I will have revenge ere I depart his house.
O heavens! That this treason were not my father's,
and I not the detector of it.
Thou shalt find a dearer father in my love.
This loyalty hath made thee Earl of Gloucester.
You have mighty business in hand.
Seek out where thy father is,
that he may be ready for our apprehension.
[THUNDER ROARING]
FOOL: # Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me #
# Her boat hath a leak, And she must not speak #
# Why dare she not come Over to thee ##
EDGAR: The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale.
Hoppedance cries in Tom's belly for two white herring.
Croak not, black angel; I have no food for thee.
How do you, sir?
Stand you not so amaz'd.
Will you lie down and rest?
I'll see their trial first.
Bring in the evidence.
Thou robed man of justice, take thy place.
Thou, his yoke-fellow of equity, bench by his side.
You are o' th' commission, sit you too.
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.
Purr! The cat is grey.
Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril.
I here take my oath before this honourable assembly, she kick'd the poor King, her father.
Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril?
She cannot deny it.
Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.
And here's another whose warp'd looks proclaim
what stone her heart is made on. Stop!
Stop her there! Arms, arms, sword, fire!
Corruption in the place! False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape?
O pity! Sir, where is the patience now that you so oft have boasted to retain?
[SHEEP BLEATING]
The dogs and all, Tray, Blanch and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me.
Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs!
For, with throwing thus my head,
dogs leapt the hatch and all are fled.
Sessa.
Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.
[SHEEP BLEATING]
Then let them anatomize Regan;
see what breeds about her heart.
Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard hearts?
Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile.
LEAR: You, sir, I entertain to be one of my hundred;
only I don't like the fashion of your garments.
You may say they are Persian,
but let them be chang'd.
Oppressed nature sleeps.
GLOUCESTER: Drive toward Dover, friend.
I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him.
From France there comes a power landed at our best ports.
Thou shalt receive both welcome and protection.
GLOUCESTER: Good my friends;
do me no foul play, friends.
The army of France is landed. Post speedily to my lord your husband.
Advise him to a most sudden preparation. We are bound to do the like.
Edmund, keep you our sister company.
How now? Where's the traitor Gloucester?
Bound fast and pinioned like a thief.
Hang him instantly. Pluck out his eyes.
Leave him to my displeasure.
Farewell, my Lord of Gloucester.
The revenges we are bound to take upon your traitorous father
are not fit for your beholding.
Farewell, dear sister.
[MEN SHOUTING, WHEELS RATTLING]
[SIGHS]
Ingrateful fox!
O filthy traitor.
What means your Graces?
[DOOR SHUTS]
Good my friends, consider you are my guests.
CORNWALL: To this chair bind him.
I am your host.
What will you do?
Come, sir, what letters had you late from France?
To whose hands have you sent the lunatic King?
Speak.
Be simple-answer'd, for we know the truth.
Where hast thou sent the King?
To Dover.
Wherefore to Dover? Was thou not charged...?
Wherefore to Dover?
Let him answer that.
Wherefore to Dover?
Because I would not see thy cruel nails pluck out his poor old eyes.
See it shalt thou never.
[GLOUCESTER SCREAMING]
REGAN: One side will mock another; th' other too.
Out, vile jelly!
[SCREAMING]
My lord, I have served you ever since I was a boy, but now out!
[CORNWALL GROANS]
[MAN GROANING]
All dark and comfortless!
[MOANING]
Edmund.
Thou call'st on him that hates thee.
It was he that made the discovery of thy treason to us;
who is too good to pity thee.
CORNWALL: Regan,
give me your arm.
I bleed.
Throw him on a dunghill.
[GLOUCESTER MOANING]
EDGAR: World, world, O world!
But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,
life would not yield to age.
Tom's a-cold.
Is that the naked fellow?
Ay, my lord. Come hither.
Know'st thou the way to Dover? Ay, master.
GLOUCESTER: As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods.
They kill us for their sport.
Spare speech. Decline your head;
this kiss, if it durst speak,
would stretch thy spirits up into the air.
Yours in the ranks of death.
My most dear Gloucester.
O, the difference of man and man!
To thee a woman's services are due.
A fool usurps my bed.
I have been worth the whistle.
O Goneril.
