King Lear (Folger Shakespeare Library)

Home > Fiction > King Lear (Folger Shakespeare Library) > Page 19
King Lear (Folger Shakespeare Library) Page 19

by William Shakespeare


  Doctor. There is means, madam: Our foster-nursedeg of nature is repose,

  The which he lacks: that to provokedeg in him,

  Are many simples operative,deg whose power

  Will close the eye of anguish.

  Cordelia. All blest secrets, All you unpublished virtuesdeg of the earth,

  Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediatedeg

  In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him,

  Lest his ungoverned rage dissolve the life

  That wants the means to lead it.deg

  Enter Messenger.

  Messenger. News, madam; The Brittish pow'rs 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;

  Thereforedeg great France

  My mourning and importuneddeg tears hath pitied.

  No blowndeg ambition doth our arms incite,

  But love, dear love, and our aged father's right:

  Soon may I hear and see him! Exeunt.

  8 What can man's wisdom what can science accomplish

  9 bereaved impaired

  10 outward material

  12 foster-nurse fostering nurse

  13 provoke induce

  14 simples operative efficacious medicinal herbs

  16 unpublished virtues i.e., secret remedial herbs

  17 remediate remedial

  20 wants ... it i.e., lacks the reason to control the rage

  25 Therefore because of that

  26 importuned importunate

  27 blown puffed up

  [Scene 5. Gloucester's castle.]

  Enter Regan and Oswald.

  Regan. But are my brother's pow'rs set forth?

  Oswald. Ay, madam.

  Regan. Himself in person there?

  Oswald. Madam, with much ado:deg Your sister is the better soldier.

  Regan. Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home?

  Oswald. No, madam.

  Regan. What might importdeg my sister's letter to him? Oswald. I know not, lady.

  Regan. Faith, he is posteddeg hence on serious matter. It was great ignorance,deg 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 nighteddeg 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 charged my dutydeg in this business.

  4.5.2 ado bother and persuasion

  6 import purport, carry as its message

  8 is posted has ridden speedily

  9 ignorance folly

  13 nighted (1) darkened, because blinded (2) benighted

  18 charged my duty ordered me as a solemn duty

  Regan. Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you Transport her purposesdeg by word? Belike,deg

  Some things 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 latedeg being here She gave strange eliadsdeg and most speaking looks

  To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom.deg

  Oswald. I, madam?

  Regan. I speak in understanding: y'are; I know 't: Therefore I do advise you, take this note:deg

  My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talked;

  And more convenientdeg is he for my hand

  Than for your lady's: you may gather more.deg

  If you do find him, pray you, give him this;deg

  And when your mistress hears thus much from you,

  I pray, desire her calldeg her wisdom to her.

  So, fare you well.

  If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,

  Perfermentdeg 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.

  20 Transport her purposes convey her intentions

  20 Belike probably

  24 late recently 25 eliads amorous looks

  26 of her bosom in her confidence

  29 take this note take note of this

  31 convenient fitting

  32 gather more surmise more yourself

  33 this this advice 35 call recall

  38 Preferment promotion

  [Scene 6. Fields near Dover.]

  Enter Gloucester and Edgar.

  Gloucester. When shall I come to th' top of that same hill?

  Edgar. You do climb up it now. Look, how we labor.

  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.deg

  Gloucester. So may it be indeed. Methinks thy voice is altered, and thou speak'st

  In better phrase and matter than thou didst.

  Edgar. Y'are much deceived: in nothing am I changed But in my garments.

  Gloucester. Methinks y'are 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 choughsdeg that wing the midway airdeg

  Show scarce so grossdeg as beetles. Half way down

  Hangs one that gathers sampire,deg dreadful trade!

  Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.

  The fishermen that walk upon the beach

  Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoringdeg bark

  Diminished to her cock;deg her cock, a buoy 4.6.6 anguish pain

  13 choughs a kind of crow

  13 midway air i.e., halfway down the cliff

  14 gross large

  15 sampire samphire, an aromatic herb associated with Dover Cliffs

  18 anchoring anchored

  19 cock cock-boat, a small boat usually towed behind the ship

  Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge

  That on th' unnumb'red idle pebbledeg chafes

  Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more,

  Lest my brain turn and the deficient sight

  Toppledeg 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.deg

  Gloucester. Let go my hand. Here, friend, 's another purse; in it a jewel

  Well worth a poor man's taking. Fairiesdeg 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.

