William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Tragedy of King Lear.

Vol. 46, pp. 288-300 of The Harvard Classics

Cordelia, daughter of old King Lear, could not convince her father of her love for him. Afterward, when misfortunes made him accept her aid, he learned too late of her real devotion.

("King Lear" presented at Queen Elizabeth's court, Dec. 26, 1606.)

Act IV

Scene IV

[The same. A tent]
Enter, with drum and colours, CORDELIA, Doctor, and Soldiers

  Cor.  Alack, ’tis he! Why, he was met even now

As mad as the vex’d sea, singing aloud,

Crown’d with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds,

With hardocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,

Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow

In our sustaining corn. A sentry send forth;

Search every acre in the high-grown field,

And bring him to our eye. [Exit an Officer.] What can man’s wisdom

In the restoring his bereaved sense?

He that helps him take all my outward worth.

  Doct.  There is means, madam.

Our foster-nurse of nature is repose,

The which he lacks; that to provoke in him,

Are many simples ¹ operative, whose power

Will close the eye of anguish.

  Cor.        All blest secrets,

All you unpublish’d virtues of the earth,

Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate ²

In the good man’s distress! Seek, seek for him,

Lest his ungovern’d rage dissolve the life

That wants the means to lead it.

Enter a Messenger

  Mess.        News, madam!

The British powers are marching hitherward.

  Cor.  ’Tis known before; our preparation stands

In expectation of them. O dear father,

It is thy business that I go about;

Therefore great France

My mourning and importune ³ tears hath pitied.

No blown ⁴ ambition doth our arms incite,

But love, dear love, and our ag’d father’s right.

Soon may I hear and see him!  Exeunt.

Note 1. Medicinal herbs. 

Note 2. Helpful and curative. 

Note 3. Importunate, persistent. 

Note 4. Puffed up. 

Scene V

[Gloucester’s castle]
Enter REGAN and Steward [OSWALD]

  Reg.  But are my brother’s powers set forth?

  Osw.        Ay, madam.

  Reg.  Himself in person there?

  Osw.        Madam, with much ado. ¹

Your sister is the better soldier.

  Reg.  Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home?

  Osw.  No, madam.

  Reg.  What might import my sister’s letter to him?

  Osw.  I know not, lady.

  Reg.  Faith, he is posted hence on serious matter.

It was great ignorance, ² Gloucester’s eyes being out,

To let him live; where he arrives he moves

All hearts against us. Edmund, I think, is gone,

In pity of his misery, to dispatch

His nighted ³ life; moreover, to descry

The strength o’ the enemy.

  Osw.  I must needs after him, madam, with my letter.

  Reg.  Our troops set forth to-morrow, stay with us;

The ways are dangerous.

  Osw.        I may not, madam:

My lady charg’d my duty in this business.

  Reg.  Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you

Transport her purposes by word? Belike

Some things—I know not what. I’ll love thee much,

Let me unseal the letter.

  Osw.        Madam, I had rather—

  Reg.  I know your lady does not love her husband;

I am sure of that; and at her late being here

She gave strange œillades ⁴ and most speaking looks

To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom. ⁵

  Osw.  I, madam?

  Reg.  I speak in understanding; y’ are, I know ’t.

Therefore I do advise you, take this note:

My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk’d;

And more convenient is he for my hand

Than for your lady’s. You may gather more.

If you do find him, pray you, give him this;

And when your mistress hears thus much from you,

I pray, desire her call her wisdom to her.

So, fare you well.

If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,

Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.

  Osw.  Would I could meet him, madam! I should show What party I do follow.

  Reg.        Fare thee well.  [Exeunt.

Note 1. Induced with much difficulty. 

Note 2. Folly. 

Note 3. Blinded. 

Note 4. Amorous glances. 

Note 5. In her confidence. 

Scene VI

[Fields near Dover]
Enter GLOUCESTER, and EDGAR [dressed like a peasant]

  Glou.  When shall I come to the top of that same hill?

  Edg.  You do climb up it now; look, how we labour.

  Glou.  Methinks the ground is even.