You are not worth the dust which the rude wind blows in your face.
I fear your disposition.
No more; the text is foolish.
What have you done?
Tigers, not daughters,
what have you perform'd?
Most barbarous and degenerate,
you maddened a father
and a gracious aged man.
Humanity perforce doth prey upon itself,
like monsters of the deep.
Milk-liver'd man! Where's thy drum?
France spreads his banners in our land,
whil'st thou, a moral fool,
sits still and cries, "Alack, why does he so?"
See yourself, devil!
O vain fool!
Were I of a fitness to let these hands obey my blood,
they are apt enough to dislocate and tear thy flesh and bones.
Marry, your manhood...
Mew!
[ROOSTER CROWS]
The gods are just,
and of our present vices make instruments to plague us.
The dark and vicious place
where thee he got
cost him his eyes.
[WAVES CRASHING]
Make no noise, make no noise;
draw the curtains. So, so.
We'll go to supper i' th' morning.
And I'll go to bed at noon.
GLOUCESTER: There is a cliff looks fearfully on the deep:
Bring me to the very brim of it.
From that place I shall no leading need.
EDGAR: Come on, sir.
GLOUCESTER: When shall I get to the top of that same hill?
EDGAR: You do climb up it now; look how we labour.
Methinks the ground is even.
Horrible steep.
Come on, sir;
here's the place.
Stand still.
How fearful and dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
show scarce so gross as beetles.
The fishermen that walk upon the beach appear like mice;
and yond tall anchoring bark,
almost too small for sight.
The murmuring surge that on the unnumb'red idle pebble chafes
cannot be heard so high.
I'll look no more;
lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight topple down headlong.
Set me where you stand.
Give me your hand.
You are now within a foot of th' extreme verge.
For all beneath the moon would I not leap upright.
Let go my hand.
Bid me farewell,
and let me hear thee going.
Now fare ye well, good sir.
GLOUCESTER: With all my heart.
Now, fellow, fare thee well.
O you mighty gods!
This world I do renounce,
and in your sights,
shake patiently my great affliction off.
If I could bear it further,
and not fall to quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
my snuff and loathed part of nature
should burn itself out.
If Edgar live, O, bless him!
EDGAR [IN DEEP VOICE]: Ho, you sir! Friend!
Hear you, sir!
Speak! What are you, sir?
Away, and let me die.
Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,
thou'dst shiver'd like an egg;
but thou dost breathe, bleed'st not, speak'st, art sound.
Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again.
But have I fall'n, or no?
From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.
Look up a-height;
the shrill-gorg'd lark so far cannot be seen or heard.
Do but look up.
Alack, I have no eyes.
Is wretchedness depriv'd that benefit, to end itself by death?
Give me your arm. Up,
so.
How is't?
Feel you your legs?
You stand.
Too well, too well.
This is above all strangeness.
Upon the crown of the cliff,
what thing was that which parted from you?
A poor unfortunate beggar.
It was some fiend.
Thou happy father,
think that the clearest gods,
who make them honours of men's impossibilities,
have preserved thee.
I do remember now.
Henceforth, I'll bear affliction
till it do cry out itself,
"Enough, enough," and die.
See, that thing you speak of, I took it for a man.
Bear free and patient thoughts.
Now, good sir, what are you?
A most poor man,
made tame to fortune's blows,
who by the art of known and feeling sorrows
am pregnant to good pity.
LEAR: Give the word.
Sweet marjoram.
Pass.
Ha! Goneril with a white beard!
They flatter'd me like a dog.
They told me I had the 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 of their word.
They told me I was everything.
It's a lie.
I am not ague-proof.
The trick of that voice I do well remember. Is't not the King?
Ay, every inch a king.
When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.
[CHUCKLES]
I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause? Adultery?
Thou shall not die.
Die for adultery? No.
The wren goes to't,
and the small gilded fly does lecher in my sight.
Let copulation thrive!
Gloucester's bastard son was kinder to his father
than my daughters got betwixt the lawful sheets.
[CHUCKLES]
To't, luxury, pell-mell, for I lack soldiers.
Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary.
Sweeten my imagination.
There's money for thee.
O, let me kiss that hand!
Let me wipe it first;
it smells of mortality.
