If that the heavens do not their visible spirits Send quickly down to tame these vile offences,It will come,Humanity must perforce prey on itself,Like monsters of the deep.GONERIL Milk-liver'd man!
That bear'st a cheek for blows,a head for wrongs;Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning Thine honour from thy suffering;that not know'st Fools do those villains pity who are punish'd Ere they have done their mischief.Where's thy drum?
France spreads his banners in our noiseless land;With plumed helm thy slayer begins threats;
Whiles thou,a moral fool,sit'st still,and criest 'Alack,why does he so?'ALBANY See thyself,devil!
Proper deformity seems not in the fiend So horrid as in woman.GONERIL O vain fool!ALBANY Thou changed and self-cover'd thing,for shame,Be-monster not thy feature.Were't my fitness To let these hands obey my blood,They are apt enough to dislocate and tear Thy flesh and bones:howe'er thou art a fiend,A woman's shape doth shield thee.GONERIL Marry,your manhood now--Enter a Messenger ALBANY What news?Messenger O,my good lord,the Duke of Cornwall's dead:
Slain by his servant,going to put out The other eye of Gloucester.ALBANY Gloucester's eye!Messenger A servant that he bred,thrill'd with remorse,Opposed against the act,bending his sword To his great master;who,thereat enraged,Flew on him,and amongst them fell'd him dead;But not without that harmful stroke,which since Hath pluck'd him after.ALBANY This shows you are above,You justicers,that these our nether crimes So speedily can venge!But,O poor Gloucester!
Lost he his other eye?Messenger Both,both,my lord.
This letter,madam,craves a speedy answer;
'Tis from your sister.GONERIL [Aside]One way I like this well;But being widow,and my Gloucester with her,May all the building in my fancy pluck Upon my hateful life:another way,The news is not so tart.--I'll read,and answer.
Exit ALBANY Where was his son when they did take his eyes?Messenger Come with my lady hither.ALBANY He is not here.Messenger No,my good lord;I met him back again.ALBANY Knows he the wickedness?Messenger Ay,my good lord;'twas he inform'd against him;And quit the house on purpose,that their punishment Might have the freer course.ALBANY Gloucester,I live To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king,And to revenge thine eyes.Come hither,friend:
Tell me what more thou know'st.
Exeunt
SCENE III.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 required and necessary.KENT Who hath he left behind him general?Gentleman The Marshal of France,Monsieur La Far.KENT Did your letters pierce the queen to any demonstration of grief?Gentleman Ay,sir;she took them,read them in my presence;And now and then an ample tear trill'd down Her delicate cheek:it seem'd she was a queen Over her passion;who,most rebel-like,Sought to be king o'er her.KENT O,then it moved her.Gentleman Not to a rage:patience and sorrow strove Who should express her goodliest.You have seen Sunshine and rain at once:her smiles and tears Were like a better way:those happy smilets,That play'd on her ripe lip,seem'd not to know What guests were in her eyes;which parted thence,As pearls from diamonds dropp'd.In brief,Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved,If all could so become it.KENT Made she no verbal question?Gentleman 'Faith,once or twice she heaved the name of 'father'
Pantingly forth,as if it press'd her heart:
Cried 'Sisters!sisters!Shame of ladies!sisters!
Kent!father!sisters!What,i'the storm?i' the night?
Let pity not be believed!'There she shook The holy water from her heavenly eyes,And clamour moisten'd:then away she started To deal with grief alone.KENT It is the stars,The stars above us,govern our conditions;Else one self mate and mate could not beget Such different issues.You spoke not with her since?Gentleman No.KENT Was this before the king return'd?Gentleman No,since.KENT Well,sir,the poor distressed Lear's i'the town;Who sometime,in his better tune,remembers What we are come about,and by no means Will yield to see his daughter.Gentleman Why,good sir?KENT A sovereign shame so elbows him:his own unkindness,That stripp'd her from his benediction,turn'd her To foreign casualties,gave her dear rights To his dog-hearted daughters,these things sting His mind so venomously,that burning shame Detains him from Cordelia.Gentleman Alack,poor gentleman!KENT Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard not?Gentleman 'Tis so,they are afoot.KENT Well,sir,I'll bring you to our master Lear,And leave you to attend him:some dear cause Will in concealment wrap me up awhile;When I am known aright,you shall not grieve Lending me this acquaintance.I pray you,go Along with me.
Exeunt
SCENE IV.The French camp
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 grow In our sustaining corn.A century send forth;Search every acre in the high-grown field,And bring him to our eye.
Exit an Officer What can man's wisdom In the restoring his bereaved sense?
He that helps him take all my outward worth.Doctor There is means,madam:
Our foster-nurse of nature is repose,The which he lacks;that to provoke in him,Are many simples operative,whose power Will close the eye of anguish.CORDELIA All blest secrets,All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth,Spring with my tears!be aidant and remediate In the good man's distress!Seek,seek for him;Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life That wants the means to lead it.
