[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: the gods reward your kindness! [Exit GLOUCESTER] EDGAR Frateretto calls me; and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend. FOOL Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a gentleman or a yeoman? LEAR A king, a king! FOOL No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son; for he's a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman before him. LEAR To have a thousand with red burning spits Come hissing in upon 'em,-- EDGAR The foul fiend bites my back. FOOL He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath. LEAR It shall be done; I will arraign them straight. [To EDGAR] Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer; [To the FOOL] Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she foxes! EDGAR Look, where he stands and glares! Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam? Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me,-- FOOL Her boat hath a leak, And she must not speak Why she dares not come over to thee. EDGAR The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two white herring. Croak not, black angel; I have no food for thee. KENT How do you, sir? Stand you not so amazed: Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions? LEAR I'll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence. [To EDGAR] Thou robed man of justice, take thy place; [To the FOOL] And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity, Bench by his side: [To KENT] you are o' the commission, Sit you too. EDGAR Let us deal justly. Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd? Thy sheep be in the corn; And for one blast of thy minikin mouth, Thy sheep shall take no harm. Pur! the cat is gray. LEAR Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my oath before this honourable assembly, she kicked the poor king her father. FOOL Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril? LEAR She cannot deny it. FOOL Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool. LEAR And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim What store her heart is made on. Stop her there! Arms, arms, sword, fire! Corruption in the place! False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape? EDGAR Bless thy five wits! KENT O pity! Sir, where is the patience now, That thou so oft have boasted to retain? EDGAR [Aside] My tears begin to take his part so much, They'll mar my counterfeiting. LEAR The little dogs and all, Trey, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me. EDGAR Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs! Be thy mouth or black or white, Tooth that poisons if it bite; Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim, Hound or spaniel, brach or lym, Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail, Tom will make them weep and wail: For, with throwing thus my head, Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled. LEAR Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and fairs and market-towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry. LEAR Then let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard hearts? [To EDGAR] You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred; only I do not like the fashion of your garments: you will say they are Persian attire: but let them be changed. KENT Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile. LEAR Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains: so, so, so. We'll go to supper i' the morning. So, so, so. FOOL And I'll go to bed at noon. [Re-enter GLOUCESTER] GLOUCESTER Come hither, friend: where is the king my master? KENT Here, sir; but trouble him not, his wits are gone. GLOUCESTER Good friend, I prithee, take him in thy arms; I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him: There is a litter ready; lay him in't, And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master: If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life, With thine, and all that offer to defend him, Stand in assured loss: take up, take up; And follow me, that will to some provision Give thee quick conduct. KENT Oppressed nature sleeps: This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses, Which, if convenience will not allow, Stand in hard cure. [To the FOOL] Come, help to bear thy master; Thou must not stay behind. GLOUCESTER Come, come, away. [Exeunt all but EDGAR] EDGAR When we our betters see bearing our woes, We scarcely think our miseries our foes. Who alone suffers suffers most i' the mind, And leaving so adds to the mind more anguish than the body: But then the mind much sufferance doth o'erskip, When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship. How light and portable my pain seems now, When that which makes me bend makes the king bow, He childed as I father'd! Tom, away! Mark the high noises; and thyself bewray, When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee, In thy just proof, repeals and reconciles thee. What will hap more to-night, safe 'scape the king! Lurk, lurk. [Exit]