├── .env.sample
├── .gitignore
├── README.md
├── ai_makerspace.ipynb
├── aimakerspace
├── __init__.py
├── openai_utils
│ ├── __init__.py
│ ├── chatmodel.py
│ ├── embedding.py
│ └── prompts.py
├── text_utils.py
└── vectordatabase.py
├── data
└── KingLear.txt
├── images
├── docchain_img.png
├── raqaapp_img.png
└── texsplitter_img.png
└── requirements.txt
/.env.sample:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/.gitignore:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | .env
2 | __pycache__/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/README.md:
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1 | # Your First RAQA Application
2 |
3 | ### Steps to Run:
4 |
5 | This was done in Python 3.11.4!
6 |
7 | Don't forget to install your dependencies with `pip install -r requirements.txt`
8 |
9 | 1. `git clone` this repository
10 | 2. `cd` into the newly cloned repository
11 | 3. Run `cp .env.sample .env`
12 | 4. Add your `OPENAI_API_KEY` to the newly created `.env` file.
13 | 5. Open and run the notebook!
14 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/ai_makerspace.ipynb:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | {
2 | "cells": [
3 | {
4 | "cell_type": "markdown",
5 | "metadata": {},
6 | "source": [
7 | "# Your First RAQA Application\n",
8 | "\n",
9 | "In this notebook, we'll walk you through each of the components that are involved in a simple RAQA application. \n",
10 | "\n",
11 | "We won't be leveraging any fancy tools, just the OpenAI Python SDK, Numpy, and some classic Python.\n",
12 | "\n",
13 | "This was done with Python 3.11.4."
14 | ]
15 | },
16 | {
17 | "cell_type": "markdown",
18 | "metadata": {},
19 | "source": [
20 | "Let's look at a rather complicated looking visual representation of a basic RAQA application.\n",
21 | "\n",
22 | "
"
23 | ]
24 | },
25 | {
26 | "cell_type": "markdown",
27 | "metadata": {},
28 | "source": [
29 | "### Imports and Utility \n",
30 | "\n",
31 | "We're just doing some imports and enabling `async` to work within the Jupyter environment here, nothing too crazy!"
32 | ]
33 | },
34 | {
35 | "cell_type": "code",
36 | "execution_count": 2,
37 | "metadata": {},
38 | "outputs": [],
39 | "source": [
40 | "from aimakerspace.text_utils import TextFileLoader, CharacterTextSplitter\n",
41 | "from aimakerspace.vectordatabase import VectorDatabase\n",
42 | "import asyncio"
43 | ]
44 | },
45 | {
46 | "cell_type": "code",
47 | "execution_count": 3,
48 | "metadata": {},
49 | "outputs": [],
50 | "source": [
51 | "import nest_asyncio\n",
52 | "nest_asyncio.apply()"
53 | ]
54 | },
55 | {
56 | "cell_type": "markdown",
57 | "metadata": {},
58 | "source": [
59 | "# Documents\n",
60 | "\n",
61 | "We'll be concerning ourselves with this part of the flow in the following section:\n",
62 | "\n",
63 | "
"
64 | ]
65 | },
66 | {
67 | "cell_type": "markdown",
68 | "metadata": {},
69 | "source": [
70 | "### Loading Source Documents\n",
71 | "\n",
72 | "So, first things first, we need some documents to work with. \n",
73 | "\n",
74 | "While we could work directly with the `.txt` files (or whatever file-types you wanted to extend this to) we can instead do some batch processing of those documents at the beginning in order to store them in a more machine compatible format. \n",
75 | "\n",
76 | "In this case, we're going to parse our text file into a single document in memory.\n",
77 | "\n",
78 | "Let's look at the relevant bits of the `TextFileLoader` class:\n",
79 | "\n",
80 | "```python\n",
81 | "def load_file(self):\n",
82 | " with open(self.path, \"r\", encoding=self.encoding) as f:\n",
83 | " self.documents.append(f.read())\n",
84 | "```\n",
85 | "\n",
86 | "We're simply loading the document using the built in `open` method, and storing that output in our `self.documents` list.\n"
87 | ]
88 | },
89 | {
90 | "cell_type": "code",
91 | "execution_count": 4,
92 | "metadata": {},
93 | "outputs": [
94 | {
95 | "data": {
96 | "text/plain": [
97 | "1"
98 | ]
99 | },
100 | "execution_count": 4,
101 | "metadata": {},
102 | "output_type": "execute_result"
103 | }
104 | ],
105 | "source": [
106 | "text_loader = TextFileLoader(\"data/KingLear.txt\")\n",
107 | "documents = text_loader.load_documents()\n",
108 | "len(documents)"
109 | ]
110 | },
111 | {
112 | "cell_type": "code",
113 | "execution_count": 5,
114 | "metadata": {},
115 | "outputs": [
116 | {
117 | "name": "stdout",
118 | "output_type": "stream",
119 | "text": [
120 | "ACT I\n",
121 | "SCENE I. King Lear's palace.\n",
122 | "Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND\n",
123 | "KENT\n",
124 | "I thought the king had m\n"
125 | ]
126 | }
127 | ],
128 | "source": [
129 | "print(documents[0][:100])"
130 | ]
131 | },
132 | {
133 | "cell_type": "markdown",
134 | "metadata": {},
135 | "source": [
136 | "### Splitting Text Into Chunks\n",
137 | "\n",
138 | "As we can see, there is one document - and it's the entire text of King Lear.\n",
139 | "\n",
140 | "We'll want to chunk the document into smaller parts so it's easier to pass the most relevant snippets to the LLM. \n",
141 | "\n",
142 | "There is no fixed way to split/chunk documents - and you'll need to rely on some intuition as well as knowing your data *very* well in order to build the most robust system.\n",
143 | "\n",
144 | "For this toy example, we'll just split blindly on length. \n",
145 | "\n",
146 | ">There's an opportunity to clear up some terminology here, for this course we will be stick to the following: \n",
147 | ">\n",
148 | ">- \"source documents\" : The `.txt`, `.pdf`, `.html`, ..., files that make up the files and information we start with in its raw format\n",
149 | ">- \"document(s)\" : single (or more) text object(s)\n",
150 | ">- \"corpus\" : the combination of all of our documents"
151 | ]
152 | },
153 | {
154 | "cell_type": "markdown",
155 | "metadata": {},
156 | "source": [
157 | "Let's take a peek visually at what we're doing here - and why it might be useful:\n",
158 | "\n",
159 | "
"
160 | ]
161 | },
162 | {
163 | "cell_type": "markdown",
164 | "metadata": {},
165 | "source": [
166 | "As you can see (though it's not specifically true in this toy example) the idea of splitting documents is to break them into managable sized chunks that retain the most relevant local context."
167 | ]
168 | },
169 | {
170 | "cell_type": "code",
171 | "execution_count": 6,
172 | "metadata": {},
173 | "outputs": [
174 | {
175 | "data": {
176 | "text/plain": [
177 | "189"
178 | ]
179 | },
180 | "execution_count": 6,
181 | "metadata": {},
182 | "output_type": "execute_result"
183 | }
184 | ],
185 | "source": [
186 | "text_splitter = CharacterTextSplitter()\n",
187 | "split_documents = text_splitter.split_texts(documents)\n",
188 | "len(split_documents)"
189 | ]
190 | },
191 | {
192 | "cell_type": "markdown",
193 | "metadata": {},
194 | "source": [
195 | "Let's take a look at some of the documents we've managed to split."
196 | ]
197 | },
198 | {
199 | "cell_type": "code",
200 | "execution_count": 7,
201 | "metadata": {},
202 | "outputs": [
203 | {
204 | "data": {
205 | "text/plain": [
206 | "[\"\\ufeffACT I\\nSCENE I. King Lear's palace.\\nEnter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND\\nKENT\\nI thought the king had more affected the Duke of\\nAlbany than Cornwall.\\nGLOUCESTER\\nIt did always seem so to us: but now, in the\\ndivision of the kingdom, it appears not which of\\nthe dukes he values most; for equalities are so\\nweighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice\\nof either's moiety.\\nKENT\\nIs not this your son, my lord?\\nGLOUCESTER\\nHis breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have\\nso often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am\\nbrazed to it.\\nKENT\\nI cannot conceive you.\\nGLOUCESTER\\nSir, this young fellow's mother could: whereupon\\nshe grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a son\\nfor her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed.\\nDo you smell a fault?\\nKENT\\nI cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it\\nbeing so proper.\\nGLOUCESTER\\nBut I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year\\nelder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account:\\nthough this knave came something saucily into the\\nworld before he was se\"]"
207 | ]
208 | },
209 | "execution_count": 7,
210 | "metadata": {},
211 | "output_type": "execute_result"
212 | }
213 | ],
214 | "source": [
215 | "split_documents[0:1]"
216 | ]
217 | },
218 | {
219 | "cell_type": "markdown",
220 | "metadata": {},
221 | "source": [
222 | "### Setting Your OpenAI API Key\n",
223 | "\n",
224 | "Let's take a second to input our OpenAI API Key!"
225 | ]
226 | },
227 | {
228 | "cell_type": "code",
229 | "execution_count": 8,
230 | "metadata": {},
231 | "outputs": [],
232 | "source": [
233 | "import os \n",
234 | "import getpass\n",
235 | "\n",
236 | "os.environ[\"OPENAI_API_KEY\"] = getpass.getpass(\"Enter your OpenAI API key: \")"
237 | ]
238 | },
239 | {
240 | "cell_type": "markdown",
241 | "metadata": {},
242 | "source": [
243 | "### Embeddings and Vectors\n",
244 | "\n",
245 | "Next, we have to convert our corpus into a \"machine readable\" format. \n",
246 | "\n",
247 | "Loosely, this means turning the text into numbers. \n",
248 | "\n",
249 | "There are plenty of resources that talk about this process in great detail - I'll leave this [blog](https://txt.cohere.com/sentence-word-embeddings/) from Cohere:AI as a resource if you want to deep dive a bit. \n",
250 | "\n",
251 | "Today, we're going to talk about the actual process of creating, and then storing, these embeddings, and how we can leverage that to intelligently add context to our queries."
252 | ]
253 | },
254 | {
255 | "cell_type": "markdown",
256 | "metadata": {},
257 | "source": [
258 | "While this is all baked into 1 call - let's look at some of the code that powers this process:\n",
259 | "\n",
260 | "Let's look at our `VectorDatabase().__init__()`:\n",
261 | "\n",
262 | "```python\n",
263 | "def __init__(self, embedding_model: EmbeddingModel = None):\n",
264 | " self.vectors = defaultdict(np.array)\n",
265 | " self.embedding_model = embedding_model or EmbeddingModel()\n",
266 | "```\n",
267 | "\n",
268 | "As you can see - our vectors are merely stored as a dictionary of `np.array` objects.\n",
269 | "\n",
270 | "Secondly, our `VectorDatabase()` has a default `EmbeddingModel()` which is a wrapper for OpenAI's `text-embedding-ada-002` model. \n",
271 | "\n",
272 | "> **Quick Info About `text-embedding-ada-002`**:\n",
273 | "> - It has a context window of **8192** tokens\n",
274 | "> - It returns vectors with dimension **1536**"
275 | ]
276 | },
277 | {
278 | "cell_type": "markdown",
279 | "metadata": {},
280 | "source": [
281 | "We can call the `async_get_embeddings` method of our `EmbeddingModel()` on a list of `str` and receive a list of `float` back!\n",
282 | "\n",
283 | "```python\n",
284 | "async def async_get_embedding(self, text: str) -> List[float]:\n",
285 | " return await openai.AsyncClient(api_key=self.openai_api_key).embeddings.create(\n",
286 | " input=text, model=self.embeddings_model_name\n",
287 | " )\n",
288 | "```"
289 | ]
290 | },
291 | {
292 | "cell_type": "markdown",
293 | "metadata": {},
294 | "source": [
295 | "We cast those to `np.array` when we build our `VectorDatabase()`:\n",
296 | "\n",
297 | "```python\n",
298 | "async def abuild_from_list(self, list_of_text: List[str]) -> \"VectorDatabase\":\n",
299 | " embeddings = await self.embedding_model.async_get_embeddings(list_of_text)\n",
300 | " for text, embedding in zip(list_of_text, embeddings.data):\n",
301 | " self.insert(text, np.array(embedding.embedding))\n",
302 | " return self\n",
303 | "```\n",
304 | "\n",
305 | "And that's all we need to do!"
306 | ]
307 | },
308 | {
309 | "cell_type": "code",
310 | "execution_count": 9,
311 | "metadata": {},
312 | "outputs": [],
313 | "source": [
314 | "vector_db = VectorDatabase()\n",
315 | "vector_db = asyncio.run(vector_db.abuild_from_list(split_documents))"
316 | ]
317 | },
318 | {
319 | "cell_type": "markdown",
320 | "metadata": {},
321 | "source": [
322 | "So, to review what we've done so far in natural language:\n",
323 | "\n",
324 | "1. We load source documents\n",
325 | "2. We split those source documents into smaller chunks (documents)\n",
326 | "3. We send each of those documents to the `text-embedding-ada-002` OpenAI API endpoint\n",
327 | "4. We store each of the text representations with the vector representations as keys/values in a dictionary"
328 | ]
329 | },
330 | {
331 | "cell_type": "markdown",
332 | "metadata": {},
333 | "source": [
334 | "### Semantic Similarity\n",
335 | "\n",
336 | "The next step is to be able to query our `VectorDatabase()` with a `str` and have it return to us vectors and text that is most relevant from our corpus. \n",
337 | "\n",
338 | "We're going to use the following process to achieve this in our toy example:\n",
339 | "\n",
340 | "1. We need to embed our query with the same `EmbeddingModel()` as we used to construct our `VectorDatabase()`\n",
341 | "2. We loop through every vector in our `VectorDatabase()` and use a distance measure to compare how related they are\n",
342 | "3. We return a list of the top `k` closest vectors, with their text representations\n",
343 | "\n",
344 | "There's some very heavy optimization that can be done at each of these steps - but let's just focus on the basic pattern in this notebook.\n",
345 | "\n",
346 | "> We are using [cosine similarity](https://www.engati.com/glossary/cosine-similarity) as a distance measure in this example - but there are many many distance measures you could use - like [these](https://flavien-vidal.medium.com/similarity-distances-for-natural-language-processing-16f63cd5ba55)\n",
347 | "\n",
348 | "> We are using a rather inefficient way of calculating relative distance between the query vector and all other vectors - there are more advanced approaches that are much more efficient, like [ANN](https://towardsdatascience.com/comprehensive-guide-to-approximate-nearest-neighbors-algorithms-8b94f057d6b6)"
349 | ]
350 | },
351 | {
352 | "cell_type": "code",
353 | "execution_count": 10,
354 | "metadata": {},
355 | "outputs": [
356 | {
357 | "data": {
358 | "text/plain": [
359 | "[(\"ng] O my good master!\\nKING LEAR\\nPrithee, away.\\nEDGAR\\n'Tis noble Kent, your friend.\\nKING LEAR\\nA plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!\\nI might have saved her; now she's gone for ever!\\nCordelia, Cordelia! stay a little. Ha!\\nWhat is't thou say'st? Her voice was ever soft,\\nGentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman.\\nI kill'd the slave that was a-hanging thee.\\nCaptain\\n'Tis true, my lords, he did.\\nKING LEAR\\nDid I not, fellow?\\nI have seen the day, with my good biting falchion\\nI would have made them skip: I am old now,\\nAnd these same crosses spoil me. Who are you?\\nMine eyes are not o' the best: I'll tell you straight.\\nKENT\\nIf fortune brag of two she loved and hated,\\nOne of them we behold.\\nKING LEAR\\nThis is a dull sight. Are you not Kent?\\nKENT\\nThe same,\\nYour servant Kent: Where is your servant Caius?\\nKING LEAR\\nHe's a good fellow, I can tell you that;\\nHe'll strike, and quickly too: he's dead and rotten.\\nKENT\\nNo, my good lord; I am the very man,--\\nKING LEAR\\nI'll see that straight.\\nKENT\\nThat,\",\n",
360 | " 0.833910724880286),\n",
361 | " (\",\\nLay comforts to your bosom; and bestow\\nYour needful counsel to our business,\\nWhich craves the instant use.\\nGLOUCESTER\\nI serve you, madam:\\nYour graces are right welcome.\\nExeunt\\n\\nSCENE II. Before Gloucester's castle.\\nEnter KENT and OSWALD, severally\\nOSWALD\\nGood dawning to thee, friend: art of this house?\\nKENT\\nAy.\\nOSWALD\\nWhere may we set our horses?\\nKENT\\nI' the mire.\\nOSWALD\\nPrithee, if thou lovest me, tell me.\\nKENT\\nI love thee not.\\nOSWALD\\nWhy, then, I care not for thee.\\nKENT\\nIf I had thee in Lipsbury pinfold, I would make thee\\ncare for me.\\nOSWALD\\nWhy dost thou use me thus? I know thee not.\\nKENT\\nFellow, I know thee.\\nOSWALD\\nWhat dost thou know me for?\\nKENT\\nA knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a\\nbase, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited,\\nhundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a\\nlily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,\\nglass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue;\\none-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a\\nbawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but\\nth\",\n",
362 | " 0.8216296597967385),\n",
363 | " (\" Caius?\\nKING LEAR\\nHe's a good fellow, I can tell you that;\\nHe'll strike, and quickly too: he's dead and rotten.\\nKENT\\nNo, my good lord; I am the very man,--\\nKING LEAR\\nI'll see that straight.\\nKENT\\nThat, from your first of difference and decay,\\nHave follow'd your sad steps.\\nKING LEAR\\nYou are welcome hither.\\nKENT\\nNor no man else: all's cheerless, dark, and deadly.\\nYour eldest daughters have fordone them selves,\\nAnd desperately are dead.\\nKING LEAR\\nAy, so I think.\\nALBANY\\nHe knows not what he says: and vain it is\\nThat we present us to him.\\nEDGAR\\nVery bootless.\\nEnter a Captain\\n\\nCaptain\\nEdmund is dead, my lord.\\nALBANY\\nThat's but a trifle here.\\nYou lords and noble friends, know our intent.\\nWhat comfort to this great decay may come\\nShall be applied: for us we will resign,\\nDuring the life of this old majesty,\\nTo him our absolute power:\\nTo EDGAR and KENT\\n\\nyou, to your rights:\\nWith boot, and such addition as your honours\\nHave more than merited. All friends shall taste\\nThe wages of their virtue, and \",\n",
364 | " 0.8213496224803846)]"
365 | ]
366 | },
367 | "execution_count": 10,
368 | "metadata": {},
369 | "output_type": "execute_result"
370 | }
371 | ],
372 | "source": [
373 | "vector_db.search_by_text(\"Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius?\", k=3)"
374 | ]
375 | },
376 | {
377 | "cell_type": "markdown",
378 | "metadata": {},
379 | "source": [
380 | "# Prompts\n",
381 | "\n",
382 | "In the following section, we'll be looking at the role of prompts - and how they help us to guide our application in the right direction.\n",
383 | "\n",
384 | "In this notebook, we're going to rely on the idea of \"zero-shot in-context learning\".\n",
385 | "\n",
386 | "This is a lot of words to say: \"We will ask it to perform our desired task in the prompt, and provide no examples.\""
387 | ]
388 | },
389 | {
390 | "cell_type": "markdown",
391 | "metadata": {},
392 | "source": [
393 | "### XYZRolePrompt\n",
394 | "\n",
395 | "Before we do that, let's stop and think a bit about how OpenAI's chat models work. \n",
396 | "\n",
397 | "We know they have roles - as is indicated in the following API [documentation](https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/chat/create#chat/create-messages)\n",
398 | "\n",
399 | "There are three roles, and they function as follows (taken directly from [OpenAI](https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/gpt/chat-completions-api)): \n",
400 | "\n",
401 | "- `{\"role\" : \"system\"}` : The system message helps set the behavior of the assistant. For example, you can modify the personality of the assistant or provide specific instructions about how it should behave throughout the conversation. However note that the system message is optional and the model’s behavior without a system message is likely to be similar to using a generic message such as \"You are a helpful assistant.\"\n",
402 | "- `{\"role\" : \"user\"}` : The user messages provide requests or comments for the assistant to respond to.\n",
403 | "- `{\"role\" : \"assistant\"}` : Assistant messages store previous assistant responses, but can also be written by you to give examples of desired behavior.\n",
404 | "\n",
405 | "The main idea is this: \n",
406 | "\n",
407 | "1. You start with a system message that outlines how the LLM should respond, what kind of behaviours you can expect from it, and more\n",
408 | "2. Then, you can provide a few examples in the form of \"assistant\"/\"user\" pairs\n",
409 | "3. Then, you prompt the model with the true \"user\" message.\n",
410 | "\n",
411 | "In this example, we'll be forgoing the 2nd step for simplicities sake."
412 | ]
413 | },
414 | {
415 | "cell_type": "code",
416 | "execution_count": 11,
417 | "metadata": {},
418 | "outputs": [],
419 | "source": [
420 | "from aimakerspace.openai_utils.prompts import (\n",
421 | " UserRolePrompt,\n",
422 | " SystemRolePrompt,\n",
423 | " AssistantRolePrompt,\n",
424 | ")\n",
425 | "\n",
426 | "from aimakerspace.openai_utils.chatmodel import ChatOpenAI\n",
427 | "\n",
428 | "chat_openai = ChatOpenAI()\n",
429 | "user_prompt_template = \"{content}\"\n",
430 | "user_role_prompt = UserRolePrompt(user_prompt_template)\n",
431 | "system_prompt_template = (\n",
432 | " \"You are an expert in {expertise}, you always answer in a kind way.\"\n",
433 | ")\n",
434 | "system_role_prompt = SystemRolePrompt(system_prompt_template)\n",
435 | "\n",
436 | "messages = [\n",
437 | " user_role_prompt.create_message(\n",
438 | " content=\"What is the best way to write a loop?\"\n",
439 | " ),\n",
440 | " system_role_prompt.create_message(expertise=\"Python\"),\n",
441 | "]\n",
442 | "\n",
443 | "response = chat_openai.run(messages)"
444 | ]
445 | },
446 | {
447 | "cell_type": "code",
448 | "execution_count": 12,
449 | "metadata": {},
450 | "outputs": [
451 | {
452 | "name": "stdout",
453 | "output_type": "stream",
454 | "text": [
455 | "The best way to write a loop in Python is to use the `for` loop or `while` loop, depending on the situation. \n",
456 | "\n",
457 | "Here is an example of a `for` loop:\n",
458 | "```python\n",
459 | "for i in range(5):\n",
460 | " print(i)\n",
461 | "```\n",
462 | "\n",
463 | "And here is an example of a `while` loop:\n",
464 | "```python\n",
465 | "i = 0\n",
466 | "while i < 5:\n",
467 | " print(i)\n",
468 | " i += 1\n",
469 | "```\n",
470 | "\n",
471 | "Make sure to use clear and concise variable names, and to write code that is easy to read and understand. Also, be mindful of performance and efficiency when writing loops, especially when dealing with large datasets. Happy coding!\n"
472 | ]
473 | }
474 | ],
475 | "source": [
476 | "print(response)"
477 | ]
478 | },
479 | {
480 | "cell_type": "markdown",
481 | "metadata": {},
482 | "source": [
483 | "### Retrieval Augmented Question Answering Prompt\n",
484 | "\n",
485 | "Now we can create a RAQA prompt - which will help our system behave in a way that makes sense!\n",
486 | "\n",
487 | "There is much you could do here, many tweaks and improvements to be made!"
488 | ]
489 | },
490 | {
491 | "cell_type": "code",
492 | "execution_count": 14,
493 | "metadata": {},
494 | "outputs": [],
495 | "source": [
496 | "RAQA_PROMPT_TEMPLATE = \"\"\"\n",
497 | "Use the provided context to answer the user's query. \n",
498 | "\n",
499 | "You may not answer the user's query unless there is specific context in the following text.\n",
500 | "\n",
501 | "If you do not know the answer, or cannot answer, please respond with \"I don't know\".\n",
502 | "\n",
503 | "Context:\n",
504 | "{context}\n",
505 | "\"\"\"\n",
506 | "\n",
507 | "raqa_prompt = SystemRolePrompt(RAQA_PROMPT_TEMPLATE)\n",
508 | "\n",
509 | "USER_PROMPT_TEMPLATE = \"\"\"\n",
510 | "User Query:\n",
511 | "{user_query}\n",
512 | "\"\"\"\n",
513 | "\n",
514 | "user_prompt = UserRolePrompt(USER_PROMPT_TEMPLATE)\n",
515 | "\n",
516 | "class RetrievalAugmentedQAPipeline:\n",
517 | " def __init__(self, llm: ChatOpenAI(), vector_db_retriever: VectorDatabase) -> None:\n",
518 | " self.llm = llm\n",
519 | " self.vector_db_retriever = vector_db_retriever\n",
520 | "\n",
521 | " def run_pipeline(self, user_query: str) -> str:\n",
522 | " context_list = self.vector_db_retriever.search_by_text(user_query, k=4)\n",
523 | " \n",
524 | " context_prompt = \"\"\n",
525 | " for context in context_list:\n",
526 | " context_prompt += context[0] + \"\\n\"\n",
527 | "\n",
528 | " formatted_system_prompt = raqa_prompt.create_message(context=context_prompt)\n",
529 | "\n",
530 | " formatted_user_prompt = user_prompt.create_message(user_query=user_query)\n",
531 | " \n",
532 | " return self.llm.run([formatted_system_prompt, formatted_user_prompt])"
533 | ]
534 | },
535 | {
536 | "cell_type": "code",
537 | "execution_count": 15,
538 | "metadata": {},
539 | "outputs": [],
540 | "source": [
541 | "retrieval_augmented_qa_pipeline = RetrievalAugmentedQAPipeline(\n",
542 | " vector_db_retriever=vector_db,\n",
543 | " llm=chat_openai\n",
544 | ")"
545 | ]
546 | },
547 | {
548 | "cell_type": "code",
549 | "execution_count": 16,
550 | "metadata": {},
551 | "outputs": [
552 | {
553 | "data": {
554 | "text/plain": [
555 | "'King Lear is a character from William Shakespeare\\'s play \"King Lear.\" He is portrayed as an elderly king who descends into madness after making a series of disastrous decisions regarding his kingdom and his relationships with his daughters. Throughout the play, King Lear struggles with his identity, his authority, and the consequences of his actions, leading to a tragic storyline filled with betrayal and heartache.'"
