King Lear (Dover Thrift Editions: Plays)

by William Shakespeare

I cannot heave My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty

Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.

he always loved our sister most; and with what poor judgement he hath now cast her off appears too grossly.

Let’s see: come, if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles.

Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest,73 Ride more than thou goest,74 Learn more than thou trowest, Set less than thou throwest; Leave thy drink and thy whore, And keep in-a-door, And thou shalt have more Than two tens to a score.

Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a bitter fool and a sweet fool?

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is To have a thankless child! Away, away!

When we our betters see bearing our woes,

We scarcely think our miseries our foes. Who alone suffers suffers most i’ the mind, Leaving free things239 and happy shows behind: But then the mind much sufferance doth o’erskip, When grief hath mates, and bearing240 fellowship.

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more, Never, never, never, never, never!