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, ° superserviceable,° 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 is neither known of thee nor knows thee!
Kent. What a brazen-faced varlet art thou to deny thou knowest me! Is it two days since I tripped up thy heels and beat thee before the King? [Drawing his sword] Draw, you rogue, for though it be night, yet the moon shines. I’ll make a sop o’ th’ moonshine° of you. You whoreson cullionly barbermonger,° draw!
9 Lipsbury Pinfold a pound or pen in which strayed animals are enclosed (“Lipsbury” may denote a particular place, or may be slang for “between my teeth”)
14 broken meats scraps of food
15 three-suited (the wardrobe permitted to a servant or “knave”)
16 hundred-pound (the extent of Oswald’s wealth, and thus a sneer at his aspiring to gentility)
16 worsted-stocking (worn by servants)
17 action-taking one who refuses a fight and goes to law instead
17-18 glass-gazing conceited 18 superserviceable sycophantic, serving without principle.
18 finical overfastidious
18-19 one-trunk-inheriting possessing only a trunkful of goods
19-20 bawd ... service pimp, to please his master
20-21 composition compound
24 addition titles
33 sop o’ th’ moonshine i.e., Oswald will admit the moonlight, and so sop it up, through the open wounds Kent is preparing to give him
34 cuillonly barbermonger base patron of hairdressers (effeminate man)
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, with his rapier drawn, Cornwall,
Regan, Gloucester, 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 bestirred° your valor. You cowardly rascal, nature disclaims in thee.° A tailor made thee.°
Cornwall. Thou art a strange fellow. A tailor make a man?
Kent. A tailor, sir. A stonecutter or a painter could37 Vanity the puppet’s Goneril, here identified with one of the personified characters in the morality plays, which were sometimes put on as puppet shows
39 carbonado cut across, like a piece of meat before cooking
40 Come your ways get along
42 neat (1) foppish (2) unmixed, as in “neat
wine“
46 With you i.e., the quarrel is with you
46 goodman boy young man (peasants are “goodmen”; “boy” is a term of contempt)
47 flesh introduce to blood (term from hunting)
52 difference quarrel
54 bestirred exercised
55 nature disclaims in thee nature renounces any part in you
55-56 A tailor made thee (from the proverb “The tailor makes the man”)
not have made him so ill, though they had been but two years o’ th’ trade.
Cornwall. Speak yet, how grew your quarrel?
Oswald. This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spared at suit of° his gray beard—
Kent. Thou whoreson zed,° thou unnecessary letter! My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted° villain into mortar and daub the wall of a jakes° with him. Spare my gray 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° atwain
Which are too intrince° t’ unloose; smooth°
every passion
That in the natures of their lords rebel,
Being oil to fire, snow to the 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?64 at suit of out of pity for
65 zed the letter Z, generally omitted in contemporary dictionaries
67 unbolted unsifted, i.e., altogether a villain 68 jakes privy
68-69 wagtail a bird that bobs its tail up and down, and thus suggests obsequiousness
71 beastly irrational
76 holy cords sacred bonds of affection (as between husbands and wives, parents and children)
77 intrince entangled, intricate
77 smooth appease
80 Renege deny
80 halcyon beaks (the halcyon or kingfisher serves here as a type of the opportunist because, when hung up by the tail or neck, it was supposed to turn with the wind, like a weathervane)
81 gale and vary varying gale (hendiadys)
83 epileptic distorted by grinning
84 Smile you do you smile at
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, nor his, nor 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 fellowWho, having been praised 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.
And° they will take it, so; if not, he’s plain.
These kind of knaves I know, which in this
plainness
Harbor 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 fire85 Sarum Plain Salisbury Plain
86 Camelot the residence of King Arthur (presumably a particular point, now lost, is intended here)
/>
89 contraries opposites
92 likes pleases
99-100 constrains ... nature forces the manner of candid speech to be a cloak, not for candor but for craft
102 And if
105 silly-ducking obesrvants ridiculously obsequious attendants
106 nicely punctiliously
08 allowance approval 108 aspect (1) appearance (2) position of the heavenly bodies
109 influence astrological power
On flick‘ring 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 th’ offense you gave him?
