Imatges de pàgina
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to his impatience;-The gods reward your kindness! [Exit GLOSTER. Edg. Frateretto calls me; and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.

Fool. 'Pr'ythee, 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 yeomau, that sees his son a gentleman before him.

Lear. To have a thousand with red burning spits

Come hissing in upon them :

Edg. The foul fiend bites my back.

Fool. He's mad, that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's heels, a boy's love, or a whore's oath.

Lear. It shall be done, I will arraign them

straight:

Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer:

[To EDGAR. Thou, sapient sir, sit here. [To the Fool]-Now, you she foxes!

Edg. Look, where he stands and glares!-
Wantest 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.

Edg. The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two white herrings. 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 the

evidence

Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;

And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity,

[To EDGAR.

[To the Fool.

[To KENT.

Bench by his side:-You are of the commission,

Sit you too.

Edg. 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.

Pur! the cat is gray.

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 jointstool.

Lear. And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim

What store her heart is made of.-Stop her there! Arms, arms, sword, fire!-Corruption in the place!

False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape?
Edg. Bless thy five wits!

Kent. O pity!-Sir, where is the patience now, That you so oft have boasted to retain?

Edg. My tears begin to take his part so much, They'll mar my counterfeiting.

[Aside. [at me. Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, see, they bark Edg. Tom will throw his head at them :Avaunt, you curs!

Lear. The little dogs and all,

Be thy mouth or black or white,
Tooth that poisons if it bite;
Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim,
Hound, or spaniel, brach, or lym;
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?-You, sir, I entertain you for one of my hundred; only I do not like the fashion of your garments: you will say, they are Persian attire! but let them be changed. [To EDGAR.

Kent. Now, good my lord, lie here, and rest awhile.

Lear. Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains: So, so, so: We'll go to supper i' the morning: So, so, so.

Fool. And I'll go to bed at noon.

Re-enter GLOSTER.

Glo. Come hither, friend: Where is the king my master?

Kent. Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits

are gone. [arms; Glo. Good friend, I pr' ythee take him in thy 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 should'st 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.

Oppress'd nature sleeps:This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken

senses,

Which, if convenience will not allow,

Stand in hard cure.-Come, help to bear thy

master;

Thou must not stay behind.

Glo.

[To the Fool.

Come, come, away. [Exeunt KENT, GLOSTER, and the Fool, bearing off the King.

Edg. 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 father'd!-Tom, away:
Mark the high noises: and thyself bewray,

When false opinion, whose wrong thought de

files thee,

In thy just proof, repeals, and reconciles thee. What will hap more to-night, safe scape the king! Lurk, lurk.

[Exit. SCENE VII. A Room in Gloster's Castle. Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GONERIL, EDMUND, and Servants.

Corn. Post speedily to my lord your husband; show him this letter;-the army of France is landed:-Seek out the villain Gloster.

[Exeunt some of the Servants.

Reg. Hang him instantly.

Gon. Pluck out his eyes.

Corn. 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 bebolding. Advise the duke, where you are going, to a most festinate preparation; we are bound to the like. Our post shall be swift, and intelligent betwixt us. Farewell, dear sister;-farewell, my lord of Gloster. Enter Steward.

How now? Where's the king?

Stew. My lord of Gloster 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 towards Dover; where they

boast

To have well armed friends.

Corn.

Get horses for your mistress. Gon. Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.

[Exeunt GONERIL and EDMUND. Corn. Edmund, farewell.-Go, seek the traitor

Gloster,

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?

Re-enter Servants, with GLOSTER.

Reg. Ingrateful fox! 'tis he.

Corn. Bind fast his corky arms.

Gla. What mean your graces?--Good my friends, consider

You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends.
Corn. Bind him, I say. [Servants bind him.
Reg.
Hard, hard :-O filthy traitor.
Glo. Unmerciful lady as you are, I am none.
Corn. To this chair bind him :-Villain, thou
[REGAN plucks his Beard.
Glo. By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done,
To pluck me by the beard.

shalt find

Reg. So white, and such a traitor!

Glo. Naughty lady, These hairs, which thou dost ravish from my chin,

Will quicken and accuse thee: I am your host; With robbers' hands, my hospitable favours You should not ruffle thus. What will you do? Corn. Come, sir, what letters had you late from France?

Reg. Be simple answer'd, for we know the truth.

Corn. And what confederacy have you with the traitors

Late footed in the kingdom?

Reg. To whose hands have you sent the lunatick king?

Speak.

Glo. I have a letter guessingly set down, Which came from one that's of a neutral heart, And not from one oppos'd.

Corn.

Reg.

Cunning.

And false.

To Dover.

Wherefore

Corn. Where hast thou sent the king?

Glo.

Reg.

To Dover? Wast thou not charg'd at thy perilCorn. Wherefore to Dover? Let him first an

swer that.

Glo. I am tied to the stake, and I must stand

the course.

Reg. Wherefore to Dover?

Glo. Because I would not see thy cruel nails

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