  Edg.        Horrible steep.

Hark, do you hear the sea?

  Glou.        No, truly.

  Edg.  Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect

By your eyes’ anguish.

  Glou.        So may it be, indeed.

Methinks thy voice is alter’d, and thou speak’st

In better phrase and matter than thou didst.

  Edg.  You’re much deceiv’d. In nothing am I chang’d

But in my garments.

  Glou.        Methinks you’re better spoken.

  Edg.  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 ¹ that wing the midway air

Show scarce so gross ² as beetles. Half way down

Hangs one that gathers samphire, ³ dreadful trade!

Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.

The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,

Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,

Diminish’d to her cock; ⁴ her cock, a buoy

Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge,

That on the unnumb’red idle pebbles chafes,

Cannot be heard so high. I’ll look no more,

Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight

Topple down headlong.

  Glou.        Set me where you stand.

  Edg.  Give me your hand; you are now within a foot

Of the extreme verge. For all beneath the moon

Would I not leap upright.

  Glou.        Let go my hand.

Here, friend, ’s another purse; in it a jewel

Well worth a poor man’s taking. Fairies and gods

Prosper it with thee! Go thou further off;

Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.

  Edg.  Now fare ye well, good sir.

  Glou.        With all my heart.

  Edg.  Why I do trifle thus with his despair

Is done to cure it.

  Glou.  [Kneeling.]  O you mighty gods!

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 ⁵ and loathed part of nature should

Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O bless him!

Now, fellow, fare thee well.

  Edg.        Gone, sir; farewell!

—And yet I know not how conceit ⁶ may rob

The treasury of life, when life itself

Yields ⁷ to the theft. [GLOU. throws himself forward.] 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 ⁸ indeed; yet he revives.—

What are you, sir?

  Glou.        Away, and let me die.

  Edg.  Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,

So many fathom down precipitating,

Thou ’dst shiver’d like an egg: but thou dost breathe;

Hast heavy substance; bleed’st not; speak’st; art sound.

Ten masts at each ⁹ make not the altitude

Which thou hast perpendicularly fell.

Thy life’s a miracle. Speak yet again.

  Glou.  But have I fallen, or no?

  Edg.  From the dread summit of this chalky bourn. ¹⁰

Look up a-height; ¹¹ the shrill-gorg’d ¹² lark so far

Cannot be seen or heard. Do but look up.

  Glou.  Alack, I have no eyes.

Is wretchedness depriv’d that benefit,

To end itself by death? ’Twas yet some comfort,

When misery could beguile the tyrant’s rage,

And frustrate his proud will.

  Edg.        Give me your arm.

Up: so. How is ’t? Feel you your legs? You stand.

  Glou.  Too well, too well.

  Edg.        This is above all strangeness.

Upon the crown o’ the cliff, what thing was that

Which parted from you?

  Glou.        A poor unfortunate beggar.

  Edg.  As I stood here below, methought his eyes

Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses,

Horns whelk’d ¹³ and waved like the enridged sea.

It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father,

Think that the clearest ¹⁴ gods, who make them honours

Of men’s impossibilities, have preserv’d thee.

  Glou.  I do remember now. Henceforth I’ll bear

Affliction 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.

  Edg.  Bear free and patient thoughts.

Enter LEAR [fantastically dressed with wild flowers]

        But who comes here?

The safer ¹⁵ sense will ne’er accommodate ¹⁶

His master thus.

  Lear.  No, they cannot touch me for coining;

I am the King himself.

  Edg.  O thou side-piercing sight!

  Lear.  Nature’s above art in that respect. There’s your press-money. That fellow handles his bow 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’ the clout, ¹⁷ i’ the clout! Hewgh! Give the word. ¹⁸

  Edg.  Sweet marjoram.

  Lear.  Pass.

  Glou.  I know that voice.

  Lear.  Ha! Goneril, with a white beard! They flatter’d me like a dog, and 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 o’ their words: they told me I was everything; ’tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.

  Glou.  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? ¹⁹

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, ²⁰ pell-mell! for I lack soldiers.