556 | ]
557 | },
558 | "execution_count": 16,
559 | "metadata": {},
560 | "output_type": "execute_result"
561 | }
562 | ],
563 | "source": [
564 | "retrieval_augmented_qa_pipeline.run_pipeline(\"Who is King Lear?\")"
565 | ]
566 | },
567 | {
568 | "cell_type": "code",
569 | "execution_count": 17,
570 | "metadata": {},
571 | "outputs": [
572 | {
573 | "data": {
574 | "text/plain": [
575 | "\"I don't know.\""
576 | ]
577 | },
578 | "execution_count": 17,
579 | "metadata": {},
580 | "output_type": "execute_result"
581 | }
582 | ],
583 | "source": [
584 | "retrieval_augmented_qa_pipeline.run_pipeline(\"Who is Batman?\")"
585 | ]
586 | },
587 | {
588 | "cell_type": "code",
589 | "execution_count": 18,
590 | "metadata": {},
591 | "outputs": [
592 | {
593 | "data": {
594 | "text/plain": [
595 | "\"In the context provided, Cordelia tragically dies in the arms of King Lear. Despite Lear's heartbreak and realization of her death, he hopes for a miracle and believes she may still be alive. However, the text ultimately confirms Cordelia's passing as a result of her unjust imprisonment which led to her despair.\""
596 | ]
597 | },
598 | "execution_count": 18,
599 | "metadata": {},
600 | "output_type": "execute_result"
601 | }
602 | ],
603 | "source": [
604 | "retrieval_augmented_qa_pipeline.run_pipeline(\"What happens to Cordelia?\")"
605 | ]
606 | },
607 | {
608 | "cell_type": "markdown",
609 | "metadata": {},
610 | "source": [
611 | "# Conclusion\n",
612 | "\n",
613 | "In this notebook, we've gone through the steps required to create your own simple RAQA application!\n",
614 | "\n",
615 | "Please feel free to extend this as much as you'd like. "
616 | ]
617 | },
618 | {
619 | "cell_type": "markdown",
620 | "metadata": {},
621 | "source": [
622 | "# Bonus Challenges\n",
623 | "\n",
624 | "Challenge 1: \n",
625 | "- Implement a new distance measure\n",
626 | "- Implement a more efficient vector search\n",
627 | "\n",
628 | "Challenge 2: \n",
629 | "- Create an external VectorStore that can be run/hosted elsewhere\n",
630 | "- Build an adapter for that VectorStore here"
631 | ]
632 | }
633 | ],
634 | "metadata": {
635 | "kernelspec": {
636 | "display_name": "buildyourownlangchain",
637 | "language": "python",
638 | "name": "python3"
639 | },
640 | "language_info": {
641 | "codemirror_mode": {
642 | "name": "ipython",
643 | "version": 3
644 | },
645 | "file_extension": ".py",
646 | "mimetype": "text/x-python",
647 | "name": "python",
648 | "nbconvert_exporter": "python",
649 | "pygments_lexer": "ipython3",
650 | "version": "3.11.8"
651 | },
652 | "orig_nbformat": 4
653 | },
654 | "nbformat": 4,
655 | "nbformat_minor": 2
656 | }
657 |
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/aimakerspace/__init__.py:
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https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AI-Maker-Space/Build-Your-Own-RAG-System/824116cc544e1f180f0f2ebd17197bee4705425e/aimakerspace/__init__.py
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/aimakerspace/openai_utils/__init__.py:
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https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AI-Maker-Space/Build-Your-Own-RAG-System/824116cc544e1f180f0f2ebd17197bee4705425e/aimakerspace/openai_utils/__init__.py
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/aimakerspace/openai_utils/chatmodel.py:
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1 | import openai
2 | from dotenv import load_dotenv
3 | import os
4 |
5 | load_dotenv()
6 |
7 | class ChatOpenAI:
8 | def __init__(self, model_name: str = "gpt-3.5-turbo"):
9 | self.model_name = model_name
10 | self.openai_api_key = os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY")
11 | if self.openai_api_key is None:
12 | raise ValueError("OPENAI_API_KEY is not set")
13 |
14 | def run(self, messages, text_only: bool = True):
15 | if not isinstance(messages, list):
16 | raise ValueError("messages must be a list")
17 |
18 | openai.api_key = self.openai_api_key
19 | response = openai.Client().chat.completions.create(
20 | model=self.model_name, messages=messages
21 | )
22 |
23 | if text_only:
24 | return response.choices[0].message.content
25 |
26 | return response
27 |
28 | if __name__ == "__main__":
29 | print("Testing ChatOpenAI")
30 | chat_openai = ChatOpenAI()
31 | messages = [
32 | {"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful assistant."},
33 | {"role": "user", "content": "What is the meaning of life?"}
34 | ]
35 | response = chat_openai.run(messages)
36 | print(response)
37 |
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/aimakerspace/openai_utils/embedding.py:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | from dotenv import load_dotenv
2 | import openai
3 | from typing import List
4 | import os
5 | import asyncio
6 |
7 |
8 | class EmbeddingModel:
9 | def __init__(self, embeddings_model_name: str = "text-embedding-ada-002"):
10 | load_dotenv()
11 | self.openai_api_key = os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY")
12 |
13 | if self.openai_api_key is None:
14 | raise ValueError(
15 | "OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable is not set. Please set it to your OpenAI API key."
16 | )
17 | openai.api_key = self.openai_api_key
18 | self.embeddings_model_name = embeddings_model_name
19 |
20 | async def async_get_embeddings(self, list_of_text: List[str]) -> List[List[float]]:
21 | return await openai.AsyncClient(api_key=self.openai_api_key).embeddings.create(
22 | input=list_of_text, model=self.embeddings_model_name
23 | )
24 |
25 | async def async_get_embedding(self, text: str) -> List[float]:
26 | return await openai.AsyncClient(api_key=self.openai_api_key).embeddings.create(
27 | input=text, model=self.embeddings_model_name
28 | )
29 |
30 | def get_embeddings(self, list_of_text: List[str]) -> List[List[float]]:
31 | return openai.Client(api_key=self.openai_api_key).embeddings.create(
32 | input=list_of_text, model=self.embeddings_model_name
33 | )
34 |
35 | def get_embedding(self, text: str) -> List[float]:
36 | return openai.Client(api_key=self.openai_api_key).embeddings.create(
37 | input=text, model=self.embeddings_model_name
38 | )
39 |
40 |
41 | if __name__ == "__main__":
42 | embedding_model = EmbeddingModel()
43 | print(embedding_model.get_embedding("Hello, world!"))
44 | print(embedding_model.get_embeddings(["Hello, world!", "Goodbye, world!"]))
45 | print(asyncio.run(embedding_model.async_get_embedding("Hello, world!")))
46 | print(
47 | asyncio.run(
48 | embedding_model.async_get_embeddings(["Hello, world!", "Goodbye, world!"])
49 | )
50 | )
51 |
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/aimakerspace/openai_utils/prompts.py:
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1 | import re
2 |
3 |
4 | class BasePrompt:
5 | def __init__(self, prompt):
6 | """
7 | Initializes the BasePrompt object with a prompt template.
8 |
9 | :param prompt: A string that can contain placeholders within curly braces
10 | """
11 | self.prompt = prompt
12 | self._pattern = re.compile(r"\{([^}]+)\}")
13 |
14 | def format_prompt(self, **kwargs):
15 | """
16 | Formats the prompt string using the keyword arguments provided.
17 |
18 | :param kwargs: The values to substitute into the prompt string
19 | :return: The formatted prompt string
20 | """
21 | matches = self._pattern.findall(self.prompt)
22 | return self.prompt.format(**{match: kwargs.get(match, "") for match in matches})
23 |
24 | def get_input_variables(self):
25 | """
26 | Gets the list of input variable names from the prompt string.
27 |
28 | :return: List of input variable names
29 | """
30 | return self._pattern.findall(self.prompt)
31 |
32 |
33 | class RolePrompt(BasePrompt):
34 | def __init__(self, prompt, role: str):
35 | """
36 | Initializes the RolePrompt object with a prompt template and a role.
37 |
38 | :param prompt: A string that can contain placeholders within curly braces
39 | :param role: The role for the message ('system', 'user', or 'assistant')
40 | """
41 | super().__init__(prompt)
42 | self.role = role
43 |
44 | def create_message(self, **kwargs):
45 | """
46 | Creates a message dictionary with a role and a formatted message.
47 |
48 | :param kwargs: The values to substitute into the prompt string
49 | :return: Dictionary containing the role and the formatted message
50 | """
51 | return {"role": self.role, "content": self.format_prompt(**kwargs)}
52 |
53 |
54 | class SystemRolePrompt(RolePrompt):
55 | def __init__(self, prompt: str):
56 | super().__init__(prompt, "system")
57 |
58 |
59 | class UserRolePrompt(RolePrompt):
60 | def __init__(self, prompt: str):
61 | super().__init__(prompt, "user")
62 |
63 |
64 | class AssistantRolePrompt(RolePrompt):
65 | def __init__(self, prompt: str):
66 | super().__init__(prompt, "assistant")
67 |
68 |
69 | if __name__ == "__main__":
70 | prompt = BasePrompt("Hello {name}, you are {age} years old")
71 | print(prompt.format_prompt(name="John", age=30))
72 |
73 | prompt = SystemRolePrompt("Hello {name}, you are {age} years old")
74 | print(prompt.create_message(name="John", age=30))
75 | print(prompt.get_input_variables())
76 |
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/aimakerspace/text_utils.py:
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1 | import os
2 | from typing import List
3 |
4 |
5 | class TextFileLoader:
6 | def __init__(self, path: str, encoding: str = "utf-8"):
7 | self.documents = []
8 | self.path = path
9 | self.encoding = encoding
10 |
11 | def load(self):
12 | if os.path.isdir(self.path):
13 | self.load_directory()
14 | elif os.path.isfile(self.path) and self.path.endswith(".txt"):
15 | self.load_file()
16 | else:
17 | raise ValueError(
18 | "Provided path is neither a valid directory nor a .txt file."
19 | )
20 |
21 | def load_file(self):
22 | with open(self.path, "r", encoding=self.encoding) as f:
23 | self.documents.append(f.read())
24 |
25 | def load_directory(self):
26 | for root, _, files in os.walk(self.path):
27 | for file in files:
28 | if file.endswith(".txt"):
29 | with open(
30 | os.path.join(root, file), "r", encoding=self.encoding
31 | ) as f:
32 | self.documents.append(f.read())
33 |
34 | def load_documents(self):
35 | self.load()
36 | return self.documents
37 |
38 |
39 | class CharacterTextSplitter:
40 | def __init__(
41 | self,
42 | chunk_size: int = 1000,
43 | chunk_overlap: int = 200,
44 | ):
45 | assert (
46 | chunk_size > chunk_overlap
47 | ), "Chunk size must be greater than chunk overlap"
48 |
49 | self.chunk_size = chunk_size
50 | self.chunk_overlap = chunk_overlap
51 |
52 | def split(self, text: str) -> List[str]:
53 | chunks = []
54 | for i in range(0, len(text), self.chunk_size - self.chunk_overlap):
55 | chunks.append(text[i : i + self.chunk_size])
56 | return chunks
57 |
58 | def split_texts(self, texts: List[str]) -> List[str]:
59 | chunks = []
60 | for text in texts:
61 | chunks.extend(self.split(text))
62 | return chunks
63 |
64 |
65 | if __name__ == "__main__":
66 | loader = TextFileLoader("data/KingLear.txt")
67 | loader.load()
68 | splitter = CharacterTextSplitter()
69 | chunks = splitter.split_texts(loader.documents)
70 | print(len(chunks))
71 | print(chunks[0])
72 | print("--------")
73 | print(chunks[1])
74 | print("--------")
75 | print(chunks[-2])
76 | print("--------")
77 | print(chunks[-1])
78 |
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/aimakerspace/vectordatabase.py:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | import numpy as np
2 | from collections import defaultdict
3 | from typing import List, Tuple, Callable
4 | from aimakerspace.openai_utils.embedding import EmbeddingModel
5 | import asyncio
6 |
7 |
8 | def cosine_similarity(vector_a: np.array, vector_b: np.array) -> float:
9 | """Computes the cosine similarity between two vectors."""
10 | dot_product = np.dot(vector_a, vector_b)
11 | norm_a = np.linalg.norm(vector_a)
12 | norm_b = np.linalg.norm(vector_b)
13 | return dot_product / (norm_a * norm_b)
14 |
15 |
16 | class VectorDatabase:
17 | def __init__(self, embedding_model: EmbeddingModel = None):
18 | self.vectors = defaultdict(np.array)
19 | self.embedding_model = embedding_model or EmbeddingModel()
20 |
21 | def insert(self, key: str, vector: np.array) -> None:
22 | self.vectors[key] = vector
23 |
24 | def search(
25 | self,
26 | query_vector: np.array,
27 | k: int,
28 | distance_measure: Callable = cosine_similarity,
29 | ) -> List[Tuple[str, float]]:
30 | scores = [
31 | (key, distance_measure(query_vector, vector))
32 | for key, vector in self.vectors.items()
33 | ]
34 | return sorted(scores, key=lambda x: x[1], reverse=True)[:k]
35 |
36 | def search_by_text(
37 | self,
38 | query_text: str,
39 | k: int,
40 | distance_measure: Callable = cosine_similarity,
41 | return_as_text: bool = False,
42 | ) -> List[Tuple[str, float]]:
43 | query_vector = self.embedding_model.get_embedding(query_text)
44 | results = self.search(query_vector.data[0].embedding, k, distance_measure)
45 | return [result[0] for result in results] if return_as_text else results
46 |
47 | def retrieve_from_key(self, key: str) -> np.array:
48 | return self.vectors.get(key, None)
49 |
50 | async def abuild_from_list(self, list_of_text: List[str]) -> "VectorDatabase":
51 | embeddings = await self.embedding_model.async_get_embeddings(list_of_text)
52 | for text, embedding in zip(list_of_text, embeddings.data):
53 | self.insert(text, np.array(embedding.embedding))
54 | return self
55 |
56 |
57 | if __name__ == "__main__":
58 | list_of_text = [
59 | "I like to eat spinach and bananas.",
60 | "I ate a banana and spinach smoothie for breakfast.",
61 | "Chinchillas and kittens are cute.",
62 | "My sister adopted a kitten yesterday.",
63 | "Look at this cute hamster munching on a piece of broccoli.",
64 | ]
65 |
66 | vector_db = VectorDatabase()
67 | vector_db = asyncio.run(vector_db.abuild_from_list(list_of_text))
68 | k = 2
69 |
70 | searched_vector = vector_db.search_by_text("I think fruit is awesome!", k=k)
71 | print(f"Closest {k} vector(s):", searched_vector)
72 |
73 | retrieved_vector = vector_db.retrieve_from_key(
74 | "I like to eat broccoli and bananas."
75 | )
76 | print("Retrieved vector:", retrieved_vector)
77 |
78 | relevant_texts = vector_db.search_by_text(
79 | "I think fruit is awesome!", k=k, return_as_text=True
80 | )
81 | print(f"Closest {k} text(s):", relevant_texts)
82 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/data/KingLear.txt:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | ACT I
2 | SCENE I. King Lear's palace.
3 | Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND
4 | KENT
5 | I thought the king had more affected the Duke of
6 | Albany than Cornwall.
7 | GLOUCESTER
8 | It did always seem so to us: but now, in the
9 | division of the kingdom, it appears not which of
10 | the dukes he values most; for equalities are so
11 | weighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice
12 | of either's moiety.
13 | KENT
14 | Is not this your son, my lord?
15 | GLOUCESTER
16 | His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have
17 | so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am
18 | brazed to it.
19 | KENT
20 | I cannot conceive you.
21 | GLOUCESTER
22 | Sir, this young fellow's mother could: whereupon
23 | she grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a son
24 | for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed.
25 | Do you smell a fault?
26 | KENT
27 | I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it
28 | being so proper.
29 | GLOUCESTER
30 | But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year
31 | elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account:
32 | though this knave came something saucily into the
33 | world before he was sent for, yet was his mother
34 | fair; there was good sport at his making, and the
35 | whoreson must be acknowledged. Do you know this
36 | noble gentleman, Edmund?
37 | EDMUND
38 | No, my lord.
39 | GLOUCESTER
40 | My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my
41 | honourable friend.
42 | EDMUND
43 | My services to your lordship.
44 | KENT
45 | I must love you, and sue to know you better.
46 | EDMUND
47 | Sir, I shall study deserving.
48 | GLOUCESTER
49 | He hath been out nine years, and away he shall
50 | again. The king is coming.
51 | Sennet. Enter KING LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA, and Attendants
52 |
53 | KING LEAR
54 | Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.
55 | GLOUCESTER
56 | I shall, my liege.
57 | Exeunt GLOUCESTER and EDMUND
58 |
59 | KING LEAR
60 | Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.
61 | Give me the map there. Know that we have divided
62 | In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent
63 | To shake all cares and business from our age;
64 | Conferring them on younger strengths, while we
65 | Unburthen'd crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall,
66 | And you, our no less loving son of Albany,
67 | We have this hour a constant will to publish
68 | Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife
69 | May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy,
70 | Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,
71 | Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,
72 | And here are to be answer'd. Tell me, my daughters,--
73 | Since now we will divest us both of rule,
74 | Interest of territory, cares of state,--
75 | Which of you shall we say doth love us most?
76 | That we our largest bounty may extend
77 | Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,
78 | Our eldest-born, speak first.
79 | GONERIL
80 | Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;
81 | Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;
82 | Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;
83 | No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;
84 | As much as child e'er loved, or father found;
85 | A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
86 | Beyond all manner of so much I love you.
87 | CORDELIA
88 | [Aside] What shall Cordelia do?
89 | Love, and be silent.
90 | LEAR
91 | Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
92 | With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd,
93 | With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
94 | We make thee lady: to thine and Albany's issue
95 | Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,
96 | Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.
97 | REGAN
98 | Sir, I am made
99 | Of the self-same metal that my sister is,
100 | And prize me at her worth. In my true heart
101 | I find she names my very deed of love;
102 | Only she comes too short: that I profess
103 | Myself an enemy to all other joys,
104 | Which the most precious square of sense possesses;
105 | And find I am alone felicitate
106 | In your dear highness' love.
107 | CORDELIA
108 | [Aside] Then poor Cordelia!
109 | And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's
110 | More richer than my tongue.
111 | KING LEAR
112 | To thee and thine hereditary ever
113 | Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom;
114 | No less in space, validity, and pleasure,
115 | Than that conferr'd on Goneril. Now, our joy,
116 | Although the last, not least; to whose young love
117 | The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
118 | Strive to be interess'd; what can you say to draw
119 | A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.
120 | CORDELIA
121 | Nothing, my lord.
122 | KING LEAR
123 | Nothing!
124 | CORDELIA
125 | Nothing.
126 | KING LEAR
127 | Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
128 | CORDELIA
129 | Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
130 | My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
131 | According to my bond; nor more nor less.
132 | KING LEAR
133 | How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little,
134 | Lest it may mar your fortunes.
135 | CORDELIA
136 | Good my lord,
137 | You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
138 | Return those duties back as are right fit,
139 | Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
140 | Why have my sisters husbands, if they say
141 | They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
142 | That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
143 | Half my love with him, half my care and duty:
144 | Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,
145 | To love my father all.
146 | KING LEAR
147 | But goes thy heart with this?
148 | CORDELIA
149 | Ay, good my lord.
150 | KING LEAR
151 | So young, and so untender?
152 | CORDELIA
153 | So young, my lord, and true.
154 | KING LEAR
155 | Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy dower:
156 | For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
157 | The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;
158 | By all the operation of the orbs
159 | From whom we do exist, and cease to be;
160 | Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
161 | Propinquity and property of blood,
162 | And as a stranger to my heart and me
163 | Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian,
164 | Or he that makes his generation messes
165 | To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
166 | Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and relieved,
167 | As thou my sometime daughter.
168 | KENT
169 | Good my liege,--
170 | KING LEAR
171 | Peace, Kent!
172 | Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
173 | I loved her most, and thought to set my rest
174 | On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight!
175 | So be my grave my peace, as here I give
176 | Her father's heart from her! Call France; who stirs?
177 | Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,
178 | With my two daughters' dowers digest this third:
179 | Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
180 | I do invest you jointly with my power,
181 | Pre-eminence, and all the large effects
182 | That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,
183 | With reservation of an hundred knights,
184 | By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode
185 | Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain
186 | The name, and all the additions to a king;
187 | The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
188 | Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,
189 | This coronet part betwixt you.
190 | Giving the crown
191 |
192 | KENT
193 | Royal Lear,
194 | Whom I have ever honour'd as my king,
195 | Loved as my father, as my master follow'd,
196 | As my great patron thought on in my prayers,--
197 | KING LEAR
198 | The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft.
199 | KENT
200 | Let it fall rather, though the fork invade
201 | The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly,
202 | When Lear is mad. What wilt thou do, old man?
203 | Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak,
204 | When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound,
205 | When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom;
206 | And, in thy best consideration, cheque
207 | This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgment,
208 | Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least;
209 | Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound
210 | Reverbs no hollowness.
211 | KING LEAR
212 | Kent, on thy life, no more.
213 | KENT
214 | My life I never held but as a pawn
215 | To wage against thy enemies; nor fear to lose it,
216 | Thy safety being the motive.
217 | KING LEAR
218 | Out of my sight!
219 | KENT
220 | See better, Lear; and let me still remain
221 | The true blank of thine eye.
222 | KING LEAR
223 | Now, by Apollo,--
224 | KENT
225 | Now, by Apollo, king,
226 | Thou swear'st thy gods in vain.
227 | KING LEAR
228 | O, vassal! miscreant!
229 | Laying his hand on his sword
230 |
231 | ALBANY CORNWALL
232 | Dear sir, forbear.
233 | KENT
234 | Do:
235 | Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow
236 | Upon thy foul disease. Revoke thy doom;
237 | Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,
238 | I'll tell thee thou dost evil.
239 | KING LEAR
240 | Hear me, recreant!
241 | On thine allegiance, hear me!
242 | Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow,
243 | Which we durst never yet, and with strain'd pride
244 | To come between our sentence and our power,
245 | Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,
246 | Our potency made good, take thy reward.
247 | Five days we do allot thee, for provision
248 | To shield thee from diseases of the world;
249 | And on the sixth to turn thy hated back
250 | Upon our kingdom: if, on the tenth day following,
251 | Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,
252 | The moment is thy death. Away! by Jupiter,
253 | This shall not be revoked.
254 | KENT
255 | Fare thee well, king: sith thus thou wilt appear,
256 | Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.
257 | To CORDELIA
258 |
259 | The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid,
260 | That justly think'st, and hast most rightly said!
261 | To REGAN and GONERIL
262 |
263 | And your large speeches may your deeds approve,
264 | That good effects may spring from words of love.
265 | Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu;
266 | He'll shape his old course in a country new.
267 | Exit
268 |
269 | Flourish. Re-enter GLOUCESTER, with KING OF FRANCE, BURGUNDY, and Attendants
270 |
271 | GLOUCESTER
272 | Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord.
273 | KING LEAR
274 | My lord of Burgundy.
275 | We first address towards you, who with this king
276 | Hath rivall'd for our daughter: what, in the least,
277 | Will you require in present dower with her,
278 | Or cease your quest of love?
279 | BURGUNDY
280 | Most royal majesty,
281 | I crave no more than what your highness offer'd,
282 | Nor will you tender less.
283 | KING LEAR
284 | Right noble Burgundy,
285 | When she was dear to us, we did hold her so;
286 | But now her price is fall'n. Sir, there she stands:
287 | If aught within that little seeming substance,
288 | Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced,
289 | And nothing more, may fitly like your grace,
290 | She's there, and she is yours.
291 | BURGUNDY
292 | I know no answer.
293 | KING LEAR
294 | Will you, with those infirmities she owes,
295 | Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate,
296 | Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath,
297 | Take her, or leave her?
298 | BURGUNDY
299 | Pardon me, royal sir;
300 | Election makes not up on such conditions.
301 | KING LEAR
302 | Then leave her, sir; for, by the power that made me,
303 | I tell you all her wealth.
304 | To KING OF FRANCE
305 |
306 | For you, great king,
307 | I would not from your love make such a stray,
308 | To match you where I hate; therefore beseech you
309 | To avert your liking a more worthier way
310 | Than on a wretch whom nature is ashamed
311 | Almost to acknowledge hers.
312 | KING OF FRANCE
313 | This is most strange,
314 | That she, that even but now was your best object,
315 | The argument of your praise, balm of your age,
316 | Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time
317 | Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle
318 | So many folds of favour. Sure, her offence
319 | Must be of such unnatural degree,
320 | That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection
321 | Fall'n into taint: which to believe of her,
322 | Must be a faith that reason without miracle
323 | Could never plant in me.
324 | CORDELIA
325 | I yet beseech your majesty,--
326 | If for I want that glib and oily art,
327 | To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend,
328 | I'll do't before I speak,--that you make known
329 | It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,
330 | No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step,
331 | That hath deprived me of your grace and favour;
332 | But even for want of that for which I am richer,
333 | A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue
334 | As I am glad I have not, though not to have it
335 | Hath lost me in your liking.
336 | KING LEAR
337 | Better thou
338 | Hadst not been born than not to have pleased me better.
339 | KING OF FRANCE
340 | Is it but this,--a tardiness in nature
341 | Which often leaves the history unspoke
342 | That it intends to do? My lord of Burgundy,
343 | What say you to the lady? Love's not love
344 | When it is mingled with regards that stand
345 | Aloof from the entire point. Will you have her?
346 | She is herself a dowry.
347 | BURGUNDY
348 | Royal Lear,
349 | Give but that portion which yourself proposed,
350 | And here I take Cordelia by the hand,
351 | Duchess of Burgundy.
352 | KING LEAR
353 | Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm.
354 | BURGUNDY
355 | I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father
356 | That you must lose a husband.
357 | CORDELIA
358 | Peace be with Burgundy!
359 | Since that respects of fortune are his love,
360 | I shall not be his wife.
361 | KING OF FRANCE
362 | Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor;
363 | Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!
364 | Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon:
365 | Be it lawful I take up what's cast away.
366 | Gods, gods! 'tis strange that from their cold'st neglect
367 | My love should kindle to inflamed respect.
368 | Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my chance,
369 | Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France:
370 | Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy
371 | Can buy this unprized precious maid of me.
