King Lear (Folger Shakespeare Library)

by William Shakespeare

Tell me, my 52 daughters— 53 [Since now we will divest us both of rule, 54 Interest of territory, cares of state—] 55 Which of you shall we say doth love us most, 56 That we our largest bounty may extend 57 Where nature doth with merit challenge

Sir, I love you more than word can wield the 60 matter, 61 Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty, 62 Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare, 63 No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor; 64 As much as child e’er loved, or father found; 65 A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable. 66 Beyond all manner of so much I love you. 67

LEAR Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again. 99

The bow is bent and drawn. Make from the shaft.

Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak 164 When power to flattery bows?

Fare thee well, king. Sith thus thou wilt appear, 204 Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.

Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides, 325 Who covers faults at last with shame derides. 326 Well may you prosper. 327

This policy and reverence of age 49 makes the world bitter to the best of our times, keeps 50 our fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish 51 them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the 52 oppression of aged tyranny, who sways not as it hath 53 power but as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this I 54 may speak more. If our father would sleep till I waked 55 him, you should enjoy half his revenue forever and 56 live the beloved of your brother. Edgar.

GLOUCESTER These late eclipses in the sun and moon 109 portend no good to us. Though the wisdom of 110 nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds 111 itself scourged by the sequent effects. Love cools, 112 friendship falls off, brothers divide; in cities, muti- 113 nies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and 114 the bond cracked ’twixt son and father. [This villain 115 of mine comes under the prediction: there’s son 116 against father. The King falls from bias of nature: 117 there’s father against child. We have seen the best of 118 our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and 119 all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our 120 graves.]

EDMUND This is the excellent foppery of the world, that 125 when we are sick in fortune (often the surfeits of 126 our own behavior) we make guilty of our disasters 127 the sun, the moon, and stars, as if we were villains 128 on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, 129 thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance; 130 drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced 131 obedience of planetary influence; and all that we 132 are evil in, by a divine thrusting on. An admirable 133 evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish 134 disposition on the charge of a star! My father 135 compounded with my mother under the Dragon’s 136 tail, and my nativity was under Ursa Major, so that it 137 follows I am rough and lecherous. ⟨Fut,⟩ I should 138 have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the 139 firmament twinkled on my bastardizing.

Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit. 191 All with me’s meet that I can fashion fit. 192

Idle old man 17 That still would manage those authorities 18 That he hath given away. Now, by my life, 19 Old fools are babes again and must be used 20 With checks as flatteries, when they are seen 21 abused.⟩

Nothing can be made out of 136 nothing.

LEAR Dost thou call me “fool,” boy? 152 FOOL All thy other titles thou hast given away. That 153 thou wast born with.

FOOL Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no 196 need to care for her frowning. Now thou art an O 197 without a figure. I am better than thou art now. I 198 am a Fool. Thou art nothing.

The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long, 221 That it’s had it head bit off by it young. 222

So out went the candle, and we were left darkling. 223

LEAR Does any here know me? This is not Lear. 231 Does Lear walk thus, speak thus? Where are his 232 eyes? 233 Either his notion weakens, his discernings 234 Are lethargied—Ha! Waking? ’Tis not so. 235 Who is it that can tell me who I am? 236 FOOL Lear’s shadow. 237 ⟨LEAR I would learn that, for, by the marks of 238 sovereignty, 239 Knowledge, and reason, I should be false persuaded 240 I had daughters. 241

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is 302 To have a thankless child.

Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst 43 been wise. 44

You see me here, you gods, a poor old man 313 As full of grief as age, wretched in both. 314 If it be you that stirs these daughters’ hearts 315 Against their father, fool me not so much 316 To bear it tamely. Touch me with noble anger, 317 And let not women’s weapons, water drops, 318 Stain my man’s cheeks.—No, you unnatural hags, 319 I will have such revenges on you both 320 That all the world shall—I will do such things— 321 What they are yet I know not, but they shall be 322 The terrors of the Earth! You think I’ll weep. 323 No, I’ll not weep. 324 I have full cause of weeping, but this heart 325 Storm and tempest. Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws 326 Or ere I’ll weep.—O Fool, I shall go mad! 327

LEAR Blow winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow! 1 You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout 2 Till you have drenched our steeples, ⟨drowned⟩ the 3 cocks. 4 You sulph’rous and thought-executing fires, 5 Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts, 6 Singe my white head. And thou, all-shaking 7 thunder, 8 Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ th’ world. 9 Crack nature’s molds, all germens spill at once 10 That makes ingrateful man. 11

LEAR Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain! 16 Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters. 17 I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness. 18 I never gave you kingdom, called you children; 19 You owe me no subscription. Then let fall 20 Your horrible pleasure. Here I stand your slave, 21 A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man. 22 But yet I call you servile ministers, 23 That will with two pernicious daughters join 24 Your high-engendered battles ’gainst a head 25 So old and white as this. O, ho, ’tis foul! 26

I am a man 62 More sinned against than sinning. 63

FOOL This cold night will turn us all to fools and 84 madmen.

⟨EDGAR When we our betters see bearing our woes, 111 We scarcely think our miseries our foes. 112 Who alone suffers suffers most i’ th’ mind, 113 Leaving free things and happy shows behind. 114 But then the mind much sufferance doth o’erskip 115 When grief hath mates and bearing fellowship. 116 How light and portable my pain seems now 117 When that which makes me bend makes the King 118 bow! 119

As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods; 41 They kill us for their sport. 42

ALBANY O Goneril, 38 You are not worth the dust which the rude wind 39 Blows in your face.

They flattered 115 me like a dog and told me I had the white hairs in 116 my beard ere the black ones were there. To say “ay” 117 and “no” to everything that I said “ay” and “no” to 118 was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me 119 once and the wind to make me chatter, when the 120 thunder would not peace at my bidding, there I 121 found ’em, there I smelt ’em out. Go to. They are 122 not men o’ their words; they told me I was every- 123 thing. ’Tis a lie. I am not ague-proof.

LEAR What, art mad? A man may see how this world 165 goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears. See how 166 yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark in 167 thine ear. Change places and, handy-dandy, which 168 is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen a 169 farmer’s dog bark at a beggar?

LEAR When we are born, we cry that we are come 200 To this great stage of fools.

LEAR No, no, no, no. Come, let’s away to prison. 9 We two alone will sing like birds i’ th’ cage. 10 When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down 11 And ask of thee forgiveness. So we’ll live, 12 And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh 13 At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues 14 Talk of court news, and we’ll talk with them too— 15 Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out— 16 And take upon ’s the mystery of things, 17 As if we were God’s spies. And we’ll wear out, 18 In a walled prison, packs and sects of great ones 19 That ebb and flow by th’ moon. 20

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. 393