  Gloucester. With all my heart.

  Edgar. [Aside] Why I do trifle thus with his despair Is done to cure it.deg

  Gloucester. O you mighty gods!

  He kneels.

  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 quarreldeg with your great opposelessdeg wills,

  My snuffdeg and loathed part of nature should

  Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O bless him!

  Now, fellow, fare thee well.

  He falls.

  Edgar. Gone, sir, farewell. 21 unnumb'red idle pebble innumerable pebbles, moved to and fro by the waves to no purpose

  23-24 the deficient sight/Topple my failing sight topple me

  27 upright i.e., even up in the air, to say nothing of forward, over the cliff

  29 Fairies (who are supposed to guard and multiply hidden treasur
e)

  33-34 Why ... if I play on his despair in order to cure it

  37-38 fall/To quarrel with rebel against

  38 opposeless not to be, and not capable of being, opposed

  39 snuff the guttering (and stinking) wick of a burnt-out candle

  And yet I know not howdeg conceitdeg may rob

  The treasury of life, when life itself

  Yields todeg 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 passdeg 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,deg

  Thou'dst shivered like an egg: but thou dost

  breathe;

  Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art

  sound.

  Ten masts at eachdeg make not the altitude

  Which thou hast perpendicularly fell:

  Thy life'sdeg a miracle. Speak yet again.

  Gloucester. But have I fall'n, or no?

  Edgar. From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.deg Look up a-height;deg the shrill-gorgeddeg lark so far Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.

  Gloucester. Alack, I have no eyes. Is wretchedness deprived that benefit,

  To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort,

  When misery could beguiledeg the tyrant's rage

  And frustrate his proud will.

  Edgar. Give me your arm. Up, so. How is 't? Feel youdeg your legs? You stand.

  Gloucester. Too well, too well.

  Edgar. This is above all strangeness. Upon the crown o' th' cliff, what thing was that 42 how but what

  42 conceit imagination

  44 Yields to allows

  47 pass die

  50 precipitating falling

  53 at each one on top of the other

  55 life's survival

  57 bourn boundary

  58 a-height on high

  58 gorged throated, voioed

  63 beguile cheat (i.e., by suicide)

  65 Feel you have you any feeling in

  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 whelkeddeg and waved like the enridgeddeg sea:

  It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father,deg

  Think that the clearestdeg gods, who make them

  honors

  Of men's impossibilities,deg have preserved 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 freedeg and patient thoughts. Enter Lear [fantastically dressed with wild

  flowers].

  But who comes here?

  The saferdeg sense will ne'er accommodatedeg

  His master thus.

  Lear. No, they cannot touch me for coining;deg I am the King himself.

  Edgar. O thou side-piercing sight!

  Lear.- Nature's above art in that respect.deg There's your press-money.deg That fellow handles his bow 71 whelked twisted

  71 enridged i.e., furrowed into waves

  72 happy father fortunate old man

  73 dearest purest

  73-74 who ... impossibilities who cause themselves to be honored and revered by performing miracles of which men are incapable

  80 free i.e., emancipated from grief and despair, which fetter the soul

  81 safer sounder, saner

  81 accommodate dress, adom

  83 touch me for coining arrest me for minting coins (the king's prerogative)

  86 Nature's ... respect i.e., a born king is superior to legal (and hence artificial) inhibition. There is also a glance here at the popular Renaissance debate, concerning the relative importance of nature (inspiration) and art (training)

  87 press-money (paid to conscripted soldiers)

  like a crow-keeper;deg draw me a clothier's yard.deg Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace; this piece of toasted cheese will do 't. There's my gauntlet;deg I'll prove it ondeg a giant. Bring up the brown bills.deg O, well flown,deg bird! i' th' clout, i' th' clout:deg hewgh!deg Give the word.deg

  Edgar. Sweet marjoram.deg

  Lear. Pass.