372 | Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind:
373 | Thou losest here, a better where to find.
374 | KING LEAR
375 | Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we
376 | Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see
377 | That face of hers again. Therefore be gone
378 | Without our grace, our love, our benison.
379 | Come, noble Burgundy.
380 | Flourish. Exeunt all but KING OF FRANCE, GONERIL, REGAN, and CORDELIA
381 |
382 | KING OF FRANCE
383 | Bid farewell to your sisters.
384 | CORDELIA
385 | The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes
386 | Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are;
387 | And like a sister am most loath to call
388 | Your faults as they are named. Use well our father:
389 | To your professed bosoms I commit him
390 | But yet, alas, stood I within his grace,
391 | I would prefer him to a better place.
392 | So, farewell to you both.
393 | REGAN
394 | Prescribe not us our duties.
395 | GONERIL
396 | Let your study
397 | Be to content your lord, who hath received you
398 | At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted,
399 | And well are worth the want that you have wanted.
400 | CORDELIA
401 | Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides:
402 | Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.
403 | Well may you prosper!
404 | KING OF FRANCE
405 | Come, my fair Cordelia.
406 | Exeunt KING OF FRANCE and CORDELIA
407 |
408 | GONERIL
409 | Sister, it is not a little I have to say of what
410 | most nearly appertains to us both. I think our
411 | father will hence to-night.
412 | REGAN
413 | That's most certain, and with you; next month with us.
414 | GONERIL
415 | You see how full of changes his age is; the
416 | observation we have made of it hath not been
417 | little: he always loved our sister most; and
418 | with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off
419 | appears too grossly.
420 | REGAN
421 | 'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever
422 | but slenderly known himself.
423 | GONERIL
424 | The best and soundest of his time hath been but
425 | rash; then must we look to receive from his age,
426 | not alone the imperfections of long-engraffed
427 | condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness
428 | that infirm and choleric years bring with them.
429 | REGAN
430 | Such unconstant starts are we like to have from
431 | him as this of Kent's banishment.
432 | GONERIL
433 | There is further compliment of leavetaking
434 | between France and him. Pray you, let's hit
435 | together: if our father carry authority with
436 | such dispositions as he bears, this last
437 | surrender of his will but offend us.
438 | REGAN
439 | We shall further think on't.
440 | GONERIL
441 | We must do something, and i' the heat.
442 | Exeunt
443 |
444 | SCENE II. The Earl of Gloucester's castle.
445 | Enter EDMUND, with a letter
446 | EDMUND
447 | Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law
448 | My services are bound. Wherefore should I
449 | Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
450 | The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
451 | For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines
452 | Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?
453 | When my dimensions are as well compact,
454 | My mind as generous, and my shape as true,
455 | As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us
456 | With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?
457 | Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
458 | More composition and fierce quality
459 | Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
460 | Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,
461 | Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well, then,
462 | Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
463 | Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
464 | As to the legitimate: fine word,--legitimate!
465 | Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
466 | And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
467 | Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:
468 | Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
469 | Enter GLOUCESTER
470 |
471 | GLOUCESTER
472 | Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted!
473 | And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power!
474 | Confined to exhibition! All this done
475 | Upon the gad! Edmund, how now! what news?
476 | EDMUND
477 | So please your lordship, none.
478 | Putting up the letter
479 |
480 | GLOUCESTER
481 | Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?
482 | EDMUND
483 | I know no news, my lord.
484 | GLOUCESTER
485 | What paper were you reading?
486 | EDMUND
487 | Nothing, my lord.
488 | GLOUCESTER
489 | No? What needed, then, that terrible dispatch of
490 | it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath
491 | not such need to hide itself. Let's see: come,
492 | if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles.
493 | EDMUND
494 | I beseech you, sir, pardon me: it is a letter
495 | from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read;
496 | and for so much as I have perused, I find it not
497 | fit for your o'er-looking.
498 | GLOUCESTER
499 | Give me the letter, sir.
500 | EDMUND
501 | I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The
502 | contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame.
503 | GLOUCESTER
504 | Let's see, let's see.
505 | EDMUND
506 | I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote
507 | this but as an essay or taste of my virtue.
508 | GLOUCESTER
509 | [Reads] 'This policy and reverence of age makes
510 | the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps
511 | our fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish
512 | them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage
513 | in the oppression of aged tyranny; who sways, not
514 | as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to
515 | me, that of this I may speak more. If our father
516 | would sleep till I waked him, you should half his
517 | revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your
518 | brother, EDGAR.'
519 | Hum--conspiracy!--'Sleep till I waked him,--you
520 | should enjoy half his revenue,'--My son Edgar!
521 | Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain
522 | to breed it in?--When came this to you? who
523 | brought it?
524 | EDMUND
525 | It was not brought me, my lord; there's the
526 | cunning of it; I found it thrown in at the
527 | casement of my closet.
528 | GLOUCESTER
529 | You know the character to be your brother's?
530 | EDMUND
531 | If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear
532 | it were his; but, in respect of that, I would
533 | fain think it were not.
534 | GLOUCESTER
535 | It is his.
536 | EDMUND
537 | It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is
538 | not in the contents.
539 | GLOUCESTER
540 | Hath he never heretofore sounded you in this business?
541 | EDMUND
542 | Never, my lord: but I have heard him oft
543 | maintain it to be fit, that, sons at perfect age,
544 | and fathers declining, the father should be as
545 | ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue.
546 | GLOUCESTER
547 | O villain, villain! His very opinion in the
548 | letter! Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested,
549 | brutish villain! worse than brutish! Go, sirrah,
550 | seek him; I'll apprehend him: abominable villain!
551 | Where is he?
552 | EDMUND
553 | I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please
554 | you to suspend your indignation against my
555 | brother till you can derive from him better
556 | testimony of his intent, you shall run a certain
557 | course; where, if you violently proceed against
558 | him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great
559 | gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the
560 | heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life
561 | for him, that he hath wrote this to feel my
562 | affection to your honour, and to no further
563 | pretence of danger.
564 | GLOUCESTER
565 | Think you so?
566 | EDMUND
567 | If your honour judge it meet, I will place you
568 | where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an
569 | auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and
570 | that without any further delay than this very evening.
571 | GLOUCESTER
572 | He cannot be such a monster--
573 | EDMUND
574 | Nor is not, sure.
575 | GLOUCESTER
576 | To his father, that so tenderly and entirely
577 | loves him. Heaven and earth! Edmund, seek him
578 | out: wind me into him, I pray you: frame the
579 | business after your own wisdom. I would unstate
580 | myself, to be in a due resolution.
581 | EDMUND
582 | I will seek him, sir, presently: convey the
583 | business as I shall find means and acquaint you withal.
584 | GLOUCESTER
585 | These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend
586 | no good to us: though the wisdom of nature can
587 | reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself
588 | scourged by the sequent effects: love cools,
589 | friendship falls off, brothers divide: in
590 | cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in
591 | palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son
592 | and father. This villain of mine comes under the
593 | prediction; there's son against father: the king
594 | falls from bias of nature; there's father against
595 | child. We have seen the best of our time:
596 | machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all
597 | ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our
598 | graves. Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall
599 | lose thee nothing; do it carefully. And the
600 | noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his
601 | offence, honesty! 'Tis strange.
602 | Exit
603 |
604 | EDMUND
605 | This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,
606 | when we are sick in fortune,--often the surfeit
607 | of our own behavior,--we make guilty of our
608 | disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as
609 | if we were villains by necessity; fools by
610 | heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
611 | treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,
612 | liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of
613 | planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,
614 | by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion
615 | of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish
616 | disposition to the charge of a star! My
617 | father compounded with my mother under the
618 | dragon's tail; and my nativity was under Ursa
619 | major; so that it follows, I am rough and
620 | lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am,
621 | had the maidenliest star in the firmament
622 | twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar--
623 | Enter EDGAR
624 |
625 | And pat he comes like the catastrophe of the old
626 | comedy: my cue is villanous melancholy, with a
627 | sigh like Tom o' Bedlam. O, these eclipses do
628 | portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi.
629 | EDGAR
630 | How now, brother Edmund! what serious
631 | contemplation are you in?
632 | EDMUND
633 | I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read
634 | this other day, what should follow these eclipses.
635 | EDGAR
636 | Do you busy yourself about that?
637 | EDMUND
638 | I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed
639 | unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child
640 | and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of
641 | ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and
642 | maledictions against king and nobles; needless
643 | diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation
644 | of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.
645 | EDGAR
646 | How long have you been a sectary astronomical?
647 | EDMUND
648 | Come, come; when saw you my father last?
649 | EDGAR
650 | Why, the night gone by.
651 | EDMUND
652 | Spake you with him?
653 | EDGAR
654 | Ay, two hours together.
655 | EDMUND
656 | Parted you in good terms? Found you no
657 | displeasure in him by word or countenance?
658 | EDGAR
659 | None at all.
660 | EDMUND
661 | Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended
662 | him: and at my entreaty forbear his presence
663 | till some little time hath qualified the heat of
664 | his displeasure; which at this instant so rageth
665 | in him, that with the mischief of your person it
666 | would scarcely allay.
667 | EDGAR
668 | Some villain hath done me wrong.
669 | EDMUND
670 | That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent
671 | forbearance till the spied of his rage goes
672 | slower; and, as I say, retire with me to my
673 | lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to
674 | hear my lord speak: pray ye, go; there's my key:
675 | if you do stir abroad, go armed.
676 | EDGAR
677 | Armed, brother!
678 | EDMUND
679 | Brother, I advise you to the best; go armed: I
680 | am no honest man if there be any good meaning
681 | towards you: I have told you what I have seen
682 | and heard; but faintly, nothing like the image
683 | and horror of it: pray you, away.
684 | EDGAR
685 | Shall I hear from you anon?
686 | EDMUND
687 | I do serve you in this business.
688 | Exit EDGAR
689 |
690 | A credulous father! and a brother noble,
691 | Whose nature is so far from doing harms,
692 | That he suspects none: on whose foolish honesty
693 | My practises ride easy! I see the business.
694 | Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit:
695 | All with me's meet that I can fashion fit.
696 | Exit
697 |
698 | SCENE III. The Duke of Albany's palace.
699 | Enter GONERIL, and OSWALD, her steward
700 | GONERIL
701 | Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool?
702 | OSWALD
703 | Yes, madam.
704 | GONERIL
705 | By day and night he wrongs me; every hour
706 | He flashes into one gross crime or other,
707 | That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it:
708 | His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us
709 | On every trifle. When he returns from hunting,
710 | I will not speak with him; say I am sick:
711 | If you come slack of former services,
712 | You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer.
713 | OSWALD
714 | He's coming, madam; I hear him.
715 | Horns within
716 |
717 | GONERIL
718 | Put on what weary negligence you please,
719 | You and your fellows; I'll have it come to question:
720 | If he dislike it, let him to our sister,
721 | Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one,
722 | Not to be over-ruled. Idle old man,
723 | That still would manage those authorities
724 | That he hath given away! Now, by my life,
725 | Old fools are babes again; and must be used
726 | With cheques as flatteries,--when they are seen abused.
727 | Remember what I tell you.
728 | OSWALD
729 | Well, madam.
730 | GONERIL
731 | And let his knights have colder looks among you;
732 | What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows so:
733 | I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall,
734 | That I may speak: I'll write straight to my sister,
735 | To hold my very course. Prepare for dinner.
736 | Exeunt
737 |
738 | SCENE IV. A hall in the same.
739 | Enter KENT, disguised
740 | KENT
741 | If but as well I other accents borrow,
742 | That can my speech defuse, my good intent
743 | May carry through itself to that full issue
744 | For which I razed my likeness. Now, banish'd Kent,
745 | If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd,
746 | So may it come, thy master, whom thou lovest,
747 | Shall find thee full of labours.
748 | Horns within. Enter KING LEAR, Knights, and Attendants
749 |
750 | KING LEAR
751 | Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go get it ready.
752 | Exit an Attendant
753 |
754 | How now! what art thou?
755 | KENT
756 | A man, sir.
757 | KING LEAR
758 | What dost thou profess? what wouldst thou with us?
759 | KENT
760 | I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve
761 | him truly that will put me in trust: to love him
762 | that is honest; to converse with him that is wise,
763 | and says little; to fear judgment; to fight when I
764 | cannot choose; and to eat no fish.
765 | KING LEAR
766 | What art thou?
767 | KENT
768 | A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the king.
769 | KING LEAR
770 | If thou be as poor for a subject as he is for a
771 | king, thou art poor enough. What wouldst thou?
772 | KENT
773 | Service.
774 | KING LEAR
775 | Who wouldst thou serve?
776 | KENT
777 | You.
778 | KING LEAR
779 | Dost thou know me, fellow?
780 | KENT
781 | No, sir; but you have that in your countenance
782 | which I would fain call master.
783 | KING LEAR
784 | What's that?
785 | KENT
786 | Authority.
787 | KING LEAR
788 | What services canst thou do?
789 | KENT
790 | I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious
791 | tale in telling it, and deliver a plain message
792 | bluntly: that which ordinary men are fit for, I am
793 | qualified in; and the best of me is diligence.
794 | KING LEAR
795 | How old art thou?
796 | KENT
797 | Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor
798 | so old to dote on her for any thing: I have years
799 | on my back forty eight.
800 | KING LEAR
801 | Follow me; thou shalt serve me: if I like thee no
802 | worse after dinner, I will not part from thee yet.
803 | Dinner, ho, dinner! Where's my knave? my fool?
804 | Go you, and call my fool hither.
805 | Exit an Attendant
806 |
807 | Enter OSWALD
808 |
809 | You, you, sirrah, where's my daughter?
810 | OSWALD
811 | So please you,--
812 | Exit
813 |
814 | KING LEAR
815 | What says the fellow there? Call the clotpoll back.
816 | Exit a Knight
817 |
818 | Where's my fool, ho? I think the world's asleep.
819 | Re-enter Knight
820 |
821 | How now! where's that mongrel?
822 | Knight
823 | He says, my lord, your daughter is not well.
824 | KING LEAR
825 | Why came not the slave back to me when I called him.
826 | Knight
827 | Sir, he answered me in the roundest manner, he would
828 | not.
829 | KING LEAR
830 | He would not!
831 | Knight
832 | My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my
833 | judgment, your highness is not entertained with that
834 | ceremonious affection as you were wont; there's a
835 | great abatement of kindness appears as well in the
836 | general dependants as in the duke himself also and
837 | your daughter.
838 | KING LEAR
839 | Ha! sayest thou so?
840 | Knight
841 | I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken;
842 | for my duty cannot be silent when I think your
843 | highness wronged.
844 | KING LEAR
845 | Thou but rememberest me of mine own conception: I
846 | have perceived a most faint neglect of late; which I
847 | have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity
848 | than as a very pretence and purpose of unkindness:
849 | I will look further into't. But where's my fool? I
850 | have not seen him this two days.
851 | Knight
852 | Since my young lady's going into France, sir, the
853 | fool hath much pined away.
854 | KING LEAR
855 | No more of that; I have noted it well. Go you, and
856 | tell my daughter I would speak with her.
857 | Exit an Attendant
858 |
859 | Go you, call hither my fool.
860 | Exit an Attendant
861 |
862 | Re-enter OSWALD
863 |
864 | O, you sir, you, come you hither, sir: who am I,
865 | sir?
866 | OSWALD
867 | My lady's father.
868 | KING LEAR
869 | 'My lady's father'! my lord's knave: your
870 | whoreson dog! you slave! you cur!
871 | OSWALD
872 | I am none of these, my lord; I beseech your pardon.
873 | KING LEAR
874 | Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal?
875 | Striking him
876 |
877 | OSWALD
878 | I'll not be struck, my lord.
879 | KENT
880 | Nor tripped neither, you base football player.
881 | Tripping up his heels
882 |
883 | KING LEAR
884 | I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and I'll
885 | love thee.
886 | KENT
887 | Come, sir, arise, away! I'll teach you differences:
888 | away, away! if you will measure your lubber's
889 | length again, tarry: but away! go to; have you
890 | wisdom? so.
891 | Pushes OSWALD out
892 |
893 | KING LEAR
894 | Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee: there's
895 | earnest of thy service.
896 | Giving KENT money
897 |
898 | Enter Fool
899 |
900 | Fool
901 | Let me hire him too: here's my coxcomb.
902 | Offering KENT his cap
903 |
904 | KING LEAR
905 | How now, my pretty knave! how dost thou?
906 | Fool
907 | Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb.
908 | KENT
909 | Why, fool?
910 | Fool
911 | Why, for taking one's part that's out of favour:
912 | nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits,
913 | thou'lt catch cold shortly: there, take my coxcomb:
914 | why, this fellow has banished two on's daughters,
915 | and did the third a blessing against his will; if
916 | thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb.
917 | How now, nuncle! Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters!
918 | KING LEAR
919 | Why, my boy?
920 | Fool
921 | If I gave them all my living, I'ld keep my coxcombs
922 | myself. There's mine; beg another of thy daughters.
923 | KING LEAR
924 | Take heed, sirrah; the whip.
925 | Fool
926 | Truth's a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped
927 | out, when Lady the brach may stand by the fire and stink.
928 | KING LEAR
929 | A pestilent gall to me!
930 | Fool
931 | Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech.
932 | KING LEAR
933 | Do.
934 | Fool
935 | Mark it, nuncle:
936 | Have more than thou showest,
937 | Speak less than thou knowest,
938 | Lend less than thou owest,
939 | Ride more than thou goest,
940 | Learn more than thou trowest,
941 | Set less than thou throwest;
942 | Leave thy drink and thy whore,
943 | And keep in-a-door,
944 | And thou shalt have more
945 | Than two tens to a score.
946 | KENT
947 | This is nothing, fool.
948 | Fool
949 | Then 'tis like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer; you
950 | gave me nothing for't. Can you make no use of
951 | nothing, nuncle?
952 | KING LEAR
953 | Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing.
954 | Fool
955 | [To KENT] Prithee, tell him, so much the rent of
956 | his land comes to: he will not believe a fool.
957 | KING LEAR
958 | A bitter fool!
959 | Fool
960 | Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a
961 | bitter fool and a sweet fool?
962 | KING LEAR
963 | No, lad; teach me.
964 | Fool
965 | That lord that counsell'd thee
966 | To give away thy land,
967 | Come place him here by me,
968 | Do thou for him stand:
969 | The sweet and bitter fool
970 | Will presently appear;
971 | The one in motley here,
972 | The other found out there.
973 | KING LEAR
974 | Dost thou call me fool, boy?
975 | Fool
976 | All thy other titles thou hast given away; that
977 | thou wast born with.
978 | KENT
979 | This is not altogether fool, my lord.
980 | Fool
981 | No, faith, lords and great men will not let me; if
982 | I had a monopoly out, they would have part on't:
983 | and ladies too, they will not let me have all fool
984 | to myself; they'll be snatching. Give me an egg,
985 | nuncle, and I'll give thee two crowns.
986 | KING LEAR
987 | What two crowns shall they be?
988 | Fool
989 | Why, after I have cut the egg i' the middle, and eat
990 | up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou
991 | clovest thy crown i' the middle, and gavest away
992 | both parts, thou borest thy ass on thy back o'er
993 | the dirt: thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown,
994 | when thou gavest thy golden one away. If I speak
995 | like myself in this, let him be whipped that first
996 | finds it so.
997 | Singing
998 |
999 | Fools had ne'er less wit in a year;
1000 | For wise men are grown foppish,
1001 | They know not how their wits to wear,
1002 | Their manners are so apish.
1003 | KING LEAR
1004 | When were you wont to be so full of songs, sirrah?
1005 | Fool
1006 | I have used it, nuncle, ever since thou madest thy
1007 | daughters thy mothers: for when thou gavest them
1008 | the rod, and put'st down thine own breeches,
1009 | Singing
1010 |
1011 | Then they for sudden joy did weep,
1012 | And I for sorrow sung,
1013 | That such a king should play bo-peep,
1014 | And go the fools among.
1015 | Prithee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach
1016 | thy fool to lie: I would fain learn to lie.
1017 | KING LEAR
1018 | An you lie, sirrah, we'll have you whipped.
1019 | Fool
1020 | I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are:
1021 | they'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'lt
1022 | have me whipped for lying; and sometimes I am
1023 | whipped for holding my peace. I had rather be any
1024 | kind o' thing than a fool: and yet I would not be
1025 | thee, nuncle; thou hast pared thy wit o' both sides,
1026 | and left nothing i' the middle: here comes one o'
1027 | the parings.
1028 | Enter GONERIL
1029 |
1030 | KING LEAR
1031 | How now, daughter! what makes that frontlet on?
1032 | Methinks you are too much of late i' the frown.
1033 | Fool
1034 | Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to
1035 | care for her frowning; now thou art an O without a
1036 | figure: I am better than thou art now; I am a fool,
1037 | thou art nothing.
1038 | To GONERIL
1039 |
1040 | Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue; so your face
1041 | bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum,
1042 | He that keeps nor crust nor crum,
1043 | Weary of all, shall want some.
1044 | Pointing to KING LEAR
1045 |
1046 | That's a shealed peascod.
1047 | GONERIL
1048 | Not only, sir, this your all-licensed fool,
1049 | But other of your insolent retinue
1050 | Do hourly carp and quarrel; breaking forth
1051 | In rank and not-to-be endured riots. Sir,
1052 | I had thought, by making this well known unto you,
1053 | To have found a safe redress; but now grow fearful,
1054 | By what yourself too late have spoke and done.
1055 | That you protect this course, and put it on
1056 | By your allowance; which if you should, the fault
1057 | Would not 'scape censure, nor the redresses sleep,
1058 | Which, in the tender of a wholesome weal,
1059 | Might in their working do you that offence,
1060 | Which else were shame, that then necessity
1061 | Will call discreet proceeding.
1062 | Fool
1063 | For, you trow, nuncle,
1064 | The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,
1065 | That it's had it head bit off by it young.
1066 | So, out went the candle, and we were left darkling.
1067 | KING LEAR
1068 | Are you our daughter?
1069 | GONERIL
1070 | Come, sir,
1071 | I would you would make use of that good wisdom,
1072 | Whereof I know you are fraught; and put away
1073 | These dispositions, that of late transform you
1074 | From what you rightly are.
1075 | Fool
1076 | May not an ass know when the cart
1077 | draws the horse? Whoop, Jug! I love thee.
1078 | KING LEAR
1079 | Doth any here know me? This is not Lear:
1080 | Doth Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes?
1081 | Either his notion weakens, his discernings
1082 | Are lethargied--Ha! waking? 'tis not so.
1083 | Who is it that can tell me who I am?
1084 | Fool
1085 | Lear's shadow.
1086 | KING LEAR
1087 | I would learn that; for, by the
1088 | marks of sovereignty, knowledge, and reason,
1089 | I should be false persuaded I had daughters.
1090 | Fool
1091 | Which they will make an obedient father.
1092 | KING LEAR
1093 | Your name, fair gentlewoman?
1094 | GONERIL
1095 | This admiration, sir, is much o' the savour
1096 | Of other your new pranks. I do beseech you
1097 | To understand my purposes aright:
1098 | As you are old and reverend, you should be wise.
1099 | Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires;
1100 | Men so disorder'd, so debosh'd and bold,
1101 | That this our court, infected with their manners,
1102 | Shows like a riotous inn: epicurism and lust
1103 | Make it more like a tavern or a brothel
1104 | Than a graced palace. The shame itself doth speak
1105 | For instant remedy: be then desired
1106 | By her, that else will take the thing she begs,
1107 | A little to disquantity your train;
1108 | And the remainder, that shall still depend,
1109 | To be such men as may besort your age,
1110 | And know themselves and you.
1111 | KING LEAR
1112 | Darkness and devils!
1113 | Saddle my horses; call my train together:
1114 | Degenerate bastard! I'll not trouble thee.
1115 | Yet have I left a daughter.
1116 | GONERIL
1117 | You strike my people; and your disorder'd rabble
1118 | Make servants of their betters.
1119 | Enter ALBANY
1120 |
1121 | KING LEAR
1122 | Woe, that too late repents,--
1123 | To ALBANY
1124 |
1125 | O, sir, are you come?
1126 | Is it your will? Speak, sir. Prepare my horses.
1127 | Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,
1128 | More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child
1129 | Than the sea-monster!
1130 | ALBANY
1131 | Pray, sir, be patient.
1132 | KING LEAR
1133 | [To GONERIL] Detested kite! thou liest.
1134 | My train are men of choice and rarest parts,
1135 | That all particulars of duty know,
1136 | And in the most exact regard support
1137 | The worships of their name. O most small fault,
1138 | How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show!
1139 | That, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature
1140 | From the fix'd place; drew from heart all love,
1141 | And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear!
1142 | Beat at this gate, that let thy folly in,
1143 | Striking his head
1144 |
1145 | And thy dear judgment out! Go, go, my people.
1146 | ALBANY
1147 | My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant
1148 | Of what hath moved you.
1149 | KING LEAR
1150 | It may be so, my lord.
1151 | Hear, nature, hear; dear goddess, hear!
1152 | Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend
1153 | To make this creature fruitful!
1154 | Into her womb convey sterility!
1155 | Dry up in her the organs of increase;
1156 | And from her derogate body never spring
1157 | A babe to honour her! If she must teem,
1158 | Create her child of spleen; that it may live,
1159 | And be a thwart disnatured torment to her!
1160 | Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth;
1161 | With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks;
1162 | Turn all her mother's pains and benefits
1163 | To laughter and contempt; that she may feel
1164 | How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
1165 | To have a thankless child! Away, away!
1166 | Exit
1167 |
1168 | ALBANY
1169 | Now, gods that we adore, whereof comes this?
1170 | GONERIL
1171 | Never afflict yourself to know the cause;
1172 | But let his disposition have that scope
1173 | That dotage gives it.
1174 | Re-enter KING LEAR
1175 |
1176 | KING LEAR
1177 | What, fifty of my followers at a clap!
1178 | Within a fortnight!
1179 | ALBANY
1180 | What's the matter, sir?
1181 | KING LEAR
1182 | I'll tell thee:
1183 | To GONERIL
1184 |
1185 | Life and death! I am ashamed
1186 | That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus;
1187 | That these hot tears, which break from me perforce,
1188 | Should make thee worth them. Blasts and fogs upon thee!
1189 | The untented woundings of a father's curse
1190 | Pierce every sense about thee! Old fond eyes,
1191 | Beweep this cause again, I'll pluck ye out,
1192 | And cast you, with the waters that you lose,
1193 | To temper clay. Yea, it is come to this?
