You shall do small respect,show too bold malice Against the grace and person of my master,Stocking his messenger.CORNWALL Fetch forth the stocks!As I have life and honour,There shall he sit till noon.REGAN Till noon!till night,my lord;and all night too.KENT Why,madam,if I were your father's dog,You should not use me so.REGAN Sir,being his knave,I will.CORNWALL This is a fellow of the self-same colour Our sister speaks of.Come,bring away the stocks!
Stocks brought out GLOUCESTER Let me beseech your grace not to do so:
His fault is much,and the good king his master Will cheque him for 't:your purposed low correction Is such as basest and contemned'st wretches For pilferings and most common trespasses Are punish'd with:the king must take it ill,That he's so slightly valued in his messenger,Should have him thus restrain'd.CORNWALL I'll answer that.REGAN My sister may receive it much more worse,To have her gentleman abused,assaulted,For following her affairs.Put in his legs.
KENT is put in the stocks Come,my good lord,away.
Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER and KENT GLOUCESTER I am sorry for thee,friend;'tis the duke's pleasure,Whose disposition,all the world well knows,Will not be rubb'd nor stopp'd:I'll entreat for thee.KENT Pray,do not,sir:I have watched and travell'd hard;Some time I shall sleep out,the rest I'll whistle.
A good man's fortune may grow out at heels:
Give you good morrow!GLOUCESTER The duke's to blame in this;'twill be ill taken.
Exit KENT Good king,that must approve the common saw,Thou out of heaven's benediction comest To the warm sun!
Approach,thou beacon to this under globe,That by thy comfortable beams I may Peruse this letter!Nothing almost sees miracles But misery:I know 'tis from Cordelia,Who hath most fortunately been inform'd Of my obscured course;and shall find time From this enormous state,seeking to give Losses their remedies.All weary and o'erwatch'd,Take vantage,heavy eyes,not to behold This shameful lodging.
Fortune,good night:smile once more:turn thy wheel!
Sleeps
SCENE III.The open country
Enter EDGAR.
EDGAR I heard myself proclaim'd;And by the happy hollow of a tree Escaped the hunt.No port is free;no place,That guard,and most unusual vigilance,Does not attend my taking.Whiles I may 'scape,I will preserve myself:and am bethought To take the basest and most poorest shape That ever penury,in contempt of man,Brought near to beast:my face I'll grime with filth;Blanket my loins:elf all my hair in knots;
And with presented nakedness out-face The winds and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent Of Bedlam beggars,who,with roaring voices,Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms Pins,wooden pricks,nails,sprigs of rosemary;And with this horrible object,from low farms,Poor pelting villages,sheep-cotes,and mills,Sometime with lunatic bans,sometime with prayers,Enforce their charity.Poor Turlygod!poor Tom!
That's something yet:Edgar I nothing am.
Exit
SCENE IV.Before Gloucester's Castle;Kent in the stocks
Enter KING LEAR,Fool,and Gentleman
KING LEAR 'Tis strange that they should so depart from home,And not send back my messenger.Gentleman As I learn'd,The night before there was no purpose in them Of this remove.KENT Hail to thee,noble master!KING LEAR Ha!
Makest thou this shame thy pastime?KENT No,my lord.Fool Ha,ha!he wears cruel garters.Horses are tied by the heads,dogs and bears by the neck,monkeys by the loins,and men by the legs:when a man's over-lusty at legs,then he wears wooden nether-stocks.KING LEAR What's he that hath so much thy place mistook To set thee here?KENT It is both he and she;Your son and daughter.KING LEAR No.KENT Yes.KING LEAR No,I say.KENT I say,yea.KING LEAR No,no,they would not.KENT Yes,they have.KING LEAR By Jupiter,I swear,no.KENT By Juno,I swear,ay.KING LEAR They durst not do 't;They could not,would not do 't;'tis worse than murder,To do upon respect such violent outrage:
Resolve me,with all modest haste,which way Thou mightst deserve,or they impose,this usage,Coming from us.KENT My lord,when at their home I did commend your highness'letters to them,Ere I was risen from the place that show'd My duty kneeling,came there a reeking post,Stew'd in his haste,half breathless,panting forth From Goneril his mistress salutations;Deliver'd letters,spite of intermission,Which presently they read:on whose contents,They summon'd up their meiny,straight took horse;Commanded me to follow,and attend The leisure of their answer;gave me cold looks:
And meeting here the other messenger,Whose welcome,I perceived,had poison'd mine,--Being the very fellow that of late Display'd so saucily against your highness,--Having more man than wit about me,drew:
He raised the house with loud and coward cries.
Your son and daughter found this trespass worth The shame which here it suffers.Fool Winter's not gone yet,if the wild-geese fly that way.
Fathers that wear rags Do make their children blind;But fathers that bear bags Shall see their children kind.
Fortune,that arrant whore,Ne'er turns the key to the poor.
But,for all this,thou shalt have as many dolours for thy daughters as thou canst tell in a year.KING LEAR O,how this mother swells up toward my heart!
Hysterica passio,down,thou climbing sorrow,Thy element's below!Where is this daughter?KENT With the earl,sir,here within.KING LEAR Follow me not;Stay here.
Exit Gentleman Made you no more offence but what you speak of?KENT None.