King Lear Read online

  Gloucester. Let’s see, let’s see.

  Edmund I hope, for my brother’s justification, he wrote this but as an essay or taste° of my virtue.

  Gloucester. (Reads) “This policy and reverence° of age makes the world bitter to the best of our times;° keeps our fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish° them. I begin to find an idle and fond° bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny, who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. ° Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue° for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, EDGAR.” Hum! Conspiracy? “Sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue.” My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? A heart and brain to breed it in? When came you to this? Who brought it?

  Edmund. It was not brought me, my lord; there’s the cunning of it. I found it thrown in at the casement of my closet.°

  40 o‘erlooking inspection

  44 to blame blameworthy

  47 essay or taste test

  48 policy and reverence policy of reverencing (hendiadys)

  49-50 best of our times best years of our lives (i.e., our youth)

  51 relish enjoy

  51-52 idle and fond foolish

  53-54 who ... suffered which rules, not from its own strength, but from our allowance

  56 revenue income

  64-65 casement of my closet window of my room

  Gloucester. You know the character° to be your brother’s?

  Edmund If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his; but in respect of that,° I would fain° think it were not.

  Gloucester. It is his.

  Edmund. It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is not in the contents.

  Gloucester. Has he never before sounded° you in this business?

  Edmund Never, my lord. But I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit that, sons at perfect° age, and fathers declined, the father should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue.

  Gloucester. O villain, villain! His very opinion in the letter. Abhorred villain, unnatural, detested,° brutish villain; worse than brutish! Go, siffah,° seek him. I’ll apprehend him. Abominable villain! Where is he?

  Edmund. I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please you to suspend your indignation against my brother till you can derive from him better testimony of his intent, you should run a certain course;° where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap° in your own honor and shake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down° my life for him that he hath writ this to feel° my affection to your honor, and to no other pretense of danger.°

  Gloucester. Think you so?

  66 character handwriting

  69 in respect of that in view of what it is

  70 fain prefer to

  74 sounded sounded you out

  71 perfect mature

  81 detested detestable

  82 sirrah sir (familiar form of address)

  88-89 run a certain course i.e., proceed safely, know where you are going

  91 gap breach

  92 pawn down stake

  93 feel test

  94-95 pretense of danger dangerous purpose

  Edmund. If your honor judge it meet,° I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular assurance° have your satisfaction, and that without any further delay than this very evening.

  Gloucester. He cannot be such a monster.

  Edmund. Nor is not, sure.

  Gloucester. To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him. Heaven and earth! Edmund, seek him out; wind me into him,° I pray you; frame° the business after your own wisdom. I would unstate myself to be in a due resolution.°

  Edmund. I will seek him, sir, presently;° convey° the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal.°

  Gloucester. These late° eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us. Though the wisdom of Nature° can reason° it thus and thus, yet Nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects.° Love cools, friendship falls off,° brothers divide. In cities, mutinies;° in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked ‘twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction, ° there’s son against father; the King falls from bias of nature,° there’s father against child. We have seen the best of our time.° Machinations, hollowness,° treachery, and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly° to our graves. Find out this97 meet fit

  99 auricular assurance proof heard with your own cars

  106 wind me into him insinuate yourself into his confidence for me

  106 frame manage

  107-08 unstate ... resolution forfeit my earldom to know the truth

  109 presently at once

  109 convey manage

  111 withal with it

  112 late recent

  113-14 wisdom of Nature scientific learning

  114 reason explain

  114-15 yet ... effects nonetheless our world is punished with subsequent disasters

  116 falls off revolts

  117 mutinies riots

  119-20 This ... prediction i.e., my son’s villainous behavior is included in these portents. and bears them out

  121 bias of nature natural inclination (the metaphor is from the game of bowls)

  122 best of our time our best days

  123 hollowness insincerity

  124 disquetly unquietly

  villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing.° Do it carefully. And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished; his offense, honesty. ‘Tis strange.

  Exit.

  Edmund This is the excellent foppery° of the world, that when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeits of our own behavior,° we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars; as if we were villains on° necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion ; knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance;° drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence;° and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on.° An admirable evasion of whoremaster° man, to lay his goatish° disposition on the charge of a star. My father compounded° with my mother under the Dragon’s Tail,° and my nativity° was under Ursa Major,° so that it follows I am rough and lecherous. Fut!° I should have been that° I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar—

  Enter Edgar.

  and pat he comes, like the catastrophe° of the old comedy. My cue is villainous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o’ Bedlam.°—O, these eclipses do portend these divisions. Fa, sol, la, mi.°

  Edgar. How now, brother Edmund; what serious contemplation are you in?

