TPTT The Tragedy of King Lear: ACT III
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
SCENE I. A heath.
SCENE II. Another part of the heath. Storm still.
SCENE III. Gloucester's castle.
SCENE IV. The heath. Before a hovel.
SCENE V. Gloucester's castle.
SCENE VI. A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle.
SCENE VII. Gloucester's castle.
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE VI. A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle.
Enter GLOUCESTER, KING LEAR, KENT, Fool, and EDGAR
GLOUCESTER
      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
5     impatience: the gods reward your kindness!
Exit GLOUCESTER
EDGAR
      Frateretto calls me; and tells me
      Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness.
      Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.
Fool
      Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a
10    gentleman or a yeoman?
KING 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.
KING LEAR
15    To have a thousand with red burning spits
      Come hissing in upon 'em,--
EDGAR
      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.
KING LEAR
20    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!
EDGAR
      Look, where he stands and glares!
      Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?
25    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.
EDGAR
      The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a
30    nightingale. Hopdance 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 amazed:
      Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?
KING LEAR
35    I'll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence.

To EDGAR

      Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;

To the Fool

      And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity,
      Bench by his side:

To KENT

      you are o' the commission,
40    Sit you too.
EDGAR
      Let us deal justly.
      Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?
      Thy sheep be in the corn;
      And for one blast of thy minikin mouth,
45    Thy sheep shall take no harm.
      Pur! the cat is gray.
KING LEAR
      Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my
      oath before this honourable assembly, she kicked the
      poor king her father.
Fool
50    Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril?
KING LEAR
      She cannot deny it.
Fool
      Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.
KING LEAR
      And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim
      What store her heart is made on. Stop her there!
55    Arms, arms, sword, fire! Corruption in the place!
      False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape?
EDGAR
      Bless thy five wits!
KENT
      O pity! Sir, where is the patience now,
      That thou so oft have boasted to retain?
EDGAR
60    (Aside) My tears begin to take his part so much,
      They'll mar my counterfeiting.
KING LEAR
      The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and
      Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me.
EDGAR
      Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs!
65    Be thy mouth or black or white,
      Tooth that poisons if it bite;
      Mastiff, grey-hound, mongrel grim,
      Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,
      Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail,
70    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.
KING LEAR
75    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 for one of my hundred; only I
      do not like the fashion of your garments: you will
80    say they are Persian attire: but let them be changed.
KENT
      Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile.
KING LEAR
      Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains:
      so, so, so. We'll go to supper i' he morning. So, so, so.
Fool
      And I'll go to bed at noon.
Re-enter GLOUCESTER
GLOUCESTER
85    Come hither, friend: where is the king my master?
KENT
      Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits are gone.
GLOUCESTER
      Good friend, I prithee, take him in thy arms;
      I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him:
      There is a litter ready; lay him in 't,
90    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;
95    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 senses,
      Which, if convenience will not allow,
100   Stand in hard cure.

To the Fool

      Come, help to bear thy master;
      Thou must not stay behind.
GLOUCESTER
      Come, come, away.
Exeunt all but EDGAR
EDGAR
      When we our betters see bearing our woes,
105   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'er skip,
      When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.
110   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 defiles thee,
115   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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