READ STUDY GUIDE: Act III, scenes vi–vii |
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Act III, Scene vi:
A Chamber in a Farmhouse adjoining the Castle.
A Chamber in a Farmhouse adjoining the Castle.
| [Enter Gloster, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar.] |
| Glou.: |
| Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully. I will |
| piece out the comfort with what addition I can: I will not be |
| long from you. |
| Kent.: |
| All the power of his wits have given way 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 |
| yeoman that sees his son a gentleman before him. |
| Lear.: |
| To have a thousand with red burning spits |
| Come hissing in upon 'em,— |
| Edg.: |
| The foul fiend bites my back. |
| Fool.: |
| He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, |
| a boy's love, or a whore's oath. |
| Lear.: |
| It shall be done; I will arraign them straight.— |
| [To Edgar.] Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer— |
| [To the Fool.] Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she-foxes!— |
| Edg.: |
| Look, where he stands and glares!—Want'st 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. |
| Hoppedance cries in Tom's belly for two white herring. 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 their evidence. |
| [To Edgar.] Thou, robed man of justice, take thy place;— |
| [To the Fool.] And thou, his yokefellow of equity, |
| Bench by his side:—[To Kent.]you are o' 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. |
| Purr! 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 joint-stool. |
| Lear.: |
| And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim |
| What store her heart is made on.—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.: |
| [Aside.] My tears begin to take his part so much |
| They'll mar my counterfeiting. |
| Lear.: |
| The little dogs and all, |
| Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me. |
| Edg.: |
| Tom will throw his head at them.—Avaunt, you curs! |
| 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?—[To Edgar.]You, sir, I entertain you for one of my |
| hundred; only I do not like the fashion of your garments: you'll |
| say they are Persian; but let them be changed. |
| Kent.: |
| Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile. |
| Lear.: |
| Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains: |
| So, so. We'll go to supper i' the morning. |
| Fool.: |
| And I'll go to bed at noon. |
| [Re-enter Gloster.] |
| Glou.: |
| Come hither, friend: where is the king my master? |
| Kent.: |
| Here, sir; but trouble him not,—his wits are gone. |
| Glou.: |
| Good friend, I pr'ythee, take him in thy arms; |
| 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 shouldst 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.: |
| Oppressed nature sleeps:— |
| This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken sinews, |
| Which, if convenience will not allow, |
| Stand in hard cure.—Come, help to bear thy master; |
| [To the Fool.] Thou must not stay behind. |
| Glou.: |
| Come, come, away! |
| [Exeunt Kent, Gloster, and the Fool, bearing off Lear.] |
| 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 fathered!—Tom, away! |
| Mark the high noises; and thyself bewray, |
| When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee, |
| In thy just proof repeals and reconciles thee. |
| What will hap more to-night, safe 'scape the king! |
| Lurk, lurk. |
| [Exit.] |
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