  125 it ... nothing you will not lose by it

  128 foppery folly

  129-30 often ... behavior often caused by our own excesses

  132 on of

  133-34 treachers ... predominance traitors because of the ascendancy of a particular star at our birth

  134-35 by ...influence because we had to submit to the influence of our star

  136 divine thrusting on supernatural compulsion

  137 whoremaster lecherous

  138 goatish scivious

  139 compounded (1) made terms (2) formed (a child)

  140 Dragon’s Tall the constellation Draco

  140 nativity birthday

  141 Ursa Major the Great Bear

  142 Fut! ’s foot (an impatient oath)

  142 that what

  145 catastrophe conclusion

  146-47 My ... Bedlam I must be doleful, like a lunatic beggar out of Bethlehem (Bedlam) Hospital, the London madhouse

  148 Fa, sol, la, mi (Edmund’s humming of the musical notes is perhaps prompted by his use of the word “divisions,” which describes a musical variation)

  Edmund I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what should follow these eclipses.

  Edgar. Do you busy yourself with that?


  Edmund. I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed° unhappily: as of unnaturalness° between the child and the parent, death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities,° divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against King and nobles, needless diffidences, ° banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, ° nuptial breaches, and I know not what.

  Edgar. How long have you been a sectary astronomical? ° .

  Edmund. Come, come, when saw you my father last?

  Edgar. Why, the night gone by.

  Edmund. Spake you with him?

  Edgar. Ay, two hours together.

  Edmund. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him by word nor countenance?°

  Edgar. None at all.

  Edmund. Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended him; and at my entreaty forbear his presence° until some little time hath qualified° the heat of his displeasure, which at this instant so rageth in him that with the mischief of your person it would scarcely allay.°

  Edgar. Some villain hath done me wrong.

  Edmund. That’s my fear, brother I pray you have a continent forbearance° till the speed of his rage goes slower; and, as I say, retire with me to my155-56 succeed follow

  157 unnaturalness unkindness

  158 amities friendships

  159-60 diffidences distrusts

  160-61 dissipation of coborts falling away of supporters

  162-63 sectary astronomical believer in astrology

  169 coutenance expression

  172-73 forbear his presence keep away from him

  173 qualified lessened

  175-76 with ... allay even an injury to you would not appease his anger

  178-79 have a continent forbearance be restrained and keep yourself withdrawn

  lodging, from whence I will fitly° bring you to hear my lord speak. Pray ye, go; there’s my key. If you do stir abroad, go armed.

  Edgar. Armed, brother?

  Edmund. Brother, I advise you to the best. Go armed.I am no honest man if there be any good meaning toward you. I have told you what I have seen and heard; but faintly, nothing like the image and horror° of it. Pray you, away.

  Edgar. Shall I hear from you anon?°

  Edmund. I do serve you in this business.

  Exit Edgar.

  A credulous father, and a brother noble,

  Whose nature is so far from doing harms

  That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty

  My practices° ride easy. I see the business.

  Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit.

  All with me’s meet° that I can fashion fit.° Exit.

  Scene 3. [The Duke of Albany’s palace.]

  Enter Goneril, and [Oswald, her] Steward.

  Goneril. Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his Fool?°

  Oswald. Ay, madam.

  Goneril. By day and night he wrongs me. Every hour He flashes into one gross crime° or other181 fitly at a fit time

  188-89 image and horror true horrible picture

  190 anon in a tittle while

  195 practices plots

  197 meet proper 197 fashion fit shape to my purpose

  1.3.2 Food court jester

  5 crime offense

  That sets us all at odds. I’ll not endure it.

  His knights grow riotous,° and himself upbraids us

  On every trifle. When he returns from hunting,

  I will not speak with him. Say I am sick.

  If you come slack of former services,°

  You shall do well; the fault of it I’ll answer.°

  [Horns within.]

  Oswald He’s coming, madam; I hear him.

  Goneril. Put on what weary negligence you please,You and your fellows. I’d have it come to question.°

  If he distaste° it, let him to my sister,

  Whose mind and mine I know in that are one,

  Not to be overruled. Idle° old man,

  That still would manage those authorities

  That he hath given away. Now, by my life,

  Old fools are babes again, and must be used

  With checks as flatteries, when they are seen

  abused.°

  Remember what I have said.

  Oswald. Well, madam.

  Goneril. And let his knights have colder looks among you.What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows so.

