in nature which often leaves the history unspoken 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 royal king give but that portion which yourself proposed and here i take cordelia by the hand duchess of burgundy nothing i have sworn i am firm to cordelia i am sorry then you have so lost a father that you must lose a husband peace be with burgundy since that respects of fortune are his love i shall not be his wife fair is cordelia that art most rich being poor most choice forsaken and most loved despised 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 coldest neglect my love should kindle to inflamed 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 unpriced precious maid of me bid them farewell cordelia though unkind thou losest here a better where to find thou hast her france let her be thine for we have no such daughter nor shall ever see that face of hers again therefore begone without our grace our love our benison come noble burgundy flourish exeunt lear burgundy cornwall albany gloucester and attendants b b b farewell to your sisters the jewels of our father with washed eyes cordelia leaves you i know what you are and like a sister am most loath to call your faults as they are named 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 prescrib not us our duties let your study be to content your lord who hath received you at fortune's alms you have obedience scanted and well are worth the want that you have wanted

time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides who covers faults at last shame them derides well may you prosper come my fair cordelia exeunt france and cordelia sister it is not little i have to say of what most nearly appertains to us both i think our father will hence to-night that's most certain and with you next month with us 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 judgment he hath now cast her off appears too grossly tis the infirmity of his age yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself the best and soundest of his time hath been but rash then must we look to receive from his age not alone the imperfections of long ingraft condition but therewithal the unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with them such unconsident starts are we like to have from him as this of kent's banishment there is further complement of leave-taking between france and him

pray you let us hit together if our father carry authority with such dispositions as he bears this last surrender of his will but offend us we shall further think of it we must do something and in the heat scene two 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 moonshine's lag of a brother why bastard wherefore base when my dimensions are as well compact to 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 with a dull stale tyrid bed go to the creating of 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 our gods stand up for bastards enter gloucester kent banished thus and france in choler parted and the king gone to-night subscribed his power confined to exhibition all this done upon the gad edmund how now what news so please your lordship none why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter i know no news my lord what paper were you reading nothing my lord 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

i beseech you sir pardon me it is a letter from my brother that i have not all o'erread and for so much as i have perused i find it not fit for your o'erlooking give me the letter sir i shall offend either to detain or give it the contents as in part i understand them are to blame let's see let's see i hope from my brother's justification he wrote this but as an essay or taste of my virtue 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 waked 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 it was not brought me my lord there's the cunning of it i found it thrown in at the casement of my closet thet you know the character to be your brother's 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 thet it is his it is his hand my lord but i hope his heart is not in the contents hath he never before sounded you in this business never my lord but i have heard him oft maintain it to be fit that sons at perfect age and fathers decline the father should be as ward to the son and the son manage his revenue

oh 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 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 think you so if your honour judge had meet i would 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

he cannot be such a monster nor is it not sure 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 i will seek him sir presently convey the business as i shall find means and acquaint you with all 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 this is the excellent foppery of the world that when we are sick in fortune often to the surfeit of our own behaviour we make guilty our own disasters the sun the moon and the stars as if we were villains on necessity fools by heavenly compulsion knaves thieves and treaters 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 as 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 lecherest 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 or bedlam oh these eclipses do portend these divisions fa sol amie how now brother edmund what serious contemplation are you in i am thinking rather of a prediction i read this other day what should follow these eclipses do you busy yourself with that 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

how long have you been a secretary astronomical adeus come come whence saw you my father last adeus the night gone by adeus spoke you with him adeus ay two hours together parted you in good terms found you no displeasure in him by word or countenance none at all bethink yourself wherein you may have offended him and at my entreaty forbear his presence until some little time hath qualified the heat of a displeasure which at this instance so rageth in him that with the mischief of your person it would scarcely allay some villain hath done me wrong 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 you go there's my key if you do stir abroad go armed armed brother

