King Lear

To Goneril

Stands in some rank of praise⁴⁶⁰.— I’ll go with thee:

Thy fifty yet doth double five-and-twenty,

And thou art twice her love.

GONERIL    Hear me, my lord:

What need you five-and-twenty, ten, or five,

To follow in a house where twice so many

Have a command to tend you?

REGAN    What need one?

LEAR    O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars⁴⁶⁸

Are in the poorest thing superfluous:

Allow not⁴⁷⁰ nature more than nature needs,

Man’s life is cheap as beast’s. Thou art a lady;

If only to go warm were gorgeous⁴⁷²,

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear’st⁴⁷³,

Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But for true need —

You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!

You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,

As full of grief as age, wretched in both.

If it be you that stirs these daughters’ hearts

Against their father, fool me not so much⁴⁷⁹

To bear it tamely: touch me with noble anger,

And let not women’s weapons, water drops,

Stain my man’s cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,

I will have such revenges on you both,

That all the world shall — I will do such things —

What they are yet I know not, but they shall be

The terrors of the earth! You think I’ll weep:

No, I’ll not weep: I have full cause of weeping,

Storm and tempest

But this heart shall break into a hundred thousand flaws⁴⁸⁸,

Or ere⁴⁸⁹ I’ll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!

Exeunt [Lear, Gloucester, Kent and Fool]

CORNWALL    Let us withdraw: ’twill be a storm.

REGAN    This house is little: the old man and’s⁴⁹¹ people

Cannot be well bestowed⁴⁹².

GONERIL    ’Tis his own blame hath put himself from rest⁴⁹³

And must needs taste his folly.

REGAN    For his particular⁴⁹⁵, I’ll receive him gladly,

But not one follower.

GONERIL    So am I purposed.

Where is my lord of Gloucester?

Enter Gloucester

CORNWALL    Followed the old man forth: he is returned.

GLOUCESTER    The king is in high rage.

CORNWALL    Whither is he going?

GLOUCESTER    He calls to horse, but will⁵⁰² I know not whither.

CORNWALL    ’Tis best to give him way⁵⁰³: he leads himself.

GONERIL    My lord, entreat him by no means to stay.

GLOUCESTER    Alack, the night comes on, and the high winds

Do sorely ruffle⁵⁰⁶, for many miles about

There’s scarce a bush.

REGAN    O, sir, to wilful men

The injuries that they themselves procure⁵⁰⁹

Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors:

He is attended with a desperate train⁵¹¹,

And what they may incense him to, being apt

To have his ear abused⁵¹³, wisdom bids fear.

CORNWALL    Shut up your doors, my lord, ’tis a wild night.

My Regan counsels well: come out o’th’storm.

Exeunt

Act 3 Scene 1

running scene 6

Storm still. Enter Kent and a Gentleman, severally³

KENT    Who’s there, besides foul weather?

GENTLEMAN    One minded like the weather, most unquietly².

KENT    I know you. Where’s the king?

GENTLEMAN    Contending⁴ with the fretful elements;

Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea

Or swell the curlèd waters ’bove the main⁶,

That things might change or cease.

KENT    But who is with him?

GENTLEMAN    None but the fool, who labours to out-jest⁹

His heart-struck injuries¹⁰.

KENT    Sir, I do know you,

And dare, upon the warrant of my note¹²

Commend a dear thing to you¹³. There is division —

Although as yet the face of it is covered

With mutual cunning — ’twixt Albany and Cornwall,

Who have — as who have not, that their great stars¹⁶

Throned and set high? — servants, who seem no less¹⁷,

Which are to France the spies and speculations¹⁸

Intelligent of¹⁹ our state. What hath been seen,

Either in snuffs and packings²⁰ of the dukes,

Or the hard rein which both of them hath borne²¹

Against the old kind king, or something deeper,

Whereof perchance these are but furnishings²³.

GENTLEMAN    I will talk further with you.

KENT    No, do not.

For confirmation that I am much more

Than my out-wall²⁷, open this purse and take

Gives a purse

What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia —

Gives a ring

As fear not but you shall — show her this ring,

And she will tell you who that fellow³⁰ is

That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm!

I will go seek the king.

GENTLEMAN    Give me your hand. Have you no more to say?

KENT    Few words, but, to effect³⁴, more than all yet:

That when we have found the king — in which your pain³⁵

That way, I’ll this — he that first lights on him

Holla³⁷ the other.

Exeunt [separately]

Act 3 Scene 2

running scene 6 continues

Storm still. Enter Lear and Fool

LEAR    Blow winds and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow,

You cataracts and hurricanoes², spout

Till you have drenched our steeples, drown the cocks³!

You sulphurous and thought-executing fires⁴,

Vaunt-couriers⁵ of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,

Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,

Strike flat the thick rotundity o’th’world!