ACT 1
Scene 1
Enter Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund.
...noble gentleman, Edmund?
No, my lord.
...my honorable friend.
My services to your Lordship.
...know you better.
Sir, I shall study deserving.
...Come, noble Burgundy.
Flourish. All but France, Cordelia, Goneril, and Regan exit.
Scene 2
...i’ th’ heat.
Enter Edmund, the Bastard.
Thou, Nature, art my goddess. To thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother? why “bastard”? Wherefore “base,”
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous and my shape as true
As honest madam’s issue? Why brand they us
With “base,” with “baseness,” “bastardy,” “base,” “base,”
Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth within a dull, stale, tired bed
Go to th’ creating a whole tribe of fops
Got ’tween asleep and wake? Well then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land.
Our father’s love is to the bastard Edmund
As to th’ legitimate. Fine word, “legitimate.”
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top th’ legitimate. I grow, I prosper.
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
...now? What news?
So please your Lordship, none. He puts a paper in his pocket.
...up that letter?
I know no news, my lord.
...were you reading?
Nothing, my lord.
...not need spectacles.
I beseech you, sir, pardon me. It is a letter
from my brother that I have not all o’erread; and
for so much as I have perused, I find it not fit for
your o’erlooking.
...the letter, sir.
I shall offend either to detain or give it. The
contents, as in part I understand them, are to
blame.
...see, let’s see.
Edmund gives him the paper.
I hope, for my brother’s justification, he
wrote this but as an essay or taste of my virtue.
...Who brought it?
It was not brought me, my lord; there’s the
cunning of it. I found it thrown in at the casement
of my closet.
...be your brother’s?
If the matter were good, my lord, I durst
swear it were his; but in respect of that, I would
fain think it were not.
...It is his.
It is his hand, my lord, but I hope his heart is
not in the contents.
...in this business?
Never, my lord. But I have heard him oft
maintain it to be fit that, sons at perfect age and
fathers declined, the father should be as ward to the
son, and the son manage his revenue.
...Where is he?
I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please
you to suspend your indignation against my brother
till you can derive from him better testimony of his
intent, you should run a certain course; where, if
you violently proceed against him, mistaking his
purpose, it would make a great gap in your own
honor and shake in pieces the heart of his obedience.
I dare pawn down my life for him that he hath
writ this to feel my affection to your Honor, and to
no other pretense of danger.
...Think you so?
If your Honor judge it meet, I will place you
where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an
auricular assurance have your satisfaction, and that
without any further delay than this very evening.
...such a monster.
Nor is not, sure.
...a due resolution.
I will seek him, sir, presently, convey the
business as I shall find means, and acquaint you
withal.
...honesty! ’Tis strange.
This is the excellent foppery of the world, that
when we are sick in fortune (often the surfeits of
our own behavior) we make guilty of our disasters
the sun, the moon, and stars, as if we were villains
on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves,
thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance;
drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced
obedience of planetary influence; and all that we
are evil in, by a divine thrusting on. An admirable
evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish
disposition on the charge of a star! My father
compounded with my mother under the Dragon’s
tail, and my nativity was under Ursa Major, so that it
follows I am rough and lecherous. Fut, I should
have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the
firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar—
Enter Edgar.
and pat he comes like the catastrophe of the old
comedy. My cue is villainous melancholy, with a
sigh like Tom o’ Bedlam.—O, these eclipses do
portend these divisions. Fa, sol, la, mi.
...are you in?
I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read
this other day, what should follow these eclipses.
...yourself with that?
I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed
unhappily, as of unnaturalness between the
child and the parent, death, dearth, dissolutions of
ancient amities, divisions in state, menaces and
maledictions against king and nobles, needless diffidences,
banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts,
nuptial breaches, and I know not what.
...a sectary astronomical?
Come, come, when saw you my father last?
...night gone by.
Spake you with him?
...two hours together.
Parted you in good terms? Found you no
displeasure in him by word nor countenance?
...None at all.
Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended
him, and at my entreaty forbear his presence
until some little time hath qualified the heat
of his displeasure, which at this instant so rageth in
him that with the mischief of your person it would
scarcely allay.
...done me wrong.
That’s my fear. I pray you have a continent
forbearance till the speed of his rage goes slower;
and, as I say, retire with me to my lodging, from
whence I will fitly bring you to hear my lord speak.
Pray you go. There’s my key. If you do stir abroad,
go armed.
... Armed, brother?
Brother, I advise you to the best. I am no
honest man if there be any good meaning toward
you. I have told you what I have seen and heard, but
faintly, nothing like the image and horror of it. Pray
you, away.
...from you anon?
I do serve you in this business.