1194 | Let is be so: yet have I left a daughter,
1195 | Who, I am sure, is kind and comfortable:
1196 | When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails
1197 | She'll flay thy wolvish visage. Thou shalt find
1198 | That I'll resume the shape which thou dost think
1199 | I have cast off for ever: thou shalt,
1200 | I warrant thee.
1201 | Exeunt KING LEAR, KENT, and Attendants
1202 |
1203 | GONERIL
1204 | Do you mark that, my lord?
1205 | ALBANY
1206 | I cannot be so partial, Goneril,
1207 | To the great love I bear you,--
1208 | GONERIL
1209 | Pray you, content. What, Oswald, ho!
1210 | To the Fool
1211 |
1212 | You, sir, more knave than fool, after your master.
1213 | Fool
1214 | Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry and take the fool
1215 | with thee.
1216 | A fox, when one has caught her,
1217 | And such a daughter,
1218 | Should sure to the slaughter,
1219 | If my cap would buy a halter:
1220 | So the fool follows after.
1221 | Exit
1222 |
1223 | GONERIL
1224 | This man hath had good counsel:--a hundred knights!
1225 | 'Tis politic and safe to let him keep
1226 | At point a hundred knights: yes, that, on every dream,
1227 | Each buzz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike,
1228 | He may enguard his dotage with their powers,
1229 | And hold our lives in mercy. Oswald, I say!
1230 | ALBANY
1231 | Well, you may fear too far.
1232 | GONERIL
1233 | Safer than trust too far:
1234 | Let me still take away the harms I fear,
1235 | Not fear still to be taken: I know his heart.
1236 | What he hath utter'd I have writ my sister
1237 | If she sustain him and his hundred knights
1238 | When I have show'd the unfitness,--
1239 | Re-enter OSWALD
1240 |
1241 | How now, Oswald!
1242 | What, have you writ that letter to my sister?
1243 | OSWALD
1244 | Yes, madam.
1245 | GONERIL
1246 | Take you some company, and away to horse:
1247 | Inform her full of my particular fear;
1248 | And thereto add such reasons of your own
1249 | As may compact it more. Get you gone;
1250 | And hasten your return.
1251 | Exit OSWALD
1252 |
1253 | No, no, my lord,
1254 | This milky gentleness and course of yours
1255 | Though I condemn not, yet, under pardon,
1256 | You are much more attask'd for want of wisdom
1257 | Than praised for harmful mildness.
1258 | ALBANY
1259 | How far your eyes may pierce I can not tell:
1260 | Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.
1261 | GONERIL
1262 | Nay, then--
1263 | ALBANY
1264 | Well, well; the event.
1265 | Exeunt
1266 |
1267 | SCENE V. Court before the same.
1268 | Enter KING LEAR, KENT, and Fool
1269 | KING LEAR
1270 | Go you before to Gloucester with these letters.
1271 | Acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you
1272 | know than comes from her demand out of the letter.
1273 | If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there afore you.
1274 | KENT
1275 | I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered
1276 | your letter.
1277 | Exit
1278 |
1279 | Fool
1280 | If a man's brains were in's heels, were't not in
1281 | danger of kibes?
1282 | KING LEAR
1283 | Ay, boy.
1284 | Fool
1285 | Then, I prithee, be merry; thy wit shall ne'er go
1286 | slip-shod.
1287 | KING LEAR
1288 | Ha, ha, ha!
1289 | Fool
1290 | Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly;
1291 | for though she's as like this as a crab's like an
1292 | apple, yet I can tell what I can tell.
1293 | KING LEAR
1294 | Why, what canst thou tell, my boy?
1295 | Fool
1296 | She will taste as like this as a crab does to a
1297 | crab. Thou canst tell why one's nose stands i'
1298 | the middle on's face?
1299 | KING LEAR
1300 | No.
1301 | Fool
1302 | Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose; that
1303 | what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into.
1304 | KING LEAR
1305 | I did her wrong--
1306 | Fool
1307 | Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?
1308 | KING LEAR
1309 | No.
1310 | Fool
1311 | Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.
1312 | KING LEAR
1313 | Why?
1314 | Fool
1315 | Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his
1316 | daughters, and leave his horns without a case.
1317 | KING LEAR
1318 | I will forget my nature. So kind a father! Be my
1319 | horses ready?
1320 | Fool
1321 | Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the
1322 | seven stars are no more than seven is a pretty reason.
1323 | KING LEAR
1324 | Because they are not eight?
1325 | Fool
1326 | Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool.
1327 | KING LEAR
1328 | To take 't again perforce! Monster ingratitude!
1329 | Fool
1330 | If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'ld have thee beaten
1331 | for being old before thy time.
1332 | KING LEAR
1333 | How's that?
1334 | Fool
1335 | Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst
1336 | been wise.
1337 | KING LEAR
1338 | O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven
1339 | Keep me in temper: I would not be mad!
1340 | Enter Gentleman
1341 |
1342 | How now! are the horses ready?
1343 | Gentleman
1344 | Ready, my lord.
1345 | KING LEAR
1346 | Come, boy.
1347 | Fool
1348 | She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure,
1349 | Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter.
1350 | Exeunt
1351 |
1352 | ACT II
1353 | SCENE I. GLOUCESTER's castle.
1354 | Enter EDMUND, and CURAN meets him
1355 | EDMUND
1356 | Save thee, Curan.
1357 | CURAN
1358 | And you, sir. I have been with your father, and
1359 | given him notice that the Duke of Cornwall and Regan
1360 | his duchess will be here with him this night.
1361 | EDMUND
1362 | How comes that?
1363 | CURAN
1364 | Nay, I know not. You have heard of the news abroad;
1365 | I mean the whispered ones, for they are yet but
1366 | ear-kissing arguments?
1367 | EDMUND
1368 | Not I pray you, what are they?
1369 | CURAN
1370 | Have you heard of no likely wars toward, 'twixt the
1371 | Dukes of Cornwall and Albany?
1372 | EDMUND
1373 | Not a word.
1374 | CURAN
1375 | You may do, then, in time. Fare you well, sir.
1376 | Exit
1377 |
1378 | EDMUND
1379 | The duke be here to-night? The better! best!
1380 | This weaves itself perforce into my business.
1381 | My father hath set guard to take my brother;
1382 | And I have one thing, of a queasy question,
1383 | Which I must act: briefness and fortune, work!
1384 | Brother, a word; descend: brother, I say!
1385 | Enter EDGAR
1386 |
1387 | My father watches: O sir, fly this place;
1388 | Intelligence is given where you are hid;
1389 | You have now the good advantage of the night:
1390 | Have you not spoken 'gainst the Duke of Cornwall?
1391 | He's coming hither: now, i' the night, i' the haste,
1392 | And Regan with him: have you nothing said
1393 | Upon his party 'gainst the Duke of Albany?
1394 | Advise yourself.
1395 | EDGAR
1396 | I am sure on't, not a word.
1397 | EDMUND
1398 | I hear my father coming: pardon me:
1399 | In cunning I must draw my sword upon you
1400 | Draw; seem to defend yourself; now quit you well.
1401 | Yield: come before my father. Light, ho, here!
1402 | Fly, brother. Torches, torches! So, farewell.
1403 | Exit EDGAR
1404 |
1405 | Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion.
1406 | Wounds his arm
1407 |
1408 | Of my more fierce endeavour: I have seen drunkards
1409 | Do more than this in sport. Father, father!
1410 | Stop, stop! No help?
1411 | Enter GLOUCESTER, and Servants with torches
1412 |
1413 | GLOUCESTER
1414 | Now, Edmund, where's the villain?
1415 | EDMUND
1416 | Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out,
1417 | Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon
1418 | To stand auspicious mistress,--
1419 | GLOUCESTER
1420 | But where is he?
1421 | EDMUND
1422 | Look, sir, I bleed.
1423 | GLOUCESTER
1424 | Where is the villain, Edmund?
1425 | EDMUND
1426 | Fled this way, sir. When by no means he could--
1427 | GLOUCESTER
1428 | Pursue him, ho! Go after.
1429 | Exeunt some Servants
1430 |
1431 | By no means what?
1432 | EDMUND
1433 | Persuade me to the murder of your lordship;
1434 | But that I told him, the revenging gods
1435 | 'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend;
1436 | Spoke, with how manifold and strong a bond
1437 | The child was bound to the father; sir, in fine,
1438 | Seeing how loathly opposite I stood
1439 | To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion,
1440 | With his prepared sword, he charges home
1441 | My unprovided body, lanced mine arm:
1442 | But when he saw my best alarum'd spirits,
1443 | Bold in the quarrel's right, roused to the encounter,
1444 | Or whether gasted by the noise I made,
1445 | Full suddenly he fled.
1446 | GLOUCESTER
1447 | Let him fly far:
1448 | Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;
1449 | And found--dispatch. The noble duke my master,
1450 | My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night:
1451 | By his authority I will proclaim it,
1452 | That he which finds him shall deserve our thanks,
1453 | Bringing the murderous coward to the stake;
1454 | He that conceals him, death.
1455 | EDMUND
1456 | When I dissuaded him from his intent,
1457 | And found him pight to do it, with curst speech
1458 | I threaten'd to discover him: he replied,
1459 | 'Thou unpossessing bastard! dost thou think,
1460 | If I would stand against thee, would the reposal
1461 | Of any trust, virtue, or worth in thee
1462 | Make thy words faith'd? No: what I should deny,--
1463 | As this I would: ay, though thou didst produce
1464 | My very character,--I'ld turn it all
1465 | To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practise:
1466 | And thou must make a dullard of the world,
1467 | If they not thought the profits of my death
1468 | Were very pregnant and potential spurs
1469 | To make thee seek it.'
1470 | GLOUCESTER
1471 | Strong and fasten'd villain
1472 | Would he deny his letter? I never got him.
1473 | Tucket within
1474 |
1475 | Hark, the duke's trumpets! I know not why he comes.
1476 | All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not 'scape;
1477 | The duke must grant me that: besides, his picture
1478 | I will send far and near, that all the kingdom
1479 | May have the due note of him; and of my land,
1480 | Loyal and natural boy, I'll work the means
1481 | To make thee capable.
1482 | Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, and Attendants
1483 |
1484 | CORNWALL
1485 | How now, my noble friend! since I came hither,
1486 | Which I can call but now, I have heard strange news.
1487 | REGAN
1488 | If it be true, all vengeance comes too short
1489 | Which can pursue the offender. How dost, my lord?
1490 | GLOUCESTER
1491 | O, madam, my old heart is crack'd, it's crack'd!
1492 | REGAN
1493 | What, did my father's godson seek your life?
1494 | He whom my father named? your Edgar?
1495 | GLOUCESTER
1496 | O, lady, lady, shame would have it hid!
1497 | REGAN
1498 | Was he not companion with the riotous knights
1499 | That tend upon my father?
1500 | GLOUCESTER
1501 | I know not, madam: 'tis too bad, too bad.
1502 | EDMUND
1503 | Yes, madam, he was of that consort.
1504 | REGAN
1505 | No marvel, then, though he were ill affected:
1506 | 'Tis they have put him on the old man's death,
1507 | To have the expense and waste of his revenues.
1508 | I have this present evening from my sister
1509 | Been well inform'd of them; and with such cautions,
1510 | That if they come to sojourn at my house,
1511 | I'll not be there.
1512 | CORNWALL
1513 | Nor I, assure thee, Regan.
1514 | Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father
1515 | A child-like office.
1516 | EDMUND
1517 | 'Twas my duty, sir.
1518 | GLOUCESTER
1519 | He did bewray his practise; and received
1520 | This hurt you see, striving to apprehend him.
1521 | CORNWALL
1522 | Is he pursued?
1523 | GLOUCESTER
1524 | Ay, my good lord.
1525 | CORNWALL
1526 | If he be taken, he shall never more
1527 | Be fear'd of doing harm: make your own purpose,
1528 | How in my strength you please. For you, Edmund,
1529 | Whose virtue and obedience doth this instant
1530 | So much commend itself, you shall be ours:
1531 | Natures of such deep trust we shall much need;
1532 | You we first seize on.
1533 | EDMUND
1534 | I shall serve you, sir,
1535 | Truly, however else.
1536 | GLOUCESTER
1537 | For him I thank your grace.
1538 | CORNWALL
1539 | You know not why we came to visit you,--
1540 | REGAN
1541 | Thus out of season, threading dark-eyed night:
1542 | Occasions, noble Gloucester, of some poise,
1543 | Wherein we must have use of your advice:
1544 | Our father he hath writ, so hath our sister,
1545 | Of differences, which I least thought it fit
1546 | To answer from our home; the several messengers
1547 | From hence attend dispatch. Our good old friend,
1548 | Lay comforts to your bosom; and bestow
1549 | Your needful counsel to our business,
1550 | Which craves the instant use.
1551 | GLOUCESTER
1552 | I serve you, madam:
1553 | Your graces are right welcome.
1554 | Exeunt
1555 |
1556 | SCENE II. Before Gloucester's castle.
1557 | Enter KENT and OSWALD, severally
1558 | OSWALD
1559 | Good dawning to thee, friend: art of this house?
1560 | KENT
1561 | Ay.
1562 | OSWALD
1563 | Where may we set our horses?
1564 | KENT
1565 | I' the mire.
1566 | OSWALD
1567 | Prithee, if thou lovest me, tell me.
1568 | KENT
1569 | I love thee not.
1570 | OSWALD
1571 | Why, then, I care not for thee.
1572 | KENT
1573 | If I had thee in Lipsbury pinfold, I would make thee
1574 | care for me.
1575 | OSWALD
1576 | Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not.
1577 | KENT
1578 | Fellow, I know thee.
1579 | OSWALD
1580 | What dost thou know me for?
1581 | KENT
1582 | A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a
1583 | base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited,
1584 | hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a
1585 | lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,
1586 | glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue;
1587 | one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a
1588 | bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but
1589 | the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar,
1590 | and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I
1591 | will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest
1592 | the least syllable of thy addition.
1593 | OSWALD
1594 | Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail
1595 | on one that is neither known of thee nor knows thee!
1596 | KENT
1597 | What a brazen-faced varlet art thou, to deny thou
1598 | knowest me! Is it two days ago since I tripped up
1599 | thy heels, and beat thee before the king? Draw, you
1600 | rogue: for, though it be night, yet the moon
1601 | shines; I'll make a sop o' the moonshine of you:
1602 | draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw.
1603 | Drawing his sword
1604 |
1605 | OSWALD
1606 | Away! I have nothing to do with thee.
1607 | KENT
1608 | Draw, you rascal: you come with letters against the
1609 | king; and take vanity the puppet's part against the
1610 | royalty of her father: draw, you rogue, or I'll so
1611 | carbonado your shanks: draw, you rascal; come your ways.
1612 | OSWALD
1613 | Help, ho! murder! help!
1614 | KENT
1615 | Strike, you slave; stand, rogue, stand; you neat
1616 | slave, strike.
1617 | Beating him
1618 |
1619 | OSWALD
1620 | Help, ho! murder! murder!
1621 | Enter EDMUND, with his rapier drawn, CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOUCESTER, and Servants
1622 |
1623 | EDMUND
1624 | How now! What's the matter?
1625 | KENT
1626 | With you, goodman boy, an you please: come, I'll
1627 | flesh ye; come on, young master.
1628 | GLOUCESTER
1629 | Weapons! arms! What 's the matter here?
1630 | CORNWALL
1631 | Keep peace, upon your lives:
1632 | He dies that strikes again. What is the matter?
1633 | REGAN
1634 | The messengers from our sister and the king.
1635 | CORNWALL
1636 | What is your difference? speak.
1637 | OSWALD
1638 | I am scarce in breath, my lord.
1639 | KENT
1640 | No marvel, you have so bestirred your valour. You
1641 | cowardly rascal, nature disclaims in thee: a
1642 | tailor made thee.
1643 | CORNWALL
1644 | Thou art a strange fellow: a tailor make a man?
1645 | KENT
1646 | Ay, a tailor, sir: a stone-cutter or painter could
1647 | not have made him so ill, though he had been but two
1648 | hours at the trade.
1649 | CORNWALL
1650 | Speak yet, how grew your quarrel?
1651 | OSWALD
1652 | This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spared
1653 | at suit of his gray beard,--
1654 | KENT
1655 | Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter! My
1656 | lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this
1657 | unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the wall of
1658 | a jakes with him. Spare my gray beard, you wagtail?
1659 | CORNWALL
1660 | Peace, sirrah!
1661 | You beastly knave, know you no reverence?
1662 | KENT
1663 | Yes, sir; but anger hath a privilege.
1664 | CORNWALL
1665 | Why art thou angry?
1666 | KENT
1667 | That such a slave as this should wear a sword,
1668 | Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these,
1669 | Like rats, oft bite the holy cords a-twain
1670 | Which are too intrinse t' unloose; smooth every passion
1671 | That in the natures of their lords rebel;
1672 | Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods;
1673 | Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks
1674 | With every gale and vary of their masters,
1675 | Knowing nought, like dogs, but following.
1676 | A plague upon your epileptic visage!
1677 | Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool?
1678 | Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain,
1679 | I'ld drive ye cackling home to Camelot.
1680 | CORNWALL
1681 | Why, art thou mad, old fellow?
1682 | GLOUCESTER
1683 | How fell you out? say that.
1684 | KENT
1685 | No contraries hold more antipathy
1686 | Than I and such a knave.
1687 | CORNWALL
1688 | Why dost thou call him a knave? What's his offence?
1689 | KENT
1690 | His countenance likes me not.
1691 | CORNWALL
1692 | No more, perchance, does mine, nor his, nor hers.
1693 | KENT
1694 | Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain:
1695 | I have seen better faces in my time
1696 | Than stands on any shoulder that I see
1697 | Before me at this instant.
1698 | CORNWALL
1699 | This is some fellow,
1700 | Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect
1701 | A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb
1702 | Quite from his nature: he cannot flatter, he,
1703 | An honest mind and plain, he must speak truth!
1704 | An they will take it, so; if not, he's plain.
1705 | These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness
1706 | Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends
1707 | Than twenty silly ducking observants
1708 | That stretch their duties nicely.
1709 | KENT
1710 | Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity,
1711 | Under the allowance of your great aspect,
1712 | Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire
1713 | On flickering Phoebus' front,--
1714 | CORNWALL
1715 | What mean'st by this?
1716 | KENT
1717 | To go out of my dialect, which you
1718 | discommend so much. I know, sir, I am no
1719 | flatterer: he that beguiled you in a plain
1720 | accent was a plain knave; which for my part
1721 | I will not be, though I should win your displeasure
1722 | to entreat me to 't.
1723 | CORNWALL
1724 | What was the offence you gave him?
1725 | OSWALD
1726 | I never gave him any:
1727 | It pleased the king his master very late
1728 | To strike at me, upon his misconstruction;
1729 | When he, conjunct and flattering his displeasure,
1730 | Tripp'd me behind; being down, insulted, rail'd,
1731 | And put upon him such a deal of man,
1732 | That worthied him, got praises of the king
1733 | For him attempting who was self-subdued;
1734 | And, in the fleshment of this dread exploit,
1735 | Drew on me here again.
1736 | KENT
1737 | None of these rogues and cowards
1738 | But Ajax is their fool.
1739 | CORNWALL
1740 | Fetch forth the stocks!
1741 | You stubborn ancient knave, you reverend braggart,
1742 | We'll teach you--
1743 | KENT
1744 | Sir, I am too old to learn:
1745 | Call not your stocks for me: I serve the king;
1746 | On whose employment I was sent to you:
1747 | You shall do small respect, show too bold malice
1748 | Against the grace and person of my master,
1749 | Stocking his messenger.
1750 | CORNWALL
1751 | Fetch forth the stocks! As I have life and honour,
1752 | There shall he sit till noon.
1753 | REGAN
1754 | Till noon! till night, my lord; and all night too.
1755 | KENT
1756 | Why, madam, if I were your father's dog,
1757 | You should not use me so.
1758 | REGAN
1759 | Sir, being his knave, I will.
1760 | CORNWALL
1761 | This is a fellow of the self-same colour
1762 | Our sister speaks of. Come, bring away the stocks!
1763 | Stocks brought out
1764 |
1765 | GLOUCESTER
1766 | Let me beseech your grace not to do so:
1767 | His fault is much, and the good king his master
1768 | Will cheque him for 't: your purposed low correction
1769 | Is such as basest and contemned'st wretches
1770 | For pilferings and most common trespasses
1771 | Are punish'd with: the king must take it ill,
1772 | That he's so slightly valued in his messenger,
1773 | Should have him thus restrain'd.
1774 | CORNWALL
1775 | I'll answer that.
1776 | REGAN
1777 | My sister may receive it much more worse,
1778 | To have her gentleman abused, assaulted,
1779 | For following her affairs. Put in his legs.
1780 | KENT is put in the stocks
1781 |
1782 | Come, my good lord, away.
1783 | Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER and KENT
1784 |
1785 | GLOUCESTER
1786 | I am sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure,
1787 | Whose disposition, all the world well knows,
1788 | Will not be rubb'd nor stopp'd: I'll entreat for thee.
1789 | KENT
1790 | Pray, do not, sir: I have watched and travell'd hard;
1791 | Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle.
1792 | A good man's fortune may grow out at heels:
1793 | Give you good morrow!
1794 | GLOUCESTER
1795 | The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill taken.
1796 | Exit
1797 |
1798 | KENT
1799 | Good king, that must approve the common saw,
1800 | Thou out of heaven's benediction comest
1801 | To the warm sun!
1802 | Approach, thou beacon to this under globe,
1803 | That by thy comfortable beams I may
1804 | Peruse this letter! Nothing almost sees miracles
1805 | But misery: I know 'tis from Cordelia,
1806 | Who hath most fortunately been inform'd
1807 | Of my obscured course; and shall find time
1808 | From this enormous state, seeking to give
1809 | Losses their remedies. All weary and o'erwatch'd,
1810 | Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold
1811 | This shameful lodging.
1812 | Fortune, good night: smile once more: turn thy wheel!
1813 | Sleeps
1814 |
1815 | SCENE III. A wood.
1816 | Enter EDGAR
1817 | EDGAR
1818 | I heard myself proclaim'd;
1819 | And by the happy hollow of a tree
1820 | Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place,
1821 | That guard, and most unusual vigilance,
1822 | Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may 'scape,
1823 | I will preserve myself: and am bethought
1824 | To take the basest and most poorest shape
1825 | That ever penury, in contempt of man,
1826 | Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth;
1827 | Blanket my loins: elf all my hair in knots;
1828 | And with presented nakedness out-face
1829 | The winds and persecutions of the sky.
1830 | The country gives me proof and precedent
1831 | Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
1832 | Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms
1833 | Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
1834 | And with this horrible object, from low farms,
1835 | Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills,
1836 | Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
1837 | Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod! poor Tom!
1838 | That's something yet: Edgar I nothing am.
1839 | Exit
1840 |
1841 | SCENE IV. Before GLOUCESTER's castle. KENT in the stocks.
1842 | Enter KING LEAR, Fool, and Gentleman
1843 | KING LEAR
1844 | 'Tis strange that they should so depart from home,
1845 | And not send back my messenger.
1846 | Gentleman
1847 | As I learn'd,
1848 | The night before there was no purpose in them
1849 | Of this remove.
1850 | KENT
1851 | Hail to thee, noble master!
1852 | KING LEAR
1853 | Ha!
1854 | Makest thou this shame thy pastime?
1855 | KENT
1856 | No, my lord.
1857 | Fool
1858 | Ha, ha! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied
1859 | by the heads, dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys by
1860 | the loins, and men by the legs: when a man's
1861 | over-lusty at legs, then he wears wooden
1862 | nether-stocks.
1863 | KING LEAR
1864 | What's he that hath so much thy place mistook
1865 | To set thee here?
1866 | KENT
1867 | It is both he and she;
1868 | Your son and daughter.
1869 | KING LEAR
1870 | No.
1871 | KENT
1872 | Yes.
1873 | KING LEAR
1874 | No, I say.
1875 | KENT
1876 | I say, yea.
1877 | KING LEAR
1878 | No, no, they would not.
1879 | KENT
1880 | Yes, they have.
1881 | KING LEAR
1882 | By Jupiter, I swear, no.
1883 | KENT
1884 | By Juno, I swear, ay.
1885 | KING LEAR
1886 | They durst not do 't;
1887 | They could not, would not do 't; 'tis worse than murder,
1888 | To do upon respect such violent outrage:
1889 | Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way
1890 | Thou mightst deserve, or they impose, this usage,
1891 | Coming from us.
1892 | KENT
1893 | My lord, when at their home
1894 | I did commend your highness' letters to them,
1895 | Ere I was risen from the place that show'd
1896 | My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,
1897 | Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth
1898 | From Goneril his mistress salutations;
1899 | Deliver'd letters, spite of intermission,
1900 | Which presently they read: on whose contents,
1901 | They summon'd up their meiny, straight took horse;
1902 | Commanded me to follow, and attend
1903 | The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks:
1904 | And meeting here the other messenger,
1905 | Whose welcome, I perceived, had poison'd mine,--
1906 | Being the very fellow that of late
1907 | Display'd so saucily against your highness,--
1908 | Having more man than wit about me, drew:
1909 | He raised the house with loud and coward cries.
1910 | Your son and daughter found this trespass worth
1911 | The shame which here it suffers.
1912 | Fool
1913 | Winter's not gone yet, if the wild-geese fly that way.
1914 | Fathers that wear rags
1915 | Do make their children blind;
1916 | But fathers that bear bags
1917 | Shall see their children kind.
1918 | Fortune, that arrant whore,
1919 | Ne'er turns the key to the poor.
1920 | But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours
1921 | for thy daughters as thou canst tell in a year.
1922 | KING LEAR
1923 | O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!
1924 | Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow,
1925 | Thy element's below! Where is this daughter?
1926 | KENT
1927 | With the earl, sir, here within.
1928 | KING LEAR
1929 | Follow me not;
1930 | Stay here.
1931 | Exit
1932 |
1933 | Gentleman
1934 | Made you no more offence but what you speak of?
1935 | KENT
1936 | None.
1937 | How chance the king comes with so small a train?
1938 | Fool
1939 | And thou hadst been set i' the stocks for that
1940 | question, thou hadst well deserved it.
1941 | KENT
1942 | Why, fool?
