SCENE VI. A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle. King Lear  Shakespeare homepage  |  King Lear  | Act 3, Scene 6 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE VI. A chamber in a farmhouse adjoining the castle. 

 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 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. 



 To EDGAR  Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer; 



 To the Fool  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. Hopdance 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. 



 To EDGAR  Thou robed man of justice, take thy place; 



 To the Fool  And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity, 

 Bench by his side: 



 To KENT  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. 

 Pur! 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 warp'd 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, Tray, 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? 



 To EDGAR  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 balm'd thy broken senses, 

 Which, if convenience will not allow, 

 Stand in hard cure. 



 To the Fool  Come, help to bear thy master; 

 Thou must not stay behind. 

 GLOUCESTER  Come, come, away. 



 Exeunt 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 father'd! 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  Shakespeare homepage  |  King Lear  | Act 3, Scene 6 

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