King Lear

by William Shakespeare

LEAR Ay, every inch a king. When I do stare, see how the subject quakes. I pardon that man’s life. What was thy cause121? Adultery? Thou shalt not die: die for adultery? No. The wren goes to’t124 and the small gilded fly Does lecher125 in my sight. Let copulation thrive, For Gloucester’s bastard son was kinder to his father Than were my daughters got127 ’tween the lawful sheets. To’t, luxury, pell-mell, for I lack soldiers128. Behold yond simp’ring dame, Whose face between her forks presages snow130, That minces virtue and does shake the head131 To hear of pleasure’s name: The fitchew nor the soilèd133 horse goes to’t With a more riotous134 appetite. Down from the waist They are centaurs135, though women all above: But to the girdle do the gods inherit136, Beneath is all the fiends’: There’s hell, there’s darkness, there is the sulphurous138 pit: burning, scalding, stench, consumption139. Fie, fie, fie! Pah, pah! Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary140, sweeten my imagination: there’s money for thee. GLOUCESTER O, let me kiss that hand! LEAR Let me wipe it first: it smells of mortality143.