King Lear

epub:type="z3998:persona">Exit Cornwall, led by Regan. Second servant

I’ll never care what wickedness I do,
If this man come to good.

Third servant

If she live long,
And in the end meet the old course of death,
Women will all turn monsters.

Second servant

Let’s follow the old earl, and get the Bedlam
To lead him where he would: his roguish madness
Allows itself to any thing.

Third servant

Go thou: I’ll fetch some flax and whites of eggs
To apply to his bleeding face. Now, heaven help him! Exeunt severally.

Act IV

Scene I

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 unto the worst Owes nothing to thy blasts. But who comes here? Enter Gloucester, led by an Old Man. My father, poorly led? World, world, O world! But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee, Lie would not yield to age.
Old man	O, my good lord, I have been your tenant, and your father’s tenant, these fourscore years.
Gloucester	Away, get thee away; good friend, be gone: Thy comforts can do me no good at all; Thee they may hurt.
Old man	Alack, sir, you cannot see your way.
Gloucester	I have no way, and therefore want no eyes; I stumbled when I saw: full oft ’tis seen, Our means secure us, and our mere defects Prove our commodities. O dear son Edgar, The food of thy abused father’s wrath! Might I but live to see thee in my touch, I’ld say I had eyes again!
Old man	How now! Who’s there?
Edgar	Aside. O gods! Who is’t can say “I am at the worst”? I am worse than e’er I was.
Old man	’Tis poor mad Tom.
Edgar	Aside. And worse I may be yet: the worst is not So long as we can say “This is the worst.”
Old man	Fellow, where goest?
Gloucester	Is it a beggar-man?
Old man	Madman and beggar too.
Gloucester	He has some reason, else he could not beg. I’ the last night’s storm I such a fellow saw; Which made me think a man a worm: my son Came then into my mind; and yet my mind Was then scarce friends with him: I have heard more since. As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport.
Edgar	Aside. How should this be? Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow, Angering itself and others.⁠—Bless thee, master!
Gloucester	Is that the naked fellow?
Old man	Ay, my lord.
Gloucester	Then, prithee, get thee gone: if, for my sake, Thou wilt o’ertake us, hence a mile or twain, I’ the way toward Dover, do it for ancient love; And bring some covering for this naked soul, Who I’ll entreat to lead me.
Old man	Alack, sir, he is mad.
Gloucester	’Tis the times’ plague, when madmen lead the blind. Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure; Above the rest, be gone.
Old man	I’ll bring him the best ’parel that I have, Come on’t what will. Exit.
Gloucester	Sirrah, naked fellow⁠—
Edgar	Poor Tom’s a-cold. Aside. I cannot daub it further.
Gloucester	Come hither, fellow.
Edgar	Aside. And yet I must.⁠—Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed.
Gloucester	Know’st thou the way to Dover?
Edgar	Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path. Poor Tom hath been scared out of his good wits: bless thee, good man’s son, from the foul fiend! five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing, who since possesses chambermaids and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master!
Gloucester	Here, take this purse, thou whom the heavens’ plagues Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched Makes thee the happier: heavens, deal so still! Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man, That slaves your ordinance, that will not see Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly; So distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover?
Edgar	Ay, master.
Gloucester	There is a cliff, whose high and bending head Looks fearfully in the confined deep: Bring me but to the very brim of it, And I’ll repair the misery thou dost bear With something rich about me: from that place I shall no leading need.
Edgar	Give me thy arm: Poor Tom shall lead thee. Exeunt.

Scene II

Before Albany’s palace.

	Enter Goneril and Edmund.
Goneril	Welcome, my lord: I marvel our mild husband Not 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:” of Gloucester’s treachery, And of the loyal service of his son, When I inform’d him, then he call’d me sot, And told me I had turn’d the wrong side out: What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him; What like, offensive.
Goneril	To Edmund. Then shall you go no further. It is the cowish terror of his spirit, That dares not undertake: he’ll not feel wrongs Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother; Hasten his musters and conduct his powers: I must change arms at home, and give the distaff Into my husband’s hands. This trusty servant Shall pass between us: ere long you are like to hear, If you dare venture in your own behalf, A mistress’s command. Wear this; spare speech; Giving a favour. Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak, Would stretch thy spirits up into the air: Conceive, and fare thee well.
Edmund	Yours in the ranks of death.
Goneril	My most dear Gloucester! Exit Edmund. O, the difference of man and man! To thee a woman’s services are due: My fool usurps my body.
Oswald	Madam, here comes my lord. Exit.
	Enter Albany.
Goneril	I have been worth the whistle.
Albany