That on th’unnumbered idle pebble25 chafes,
Cannot be heard so high. I’ll look no more,
Lest my brain turn and the deficient27 sight
Topple28 down headlong.
GLOUCESTER Set me where you stand.
EDGAR Give me your hand: you are now within a foot
Of th’extreme verge: for all beneath the moon
Would I not leap upright32.
GLOUCESTER Let go my hand.
Here, friend’s34 another purse: in it a jewel
Gives a purse
Well worth a poor man’s taking: fairies and gods
Prosper it36 with thee! Go thou further off:
Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.
EDGAR Now fare ye well, good sir.
GLOUCESTER With all my heart.
Aside
EDGAR Why I do trifle40 thus with his despair
Is done to cure it.
Kneels
GLOUCESTER O you mighty gods!
This world I do renounce, and in your sights
Shake patiently my great affliction off:
If I could bear it longer, and not fall
To quarrel with your great opposeless46 wills,
My snuff and loathèd part of nature47 should
Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!—
Now, fellow, fare thee well.
He falls forward
EDGAR Gone, sir: farewell.—
Aside
And yet I know not how conceit51 may rob
The treasury of life, when life itself
Yields53 to the theft: had he been where he thought,
By this54 had thought been past. Alive or dead?—
Ho, you sir! Friend! Hear you, sir! Speak!—
Aside
Thus might he pass56 indeed: yet he revives.—
What57 are you, sir?
GLOUCESTER Away, and let me die.
EDGAR Hadst thou been aught59 but gossamer, feathers, air —
So many fathom down precipitating60 —
Thou’dst shivered61 like an egg: but thou dost breathe,
Hast heavy substance, bleed’st not, speak’st, art sound.
Ten masts at each63 make not the altitude
Which thou hast perpendicularly felclass="underline"
Thy life’s a miracle. Speak yet again.
GLOUCESTER But have I fall’n or no?
EDGAR From the dread summit of this chalky bourn67.
Look up a-height: the shrill-gorged68 lark so far
Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.
GLOUCESTER Alack, I have no eyes.
Is wretchedness deprived that benefit,
To end itself by death? ’Twas yet some comfort
When misery could beguile73 the tyrant’s rage
And frustrate his proud will.
EDGAR Give me your arm.
Helps him up
Up, so. How is’t? Feel you your legs? You stand.
GLOUCESTER Too well, too well.
EDGAR This is above all strangeness.
Upon the crown o’th’cliff what thing was that
Which parted from you?
GLOUCESTER A poor unfortunate beggar.
EDGAR As I stood here below, methought his eyes
Were two full moons: he had a thousand noses,
Horns whelked84 and waved like the enragèd sea.
It was some fiend: therefore, thou happy father85,
Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours86
Of men’s impossibilities, have preserved thee.
GLOUCESTER I do remember now: henceforth I’ll bear
Affliction till it do cry out itself
‘Enough, enough’ and die. That thing you speak of,
I took it for a man: often ’twould say
‘The fiend, the fiend’: he led me to that place.
EDGAR Bear free93 and patient thoughts.
Enter Lear
Dressed with weeds
But who comes here?
The safer sense will ne’er accommodate94
His master thus.
LEAR No, they cannot touch96 me for crying: I am the king
himself.
EDGAR O thou side-piercing sight!
LEAR Nature’s above art in that respect. There’s your
press-money. That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper100.
Draw me a clothier’s yard101. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace,
this piece of toasted cheese will do’t. There’s my gauntlet102: I’ll
prove it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O, well flown,103
bird! I’th’clout, i’th’clout: hewgh! Give the word104.
EDGAR Sweet marjoram105.
LEAR Pass.
GLOUCESTER I know that voice.
LEAR Ha? Goneril with a white beard? They flattered me
like a dog and told me I had the white hairs in my beard ere109
the black ones were there. To say ‘Ay’ and ‘No’ to everything
that I said ‘Ay’ and ‘No’ to was no good divinity111. When the
rain came112 to wet me once and the wind to make me chatter,
when the thunder would not peace113 at my bidding, there I
found ’em, there I smelt ’em out. Go to, they are not men
o’their words: they told me I was everything: ’tis a lie, I am
not ague-proof116.
GLOUCESTER The trick117 of that voice I do well remember:
Is’t not the king?
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.
GLOUCESTER O, ruined piece of nature! This great world
Shall so145 wear out to nought. Dost thou know me?
LEAR I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou
squinny at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid147: I’ll not love.
Read thou this challenge, mark but the penning148 of it.
GLOUCESTER Were all thy letters suns, I could not see.
Aside
EDGAR I would not take this from report150: it is,
And my heart breaks at it.
LEAR Read.
GLOUCESTER What, with the case153 of eyes?
LEAR O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your head,
nor no money in your purse? Your eyes are in a heavy case155,
your purse in a light, yet you see how this world goes.
GLOUCESTER I see it feelingly157.
LEAR What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes