(Line differences from Q1 are in brackets, lines in F1 only are in italics)
Act 3 Scene 7
Gloucester’s residence
Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GONERIL, EDMUND, and Servants
CORNWALL
(to Goneril) Post speedily to my lord your husband. Show him
this letter. The army of France is landed.
(to servant) Seek out the traitor [villain] Gloucester.
REGAN
Hang him instantly.
GONERIL
Pluck out his eyes.
CORNWALL
Leave him to my displeasure. Edmund, keep you our
sister company. The revenges we are bound to take
upon your traitorous father are not fit for your
beholding. Advise the duke, where you are going, to
a most festinate preparation. We are bound to the
like. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent
betwixt us. Farewell, dear sister: farewell, my
lord of Gloucester.
Enter OSWALD
How now! where’s the king?
OSWALD
My lord of Gloucester hath conveyed him hence.
Some five or six and thirty of his knights,
Hot questrists after him, met him at gate,
Who with some other of the lord’s dependants
Are gone with him towards Dover, where they boast
To have well-armed friends.
CORNWALL
Get horses for your mistress.
GONERIL
Farewell, sweet lord, and sister.
CORNWALL
Edmund, farewell.
Exit GONERIL, EDMUND, and OSWALD
Go seek the traitor Gloucester,
Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us.
Though well we may not pass upon his life
Without the form of justice, yet our power
Shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men
May blame, but not control. Who’s there? the traitor?
Enter GLOUCESTER, brought in by two or three
REGAN
Ingrateful fox! ’tis he.
CORNWALL
Bind fast his corky arms.
GLOUCESTER
What mean your graces? Good my friends, consider
You are my guests. Do me no foul play, friends.
CORNWALL
Bind him, I say.
REGAN
Hard, hard. O filthy traitor!
GLOUCESTER
Unmerciful lady as you are, I’m none [I am true].
CORNWALL
To this chair bind him. Villain, thou shalt find —
GLOUCESTER
By the kind gods, ’tis most ignobly done
To pluck me by the beard.
REGAN
So white, and such a traitor!
GLOUCESTER
Naughty lady,
These hairs, which thou dost ravish from my chin,
Will quicken, and accuse thee. I am your host;
With robbers’ hands my hospitable favours
You should not ruffle thus. What will you do?
CORNWALL
Come, sir, what letters had you late from France?
REGAN
Be simple answered, for we know the truth.
CORNWALL
And what confederacy have you with the traitors
Late footed in the kingdom?
REGAN
To whose hands have you sent the lunatic king? Speak.
GLOUCESTER
I have a letter guessingly set down,
Which came from one that’s of a neutral heart,
And not from one opposed.
CORNWALL
Cunning.
REGAN
And false.
CORNWALL
Where hast thou sent the king?
GLOUCESTER
To Dover.
REGAN
Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not charged at peril —
CORNWALL
Wherefore to Dover? Let him [first] answer that.
GLOUCESTER
I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course.
REGAN
Wherefore to Dover, sir?
GLOUCESTER
Because I would not see thy cruel nails
Pluck out his poor old eyes, nor thy fierce sister
In his anointed flesh stick [rash] boarish fangs.
The sea, with such a storm as his bare [lowed] head
In hell-black night endured, would have buoyed up,
And quenched the stelled fires;
Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain [rage].
If wolves had at thy gate howled [heard] that stern [dearne] time,
Thou shouldst have said “Good porter, turn the key,
All cruels else subscribe.” But I shall see
The winged vengeance overtake such children.
CORNWALL
See’t shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair.
Upon these eyes of thine I’ll set my foot.
GLOUCESTER
He that will think to live till he be old,
Give me some help! O cruel! O you gods!
Cornwall gouges out Gloucester’s eye
REGAN
One side will mock another; the other too.
CORNWALL
If you see vengeance —
SERVANT
Hold your hand, my lord!
I have served you ever since I was a child;
But better service have I never done you
Than now to bid you hold.
REGAN
How now, you dog!
SERVANT
(to Regan) If you did wear a beard upon your chin,
I’d shake it on this quarrel. What do you mean?
CORNWALL
My villain!
They draw swords and fight
SERVANT
Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of anger.
REGAN
Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus?
Takes a sword from another servant, and runs at him behind
SERVANT
O, I am slain! My lord, you have one eye left
To see some mischief on him. O!
Dies
CORNWALL
Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly!
Where is thy luster now?
He plucks out the other eye
GLOUCESTER
All dark and comfortless! Where’s my son Edmund?
Edmund, enkindle [unbridle] all the sparks of nature
To quit this horrid act.
REGAN
Out, treacherous villain,
Thou call’st on him that hates thee; it was he
That made the overture of thy treasons to us,
Who is too good to pity thee.
GLOUCESTER
O my follies! Then Edgar was abused.
Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him.
REGAN
Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell
His way to Dover.
How is’t, my lord? How look you?
CORNWALL
I have received a hurt. Follow me, lady.
Turn out that eyeless villain; throw this slave
Upon the dunghill. Regan, I bleed apace:
Untimely comes this hurt: give me your arm.
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 anything.
THIRD SERVANT
Go thou: I’ll fetch some flax and whites of eggs
To apply to his bleeding face. Now, heaven help him!]
Exit
Footnotes
festinate preparation: speedy preparation for war against France
Gloucester: Cornwall rewarded Edmund with his father’s title of Lord of Gloucester in sc. 5, which is confusing as the next line refers to the father by the same title.
pass upon: pass a death sentence upon his life
hospitable favours : the face of your host
guessingly : tentatively, not certain of the facts
course: a contemporary reference to the bloody Elizabethan sport of bear-baiting where a bear would be tied to a chain on a stake while dogs attack it.
stelled : starry (if the sea were like the storm he endured, it would have risen up and put out the stars)
cruels : if wolves (cruels, wild creatures) had howled at your door, you would have given them protection (subscription, support) from the storm, but not your father
mock : the eyeless socket will make the healthy one look ridiculous because they don’t match
shake : an insult said to Regan, similar to Regan’s plucking at Gloucester’s beard
apace : swiftly; the servant wounded him in the fight
REGAN: Some productions have Regan ignore her mortally wounded husband whom she leaves to die on stage; she’s already planning for her future with Edmund.