SCENE VII.
Enter Lear, mad.
But 9 note
who comes here?
The safer sense will ne'er accommodate
His master thus.
Lear.
No, they cannot touch me for coyning; I am
the King himself.
Edg.
O thou side-piercing sight!
-- 127 --
Lear.
Nature's above art in that respect. There's
your press-mony. 1 note
That fellow handles his bow like
a crow-keeper. Draw me a clothier's yard. Look,
look, a mouse! Peace, peace;—this piece of toasted
cheese will do't.—There's my gauntlet, I'll prove it
on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. 2 noteO, well
flown, Bird! i'th' clout, i'th' clout: hewgh.—3 noteGive
the word.
Edg.
Sweet marjoram.
Lear.
Pass.
Glo.
I know that voice.
Lear.
4 noteHa! Gonerill!—With a white Beard?—5 noteThey
flattered me like a dog, and told me, I had white
hairs in my beard, ere the black ones were there. To
say ay, and no, to every thing that I said—Ay and no
too was no good divinity. When the rain came to
wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter; when
the thunder would not peace 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 every
thing; 'tis a lye, I am not ague-proof.
-- 128 --
Glo.
The trick 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 the cause?
Adultery?
Thou shalt not die; die for adultery? No,
The wren goes to't, and the small gilded flie
Does lecher in my sight.
Let copulation thrive, for Glo'ster's bastard son
Was kinder to his father, than my daughters
Got 'tween the lawful sheets.
To't, luxury, pell mell; for I lack soldiers.
Behold yond simpering Dame,
6 note
Whose face between her forks presages snow;
That minces virtue, and does shake the head
To hear of pleasure's name.
7 noteThe fitchew, 8 note
nor the soyled horse, goes to't
With a more riotous appetite;
Down from the waiste they're centaurs,
Though women all above;
But to the girdle do the Gods inherit,
Beneath is all the fiend's; there's hell, there's darkness,
There is the sulphurous pit, burning, scalding, stench, consumption. Fy, fy, fy; pah, pah;
Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary,
To sweeten my imagination! there's mony for thee.
Glo.
O, let me kiss that hand.
Lear.
Let me wipe it first, it smells of mortality.
Glo.
O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world
Shall so wear out to nought. Do'st thou know me?
Lear.
I remember thine eyes well enough: dost
-- 129 --
thou squiny at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid;
I'll not love. Read thou this challenge, mark but
the penning of it.
Glo.
Were all the letters suns, I could not see one.
Edg.
I would not take this from report. It is,
And my heart breaks at it.
Lear.
Read.
Glo.
What, with this case of eyes?
Lear.
Oh, ho, are you there with me? no eyes in
your head, nor no mony in your purse? your eyes are
in a heavy case, your purse in a light; yet you see how
this world goes.
Glo.
I see it feelingly.
Lear.
What, art mad? a man may see how this
world goes, with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see,
how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark
in thine ear. Change places, and handy-dandy, which
is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen a
farmer's dog bark at a beggar.
Glo.
Ay, Sir.
Lear.
And the creature run from the cur. There
thou might'st behold the great image of authority; a
dog's obey'd in office.—
Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand:
Why dost thou lash that whore? strip thy own back;
Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind,
For which thou whip'st her. Th' usurer hangs the cozener.
Through tatter'd cloaths small vices do appear;
9 noteRobes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks:
Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it.
-- 130 --
None does offend, none, I say, none; 1 note
I'll able 'em
Take that of me, my friend, who have the pow'r
To seal th' accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes,
And, like a scurvy politician, seem
To see the things thou dost not.
Now, now, now, now. Pull off my boots. Harder, harder. So.
Edg.
O matter and impertinency mixt.
Reason in madness!
Lear.
If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes.
I know thee well enough, thy name is Glo'ster.
Thou must be patient; we came crying hither;
Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air,
We wawle and cry. I will preach to thee. Mark—
Glo.
Alack, alack the day!
Lear.
When we are born, we cry, that we are come
To this great stage of fools.—2 note
This a good block!—
It were a delicate stratagem to shoe
A troop of horse with Felt; I'll put't in proof;
And when I've stol'n upon these sons-in-law,
Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.
-- 131 --
Samuel Johnson [1765], The plays of William Shakespeare, in eight volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of Various Commentators; To which are added notes by Sam. Johnson (Printed for J. and R. Tonson [and] C. Corbet [etc.], London) [word count] [S11001].