A credulous father and a brother noble,
Whose nature is so far from doing harms
That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty
My practices ride easy. I see the business.
Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit.
All with me’s meet that I can fashion fit.
He exits.
ACT 2
Scene 1
...cut shorter.
Enter Edmund, the Bastard and Curan, severally.
Save thee, Curan.
...him this night.
How comes that?
...but ear-kissing arguments.
Not I. Pray you, what are they?
...Cornwall and Albany?
Not a word.
...you well, sir.
The Duke be here tonight? The better, best.
This weaves itself perforce into my business.
My father hath set guard to take my brother,
And I have one thing of a queasy question
Which I must act. Briefness and fortune work!—
Brother, a word. Descend. Brother, I say!
Enter Edgar.
My father watches. O sir, fly this place!
Intelligence is given where you are hid.
You have now the good advantage of the night.
Have you not spoken ’gainst the Duke of Cornwall?
He’s coming hither, now, i’ th’ night, i’ th’ haste,
And Regan with him. Have you nothing said
Upon his party ’gainst the Duke of Albany?
Advise yourself.
...not a word.
I hear my father coming. Pardon me.
In cunning I must draw my sword upon you.
Draw. Seem to defend yourself. Now, quit you well.They draw.
Yield! Come before my father! Light, hoa, here!
Aside to Edgar.
Fly, brother.—Torches, torches! —So, farewell.
Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion
Of my more fierce endeavor. I have seen drunkards
Do more than this in sport.He wounds his arm.
Father, father!
Stop, stop! No help?
...the villain?
Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out,
Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon
To stand auspicious mistress.
...where is he?
Look, sir, I bleed.
...villain, Edmund?
Fled this way, sir, when by no means he could—
... means what?
Persuade me to the murder of your Lordship,
But that I told him the revenging gods
’Gainst parricides did all the thunder bend,
Spoke with how manifold and strong a bond
The child was bound to th’ father—sir, in fine,
Seeing how loathly opposite I stood
To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion
With his preparèd sword he charges home
My unprovided body, lanced mine arm;
And when he saw my best alarumed spirits,
Bold in the quarrel’s right, roused to th’ encounter,
Or whether ghasted by the noise I made,
Full suddenly he fled.
...conceals him, death.
When I dissuaded him from his intent
And found him pight to do it, with curst speech
I threatened to discover him. He replied
“Thou unpossessing bastard, dost thou think
If I would stand against thee, would the reposal
Of any trust, virtue, or worth in thee
Make thy words faithed? No. What I should deny—
As this I would, though thou didst produce
My very character—I’d turn it all
To thy suggestion, plot, and damnèd practice.
And thou must make a dullard of the world
If they not thought the profits of my death
Were very pregnant and potential spurs
To make thee seek it.”
...bad, too bad.
Yes, madam, he was of that consort.
...A childlike office.
It was my duty, sir.
...first seize on.
I shall serve you, sir,
Truly, however else.
...are right welcome.
Flourish. They exit.
Scene 2
...ho! Murder, murder!
Enter Bastard Edmund, with his rapier drawn, Cornwall, Regan, Gloucester, Servants.
How now, what’s the matter? Part!
...good lord, away.
All but Gloucester and Kent exit.
ACT 3
Scene 3
...before his time.
Enter Gloucester and Edmund.
...way sustain him.
Most savage and unnatural.
...you, be careful.
This courtesy forbid thee shall the Duke
Instantly know, and of that letter too.
This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me
That which my father loses—no less than all.
The younger rises when the old doth fall.
He exits.
Scene 5
...a British man.”
Enter Cornwall, and Edmund with a paper.
...depart his house.
How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature
thus gives way to loyalty, something fears me to
think of.
...badness in himself.
How malicious is my fortune that I must
repent to be just! This is the letter he spoke of,
which approves him an intelligent party to the
advantages of France. O heavens, that this treason
were not, or not I the detector.
...to the Duchess.
If the matter of this paper be certain, you
have mighty business in hand.
...for our apprehension.
aside
If I find him comforting the King, it
will stuff his suspicion more fully.—I will persevere
in my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore
between that and my blood.
...in my love.
They exit.
Scene 7
...King! Lurk, lurk.
Enter Cornwall, Regan, Goneril, Edmund, the Bastard, and Servants.
... Edmund, farewell.
Goneril and Edmund exit.
ACT 4
Scene 2
...shall lead thee.
Enter Goneril and Edmund, the Bastard.
...this; spare speech.
She gives him a favor.
...Decline your head.
She kisses him.
...fare thee well.
Yours in the ranks of death.
He exits.
ACT 5
Scene 1
...day’s battle’s fought.