  I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall,

  That I may speak.° I’ll write straight° to my sister

  To hold my course. Go, prepare for dinner.

  Exeunt.

  7 riotous dissolute

  10 come ... services are less serviceable to him than formerly

  11 answer answer for 14 come to question be discussed openly

  15 distaste dislike

  17 Idle foolish

  21 With ... abused with restraints as well as soothing words when they are misguided

  25-26 breed ... speak find in this opportunities for speaking out

  26 straight at once

  Scene 4. [A hall in the same.]

  Enter Kent [disguised].

  Kent. If but as well I other accents borrowThat can my speech defuse,° my good intent

  May carry through itself to that full issue°

  For which I razed my likeness.° Now, banished

  Kent,

  If thou canst serve where thou dost stand

  condemned,

  So may it corne,° thy master whom thou lov‘st

  Shall find thee full of labors.

  Horns within. ° Enter Lear, [Knights] and

  Attendants.

  Lear. Let me not stay° a jot for dinner; go, get it ready. [Exit an Attendant.] How now, what art thou?

  Kent. A man, sir.

  Lear. What dost thou profess?° What wouldst thou with us?

  Kent. I do profess° to be no less than I seem, to serve him truly that will put me in trust, to love him that is honest, to converse with him that is wise and says little, to fear judgment,° to fight when I cannot choose, and to eat no fish.°

  1.4.2 defuse disguise

  3 full issue perfect result

  4 razed my likeness shaved off, disguised my natural appearance

  6 So may it come so may it fall out

  7 s.d. within offstage 8 stay wait

  12 What dost thou profess what do you do

  14 profess claim

  17 judgment (by a heavenly or earthly judge)

  18 eat no fish i.e., (1) I am no Catholic, but a loyal Protestant (2) I am no weakling (3) I use no prostitutes

  Lear. What art thou?

  Kent. A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the King.

  Lear. If thou be‘st as poor for a subject as he’s for a king, thou art poor enough. What wouldst thou?

  Kent. Service.

  Lear. Who wouldst thou serve?

  Kent. You.

  Lear. Dost thou know me, fellow?

  Kent. No, sir, but you have that in your countenance° which I would fain° call master.

  Lear. What’s that?

  Kent. Authority.

  Lear. What services canst thou do?

  Kent. I can keep honest counsel,° ride, run, mar a curious tale in telling it,° and deliver a plain message bluntly. That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in, and the best of me is diligence.

  Lear. How old art thou?

  Kent. Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor so old to dote on her for anything. I have years on my back forty-eight.

  Lear. Follow me; thou shalt serve me. If I like thee no worse after dinner, I will not part from thee yet. Dinner, ho, dinner! Where’s my knave?° my Fool? Go you and call my Fool hither.

  [Exit an Attendant.]

  Enter Oswald

  You, you, sirrah, where’s my daughter?

  Oswald So please you—Exit.

  28 countenance bearing

  29 fain like to

  33 honest counsel honorable secrets


  33-34 mar...It i.e., I cannot speak like an affected courtier (“curious” =“elaborate,” as against “plain”)

  43 knave boy

  Lear. What says the fellow there? Call the clotpoll° back. [Exit a Knight.] Where’s my Fool? Ho, I think the world’s asleep.

  [Re-enter Kniglit.]

  How now? Where’s that mongrel?

  Knight. He says, my lord, your daughter is not well.

  Lear. Why came not the slave back to me when I called him?

  Knight. Sir, he answered me in the roundest° manner, he would not.

  Lear. He would not?

  Knight. My lord, I know not what the matter is; but to my judgment your Highness is not entertained° with that ceremonious affection as you were wont. There’s a great abatement of kindness appears as well in the general dependants° as in the Duke himself also and your daughter.

  Lear. Ha? Say‘st thou so?

  Knight. I beseech you pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken; for my duty cannot be silent when I think your Highness wronged.

  Lear. Thou but rememb‘rest° me of mine own conception. ° I have perceived a most faint neglect° of late, which I have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity° than as a very pretense° and purpose of unkindness. I will look further into’t. But where’s my Fool? I have not seen him this two days.

  Knight. Since my young lady’s going into France, sir, the Fool hath much pined away.

  Lear. No more of that; I have noted it well. Go you47 clotpoll clodpoll, blockhead

  54 roundest rudest

  58-59 entertained treated

  61 dependants servants

  67 rememb‘rest remindest

  67-68 conception idea

  68 faint neglect i.e., “weary negligence” (1.3.13)