SCENE II. Before ALBANY's palace. King Lear  Shakespeare homepage  |  King Lear  | Act 4, Scene 2 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE II. Before ALBANY's palace. 

 Enter GONERIL and EDMUND  GONERIL  Welcome, my lord: I marvel our mild husband 

 Not met us on the way. 



 Enter OSWALD  Now, where's your master'? 

 OSWALD  Madam, within; but never man so changed. 

 I told him of the army that was landed; 

 He smiled at it: I told him you were coming: 

 His answer was 'The worse:' of Gloucester's treachery, 

 And of the loyal service of his son, 

 When I inform'd him, then he call'd me sot, 

 And told me I had turn'd the wrong side out: 

 What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him; 

 What like, offensive. 

 GONERIL  [To EDMUND]  Then shall you go no further. 

 It is the cowish terror of his spirit, 

 That dares not undertake: he'll not feel wrongs 

 Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way 

 May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother; 

 Hasten his musters and conduct his powers: 

 I must change arms at home, and give the distaff 

 Into my husband's hands. This trusty servant 

 Shall pass between us: ere long you are like to hear, 

 If you dare venture in your own behalf, 

 A mistress's command. Wear this; spare speech; 



 Giving a favour  Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak, 

 Would stretch thy spirits up into the air: 

 Conceive, and fare thee well. 

 EDMUND  Yours in the ranks of death. 

 GONERIL  My most dear Gloucester! 



 Exit EDMUND  O, the difference of man and man! 

 To thee a woman's services are due: 

 My fool usurps my body. 

 OSWALD  Madam, here comes my lord. 



 Exit 

 Enter ALBANY  GONERIL  I have been worth the whistle. 

 ALBANY  O Goneril! 

 You are not worth the dust which the rude wind 

 Blows in your face. I fear your disposition: 

 That nature, which contemns its origin, 

 Cannot be border'd certain in itself; 

 She that herself will sliver and disbranch 

 From her material sap, perforce must wither 

 And come to deadly use. 

 GONERIL  No more; the text is foolish. 

 ALBANY  Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile: 

 Filths savour but themselves. What have you done? 

 Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd? 

 A father, and a gracious aged man, 

 Whose reverence even the head-lugg'd bear would lick, 

 Most barbarous, most degenerate! have you madded. 

 Could my good brother suffer you to do it? 

 A man, a prince, by him so benefited! 

 If that the heavens do not their visible spirits 

 Send quickly down to tame these vile offences, 

 It will come, 

 Humanity must perforce prey on itself, 

 Like monsters of the deep. 

 GONERIL  Milk-liver'd man! 

 That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs; 

 Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning 

 Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know'st 

 Fools do those villains pity who are punish'd 

 Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum? 

 France spreads his banners in our noiseless land; 

 With plumed helm thy slayer begins threats; 

 Whiles thou, a moral fool, sit'st still, and criest 

 'Alack, why does he so?' 

 ALBANY  See thyself, devil! 

 Proper deformity seems not in the fiend 

 So horrid as in woman. 

 GONERIL  O vain fool! 

 ALBANY  Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame, 

 Be-monster not thy feature. Were't my fitness 

 To let these hands obey my blood, 

 They are apt enough to dislocate and tear 

 Thy flesh and bones: howe'er thou art a fiend, 

 A woman's shape doth shield thee. 

 GONERIL  Marry, your manhood now-- 



 Enter a Messenger  ALBANY  What news? 

 Messenger  O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall's dead: 

 Slain by his servant, going to put out 

 The other eye of Gloucester. 

 ALBANY  Gloucester's eye! 

 Messenger  A servant that he bred, thrill'd with remorse, 

 Opposed against the act, bending his sword 

 To his great master; who, thereat enraged, 

 Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead; 

 But not without that harmful stroke, which since 

 Hath pluck'd him after. 

 ALBANY  This shows you are above, 

 You justicers, that these our nether crimes 

 So speedily can venge! But, O poor Gloucester! 

 Lost he his other eye? 

 Messenger  Both, both, my lord. 

 This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer; 

 'Tis from your sister. 

 GONERIL  [Aside]              One way I like this well; 

 But being widow, and my Gloucester with her, 

 May all the building in my fancy pluck 

 Upon my hateful life: another way, 

 The news is not so tart.--I'll read, and answer. 



 Exit  ALBANY  Where was his son when they did take his eyes? 

 Messenger  Come with my lady hither. 

 ALBANY  He is not here. 

 Messenger  No, my good lord; I met him back again. 

 ALBANY  Knows he the wickedness? 

 Messenger  Ay, my good lord; 'twas he inform'd against him; 

 And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment 

 Might have the freer course. 

 ALBANY  Gloucester, I live 

 To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king, 

 And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend: 

 Tell me what more thou know'st. 



 Exeunt  Shakespeare homepage  |  King Lear  | Act 4, Scene 2 

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