1943 | Fool
1944 | We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee
1945 | there's no labouring i' the winter. All that follow
1946 | their noses are led by their eyes but blind men; and
1947 | there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him
1948 | that's stinking. Let go thy hold when a great wheel
1949 | runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with
1950 | following it: but the great one that goes up the
1951 | hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man
1952 | gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I
1953 | would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.
1954 | That sir which serves and seeks for gain,
1955 | And follows but for form,
1956 | Will pack when it begins to rain,
1957 | And leave thee in the storm,
1958 | But I will tarry; the fool will stay,
1959 | And let the wise man fly:
1960 | The knave turns fool that runs away;
1961 | The fool no knave, perdy.
1962 | KENT
1963 | Where learned you this, fool?
1964 | Fool
1965 | Not i' the stocks, fool.
1966 | Re-enter KING LEAR with GLOUCESTER
1967 |
1968 | KING LEAR
1969 | Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary?
1970 | They have travell'd all the night? Mere fetches;
1971 | The images of revolt and flying off.
1972 | Fetch me a better answer.
1973 | GLOUCESTER
1974 | My dear lord,
1975 | You know the fiery quality of the duke;
1976 | How unremoveable and fix'd he is
1977 | In his own course.
1978 | KING LEAR
1979 | Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!
1980 | Fiery? what quality? Why, Gloucester, Gloucester,
1981 | I'ld speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.
1982 | GLOUCESTER
1983 | Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so.
1984 | KING LEAR
1985 | Inform'd them! Dost thou understand me, man?
1986 | GLOUCESTER
1987 | Ay, my good lord.
1988 | KING LEAR
1989 | The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father
1990 | Would with his daughter speak, commands her service:
1991 | Are they inform'd of this? My breath and blood!
1992 | Fiery? the fiery duke? Tell the hot duke that--
1993 | No, but not yet: may be he is not well:
1994 | Infirmity doth still neglect all office
1995 | Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves
1996 | When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind
1997 | To suffer with the body: I'll forbear;
1998 | And am fall'n out with my more headier will,
1999 | To take the indisposed and sickly fit
2000 | For the sound man. Death on my state! wherefore
2001 | Looking on KENT
2002 |
2003 | Should he sit here? This act persuades me
2004 | That this remotion of the duke and her
2005 | Is practise only. Give me my servant forth.
2006 | Go tell the duke and 's wife I'ld speak with them,
2007 | Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,
2008 | Or at their chamber-door I'll beat the drum
2009 | Till it cry sleep to death.
2010 | GLOUCESTER
2011 | I would have all well betwixt you.
2012 | Exit
2013 |
2014 | KING LEAR
2015 | O me, my heart, my rising heart! but, down!
2016 | Fool
2017 | Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels
2018 | when she put 'em i' the paste alive; she knapped 'em
2019 | o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cried 'Down,
2020 | wantons, down!' 'Twas her brother that, in pure
2021 | kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.
2022 | Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOUCESTER, and Servants
2023 |
2024 | KING LEAR
2025 | Good morrow to you both.
2026 | CORNWALL
2027 | Hail to your grace!
2028 | KENT is set at liberty
2029 |
2030 | REGAN
2031 | I am glad to see your highness.
2032 | KING LEAR
2033 | Regan, I think you are; I know what reason
2034 | I have to think so: if thou shouldst not be glad,
2035 | I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb,
2036 | Sepulchring an adultress.
2037 | To KENT
2038 |
2039 | O, are you free?
2040 | Some other time for that. Beloved Regan,
2041 | Thy sister's naught: O Regan, she hath tied
2042 | Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here:
2043 | Points to his heart
2044 |
2045 | I can scarce speak to thee; thou'lt not believe
2046 | With how depraved a quality--O Regan!
2047 | REGAN
2048 | I pray you, sir, take patience: I have hope.
2049 | You less know how to value her desert
2050 | Than she to scant her duty.
2051 | KING LEAR
2052 | Say, how is that?
2053 | REGAN
2054 | I cannot think my sister in the least
2055 | Would fail her obligation: if, sir, perchance
2056 | She have restrain'd the riots of your followers,
2057 | 'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end,
2058 | As clears her from all blame.
2059 | KING LEAR
2060 | My curses on her!
2061 | REGAN
2062 | O, sir, you are old.
2063 | Nature in you stands on the very verge
2064 | Of her confine: you should be ruled and led
2065 | By some discretion, that discerns your state
2066 | Better than you yourself. Therefore, I pray you,
2067 | That to our sister you do make return;
2068 | Say you have wrong'd her, sir.
2069 | KING LEAR
2070 | Ask her forgiveness?
2071 | Do you but mark how this becomes the house:
2072 | 'Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;
2073 | Kneeling
2074 |
2075 | Age is unnecessary: on my knees I beg
2076 | That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.'
2077 | REGAN
2078 | Good sir, no more; these are unsightly tricks:
2079 | Return you to my sister.
2080 | KING LEAR
2081 | [Rising] Never, Regan:
2082 | She hath abated me of half my train;
2083 | Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue,
2084 | Most serpent-like, upon the very heart:
2085 | All the stored vengeances of heaven fall
2086 | On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,
2087 | You taking airs, with lameness!
2088 | CORNWALL
2089 | Fie, sir, fie!
2090 | KING LEAR
2091 | You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames
2092 | Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,
2093 | You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun,
2094 | To fall and blast her pride!
2095 | REGAN
2096 | O the blest gods! so will you wish on me,
2097 | When the rash mood is on.
2098 | KING LEAR
2099 | No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse:
2100 | Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give
2101 | Thee o'er to harshness: her eyes are fierce; but thine
2102 | Do comfort and not burn. 'Tis not in thee
2103 | To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
2104 | To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,
2105 | And in conclusion to oppose the bolt
2106 | Against my coming in: thou better know'st
2107 | The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
2108 | Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude;
2109 | Thy half o' the kingdom hast thou not forgot,
2110 | Wherein I thee endow'd.
2111 | REGAN
2112 | Good sir, to the purpose.
2113 | KING LEAR
2114 | Who put my man i' the stocks?
2115 | Tucket within
2116 |
2117 | CORNWALL
2118 | What trumpet's that?
2119 | REGAN
2120 | I know't, my sister's: this approves her letter,
2121 | That she would soon be here.
2122 | Enter OSWALD
2123 |
2124 | Is your lady come?
2125 | KING LEAR
2126 | This is a slave, whose easy-borrow'd pride
2127 | Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows.
2128 | Out, varlet, from my sight!
2129 | CORNWALL
2130 | What means your grace?
2131 | KING LEAR
2132 | Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good hope
2133 | Thou didst not know on't. Who comes here? O heavens,
2134 | Enter GONERIL
2135 |
2136 | If you do love old men, if your sweet sway
2137 | Allow obedience, if yourselves are old,
2138 | Make it your cause; send down, and take my part!
2139 | To GONERIL
2140 |
2141 | Art not ashamed to look upon this beard?
2142 | O Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand?
2143 | GONERIL
2144 | Why not by the hand, sir? How have I offended?
2145 | All's not offence that indiscretion finds
2146 | And dotage terms so.
2147 | KING LEAR
2148 | O sides, you are too tough;
2149 | Will you yet hold? How came my man i' the stocks?
2150 | CORNWALL
2151 | I set him there, sir: but his own disorders
2152 | Deserved much less advancement.
2153 | KING LEAR
2154 | You! did you?
2155 | REGAN
2156 | I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.
2157 | If, till the expiration of your month,
2158 | You will return and sojourn with my sister,
2159 | Dismissing half your train, come then to me:
2160 | I am now from home, and out of that provision
2161 | Which shall be needful for your entertainment.
2162 | KING LEAR
2163 | Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd?
2164 | No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
2165 | To wage against the enmity o' the air;
2166 | To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,--
2167 | Necessity's sharp pinch! Return with her?
2168 | Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took
2169 | Our youngest born, I could as well be brought
2170 | To knee his throne, and, squire-like; pension beg
2171 | To keep base life afoot. Return with her?
2172 | Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter
2173 | To this detested groom.
2174 | Pointing at OSWALD
2175 |
2176 | GONERIL
2177 | At your choice, sir.
2178 | KING LEAR
2179 | I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad:
2180 | I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell:
2181 | We'll no more meet, no more see one another:
2182 | But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;
2183 | Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,
2184 | Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,
2185 | A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,
2186 | In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee;
2187 | Let shame come when it will, I do not call it:
2188 | I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,
2189 | Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove:
2190 | Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure:
2191 | I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,
2192 | I and my hundred knights.
2193 | REGAN
2194 | Not altogether so:
2195 | I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided
2196 | For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister;
2197 | For those that mingle reason with your passion
2198 | Must be content to think you old, and so--
2199 | But she knows what she does.
2200 | KING LEAR
2201 | Is this well spoken?
2202 | REGAN
2203 | I dare avouch it, sir: what, fifty followers?
2204 | Is it not well? What should you need of more?
2205 | Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger
2206 | Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house,
2207 | Should many people, under two commands,
2208 | Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.
2209 | GONERIL
2210 | Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance
2211 | From those that she calls servants or from mine?
2212 | REGAN
2213 | Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack you,
2214 | We could control them. If you will come to me,--
2215 | For now I spy a danger,--I entreat you
2216 | To bring but five and twenty: to no more
2217 | Will I give place or notice.
2218 | KING LEAR
2219 | I gave you all--
2220 | REGAN
2221 | And in good time you gave it.
2222 | KING LEAR
2223 | Made you my guardians, my depositaries;
2224 | But kept a reservation to be follow'd
2225 | With such a number. What, must I come to you
2226 | With five and twenty, Regan? said you so?
2227 | REGAN
2228 | And speak't again, my lord; no more with me.
2229 | KING LEAR
2230 | Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,
2231 | When others are more wicked: not being the worst
2232 | Stands in some rank of praise.
2233 | To GONERIL
2234 |
2235 | I'll go with thee:
2236 | Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,
2237 | And thou art twice her love.
2238 | GONERIL
2239 | Hear me, my lord;
2240 | What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,
2241 | To follow in a house where twice so many
2242 | Have a command to tend you?
2243 | REGAN
2244 | What need one?
2245 | KING LEAR
2246 | O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
2247 | Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
2248 | Allow not nature more than nature needs,
2249 | Man's life's as cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;
2250 | If only to go warm were gorgeous,
2251 | Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,
2252 | Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need,--
2253 | You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!
2254 | You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
2255 | As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
2256 | If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
2257 | Against their father, fool me not so much
2258 | To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
2259 | And let not women's weapons, water-drops,
2260 | Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,
2261 | I will have such revenges on you both,
2262 | That all the world shall--I will do such things,--
2263 | What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be
2264 | The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep
2265 | No, I'll not weep:
2266 | I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
2267 | Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
2268 | Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!
2269 | Exeunt KING LEAR, GLOUCESTER, KENT, and Fool
2270 |
2271 | Storm and tempest
2272 |
2273 | CORNWALL
2274 | Let us withdraw; 'twill be a storm.
2275 | REGAN
2276 | This house is little: the old man and his people
2277 | Cannot be well bestow'd.
2278 | GONERIL
2279 | 'Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest,
2280 | And must needs taste his folly.
2281 | REGAN
2282 | For his particular, I'll receive him gladly,
2283 | But not one follower.
2284 | GONERIL
2285 | So am I purposed.
2286 | Where is my lord of Gloucester?
2287 | CORNWALL
2288 | Follow'd the old man forth: he is return'd.
2289 | Re-enter GLOUCESTER
2290 |
2291 | GLOUCESTER
2292 | The king is in high rage.
2293 | CORNWALL
2294 | Whither is he going?
2295 | GLOUCESTER
2296 | He calls to horse; but will I know not whither.
2297 | CORNWALL
2298 | 'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself.
2299 | GONERIL
2300 | My lord, entreat him by no means to stay.
2301 | GLOUCESTER
2302 | Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds
2303 | Do sorely ruffle; for many miles a bout
2304 | There's scarce a bush.
2305 | REGAN
2306 | O, sir, to wilful men,
2307 | The injuries that they themselves procure
2308 | Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors:
2309 | He is attended with a desperate train;
2310 | And what they may incense him to, being apt
2311 | To have his ear abused, wisdom bids fear.
2312 | CORNWALL
2313 | Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night:
2314 | My Regan counsels well; come out o' the storm.
2315 | Exeunt
2316 |
2317 | ACT III
2318 | SCENE I. A heath.
2319 | Storm still. Enter KENT and a Gentleman, meeting
2320 | KENT
2321 | Who's there, besides foul weather?
2322 | Gentleman
2323 | One minded like the weather, most unquietly.
2324 | KENT
2325 | I know you. Where's the king?
2326 | Gentleman
2327 | Contending with the fretful element:
2328 | Bids the winds blow the earth into the sea,
2329 | Or swell the curled water 'bove the main,
2330 | That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,
2331 | Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,
2332 | Catch in their fury, and make nothing of;
2333 | Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn
2334 | The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.
2335 | This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,
2336 | The lion and the belly-pinched wolf
2337 | Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,
2338 | And bids what will take all.
2339 | KENT
2340 | But who is with him?
2341 | Gentleman
2342 | None but the fool; who labours to out-jest
2343 | His heart-struck injuries.
2344 | KENT
2345 | Sir, I do know you;
2346 | And dare, upon the warrant of my note,
2347 | Commend a dear thing to you. There is division,
2348 | Although as yet the face of it be cover'd
2349 | With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;
2350 | Who have--as who have not, that their great stars
2351 | Throned and set high?--servants, who seem no less,
2352 | Which are to France the spies and speculations
2353 | Intelligent of our state; what hath been seen,
2354 | Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes,
2355 | Or the hard rein which both of them have borne
2356 | Against the old kind king; or something deeper,
2357 | Whereof perchance these are but furnishings;
2358 | But, true it is, from France there comes a power
2359 | Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already,
2360 | Wise in our negligence, have secret feet
2361 | In some of our best ports, and are at point
2362 | To show their open banner. Now to you:
2363 | If on my credit you dare build so far
2364 | To make your speed to Dover, you shall find
2365 | Some that will thank you, making just report
2366 | Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow
2367 | The king hath cause to plain.
2368 | I am a gentleman of blood and breeding;
2369 | And, from some knowledge and assurance, offer
2370 | This office to you.
2371 | Gentleman
2372 | I will talk further with you.
2373 | KENT
2374 | No, do not.
2375 | For confirmation that I am much more
2376 | Than my out-wall, open this purse, and take
2377 | What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia,--
2378 | As fear not but you shall,--show her this ring;
2379 | And she will tell you who your fellow is
2380 | That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm!
2381 | I will go seek the king.
2382 | Gentleman
2383 | Give me your hand: have you no more to say?
2384 | KENT
2385 | Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet;
2386 | That, when we have found the king,--in which your pain
2387 | That way, I'll this,--he that first lights on him
2388 | Holla the other.
2389 | Exeunt severally
2390 |
2391 | SCENE II. Another part of the heath. Storm still.
2392 | Enter KING LEAR and Fool
2393 | KING LEAR
2394 | Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
2395 | You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
2396 | Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
2397 | You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
2398 | Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
2399 | Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
2400 | Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
2401 | Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill at once,
2402 | That make ingrateful man!
2403 | Fool
2404 | O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry
2405 | house is better than this rain-water out o' door.
2406 | Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters' blessing:
2407 | here's a night pities neither wise man nor fool.
2408 | KING LEAR
2409 | Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain!
2410 | Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:
2411 | I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;
2412 | I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children,
2413 | You owe me no subscription: then let fall
2414 | Your horrible pleasure: here I stand, your slave,
2415 | A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man:
2416 | But yet I call you servile ministers,
2417 | That have with two pernicious daughters join'd
2418 | Your high engender'd battles 'gainst a head
2419 | So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul!
2420 | Fool
2421 | He that has a house to put's head in has a good
2422 | head-piece.
2423 | The cod-piece that will house
2424 | Before the head has any,
2425 | The head and he shall louse;
2426 | So beggars marry many.
2427 | The man that makes his toe
2428 | What he his heart should make
2429 | Shall of a corn cry woe,
2430 | And turn his sleep to wake.
2431 | For there was never yet fair woman but she made
2432 | mouths in a glass.
2433 | KING LEAR
2434 | No, I will be the pattern of all patience;
2435 | I will say nothing.
2436 | Enter KENT
2437 |
2438 | KENT
2439 | Who's there?
2440 | Fool
2441 | Marry, here's grace and a cod-piece; that's a wise
2442 | man and a fool.
2443 | KENT
2444 | Alas, sir, are you here? things that love night
2445 | Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies
2446 | Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,
2447 | And make them keep their caves: since I was man,
2448 | Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
2449 | Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
2450 | Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot carry
2451 | The affliction nor the fear.
2452 | KING LEAR
2453 | Let the great gods,
2454 | That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads,
2455 | Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,
2456 | That hast within thee undivulged crimes,
2457 | Unwhipp'd of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand;
2458 | Thou perjured, and thou simular man of virtue
2459 | That art incestuous: caitiff, to pieces shake,
2460 | That under covert and convenient seeming
2461 | Hast practised on man's life: close pent-up guilts,
2462 | Rive your concealing continents, and cry
2463 | These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man
2464 | More sinn'd against than sinning.
2465 | KENT
2466 | Alack, bare-headed!
2467 | Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel;
2468 | Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest:
2469 | Repose you there; while I to this hard house--
2470 | More harder than the stones whereof 'tis raised;
2471 | Which even but now, demanding after you,
2472 | Denied me to come in--return, and force
2473 | Their scanted courtesy.
2474 | KING LEAR
2475 | My wits begin to turn.
2476 | Come on, my boy: how dost, my boy? art cold?
2477 | I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow?
2478 | The art of our necessities is strange,
2479 | That can make vile things precious. Come,
2480 | your hovel.
2481 | Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart
2482 | That's sorry yet for thee.
2483 | Fool
2484 | [Singing]
2485 | He that has and a little tiny wit--
2486 | With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,--
2487 | Must make content with his fortunes fit,
2488 | For the rain it raineth every day.
2489 | KING LEAR
2490 | True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this hovel.
2491 | Exeunt KING LEAR and KENT
2492 |
2493 | Fool
2494 | This is a brave night to cool a courtezan.
2495 | I'll speak a prophecy ere I go:
2496 | When priests are more in word than matter;
2497 | When brewers mar their malt with water;
2498 | When nobles are their tailors' tutors;
2499 | No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;
2500 | When every case in law is right;
2501 | No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
2502 | When slanders do not live in tongues;
2503 | Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;
2504 | When usurers tell their gold i' the field;
2505 | And bawds and whores do churches build;
2506 | Then shall the realm of Albion
2507 | Come to great confusion:
2508 | Then comes the time, who lives to see't,
2509 | That going shall be used with feet.
2510 | This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time.
2511 | Exit
2512 |
2513 | SCENE III. Gloucester's castle.
2514 | Enter GLOUCESTER and EDMUND
2515 | GLOUCESTER
2516 | Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural
2517 | dealing. When I desire their leave that I might
2518 | pity him, they took from me the use of mine own
2519 | house; charged me, on pain of their perpetual
2520 | displeasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for
2521 | him, nor any way sustain him.
2522 | EDMUND
2523 | Most savage and unnatural!
2524 | GLOUCESTER
2525 | Go to; say you nothing. There's a division betwixt
2526 | the dukes; and a worse matter than that: I have
2527 | received a letter this night; 'tis dangerous to be
2528 | spoken; I have locked the letter in my closet:
2529 | these injuries the king now bears will be revenged
2530 | home; there's part of a power already footed: we
2531 | must incline to the king. I will seek him, and
2532 | privily relieve him: go you and maintain talk with
2533 | the duke, that my charity be not of him perceived:
2534 | if he ask for me. I am ill, and gone to bed.
2535 | Though I die for it, as no less is threatened me,
2536 | the king my old master must be relieved. There is
2537 | some strange thing toward, Edmund; pray you, be careful.
2538 | Exit
2539 |
2540 | EDMUND
2541 | This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke
2542 | Instantly know; and of that letter too:
2543 | This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me
2544 | That which my father loses; no less than all:
2545 | The younger rises when the old doth fall.
2546 | Exit
2547 |
2548 | SCENE IV. The heath. Before a hovel.
2549 | Enter KING LEAR, KENT, and Fool
2550 | KENT
2551 | Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter:
2552 | The tyranny of the open night's too rough
2553 | For nature to endure.
2554 | Storm still
2555 |
2556 | KING LEAR
2557 | Let me alone.
2558 | KENT
2559 | Good my lord, enter here.
2560 | KING LEAR
2561 | Wilt break my heart?
2562 | KENT
2563 | I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.
2564 | KING LEAR
2565 | Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm
2566 | Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee;
2567 | But where the greater malady is fix'd,
2568 | The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'ldst shun a bear;
2569 | But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,
2570 | Thou'ldst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the
2571 | mind's free,
2572 | The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
2573 | Doth from my senses take all feeling else
2574 | Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!
2575 | Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand
2576 | For lifting food to't? But I will punish home:
2577 | No, I will weep no more. In such a night
2578 | To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure.
2579 | In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!
2580 | Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all,--
2581 | O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
2582 | No more of that.
2583 | KENT
2584 | Good my lord, enter here.
2585 | KING LEAR
2586 | Prithee, go in thyself: seek thine own ease:
2587 | This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
2588 | On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in.
2589 | To the Fool
2590 |
2591 | In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty,--
2592 | Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.
2593 | Fool goes in
2594 |
2595 | Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
2596 | That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
2597 | How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
2598 | Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
2599 | From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
2600 | Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
2601 | Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
2602 | That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
2603 | And show the heavens more just.
2604 | EDGAR
2605 | [Within] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom!
2606 | The Fool runs out from the hovel
2607 |
2608 | Fool
2609 | Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit
2610 | Help me, help me!
2611 | KENT
2612 | Give me thy hand. Who's there?
2613 | Fool
2614 | A spirit, a spirit: he says his name's poor Tom.
2615 | KENT
2616 | What art thou that dost grumble there i' the straw?
2617 | Come forth.
2618 | Enter EDGAR disguised as a mad man
2619 |
2620 | EDGAR
2621 | Away! the foul fiend follows me!
2622 | Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.
2623 | Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.
2624 | KING LEAR
2625 | Hast thou given all to thy two daughters?
2626 | And art thou come to this?
2627 | EDGAR
2628 | Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul
2629 | fiend hath led through fire and through flame, and
2630 | through ford and whirlipool e'er bog and quagmire;
2631 | that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters
2632 | in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made film
2633 | proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over
2634 | four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a
2635 | traitor. Bless thy five wits! Tom's a-cold,--O, do
2636 | de, do de, do de. Bless thee from whirlwinds,
2637 | star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some
2638 | charity, whom the foul fiend vexes: there could I
2639 | have him now,--and there,--and there again, and there.
2640 | Storm still
2641 |
2642 | KING LEAR
2643 | What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?
2644 | Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all?
2645 | Fool
2646 | Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed.
2647 | KING LEAR
2648 | Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air
2649 | Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters!
2650 | KENT
2651 | He hath no daughters, sir.
2652 | KING LEAR
2653 | Death, traitor! nothing could have subdued nature
2654 | To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.
2655 | Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers
2656 | Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?
2657 | Judicious punishment! 'twas this flesh begot
2658 | Those pelican daughters.
2659 | EDGAR
2660 | Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill:
2661 | Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!
2662 | Fool
2663 | This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.
2664 | EDGAR
2665 | Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy parents;
2666 | keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with
2667 | man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud
2668 | array. Tom's a-cold.
2669 | KING LEAR
2670 | What hast thou been?
2671 | EDGAR
2672 | A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled
2673 | my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of
2674 | my mistress' heart, and did the act of darkness with
2675 | her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and
2676 | broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one that
2677 | slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it:
2678 | wine loved I deeply, dice dearly: and in woman
2679 | out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of
2680 | ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth,
2681 | wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey.
2682 | Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of
2683 | silks betray thy poor heart to woman: keep thy foot
2684 | out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen
2685 | from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend.
2686 | Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind:
2687 | Says suum, mun, ha, no, nonny.
2688 | Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let him trot by.
2689 | Storm still
2690 |
2691 | KING LEAR
2692 | Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer
2693 | with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies.
2694 | Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou
2695 | owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep
2696 | no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three on
2697 | 's are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself:
2698 | unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor bare,
2699 | forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings!
2700 | come unbutton here.
2701 | Tearing off his clothes
2702 |
2703 | Fool
2704 | Prithee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis a naughty night
2705 | to swim in. Now a little fire in a wild field were
2706 | like an old lecher's heart; a small spark, all the
2707 | rest on's body cold. Look, here comes a walking fire.
2708 | Enter GLOUCESTER, with a torch
2709 |
2710 | EDGAR
2711 | This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins
2712 | at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives
2713 | the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the
2714 | hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the
2715 | poor creature of earth.
2716 | S. Withold footed thrice the old;
2717 | He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;
2718 | Bid her alight,
2719 | And her troth plight,
2720 | And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!
2721 | KENT
2722 | How fares your grace?
2723 | KING LEAR
2724 | What's he?
2725 | KENT
2726 | Who's there? What is't you seek?
2727 | GLOUCESTER
2728 | What are you there? Your names?
2729 | EDGAR
2730 | Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad,
2731 | the tadpole, the wall-newt and the water; that in
2732 | the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages,
2733 | eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat and
2734 | the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the
2735 | standing pool; who is whipped from tithing to
2736 | tithing, and stock- punished, and imprisoned; who
2737 | hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his
2738 | body, horse to ride, and weapon to wear;
2739 | But mice and rats, and such small deer,
2740 | Have been Tom's food for seven long year.
2741 | Beware my follower. Peace, Smulkin; peace, thou fiend!
2742 | GLOUCESTER
2743 | What, hath your grace no better company?
2744 | EDGAR
2745 | The prince of darkness is a gentleman:
2746 | Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.
2747 | GLOUCESTER
2748 | Our flesh and blood is grown so vile, my lord,
2749 | That it doth hate what gets it.
2750 | EDGAR
2751 | Poor Tom's a-cold.
2752 | GLOUCESTER
2753 | Go in with me: my duty cannot suffer
2754 | To obey in all your daughters' hard commands:
2755 | Though their injunction be to bar my doors,
2756 | And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,
2757 | Yet have I ventured to come seek you out,
2758 | And bring you where both fire and food is ready.
2759 | KING LEAR
2760 | First let me talk with this philosopher.
2761 | What is the cause of thunder?
2762 | KENT
2763 | Good my lord, take his offer; go into the house.
2764 | KING LEAR
2765 | I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.
2766 | What is your study?
2767 | EDGAR
2768 | How to prevent the fiend, and to kill vermin.
2769 | KING LEAR
2770 | Let me ask you one word in private.
2771 | KENT
2772 | Importune him once more to go, my lord;
2773 | His wits begin to unsettle.
2774 | GLOUCESTER
2775 | Canst thou blame him?
2776 | Storm still
2777 |
2778 | His daughters seek his death: ah, that good Kent!
2779 | He said it would be thus, poor banish'd man!
2780 | Thou say'st the king grows mad; I'll tell thee, friend,
2781 | I am almost mad myself: I had a son,
2782 | Now outlaw'd from my blood; he sought my life,
2783 | But lately, very late: I loved him, friend;
2784 | No father his son dearer: truth to tell thee,
2785 | The grief hath crazed my wits. What a night's this!
2786 | I do beseech your grace,--
2787 | KING LEAR
2788 | O, cry your mercy, sir.
2789 | Noble philosopher, your company.
2790 | EDGAR
2791 | Tom's a-cold.
2792 | GLOUCESTER
2793 | In, fellow, there, into the hovel: keep thee warm.
2794 | KING LEAR
2795 | Come let's in all.
2796 | KENT
2797 | This way, my lord.
2798 | KING LEAR
2799 | With him;
2800 | I will keep still with my philosopher.
2801 | KENT
2802 | Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow.
2803 | GLOUCESTER
2804 | Take him you on.
2805 | KENT
2806 | Sirrah, come on; go along with us.
2807 | KING LEAR
2808 | Come, good Athenian.
2809 | GLOUCESTER
2810 | No words, no words: hush.
2811 | EDGAR
2812 | Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
2813 | His word was still,--Fie, foh, and fum,
2814 | I smell the blood of a British man.
2815 | Exeunt
2816 |
2817 | SCENE V. Gloucester's castle.
2818 | Enter CORNWALL and EDMUND
2819 | CORNWALL
2820 | I will have my revenge ere I depart his house.
2821 | EDMUND
2822 | How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus
2823 | gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think
2824 | of.
2825 | CORNWALL
2826 | I now perceive, it was not altogether your
2827 | brother's evil disposition made him seek his death;
2828 | but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reprovable
2829 | badness in himself.
2830 | EDMUND
2831 | How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to
2832 | be just! This is the letter he spoke of, which
2833 | approves him an intelligent party to the advantages
2834 | of France: O heavens! that this treason were not,
2835 | or not I the detector!
2836 | CORNWALL
2837 | o with me to the duchess.
2838 | EDMUND
2839 | If the matter of this paper be certain, you have
2840 | mighty business in hand.
2841 | CORNWALL
2842 | True or false, it hath made thee earl of
2843 | Gloucester. Seek out where thy father is, that he
2844 | may be ready for our apprehension.
2845 | EDMUND
2846 | [Aside] If I find him comforting the king, it will
2847 | stuff his suspicion more fully.--I will persevere in
2848 | my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore
2849 | between that and my blood.
2850 | CORNWALL
2851 | I will lay trust upon thee; and thou shalt find a
2852 | dearer father in my love.
2853 | Exeunt
2854 |
2855 | SCENE VI. A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle.
2856 | Enter GLOUCESTER, KING LEAR, KENT, Fool, and EDGAR
2857 | GLOUCESTER
2858 | Here is better than the open air; take it
2859 | thankfully. I will piece out the comfort with what
2860 | addition I can: I will not be long from you.
2861 | KENT
2862 | All the power of his wits have given way to his
2863 | impatience: the gods reward your kindness!
2864 | Exit GLOUCESTER
2865 |
2866 | EDGAR
2867 | Frateretto calls me; and tells me
2868 | Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness.
2869 | Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.
2870 | Fool
2871 | Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a
2872 | gentleman or a yeoman?
2873 | KING LEAR
2874 | A king, a king!
2875 | Fool
2876 | No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son;
2877 | for he's a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman
2878 | before him.
2879 | KING LEAR
2880 | To have a thousand with red burning spits
2881 | Come hissing in upon 'em,--
2882 | EDGAR
2883 | The foul fiend bites my back.
2884 | Fool
2885 | He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a
2886 | horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath.
2887 | KING LEAR
2888 | It shall be done; I will arraign them straight.
2889 | To EDGAR
2890 |
2891 | Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer;
2892 | To the Fool
2893 |
2894 | Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she foxes!
2895 | EDGAR
2896 | Look, where he stands and glares!
2897 | Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?
2898 | Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me,--
2899 | Fool
2900 | Her boat hath a leak,
2901 | And she must not speak
2902 | Why she dares not come over to thee.
2903 | EDGAR
2904 | The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a
2905 | nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two
2906 | white herring. Croak not, black angel; I have no
2907 | food for thee.
2908 | KENT
2909 | How do you, sir? Stand you not so amazed:
2910 | Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?
2911 | KING LEAR
2912 | I'll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence.
2913 | To EDGAR
2914 |
2915 | Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;
2916 | To the Fool
2917 |
2918 | And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity,
2919 | Bench by his side:
2920 | To KENT
2921 |
2922 | you are o' the commission,
2923 | Sit you too.
2924 | EDGAR
2925 | Let us deal justly.
2926 | Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?
2927 | Thy sheep be in the corn;
2928 | And for one blast of thy minikin mouth,
2929 | Thy sheep shall take no harm.
2930 | Pur! the cat is gray.
2931 | KING LEAR
2932 | Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my
2933 | oath before this honourable assembly, she kicked the
2934 | poor king her father.
2935 | Fool
2936 | Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril?
2937 | KING LEAR
2938 | She cannot deny it.
2939 | Fool
2940 | Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.
2941 | KING LEAR
2942 | And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim
2943 | What store her heart is made on. Stop her there!
2944 | Arms, arms, sword, fire! Corruption in the place!
2945 | False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape?
2946 | EDGAR
2947 | Bless thy five wits!
2948 | KENT
2949 | O pity! Sir, where is the patience now,
2950 | That thou so oft have boasted to retain?
2951 | EDGAR
2952 | [Aside] My tears begin to take his part so much,
2953 | They'll mar my counterfeiting.
2954 | KING LEAR
2955 | The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and
2956 | Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me.
2957 | EDGAR
2958 | Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs!
2959 | Be thy mouth or black or white,
2960 | Tooth that poisons if it bite;
2961 | Mastiff, grey-hound, mongrel grim,
2962 | Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,
2963 | Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail,
2964 | Tom will make them weep and wail:
2965 | For, with throwing thus my head,
2966 | Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.
2967 | Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and
2968 | fairs and market-towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.
2969 | KING LEAR
2970 | Then let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds
2971 | about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that
2972 | makes these hard hearts?
2973 | To EDGAR
2974 |
2975 | You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred; only I
2976 | do not like the fashion of your garments: you will
2977 | say they are Persian attire: but let them be changed.
2978 | KENT
2979 | Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile.
2980 | KING LEAR
2981 | Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains:
2982 | so, so, so. We'll go to supper i' he morning. So, so, so.
2983 | Fool
2984 | And I'll go to bed at noon.
2985 | Re-enter GLOUCESTER
2986 |
2987 | GLOUCESTER
2988 | Come hither, friend: where is the king my master?
2989 | KENT
2990 | Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits are gone.
2991 | GLOUCESTER
2992 | Good friend, I prithee, take him in thy arms;
2993 | I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him:
2994 | There is a litter ready; lay him in 't,
2995 | And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet
2996 | Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master:
2997 | If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life,
2998 | With thine, and all that offer to defend him,
2999 | Stand in assured loss: take up, take up;
3000 | And follow me, that will to some provision
3001 | Give thee quick conduct.
3002 | KENT
3003 | Oppressed nature sleeps:
3004 | This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses,
3005 | Which, if convenience will not allow,
3006 | Stand in hard cure.
3007 | To the Fool
3008 |
3009 | Come, help to bear thy master;
3010 | Thou must not stay behind.
3011 | GLOUCESTER
3012 | Come, come, away.
3013 | Exeunt all but EDGAR
3014 |
3015 | EDGAR
3016 | When we our betters see bearing our woes,
3017 | We scarcely think our miseries our foes.
3018 | Who alone suffers suffers most i' the mind,
3019 | Leaving free things and happy shows behind:
3020 | But then the mind much sufferance doth o'er skip,
3021 | When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.
3022 | How light and portable my pain seems now,
3023 | When that which makes me bend makes the king bow,
3024 | He childed as I father'd! Tom, away!
3025 | Mark the high noises; and thyself bewray,
3026 | When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee,
3027 | In thy just proof, repeals and reconciles thee.
3028 | What will hap more to-night, safe 'scape the king!
3029 | Lurk, lurk.
3030 | Exit
3031 |
3032 | SCENE VII. Gloucester's castle.
3033 | Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GONERIL, EDMUND, and Servants
3034 | CORNWALL
3035 | Post speedily to my lord your husband; show him
3036 | this letter: the army of France is landed. Seek
3037 | out the villain Gloucester.
3038 | Exeunt some of the Servants
3039 |
3040 | REGAN
3041 | Hang him instantly.
3042 | GONERIL
3043 | Pluck out his eyes.
3044 | CORNWALL
3045 | Leave him to my displeasure. Edmund, keep you our
3046 | sister company: the revenges we are bound to take
3047 | upon your traitorous father are not fit for your
3048 | beholding. Advise the duke, where you are going, to
3049 | a most festinate preparation: we are bound to the
3050 | like. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent
3051 | betwixt us. Farewell, dear sister: farewell, my
3052 | lord of Gloucester.
3053 | Enter OSWALD
3054 |
3055 | How now! where's the king?
3056 | OSWALD
3057 | My lord of Gloucester hath convey'd him hence:
3058 | Some five or six and thirty of his knights,
3059 | Hot questrists after him, met him at gate;
3060 | Who, with some other of the lords dependants,
3061 | Are gone with him towards Dover; where they boast
3062 | To have well-armed friends.
3063 | CORNWALL
3064 | Get horses for your mistress.
3065 | GONERIL
3066 | Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.
3067 | CORNWALL
3068 | Edmund, farewell.
3069 | Exeunt GONERIL, EDMUND, and OSWALD
3070 |
3071 | Go seek the traitor Gloucester,
3072 | Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us.
3073 | Exeunt other Servants
3074 |
3075 | Though well we may not pass upon his life
3076 | Without the form of justice, yet our power
3077 | Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men
3078 | May blame, but not control. Who's there? the traitor?
3079 | Enter GLOUCESTER, brought in by two or three
3080 |
3081 | REGAN
3082 | Ingrateful fox! 'tis he.
3083 | CORNWALL
3084 | Bind fast his corky arms.
3085 | GLOUCESTER
3086 | What mean your graces? Good my friends, consider
3087 | You are my guests: do me no foul play, friends.
3088 | CORNWALL
3089 | Bind him, I say.
3090 | Servants bind him
3091 |
3092 | REGAN
3093 | Hard, hard. O filthy traitor!
3094 | GLOUCESTER
3095 | Unmerciful lady as you are, I'm none.
3096 | CORNWALL
3097 | To this chair bind him. Villain, thou shalt find--
3098 | REGAN plucks his beard
3099 |
3100 | GLOUCESTER
3101 | By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done
3102 | To pluck me by the beard.
3103 | REGAN
3104 | So white, and such a traitor!
3105 | GLOUCESTER
3106 | Naughty lady,
3107 | These hairs, which thou dost ravish from my chin,
3108 | Will quicken, and accuse thee: I am your host:
3109 | With robbers' hands my hospitable favours
3110 | You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?
3111 | CORNWALL
3112 | Come, sir, what letters had you late from France?
3113 | REGAN
3114 | Be simple answerer, for we know the truth.
3115 | CORNWALL
3116 | And what confederacy have you with the traitors
3117 | Late footed in the kingdom?
3118 | REGAN
3119 | To whose hands have you sent the lunatic king? Speak.
3120 | GLOUCESTER
3121 | I have a letter guessingly set down,
3122 | Which came from one that's of a neutral heart,
3123 | And not from one opposed.
3124 | CORNWALL
3125 | Cunning.
3126 | REGAN
3127 | And false.
3128 | CORNWALL
3129 | Where hast thou sent the king?
3130 | GLOUCESTER
3131 | To Dover.
3132 | REGAN
3133 | Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not charged at peril--
3134 | CORNWALL
3135 | Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that.
3136 | GLOUCESTER
3137 | I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course.
3138 | REGAN
3139 | Wherefore to Dover, sir?
3140 | GLOUCESTER
3141 | Because I would not see thy cruel nails
3142 | Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister
3143 | In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.
3144 | The sea, with such a storm as his bare head
3145 | In hell-black night endured, would have buoy'd up,
3146 | And quench'd the stelled fires:
3147 | Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain.
3148 | If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time,
3149 | Thou shouldst have said 'Good porter, turn the key,'
3150 | All cruels else subscribed: but I shall see
3151 | The winged vengeance overtake such children.
3152 | CORNWALL
3153 | See't shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair.
3154 | Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot.
3155 | GLOUCESTER
3156 | He that will think to live till he be old,
3157 | Give me some help! O cruel! O you gods!
3158 | REGAN
3159 | One side will mock another; the other too.
3160 | CORNWALL
3161 | If you see vengeance,--
3162 | First Servant
3163 | Hold your hand, my lord:
3164 | I have served you ever since I was a child;
3165 | But better service have I never done you
3166 | Than now to bid you hold.
3167 | REGAN
3168 | How now, you dog!
3169 | First Servant
3170 | If you did wear a beard upon your chin,
3171 | I'd shake it on this quarrel. What do you mean?
3172 | CORNWALL
3173 | My villain!
3174 | They draw and fight
3175 |
3176 | First Servant
3177 | Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of anger.
3178 | REGAN
3179 | Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus!
3180 | Takes a sword, and runs at him behind
3181 |
3182 | First Servant
3183 | O, I am slain! My lord, you have one eye left
3184 | To see some mischief on him. O!
3185 | Dies
3186 |
3187 | CORNWALL
3188 | Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly!
3189 | Where is thy lustre now?
3190 | GLOUCESTER
3191 | All dark and comfortless. Where's my son Edmund?
3192 | Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature,
3193 | To quit this horrid act.
3194 | REGAN
3195 | Out, treacherous villain!
3196 | Thou call'st on him that hates thee: it was he
3197 | That made the overture of thy treasons to us;
3198 | Who is too good to pity thee.
3199 | GLOUCESTER
3200 | O my follies! then Edgar was abused.
3201 | Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!
3202 | REGAN
3203 | Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell
3204 | His way to Dover.
3205 | Exit one with GLOUCESTER
3206 |
3207 | How is't, my lord? how look you?
3208 | CORNWALL
3209 | I have received a hurt: follow me, lady.
3210 | Turn out that eyeless villain; throw this slave
3211 | Upon the dunghill. Regan, I bleed apace:
3212 | Untimely comes this hurt: give me your arm.
3213 | Exit CORNWALL, led by REGAN
3214 |
3215 | Second Servant
3216 | I'll never care what wickedness I do,
3217 | If this man come to good.
3218 | Third Servant
3219 | If she live long,
3220 | And in the end meet the old course of death,
3221 | Women will all turn monsters.
3222 | Second Servant
3223 | Let's follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam
3224 | To lead him where he would: his roguish madness
3225 | Allows itself to any thing.
3226 | Third Servant
3227 | Go thou: I'll fetch some flax and whites of eggs
3228 | To apply to his bleeding face. Now, heaven help him!
3229 | Exeunt severally
3230 |
3231 | ACT IV
3232 | SCENE I. The heath.
3233 | Enter EDGAR
3234 | EDGAR
3235 | Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd,
3236 | Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst,
3237 | The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,
3238 | Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear:
3239 | The lamentable change is from the best;
3240 | The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then,
3241 | Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace!
3242 | The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst
3243 | Owes nothing to thy blasts. But who comes here?
3244 | Enter GLOUCESTER, led by an Old Man
3245 |
3246 | My father, poorly led? World, world, O world!
3247 | But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,
3248 | Lie would not yield to age.
3249 | Old Man
3250 | O, my good lord, I have been your tenant, and
3251 | your father's tenant, these fourscore years.
3252 | GLOUCESTER
3253 | Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone:
3254 | Thy comforts can do me no good at all;
3255 | Thee they may hurt.
3256 | Old Man
3257 | Alack, sir, you cannot see your way.
3258 | GLOUCESTER
3259 | I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;
3260 | I stumbled when I saw: full oft 'tis seen,
3261 | Our means secure us, and our mere defects
3262 | Prove our commodities. O dear son Edgar,
3263 | The food of thy abused father's wrath!
3264 | Might I but live to see thee in my touch,
3265 | I'ld say I had eyes again!
3266 | Old Man
3267 | How now! Who's there?
3268 | EDGAR
3269 | [Aside] O gods! Who is't can say 'I am at
3270 | the worst'?
3271 | I am worse than e'er I was.
3272 | Old Man
3273 | 'Tis poor mad Tom.
3274 | EDGAR
3275 | [Aside] And worse I may be yet: the worst is not
3276 | So long as we can say 'This is the worst.'
3277 | Old Man
3278 | Fellow, where goest?
3279 | GLOUCESTER
3280 | Is it a beggar-man?
3281 | Old Man
3282 | Madman and beggar too.
3283 | GLOUCESTER
3284 | He has some reason, else he could not beg.
3285 | I' the last night's storm I such a fellow saw;
3286 | Which made me think a man a worm: my son
3287 | Came then into my mind; and yet my mind
3288 | Was then scarce friends with him: I have heard
3289 | more since.
3290 | As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods.
3291 | They kill us for their sport.
3292 | EDGAR
3293 | [Aside] How should this be?
3294 | Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow,
3295 | Angering itself and others.--Bless thee, master!
3296 | GLOUCESTER
3297 | Is that the naked fellow?
3298 | Old Man
3299 | Ay, my lord.
3300 | GLOUCESTER
3301 | Then, prithee, get thee gone: if, for my sake,
3302 | Thou wilt o'ertake us, hence a mile or twain,
3303 | I' the way toward Dover, do it for ancient love;
3304 | And bring some covering for this naked soul,
3305 | Who I'll entreat to lead me.
3306 | Old Man
3307 | Alack, sir, he is mad.
3308 | GLOUCESTER
3309 | 'Tis the times' plague, when madmen lead the blind.
3310 | Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure;
3311 | Above the rest, be gone.
3312 | Old Man
3313 | I'll bring him the best 'parel that I have,
3314 | Come on't what will.
3315 | Exit
3316 |
3317 | GLOUCESTER
3318 | Sirrah, naked fellow,--
3319 | EDGAR
3320 | Poor Tom's a-cold.
3321 | Aside
3322 |
3323 | I cannot daub it further.
3324 | GLOUCESTER
3325 | Come hither, fellow.
3326 | EDGAR
3327 | [Aside] And yet I must.--Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed.
3328 | GLOUCESTER
3329 | Know'st thou the way to Dover?
3330 | EDGAR
3331 | Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path. Poor
3332 | Tom hath been scared out of his good wits: bless
3333 | thee, good man's son, from the foul fiend! five
3334 | fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as
3335 | Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of
3336 | stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, of
3337 | mopping and mowing, who since possesses chambermaids
3338 | and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master!
3339 | GLOUCESTER
3340 | Here, take this purse, thou whom the heavens' plagues
3341 | Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched
3342 | Makes thee the happier: heavens, deal so still!
3343 | Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man,
3344 | That slaves your ordinance, that will not see
3345 | Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly;
3346 | So distribution should undo excess,
3347 | And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover?
3348 | EDGAR
3349 | Ay, master.
3350 | GLOUCESTER
3351 | There is a cliff, whose high and bending head
3352 | Looks fearfully in the confined deep:
3353 | Bring me but to the very brim of it,
3354 | And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear
3355 | With something rich about me: from that place
3356 | I shall no leading need.
3357 | EDGAR
3358 | Give me thy arm:
3359 | Poor Tom shall lead thee.
3360 | Exeunt
3361 |
3362 | SCENE II. Before ALBANY's palace.
3363 | Enter GONERIL and EDMUND
3364 | GONERIL
3365 | Welcome, my lord: I marvel our mild husband
3366 | Not met us on the way.
3367 | Enter OSWALD
3368 |
3369 | Now, where's your master'?
3370 | OSWALD
3371 | Madam, within; but never man so changed.
3372 | I told him of the army that was landed;
3373 | He smiled at it: I told him you were coming:
3374 | His answer was 'The worse:' of Gloucester's treachery,
3375 | And of the loyal service of his son,
3376 | When I inform'd him, then he call'd me sot,
3377 | And told me I had turn'd the wrong side out:
3378 | What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him;
3379 | What like, offensive.
3380 | GONERIL
3381 | [To EDMUND] Then shall you go no further.
3382 | It is the cowish terror of his spirit,
3383 | That dares not undertake: he'll not feel wrongs
3384 | Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way
3385 | May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother;
3386 | Hasten his musters and conduct his powers:
3387 | I must change arms at home, and give the distaff
3388 | Into my husband's hands. This trusty servant
3389 | Shall pass between us: ere long you are like to hear,
3390 | If you dare venture in your own behalf,
3391 | A mistress's command. Wear this; spare speech;
3392 | Giving a favour
3393 |
3394 | Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak,
3395 | Would stretch thy spirits up into the air:
3396 | Conceive, and fare thee well.
3397 | EDMUND
3398 | Yours in the ranks of death.
3399 | GONERIL
3400 | My most dear Gloucester!
3401 | Exit EDMUND
3402 |
3403 | O, the difference of man and man!
3404 | To thee a woman's services are due:
3405 | My fool usurps my body.
3406 | OSWALD
3407 | Madam, here comes my lord.
3408 | Exit
3409 |
3410 | Enter ALBANY
3411 |
3412 | GONERIL
3413 | I have been worth the whistle.
3414 | ALBANY
3415 | O Goneril!
3416 | You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
3417 | Blows in your face. I fear your disposition:
3418 | That nature, which contemns its origin,
3419 | Cannot be border'd certain in itself;
3420 | She that herself will sliver and disbranch
3421 | From her material sap, perforce must wither
3422 | And come to deadly use.
3423 | GONERIL
3424 | No more; the text is foolish.
3425 | ALBANY
3426 | Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile:
3427 | Filths savour but themselves. What have you done?
3428 | Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd?
3429 | A father, and a gracious aged man,
3430 | Whose reverence even the head-lugg'd bear would lick,
3431 | Most barbarous, most degenerate! have you madded.
3432 | Could my good brother suffer you to do it?
3433 | A man, a prince, by him so benefited!
3434 | If that the heavens do not their visible spirits
3435 | Send quickly down to tame these vile offences,
3436 | It will come,
3437 | Humanity must perforce prey on itself,
3438 | Like monsters of the deep.
3439 | GONERIL
3440 | Milk-liver'd man!
3441 | That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;
3442 | Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning
3443 | Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know'st
3444 | Fools do those villains pity who are punish'd
3445 | Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum?
3446 | France spreads his banners in our noiseless land;
3447 | With plumed helm thy slayer begins threats;
3448 | Whiles thou, a moral fool, sit'st still, and criest
3449 | 'Alack, why does he so?'
3450 | ALBANY
3451 | See thyself, devil!
3452 | Proper deformity seems not in the fiend
3453 | So horrid as in woman.
3454 | GONERIL
3455 | O vain fool!
3456 | ALBANY
3457 | Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame,
3458 | Be-monster not thy feature. Were't my fitness
3459 | To let these hands obey my blood,
3460 | They are apt enough to dislocate and tear
3461 | Thy flesh and bones: howe'er thou art a fiend,
3462 | A woman's shape doth shield thee.
3463 | GONERIL
3464 | Marry, your manhood now--
3465 | Enter a Messenger
3466 |
3467 | ALBANY
3468 | What news?
3469 | Messenger
3470 | O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall's dead:
3471 | Slain by his servant, going to put out
3472 | The other eye of Gloucester.
3473 | ALBANY
3474 | Gloucester's eye!
3475 | Messenger
3476 | A servant that he bred, thrill'd with remorse,
3477 | Opposed against the act, bending his sword
3478 | To his great master; who, thereat enraged,
3479 | Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead;
3480 | But not without that harmful stroke, which since
3481 | Hath pluck'd him after.
3482 | ALBANY
3483 | This shows you are above,
3484 | You justicers, that these our nether crimes
3485 | So speedily can venge! But, O poor Gloucester!
3486 | Lost he his other eye?
3487 | Messenger
3488 | Both, both, my lord.
3489 | This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer;
3490 | 'Tis from your sister.
3491 | GONERIL
3492 | [Aside] One way I like this well;
3493 | But being widow, and my Gloucester with her,
3494 | May all the building in my fancy pluck
3495 | Upon my hateful life: another way,
3496 | The news is not so tart.--I'll read, and answer.
3497 | Exit
3498 |
3499 | ALBANY
3500 | Where was his son when they did take his eyes?
3501 | Messenger
3502 | Come with my lady hither.
3503 | ALBANY
3504 | He is not here.
3505 | Messenger
3506 | No, my good lord; I met him back again.
3507 | ALBANY
3508 | Knows he the wickedness?
3509 | Messenger
3510 | Ay, my good lord; 'twas he inform'd against him;
3511 | And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment
3512 | Might have the freer course.
3513 | ALBANY
3514 | Gloucester, I live
3515 | To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king,
3516 | And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend:
3517 | Tell me what more thou know'st.
3518 | Exeunt
3519 |
3520 | SCENE III. The French camp near Dover.
3521 | Enter KENT and a Gentleman
3522 | KENT
3523 | Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back
3524 | know you the reason?
3525 | Gentleman
3526 | Something he left imperfect in the
3527 | state, which since his coming forth is thought
3528 | of; which imports to the kingdom so much
3529 | fear and danger, that his personal return was
3530 | most required and necessary.
3531 | KENT
3532 | Who hath he left behind him general?
3533 | Gentleman
3534 | The Marshal of France, Monsieur La Far.
3535 | KENT
3536 | Did your letters pierce the queen to any
3537 | demonstration of grief?
3538 | Gentleman
3539 | Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence;
3540 | And now and then an ample tear trill'd down
3541 | Her delicate cheek: it seem'd she was a queen
3542 | Over her passion; who, most rebel-like,
3543 | Sought to be king o'er her.
3544 | KENT
3545 | O, then it moved her.
