King Lear
Page 20
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!
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 quarrel° with your great opposeless° wills,
My snuff° and loathèd 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 treasure)
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 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 shivered 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’s° 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-gorged° 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 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’ th’ cliff, what thing was that42 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 eyesWere two full moons; he had a thousand noses,
Horns whelked° and waved like the enridgèd° sea:
It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father,°
Think that the clearest° gods, who make them
honors
Of men’s impossibilities,° have preserved thee.
Gloucester. I do remember now: henceforth I’ll bearAffliction 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.Enter Lear [fantastically dressed with wild
flowers].
But who comes here?
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’syour press-money.° That fellow handles his bow71 whelked twisted
71 enridgèd 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;° 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’ th’ clout, i’ th’ 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 that I said! “Ay” and “no” too 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?°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 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 soilèd° 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 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.°
Gloucester. O ruined piece of nature! This great world Shall so wear out to nought.° 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 soilèd 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 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 thy letters suns, I could not see.
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 this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond justice rails upon yond 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 thy own
back;
Thou hotly lusts to use her in that kind°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
147 are ... me is that what you tell me
149 heavy case sad plight (pun on 1. 146)
149 light i.e., empty
151 feelingly (1) by touch (2) by feeling pain (3) with emotion
154 simple common, of low estate
155 handy-dandy i.e., choose, guess (after the children’s game—“Handy-dandy, prickly prandy”—of choosing the right hand)
160 image of authority symbol revealing the true meaning of authority
160-61 a ... office i.e., whoever has power is obeyed
162 beadle parish constable
164 kind i.e., sexual act
For which thou whip‘st her. The usurer hangs the
cozener.°
Through tattered clothes small vices do appear;
Robes and furred 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 th’ 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° mixed! 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.°164-65 The usurer ... cozener i.e., the powerful moneylender, in his role as judge, puts to death the petty cheat
167 Robes and furred gowns (worn by a judge)
168 hurtless i.e., without hurting the sinner
170 able vouch for
171 that (the immunity just conferred) (1. 170)
172 glass eyes spectacles
173 scurvy politician vile politic man
176 matter and impertinency sense and nonsense
185 This’ this is
185 block (various meanings have been suggested, for example, the stump of a tree, on which Lear is supposed to climb; a mounting-block, which suggests “horse” 1.
187; a hat [which Lear or another must be made to wear], from the block on which a felt hat is molded, and which would suggest a “felt” 1.
187. The proposal here is that “block” be taken to denote the quintain, whose function is to bear blows, “a mere lifeless block” [As You Like It, 1.2.263], an object shaped like a man and used for tilting practice. See also Much Ado, 2.1.246-7, “she misused me past the endurance of a block!” and, in the same passage, the associated reference, “I stood like a man at a mark [target]” [1.253])
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 evenThe natural fool° of fortune..Use me well;
You shall have ransom. Let me have surgeons;
I am cut° to th’ 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 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; 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,°
186 delicate subtle
187 put’t in proof test it
193 natural fool born sport (with pun on “natural”: “imbecile”)
&nb
sp; 195 cut wounded
196 seconds supporters
197 man of salt i.e., all (salt) tears
201 bravely (1) smartly attired (2) courageously
201 smug spick and span
201 bridegroom whose “brave” sexual feats are picked up in the pun on “die”
205 there’s life in’t there’s still hope
206 Sa ... sa hunting and rallying cry; also an interjection of defiance
209-10 general ... to (1) universal condemnation which Goneril and Regan have made for (2) damnation incurred by the original sin of Adam and Eve
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:° every one hears that,Which can distinguish sound.
Edgar. But, by your favor,How near’s the other army?
Gentleman. Near and on speedy foot; the main descryStands 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 moved 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;211 gentle noble
211 speed God speed
212 toward impending
213 vulgar common knowledge