TPTT The Tragedy of King Lear: ACT IV
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
SCENE I. The heath.
SCENE II. Before ALBANY's palace.
SCENE III. The French camp near Dover.
SCENE IV. The same. A tent.
SCENE V. Gloucester's castle.
SCENE VI. Fields near Dover.
SCENE VII. A tent in the French camp. LEAR on a bed asleep, soft music playing; Gentleman, and others attending.
ACT V
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SCENE VII. A tent in the French camp. LEAR on a bed asleep, soft music playing; Gentleman, and others attending.
Enter CORDELIA, KENT, and Doctor
CORDELIA
      O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work,
      To match thy goodness? My life will be too short,
      And every measure fail me.
KENT
      To be acknowledged, madam, is o'erpaid.
5     All my reports go with the modest truth;
      Nor more nor clipp'd, but so.
CORDELIA
      Be better suited:
      These weeds are memories of those worser hours:
      I prithee, put them off.
KENT
10    Pardon me, dear madam;
      Yet to be known shortens my made intent:
      My boon I make it, that you know me not
      Till time and I think meet.
CORDELIA
      Then be't so, my good lord.

To the Doctor

15    How does the king?
Doctor
      Madam, sleeps still.
CORDELIA
      O you kind gods,
      Cure this great breach in his abused nature!
      The untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up
20    Of this child-changed father!
Doctor
      So please your majesty
      That we may wake the king: he hath slept long.
CORDELIA
      Be govern'd by your knowledge, and proceed
      I' the sway of your own will. Is he array'd?
Gentleman
25    Ay, madam; in the heaviness of his sleep
      We put fresh garments on him.
Doctor
      Be by, good madam, when we do awake him;
      I doubt not of his temperance.
CORDELIA
      Very well.
Doctor
30    Please you, draw near. Louder the music there!
CORDELIA
      O my dear father! Restoration hang
      Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss
      Repair those violent harms that my two sisters
      Have in thy reverence made!
KENT
35    Kind and dear princess!
CORDELIA
      Had you not been their father, these white flakes
      Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face
      To be opposed against the warring winds?
      To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?
40    In the most terrible and nimble stroke
      Of quick, cross lightning? to watch--poor perdu!--
      With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog,
      Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
      Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father,
45    To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn,
      In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!
      'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once
      Had not concluded all. He wakes; speak to him.
Doctor
      Madam, do you; 'tis fittest.
CORDELIA
50    How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty?
KING LEAR
      You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave:
      Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound
      Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears
      Do scald like moulten lead.
CORDELIA
55    Sir, do you know me?
KING LEAR
      You are a spirit, I know: when did you die?
CORDELIA
      Still, still, far wide!
Doctor
      He's scarce awake: let him alone awhile.
KING LEAR
      Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight?
60    I am mightily abused. I should e'en die with pity,
      To see another thus. I know not what to say.
      I will not swear these are my hands: let's see;
      I feel this pin prick. Would I were assured
      Of my condition!
CORDELIA
65    O, look upon me, sir,
      And hold your hands in benediction o'er me:
      No, sir, you must not kneel.
KING LEAR
      Pray, do not mock me:
      I am a very foolish fond old man,
70    Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;
      And, to deal plainly,
      I fear I am not in my perfect mind.
      Methinks I should know you, and know this man;
      Yet I am doubtful for I am mainly ignorant
75    What place this is; and all the skill I have
      Remembers not these garments; nor I know not
      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.
CORDELIA
80    And so I am, I am.
KING LEAR
      Be your tears wet? yes, 'faith. I pray, weep not:
      If you have poison for me, I will drink it.
      I know you do not love me; for your sisters
      Have, as I do remember, done me wrong:
85    You have some cause, they have not.
CORDELIA
      No cause, no cause.
KING LEAR
      Am I in France?
KENT
      In your own kingdom, sir.
KING LEAR
      Do not abuse me.
Doctor
90    Be comforted, good madam: the great rage,
      You see, is kill'd in him: and yet it is danger
      To make him even o'er the time he has lost.
      Desire him to go in; trouble him no more
      Till further settling.
CORDELIA
95    Will't please your highness walk?
KING LEAR
      You must bear with me:
      Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old and foolish.
Exeunt all but KENT and Gentleman
Gentleman
      Holds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so slain?
KENT
      Most certain, sir.
Gentleman
100   Who is conductor of his people?
KENT
      As 'tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester.
Gentleman
      They say Edgar, his banished son, is with the Earl
      of Kent in Germany.
KENT
      Report is changeable. 'Tis time to look about; the
105   powers of the kingdom approach apace.
Gentleman
      The arbitrement is like to be bloody. Fare you
      well, sir.
Exit
KENT
      My point and period will be throughly wrought,
      Or well or ill, as this day's battle's fought.
Exit
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