O ruin'd piece of nature!
This great world shall so wear out to nought.
Dost thou know me?
I remember thine eyes well enough.
[LAUGHS]
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.
Were all thy letters suns, I could not see.
Read.
What, with a case of eyes?
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.
I see it feelingly.
What, art mad?
A man may see how the world goes with no eyes.
Look with thine ears.
Behold yond justice rail on yond simple thief. Hark in thine ear:
Change places and, handy-dandy,
which is the justice, which is the thief? Ey?
Thou hast seen the farmer's dog bark at a beggar?
Ay, sir.
Yea, 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 thine own back;
thou hotly lusts to use her in that kind for which thou whip'st her.
[SNARLS]
The usurer hangs the cozener.
[LAUGHS]
Through tatter'd clothes great vices do appear.
Robes and furr'd 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!
Here, pull off my boots.
[SOBBING]
If thou wilt weep my fortunes,
take my eyes.
I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester.
[SOBS]
Thou must be patient.
We came crying hither.
Thou know'st the first time that we smell the air,
we wawl and cry.
I'll preach to thee. Mark.
Alack, alack the day!
When we are born, we cry
that we are come to this great stage of fools.
[CHUCKLES]
This a good block.
It were a delicate stratagem to shoe a troop of horse with felt;
I'll put it to the proof; and when I have stolen upon these son-in-laws,
then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!
GENTLEMAN: Sir, your most dear daughter...
No rescue?
What, a prisoner?
I am even the natural fool of fortune.
Use me well; you shall have ransom.
Let me have surgeons; I am cut to th' brains.
You shall have anything.
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.
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.
Then there's life in't.
Come, an you get it.
You shall get it by running. Sa, sa, sa, sa.
Come on, come on, come on!
[LEAR YELLING]
Ask of the Duke if his last purpose hold,
or whether since he's changed his course.
He's full of alteration.
Our very loving sister, well be-met.
Sir, you speak nobly.
Where I could not be honest, I never yet was valiant.
For this war, it touches us as France invades this land,
not as regards the King,
whose cause is just and heavy.
Why is this reason'd?
The enemy's in view; draw up your powers.
Combine together 'gainst the enemy;
for these particular broils are not the question here.
Then let's determine on our proceeding.
I shall attend you presently at your tent.
REGAN: Now, sweet lord, tell me,
but truly,
but then speak the truth,
do you not love my sister?
In honour'd love.
But have you never found my brother's way to the forfended place?
That thought abuses you.
I never shall endure her.
Dear my lord, be not familiar with her.
Fear me not.
Oswald.
Ho!
"If he return the conqueror,
"then am I the prisoner,
"and his bed my gaol;
"from the loathed warmth whereof deliver me,
"and supply the place for your labour. "
[WOLF HOWLING]
I had rather lose the battle
than that sister should loosen him and me.
She being widow, and my Gloucester with her,
may all the building in my fancy pluck upon my hateful life.
A proclaim'd prize! Most happy!
That eyeless head of thine was first fram'd flesh to raise my fortune.
Come not near the old man. Let go his arm.
I'll not let go! Out, dunghill!
Thou old unhappy traitor, briefly thyself remember.
[SHOUTING]
[OSWALD SCREAMS]
How does my royal lord?
How fares your Majesty?
You do me wrong to take me out o' th' grave.
Thou art a soul in bliss;
but I am bound upon a wheel of fire,
that mine own tears do scald like molten lead.
Sir,
do you know me?
You are a spirit, I know.
When did you die?
CORDELIA: Still far wide.
DOCTOR: He's scarce awake; let him alone awhile.
Where have I been?
Where am I?
KENT: In your own kingdom, sir.
Pray, do not mock me;
I am a very foolish fond old man,
fourscore and upward,
not an hour more nor less.
And, to deal plainly,
I fear that I'm not in my perfect mind.
Methinks I should know you,
and know this man,
but I am doubtful;
for I am mainly ignorant what place this is.
All the skill I have remembers not these garments,
nor do I know where I did lodge last night.
Do not laugh at me;
for as I am a man,
I think this lady
to be my child Cordelia.
And so I am.
I am.
Be your tears wet?
Yes, faith.
