SCENE VI. Fields near Dover. King Lear  Shakespeare homepage  |  King Lear  | Act 4, Scene 6 

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 Enter GLOUCESTER, and EDGAR dressed like a peasant  GLOUCESTER  When shall we come to the top of that same hill? 

 EDGAR  You do climb up it now: look, how we labour. 

 GLOUCESTER  Methinks the ground is even. 

 EDGAR  Horrible steep. 

 Hark, do you hear the sea? 

 GLOUCESTER  No, truly. 

 EDGAR  Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect 

 By your eyes' anguish. 

 GLOUCESTER  So may it be, indeed: 

 Methinks thy voice is alter'd; and thou speak'st 

 In better phrase and matter than thou didst. 

 EDGAR  You're much deceived: in nothing am I changed 

 But in my garments. 

 GLOUCESTER  Methinks you're better spoken. 

 EDGAR  Come on, sir; here's the place: stand still. How fearful 

 And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low! 

 The crows and choughs that wing the midway air 

 Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down 

 Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade! 

 Methinks he seems no bigger than his head: 

 The fishermen, that walk upon the beach, 

 Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark, 

 Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy 

 Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge, 

 That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes, 

 Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more; 

 Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight 

 Topple down headlong. 

 GLOUCESTER  Set me where you stand. 

 EDGAR  Give me your hand: you are now within a foot 

 Of the extreme verge: for all beneath the moon 

 Would I not leap upright. 

 GLOUCESTER  Let go my hand. 

 Here, friend, 's another purse; in it a jewel 

 Well worth a poor man's taking: fairies and gods 

 Prosper it with thee! Go thou farther off; 

 Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going. 

 EDGAR  Now fare you well, good sir. 

 GLOUCESTER  With all my heart. 

 EDGAR  Why I do trifle thus with his despair 

 Is done to cure it. 

 GLOUCESTER  [Kneeling]  O you mighty gods! 

 This world I do renounce, and, in your sights, 

 Shake patiently my great affliction off: 

 If I could bear it longer, and not fall 

 To quarrel with your great opposeless wills, 

 My snuff and loathed part of nature should 

 Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him! 

 Now, fellow, fare thee well. 



 He falls forward  EDGAR  Gone, sir: farewell. 

 And yet I know not how conceit may rob 

 The treasury of life, when life itself 

 Yields to the theft: had he been where he thought, 

 By this, had thought been past. Alive or dead? 

 Ho, you sir! friend! Hear you, sir! speak! 

 Thus might he pass indeed: yet he revives. 

 What are you, sir? 

 GLOUCESTER  Away, and let me die. 

 EDGAR  Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air, 

 So many fathom down precipitating, 

 Thou'dst shiver'd like an egg: but thou dost breathe; 

 Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound. 

 Ten masts at each make not the altitude 

 Which thou hast perpendicularly fell: 

 Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again. 

 GLOUCESTER  But have I fall'n, or no? 

 EDGAR  From the dread summit of this chalky bourn. 

 Look up a-height; the shrill-gorged lark so far 

 Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up. 

 GLOUCESTER  Alack, I have no eyes. 

 Is wretchedness deprived that benefit, 

 To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort, 

 When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage, 

 And frustrate his proud will. 

 EDGAR  Give me your arm: 

 Up: so. How is 't? Feel you your legs? You stand. 

 GLOUCESTER  Too well, too well. 

 EDGAR  This is above all strangeness. 

 Upon the crown o' the cliff, what thing was that 

 Which parted from you? 

 GLOUCESTER  A poor unfortunate beggar. 

 EDGAR  As I stood here below, methought his eyes 

 Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses, 

 Horns whelk'd and waved like the enridged sea: 

 It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father, 

 Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours 

 Of men's impossibilities, have preserved thee. 

 GLOUCESTER  I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear 

 Affliction till it do cry out itself 

 'Enough, enough,' and die. That thing you speak of, 

 I took it for a man; often 'twould say 

 'The fiend, the fiend:' he led me to that place. 

 EDGAR  Bear free and patient thoughts. But who comes here? 



 Enter KING LEAR, fantastically dressed with wild flowers  The safer sense will ne'er accommodate 

 His master thus. 

