ARKCODEX
Act IV, Scene 7
1A tent in the French camp. Lear on a bed asleep, soft music playing; Gentleman, and others attending.
2Enter Cordelia, Kent, and Doctor.
3CordeliaO thou good Kent, how shall I live and work,
To match thy goodness? My life will be too short,
And every measure fail me.
4KentTo be acknowledged, madam, is o’erpaid.
All my reports go with the modest truth;
Nor more nor clipp’d, but so.
5CordeliaBe better suited:
These weeds are memories of those worser hours:
I prithee, put them off.
6KentPardon me, dear madam;
Yet to be known shortens my made intent:
My boon I make it, that you know me not
Till time and I think meet.
7CordeliaThen be’t so, my good lord.
To the Doctor. How does the king?
8DoctorMadam, sleeps still.
9CordeliaO you kind gods,
Cure this great breach in his abused nature!
The untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up
Of this child-changed father!
10DoctorSo please your majesty
That we may wake the king: he hath slept long.
11CordeliaBe govern’d by your knowledge, and proceed
I’ the sway of your own will. Is he array’d?
12GentlemanAy, madam; in the heaviness of his sleep
We put fresh garments on him.
13DoctorBe by, good madam, when we do awake him;
I doubt not of his temperance.
14CordeliaVery well.
15DoctorPlease you, draw near. Louder the music there!
16CordeliaO my dear father! Restoration hang
Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss
Repair those violent harms that my two sisters
Have in thy reverence made!
17KentKind and dear princess!
18CordeliaHad you not been their father, these white flakes
Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face
To be opposed against the warring winds?
To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?
In the most terrible and nimble stroke
Of quick, cross lightning? to watch—poor perdu!—
With this thin helm? Mine enemy’s dog,
Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father,
To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn,
In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!
’Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once
Had not concluded all. He wakes; speak to him.
19DoctorMadam, do you; ’tis fittest.
20CordeliaHow does my royal lord? How fares your majesty?
21King LearYou do me wrong to take me out o’ the grave:
Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound
Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears
Do scald like moulten lead.
22CordeliaSir, do you know me?
23King LearYou are a spirit, I know: when did you die?
24CordeliaStill, still, far wide!
25DoctorHe’s scarce awake: let him alone awhile.
26King LearWhere have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight?
I am mightily abused. I should e’en die with pity,
To see another thus. I know not what to say.
I will not swear these are my hands: let’s see;
I feel this pin prick. Would I were assured
Of my condition!
27CordeliaO, look upon me, sir,
And hold your hands in benediction o’er me:
No, sir, you must not kneel.
28King LearPray, do not mock me:
I am a very foolish fond old man,
Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;
And, to deal plainly,
I fear I am not in my perfect mind.
Methinks I should know you, and know this man;
Yet I am doubtful for I am mainly ignorant
What place this is; and all the skill I have
Remembers not these garments; nor I know not
Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me;
For, as I am a man, I think this lady
To be my child Cordelia.
29CordeliaAnd so I am, I am.
30King LearBe your tears wet? yes, ’faith. I pray, weep not:
If you have poison for me, I will drink it.
I know you do not love me; for your sisters
Have, as I do remember, done me wrong:
You have some cause, they have not.
31CordeliaNo cause, no cause.
32King LearAm I in France?
33KentIn your own kingdom, sir.
34King LearDo not abuse me.
35DoctorBe comforted, good madam: the great rage,
You see, is kill’d in him: and yet it is danger
To make him even o’er the time he has lost.
Desire him to go in; trouble him no more
Till further settling.
36CordeliaWill’t please your highness walk?
37King LearYou must bear with me:
Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old and foolish. Exeunt all but Kent and Gentleman.
38GentlemanHolds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so slain?
39KentMost certain, sir.
40GentlemanWho is conductor of his people?
41KentAs ’tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester.
42GentlemanThey say Edgar, his banished son, is with the Earl of Kent in Germany.
43KentReport is changeable. ’Tis time to look about; the powers of the kingdom approach apace.
44GentlemanThe arbitrement is like to be bloody. Fare you well, sir. Exit.
45KentMy point and period will be throughly wrought,
Or well or ill, as this day’s battle’s fought. Exit.