Behold yond simp’ring dame,

Whose face between her forks ²¹ presages snow,

That minces virtue, and does shake the head

To hear of pleasure’s name,—

The fitchew, ²² nor the soiled ²³ 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 fiends’;

There’s hell, there’s darkness, there’s the sulphurous pit,

Burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie, fie, fie! pah, pah!

Give me an ounce of civet; good apothecary, sweeten my imagination.

There’s money for thee.

  Glou.  O, let me kiss that hand!

  Lear.  Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.

  Glou.  O ruin’d piece of nature! This great world

Shall so wear out to nought. Dost thou know me?

  Lear.  I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny ²⁴ at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid; I’ll not love. Read thou this challenge; mark but the penning of it.

  Glou.  Were all thy letters suns, I could not see.

  Edg.  [Aside.]  I would not take this from report. It is; and my heart breaks at it.

  Lear.  Read.

  Glou.  What, with the case ²⁵ 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.

  Glou.  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 has seen a farmer’s dog bark at a beggar?

  Glou.  Ay, sir.

  Lear.  And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst behold the great image of authority: a dog’s obey’d 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

For which thou whip’st her. The usurer hangs the cozener. ²⁶

Through tatter’d clothes great vices do appear;

Robes and furr’d gowns hide all. Plate sins with gold,

And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;

Arm it in rags, a pigmy’s straw does pierce it.

None does offend, none, I say, none; I’ll able ²⁷ ’em.

Take that of me, my friend, who have the power

To seal the 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.

  Edg.  O, matter and impertinency ²⁸ mix’d!

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.

  Glou.  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. ²⁹

It were a delicate stratagem, to shoe

A troop of horse with felt. I’ll put ’t in proof; ³⁰

And when I have stol’n upon these son-in-laws,

Then, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!

Enter a Gentleman [with Attendants]

  Gent.  O, here he is! Lay hand upon him. Sir,

Your most dear daughter—

  Lear.  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 the brains.

  Gent.        You shall have anything.

  Lear.  No seconds? All myself?

Why, this would make a man a man of salt, ³¹

To use his eyes for garden water-pots,

[Ay, and laying autumn’s dust.

  Gent.        Good sir,—]

  Lear.  I will die bravely, like a smug ³² bridegroom. What! I will be jovial. Come, come; I am a king,
My masters, know you that?

  Gent.  You are a royal one, and we obey you.

  Lear.  Then there’s life in ’t. Come, an you get it, you shall get it by running. Sa, sa, sa, sa.  Exit [running; Attendants follow].

  Gent.  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.

  Edg.  Hail, gentle sir.

  Gent.        Sir, speed you: what’s your will?

  Edg.  Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward?

  Gent.  Most sure and vulgar; ³³ every one hears that,

Which can distinguish sound.

  Edg.        But, by your favour,

How near’s the other army?

  Gent.  Near and on speedy foot; the main descry ³⁴

Stands on the hourly thought.

  Edg.  I thank you, sir; that’s all.

  Gent.  Though that the Queen on special cause is here,

Her army is mov’d on.  Exit.

  Edg.        I thank you, sir.

  Glou.  You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me;

Let not my worser spirit tempt me again

To die before you please!

  Edg.        Well pray you, father.

  Glou.  Now, good sir, what are you?

  Edg.  A most poor man, made tame to fortune’s blows;

Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows,

Am pregnant ³⁵ to good pity. Give me your hand,

I’ll lead you to some biding.

  Glou.        Hearty thanks;

The bounty and the benison of Heaven

To boot, and boot!

Enter Steward [OSWALD]

  Osw.        A proclaim’d prize! Most happy!

That eyeless head of thine was first fram’d flesh

To raise my fortunes. Thou old unhappy traitor,

Briefly thyself remember; the sword is out

That must destroy thee.

  Glou.        Now let thy friendly hand

Put strength enough to ’t.  [EDGAR interposes.]

  Osw.        Wherefore, bold peasant,

Dar’st thou support a publish’d ³⁶ traitor? Hence;

Lest that the infection of his fortune take

Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.