I know you do not love me;
for your sisters have, as I do remember, done me wrong.
You have some cause. They have not.
No cause, no cause.
You must bear with me.
Pray you now,
forget and forgive;
I am old
and foolish.
[WEAPONS CLANGING, MEN SHOUTING]
[FIRE CRACKLING]
EDGAR: Away, old man. King Lear has lost.
GLOUCESTER: No further, sir; a man may rot even here.
EDGAR: What, in ill thoughts again?
Men must endure their going hence,
even as their coming hither.
Ripeness is all.
GLOUCESTER: And that's true too.
[SOLDIERS SHOUTING]
Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?
No.
No, no, no.
Come, let's away to prison.
We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage.
When thou dost ask me blessing,
I'll kneel down and ask of thee forgiveness.
And so we'll live, and pray,
and sing,
and tell old tales,
and laugh at gilded butterflies,
and we'll hear poor rogues talk of court news;
and we'll talk with them too,
who loses and who wins;
who's in, who's out,
and take upon us the mystery of things
as if we were God's spies.
And we'll wear out in a walled prison
packs and sects of great ones
that ebb and flow by th' moon.
Take them away.
Have I caught thee?
He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven
and fire us hence like foxes.
Wipe thine eyes;
the good years shall devour them,
flesh and fell, ere they shall make us weep.
Take them away! We'll see 'em starv'd first.
Come hither, Captain.
Hark. Take thou this note;
go follow them to prison.
Know thou this:
Men are as the time is;
to be tender-hearted does not become a sword.
Sir, you have showed to-day your valiant strain,
and fortune led you well.
You have the captives; I do require them of you.
The question of Cordelia and her father requires a fitter place.
Sir, by your patience,
I hold you but a subject in this war,
not as a brother.
That's as we list to grace him.
Methinks our pleasure might have been demanded ere you had spoke so far.
He led our powers.
In his own grace he doth exalt himself, more than in your addition.
In my rights, by me invested, he compeers the best.
That were the most, if he should husband you.
Jesters do oft prove prophets.
Ask him his purposes.
What are you?
Your name, your quality?
I am as noble as the adversary I come to cope.
Which is that adversary?
He that speaks for Edmund, Earl of Gloucester.
In wisdom I should ask your name.
Know that my name is lost.
[BLADE THUDS]
[EDMUND GROANS]
[SCREAMS]
[SOBBING]
[EDMUND GROANS]
The wheel is come full circle;
I am here.
Read.
Know'st thou this paper?
Ask me not what I know.
[SCREAMS]
[LEAR SOBBING IN DISTANCE]
[SHOUTING] Howl!
[IN QUIET VOICE] O, you are men of stones!
Had I your tongues and eyes,
I'd use them so that heaven's vault should crack.
She's gone for ever.
I know when one is dead,
and when one lives.
She's dead as earth.
This feather stirs;
she lives.
If it be so, it is a chance which does redeem all sorrows
that ever I have felt.
Is this the promis'd end?
Or image of that horror?
A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!
I might have sav'd her;
now she's gone for ever.
Cordelia,
stay a little.
What is't thou say'st?
Her voice was ever soft,
gentle and low,
an excellent thing in woman.
I kill'd the slave that was a-hanging thee.
Did I not, fellow?
Who are you?
Mine eyes are not of the best, I'll tell you straight.
Are you not Kent?
The same, your servant Kent.
He's dead and rotten. No, my good lord;
I am the very man
I'll see that straight.
That from your first of difference and decay have follow'd your sad steps.
You are welcome hither.
Nor no man else.
And my poor fool is hang'd.
No,
no, no life!
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,
and thou no breath at all?
Thou'It come no more,
never, never,
never, never, never.
O, do you see this?
Look on her.
Look, her lips.
Look there,
look there!
EDGAR: Look up, my lord. KENT: Vex not his ghost.
O, let him pass.
He hates him that would upon the rack of this world stretch him out longer.
Friends of my soul,
you twain rule in this realm and the gor'd state sustain.
I have a journey, sir, shortly to go.
My master calls me;
I must not say no.
The weight of this sad time we must obey.
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most.
We that are young
shall never see so much
nor live so long.
Ripped by: SkyFury