King Lear (19 page)

EDGAR
Before you fight the battle,
ope
this
letter
³⁵
:

Gives a letter

If you have victory, let the trumpet
sound
³⁶

For him that brought it. Wretched though I seem,

I can produce a
champion
³⁸
that will prove

What is
avouchèd
there. If you
miscarry
³⁹
,

Your business of the world hath so an end,

And
machination
⁴¹
ceases. Fortune loves you.

ALBANY
    Stay till I have read the letter.

EDGAR
    I was forbid it.

When time shall serve, let but the herald
cry
⁴⁴

And I’ll appear again.

ALBANY
    Why, fare thee well: I will
o’erlook
⁴⁶
thy paper.

EDMUND
    The enemy’s in view: draw up your
powers
⁴⁷
.

Here is the guess of their true strength and forces

By diligent
discovery
⁴⁹
, but your haste

Is now urged on you.

ALBANY
    We will
greet the time
⁵¹
.

EDMUND
    To both these sisters have I sworn my love,

Each
jealous
⁵³
of the other, as the stung

Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take?

Both? One? Or neither? Neither can be enjoyed

If both remain alive. To take the widow

Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril,

And
hardly
shall I
carry out my side
⁵⁸
,

Her husband being alive. Now then, we’ll use

His
countenance
⁶⁰
for the battle, which being done,

Let her who would be rid of him devise

His speedy
taking off
⁶²
. As for the mercy

Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia,

The battle done and they within our power,

Shall
never see his pardon, for
my state
⁶⁵

Stands on me to defend, not to debate.

EDGAR
    Here,
father
¹
, take the shadow of this tree

For your good
host
²
. Pray that the right may thrive.

If ever I return to you again,

I’ll bring you comfort.

GLOUCESTER
    Grace go with you, sir!

EDGAR
    Away, old man! Give me thy hand, away!

King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter
ta’en
⁷
:

Give me thy hand, come on.

GLOUCESTER
    No further, sir: a man may rot even here.

EDGAR
    What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure

Their going hence, even as their coming hither:

Ripeness
¹²
is all: come on.

GLOUCESTER
    And that’s true too.

EDMUND
    Some officers take them away:
good guard
¹
,

Until their
greater pleasures
²
first be known

That are to
censure
³
them.

C
ORDELIA
We are not the first

Who with best
meaning
⁵
have incurred the worst.

For thee, oppressèd king, I am
cast down
⁶
:

Myself could else out-frown false fortune’s frown.

Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?

LEAR
    No, no, no, no! Come, let’s away to prison.

We two alone will sing like birds i’th’cage:

When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down

And ask of thee forgiveness: so we’ll live,

And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh

At
gilded butterflies
, and hear
poor rogues
¹⁴

Talk of court news, and we’ll talk with them too —

Who loses and who wins, who’s in, who’s out —

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
¹⁹
of great ones

That ebb and flow by th’moon
²⁰
.

EDMUND
    Take them away.

LEAR
    Upon such
sacrifices
²²
, my Cordelia,

The gods themselves
throw incense
²³
. Have I caught thee?

He that parts us shall bring a
brand from heaven
²⁴

And fire us hence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes:

The good years shall devour them,
flesh and fell
²⁶
,

Ere they shall make us weep: We’ll see ’em
starved
²⁷
first. Come.

EDMUND
    Come hither, captain, hark.

Take thou this note, go follow them to prison.

One step I have advanced thee: if thou dost

As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way

To noble fortunes. Know thou this: that men

Are as the time is; to be
tender-minded
³³

Does not
become
³⁴
a sword. Thy great employment

Will not
bear question
³⁵
: either say thou’lt do’t

Or thrive by other means.

CAPTAIN
    I’ll do’t, my lord.

EDMUND
    About it, and
write happy
³⁸
when th’hast done.

Mark, I say, instantly, and
carry
³⁹
it so

As I have set it down.

ALBANY
    Sir, you have showed today your valiant
strain
⁴¹
,

And fortune led you well. You have the captives

Who were the
opposites
⁴³
of this day’s strife:

I do require them of you, so to
use
⁴⁴
them

As we shall find their merits and our safety

May equally determine.

EDMUND
    Sir, I thought it fit

To send the old and miserable king to some
retention
⁴⁸

Whose
age had
charms
in it, whose
title
⁴⁹
more,

To
pluck the common bosom
⁵⁰
on his side

And
turn our impressed lances in our eyes
⁵¹

Which do command them. With him I sent the
queen
⁵²
,

My reason all the same, and they are ready

Tomorrow, or at further space, t’appear

Where you shall hold your
session
⁵⁵
.

ALBANY
    Sir,
by your patience
⁵⁶
,

I hold you but a
subject of
⁵⁷
this war,

Not as a brother.

REGAN
    That’s as we
list
⁵⁹
to grace him.

Methinks our
pleasure might have been demanded
⁶⁰

Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers,

Bore the
commission
⁶²
of my place and person,

The which
immediacy
⁶³
may well stand up

And call itself your brother.