3546 | Gentleman
3547 | Not to a rage: patience and sorrow strove
3548 | Who should express her goodliest. You have seen
3549 | Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears
3550 | Were like a better way: those happy smilets,
3551 | That play'd on her ripe lip, seem'd not to know
3552 | What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence,
3553 | As pearls from diamonds dropp'd. In brief,
3554 | Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved,
3555 | If all could so become it.
3556 | KENT
3557 | Made she no verbal question?
3558 | Gentleman
3559 | 'Faith, once or twice she heaved the name of 'father'
3560 | Pantingly forth, as if it press'd her heart:
3561 | Cried 'Sisters! sisters! Shame of ladies! sisters!
3562 | Kent! father! sisters! What, i' the storm? i' the night?
3563 | Let pity not be believed!' There she shook
3564 | The holy water from her heavenly eyes,
3565 | And clamour moisten'd: then away she started
3566 | To deal with grief alone.
3567 | KENT
3568 | It is the stars,
3569 | The stars above us, govern our conditions;
3570 | Else one self mate and mate could not beget
3571 | Such different issues. You spoke not with her since?
3572 | Gentleman
3573 | No.
3574 | KENT
3575 | Was this before the king return'd?
3576 | Gentleman
3577 | No, since.
3578 | KENT
3579 | Well, sir, the poor distressed Lear's i' the town;
3580 | Who sometime, in his better tune, remembers
3581 | What we are come about, and by no means
3582 | Will yield to see his daughter.
3583 | Gentleman
3584 | Why, good sir?
3585 | KENT
3586 | A sovereign shame so elbows him: his own unkindness,
3587 | That stripp'd her from his benediction, turn'd her
3588 | To foreign casualties, gave her dear rights
3589 | To his dog-hearted daughters, these things sting
3590 | His mind so venomously, that burning shame
3591 | Detains him from Cordelia.
3592 | Gentleman
3593 | Alack, poor gentleman!
3594 | KENT
3595 | Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard not?
3596 | Gentleman
3597 | 'Tis so, they are afoot.
3598 | KENT
3599 | Well, sir, I'll bring you to our master Lear,
3600 | And leave you to attend him: some dear cause
3601 | Will in concealment wrap me up awhile;
3602 | When I am known aright, you shall not grieve
3603 | Lending me this acquaintance. I pray you, go
3604 | Along with me.
3605 | Exeunt
3606 |
3607 | SCENE IV. The same. A tent.
3608 | Enter, with drum and colours, CORDELIA, Doctor, and Soldiers
3609 | CORDELIA
3610 | Alack, 'tis he: why, he was met even now
3611 | As mad as the vex'd sea; singing aloud;
3612 | Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds,
3613 | With bur-docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,
3614 | Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
3615 | In our sustaining corn. A century send forth;
3616 | Search every acre in the high-grown field,
3617 | And bring him to our eye.
3618 | Exit an Officer
3619 |
3620 | What can man's wisdom
3621 | In the restoring his bereaved sense?
3622 | He that helps him take all my outward worth.
3623 | Doctor
3624 | There is means, madam:
3625 | Our foster-nurse of nature is repose,
3626 | The which he lacks; that to provoke in him,
3627 | Are many simples operative, whose power
3628 | Will close the eye of anguish.
3629 | CORDELIA
3630 | All blest secrets,
3631 | All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth,
3632 | Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate
3633 | In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him;
3634 | Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life
3635 | That wants the means to lead it.
3636 | Enter a Messenger
3637 |
3638 | Messenger
3639 | News, madam;
3640 | The British powers are marching hitherward.
3641 | CORDELIA
3642 | 'Tis known before; our preparation stands
3643 | In expectation of them. O dear father,
3644 | It is thy business that I go about;
3645 | Therefore great France
3646 | My mourning and important tears hath pitied.
3647 | No blown ambition doth our arms incite,
3648 | But love, dear love, and our aged father's right:
3649 | Soon may I hear and see him!
3650 | Exeunt
3651 |
3652 | SCENE V. Gloucester's castle.
3653 | Enter REGAN and OSWALD
3654 | REGAN
3655 | But are my brother's powers set forth?
3656 | OSWALD
3657 | Ay, madam.
3658 | REGAN
3659 | Himself in person there?
3660 | OSWALD
3661 | Madam, with much ado:
3662 | Your sister is the better soldier.
3663 | REGAN
3664 | Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home?
3665 | OSWALD
3666 | No, madam.
3667 | REGAN
3668 | What might import my sister's letter to him?
3669 | OSWALD
3670 | I know not, lady.
3671 | REGAN
3672 | 'Faith, he is posted hence on serious matter.
3673 | It was great ignorance, Gloucester's eyes being out,
3674 | To let him live: where he arrives he moves
3675 | All hearts against us: Edmund, I think, is gone,
3676 | In pity of his misery, to dispatch
3677 | His nighted life: moreover, to descry
3678 | The strength o' the enemy.
3679 | OSWALD
3680 | I must needs after him, madam, with my letter.
3681 | REGAN
3682 | Our troops set forth to-morrow: stay with us;
3683 | The ways are dangerous.
3684 | OSWALD
3685 | I may not, madam:
3686 | My lady charged my duty in this business.
3687 | REGAN
3688 | Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you
3689 | Transport her purposes by word? Belike,
3690 | Something--I know not what: I'll love thee much,
3691 | Let me unseal the letter.
3692 | OSWALD
3693 | Madam, I had rather--
3694 | REGAN
3695 | I know your lady does not love her husband;
3696 | I am sure of that: and at her late being here
3697 | She gave strange oeillades and most speaking looks
3698 | To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom.
3699 | OSWALD
3700 | I, madam?
3701 | REGAN
3702 | I speak in understanding; you are; I know't:
3703 | Therefore I do advise you, take this note:
3704 | My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd;
3705 | And more convenient is he for my hand
3706 | Than for your lady's: you may gather more.
3707 | If you do find him, pray you, give him this;
3708 | And when your mistress hears thus much from you,
3709 | I pray, desire her call her wisdom to her.
3710 | So, fare you well.
3711 | If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,
3712 | Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.
3713 | OSWALD
3714 | Would I could meet him, madam! I should show
3715 | What party I do follow.
3716 | REGAN
3717 | Fare thee well.
3718 | Exeunt
3719 |
3720 | SCENE VI. Fields near Dover.
3721 | Enter GLOUCESTER, and EDGAR dressed like a peasant
3722 | GLOUCESTER
3723 | When shall we come to the top of that same hill?
3724 | EDGAR
3725 | You do climb up it now: look, how we labour.
3726 | GLOUCESTER
3727 | Methinks the ground is even.
3728 | EDGAR
3729 | Horrible steep.
3730 | Hark, do you hear the sea?
3731 | GLOUCESTER
3732 | No, truly.
3733 | EDGAR
3734 | Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect
3735 | By your eyes' anguish.
3736 | GLOUCESTER
3737 | So may it be, indeed:
3738 | Methinks thy voice is alter'd; and thou speak'st
3739 | In better phrase and matter than thou didst.
3740 | EDGAR
3741 | You're much deceived: in nothing am I changed
3742 | But in my garments.
3743 | GLOUCESTER
3744 | Methinks you're better spoken.
3745 | EDGAR
3746 | Come on, sir; here's the place: stand still. How fearful
3747 | And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low!
3748 | The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
3749 | Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down
3750 | Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!
3751 | Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:
3752 | The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
3753 | Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,
3754 | Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy
3755 | Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge,
3756 | That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,
3757 | Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more;
3758 | Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
3759 | Topple down headlong.
3760 | GLOUCESTER
3761 | Set me where you stand.
3762 | EDGAR
3763 | Give me your hand: you are now within a foot
3764 | Of the extreme verge: for all beneath the moon
3765 | Would I not leap upright.
3766 | GLOUCESTER
3767 | Let go my hand.
3768 | Here, friend, 's another purse; in it a jewel
3769 | Well worth a poor man's taking: fairies and gods
3770 | Prosper it with thee! Go thou farther off;
3771 | Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.
3772 | EDGAR
3773 | Now fare you well, good sir.
3774 | GLOUCESTER
3775 | With all my heart.
3776 | EDGAR
3777 | Why I do trifle thus with his despair
3778 | Is done to cure it.
3779 | GLOUCESTER
3780 | [Kneeling] O you mighty gods!
3781 | This world I do renounce, and, in your sights,
3782 | Shake patiently my great affliction off:
3783 | If I could bear it longer, and not fall
3784 | To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
3785 | My snuff and loathed part of nature should
3786 | Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!
3787 | Now, fellow, fare thee well.
3788 | He falls forward
3789 |
3790 | EDGAR
3791 | Gone, sir: farewell.
3792 | And yet I know not how conceit may rob
3793 | The treasury of life, when life itself
3794 | Yields to the theft: had he been where he thought,
3795 | By this, had thought been past. Alive or dead?
3796 | Ho, you sir! friend! Hear you, sir! speak!
3797 | Thus might he pass indeed: yet he revives.
3798 | What are you, sir?
3799 | GLOUCESTER
3800 | Away, and let me die.
3801 | EDGAR
3802 | Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,
3803 | So many fathom down precipitating,
3804 | Thou'dst shiver'd like an egg: but thou dost breathe;
3805 | Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound.
3806 | Ten masts at each make not the altitude
3807 | Which thou hast perpendicularly fell:
3808 | Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again.
3809 | GLOUCESTER
3810 | But have I fall'n, or no?
3811 | EDGAR
3812 | From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.
3813 | Look up a-height; the shrill-gorged lark so far
3814 | Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.
3815 | GLOUCESTER
3816 | Alack, I have no eyes.
3817 | Is wretchedness deprived that benefit,
3818 | To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort,
3819 | When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage,
3820 | And frustrate his proud will.
3821 | EDGAR
3822 | Give me your arm:
3823 | Up: so. How is 't? Feel you your legs? You stand.
3824 | GLOUCESTER
3825 | Too well, too well.
3826 | EDGAR
3827 | This is above all strangeness.
3828 | Upon the crown o' the cliff, what thing was that
3829 | Which parted from you?
3830 | GLOUCESTER
3831 | A poor unfortunate beggar.
3832 | EDGAR
3833 | As I stood here below, methought his eyes
3834 | Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses,
3835 | Horns whelk'd and waved like the enridged sea:
3836 | It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father,
3837 | Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours
3838 | Of men's impossibilities, have preserved thee.
3839 | GLOUCESTER
3840 | I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear
3841 | Affliction till it do cry out itself
3842 | 'Enough, enough,' and die. That thing you speak of,
3843 | I took it for a man; often 'twould say
3844 | 'The fiend, the fiend:' he led me to that place.
3845 | EDGAR
3846 | Bear free and patient thoughts. But who comes here?
3847 | Enter KING LEAR, fantastically dressed with wild flowers
3848 |
3849 | The safer sense will ne'er accommodate
3850 | His master thus.
3851 | KING LEAR
3852 | No, they cannot touch me for coining; I am the
3853 | king himself.
3854 | EDGAR
3855 | O thou side-piercing sight!
3856 | KING LEAR
3857 | Nature's above art in that respect. There's your
3858 | press-money. That fellow handles his bow like a
3859 | crow-keeper: draw me a clothier's yard. Look,
3860 | look, a mouse! Peace, peace; this piece of toasted
3861 | cheese will do 't. There's my gauntlet; I'll prove
3862 | it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O, well
3863 | flown, bird! i' the clout, i' the clout: hewgh!
3864 | Give the word.
3865 | EDGAR
3866 | Sweet marjoram.
3867 | KING LEAR
3868 | Pass.
3869 | GLOUCESTER
3870 | I know that voice.
3871 | KING LEAR
3872 | Ha! Goneril, with a white beard! They flattered
3873 | me like a dog; and told me I had white hairs in my
3874 | beard ere the black ones were there. To say 'ay'
3875 | and 'no' to every thing that I said!--'Ay' and 'no'
3876 | too was no good divinity. When the rain came to
3877 | wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter; when
3878 | the thunder would not peace at my bidding; there I
3879 | found 'em, there I smelt 'em out. Go to, they are
3880 | not men o' their words: they told me I was every
3881 | thing; 'tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.
3882 | GLOUCESTER
3883 | The trick of that voice I do well remember:
3884 | Is 't not the king?
3885 | KING LEAR
3886 | Ay, every inch a king:
3887 | When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.
3888 | I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause? Adultery?
3889 | Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No:
3890 | The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly
3891 | Does lecher in my sight.
3892 | Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son
3893 | Was kinder to his father than my daughters
3894 | Got 'tween the lawful sheets.
3895 | To 't, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers.
3896 | Behold yond simpering dame,
3897 | Whose face between her forks presages snow;
3898 | That minces virtue, and does shake the head
3899 | To hear of pleasure's name;
3900 | The fitchew, nor the soiled horse, goes to 't
3901 | With a more riotous appetite.
3902 | Down from the waist they are Centaurs,
3903 | Though women all above:
3904 | But to the girdle do the gods inherit,
3905 | Beneath is all the fiends';
3906 | There's hell, there's darkness, there's the
3907 | sulphurous pit,
3908 | Burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie,
3909 | fie, fie! pah, pah! Give me an ounce of civet,
3910 | good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination:
3911 | there's money for thee.
3912 | GLOUCESTER
3913 | O, let me kiss that hand!
3914 | KING LEAR
3915 | Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.
3916 | GLOUCESTER
3917 | O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world
3918 | Shall so wear out to nought. Dost thou know me?
3919 | KING LEAR
3920 | I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny
3921 | at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid! I'll not
3922 | love. Read thou this challenge; mark but the
3923 | penning of it.
3924 | GLOUCESTER
3925 | Were all the letters suns, I could not see one.
3926 | EDGAR
3927 | I would not take this from report; it is,
3928 | And my heart breaks at it.
3929 | KING LEAR
3930 | Read.
3931 | GLOUCESTER
3932 | What, with the case of eyes?
3933 | KING LEAR
3934 | O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your
3935 | head, nor no money in your purse? Your eyes are in
3936 | a heavy case, your purse in a light; yet you see how
3937 | this world goes.
3938 | GLOUCESTER
3939 | I see it feelingly.
3940 | KING LEAR
3941 | What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes
3942 | with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond
3943 | justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in
3944 | thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which
3945 | is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen
3946 | a farmer's dog bark at a beggar?
3947 | GLOUCESTER
3948 | Ay, sir.
3949 | KING LEAR
3950 | And the creature run from the cur? There thou
3951 | mightst behold the great image of authority: a
3952 | dog's obeyed in office.
3953 | Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand!
3954 | Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back;
3955 | Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind
3956 | For which thou whipp'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener.
3957 | Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear;
3958 | Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
3959 | And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks:
3960 | Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it.
3961 | None does offend, none, I say, none; I'll able 'em:
3962 | Take that of me, my friend, who have the power
3963 | To seal the accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes;
3964 | And like a scurvy politician, seem
3965 | To see the things thou dost not. Now, now, now, now:
3966 | Pull off my boots: harder, harder: so.
3967 | EDGAR
3968 | O, matter and impertinency mix'd! Reason in madness!
3969 | KING LEAR
3970 | If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes.
3971 | I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester:
3972 | Thou must be patient; we came crying hither:
3973 | Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air,
3974 | We wawl and cry. I will preach to thee: mark.
3975 | GLOUCESTER
3976 | Alack, alack the day!
3977 | KING LEAR
3978 | When we are born, we cry that we are come
3979 | To this great stage of fools: this a good block;
3980 | It were a delicate stratagem, to shoe
3981 | A troop of horse with felt: I'll put 't in proof;
3982 | And when I have stol'n upon these sons-in-law,
3983 | Then, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!
3984 | Enter a Gentleman, with Attendants
3985 |
3986 | Gentleman
3987 | O, here he is: lay hand upon him. Sir,
3988 | Your most dear daughter--
3989 | KING LEAR
3990 | No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even
3991 | The natural fool of fortune. Use me well;
3992 | You shall have ransom. Let me have surgeons;
3993 | I am cut to the brains.
3994 | Gentleman
3995 | You shall have any thing.
3996 | KING LEAR
3997 | No seconds? all myself?
3998 | Why, this would make a man a man of salt,
3999 | To use his eyes for garden water-pots,
4000 | Ay, and laying autumn's dust.
4001 | Gentleman
4002 | Good sir,--
4003 | KING LEAR
4004 | I will die bravely, like a bridegroom. What!
4005 | I will be jovial: come, come; I am a king,
4006 | My masters, know you that.
4007 | Gentleman
4008 | You are a royal one, and we obey you.
4009 | KING LEAR
4010 | Then there's life in't. Nay, if you get it, you
4011 | shall get it with running. Sa, sa, sa, sa.
4012 | Exit running; Attendants follow
4013 |
4014 | Gentleman
4015 | A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch,
4016 | Past speaking of in a king! Thou hast one daughter,
4017 | Who redeems nature from the general curse
4018 | Which twain have brought her to.
4019 | EDGAR
4020 | Hail, gentle sir.
4021 | Gentleman
4022 | Sir, speed you: what's your will?
4023 | EDGAR
4024 | Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward?
4025 | Gentleman
4026 | Most sure and vulgar: every one hears that,
4027 | Which can distinguish sound.
4028 | EDGAR
4029 | But, by your favour,
4030 | How near's the other army?
4031 | Gentleman
4032 | Near and on speedy foot; the main descry
4033 | Stands on the hourly thought.
4034 | EDGAR
4035 | I thank you, sir: that's all.
4036 | Gentleman
4037 | Though that the queen on special cause is here,
4038 | Her army is moved on.
4039 | EDGAR
4040 | I thank you, sir.
4041 | Exit Gentleman
4042 |
4043 | GLOUCESTER
4044 | You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me:
4045 | Let not my worser spirit tempt me again
4046 | To die before you please!
4047 | EDGAR
4048 | Well pray you, father.
4049 | GLOUCESTER
4050 | Now, good sir, what are you?
4051 | EDGAR
4052 | A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows;
4053 | Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows,
4054 | Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand,
4055 | I'll lead you to some biding.
4056 | GLOUCESTER
4057 | Hearty thanks:
4058 | The bounty and the benison of heaven
4059 | To boot, and boot!
4060 | Enter OSWALD
4061 |
4062 | OSWALD
4063 | A proclaim'd prize! Most happy!
4064 | That eyeless head of thine was first framed flesh
4065 | To raise my fortunes. Thou old unhappy traitor,
4066 | Briefly thyself remember: the sword is out
4067 | That must destroy thee.
4068 | GLOUCESTER
4069 | Now let thy friendly hand
4070 | Put strength enough to't.
4071 | EDGAR interposes
4072 |
4073 | OSWALD
4074 | Wherefore, bold peasant,
4075 | Darest thou support a publish'd traitor? Hence;
4076 | Lest that the infection of his fortune take
4077 | Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.
4078 | EDGAR
4079 | Ch'ill not let go, zir, without vurther 'casion.
4080 | OSWALD
4081 | Let go, slave, or thou diest!
4082 | EDGAR
4083 | Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor volk
4084 | pass. An chud ha' bin zwaggered out of my life,
4085 | 'twould not ha' bin zo long as 'tis by a vortnight.
4086 | Nay, come not near th' old man; keep out, che vor
4087 | ye, or ise try whether your costard or my ballow be
4088 | the harder: ch'ill be plain with you.
4089 | OSWALD
4090 | Out, dunghill!
4091 | EDGAR
4092 | Ch'ill pick your teeth, zir: come; no matter vor
4093 | your foins.
4094 | They fight, and EDGAR knocks him down
4095 |
4096 | OSWALD
4097 | Slave, thou hast slain me: villain, take my purse:
4098 | If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body;
4099 | And give the letters which thou find'st about me
4100 | To Edmund earl of Gloucester; seek him out
4101 | Upon the British party: O, untimely death!
4102 | Dies
4103 |
4104 | EDGAR
4105 | I know thee well: a serviceable villain;
4106 | As duteous to the vices of thy mistress
4107 | As badness would desire.
4108 | GLOUCESTER
4109 | What, is he dead?
4110 | EDGAR
4111 | Sit you down, father; rest you
4112 | Let's see these pockets: the letters that he speaks of
4113 | May be my friends. He's dead; I am only sorry
4114 | He had no other death's-man. Let us see:
4115 | Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not:
4116 | To know our enemies' minds, we'ld rip their hearts;
4117 | Their papers, is more lawful.
4118 | Reads
4119 |
4120 | 'Let our reciprocal vows be remembered. You have
4121 | many opportunities to cut him off: if your will
4122 | want not, time and place will be fruitfully offered.
4123 | There is nothing done, if he return the conqueror:
4124 | then am I the prisoner, and his bed my goal; from
4125 | the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply
4126 | the place for your labour.
4127 | 'Your--wife, so I would say--
4128 | 'Affectionate servant,
4129 | 'GONERIL.'
4130 | O undistinguish'd space of woman's will!
4131 | A plot upon her virtuous husband's life;
4132 | And the exchange my brother! Here, in the sands,
4133 | Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified
4134 | Of murderous lechers: and in the mature time
4135 | With this ungracious paper strike the sight
4136 | Of the death practised duke: for him 'tis well
4137 | That of thy death and business I can tell.
4138 | GLOUCESTER
4139 | The king is mad: how stiff is my vile sense,
4140 | That I stand up, and have ingenious feeling
4141 | Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract:
4142 | So should my thoughts be sever'd from my griefs,
4143 | And woes by wrong imaginations lose
4144 | The knowledge of themselves.
4145 | EDGAR
4146 | Give me your hand:
4147 | Drum afar off
4148 |
4149 | Far off, methinks, I hear the beaten drum:
4150 | Come, father, I'll bestow you with a friend.
4151 | Exeunt
4152 |
4153 | SCENE VII. A tent in the French camp. LEAR on a bed asleep,
4154 | soft music playing; Gentleman, and others attending.
4155 | Enter CORDELIA, KENT, and Doctor
4156 |
4157 | CORDELIA
4158 | O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work,
4159 | To match thy goodness? My life will be too short,
4160 | And every measure fail me.
4161 | KENT
4162 | To be acknowledged, madam, is o'erpaid.
4163 | All my reports go with the modest truth;
4164 | Nor more nor clipp'd, but so.
4165 | CORDELIA
4166 | Be better suited:
4167 | These weeds are memories of those worser hours:
4168 | I prithee, put them off.
4169 | KENT
4170 | Pardon me, dear madam;
4171 | Yet to be known shortens my made intent:
4172 | My boon I make it, that you know me not
4173 | Till time and I think meet.
4174 | CORDELIA
4175 | Then be't so, my good lord.
4176 | To the Doctor
4177 |
4178 | How does the king?
4179 | Doctor
4180 | Madam, sleeps still.
4181 | CORDELIA
4182 | O you kind gods,
4183 | Cure this great breach in his abused nature!
4184 | The untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up
4185 | Of this child-changed father!
4186 | Doctor
4187 | So please your majesty
4188 | That we may wake the king: he hath slept long.
4189 | CORDELIA
4190 | Be govern'd by your knowledge, and proceed
4191 | I' the sway of your own will. Is he array'd?
4192 | Gentleman
4193 | Ay, madam; in the heaviness of his sleep
4194 | We put fresh garments on him.
4195 | Doctor
4196 | Be by, good madam, when we do awake him;
4197 | I doubt not of his temperance.
4198 | CORDELIA
4199 | Very well.
4200 | Doctor
4201 | Please you, draw near. Louder the music there!
4202 | CORDELIA
4203 | O my dear father! Restoration hang
4204 | Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss
4205 | Repair those violent harms that my two sisters
4206 | Have in thy reverence made!
4207 | KENT
4208 | Kind and dear princess!
4209 | CORDELIA
4210 | Had you not been their father, these white flakes
4211 | Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face
4212 | To be opposed against the warring winds?
4213 | To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?
4214 | In the most terrible and nimble stroke
4215 | Of quick, cross lightning? to watch--poor perdu!--
4216 | With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog,
4217 | Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
4218 | Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father,
4219 | To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn,
4220 | In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!
4221 | 'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once
4222 | Had not concluded all. He wakes; speak to him.
4223 | Doctor
4224 | Madam, do you; 'tis fittest.
4225 | CORDELIA
4226 | How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty?
4227 | KING LEAR
4228 | You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave:
4229 | Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound
4230 | Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears
4231 | Do scald like moulten lead.
4232 | CORDELIA
4233 | Sir, do you know me?
4234 | KING LEAR
4235 | You are a spirit, I know: when did you die?
4236 | CORDELIA
4237 | Still, still, far wide!
4238 | Doctor
4239 | He's scarce awake: let him alone awhile.
4240 | KING LEAR
4241 | Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight?
4242 | I am mightily abused. I should e'en die with pity,
4243 | To see another thus. I know not what to say.
4244 | I will not swear these are my hands: let's see;
4245 | I feel this pin prick. Would I were assured
4246 | Of my condition!
4247 | CORDELIA
4248 | O, look upon me, sir,
4249 | And hold your hands in benediction o'er me:
4250 | No, sir, you must not kneel.
4251 | KING LEAR
4252 | Pray, do not mock me:
4253 | I am a very foolish fond old man,
4254 | Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;
4255 | And, to deal plainly,
4256 | I fear I am not in my perfect mind.
4257 | Methinks I should know you, and know this man;
4258 | Yet I am doubtful for I am mainly ignorant
4259 | What place this is; and all the skill I have
4260 | Remembers not these garments; nor I know not
4261 | Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me;
4262 | For, as I am a man, I think this lady
4263 | To be my child Cordelia.
4264 | CORDELIA
4265 | And so I am, I am.
4266 | KING LEAR
4267 | Be your tears wet? yes, 'faith. I pray, weep not:
4268 | If you have poison for me, I will drink it.
4269 | I know you do not love me; for your sisters
4270 | Have, as I do remember, done me wrong:
4271 | You have some cause, they have not.
4272 | CORDELIA
4273 | No cause, no cause.
4274 | KING LEAR
4275 | Am I in France?
4276 | KENT
4277 | In your own kingdom, sir.
4278 | KING LEAR
4279 | Do not abuse me.
4280 | Doctor
4281 | Be comforted, good madam: the great rage,
4282 | You see, is kill'd in him: and yet it is danger
4283 | To make him even o'er the time he has lost.
4284 | Desire him to go in; trouble him no more
4285 | Till further settling.
4286 | CORDELIA
4287 | Will't please your highness walk?
4288 | KING LEAR
4289 | You must bear with me:
4290 | Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old and foolish.
4291 | Exeunt all but KENT and Gentleman
4292 |
4293 | Gentleman
4294 | Holds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so slain?