  Gloucester. I know that voice.

  Lear. Ha! Goneril, with a white beard! They flattered me like a dog,deg and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there.deg To say "ay" and "no" to everything that I said! "Ay" and "no" too was no good divinity.deg 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.deg

  Gloucester. The trickdeg 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?deg 88 crow-keeper a farmer scaring away crows

  88 clothier's yard (the standard English arrow was a cloth-yard long. Here the injunction is to draw the arrow back, like a powerful archer, a full yard to the car)

  90 gauntlet armored glove, thrown down as a challenge

  91 prove it on maintain my challenge even against

  91 brown bills halberds varnished to prevent rust (here the reference is to the soldiers who carry them)

  92 well flown (falconer's cry; and perhaps a reference to the flight of the arrow)

  92 clout the target shot at

  92 hewgh ? imitating the whizzing of the arrow

  93 word password

  94 Sweet marjoram herb, used as a remedy for brain disease

  96 like a dog as a dog flatters

  98-99 I ... there I was wise before I had even grown a beard

  101 no good divinity (bad theology, because contrary to the Biblical, saying [II Corinthians 1:18], "Our word toward you was not yea and nay." See also James 5:12 "But let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation"; and Matthew 5:36-37)

  106-07 ague-proof secure against fever

  108 trick intonation

  111 cause offense

  Adultery?

  Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No:

  The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly

  Does lecherdeg in my sight.

  Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son

  Was kinder to his father than my daughters

  Gotdeg 'tween the lawful sheets.

  To 't, luxury,deg pell-mell! for I lack soldiers.deg

  Behold yond simp'ring dame,

  Whose face between her forks presages snow,deg

  That mincesdeg virtue and does shake the head

  To hear of pleasure's name.deg

  The fitchew,deg nor the soileddeg horse, goes to 't

  With a more riotous appetite.

  Down from the waist they are Centaurs,deg

  Though women all above:

  But to the girdledeg do the gods inherit,deg

  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;deg good apothe-

  cary, 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.deg

  Gloucester. O ruined piece of nature! This great world Shall so wear out to nought.deg Dost thou know me?


  115 lecher copulate

  118 Got begot

  119 luxury lechery

  119 for ... soldiers i.e., ? (1) whom copulation will supply (2) and am therefore powerless

  121 Whose ... snow whose cold demeanor seems to promise chaste behavior ("forks": legs)

  122 minces squeamishly pretends to

  123 pleasure's name the very name of sexual pleasure

  124 fitchew polecat (and slang for "prostitute")

  124 soiled put to pasture, and hence wanton with feeding

  126 Centaurs lustful creatures, half man and half horse

  128 girdle waist

  128 inherit possess

  132 civet perfume

  135 mortality (1) death (2) existence

  136-37 This ... nought i.e., the universe (macrocosm) will decay to nothing in the same way as the little world of man (microcosm)

  Lear. I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squinydeg at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid;deg I'll not love. Read thou this challenge;deg mark but the penning of it.

  Gloucester. Were all thy letters suns, I could not see.

  Edgar. I would not takedeg this from report: it is, And my heart breaks at it.

  Lear. Read.

  Gloucester. What, with the casedeg of eyes?

  Lear. O, ho, are you there with me?deg No eyes in your head, nor no money in your purse? Your eyes are in a heavy case,deg your purse in a light,deg yet you see how this world goes.

  Gloucester. I see it feelingly.deg

  Lear. What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond justice rails upon yond simpledeg thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places, and, handy-dandy,deg 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:deg a dog's obeyed in office.deg Thou rascal beadle,deg hold thy bloody hand!

  Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thy own

  back;

  Thou hotly lusts to use her in that kinddeg 139 squiny squint, look sideways, like a prostitute

  139 blind Cupid the sign hung before a brothel

  140 challenge a reminiscence of 11.

  89-90

  143 take believe

  146 case empty sockets

 

‹ Prev