King Lear

REGAN    Fare thee well.

Exeunt

Act 4 Scene 5

running scene 16

Enter Gloucester and Edgar

Edgar dressed like a peasant

GLOUCESTER    When shall I come to th’top of that same hill¹?

EDGAR    You do climb up it now: look how we labour.

GLOUCESTER    Methinks the ground is even.

EDGAR    Horrible steep.

Hark, do you hear the sea?

GLOUCESTER    No, truly.

EDGAR    Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect

By your eyes’ anguish.

GLOUCESTER    So may it be, indeed:

Methinks thy voice is altered and thou speak’st

In better phrase and matter¹¹ than thou didst.

EDGAR    You’re much deceived: in nothing am I changed

But in my garments.

GLOUCESTER    Methinks you’re better spoken.

EDGAR    Come on, sir, here’s the place: stand still. How fearful

And dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes so low!

The crows and choughs that wing the midway¹⁷ air

Show scarce so gross¹⁸ as beetles: halfway down

Hangs one that gathers samphire¹⁹, dreadful trade!

Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.

The fishermen that walk upon the beach

Appear like mice, and yond tall anchoring bark²²

Diminished to her cock²³, her cock, a buoy

Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge,

That on th’unnumbered idle pebble²⁵ chafes,

Cannot be heard so high. I’ll look no more,

Lest my brain turn and the deficient²⁷ sight

Topple²⁸ down headlong.

GLOUCESTER    Set me where you stand.

EDGAR    Give me your hand: you are now within a foot

Of th’extreme verge: for all beneath the moon

Would I not leap upright³².

GLOUCESTER    Let go my hand.

Here, friend’s³⁴ another purse: in it a jewel

Gives a purse

Well worth a poor man’s taking: fairies and gods

Prosper it³⁶ with thee! Go thou further off:

Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.

EDGAR    Now fare ye well, good sir.

GLOUCESTER    With all my heart.

Aside

EDGAR    Why I do trifle⁴⁰ thus with his despair

Is done to cure it.

Kneels

GLOUCESTER    O you mighty gods!

This world I do renounce, and in your sights

Shake patiently my great affliction off:

If I could bear it longer, and not fall

To quarrel with your great opposeless⁴⁶ wills,

My snuff and loathèd part of nature⁴⁷ should

Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!—

Now, fellow, fare thee well.

He falls forward

EDGAR    Gone, sir: farewell.—

Aside

And yet I know not how conceit⁵¹ may rob

The treasury of life, when life itself

Yields⁵³ to the theft: had he been where he thought,

By this⁵⁴ had thought been past. Alive or dead?—

Ho, you sir! Friend! Hear you, sir! Speak!—

Aside

Thus might he pass⁵⁶ indeed: yet he revives.—

What⁵⁷ are you, sir?

GLOUCESTER    Away, and let me die.

EDGAR    Hadst thou been aught⁵⁹ but gossamer, feathers, air —

So many fathom down precipitating⁶⁰ —

Thou’dst shivered⁶¹ like an egg: but thou dost breathe,

Hast heavy substance, bleed’st not, speak’st, art sound.

Ten masts at each⁶³ make not the altitude

Which thou hast perpendicularly fell:

Thy life’s a miracle. Speak yet again.

GLOUCESTER    But have I fall’n or no?

EDGAR    From the dread summit of this chalky bourn⁶⁷.

Look up a-height: the shrill-gorged⁶⁸ lark so far

Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.

GLOUCESTER    Alack, I have no eyes.

Is wretchedness deprived that benefit,

To end itself by death? ’Twas yet some comfort

When misery could beguile⁷³ the tyrant’s rage

And frustrate his proud will.

EDGAR    Give me your arm.

Helps him up

Up, so. How is’t? Feel you your legs? You stand.

GLOUCESTER    Too well, too well.

EDGAR    This is above all strangeness.

Upon the crown o’th’cliff what thing was that

Which parted from you?

GLOUCESTER    A poor unfortunate beggar.

EDGAR    As I stood here below, methought his eyes

Were two full moons: he had a thousand noses,

Horns whelked⁸⁴ and waved like the enragèd sea.

It was some fiend: therefore, thou happy father⁸⁵,

Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours⁸⁶

Of men’s impossibilities, have preserved thee.

GLOUCESTER    I do remember now: henceforth I’ll bear

Affliction till it do cry out itself

‘Enough, enough’ and die. That thing you speak of,

I took it for a man: often ’twould say

‘The fiend, the fiend’: he led me to that place.

EDGAR    Bear free⁹³ and patient thoughts.

Enter Lear

Dressed with weeds

But who comes here?

The safer sense will ne’er accommodate⁹⁴

His master thus.

LEAR    No, they cannot touch⁹⁶ me for crying: I am the king

himself.

EDGAR    O thou side-piercing sight!

LEAR    Nature’s above art in that respect. There’s your

press-money. That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper¹⁰⁰.

Draw me a clothier’s yard¹⁰¹. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace,

this piece of toasted cheese will do’t. There’s my gauntlet¹⁰²: I’ll

prove it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O, well flown,¹⁰³

bird! I’th’clout, i’th’clout: hewgh! Give the word¹⁰⁴.

EDGAR    Sweet marjoram¹⁰⁵.

LEAR    Pass.

GLOUCESTER    I know that voice.

LEAR    Ha? Goneril with a white beard? They flattered me