Out,varlet,from my sight!CORNWALL What means your grace?KING LEAR Who stock'd my servant?Regan,I have good hope Thou didst not know on't.Who comes here?O heavens,Enter GONERILIf you do love old men,if your sweet sway Allow obedience,if yourselves are old,Make it your cause;send down,and take my part!
To GONERIL
Art not ashamed to look upon this beard?
O Regan,wilt thou take her by the hand?GONERIL Why not by the hand,sir?How have Ioffended?
All's not offence that indiscretion finds And dotage terms so.KING LEAR O sides,you are too tough;Will you yet hold?How came my man i'the stocks?CORNWALL I set him there,sir:but his own disorders Deserved much less advancement.KING LEAR You!did you?REGAN I pray you,father,being weak,seem so.
If,till the expiration of your month,You will return and sojourn with my sister,Dismissing half your train,come then to me:
I am now from home,and out of that provision Which shall be needful for your entertainment.KING LEAR Return to her,and fifty men dismiss'd?
No,rather I abjure all roofs,and choose To wage against the enmity o'the air;To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,--
Necessity's sharp pinch!Return with her?
Why,the hot-blooded France,that dowerless took Our youngest born,I could as well be brought To knee his throne,and,squire-like;pension beg To keep base life afoot.Return with her?
Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter To this detested groom.
Pointing at OSWALD GONERIL At your choice,sir.KING LEAR I prithee,daughter,do not make me mad:
I will not trouble thee,my child;farewell:
We'll no more meet,no more see one another:
But yet thou art my flesh,my blood,my daughter;Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,Which I must needs call mine:thou art a boil,A plague-sore,an embossed carbuncle,In my corrupted blood.But I'll not chide thee;Let shame come when it will,I do not call it:
I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove:
Mend when thou canst;be better at thy leisure:
I can be patient;I can stay with Regan,I and my hundred knights.REGAN Not altogether so:
I look'd not for you yet,nor am provided For your fit welcome.Give ear,sir,to my sister;For those that mingle reason with your passion Must be content to think you old,and so--But she knows what she does.KING LEAR Is this well spoken?REGAN I dare avouch it,sir:what,fifty followers?
Is it not well?What should you need of more?
Yea,or so many,sith that both charge and danger Speak 'gainst so great a number?How,in one house,Should many people,under two commands,Hold amity?'Tis hard;almost impossible.GONERIL Why might not you,my lord,receive attendance From those that she calls servants or from mine?REGAN Why not,my lord?If then they chanced to slack you,We could control them.If you will come to me,--For now I spy a danger,--I entreat you To bring but five and twenty:to no more Will I give place or notice.KING LEAR I gave you all--REGAN And in good time you gave it.KING LEAR Made you my guardians,my depositaries;But kept a reservation to be follow'd With such a number.What,must I come to you With five and twenty,Regan?said you so?REGAN And speak't again,my lord;no more with me.KING LEAR Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,When others are more wicked:not being the worst Stands in some rank of praise.
To GONERIL
I'll go with thee:
Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,And thou art twice her love.GONERIL Hear me,my lord;What need you five and twenty,ten,or five,To follow in a house where twice so many Have a command to tend you?REGAN What need one?KING LEAR O,reason not the need:our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
Allow not nature more than nature needs,Man's life's as cheap as beast's:thou art a lady;If only to go warm were gorgeous,Why,nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,Which scarcely keeps thee warm.But,for true need,--You heavens,give me that patience,patience I need!
You see me here,you gods,a poor old man,As full of grief as age;wretched in both!
If it be you that stir these daughters'hearts Against their father,fool me not so much To bear it tamely;touch me with noble anger,And let not women's weapons,water-drops,Stain my man's cheeks!No,you unnatural hags,I will have such revenges on you both,That all the world shall--I will do such things,--What they are,yet I know not:but they shall be The terrors of the earth.You think I'll weep No,I'll not weep:
I have full cause of weeping;but this heart Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,Or ere I'll weep.O fool,I shall go mad!
Exeunt KING LEAR,GLOUCESTER,KENT,and Fool Storm and tempest CORNWALL Let us withdraw;'twill be a storm.REGAN This house is little:the old man and his people Cannot be well bestow'd.GONERIL 'Tis his own blame;hath put himself from rest,And must needs taste his folly.REGAN For his particular,I'll receive him gladly,But not one follower.GONERIL So am I purposed.
Where is my lord of Gloucester?CORNWALL Follow'd the old man forth:he is return'd.
Re-enter GLOUCESTER GLOUCESTER The king is in high rage.CORNWALL Whither is he going?GLOUCESTER He calls to horse;but will I know not whither.CORNWALL 'Tis best to give him way;he leads himself.GONERIL My lord,entreat him by no means to stay.GLOUCESTER Alack,the night comes on,and the bleak winds Do sorely ruffle;for many miles a bout There's scarce a bush.REGAN O,sir,to wilful men,The injuries that they themselves procure Must be their schoolmasters.Shut up your doors:
He is attended with a desperate train;
And what they may incense him to,being apt To have his ear abused,wisdom bids fear.CORNWALL Shut up your doors,my lord;'tis a wild night:
My Regan counsels well;come out o'the storm.
Exeunt