4295 | KENT
4296 | Most certain, sir.
4297 | Gentleman
4298 | Who is conductor of his people?
4299 | KENT
4300 | As 'tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester.
4301 | Gentleman
4302 | They say Edgar, his banished son, is with the Earl
4303 | of Kent in Germany.
4304 | KENT
4305 | Report is changeable. 'Tis time to look about; the
4306 | powers of the kingdom approach apace.
4307 | Gentleman
4308 | The arbitrement is like to be bloody. Fare you
4309 | well, sir.
4310 | Exit
4311 |
4312 | KENT
4313 | My point and period will be throughly wrought,
4314 | Or well or ill, as this day's battle's fought.
4315 | Exit
4316 |
4317 | ACT V
4318 | SCENE I. The British camp, near Dover.
4319 | Enter, with drum and colours, EDMUND, REGAN, Gentlemen, and Soldiers.
4320 | EDMUND
4321 | Know of the duke if his last purpose hold,
4322 | Or whether since he is advised by aught
4323 | To change the course: he's full of alteration
4324 | And self-reproving: bring his constant pleasure.
4325 | To a Gentleman, who goes out
4326 |
4327 | REGAN
4328 | Our sister's man is certainly miscarried.
4329 | EDMUND
4330 | 'Tis to be doubted, madam.
4331 | REGAN
4332 | Now, sweet lord,
4333 | You know the goodness I intend upon you:
4334 | Tell me--but truly--but then speak the truth,
4335 | Do you not love my sister?
4336 | EDMUND
4337 | In honour'd love.
4338 | REGAN
4339 | But have you never found my brother's way
4340 | To the forfended place?
4341 | EDMUND
4342 | That thought abuses you.
4343 | REGAN
4344 | I am doubtful that you have been conjunct
4345 | And bosom'd with her, as far as we call hers.
4346 | EDMUND
4347 | No, by mine honour, madam.
4348 | REGAN
4349 | I never shall endure her: dear my lord,
4350 | Be not familiar with her.
4351 | EDMUND
4352 | Fear me not:
4353 | She and the duke her husband!
4354 | Enter, with drum and colours, ALBANY, GONERIL, and Soldiers
4355 |
4356 | GONERIL
4357 | [Aside] I had rather lose the battle than that sister
4358 | Should loosen him and me.
4359 | ALBANY
4360 | Our very loving sister, well be-met.
4361 | Sir, this I hear; the king is come to his daughter,
4362 | With others whom the rigor of our state
4363 | Forced to cry out. Where I could not be honest,
4364 | I never yet was valiant: for this business,
4365 | It toucheth us, as France invades our land,
4366 | Not bolds the king, with others, whom, I fear,
4367 | Most just and heavy causes make oppose.
4368 | EDMUND
4369 | Sir, you speak nobly.
4370 | REGAN
4371 | Why is this reason'd?
4372 | GONERIL
4373 | Combine together 'gainst the enemy;
4374 | For these domestic and particular broils
4375 | Are not the question here.
4376 | ALBANY
4377 | Let's then determine
4378 | With the ancient of war on our proceedings.
4379 | EDMUND
4380 | I shall attend you presently at your tent.
4381 | REGAN
4382 | Sister, you'll go with us?
4383 | GONERIL
4384 | No.
4385 | REGAN
4386 | 'Tis most convenient; pray you, go with us.
4387 | GONERIL
4388 | [Aside] O, ho, I know the riddle.--I will go.
4389 | As they are going out, enter EDGAR disguised
4390 |
4391 | EDGAR
4392 | If e'er your grace had speech with man so poor,
4393 | Hear me one word.
4394 | ALBANY
4395 | I'll overtake you. Speak.
4396 | Exeunt all but ALBANY and EDGAR
4397 |
4398 | EDGAR
4399 | Before you fight the battle, ope this letter.
4400 | If you have victory, let the trumpet sound
4401 | For him that brought it: wretched though I seem,
4402 | I can produce a champion that will prove
4403 | What is avouched there. If you miscarry,
4404 | Your business of the world hath so an end,
4405 | And machination ceases. Fortune love you.
4406 | ALBANY
4407 | Stay till I have read the letter.
4408 | EDGAR
4409 | I was forbid it.
4410 | When time shall serve, let but the herald cry,
4411 | And I'll appear again.
4412 | ALBANY
4413 | Why, fare thee well: I will o'erlook thy paper.
4414 | Exit EDGAR
4415 |
4416 | Re-enter EDMUND
4417 |
4418 | EDMUND
4419 | The enemy's in view; draw up your powers.
4420 | Here is the guess of their true strength and forces
4421 | By diligent discovery; but your haste
4422 | Is now urged on you.
4423 | ALBANY
4424 | We will greet the time.
4425 | Exit
4426 |
4427 | EDMUND
4428 | To both these sisters have I sworn my love;
4429 | Each jealous of the other, as the stung
4430 | Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take?
4431 | Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd,
4432 | If both remain alive: to take the widow
4433 | Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril;
4434 | And hardly shall I carry out my side,
4435 | Her husband being alive. Now then we'll use
4436 | His countenance for the battle; which being done,
4437 | Let her who would be rid of him devise
4438 | His speedy taking off. As for the mercy
4439 | Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia,
4440 | The battle done, and they within our power,
4441 | Shall never see his pardon; for my state
4442 | Stands on me to defend, not to debate.
4443 | Exit
4444 |
4445 | SCENE II. A field between the two camps.
4446 | Alarum within. Enter, with drum and colours, KING LEAR, CORDELIA, and Soldiers, over the stage; and exeunt
4447 | Enter EDGAR and GLOUCESTER
4448 | EDGAR
4449 | Here, father, take the shadow of this tree
4450 | For your good host; pray that the right may thrive:
4451 | If ever I return to you again,
4452 | I'll bring you comfort.
4453 | GLOUCESTER
4454 | Grace go with you, sir!
4455 | Exit EDGAR
4456 |
4457 | Alarum and retreat within. Re-enter EDGAR
4458 |
4459 | EDGAR
4460 | Away, old man; give me thy hand; away!
4461 | King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en:
4462 | Give me thy hand; come on.
4463 | GLOUCESTER
4464 | No farther, sir; a man may rot even here.
4465 | EDGAR
4466 | What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure
4467 | Their going hence, even as their coming hither;
4468 | Ripeness is all: come on.
4469 | GLOUCESTER
4470 | And that's true too.
4471 | Exeunt
4472 |
4473 | SCENE III. The British camp near Dover.
4474 | Enter, in conquest, with drum and colours, EDMUND, KING LEAR and CORDELIA, prisoners; Captain, Soldiers, & c
4475 | EDMUND
4476 | Some officers take them away: good guard,
4477 | Until their greater pleasures first be known
4478 | That are to censure them.
4479 | CORDELIA
4480 | We are not the first
4481 | Who, with best meaning, have incurr'd the worst.
4482 | For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down;
4483 | Myself could else out-frown false fortune's frown.
4484 | Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?
4485 | KING LEAR
4486 | No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison:
4487 | We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:
4488 | When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
4489 | And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,
4490 | And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
4491 | At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
4492 | Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,
4493 | Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;
4494 | And take upon's the mystery of things,
4495 | As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out,
4496 | In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones,
4497 | That ebb and flow by the moon.
4498 | EDMUND
4499 | Take them away.
4500 | KING LEAR
4501 | Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,
4502 | The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee?
4503 | He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven,
4504 | And fire us hence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes;
4505 | The good-years shall devour them, flesh and fell,
4506 | Ere they shall make us weep: we'll see 'em starve
4507 | first. Come.
4508 | Exeunt KING LEAR and CORDELIA, guarded
4509 |
4510 | EDMUND
4511 | Come hither, captain; hark.
4512 | Take thou this note;
4513 | Giving a paper
4514 |
4515 | go follow them to prison:
4516 | One step I have advanced thee; if thou dost
4517 | As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way
4518 | To noble fortunes: know thou this, that men
4519 | Are as the time is: to be tender-minded
4520 | Does not become a sword: thy great employment
4521 | Will not bear question; either say thou'lt do 't,
4522 | Or thrive by other means.
4523 | Captain
4524 | I'll do 't, my lord.
4525 | EDMUND
4526 | About it; and write happy when thou hast done.
4527 | Mark, I say, instantly; and carry it so
4528 | As I have set it down.
4529 | Captain
4530 | I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats;
4531 | If it be man's work, I'll do 't.
4532 | Exit
4533 |
4534 | Flourish. Enter ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, another Captain, and Soldiers
4535 |
4536 | ALBANY
4537 | Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain,
4538 | And fortune led you well: you have the captives
4539 | That were the opposites of this day's strife:
4540 | We do require them of you, so to use them
4541 | As we shall find their merits and our safety
4542 | May equally determine.
4543 | EDMUND
4544 | Sir, I thought it fit
4545 | To send the old and miserable king
4546 | To some retention and appointed guard;
4547 | Whose age has charms in it, whose title more,
4548 | To pluck the common bosom on his side,
4549 | An turn our impress'd lances in our eyes
4550 | Which do command them. With him I sent the queen;
4551 | My reason all the same; and they are ready
4552 | To-morrow, or at further space, to appear
4553 | Where you shall hold your session. At this time
4554 | We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend;
4555 | And the best quarrels, in the heat, are cursed
4556 | By those that feel their sharpness:
4557 | The question of Cordelia and her father
4558 | Requires a fitter place.
4559 | ALBANY
4560 | Sir, by your patience,
4561 | I hold you but a subject of this war,
4562 | Not as a brother.
4563 | REGAN
4564 | That's as we list to grace him.
4565 | Methinks our pleasure might have been demanded,
4566 | Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers;
4567 | Bore the commission of my place and person;
4568 | The which immediacy may well stand up,
4569 | And call itself your brother.
4570 | GONERIL
4571 | Not so hot:
4572 | In his own grace he doth exalt himself,
4573 | More than in your addition.
4574 | REGAN
4575 | In my rights,
4576 | By me invested, he compeers the best.
4577 | GONERIL
4578 | That were the most, if he should husband you.
4579 | REGAN
4580 | Jesters do oft prove prophets.
4581 | GONERIL
4582 | Holla, holla!
4583 | That eye that told you so look'd but a-squint.
4584 | REGAN
4585 | Lady, I am not well; else I should answer
4586 | From a full-flowing stomach. General,
4587 | Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony;
4588 | Dispose of them, of me; the walls are thine:
4589 | Witness the world, that I create thee here
4590 | My lord and master.
4591 | GONERIL
4592 | Mean you to enjoy him?
4593 | ALBANY
4594 | The let-alone lies not in your good will.
4595 | EDMUND
4596 | Nor in thine, lord.
4597 | ALBANY
4598 | Half-blooded fellow, yes.
4599 | REGAN
4600 | [To EDMUND] Let the drum strike, and prove my title thine.
4601 | ALBANY
4602 | Stay yet; hear reason. Edmund, I arrest thee
4603 | On capital treason; and, in thine attaint,
4604 | This gilded serpent
4605 | Pointing to Goneril
4606 |
4607 | For your claim, fair sister,
4608 | I bar it in the interest of my wife:
4609 | 'Tis she is sub-contracted to this lord,
4610 | And I, her husband, contradict your bans.
4611 | If you will marry, make your loves to me,
4612 | My lady is bespoke.
4613 | GONERIL
4614 | An interlude!
4615 | ALBANY
4616 | Thou art arm'd, Gloucester: let the trumpet sound:
4617 | If none appear to prove upon thy head
4618 | Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,
4619 | There is my pledge;
4620 | Throwing down a glove
4621 |
4622 | I'll prove it on thy heart,
4623 | Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less
4624 | Than I have here proclaim'd thee.
4625 | REGAN
4626 | Sick, O, sick!
4627 | GONERIL
4628 | [Aside] If not, I'll ne'er trust medicine.
4629 | EDMUND
4630 | There's my exchange:
4631 | Throwing down a glove
4632 |
4633 | what in the world he is
4634 | That names me traitor, villain-like he lies:
4635 | Call by thy trumpet: he that dares approach,
4636 | On him, on you, who not? I will maintain
4637 | My truth and honour firmly.
4638 | ALBANY
4639 | A herald, ho!
4640 | EDMUND
4641 | A herald, ho, a herald!
4642 | ALBANY
4643 | Trust to thy single virtue; for thy soldiers,
4644 | All levied in my name, have in my name
4645 | Took their discharge.
4646 | REGAN
4647 | My sickness grows upon me.
4648 | ALBANY
4649 | She is not well; convey her to my tent.
4650 | Exit Regan, led
4651 |
4652 | Enter a Herald
4653 |
4654 | Come hither, herald,--Let the trumpet sound,
4655 | And read out this.
4656 | Captain
4657 | Sound, trumpet!
4658 | A trumpet sounds
4659 |
4660 | Herald
4661 | [Reads] 'If any man of quality or degree within
4662 | the lists of the army will maintain upon Edmund,
4663 | supposed Earl of Gloucester, that he is a manifold
4664 | traitor, let him appear by the third sound of the
4665 | trumpet: he is bold in his defence.'
4666 | EDMUND
4667 | Sound!
4668 | First trumpet
4669 |
4670 | Herald
4671 | Again!
4672 | Second trumpet
4673 |
4674 | Herald
4675 | Again!
4676 | Third trumpet
4677 |
4678 | Trumpet answers within
4679 |
4680 | Enter EDGAR, at the third sound, armed, with a trumpet before him
4681 |
4682 | ALBANY
4683 | Ask him his purposes, why he appears
4684 | Upon this call o' the trumpet.
4685 | Herald
4686 | What are you?
4687 | Your name, your quality? and why you answer
4688 | This present summons?
4689 | EDGAR
4690 | Know, my name is lost;
4691 | By treason's tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit:
4692 | Yet am I noble as the adversary
4693 | I come to cope.
4694 | ALBANY
4695 | Which is that adversary?
4696 | EDGAR
4697 | What's he that speaks for Edmund Earl of Gloucester?
4698 | EDMUND
4699 | Himself: what say'st thou to him?
4700 | EDGAR
4701 | Draw thy sword,
4702 | That, if my speech offend a noble heart,
4703 | Thy arm may do thee justice: here is mine.
4704 | Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours,
4705 | My oath, and my profession: I protest,
4706 | Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence,
4707 | Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,
4708 | Thy valour and thy heart, thou art a traitor;
4709 | False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father;
4710 | Conspirant 'gainst this high-illustrious prince;
4711 | And, from the extremest upward of thy head
4712 | To the descent and dust below thy foot,
4713 | A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou 'No,'
4714 | This sword, this arm, and my best spirits, are bent
4715 | To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,
4716 | Thou liest.
4717 | EDMUND
4718 | In wisdom I should ask thy name;
4719 | But, since thy outside looks so fair and warlike,
4720 | And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes,
4721 | What safe and nicely I might well delay
4722 | By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn:
4723 | Back do I toss these treasons to thy head;
4724 | With the hell-hated lie o'erwhelm thy heart;
4725 | Which, for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise,
4726 | This sword of mine shall give them instant way,
4727 | Where they shall rest for ever. Trumpets, speak!
4728 | Alarums. They fight. EDMUND falls
4729 |
4730 | ALBANY
4731 | Save him, save him!
4732 | GONERIL
4733 | This is practise, Gloucester:
4734 | By the law of arms thou wast not bound to answer
4735 | An unknown opposite; thou art not vanquish'd,
4736 | But cozen'd and beguiled.
4737 | ALBANY
4738 | Shut your mouth, dame,
4739 | Or with this paper shall I stop it: Hold, sir:
4740 | Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil:
4741 | No tearing, lady: I perceive you know it.
4742 | Gives the letter to EDMUND
4743 |
4744 | GONERIL
4745 | Say, if I do, the laws are mine, not thine:
4746 | Who can arraign me for't.
4747 | ALBANY
4748 | Most monstrous! oh!
4749 | Know'st thou this paper?
4750 | GONERIL
4751 | Ask me not what I know.
4752 | Exit
4753 |
4754 | ALBANY
4755 | Go after her: she's desperate; govern her.
4756 | EDMUND
4757 | What you have charged me with, that have I done;
4758 | And more, much more; the time will bring it out:
4759 | 'Tis past, and so am I. But what art thou
4760 | That hast this fortune on me? If thou'rt noble,
4761 | I do forgive thee.
4762 | EDGAR
4763 | Let's exchange charity.
4764 | I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;
4765 | If more, the more thou hast wrong'd me.
4766 | My name is Edgar, and thy father's son.
4767 | The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
4768 | Make instruments to plague us:
4769 | The dark and vicious place where thee he got
4770 | Cost him his eyes.
4771 | EDMUND
4772 | Thou hast spoken right, 'tis true;
4773 | The wheel is come full circle: I am here.
4774 | ALBANY
4775 | Methought thy very gait did prophesy
4776 | A royal nobleness: I must embrace thee:
4777 | Let sorrow split my heart, if ever I
4778 | Did hate thee or thy father!
4779 | EDGAR
4780 | Worthy prince, I know't.
4781 | ALBANY
4782 | Where have you hid yourself?
4783 | How have you known the miseries of your father?
4784 | EDGAR
4785 | By nursing them, my lord. List a brief tale;
4786 | And when 'tis told, O, that my heart would burst!
4787 | The bloody proclamation to escape,
4788 | That follow'd me so near,--O, our lives' sweetness!
4789 | That we the pain of death would hourly die
4790 | Rather than die at once!--taught me to shift
4791 | Into a madman's rags; to assume a semblance
4792 | That very dogs disdain'd: and in this habit
4793 | Met I my father with his bleeding rings,
4794 | Their precious stones new lost: became his guide,
4795 | Led him, begg'd for him, saved him from despair;
4796 | Never,--O fault!--reveal'd myself unto him,
4797 | Until some half-hour past, when I was arm'd:
4798 | Not sure, though hoping, of this good success,
4799 | I ask'd his blessing, and from first to last
4800 | Told him my pilgrimage: but his flaw'd heart,
4801 | Alack, too weak the conflict to support!
4802 | 'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,
4803 | Burst smilingly.
4804 | EDMUND
4805 | This speech of yours hath moved me,
4806 | And shall perchance do good: but speak you on;
4807 | You look as you had something more to say.
4808 | ALBANY
4809 | If there be more, more woeful, hold it in;
4810 | For I am almost ready to dissolve,
4811 | Hearing of this.
4812 | EDGAR
4813 | This would have seem'd a period
4814 | To such as love not sorrow; but another,
4815 | To amplify too much, would make much more,
4816 | And top extremity.
4817 | Whilst I was big in clamour came there in a man,
4818 | Who, having seen me in my worst estate,
4819 | Shunn'd my abhorr'd society; but then, finding
4820 | Who 'twas that so endured, with his strong arms
4821 | He fastened on my neck, and bellow'd out
4822 | As he'ld burst heaven; threw him on my father;
4823 | Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him
4824 | That ever ear received: which in recounting
4825 | His grief grew puissant and the strings of life
4826 | Began to crack: twice then the trumpets sounded,
4827 | And there I left him tranced.
4828 | ALBANY
4829 | But who was this?
4830 | EDGAR
4831 | Kent, sir, the banish'd Kent; who in disguise
4832 | Follow'd his enemy king, and did him service
4833 | Improper for a slave.
4834 | Enter a Gentleman, with a bloody knife
4835 |
4836 | Gentleman
4837 | Help, help, O, help!
4838 | EDGAR
4839 | What kind of help?
4840 | ALBANY
4841 | Speak, man.
4842 | EDGAR
4843 | What means that bloody knife?
4844 | Gentleman
4845 | 'Tis hot, it smokes;
4846 | It came even from the heart of--O, she's dead!
4847 | ALBANY
4848 | Who dead? speak, man.
4849 | Gentleman
4850 | Your lady, sir, your lady: and her sister
4851 | By her is poisoned; she hath confess'd it.
4852 | EDMUND
4853 | I was contracted to them both: all three
4854 | Now marry in an instant.
4855 | EDGAR
4856 | Here comes Kent.
4857 | ALBANY
4858 | Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead:
4859 | This judgment of the heavens, that makes us tremble,
4860 | Touches us not with pity.
4861 | Exit Gentleman
4862 |
4863 | Enter KENT
4864 |
4865 | O, is this he?
4866 | The time will not allow the compliment
4867 | Which very manners urges.
4868 | KENT
4869 | I am come
4870 | To bid my king and master aye good night:
4871 | Is he not here?
4872 | ALBANY
4873 | Great thing of us forgot!
4874 | Speak, Edmund, where's the king? and where's Cordelia?
4875 | See'st thou this object, Kent?
4876 | The bodies of GONERIL and REGAN are brought in
4877 |
4878 | KENT
4879 | Alack, why thus?
4880 | EDMUND
4881 | Yet Edmund was beloved:
4882 | The one the other poison'd for my sake,
4883 | And after slew herself.
4884 | ALBANY
4885 | Even so. Cover their faces.
4886 | EDMUND
4887 | I pant for life: some good I mean to do,
4888 | Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send,
4889 | Be brief in it, to the castle; for my writ
4890 | Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia:
4891 | Nay, send in time.
4892 | ALBANY
4893 | Run, run, O, run!
4894 | EDGAR
4895 | To who, my lord? Who hath the office? send
4896 | Thy token of reprieve.
4897 | EDMUND
4898 | Well thought on: take my sword,
4899 | Give it the captain.
4900 | ALBANY
4901 | Haste thee, for thy life.
4902 | Exit EDGAR
4903 |
4904 | EDMUND
4905 | He hath commission from thy wife and me
4906 | To hang Cordelia in the prison, and
4907 | To lay the blame upon her own despair,
4908 | That she fordid herself.
4909 | ALBANY
4910 | The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile.
4911 | EDMUND is borne off
4912 |
4913 | Re-enter KING LEAR, with CORDELIA dead in his arms; EDGAR, Captain, and others following
4914 |
4915 | KING LEAR
4916 | Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones:
4917 | Had I your tongues and eyes, I'ld use them so
4918 | That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone for ever!
4919 | I know when one is dead, and when one lives;
4920 | She's dead as earth. Lend me a looking-glass;
4921 | If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
4922 | Why, then she lives.
4923 | KENT
4924 | Is this the promised end
4925 | EDGAR
4926 | Or image of that horror?
4927 | ALBANY
4928 | Fall, and cease!
4929 | KING LEAR
4930 | This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so,
4931 | It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows
4932 | That ever I have felt.
4933 | KENT
4934 | [Kneeling] O my good master!
4935 | KING LEAR
4936 | Prithee, away.
4937 | EDGAR
4938 | 'Tis noble Kent, your friend.
4939 | KING LEAR
4940 | A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!
4941 | I might have saved her; now she's gone for ever!
4942 | Cordelia, Cordelia! stay a little. Ha!
4943 | What is't thou say'st? Her voice was ever soft,
4944 | Gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman.
4945 | I kill'd the slave that was a-hanging thee.
4946 | Captain
4947 | 'Tis true, my lords, he did.
4948 | KING LEAR
4949 | Did I not, fellow?
4950 | I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion
4951 | I would have made them skip: I am old now,
4952 | And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you?
4953 | Mine eyes are not o' the best: I'll tell you straight.
4954 | KENT
4955 | If fortune brag of two she loved and hated,
4956 | One of them we behold.
4957 | KING LEAR
4958 | This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent?
4959 | KENT
4960 | The same,
4961 | Your servant Kent: Where is your servant Caius?
4962 | KING LEAR
4963 | He's a good fellow, I can tell you that;
4964 | He'll strike, and quickly too: he's dead and rotten.
4965 | KENT
4966 | No, my good lord; I am the very man,--
4967 | KING LEAR
4968 | I'll see that straight.
4969 | KENT
4970 | That, from your first of difference and decay,
4971 | Have follow'd your sad steps.
4972 | KING LEAR
4973 | You are welcome hither.
4974 | KENT
4975 | Nor no man else: all's cheerless, dark, and deadly.
4976 | Your eldest daughters have fordone them selves,
4977 | And desperately are dead.
4978 | KING LEAR
4979 | Ay, so I think.
4980 | ALBANY
4981 | He knows not what he says: and vain it is
4982 | That we present us to him.
4983 | EDGAR
4984 | Very bootless.
4985 | Enter a Captain
4986 |
4987 | Captain
4988 | Edmund is dead, my lord.
4989 | ALBANY
4990 | That's but a trifle here.
4991 | You lords and noble friends, know our intent.
4992 | What comfort to this great decay may come
4993 | Shall be applied: for us we will resign,
4994 | During the life of this old majesty,
4995 | To him our absolute power:
4996 | To EDGAR and KENT
4997 |
4998 | you, to your rights:
4999 | With boot, and such addition as your honours
5000 | Have more than merited. All friends shall taste
5001 | The wages of their virtue, and all foes
5002 | The cup of their deservings. O, see, see!
5003 | KING LEAR
5004 | And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!
5005 | Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
5006 | And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
5007 | Never, never, never, never, never!
5008 | Pray you, undo this button: thank you, sir.
5009 | Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,
5010 | Look there, look there!
5011 | Dies
5012 |
5013 | EDGAR
5014 | He faints! My lord, my lord!
5015 | KENT
5016 | Break, heart; I prithee, break!
5017 | EDGAR
5018 | Look up, my lord.
5019 | KENT
5020 | Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! he hates him much
5021 | That would upon the rack of this tough world
5022 | Stretch him out longer.
5023 | EDGAR
5024 | He is gone, indeed.
5025 | KENT
5026 | The wonder is, he hath endured so long:
5027 | He but usurp'd his life.
5028 | ALBANY
5029 | Bear them from hence. Our present business
5030 | Is general woe.
5031 | To KENT and EDGAR
5032 |
5033 | Friends of my soul, you twain
5034 | Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain.
5035 | KENT
5036 | I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
5037 | My master calls me, I must not say no.
5038 | ALBANY
5039 | The weight of this sad time we must obey;
5040 | Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
5041 | The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
5042 | Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
5043 | Exeunt, with a dead march
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/images/raqaapp_img.png:
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https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AI-Maker-Space/Build-Your-Own-RAG-System/824116cc544e1f180f0f2ebd17197bee4705425e/images/raqaapp_img.png
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/images/texsplitter_img.png:
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/requirements.txt:
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1 | numpy==1.25.2
2 | openai==1.16.1
3 | python-dotenv==1.0.0
4 | pandas
5 | scikit-learn
6 | ipykernel
7 | matplotlib
8 | plotly
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