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 shall i hear from you anon i do serve you in this business exit edgar credulous father and a brother noble whose nature is so far from doing harm 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 meat that i confession fit exit scene three a room in the duke of alban is palace enter goneril and oswald her steward did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool ay madam by day and night he wrongs me every hour he flashes into one gross crime or another that sets us all at odds i'll not endure it his nights 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 he's coming madam i hear him 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 used with checks as flatteries when they are seen abused remember what i have said very well madam 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 scene four a hall in albany's palace enter kent in disguise

if but as well i other accents borrow that can my speech diffuse my good intent may carry through itself to that full issue for which i raised my likeness now banish'd kent if thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd so may it come thy master whom thou luf'st shall find thee full of labours horns within enter lear and knights let me not stay a jot for dinner go get it ready exit first knight how now what art thou a man sir what dost thou profess what wouldst thou with us 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 judgment to fight when i cannot choose and to eat no fish what art thou a very honest-hearted fellow and as poor as the king if thou beest as poor for a subject as he's for a king thou art poor enough what wouldst thou

service who wouldst thou serve you dost thou know me fellow no sir but you have that and your countenance which i would fain call master what's that authority what services canst thou do 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 how old art thou 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 follow me thou shalt serve me if i like thee no worse after dinner i will not part from thee yet dinner oh dinner where's my knave my fool go you and call my fool hither exit second night enter oswald you you sirrah where's my daughter so please you exit what says the fellow there call the clock-pole back exit third night

where's my fool oh i think the world's asleep enter third night how now where's that mongrel he says my lord your daughter is not well why came not the slave back to me when i called him sir he answered me in the roundest manner he would not he would not my lord i know not what the matter is but to my judgment your highness is not entertained with that ceremonious affection as you were wont there is a great abatement of kindness appears as well in the general dependence as in the duke himself also and your daughter ha sayst thou so i beseech you pardon me my lord if i be mistaken for my duty cannot be silent when i think your highness wronged 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 these two days since my young lady's going into france sir the fool hath much pined away no more of that i have noted it well

go you and tell my daughter i would speak with her exit third night go you call hither my fool exit another night enter oswald oh you sir you come hither sir who am i sir sir my lady's father my lady's father my lord's knave you horse and dog you slave you cur i am none of these my lord i beseech your pardon do you bandy looks with me you rascal he strikes him i'll not be struck my lord nor tripped neither you base football player he trips him i thank thee fellow thou serv'st me and i'll love thee to oswald come sir arise away i'll teach you differences away away if you will measure your lubbers length again tarry but away go to have you wisdom he pushes oswald out so now my friendly knave i thank thee there's earnest of thy service he gives him money enter the fool let me hire him too here's my coxcomb how now my pretty knave how dost thou

sirrah you were best take my coxcomb why 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 hath banished two one's daughters and did the third a blessing against his will if thou follow him thou must needs wear my coxcomb how now nunkel would i have had two coxcombs and two daughters why my boy if i gave them all my living i'd keep my coxcombs myself there's mine beg another of thy daughters take heed sirrah the whip truth's the dog must to kennel he must be whipped out when the lady brach may stand by the fire and stink a pestilent gall to me sirrah i'll teach thee a speech do 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 throwest set less than thou throwest

leave thy drink in thy hoar and keep in a door and thou shalt have more than two tens to a score this is nothing fool then tis like the breath of an unfeed lawyer you gave me nothing for't can you make no use of nothing why no boy nothing can be made out of nothing to kent prithee tell him so much the rent of his land comes to he will not believe a fool a bitter fool dost thou know the difference my boy between a bitter fool and a sweet one no lad teach me that lord that counselled 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 dost thou call me fool boy all thy other titles thou hast given away that thou wast born with

This is not altogether fool, my lord. No faith. Lords and great men will not let me. If I had a monopoly out, they would have part aunt and loads 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. What two crowns shall they be? Why, after I've cut the egg in the middle, and eat up the meat, the two crowns of the egg.

when thou clovest thy crown in the middle and gavest away both parts thou borest thine ass on thy back o'er the dirt thou hadst little width in thy bald crown when thou gavest thy golden one away if i speak like myself in this let him be whipped that first finds it so 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 when were you wont to be so full of song sirrah i have used it nuncle ere since thou madest thy daughters thy mothers for when thou gavest them the rod and puttest down thine own breeches 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 prithee nunkel keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool to lie i would fain learn to lie and you lie sirrah well have you whipped

i marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are they'll have me whipped for speaking true they'll have me whipped for lying and sometimes i am whipped for holding my peace i had rather be any kind of thing than a fool and yet i would not be thee nuncle thou hast paired thy widow both sides and left nothing in the middle here comes one of the parings enter goneril how now daughter what makes that frontal don methinks thou art too much of late at the frown thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to care for her frowning now thou art an old without a figure i am better than thou art i am a fool thou art nothing to goneril yes forsooth i will hold my tongue so to your face bids me though you say nothing mum mum he that keeps nor crest nor crumb weary of all shall want some he points to leah that's a shield peace card not only sir this your all-licensed 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 spoken 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 redress's 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 for you know nunco the hedge sparrow fed the cuckoo so long that it had its head bit off by it young so out went the candle and we were left darkling are you our daughter come sir i would you would make use of that good wisdom whereof i know you are fraught and put away these dispositions that of late transform you from what you rightly are may not an ass know when the cart draws the horse whoop jug i love thee 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 a lethargid

ah waking tis not so who is it that can tell me who i am mary their saddle mary i would learn that for by the marks of sovereignty knowledge and reason i should be false persuaded i had daughters mary which they will make an obedient father your name fair gentlewoman this admiration sir is much of the favour of your other 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 disordered so deboshed and bold that this our court infected with their manners shows like a riotous inn epicurism and lust make it more like a tavern or a brothel than a graced place the shame itself doth speak for instant remedy be then desired 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 darkness and devil saddle my horses call my train together degenerate bastard i'll not trouble thee yet have i left a daughter you strike my people and your disordered rabble make servants of their betters enter albany

Woe that too late repents! O, sir, are you come? Is it your will? Speak, sir. Prepare my horses.

In gratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend, More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child than the sea-monster. Pray, sir, be patient. To Gonoril. 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 oh most small fault how ugly didst thou in cordelia show which like an engine wrenched my frame of nature from the fixed place drew from my heart all love and added to the gall oh leer leer leer beat at this gate that let thy folly in he strikes his head and thy dear judgment out go go my people exeunt kent and knights my lord i am guiltless as i am ignorant of what hath moved you it may be so my lord he kneels 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 team create her child of spleen that it may live and be athwart disnatured 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 now gods that we adore whereof comes this never afflict yourself to know more of it but let his disposition have that scope that dotage gives it enter leah what fifty of my followers are to clap within a fortnight what's the matter sir to gonorill i'll tell thee life and death i am ashamed that thou hast power to shake my manhood thus that these hot tears which break from me beforce should make thee worth them

blasts and fogs upon thee the untempted woundings of her father's curse pierce every sense about thee old fond eyes beweek this cause again i'll pluck you out and cast you with the waters that you lose to tempered clay let it be so i have another daughter who i am sure is kind and comfortable when she shall hear of this with her nails she'll flay thy wolfish visage thou shalt find that i'll resume the shape which thou dost think i have cast off for ever exit do you mark that i cannot be so partial goneril to the great love i bear you pray you content what oswald ho to the fool you sir more knave than fool after your master noongolir noongolir tarry 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 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 engard his dotage with their powers and hold our lives in mercy oswald i say

well you may fear too far ade 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 uttered i have writ to my sister if she sustain him in his hundred nights when i have shewed the unfitness enter oswald how now oswald what have you writ that letter to my sister ay madam egypt 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 it not yet under pardon you are much more attasked for want of wisdom than praised for harmful mildness how far your eyes may pierce i cannot tell striving to better oft we mar what's well nay then well well the event exeunt scene v court before the duke of alban is palace enter lear kent the full and a gentleman to kent

go you before to gloucester with these letters acquaint my daughter no further with anything you know that comes from her demand out of the letter if your diligence be not speedy i shall be there afore you i will not sleep my lord until i have delivered your letter exit if a man's brains were in his heels were't not in danger of kybes ay boy then i prithee be merry thy wit shall not go slipshod 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 what canst tell boy she'll taste as like this as a crab does to a crab thou canst tell why one's nose stands in the middle of one's face no why to keep one's eyes of either side's nose that what a man cannot smell out he may spy into a i did her wrong can't tell how an oyster makes his shell no

nor i neither but i can tell why a snail has a house why why to put his head in not to give it away to his daughters and leave his horns without a case i will forget my nature so kind a father be my horses ready mary thy asses are gone about em the reason why the seven stars are no more than seven is a pretty reason because they are not eight mary yes indeed thou wouldst make a good fool to take to gen perforce monster ingratitude mary if thou wert my fool nuncle i'd have thee beaten for being old before thy time how's that thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise oh let me not be mad not mad sweet heaven keep me in temper i would not be mad how now are the horses ready lady ready my lord come boy exeunt all except the fall she that's a maid now and laughs at my departure shall not be a maid long unless things be cut shorter exit end of act one king lear