  Edg.  ’Chill ³⁷ not let go, zir, without vurther ’casion.

  Osw.  Let go, slave, or thou diest!

  Edg.  Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor volk pass. An ’chud ³⁸ ha’ bin zwagger’d out of my life, ’t would not ha’bin zo long as ’tis by a vortnight. Nay, come not near th’ old man; keep out, ’che vor ye, ³⁹ or Ise try whether your costard ⁴⁰ or my ballow ⁴¹ be the harder. ’Chill be plain with you.

  Osw.  Out, dunghill!

  Edg.  ’Chill pick your teeth, zir. Come, no matter vor your foins. ⁴²  [They fight, andEDGAR knocks him down.]

  Osw.  Slave, thou hast slain me. Villain, take my purse.

If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body;

And give the letters which thou find’st about me

To Edmund, Earl of Gloucester; seek him out

Upon ⁴³ the English party. O, untimely death!

Death!  Dies.

  Edg.  I know thee well; a serviceable villain,

As duteous to the vices of thy mistress

As badness would desire.

  Glou.        What, is he dead?

  Edg.  Sit you down, father; rest you.

Let’s see these pockets; the letters that he speaks of

May be my friends. He’s dead; I am only sorry

He had no other death’s-man. Let us see.

Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not.

To know our enemies’ minds, we rip their hearts;

Their papers, is more lawful.

  (Reads the letter.) “Let our reciprocal vows be rememb’red. You have many opportunities to cut him off; if your will want not, time and place will be fruitfully offer’d. There is nothing done, 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.

“Your—wife, so I would say—
“Affectionate servant,

“GONERIL.”

O indistinguish’d space ⁴⁴ of woman’s will! ⁴⁵

A plot upon her virtuous husband’s life;

And the exchange my brother! Here, in the sands,

Thee I’ll rake up, the post unsanctified

Of murderous lechers; and in the mature time

With this ungracious paper strike the sight

Of the death-practis’d ⁴⁶ duke. For him ’tis well

That of thy death and business I can tell.

  Glou.  The King is mad; how stiff is my vile sense

That I stand up and have ingenious ⁴⁷ feeling

Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract;

So should my thoughts be sever’d from my griefs,  Drum afar off.

And woes by wrong imaginations lose

The knowledge of themselves.

  Edg.  Give me your hand.

Far off, methinks, I hear the beaten drum.

Come, father, I’ll bestow ⁴⁸ you with a friend.  Exeunt.

Note 1. Jackdaws. 

Note 2. Large. 

Note 3. A herb used for pickling. 

Note 4. Cock-boat. 

Note 5. Refuse, worthless part. 

Note 6. Imagination. 

Note 7. Consents to. 

Note 8. Die. 

Note 9. End to end. 

Note 10. Boundary. 

Note 11. On high. 

Note 12. Shrill-throated. 

Note 13. Twisted (?). 

Note 14. Most righteous. 

Note 15. Saner. 

Note 16. Fit out. 

Note 17. Mark. 

Note 18. Pass-word. 

Note 19. Accusation. 

Note 20. Lust. 

Note 21. Probably, hair ornaments. 

Note 22. Pole-cat. 

Note 23. Lusty with feeding. 

Note 24. Squint. 

Note 25. Sockets. 

Note 26. Swindler. 

Note 27. Warrant. 

Note 28. Sense and nonsense. 

Note 29. Hat (?). 

Note 30. To the test. 

Note 31. Tears. 

Note 32. Neat, fine. 

Note 33. Generally known. 

Note 34. The sight of the main body is hourly expected. 

Note 35. Ready. 

Note 36. Publicly proclaimed. 

Note 37. I will. 

Note 38. If I could. 

Note 39. I warn you. 

Note 40. Head. 

Note 41. Cudgel. 

Note 42. Thrusts. 

Note 43. Among. 

Note 44. Unlimited range. 

Note 45. Appetites. 

Note 46. Whose death was plotted. 

Note 47. Conscious. 

Note 48. Lodge.