Enter, with Drum and Colors, Edmund, Regan, Gentlemen, and Soldiers.
to a Gentleman
Know of the Duke if his last purpose hold,
Or whether since he is advised by aught
To change the course. He’s full of alteration
And self-reproving. Bring his constant pleasure.
...is certainly miscarried.
’Tis to be doubted, madam.
...love my sister?
In honored love.
...the forfended place?
That thought abuses you.
...we call hers.
No, by mine honor, madam.
...familiar with her.
Fear me not. She and the Duke, her husband.
...causes make oppose.
Sir, you speak nobly.
...on our proceeding.
I shall attend you presently at your tent.
...riddle.—I will go.
They begin to exit.
...I’ll overtake you.—Speak.
Both the armies exit.
...o’erlook thy paper.
Enter Edmund.
The enemy’s in view. Draw up your powers. Giving him a paper.
Here is the guess of their true strength and forces
By diligent discovery. But your haste
Is now urged on you.
...greet the time.
To both these sisters have I sworn my love,
Each jealous of the other as the stung
Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take?
Both? One? Or neither? Neither can be enjoyed
If both remain alive. To take the widow
Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril,
And hardly shall I carry out my side,
Her husband being alive. Now, then, we’ll use
His countenance for the battle, which, being done,
Let her who would be rid of him devise
His speedy taking off. As for the mercy
Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia,
The battle done and they within our power,
Shall never see his pardon, for my state
Stands on me to defend, not to debate.
He exits.
Scene 3
...that’s true too.
Enter in conquest, with Drum and Colors, Edmund; Lear and Cordelia as prisoners; Soldiers, Captain.
Some officers take them away. Good guard
Until their greater pleasures first be known
That are to censure them.
...by th’ moon.
Take them away.
... first. Come.
Come hither, captain. Hark. Handing him a paper.
Take thou this note. Go follow them to prison.
One step I have advanced thee. If thou dost
As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way
To noble fortunes. Know thou this: that men
Are as the time is; to be tender-minded
Does not become a sword. Thy great employment
Will not bear question. Either say thou ’lt do ’t,
Or thrive by other means.
...’t, my lord.
About it, and write “happy” when th’ hast done.
Mark, I say, instantly, and carry it so
As I have set it down.
...May equally determine.
Sir, I thought it fit
To send the old and miserable king
To some retention and appointed guard,
Whose age had charms in it, whose title more,
To pluck the common bosom on his side
And turn our impressed lances in our eyes,
Which do command them. With him I sent the Queen,
My reason all the same, and they are ready
Tomorrow, or at further space, t’ appear
Where you shall hold your session. At this time
We sweat and bleed. The friend hath lost his friend,
And the best quarrels in the heat are cursed
By those that feel their sharpness.
The question of Cordelia and her father
Requires a fitter place.
...in your goodwill.
Nor in thine, lord.
...ne’er trust medicine.
There’s my exchange.He throws down a glove.
What in the world he is
That names me traitor, villain-like he lies.
Call by the trumpet. He that dares approach,
On him, on you, who not, I will maintain
My truth and honor firmly.
...A herald, ho!
A herald, ho, a herald!
...of Gloucester?
Himself. What sayest thou to him?
...speak, Thou liest.
In wisdom I should ask thy name,
But since thy outside looks so fair and warlike,
And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes,
What safe and nicely I might well delay
By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn.
Back do I toss these treasons to thy head,
With the hell-hated lie o’erwhelm thy heart,
Which, for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise,
This sword of mine shall give them instant way,
Where they shall rest forever. Trumpets, speak!
He draws his sword. Alarums. Fights.
Edmund falls, wounded.
...desperate. Govern her.
to Edgar
What you have charged me with, that have I done,
And more, much more. The time will bring it out.
’Tis past, and so am I. But what art thou
That hast this fortune on me? If thou ’rt noble,
I do forgive thee.
...him his eyes.
Th’ hast spoken right. ’Tis true.
The wheel is come full circle; I am here.
...grief, Burst smilingly.
This speech of yours hath moved me,
And shall perchance do good. But speak you on.
You look as you had something more to say.
...She confesses it.
I was contracted to them both. All three
Now marry in an instant.
...Alack, why thus?
Yet Edmund was beloved.
The one the other poisoned for my sake,
And after slew herself.
...so.—Cover their faces.
I pant for life. Some good I mean to do
Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send—
Be brief in it—to th’ castle, for my writ
Is on the life of Lear, and on Cordelia.
Nay, send in time.
...token of reprieve.
Well thought on. Take my sword. Give it the Captain.
...for thy life.
to Albany
He hath commission from thy wife and me
To hang Cordelia in the prison, and
To lay the blame upon her own despair,
That she fordid herself.
...him hence awhile.
Edmund is carried off.