The Tragedy Of King Lear

1 Enter Goneril, Edmund;
2 Oswald meeting them.
3 GONERIL.
4 Welcome, my lord. I marvel our mild husband
5 Not met us on the way. Now, where’s your master?
6 OSWALD.
7 Madam, within; but never man so chang’d.
8 I told him of the army that was landed;
9 He smil’d at it: I told him you were coming;
10 His answer was, ‘The worse.’ Of Gloucester’s treachery
11 And of the loyal service of his son
12 When I inform’d him, then he call’d me sot,
13 And told me I had turn’d the wrong side out.
14 What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him;
15 What like, offensive.
16 GONERIL.
17 [_To Edmund._] Then shall you go no further.
18 It is the cowish terror of his spirit,
19 That dares not undertake. He’ll not feel wrongs
20 Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way
21 May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother;
22 Hasten his musters and conduct his powers.
23 I must change names at home, and give the distaff
24 Into my husband’s hands. This trusty servant
25 Shall pass between us. Ere long you are like to hear,
26 If you dare venture in your own behalf,
27 A mistress’s command. [_Giving a favour._]
28 Wear this; spare speech;
29 Decline your head. This kiss, if it durst speak,
30 Would stretch thy spirits up into the air.
31 Conceive, and fare thee well.
32 EDMUND.
33 Yours in the ranks of death.
34 [_Exit Edmund._]
35 GONERIL.
36 My most dear Gloucester.
37 O, the difference of man and man!
38 To thee a woman’s services are due;
39 My fool usurps my body.
40 OSWALD.
41 Madam, here comes my lord.
42 [_Exit._]
43 Enter Albany.
44 GONERIL.
45 I have been worth the whistle.
46 ALBANY.
47 O Goneril!
48 You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
49 Blows in your face! I fear your disposition;
50 That nature which contemns its origin
51 Cannot be bordered certain in itself.
52 She that herself will sliver and disbranch
53 From her material sap, perforce must wither
54 And come to deadly use.
55 GONERIL.
56 No more; the text is foolish.
57 ALBANY.
58 Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile;
59 Filths savour but themselves. What have you done?
60 Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform’d?
61 A father, and a gracious aged man,
62 Whose reverence even the head-lugg’d bear would lick,
63 Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you madded.
64 Could my good brother suffer you to do it?
65 A man, a prince, by him so benefitted!
66 If that the heavens do not their visible spirits
67 Send quickly down to tame these vile offences,
68 It will come,
69 Humanity must perforce prey on itself,
70 Like monsters of the deep.
71 GONERIL.
72 Milk-liver’d man!
73 That bear’st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;
74 Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning
75 Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know’st
76 Fools do those villains pity who are punish’d
77 Ere they have done their mischief. Where’s thy drum?
78 France spreads his banners in our noiseless land;
79 With plumed helm thy state begins to threat,
80 Whilst thou, a moral fool, sitt’st still, and criest
81 ‘Alack, why does he so?’
82 ALBANY.
83 See thyself, devil!
84 Proper deformity seems not in the fiend
85 So horrid as in woman.
86 GONERIL.
87 O vain fool!
88 ALBANY.
89 Thou changed and self-cover’d thing, for shame!
90 Be-monster not thy feature! Were’t my fitness
91 To let these hands obey my blood,
92 They are apt enough to dislocate and tear
93 Thy flesh and bones. Howe’er thou art a fiend,
94 A woman’s shape doth shield thee.
95 GONERIL.
96 Marry, your manhood, mew!
97 Enter a Messenger.
98 ALBANY.
99 What news?
100 MESSENGER.
101 O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall’s dead;
102 Slain by his servant, going to put out
103 The other eye of Gloucester.
104 ALBANY.
105 Gloucester’s eyes!
106 MESSENGER.
107 A servant that he bred, thrill’d with remorse,
108 Oppos’d against the act, bending his sword
109 To his great master; who, thereat enrag’d,
110 Flew on him, and amongst them fell’d him dead;
111 But not without that harmful stroke which since
112 Hath pluck’d him after.
113 ALBANY.
114 This shows you are above,
115 You justicers, that these our nether crimes
116 So speedily can venge! But, O poor Gloucester!
117 Lost he his other eye?
118 MESSENGER.
119 Both, both, my lord.
120 This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer;
121 ’Tis from your sister.
122 GONERIL.
123 [_Aside._] One way I like this well;
124 But being widow, and my Gloucester with her,
125 May all the building in my fancy pluck
126 Upon my hateful life. Another way
127 The news is not so tart. I’ll read, and answer.
128 [_Exit._]
129 ALBANY.
130 Where was his son when they did take his eyes?
131 MESSENGER.
132 Come with my lady hither.
133 ALBANY.
134 He is not here.
135 MESSENGER.
136 No, my good lord; I met him back again.
137 ALBANY.
138 Knows he the wickedness?
139 MESSENGER.
140 Ay, my good lord. ’Twas he inform’d against him;
141 And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment
142 Might have the freer course.
143 ALBANY.
144 Gloucester, I live
145 To thank thee for the love thou show’dst the King,
146 And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend,
147 Tell me what more thou know’st.
148 [_Exeunt._]