 KING LEAR  No, they cannot touch me for coining; I am the 

 king himself. 

 EDGAR  O thou side-piercing sight! 

 KING LEAR  Nature's above art in that respect. There's your 

 press-money. 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. O, well 

 flown, bird! i' the clout, i' the clout: hewgh! 

 Give the word. 

 EDGAR  Sweet marjoram. 

 KING LEAR  Pass. 

 GLOUCESTER  I know that voice. 

 KING LEAR  Ha! Goneril, with a white beard! They 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 lie, I am not ague-proof. 

 GLOUCESTER  The trick of that voice I do well remember: 

 Is 't not the king? 

 KING LEAR  Ay, every inch a king: 

 When I do stare, see how the subject quakes. 

 I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause? Adultery? 

 Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No: 

 The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly 

 Does lecher in my sight. 

 Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester'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, 

 Whose face between her forks presages snow; 

 That minces virtue, and does shake the head 

 To hear of pleasure's name; 

 The fitchew, nor the soiled horse, goes to 't 

 With a more riotous appetite. 

 Down from the waist they are Centaurs, 

 Though women all above: 

 But to the girdle do the gods inherit, 

 Beneath is all the fiends'; 

 There's hell, there's darkness, there's the 

 sulphurous pit, 

 Burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie, 

 fie, fie! pah, pah! Give me an ounce of civet, 

 good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination: 

 there's money for thee. 

 GLOUCESTER  O, let me kiss that hand! 

 KING LEAR  Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality. 

 GLOUCESTER  O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world 

 Shall so wear out to nought. Dost thou know me? 

 KING LEAR  I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny 

 at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid! I'll not 

 love. Read thou this challenge; mark but the 

 penning of it. 

 GLOUCESTER  Were all the letters suns, I could not see one. 

 EDGAR  I would not take this from report; it is, 

 And my heart breaks at it. 

 KING LEAR  Read. 

 GLOUCESTER  What, with the case of eyes? 

 KING LEAR  O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your 

 head, nor no money in your purse? Your eyes are in 

 a heavy case, your purse in a light; yet you see how 

 this world goes. 

 GLOUCESTER  I see it feelingly. 

 KING 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? 

 GLOUCESTER  Ay, sir. 

 KING LEAR  And the creature run from the cur? There thou 

 mightst behold the great image of authority: a 

 dog's obeyed in office. 

 Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand! 

 Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back; 

 Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind 

 For which thou whipp'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener. 

 Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear; 

 Robes 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 does pierce it. 

 None does offend, none, I say, none; I'll able 'em: 

 Take that of me, my friend, who have the power 

 To seal the 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. 

 EDGAR  O, matter and impertinency mix'd! Reason in madness! 

 KING LEAR  If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes. 

 I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester: 

 Thou must be patient; we came crying hither: 

 Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air, 

 We wawl and cry. I will preach to thee: mark. 

 GLOUCESTER  Alack, alack the day! 

 KING LEAR  When we are born, we cry that we are come 

 To this great stage of fools: 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 have stol'n upon these sons-in-law, 

 Then, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill! 



 Enter a Gentleman, with Attendants  Gentleman  O, here he is: lay hand upon him. Sir, 

 Your most dear daughter-- 

 KING LEAR  No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even 

 The natural fool of fortune. Use me well; 

 You shall have ransom. Let me have surgeons; 

 I am cut to the brains. 

 Gentleman  You shall have any thing. 

 KING LEAR  No seconds? all myself? 

 Why, this would make a man a man of salt, 

 To use his eyes for garden water-pots, 

 Ay, and laying autumn's dust. 

 Gentleman  Good sir,-- 

 KING LEAR  I will die bravely, like a bridegroom. What! 

 I will be jovial: come, come; I am a king, 

 My masters, know you that. 

 Gentleman  You are a royal one, and we obey you. 

 KING LEAR  Then there's life in't. Nay, if you get it, you 

 shall get it with running. Sa, sa, sa, sa. 



 Exit running; Attendants follow  Gentleman  A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch, 

 Past speaking of in a king! Thou hast one daughter, 

 Who redeems nature from the general curse 

 Which twain have brought her to. 