Oswald. I never gave him any.It pleased the King his master very late°
To strike at me, upon his misconstruction;°
When he, compact,° and flattering his displeasure,
Tripped me behind; being down, insulted, railed,
And put upon him such a deal of man°
That worthied him,° got praises of the King
For him attempting who was self-subdued;°
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.110 Phoebus’ front forehead of the sun
111 dialect customary manner of speaking
112 He i.e., the sort of candid-crafty man Cornwall has been describing
114-15 though ... to’t even if I were to succeed in bringing your graceless person (“displeasure” personified, and in lieu of the expected form, “your grace”) to beg me to be a plain knave
118 very late recently
119 misconstruction misunderstanding
120 compact in league with the king
122 put ... man pretended such manly behavior
123 worthied him made him seem heroic
124 For ... self-subdued for attacking a man (Oswald) who offered no resistance
125 fleshment the bloodthirstiness excited by his first success or “fleshing”
126-27 None ... fool i.e., cowardly rogues like Oswald always impose on fools like Cornwall (who is likened to Ajax: [1] the braggart Greek warrior [2] a jakes or privy)
128 stubborn rude
128 reverent old
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 honor,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.
Cornwall. This is a fellow of the selfsame color° Our sister speaks of. Come, bring away° the stocks. Stocks brought out.
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 purposed° low
correction
Is such as basest and contemnèd‘st° wretches
For pilf’rings and most common trespasses
Are punished with.
The King his master needs 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 abused, assaulted,
For following her affairs. Put in his legs.
[Kent is put in the stocks.]
Come, my good lord, away!
[Exeunt all but Gloucester and Kent.]
133 grace and person i.e., Lear as sovereign and in his personal character
140 color kind
141 away out
144 check correct
144 purposed intended
145 contemnèd‘st most despised
149 slightly valued in little honored in the person of
150 answer answer for
Gloucester. I am sorry for thee, friend. ‘Tis the Duke’s pleasure,Whose disposition° all the world well knows
Will not be rubbed° nor stopped. I’ll entreat for
thee.
Kent. Pray do not, sir. I have watched° and traveled 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 informed
Of my obscurèd° course. And shall find time
From this enormous state, seeking to give
Losses their remedies.° All weary and o‘erwatched,
Take vantage,° heavy eyes, not to behold
This shameful lodging. Fortune, good night;
Smile once more, turn thy wheel.°
Sleeps.
156 disposition inclination
157 rubbed diverted (metaphor from the game of bowls)
158 watched gone without sleep
160 A ... heels even a good man may have bad fortune
161 Give God give
162 taken received 163 approve confirm
163 saw proverb
164-65 Thou ... sun i.e., Lear goes from better to worse, from Heaven’s blessing or shelter to lack of shelter
166 beacon ... globe i.e., the sun, whose rising Kent anticipates
167 comfortable comforting
168-69 Nothing ... misery i.e., true perception belongs only to the wretched
171 obscurèd disguised
171-73 shall ... remedies (a possible reading: Cordelia, away from this monstrous state of things, will find occasion to right the wrongs we suffer)
174 vantage advantage (of sleep)
176 turn thy wheel i.e., so that Kent, who is at the bottom, may climb upward
[Scene 3. A wood.]
Enter Edgar.
Edgar. I heard myself proclaimed,And by the happy° hollow of a tree
Escaped the hunt. No port is free, no place
That guard and most unusual vigilance
Does not attend my taking.° Whiles 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 hairs 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 numbed and mortified° bare arms
Pins, wooden pricks,° nails, sprigs of rosemary;
And with this horrible object,° from low° farms,
Poor pelting° villages, sheepcotes, and mills,
Sometimes with lunatic bans,° sometime with
prayers,
Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod, Poor Tom,°
<
br /> That’s something yet: Edgar I nothing am.° Exit.
2.3.2 happy lucky
5 attend my taking watch to capture me
6 am bethought have decided
8-9 penury ... beast poverty, to show how contemptible man is, reduced to the level of a beast
10 Blanket cover only with a blanket
10 elf tangle (into, “elflocks,” supposed to be caused by elves)
11 presented the show of
11 outface brave
13 proof example
14 Bedlam (see 1.2.r. 146-47)
15 strike stick
15 mortified not alive to pain
16 pricks skewers
17 object spectacle
17 low humble
18 pelting paltry
19 bans curses
20 Poor ... Tom (Edgar recites the names a Bedlam beggar gives himself)
21 That’s ... am there’s a chance for me in that I am no longer known for myself
[Scene 4. 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 learned,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 th’ neck, monkeys by th’ loins, and men by th’ legs. When a man’s overlusty at legs,° then he wears wooden netherstocks.°
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.
King Lear Page 13
