King Lear by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 2
Before the Duke of Albany’s Palace.
Goneril : Welcome, my lord. I marvel our mild husband
[p]Not met us on the way.
[Enter Oswald the Steward.]
[p]Now, where's your master?
Oswald : Madam, within, but never man so chang'd.
[p]I told him of the army
that was landed:
[p]He smil'd at it. I told him you were
coming:
[p]His answer was, 'The worse.' Of Gloucester's
treachery
[p]And of the loyal service of his son
[p]When I inform'd
him, then he call'd me sot
[p]And told me I had turn'd the wrong side
out.
[p]What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him;
[p]What
like, offensive.
Goneril : [to Edmund] Then shall you go no further.
[p]It is the cowish terror
of his spirit,
[p]That dares not undertake. He'll not feel
wrongs
[p]Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way
[p]May
prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother.
[p]Hasten his musters and
conduct his pow'rs.
[p]I must change arms at home and give the
distaff
[p]Into my husband's hands. This trusty servant
[p]Shall pass
between us. Ere long you are like to hear
[p](If you dare venture in
your own behalf)
[p]A mistress's command. Wear this. [Gives a
favour.]
[p]Spare speech.
[p]Decline your head. This kiss, if it durst
speak,
[p]Would stretch thy spirits up into the air.
[p]Conceive, and
fare thee well.
Edmund : Yours in the ranks of death! Exit.
Goneril : My most dear Gloucester!
[p]O, the difference of man and man!
[p]To
thee a woman's services are due;
[p]My fool usurps my body.
Oswald : Madam, here comes my lord. Exit.
Goneril : I have been worth the whistle.
Duke of Albany : O Goneril,
[p]You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
[p]Blows
in your face! I fear your disposition.
[p]That nature which contemns
it origin
[p]Cannot be bordered certain in itself.
[p]She that herself
will sliver and disbranch
[p]From her material sap, perforce must
wither
[p]And come to deadly use.
Goneril : No more! The text is foolish.
Duke of Albany : Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile;
[p]Filths savour but
themselves. What have you done?
[p]Tigers, not daughters, what have
you perform'd?
[p]A father, and a gracious aged man,
[p]Whose
reverence even the head-lugg'd bear would lick,
[p]Most barbarous,
most degenerate, have you madded.
[p]Could my good brother suffer you
to do it?
[p]A man, a prince, by him so benefited!
[p]If that the
heavens do not their visible spirits
[p]Send quickly down to tame
these vile offences,
[p]It will come,
[p]Humanity must perforce prey
on itself,
[p]Like monsters of the deep.
Goneril : Milk-liver'd man!
[p]That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for
wrongs;
[p]Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning
[p]Thine honour
from thy suffering; that not know'st
[p]Fools do those villains pity
who are punish'd
[p]Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy
drum?
[p]France spreads his banners in our noiseless land,
[p]With
plumed helm thy state begins to threat,
[p]Whiles thou, a moral fool,
sit'st still, and criest
[p]'Alack, why does he so?'
Duke of Albany : See thyself, devil!
[p]Proper deformity seems not in the fiend
[p]So
horrid as in woman.
Goneril : O vain fool!
Duke of Albany : Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame!
[p]Bemonster not thy
feature! Were't my fitness
[p]To let these hands obey my
blood,
[p]They are apt enough to dislocate and tear
[p]Thy flesh and
bones. Howe'er thou art a fiend,
[p]A woman's shape doth shield thee.
Goneril : Marry, your manhood mew!
Duke of Albany : What news?
Gentleman : O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall 's dead,
[p]Slain by his
servant, going to put out
[p]The other eye of Gloucester.
Duke of Albany : Gloucester's eyes?
Gentleman : A servant that he bred, thrill'd with remorse,
[p]Oppos'd against the
act, bending his sword
[p]To his great master; who, thereat
enrag'd,
[p]Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead;
[p]But not
without that harmful stroke which since
[p]Hath pluck'd him after.
Duke of Albany : This shows you are above,
[p]You justicers, that these our nether
crimes
[p]So speedily can venge! But O poor Gloucester!
[p]Lose he his
other eye?
Gentleman : Both, both, my lord.
[p]This letter, madam, craves a speedy
answer.
[p]'Tis from your sister.
Goneril : [aside] One way I like this well;
[p]But being widow, and my
Gloucester with her,
[p]May all the building in my fancy pluck
[p]Upon
my hateful life. Another way
[p]The news is not so tart.- I'll read,
and answer. Exit.
Duke of Albany : Where was his son when they did take his eyes?
Gentleman : Come with my lady hither.
Duke of Albany : He is not here.
Gentleman : No, my good lord; I met him back again.
Duke of Albany : Knows he the wickedness?
Gentleman : Ay, my good lord. 'Twas he inform'd against him,
[p]And quit the house
on purpose, that their punishment
[p]Might have the freer course.
Duke of Albany : Gloucester, I live
[p]To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the
King,
[p]And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend.
[p]Tell me
what more thou know'st.
Previous: Act 4 - Scene 1
Next: Act 4 - Scene 3