 EDGAR  Hail, gentle sir. 

 Gentleman  Sir, speed you: what's your will? 

 EDGAR  Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward? 

 Gentleman  Most sure and vulgar: every one hears that, 

 Which can distinguish sound. 

 EDGAR  But, by your favour, 

 How near's the other army? 

 Gentleman  Near and on speedy foot; the main descry 

 Stands on the hourly thought. 

 EDGAR  I thank you, sir: that's all. 

 Gentleman  Though that the queen on special cause is here, 

 Her army is moved on. 

 EDGAR  I thank you, sir. 



 Exit Gentleman  GLOUCESTER  You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me: 

 Let not my worser spirit tempt me again 

 To die before you please! 

 EDGAR  Well pray you, father. 

 GLOUCESTER  Now, good sir, what are you? 

 EDGAR  A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows; 

 Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows, 

 Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand, 

 I'll lead you to some biding. 

 GLOUCESTER  Hearty thanks: 

 The bounty and the benison of heaven 

 To boot, and boot! 



 Enter OSWALD  OSWALD  A proclaim'd prize! Most happy! 

 That eyeless head of thine was first framed flesh 

 To raise my fortunes. Thou old unhappy traitor, 

 Briefly thyself remember: the sword is out 

 That must destroy thee. 

 GLOUCESTER  Now let thy friendly hand 

 Put strength enough to't. 



 EDGAR interposes  OSWALD  Wherefore, bold peasant, 

 Darest thou support a publish'd traitor? Hence; 

 Lest that the infection of his fortune take 

 Like hold on thee. Let go his arm. 

 EDGAR  Ch'ill not let go, zir, without vurther 'casion. 

 OSWALD  Let go, slave, or thou diest! 

 EDGAR  Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor volk 

 pass. An chud ha' bin zwaggered out of my life, 

 'twould not ha' bin zo long as 'tis by a vortnight. 

 Nay, come not near th' old man; keep out, che vor 

 ye, or ise try whether your costard or my ballow be 

 the harder: ch'ill be plain with you. 

 OSWALD  Out, dunghill! 

 EDGAR  Ch'ill pick your teeth, zir: come; no matter vor 

 your foins. 



 They fight, and EDGAR knocks him down  OSWALD  Slave, thou hast slain me: villain, take my purse: 

 If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body; 

 And give the letters which thou find'st about me 

 To Edmund earl of Gloucester; seek him out 

 Upon the British party: O, untimely death! 



 Dies  EDGAR  I know thee well: a serviceable villain; 

 As duteous to the vices of thy mistress 

 As badness would desire. 

 GLOUCESTER  What, is he dead? 

 EDGAR  Sit you down, father; rest you 

 Let's see these pockets: the letters that he speaks of 

 May be my friends. He's dead; I am only sorry 

 He had no other death's-man. Let us see: 

 Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not: 

 To know our enemies' minds, we'ld rip their hearts; 

 Their papers, is more lawful. 



 Reads  'Let our reciprocal vows be remembered. You have 

 many opportunities to cut him off: if your will 

 want not, time and place will be fruitfully offered. 

 There is nothing done, if he return the conqueror: 

 then am I the prisoner, and his bed my goal; from 

 the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply 

 the place for your labour. 

 'Your--wife, so I would say-- 

 'Affectionate servant, 

 'GONERIL.' 

 O undistinguish'd space of woman's will! 

 A plot upon her virtuous husband's life; 

 And the exchange my brother! Here, in the sands, 

 Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified 

 Of murderous lechers: and in the mature time 

 With this ungracious paper strike the sight 

 Of the death practised duke: for him 'tis well 

 That of thy death and business I can tell. 

 GLOUCESTER  The king is mad: how stiff is my vile sense, 

 That I stand up, and have ingenious feeling 

 Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract: 

 So should my thoughts be sever'd from my griefs, 

 And woes by wrong imaginations lose 

 The knowledge of themselves. 

 EDGAR  Give me your hand: 



 Drum afar off  Far off, methinks, I hear the beaten drum: 

 Come, father, I'll bestow you with a friend. 



 Exeunt  Shakespeare homepage  |  King Lear  | Act 4, Scene 6 

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