The same. A tent.Enter, with drum and colours, Cordelia, Doctor, and Soldiers.Cordelia. Alack, ’tis he: why, he was met even now As mad as the vex’d sea; singing aloud;Crown’d with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds.With bur-docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,Darnel, and all the idle weeds that growIn our sustaining corn. A century send forth;Search every acre in […]
The French camp near Dover.Enter Kent and a Gentleman. Kent. Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back know you the reason?Gentleman. Something he left imperfect in the state, which since his coming forth is thought of; which imports to the kingdom so much fear and danger, that his personal return was most
Before the Duke of Albany’s palace.Enter Goneril and Edmund. Goneril. Welcome, my lord: I marvel our mild husbandNot met us on the way.Enter Oswald.Now, where’s your master?Oswald. Madam, within; but never man so changed.I told him of the army that was landed;He smiled at it: I told him you were coming;His answer was ‘The worse:’
The heath.Enter Edgar. Edgar. Yet better thus, and known to be contemn’d,Than still contemn’d and flatter’d. To be worst,The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear:The lamentable change is from the best;The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then,Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace!The wretch that thou hast blown
Gloucester’s castle.Enter Cornwall, Regan, Goneril, Edmund, and Servants. Cornwall. Post speedily to my lord your husband; show him this letter: the army of France is landed. Seek out the villain Gloucester. [Exeunt some of the Servants.Regan. Hang him instantly.Goneril. Pluck out his eyes.Cornwall. Leave him to my displeasure. Edmund, keep you our sister company: the
A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle.Enter Gloucester, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar. Gloucester. Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully. I will piece out the comfort with what addition I can: I will not be long from you.Kent. All the power of his wits have given way to his impatience:
Gloucester’s castle.Enter Cornwall and Edmund. Cornwall. I will have my revenge ere I depart his house.Edmund. How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think of.Cornwall. I now perceive, it was not altogether your brother’s evil disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking
The heath. Before a hovel.Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool. Kent. Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter:The tyranny of the open night’s too roughFor nature to endure. [Storm still.Lear. Let me alone.Kent. Good my lord, enter here.Lear. Wilt break my heart?Kent. I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.Lear. Thou
Gloucester’s castle.Enter Gloucester and Edmund. Gloucester. Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing. When I desired their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the use of mine own house; charged me, on pain of their perpetual displeasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain
Another part of the heath. Storm still.Enter Lear and Fool. Lear. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!You cataracts and hurricanoes, spoutTill you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks!You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,Smite flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!Crack nature’s moulds, all
A heath.Storm still. Enter Kent and a Gentleman, meeting. Kent. Who’s there, besides foul weather?Gentleman. One minded like the weather, most unquietly.Kent. I know you. Where’s the king?Gentleman. Contending with the fretful element;Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea,Or swell the curled waters ’bove the main,That things might change or cease; tears his
Before Gloucester’s castle. Kent in the stocks.Enter Lear, Fool, and Gentleman.Lear. ’Tis strange that they should so depart from home,And not send back my messenger.Gentleman. As I learn’d,The night before there was no purpose in themOf this remove.Kent. Hail to thee, noble master!Lear. Ha! Makest thou this shame thy pastime?Kent. No, my lord.Fool. Ha, ha!
A wood.Enter Edgar. Edgar. I heard myself proclaim’d;And by the happy hollow of a treeEscaped the hunt. No port is free; no place,That guard, and most unusual vigilance,Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may ’scape,I will preserve myself; and am bethoughtTo take the basest and most poorest shapeThat ever penury, in contempt of man,Brought
Before Gloucester’s castle.Enter Kent and Oswald severally. Oswald. Good dawning to thee, friend: art of this house?Kent. Ay.Oswald. Where may we set our horses?Kent. I’ the mire.Oswald. Prithee, if thou lovest me, tell me.Kent. I love thee not.Oswald. Why, then, I care not for thee.Kent. If I had thee in Lipsbury pinfold, I would make
The Earl of Gloucester’s castle.Enter Edmund, and Curan meets him. Edmund. Save thee, Curan.Curan. And you, sir. I have been with your father, andgiven him notice that the Duke of Cornwall and Regan his duchess will be here with him this night.Edmund. How comes that?Curan. Nay, I know not. You have heard of the news