уильям шекспир - King Lear

Return you to my sister.

Rises

LEAR Never, Regan:

She hath abated 350me of half my train,

Looked black upon me, struck me with her tongue

Most serpent-like upon the very heart.

All the stored vengeances of heaven fall

On her ingrateful top 354! Strike her young bones,

You taking 355airs, with lameness—

CORNWALL Fie, sir, fie!

LEAR You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames

Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,

You fen-sucked fogs drawn by the powerful sun 359

To fall and blister!

REGAN O the blest gods! So will you wish on me

When the rash mood is on.

LEAR No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse:

Thy tender-hafted 364nature shall not give

Thee o’er to harshness. Her eyes are fierce, but thine

Do comfort and not burn. ’Tis not in thee

To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,

To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes 368,

And, in conclusion, to oppose the bolt 369

Against my coming in: thou better know’st

The offices of nature 371, bond of childhood,

Effects 372of courtesy, dues of gratitude:

Thy half o’th’kingdom hast thou not forgot,

Wherein I thee endowed.

Tucket within

REGAN Good sir, to th’purpose 375.

LEAR Who put my man i’th’stocks?

Enter Steward [Oswald]

CORNWALL What trumpet’s that?

REGAN I know’t my sister’s: this approves 378her letter,

To Oswald

That she would soon be here.— Is your lady come?

LEAR This is a slave, whose easy-borrowed 380pride

Dwells in the sickly grace 381of her he follows.—

Out, varlet, from my sight!

CORNWALL What means your grace?

Enter Goneril

LEAR Who stocked my servant? Regan, I have good hope

Thou didst not know on’t 385. Who comes here? O heavens,

If you do love old men, if your sweet sway 386

Allow 387obedience, if you yourselves are old,

Make it your cause, send down, and take my part!—

To Goneril

Art not ashamed to look upon this beard 389?—

O Regan, will you take her by the hand?

Regan and Goneril join hands

GONERIL Why not by th’hand, sir? How have I offended?

All’s not offence that indiscretion 392finds

And dotage terms so.

LEAR O sides 394, you are too tough!

Will you yet hold?— How came my man i’th’stocks?

CORNWALL I set him there, sir: but his own disorders 396

Deserved much less advancement 397.

LEAR You? Did you?

REGAN I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.

If till the expiration of your month,

You will return and sojourn with my sister,

Dismissing half your train, come then to me:

I am now from home, and out of that provision

Which shall be needful for your entertainment 404.

LEAR Return to her? And fifty men dismissed?

No, rather I abjure 406all roofs, and choose

To wage against the enmity o’th’air 407,

To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,

Necessity’s 409sharp pinch! Return with her?

Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took

Our youngest born, I could as well be brought

To knee his throne and, squire-like, pension 412beg

To keep base life afoot 413. Return with her?

Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter 414

To this detested groom 415.

Points at Oswald

GONERIL At your choice, sir.

LEAR I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad.

I will not trouble thee, my child, farewell:

We’ll no more meet, no more see one another.

But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter —

Or rather a disease that’s in my flesh,

Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,

A plague-sore, or embossèd carbuncle 423,

In my corrupted blood 424. But I’ll not chide thee:

Let shame come when it will, I do not call it:

I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,

Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove.

Mend 428when thou canst, be better at thy leisure:

I can be patient, I can stay with Regan,

I and my hundred knights.

REGAN Not altogether so:

I looked not for 432you yet, nor am provided

For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister,

For those that mingle reason with your passion 434

Must be content to think you old, and so —

But she knows what she does.

LEAR Is this well spoken?

REGAN I dare avouch 438it, sir: what, fifty followers?

Is it not well? What should you need of more?

Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger 440

Speak gainst so great a number? How in one house

Should many people under two commands

Hold amity? ’Tis hard, almost impossible.

GONERIL Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance

From those that she calls servants, or from mine?

REGAN Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack ye 446,

We could control 447them. If you will come to me —

For now I spy a danger — I entreat you

To bring but five-and-twenty: to no more

Will I give place or notice 450.

LEAR I gave you all—

REGAN And in good time you gave it 452.

LEAR Made you my guardians, my depositaries 453,

But kept a reservation 454to be followed

With such a number. What, must I come to you

With five-and-twenty? Regan, said you so?

REGAN And speak’t again, my lord: no more with me.

LEAR Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favoured 458

When others are more wicked: not being the worst

To Goneril

Stands in some rank of praise 460.— I’ll go with thee:

Thy fifty yet doth double five-and-twenty,

And thou art twice her love.

GONERIL Hear me, my lord:

What need you five-and-twenty, ten, or five,

To follow in a house where twice so many

Have a command to tend you?

REGAN What need one?

LEAR O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars 468

Are in the poorest thing superfluous:

Allow not 470nature more than nature needs,

Man’s life is cheap as beast’s. Thou art a lady;

If only to go warm were gorgeous 472,

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear’st 473,

Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But for true need —

You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!

You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,

As full of grief as age, wretched in both.

If it be you that stirs these daughters’ hearts

Against their father, fool me not so much 479

To bear it tamely: touch me with noble anger,

And let not women’s weapons, water drops,

Stain my man’s cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,

I will have such revenges on you both,

That all the world shall — I will do such things —

What they are yet I know not, but they shall be

The terrors of the earth! You think I’ll weep:

No, I’ll not weep: I have full cause of weeping,

Storm and tempest

But this heart shall break into a hundred thousand flaws 488,

Or ere 489I’ll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!

Exeunt [ Lear, Gloucester, Kent and Fool ]

CORNWALL Let us withdraw: ’twill be a storm.

REGAN This house is little: the old man and’s 491people

Cannot be well bestowed 492.

GONERIL ’Tis his own blame hath put himself from rest 493

And must needs taste his folly.

REGAN For his particular 495, I’ll receive him gladly,

But not one follower.

GONERIL So am I purposed.

Where is my lord of Gloucester?

Enter Gloucester

CORNWALL Followed the old man forth: he is returned.

GLOUCESTER The king is in high rage.

CORNWALL Whither is he going?