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Scene IV

Before Gloucester's castle. Kent in the stocks.

[Enter King Lear, Fool, and Gentleman]

KING LEAR:

'Tis strange that they should so depart from
home,
And not send back my messenger.

GENTLEMAN:

As I learned,
The night before there was no purpose in them(5)
Of this remove.

KENT:

Hail to thee, noble master!

KING LEAR:

Ha!
Makest thou this shame thy pastime?

KENT:

No, my lord.(10)

FOOL:

Ha, ha! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied by the
heads, dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys by the loins,
and men by the legs: when a man's over-lusty at legs,
then he wears wooden nether-stocks.

KING LEAR:

What's he that hath so much thy place mistook(15)
To set thee here?

KENT:

It is both he and she;
Your son and daughter.

KING LEAR:

No.

KENT:

Yes.(20)

KING LEAR:

No, I say.

KENT:

I say, yea.

KING LEAR:

No, no, they would not.

KENT:

Yes, they have.

KING LEAR:

By Jupiter, I swear, no.(25)

KENT:

By Juno, I swear, ay.

KING LEAR:

They durst not do't;
They could not, would not do't; 'tis worse than murder,
To do upon respect such violent outrage:
Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way
Thou mightst deserve, or they impose, this usage,
Coming from us.

KENT:

My lord, when at their home(30)
I did commend your highness' letters to them,
Ere I was risen from the place that showed
My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,
Stewed in his haste, half breathless, panting forth
From Goneril his mistress salutations;(35)
Delivered letters, spite of intermission,
Which presently they read: on whose contents,
They summoned up their meiny, straight took horse;
Commanded me to follow, and attend
The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks:(40)
And meeting here the other messenger,
Whose welcome, I perceived, had poisoned mine,—
Being the very fellow that of late
Displayed so saucily against your highness,—
Having more man than wit about me, drew:(45)
He raised the house with loud and coward cries.
Your son and daughter found this trespass worth
The shame which here it suffers.

FOOL:

Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way.
Fathers that wear rags(50)
Do make their children blind;
But fathers that bear bags
Shall see their children kind.
Fortune, that arrant whore,
Ne'er turns the key to the poor.(55)
But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolors for thy
daughters as thou canst tell in a year.

KING LEAR:

O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!
Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow,
Thy element's below! Where is this daughter?(60)

KENT:

With the earl, sir, here within.

KING LEAR:

Follow me not; Stay here.

[Exit]

GENTLEMAN:

Made you no more offence but what you speak of?

KENT:

None.
How chance the king comes with so small a number?(65)

FOOL:

And thou hadst been set i' the stocks for that question,
thou hadst well deserved it.

KENT:

Why, fool?

FOOL:

We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's
no laboring i' the winter. All that follow their noses are(70)
led by their eyes but blind men; and there's not a nose
among twenty but can smell him that's stinking. Let go thy
hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy
neck with following it: but the great one that goes up the
hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man gives thee(75)
better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but
knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.
That sir which serves and seeks for gain,
And follows but for form,(80)
Will pack when it begins to rain,
And leave thee in the storm,
But I will tarry; the fool will stay, And let the wise man fly:
The knave turns fool that runs away;
The fool no knave, perdy.(85)

KENT:

Where learned you this, fool?

FOOL:

Not i' the stocks, fool.

[Re-enter King Lear with Gloucester]

KING LEAR:

Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are
weary?
They have traveled all the night? Mere fetches;(90)
The images of revolt and flying off.
Fetch me a better answer.

GLOUCESTER:

My dear lord,
You know the fiery quality of the duke;
How unremovable and fixed he is(95)
In his own course.

KING LEAR:

Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!
Fiery? what quality? Why, Gloucester, Gloucester,
I'ld speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.

GLOUCESTER:

Well, my good lord, I have informed them so.(100)

KING LEAR:

Informed them! Dost thou understand me, man?

GLOUCESTER:

Ay, my good lord.

KING LEAR:

The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear
father
Would with his daughter speak, commands her service:(105)
Are they informed of this? My breath and blood!
Fiery? the fiery duke? Tell the hot duke that—
No, but not yet: may be he is not well:
Infirmity doth still neglect all office
Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves(110)
When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind
To suffer with the body: I'll forbear;
And am fall'n out with my more headier will,
To take the indisposed and sickly fit
For the sound man. Death on my state! Wherefore(115)
Should he sit here? This act persuades me
That this remotion of the duke and her
Is practice only. Give me my servant forth.
Go tell the duke and's wife I'ld speak with them,
Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,(120)
Or at their chamber-door I'll beat the drum
Till it cry sleep to death.

GLOUCESTER:

I would have all well betwixt you.

[Exit]

KING LEAR:

O me, my heart, my rising heart! but, down!

FOOL:

Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels when she(125)
put 'em i' the paste alive; she knapped 'em o' the coxcombs with
a stick, and cried “Down, wantons, down!” 'Twas her brother
that, in pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.

[Enter Cornwall, Regan, Gloucester, and Servants]

KING LEAR:

Good morrow to you both.

CORNWALL:

Hail to your grace!(130)

[Kent is set at liberty]

REGAN:

I am glad to see your highness.

KING LEAR:

Regan, I think you are; I know what reason
I have to think so: if thou shouldst not be glad,
I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb,
Sepulchring an adultress. [To Kent] O, are you free?(135)
Some other time for that. Beloved Regan,
Thy sister's naught: O Regan, she hath tied
Sharp-toothed unkindness, like a vulture, here:

[Points to his heart]

I can scarce speak to thee; thou'lt not believe
With how depraved a quality—O Regan!(140)

REGAN:

I pray you, sir, take patience: I have hope.
You less know how to value her desert
Than she to scant her duty.

KING LEAR:

Say, how is that?

REGAN:

I cannot think my sister in the least(145)
Would fail her obligation: if, sir, perchance
She have restrained the riots of your followers,
'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end,
As clears her from all blame.

• departure
• pleasure, spot
• a pun on “cruel” and “crewel”
• a pun crewel is a thin yarn
• over-hasty, i.e., likely to flee
• Roman queen of the gods
• answer
• followers
• straightaway
• absolute
• pains [a pun on “dollar”]
• describe, but also “count”
• womanish pain
• hysterical passion
• i.e., there's no point working on a lost cause
• by God
• excuses
• destruction
• duty
• to which
• headstrong
• mistake
• Kent
• aloofness
• deception
• i.e., until the noice wakes them
• hay
• entombing
• worth
• neglect

1. Strategies for Understanding Shakespeare's Language
2. Reading Pointers for Sharper Insight
3. Act I
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
4. Act II
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
5. Act III
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
   6. Scene VI
   7. Scene VII
6. Act IV
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
   6. Scene VI
   7. Scene VII
7. Act V
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
8. Copyright