(Line differences from Q1 are in brackets, lines in F1 only are in italics)
Act 3 Scene 6
A farmhouse near GLOUCESTER’s home
Enter GLOUCESTER, KING 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 [deserve] 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?
KING 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.
KING 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.
KING LEAR
It shall be done; I will arraign them straight.
Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer;
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. Hoppedance 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?
KING LEAR
I’ll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence.
Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;
And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity,
Bench by his side. 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.
Purr! the cat is gray.
KING 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?
KING LEAR
She cannot deny it.
FOOL
Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.
KING LEAR
And here’s another, whose warped 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.
KING 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, grey-hound, 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.
Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and
fairs and market-towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.
KING LEAR
Then let them anatomize Regan, see what breeds
about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that
makes these hard hearts [this hardness]?
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.
KING LEAR
Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains:
so, so, so. We’ll go to supper i’ he 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 balmed thy broken senses,
Which, if convenience will not allow,
Stand in hard cure.
Come, help to bear thy master;
Thou must not stay behind.]
GLOUCESTER
Come, come, away.
Exit 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,
Leaving free things and happy shows behind.
But then the mind much sufferance doth o’er skip,
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 fathered. 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
Footnotes
impatience: rage, unable to endure more
The gods reward your kindness: a very ironic statement considering that Gloucester will be “rewarded” with blindness
Nero: in Chaucer’s “Monk’s Tale” the Roman emperor Nero is depicted as fishing in the Tiber (more nonsense by Tom)
yeoman: property owner below the rank of gentleman (the fool’s next line suggests that the yeoman has indulged his son, to raise him to higher status than himself). In some productions the Fool indicates with this line that he refers to Edgar and sees through his disguise.
thousand: Lear imagines an army (of demons?) tormenting his daughters with firebrands
arraign: bring his daughters to trial
justicer: in his madness Lear thinks the fool is a judge, and Poor Tom a wise man, as he puts his daughters on trial (F cuts this entire business)
he: Lear? or one of the demons?
leak: suggesting she’s in her period
nightingale: the fool’s singing
yoke-fellow of equity: partner in justice
minikin: shrill, possibly referring to his pipe with which he calls the sheep.
gray: devils took the shape of gray cats
joint-stool: a stage prop that Lear thinks is his daughter
another: Lear next imagines Regan stands before him on trial
‘scape: in Lawrence Olivier’s performance, he thinks Regan a chicken who flies away
five wits: common sense, imagination, fantasy, estimation, memory (Edgar can’t help but take pity on the mad king)
mar my counterfeiting: ruin my disguise as a madman
horn: madmen usually carried horns for begging; Edgar implies that he tires of his role and cannot maintain it much longer.
Persian: exotic (speaking ironically of Tom’s rags)
curtains: supposedly on his bed
noon: the fool’s last line, he is not seen again (no explanation given).
provision: means of providing for safety
stand in hard cure: will be hard to cure
our woes: woes similar to ours
o’er skip: it’s easier to overlook our own suffering when we see that we do not suffer alone.
childed as I fathered: he suffers from his children as I do my father.
Mark the high noises: take heed of the rumors of strife between those in power?
repeals: when I am proved innocent of these false charges and reconcile with my father