GONERIL
    Not so hot:

In his own
grace
⁶⁶
he doth exalt himself

More than in
your addition
⁶⁷
.

REGAN
    In my rights,

By me invested, he
compeers
⁶⁹
the best.

ALBANY
    
That were the most
⁷⁰
if he should husband you.

REGAN
    Jesters do oft prove prophets.

GONERIL
    
Holla
⁷²
, holla!

That eye that told you so looked but
asquint
⁷³
.

REGAN
    Lady, I am not well, else I should answer

From a
full-flowing stomach
⁷⁵
.— General,

Take thou my soldiers, prisoners,
patrimony
⁷⁶
:

Dispose of
them, of me: the
walls
⁷⁷
is thine:

Witness the world
⁷⁸
that I create thee here

My lord and master.

GONERIL
    Mean you to
enjoy
⁸⁰
him?

ALBANY
    The
let-alone
⁸¹
lies not in your good will.

EDMUND
    Nor in thine, lord.

ALBANY
    
Half-blooded
⁸³
fellow, yes.

REGAN
    Let the drum strike and prove my title thine.

ALBANY
    Stay yet, hear reason. Edmund, I arrest thee

On capital treason, and,
in
⁸⁶
thy arrest,

This
gilded serpent
.
For
⁸⁷
your claim, fair sister,

I
bar it
⁸⁸
in the interest of my wife:

’Tis she is
subcontracted
⁸⁹
to this lord,

And I, her husband, contradict your
banns
⁹⁰
.

If you will marry,
make your loves to
⁹¹
me,

My lady is
bespoke
⁹²
.

GONERIL
    An
interlude
⁹³
!

ALBANY
    Thou art armed, Gloucester: let the trumpet sound:

If none appear to prove upon thy person

Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,

There is my
pledge
: I’ll
make it
⁹⁷
on thy heart,

Throws down a glove

Ere I taste bread, thou art in
nothing
⁹⁸
less

Than I have here proclaimed thee.

REGAN
    Sick, O, sick!

GONERIL
    If not, I’ll ne’er trust
medicine
¹⁰¹
.

EDMUND
    There’s my exchange:
what
¹⁰²
in the world he’s

That names me traitor, villain-like he lies.

Throws down a glove

Call by the trumpet: he that dares approach,

On him, on you — who not? — I will maintain

My truth and honour firmly.

ALBANY
    A herald, ho!

Trust to thy
single virtue
¹⁰⁸
, for thy soldiers,

All levied in my name, have in my name

Took their discharge.

REGAN
    My sickness grows upon me.

ALBANY
    She is not well: convey her to my tent.—

Come hither, herald. Let the trumpet sound

And read out this.

HERALD
    
Reads
‘If any man of
quality or degree
¹¹⁵
within the

lists
¹¹⁶
of the army will maintain upon Edmund, supposed Earl

of Gloucester, that he is a manifold traitor, let him appear by

the third sound of the trumpet: he is bold in his defence.’

HERALD
    Again!

HERALD
    Again!

ALBANY
    Ask him his purposes, why he appears

Upon this call o’th’trumpet.

HERALD
    What are you?

Your name, your quality, and why you answer

This present summons?

EDGAR
    Know, my name is lost

By treason’s tooth bare-gnawn and
canker-bit
¹²⁷
:

Yet am I noble as the adversary

I come to
cope
¹²⁹
.

ALBANY
    Which is that adversary?

EDGAR
    What’s he that speaks for Edmund Earl of Gloucester?

EDMUND
    Himself: what say’st thou to him?

EDGAR
    Draw thy sword,

That, if my speech offend a noble heart,

Thy arm may do thee justice: here is mine.

Draws

Behold, it is my privilege —

The privilege of mine
honours —
¹³⁷

My oath and my profession. I
protest
¹³⁸
,

Maugre
thy strength,
place
¹³⁹
, youth and eminence,

Despise thy victor sword and
fire-new
¹⁴⁰
fortune,

Thy valour and thy heart, thou art a traitor:

False to thy gods, thy brother and thy father,

Conspirant
¹⁴³
gainst this high illustrious prince,

And from th’extremest
upward
¹⁴⁴
of thy head

To the
descent
¹⁴⁵
and dust below thy foot

A most
toad-spotted
¹⁴⁶
traitor. Say thou no,

This sword, this arm and my best spirits are
bent
¹⁴⁷

To prove upon thy heart whereto I speak,

Thou liest.

EDMUND
    In wisdom I should ask thy name,

But since thy outside looks so fair and warlike,

And that thy tongue some
say
¹⁵²
of breeding breathes,

What safe and
nicely
¹⁵³
I might well delay

By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn.

Back do I toss these treasons to thy head,

With the
hell-hated lie
¹⁵⁶
o’erwhelm thy heart,

Which,
for they
yet glance
by
¹⁵⁷
and scarcely bruise,